Battle Scars {Draco Malfoy}

Chapter Seventeen

"I love all of them!" Abby told Clara as the girl sat on Clara's bed one evening after dinner. The young girl had finally experienced classes with all the new professors and she was absolutely thrilled to have them. "Professor Dover threatened to throw this boy in my class in the Black Lake if he didn't stop throwing paper in her room. Professor Lupin is really nice too just like I thought he would be. But Professor Black..."

Abby fell back onto Clara's bed with a dreamy sigh. "He's great."

Clara laughed at her. "Sounds like you have quite the crush, Abby."

"Well, let's just say that Professor Dover is a very lucky woman to be married to him. But I can tell that they were meant for each other...just like you and Draco."

Clara had been writing a letter home to her parents when her quill just strayed across the parchment completely thrown off creating a line across her letter.

She looked up at Abby who giggled at her reaction.

"What did you say?" Clara asked her.

"Oh don't pretend like you didn't hear me." Abby said. "You and Draco...you two are cute together. A lot of people think so."

"Uh..when you mean a lot of people, you mean you, right?"

"No, just as the other girls." Abby looked over at the other Hufflepuff girls in the room.

They all looked up from what they were doing and nodded together.

"Abby! What are you telling people?"

"I'm not telling anyone anything, people are just noticing that you two are really cute together."

"Please stop staying that."

"Why? I'm just being honest!"

"No, it's not true." Clara shook her head.

"Keep telling yourself that." Abby grinned at her. "But people in the school are talking and I agree with them!"

"Abby!"

Clara was running late one morning, rushing out of the shower and getting dressed. Her hair was still drenched and she had forgotten her wand at her bedside as she hurried into Herbology.

Draco was sitting already in the greenhouse classroom, keeping his focus on his book when Clara sat beside him slightly winded. He looked over to see her dark hair plastered against her face, curling slightly at the ends that bounced as she sat down.

He turned to face her to see her fighting a few strands that had managed to get into her mouth. She let out a few gagging noises.

"Are you okay there?"

She stopped quickly dropping her hand into her lap.

"Uh yes!" she said. "It's just my hair is working against me this morning it seems."

"It looks fine, you should leave alone.'

He saw the ends of her lips curl upwards in a smile before she cleared her throat and went to open up her book.

Professor Sprout had them fertilizing and repotting several plants during the class. She watched as Draco grabbed a shrub to fertilize, and suddenly she found herself laughing.

Draco looked over at her to see her covering face to hide her smile.

"What's so funny?" he asked.

"Sorry." she said, the smile quickly faded. "But that's a self-fertilizing shrub."

He looked down to the shrub in his hand and his face turned red before he set it down in the pot. He suddenly smirked before letting out a small laugh. 

"It's a wonder how I've gotten this far in this class." he said.

"It's alright." she told him. "It's easy to forget, I mean it's seven years of material that you have to remember."

"Well, even first year I didn't exactly have a green thumb." he told her looking at his hands.

"It's funny how a lot of people think Herbology is one of the easiest subjects."

"I would definitely argue that statement right now. I don't see myself lucky enough to pass this class right now."

"I...I can help you if you want." Clara offered focusing on her own pot.

"Yeah?" he looked over at her.

"Only if you want. It's not hard to learn it all...I've come up with a method that's helped me over the years."

"I could use all the help I can get right now. Thank you."

"Sure thing."

When class ended the two walked side by side back to the castle.

"Have you spoken with any of them?" Clara asked bluntly.

She saw Draco's jaw tighten as he looked at the castle. "No, I haven't. I don't think they want to talk to me."

"Or maybe they're picking on the vibe that you don't want them saying anything to them."

"What is there to say?" he said. "I don't think they want an apology from me....there's not enough sorry's for that."

"Maybe they don't want to hear you apologize, maybe it would just be better to start over."

"Can a person like myself really start over?" Draco asked her.

She nodded. "I think so. The only person stopping yourself from starting over is you. You're going to have to learn how to forgive yourself Draco, you can't expect anyone to forgive you if you can't find your own forgiveness."