ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴅʀᴀᴛᴛᴇᴅ ʟɪʟᴀ ʜᴏʟᴍᴇꜱ || ᴅʀᴀᴄᴏ ᴍᴀʟꜰᴏʏ x ᴏᴄ || ʏᴇᴀʀꜱ 1-3

dragon

a/n: you know when you're talking to someone you like and you want to just keep talking no matter how dumb it is to keep the conversation going? yeah, that's this.

Unfortunately for us, the looming threat of exams was enough to preoccupy us from further action. I spent more time than before alone in the library, reviewing my notes and practicing charms under my breath. I noticed that other students (though mostly older ones) were starting to follow suit, and over time it started to get louder despite Madam Pince's best efforts. I ended up moving to the art room and staying there. It was much more peaceful, only a few art students coming and going silently.

I spent a warm, sunny Saturday morning inside the art room, practicing transfiguration until I could confidently turn beetles into buttons, then I left for lunch. I had forgotten the art room was between the stairs to the dungeon and the stairs to Gryffindor tower, so as I left I'd accidentally walked into a shock of blonde hair.

"Watch it!" He snapped at me. I blinked. I hadn't realized how tall I was compared to him. I hadn't stood so close to Malfoy in a while, or at least long enough to take note of it.

When he noticed I didn't respond, his scowl only grew. "What?"

"You're so short," I observed, placing a hand at my forehead and extending it into the air just above Malfoy's head. "Truly. You could be Harry's height."

Malfoy's ears went pink. "Quit trying to humiliate me."

"I wasn't, I was just saying." I said neutrally. I thought the conversation would end there, but Malfoy still stood as if he wanted to say something else. He looked up at the label above the door, pensively raising an eyebrow at it.

"Didn't peg you as an artist, Holmes."

"I'm not," I told him. "Though I used to play the violin — I couldn't pick it up, though, so I stopped playing."

He looked at me incredulously. "You couldn't pick up a violin?"

"No," I huffed impatiently. "I mean I couldn't read the music, didn't understand the fingering. I could physically pick up the violin, Malfoy."

He scoffed so softly it almost sounded like a chuckle. "Well yes, I'd hope so. You carry that bag of books around like your life depends on them."

I still wasn't sure why he was talking to me. Malfoy had been particularly disagreeable lately. It was like he was everywhere at all times; and to think that months ago I would have enjoyed that. I'd buried any interested I had in him under all of the resentment that had been piling up one snarky comment after another. However, I tucked away my anger from the last interaction we'd had and decided to be a little more placid.

"Well, I'm studying for exams," I informed him, breaking the strange silence. "What are you doing here?" I looked around again. "Alone?"

He didn't answer at first, only leaning against the wall with his arms crossed before him judgmentally.

"Exams are months away, and if you're worrying about them then that's concerning for me." He hesitated. "Not that you're smarter than me—"

"Which I am," I butted in.

"You just try a lot harder," he ignored me. "Which is making me feel like maybe I should start trying too. I wouldn't let a mudblood beat me for top of the class. Though, I wouldn't want to seem like a know-it-all. That's you and Granger's job."

"Sometimes, I wish I could transfigure you into a rock and hurl you into the Black Lake," I grimaced. "Maybe then I could drown you out."

"Well I'm glad to know the feeling is mutual," he replied coolly. "Which, by the way, I was actually on my way to the library to speak to you. See, I've got some news I think you'd be interested in."