Different

packing

It was another full day before the kids were released to go back to their common rooms. Everyone was basically fully healed due to a multitude of potions and help from Madame Pomfrey. Claire and Draco had mostly avoided each other in that time since Leo had left. Remus and Sirius had left the same day as well, promising to meet her at the train station and take her home as soon as possible.

Theo and Blaise had decided to take a walk by the Black Lake instead of returning to their room, which left Claire and Draco alone for the first time in a long time. Despite the fact that it was rare for that to happen and that they knew they wouldn't be alone again for a while, they barely looked at each other. Claire was curled in a chair to read a book while Draco lounged on his bed reading, loudly eating an apple. After Claire had to reread the same paragraph three times because of his annoying eating sounds, she slammed the book closed. Draco looked at her and raised his eyebrow. 

"What's wrong now?" Draco sighed. 

"You're eating like a troll!" Claire complained. Draco rolled his eyes and took a large bite, chewing even louder. "Stop acting like a child!"

"That's really rich coming from you," Draco shot back. They both sat up fully to stare at each other, Draco loudly placing the half-eaten apple on his bedside table.

"What does that even mean?" Claire asked, furrowing her eyebrows in anger. They both knew that it was finally time for their first real fight, although they weren't looking forward to it. Claire's heart was racing and her hands were shaking.

"You're acting like a child," Draco replied, a bitter look on his face. "One day you like me and the next you like Leo."

"This is about Leo?" Claire scoffed, feeling immediately hurt at his implication.

"Of course it is!" Draco laughed coldly. "Imagine how I feel seeing the two of you together. In case you didn't know, you talk in your sleep. I've known for months that you dream about him and talk with him, but I haven't said anything. And then he comes back and you smile bigger than you have in ages and are all over him. Everyone saw how you two hugged and how he kissed you right in front of me."

"He didn't kiss me," Claire argued. "He kissed my hair and there's a big difference. I can't help what I dream about, and trust me when I say that I wish I didn't dream about him. You can't understand what our relationship is like, but I would never cheat on you. Is that really how low you think of me that you think I could cheat on you?"

"Never physically, but I did my research on Moon Children, and I have my guesses about the emotional bond between you two," Draco admitted. Claire furrowed her eyebrows in confusion and then widened her eyes when she realized what he was talking about.

"You think that he's my soulmate!" Claire gasped. Draco's jaw tightened and he looked at the ground. "How absolutely stupid! You're my soulmate, not him."

"But you're his soulmate," Draco shot back. Claire blinked at him, not expecting him to be so calm at the idea of the two of them being soulmates. It wasn't something that she had admitted to him before, and she was honestly hurt at how little he seemed to care. She also didn't know how he knew about Leo's bond with her either. In fact, she didn't even know that he had researched Moon Children, although she had guessed. "I don't care what he says about just viewing you as a friend. Not only do I not trust his motives, I don't trust that he won't take you away. Maybe even give you to Emaline or Voldemort if it meant getting power or fame."

"His dad is Greyback!" Claire revealed. Draco's eyes widened in surprise but he hurried to hide his reaction behind a stormy face. "You think that he would go to the man that killed his own mother? Or going to the woman that killed his girlfriend?"