Dan had just finished his last class for the day and was sitting in the courtyard, eyes scanning over the pages of his Charms book. He leaned back against the trunk of the tree he sat under, legs pulled up and book resting in his lap. He was going over some of the nonverbal spells they had learned that week, along with some they weren't necessarily going to learn when a figure moved in front of him. Dan looked up to see Phil standing in front of him, smiling softly down at him.
Over the past week, it became clear to Dan that there was no way to avoid Phil Lester. They had pretty much every advanced course together, and, even though Dan had made it clear at first that he wanted little to do with Phil, Phil still made a very cautious effort to talk to Dan when he sat alone in the back of the room, doodling in his notebook.
At first, Phil's efforts annoyed him, him wanting nothing more than to tell Phil off and go back to being alone, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. Dan realized, no matter how much he wanted Phil to just go away, he didn't really want him to go away. Phil was the first person in years who had made a conscious effort to actually talk to Dan and ask him how his day was. Dan found himself almost yearning for the classes he had with Phil, just so he'd have someone to talk to, although he also shamed himself for wanting to get attached to someone so quickly.
It had taken Dan four days to gather the courage to respond to Phil when he asked how Dan was doing and how his day was. He was very hesitant, eyes nervously scanning Phil's face for several moments in search for any sort of malice before finally mumbling a 'good' before hiding his mouth behind his sleeve and looking back down to his notes. However, no matter how surprised Phil may have been - Dan having not spoken a word to him since his trials - he continued on the conversation, asking next if Dan had done anything interesting or heard anything about his next Quidditch practice - which he had obviously made team Seeker - to which Dan would either nod or shake his head in response.
Now was no different as Phil sat down across from him and began speaking cheerily, "Hey, Dan."
"Hey," Dan knew he was coming off as shy, and cursed himself for not being more confident.
"How are you? You missed Potions," Phil started, pulling his bag into his lap and rummaging through before pulling out his Potions book and opening it.
Dan was silent as he watched Phil scribble down something from inside the book on a scrap of parchment before passing it to Dan. Dan peered at it, seeing that it was their coursework for the day, and stuffed it into his robe pocket before looking back up at Phil who was looking back at him.
Dan just shrugged, leaving the silence hang between them. Phil looked at him pointedly, a small grin on his face before he shook his head and adjusted his glasses. Now, while Dan appreciated that Phil had brought him his work - him not having to want to turn it in late or miss it completely - he wasn't sure if he could tell Phil just why he had skipped class. Assuming that Phil already knew that Dan skipped purposely - which he no doubt did - he'd probably be wondering the exact reason, but Dan had reached that awkward stage of telling Phil whether or not his day was good, but not explaining why.
"You should have been there," Phil continued, thankfully, moving on from the weighing topic. "Professor was making something and thought it'd be a good idea to taste it but not tell anyone what it was. One moment, she's standing there instructing, the next, she's on the floor as a cat! Must have gotten some of her cat's hairs in the Polyjuice she was brewing. It was funnier in person really."
Dan nodded, finding a light smile on his face as the dark-haired boy in front of him laughed quietly. Dan found the Phil tended to ramble when he was trying to explain things that he found funny, as if others wouldn't get it or wouldn't find it as funny. Dan smiled along anyway, figuring it'd make Phil feel better if he understood his sense of humor, which he did.
