I Am Not Nothing

Chapter Twenty-Two

I woke up on one of the couches in the common room one the first day of our O.W.L's. Well, I say I woke up on one of the couches, but it was more like I woke up whilst being half on Draco and half off of him. Our relationship had actually been less worrying than I expected it to be. It was like I suddenly knew what to say and I was starting to believe this wasn't just mixed up emotions. We hadn't shared our first kiss yet, and for that I was kind of grateful. We weren't rushing into a relationship. We were easing our way into the unknown, as neither of us had actually dated a person (not as a prank or pay-back, I mean). We hadn't told anyone yet about our relationship, mostly for the reason of us still getting used to the new label ourselves. Draco was definitely the more relaxed one of the two of us. I kind of worried if someone saw us lying together on the couch or us holding hands, but Draco reminded me many times that we did this before we were dating. Everyone was more than used to seeing us like this by now. Except what they didn't know was that it meant more now. Draco was a gentleman. He acted less as a "bro" and more like a human version of a cuddly, precious puppy. I looked over at the sleeping boy. I smiled to myself as I began to shake him awake.

"Just ten more minutes." He mumbled.

"O.W.L's start today. I can't let you sleep in." I told him.

He gave a long, exasperated groan as he pushed himself up into a sitting position.

"Come on. Go get changed and cleaned up and I'll meet you back here when I'm done getting ready." I told him.

I stood up and walked up to the girl's dormitories. I entered my room and saw that all the girl's were still sleeping.

"Up you get, Ladies! Got to get as much last minute studying in before our exams!" I yelled at the girls.

They all began moaning and groaning, pulling open their curtains and glaring at me.

"Let's go, girls." I said finally before getting changed out of my night gown and into my uniform.

I went into the bathroom and got washed. I threw my hair into a high ponytail and made sure all of my jewelry was in order before walking out and down stairs. I knew Draco was going to be there before me. He always was. So it wasn't a surprise to see him trying to get a couple more minutes of sleep. I walked over to the boy. I placed a small kiss on his cheek, waking him up with a smile. I held my hands out to him, helping him get up. We walked out of the common room, hand in hand. We made our way to the Great Hall. When we got there, we sat at the Slytherin table, sitting across from each other. I began to eat my toast and berries.

"I'm not ready for our Dark Arts O.W.L's." Greengrass sighed, sitting next to me.

"We've been studying for weeks. You're fine." I said.

"Can we study a little bit before?" She asked, worry coating her face.

"You're psyching yourself out. You'll do fine!" I assured her.

Daphne continued to panic and alarm herself more by the second. Davis tried to call her down after I had given up, but nothing helped. She just kept insisting that she needed to go over the study sheet again.

"Alright, Greengrass." I sighed, "Where would you find a Kappa?"

"Erm ... I don't know!" She exclaimed.

I sighed and slapped the back of her head.

"Think and calm down!" I snapped at her.

"The... the... ponds!" She exclaimed as if a lightbulb lit up in her mind, "Shallow ponds!"

"Now you know you have nothing to worry about. Just calm down!" I told her.

She took a deep breath and nodded. I watched as she took some eggs and bacon and began to eat. I turned my attention back to Draco, who had his head in his hands and his eyes closed. I smirked at napping boy. I took my right hand and slammed it on the table twice, startling the boy awake. He glared over at me, which turned into a smile. We finished our breakfast, then left the Great Hall. Shortly after we left the Great Hall, the room was evacuated to prepare for the written exams. From the information we were given, we knew that the Great Hall was being transformed into a large classroom setup. The room would hold all of the classes for Defence Against the Dark Arts who were doing O.W.L's, which were the fifth and sixth year students, as well as seventh years that were doing their sixth year O.W.L's because they failed the class, but there weren't that many of them.
Until the Hall was ready, Draco and I went back to the common room lounge, where I let Draco get a well needed hour of sleep. I also tried to sleep, but wasn't able to with the excitement of being done with this test. If I knew Umbridge, I knew that she wasn't going to do a practical. She was only going to have us do the written portion. Of course I want thrilled, but there was nothing I could do. When the clock struck nine o'clock, I woke up Draco and we made our way back to the Great Hall.