Common Ground ⌁ Draco Malfoy [2/4] ✔

9

Dinner that evening was not very exciting. Harry had been watching Emma with a contemptuous look and she feared he thought that she would die quiet soon, or something bad would happen to her, and wanted to refrain from getting close enough with her to maintain a sibling relationship. Huffing and choosing to avoid Harry's eye, Emma ripped a piece of paper out of one of her books and shoved her bag angrily off of her shoulder before rotating it affectionately.

"You all right there?" said Draco from beside her. Emma looked down to see that all her books and pens had sprung out of her bag and lay scattered under the Slytherin table. The beady-eyed seventh-year girl noticed and kicked a nearby book away.

"I'm fine," said Emma in a forcibly, high-pitched voice as she smoothed the paper out onto the table in front of her.

She ignored Draco bending under the table to put her books back into her bag for her, and purposely swung her legs for the fun of it. She kicked something round.

"Watch where you're kicking," he muttered from under the table, and returned to his seat as Emma addressed her parent's names on the top of the paper. Had she not been slightly annoyed, she'd have laughed. 

"We've only been here a day," Daphne said nosily, reading what Emma had written upside down. "I'm sure your parents are fine."

"Is it a crime, wanting to know how they're doing?" said Emma hotly before rolling her eyes and continuing with her letter.

'Dear Mum and Dad,

How are you? I know it hasn't been long since I last saw and spoke with you, but I'm desperate to know how the two of you are holding up. I –'

"What's the matter with you?" scoffed Daphne, and when Emma, annoyed, looked up at her the former had curled her top lip – similar to Professor Snape – and narrowed her eyes slightly. "You've been snappy all day!"

Emma opened her mouth to snap back but shut it when she realised that Daphne had, in fact, been right. She had been awful to Draco, too. She looked down guiltily and ran her tongue on the inside of her top lip.

"I've had a pretty crappy day," Emma responded, giving Daphne an apologetic look.

"Yeah," scoffed Draco, taking Emma's side immediately. "So back off, Greengrass."

"I get it," Daphne said, ignoring Draco and, to Emma's satisfaction, choosing to pretend he had not spoken to her in such a rude way. "I can't say I've ever heard the words 'pretty' and 'crappy' in the same sentence, though."

Emma smiled and while continuing on with her letter, let Draco stroke the back of her free hand gently with his thumb. She didn't eat anything that evening no matter how many times Daphne and Draco tried forcing her to – even Blaise had tried a little while later – and when they exited the Great Hall that evening, Draco pulled her to the side and let the crowd of student's head off to their common rooms.

"Think we can talk?" he said quietly, and he sounded a little bit sad.

Emma bit her lip before exhaling loudly and exaggeratedly. "I know, I know – I've been a pain today, I get that. I'm sorry."

Draco shook his head with slight smirk on his face. "Yeah, you have. But that isn't what I wanted to talk to you about."

"What then?" Emma quietly inhaled sharply, hoping to whatever god was out there that he wasn't going to admit any of the crazy things Harry had said twenty-four hours ago to be true.

"You know," Draco said, shifting from foot to foot. "Us."

She felt the brick, that had been resting in her chest the entire day, multiply before falling straight down to her stomach. It had only been their second day together, apart from the summer, and it was already going terrible. She pursed her lips, gazed at the ground for a moment to gather her thoughts, and then glanced up at Draco. She nodded.