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"This year hasn't been the way I thought it would be," Granger abruptly said.
Draco looked up from the essay he was working on and found her staring almost blankly at the fireplace. He started to open his mouth to ask what she meant, thought better of it, and merely sat watching her.
Her profile and hair were gilded by the firelight.
There was a long pause broken only by the crackling sounds of burning wood. Granger kept staring at the fire, almost frozen, her fingertips absently running across the cover of the history textbook in her lap.
Her throat dipped. "I thought — if I came back this year — it would be like starting over. That I could just be a student." Her mouth twisted in the corner. "Just for one year."
Draco continued to silently study her, uncertain whether she was addressing to him or merely musing aloud to herself. Granger was relentlessly upbeat most of the time.
When they began the school year, she had talked at length about the need to lead by example and had thrown herself into the job of Head Girl with ruthless abandon. She practically lived in the Head Student office.
It had been an exhausting day, and they were both still in the Head Office past curfew, trying to catch up on homework. Granger drew her lower lip into her mouth and gnawed pensively at it. The intense spark that usually emanated from her seemed dimmed.
After a minute, she looked down and sighed.
"Never mind," she shook herself and stood up. "I'm just rambling. I have an essay due in two days and I haven't even managed to finish the reading to start it."
She picked up her book and her school bag and then moved across the room to the curtained window-seat on the far wall, it was the only part of the office that afforded any privacy.
Granger habitually ended up there when she had so much work to do that she spent the night in the office. Draco regularly arrived in the early morning to find her curled up and sleeping, surrounded by reports.
As she disappeared behind the curtain, he stood up.
"Granger?"
"Hmm." Her hum was the distracted one she made when she was half-listening. He pushed the curtain aside and she looked up.
He hesitated for a moment. "What did you think the year would be like?"
She met his eyes for a moment before glancing away and looking tired. "Oh... It was nothing. I was just feeling like all my chances to just be young have already passed and I never got a chance to enjoy any of it." She gave a deep sigh. "I have to be responsible and lead by example for the rest of my life now. I was realising tonight that I'm probably never going to get to do any things just because I want to, even when they're things I used to want to do. Now — they've all become things I'm expected to do."
