Chapter Text
Draco Malfoy entered the Great Hall as he always did. Every single morning he started to evaluate the idea that he was getting bored of the same routine over and over again. He wanted to finish that damn school soon enough to not see the same faces again, except for a few. In reality, except for one, but it wasn’t something he didn’t enjoy to think and talk about.
It was still early and, thankfully, there weren’t so many people. Not yet. He wasn’t even hungry but every place was better than his room, where his thoughts gave him the best of them. Draco clenched his fists by only remember the torture they gave him almost every night.
He looked around just for a second and, of course, he noticed her. The only vision of that girl made him sped up enough to reach his table, the Slytherin one.
In a way or another, he was getting used to the idea that he couldn’t really run away from her. She was always there, like if she was his shadow.
The disgusted looks they gave to each other was enough than every bad adjective that existed in the vocabulary.
He finally sat down. Draco was in between his friend, Blaise Zabini, and another guy he was still knowing after all these years, Coriolanus Snow.
Even if their fathers were good friends, Draco never got the chance to get closer to Coriolanus. It was only in the last years of Hogwarts that somehow they knew each other a little bit more.
Sometimes, Draco thought when he looked at him that he was almost looking into a mirror. Coriolanus and he were similar in many aspects: they were both considered the hottest guys in the entire Hogwarts, good grades and respect from everybody in the school. Let’s not talk about the fact they were physically similar too: blonde hair, light eyes…
There was another aspect in particular they also shared. Draco could see how Coriolanus’ eyes were fixed on Hermione Granger’s best friend: Lucy Gray Baird.
Draco thought she was a pretty thing, but she wasn’t interesting as Hermー he stopped his thought before he could feel his anger in his body and his ego scream at him.
Coriolanus never spoke directly to Lucy, but his interest was obvious like water transparency. After so many years, he wondered when there could be the chance to catch her, even if he didn’t know yet what that “catching” actually meant for him.
Obsession in Slytherins was considered one of the darkest traits, intrinsically intertwined with love. Even if it was considered outrageous for a Slytherin to fall in love with a Gryffindor, it wasn’t something you can easily control.
The two blonde guys got back to reality when Daphne Greengrass and Pansy Parkinson greeted and joined them at the table.
Coriolanus snorted in annoyance when he realized that he needed to run away before the two girls started to bother him, especially Daphne. The times he rejected her were getting too many for him to count on his fingers. Coriolanus didn’t hate her, he just didn’t like her.
“If you excuse me.” Coriolanus simply said, not paying attention to the two girls. He gave one last look to Lucy before leaving the Great Hall, not looking behind him and leaving Daphne's mouth open. She couldn’t even share a direct “good morning” with him.
Draco envied him for escaping so easily, he knew he couldn’t do the same. He looked at Pansy, realizing he couldn’t see Hermione anymore because she was sitting directly in front of him. Not that he cared about, or at least this was what he told himself.
Pansy innocently mistook his stare as something different, as she blushed and bit gently on her lower lip, not stopping by looking him in the eyes. She had a crush on Draco Malfoy and everybody knew it.
He wasn’t gonna lie to himself: when he was younger, he actually liked her attention. She always cared for him and he didn’t forget all the times she rushed to visit him when he was injured, but he didn’t like Pansy in that aspect. She could have been a good one-night-fuck, but nothing more.
She wasn’t interesting as Herー he felt he was going crazy. His mind was playing a game he didn’t enjoy.
Draco didn’t know when there was this “curiosity” towards that bunch-of-messy-curls girl, but he didn’t like it. Especially because it was about one of Potter’s best friends and she was a muggleborn.
Pansy was still looking at him and he knew it wouldn’t end soon. Draco needed to do something quick, something that would make the attention on him wash away easily.
“You’re literally begging him at this point.” Draco spoke while he looked over Daphne’s direction.
She looked up, revealing her sad eyes from what happened just a few minutes ago. She didn’t want to look so desperate over Coriolanus, but she knew it was already too late. She stopped eating her breakfast to defend herself. “I’m not begging him.”
Pansy stepped in, making Draco grateful that his plan worked well. “Your eyes speak for you, don’t you know that? How many times I have to tell you that he should be the one that wants your attention.”
Daphne was about to answer, until she stopped when she saw Draco standing up and leaving before Pansy could say something. Both girls were left speechless.
“See? You have my same problem, Pansy.” Daphne said as she kept eating her breakfast.
The other girl bit her lip in annoyance, with a pressure that made it bleed a little bit. A bittersweet taste mixed with blood was in her mouth, making her think about what she was doing wrong with Draco.
“I don’t understand him.” She said with a hopeless sigh. Some years before it seemed like there was some sparking between the two, but now there was literally nothing.
While the two Slytherin friends supported each other in their own ways, the two Gryffondor girls stopped talking about the lessons of their courses.
Hermione was explaining some concept to Lucy Gray, while the latter listened to everything with a particular attention.
She liked explaining to her whatever she didn’t understand, or passing the notes she took in class. It gave her the occasion to feel like some kind of “professor”, which she didn’t mind. She only minded when they asked her help only when they needed to and Lucy Gray didn’t fall in this category.
“Soー” Hermione was about to explain the last thing, until the other dark curly haired girl stopped her.
“He was staring at you again.” She said with a mischievous smile on her face.
“Who?” Hermione knew who she was referring to, but she pretended to be completely unaware of it.
“Oh,” Lucy Gray took a bite from her breakfast, before continuing talking again, “ you know who I’m talking about.”
Lucy Gray always called Hermione “The All Knowing”, as a joke, because everything she asked Hermione already knew the answer for. This time, though, she actually didn’t know why Malfoy was staring at her.
It wasn’t the first time and it wouldn’t have been the last, it just kept happening and she had her fault too. Years passed by and she didn’t deny to herself that Malfoy became more and more handsome.
She always said that she wasn’t interested in boys and now look at her. Even her blaming on her hormones was too absurd to be used as an excuse.
Hermione shook her head. “Do we need to talk about you? He was literally devouring you with his eyes!”
Lucy Gray let a little laugh out, looking at her best friend. “I don’t deny that I stare at him too sometimes.”
She was honest. Lucy Gray also didn’t know why Coriolanus Snow was so much interested in her to the point of staring at her for hours, but probably not enough to make him speak to her. Maybe he liked judging her in silence.
In her eyes, though, it looked like a game that she agreed to play, taking in consideration all the risks that came with it. She didn’t think twice to stare at him back, making Coriolanus forced to look somewhere else sometimes.
Hermione rolled her eyes, they still had a bit of time before they had to change this subject. “It’s absolutely wrong.”
Lucy Gray smiled again, painting an innocent picture of herself. “What do you mean wrong?”
Her friend closed the books in front of her with a force that could scare anyone. She cleared her throat and looked around to see if someone was paying attention to their conversation, but no one did. “It’s a Slytherin and you are a Gryffondor. Also, you know what Harry, Ron and everyone else think about them.”
Lucy Gray knew what their friend thought about Slytherin, especially Harry and Ron. She couldn’t blame them, she couldn’t blame Hermione, but she still felt attracted to Coriolanus for unknown reasons. “Why do we need to stop ourselves from new experiences?”
“Experiences? Lucy Gray Bー”
“What kind of experience were you talking about?” It was Harry’s voice that made Hermione stop herself from what she was about to say.
"Good Morning Harry!” Lucy Gray said with a big smile on her face, like if the conversation with Hermione never existed. “We were talking about general experience, you know? Going to places you have never been before, eating new food…”
“Oh, that’s cool. I also want to do stuff like that.” Harry was too pure and innocent to not believe what Lucy Gray said, and she was too good at making people believe what she said.
“What are you all talking about?” It was Ron this time that joined the conversation and Hermione felt too overwhelmed to stay there.
“I will see you in class.” Hermione said as she quickly took her stuff and left. Nobody said anything, it wasn’t the first time that she acted like that, but Lucy Gray and Ron knew why.
It was in all Hogwarts’ ears the “relationship” between Ron and Hermione, but the two never lasted long enough.
Ron thought that the motivation was because Hermione didn’t like being the center of the attention and she wanted to focus on her N.E.W.T., but her friend knew exactly why she broke up with him.
She admitted to Lucy Gray that she wasn’t satisfied with Ron, as if something was missing between them. In her exact words it was “too calm”.
“I wonder when she will stop running away from me.” Ron said, with his eyes fixed on the food in front of him.
Harry put his arm over Ron’s shoulders, comforting his best friend as he always did during all these years. “It won’t last long, Ron. She only needs…some time.”
Ron nodded while he kept eating and Harry looked at Lucy Gray, probably trying to find in her something that could help his friend.
“Harry is right, Ron.” She said as she started to take her things, “I’m sure it’s gonna pass soon.”
She greeted the two friends and left the Great Hall, repassing in her mind everything she had to do that day.
⸻
Hermione was always the first to join the class, so early that she always found it empty. She sat in the front seats, where she could hear Professor Snape’s voice perfectly. Hermione started to put her things on the table, she always liked having her place in the perfect order. She was so focused that she didn’t hear that someone joined her.
Draco sat down, but instead of being closer to her in the front seats, he decided to pick the back ones. He didn’t want to be absorbed in her perfume that reached him even if he was sitting far away from her. He liked it, but only because he was objective about it.
Hermione stopped herself when she felt someone staring at her back. She hoped in her mind that it wasn’t him, everyone but not him. When she turned around to see who joined the class, she uncontrollably sighed at the sight of Malfoy behind her.
She wanted to pretend that he didn’t exist, that it was a game of her imagination because it knew how much his presence bothered her, but he was still there and his eyes fixed on her back.
Curiosity had the best on Hermione. “Why are you staring at me, Malfoy?”
Her tone was sharp like a knife and it made Draco chuckle. “I have no time to look at a muggleborn like you, Granger.”
That offense was so abused by him that made Hermione not caring about it, it was another insult like the many Malfoy used towards her. This one wasn’t special.
“Don’t make me laugh, Malfoy.” She turned away from him, staring at the notes in front of her without any focus. She only wanted to run away from that class, but she couldn’t do it. “Do we need to talk about how you stared at me this morning too?”
He chuckled again, but inside him he was feeling particularly nervous. He never thought about the fact that Potter’s best friend could be aware of his looks. “Is that your delusion I am speaking to right now?”
It was a lost war with him, Hermione thought. His pumped up ego would have never admitted the fact he was actually staring at her. She hoped that he was only staring because he found her disgusting and nothing else.
When Lucy Gray finished her practice with the Frog Choir and Professor Filius Flitwich, in her mind there was only the idea of eating and resting. Singing was her passion and Hogwarts was particularly aware of her talent, to the point that they realized they could use her voice for important events.
She greeted everyone when she found herself alone in the Great Hall. Everybody was still in class so she didn’t think twice to enjoy some time alone for a bit.
“Can’t take my charm, can’t take my humor…” She started to sing one of her songs, but immediately stopped when she realized that Coriolanus Snow was watching her, his hands in his pockets.
He walked closer towards her, making the distance from their body less and less long. She started to play their game again. “I didn’t know you liked my voice so much.”
Coriolanus hinted at a small smile. “I know a talent when I see one.”
Lucy Gray’s smile became bigger as she heard his compliment. She didn’t know Slytherins could be so bold to give compliments to Gryffondors, it was something that wasn’t probably right.
“Is that so?” Lucy Gray lessened the distance more, but Coriolanus was good at putting an end.
He took out a white rose from his pocket and he gently put it between her dark curls. In his eyes she was pure as the flower.
He looked at her one last time before leaving Lucy Gray alone again in the Great Hall.