✓ | RECKLESS AND BRAVE | Draco Malfoy

74 | VELLEITIE

VELLEITIE
(n.) a wish or powerful desire for something that nonetheless is not or cannot be followed by actions meant to pursue it

DRACO PACED HIS ROOM RELENTLESSLY, ARMS CROSSED AS HE ABSENTMINDEDLY CHEWED ON HIS BOTTOM LIP. It was the last day of summer, and per Voldemort's orders, he would have to return to Hogwarts for his seventh year.

"Would you quit burning a hole in your carpet? I can't concentrate on writing this," Theo muttered from where he sat on Draco's bed, leaning against the pillows with school books piled on the mattress. He had a notebook on his lap along with some scattered sheets, and he was glaring at Draco from atop the glasses he wore occasionally.

     Draco scrunched his nose up at him, pausing for a moment. "What do you think she's doing right now? Do you think she's had lunch already? Or if she's sleeping enough these days?" A flicker of horror passed through his face as he whispered in dread, "What if she got hurt by the others who keeps visiting Grimmauld Place to find the house?"

     Theo chuckled, scribbling something one is notebook. "I doubt that. You said she has a scar down her eye, right? Well, then she'd probably use it to scare men away than the other way around. You and I both know how Tessa would never take shit from anyone."

     A faint smile touched Draco's lips. "You're right — I shouldn't doubt her courage to fight back."

     "Good — now sit down and stop worrying, you mother hen."

     Draco slowly perched on the edge of his bed and watched Theo draw in small circles and lines on his notebook, and with his other hand tapping down rhythmically on his lap as though playing a piano.

     "What's that?" he asked, leaning over to try and get a better look.

     Theo shifted away from him. "Nothing you'll be able to read and understand."

     Draco glared pointedly and lunged forward to snatch the paper much to Theo's cry of dismay. "What is it?" Draco asked in perplexity, turning the paper around as he blinked at it. "Is this — a music sheet? You're writing music now?" He squinted over the tiny scrawl of dedication written at the corner of the paper. "And who's Baktielle?"

     Theo took it back from him, retreating back to his comfortable seat as he continued to make corrections on the notebook. "It's a nocturne — compositions for piano."

     Draco chuckled under his breath. "Okay then, Chopin."

     Theo stared at him blankly. "Who?"

     "Never mind, you prat. And this Baktielle person? A girlfriend, perhaps, that you've never mentioned to me before?"

     "It's nobody you know," Theo muttered dismissively.

     "Fine, fine — no need to be so tetchy about it."

     When Draco turned around, a pillow was thrown at the back of his head, closely followed by Theo saying, "Go back to pacing and worrying, and leave me alone."

     "You're the one who's in my house!"

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