The Carnival ⌁ Draco Malfoy [1/4] ✔

6

For the next few days, Emma impatiently awaited Harry's arrival of telling her whether she was in the Defence group or not, but he never came. It got to the point where she'd given up on him telling her so and she just forgot about it and forced her mind onto something else.

In the Slytherin common room, Sabrina, Pansy and Milicent were discussing the upcoming Qudditch match in a month - the first Qudditch game of the school year - which was Slytherin versus Gryffindor. Emma was, indeed, looking forward to watching the game as Qudditch was not played in her previous school. There, they played a magical game of Hockey which bored her to the core.

She had just flicked to the next page of the novel she was reading when the cushion beside her had sunk.

"So," said a cocky voice and Emma sensed the smirk before she saw it. "Since you ladies are so eager as to watch me win the Quidditch match, you should come and watch me practice."

Not looking away from the novel in her hands, Emma replied with, "I'd rather not, Draco."

"Why not?" he asked, and Emma looked over to see a pout on his pale lips.

Smiling, Emma responded cockily with, "I want you to surprise me."

It was true that she'd wanted to avoid the Quidditch practices at all cost so she'd be amazed at the real thing, but giving Draco what he wanted would only rise that annoying ego of his and she knew it.

He leaned back against the sofa and sighed loudly. "Emma, you're breaking my heart."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"You don't sound very sorry," Draco whispered and twirled his finger through a strand of her hair. He leaned closer and said, "Nice freckles, by the way."

Embarrassed that he'd caught sight of things close up like Freckles, Emma knocked his hand away from her hair. "Don't talk about them."

"I won't if you don't want me to," he replied softly. "But I do believe I found my new nickname for you. Freckles."

"Oh, yeah?" Sabrina interrupted with a snort. Pansy and Milicent were discussing their nail colour. Sabrina dug through her bag, pulled out a purse, and then threw a small, rectangular paper at Emma. "If he calls you Freckles, you can come up with something just by looking at that."

Emma nearly laughed but all she could do was coo. On the back of the paper were the words 'Draco. 1991.' It was a picture of Draco in his first year when he was eleven and he was the cutest thing she'd ever seen. His hair was gelled right back and his hair line went forward over his forehead a little and made him look like a vampire because of his incredibly pale skin.

"Holy dragonballs, you were so cute!" Emma couldn't help but squeal.

Draco's palm was covering his face and he was blowing exhaled raspberries. "Please. I know. But you're completely off topic here."

"All right," Emma smirked, earning a nod from Sabrina when she tucked the picture away in her bag. "If you call me Freckles, I'm going to call you Dracula."

Draco snorted. "What? Why?"

"Well, you have the same kind of hair as a vampire when it's all gelled up and your skin is pale. Plus you have the same first four letters as Dracula. So deal with it, Dracula."