To Wash Away a Sin

Chapter 10: All Hallows Eve - Part V

Disclaimer: Don't own, Don't sue

Note: Italics are from the previous part

Also swearing. Nothing new but be warned.

Chapter 10: All Hallows Eve - Part V

Green. Her eyes were green.

Green eyes widened when the girl recognized him too.

He repeated her earlier sentiment.

"Shite."

Double, no triple shite. Draco hadn't seen the Hufflepuff since detention weeks ago (has it been a month now?). Wait, that was a lie. He had seen the Hufflepuff's face once a week at the Black Lake since that fight, worn by the lake's resident spirit - hell he had just met with her last night.

(He had laughed at a story about her - he assumed - mermaid friends and when he wiped the tears from his eyes and looked back at his - friend? - she had the softest look in her eyes. The closest to happiness he had yet to witness from the depressed spirit. Then she had smiled, dimples and crooked lips and all, and he felt something deep in his chest ache.)

(He didn't have any nightmares last night either.)

It was possibly the only reason he recognized her now. Looking nothing like the feral Hufflepuff of the hallway, the girl with impossibly green eyes instead looked prim and well put together if on the more punk side of things. Makeup bringing out her sharper features, raven hair loosely tumbling over her leather-clad shoulders, and heels making her far too tall - she could have passed for a perfect stranger. 

So correction, he hadn't met the girl who inspired the spirit's appearance since the fight in the hallway. And this was possibly the worst time he could have ran into the girl, what with him being at least buzzed if not halfway to drunk right now and the spirit's voice whispering on repeat: "I naturally look like the person it's easiest for you to talk to."

Harsh green eyes studied him warily but still - still  - held no judgment of him. For Merlin's sake! He had spelled her over the third-floor railing! Confusion mixed poorly with the alcohol in his stomach creating a simmering ire that licked at the back of his mouth, tasting of bile. He opened his mouth to say something fairly uncouth when he noticed the girl's painted lips tip up on one side in an awkward smile. So the feral Hufflepuff was still a 'puff after all.

"Hey, it's fine! You're right. I should have looked where I was going," the cat costumed Hufflepuff said quickly, already backing away.

Draco struggled to say something through his vexation. "I-no. um. I think there's napkins at the table..." pointing lamely to the snack table he was heading to before this mess. 

The girl raised an ebony brow, a question in her (beautiful, diamond-like, impossible) eyes before shrugging and walking to the table.

Draco followed, reevaluating his decision to drink anything Pansy gave him.

~ ζ ~

The napkins seemed to have run out by the time they got there. There were none left in the place he had seen them last (by the punch bowl which was also missing) and after exploring the length of the snack table, they had come back empty-handed. 

And standing around looking for a solution to napkins was quickly becoming tiresome and silly. Just as he was about to turn around and leave, the girl (who was quickly becoming the bane of his existence) held her full glass in front of his face, asking - no ordering him to hold it.

The instant he had any grasp on the glass, she let it go and dropped to one knee. Taking the bottom of the table runner she then proceeded to use it to polish her heels. Scandalized, he almost dropped the glasses of water. Quickly depositing the glasses on the table, he dropped to a squat and hissed, "What are you doing?!"