The Detective Club | Blaise Zabini

XXXVI

"We have our first apparition lesson soon," said Hamilton, glancing over at Antheia. She was flipping through a magazine instead of doing her homework like she said she was going to do.

"Has that much time really passed by?" said Antheia, "A whole month."

"Get your feet off the table before Madam Pince sees you," said Hamilton, he reached over the table and pushed her legs off.

Antheia ended up procrastinating even more and didn't speak to Blaise when she promised herself she would. Now, she was too afraid to approach him after the extra time she spent staying away from him. Not even Laurie or Theodore had approached her since the last time she spoke to Laurie. Hamilton knew she hadn't spoken to him without her having to tell him, but he never mentioned it.

That wouldn't last long.

"She's too busy keeping her hawk eyes on those Gryffindors whispering in the corner," she said with a yawn, "They look up to no good."

"Focus less on those Gryffindors and more on your essay."

"Yes, mum." Antheia sighed and put her magazine to the side, which Hamilton snatched as soon as she got distracted with grabbing her ink out of her bag. Hand still in her bag, she stared at him blankly, "Seriously?"

"Less temptation for you. You'll get it back once you're done with your essay."

"You can't get mad that I call you mum when you do stuff like that," said Antheia as she found her bottle of ink and placed it on her desk. She glared at Hamilton before she dipped her quill in ink and began to work. She wasn't completely truthful when she told Nova that she had a lot of free time. The truth was she wanted to minimize her spendings in case Calyce needed extra help (or Anastasios but she knew he would never ask her). So, she had no choice but do her own homework.

She wasn't sure how long she sat there in silence, working on her essay, but she did know she was moving incredibly slow. She could hear and see Hamilton working through his homework twice as fast as she was. He had already completed his essay when she was half way done. She wanted to give up.

After making yet another mistake towards the end of her essay, she groaned and dropped her head on the table. Hamilton didn't pay her any mind and she could hear his writing. Her ears focused on the ticking of her watch that was near her ear from the position she had her arms in. That didn't stop her ears from picking up when Hamilton stopped writing.

"Antheia," he said quietly, nudging her foot with his, "Are you awake?"

"Unfortunately," she grumbled, lifting up her head to look at him. She brought her arms close to her, along with her essay that she grew to hate even more with every second she spent looking at it.

Hamilton scanned her face before glancing behind her, "Maybe don't turn around right now, but —"Antheia didn't even wait for him to finish as she turned her head to see Blaise entering the library. She almost forgot how to breathe as she was reminded of what she had been neglecting. She quickly turned back around. "— Well, no need to tell you now."

Antheia didn't respond and convinced herself to sneak another look. She was more observant this time and picked up on the fact that he was with Draco Malfoy, who she hadn't seen in a while. In fact, she hadn't seen those two together in a long while. They were about to sit at an empty table a few feet behind her but Blaise looked up and made eye contact with her. Antheia's eyes widened slightly as she spun back around. She scrambled to pick up her book and brought it close to her face as if she were entranced by the words on the page.

"Zabini nudged Malfoy. They're moving to another table," narrated Hamilton. Despite being curious, Antheia gently kicked his leg under the table.

"Stop!" she hissed, the heat rushing up to her cheeks and she pressed the book closer to her face.