The Sunrise of My Heart

The next Tuesday, I was walking down the hall on my way to lunch, minding my own business, when I felt a soft tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see Theodore Nott, a fellow Slytherin in the same year as me. I had never really spoken to him, but he seemed relatively all right for a Slytherin.
"Hey, Theo," I said kindly. "Oh, do you mind if I call you that? Theodore is so long and proper. And let's face it, I'm lazy and so very far from proper."
"Er, sure," he said, looking taken aback by all of my talking.
"Sorry," I said. "I don't really ever stop talking."
"Uh, yeah, it's okay," he said, looking like he felt very awkward.
"So, did you want something? Or did my constant chatter frighten you off from whatever it was?"
"I was just wondering if you'd like to go to the next Hogsmeade trip with me," he answered, shoving his hands in his pockets but looking otherwise unbashful about asking me out.
"Oh," I said. "Uh... I don't know if I can."
"Why not?" he asked, leaning against the wall behind him.
"Well, I'm sort of seeing someone. I'm not really sure what the details of our "thing" are, but I think they exclude dates with other guys. Probably."
"So who's the tosser that can't make up his mind on where he stands with you, then? Some foolish Gryffindor?"
"Me," a cold voice said from behind us. We both turned to see Draco standing there, his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed slightly.
"Again?" Theodore asked in surprise.
I shrugged and nodded. "Yeah. We're just mutually attracted to each other, I guess."
"Huh," Theodore said before shrugging lightly. "Just wondering, but would you mind if I took her out on a date?" he asked Draco. "Since she said you're not even clear on the bounds of your "thing"?"
"Yes, I would mind," Draco said, stepping over and wrapping his arms possessively around me. "You want to know the bounds of my relationship with her? Here they are. She is my girlfriend. Exclusively. Mine alone, so there will be no dates for you."
Theodore nodded. "Fair enough. Guess I'll catch you both later." He headed off to the Great Hall, looking unbothered by his failed attempt at getting me to go on a date with him.
"I know he's kind of a loner, but he'll still probably tell people what you said. You realize that, right?"
"Of course I do," Draco said, sounding like I had just insulted his intelligence.
"Well, I wasn't sure if you wanted the whole school to know we're dating. Which, by the way, is wonderful." I turned around to face him, being sure not to leave the circle of his arms, and leaned up to kiss him lightly.
"I don't care if the school knows. They'd have figured it out sooner or later, considering I refuse to resist snogging you until after classes have ended."
I beamed at him. "Good. So, speaking of snogging..."
Roughly seven minutes later, Draco and I walked into the Great Hall, our hair still slightly rumpled but otherwise looking completely innocent. I immediately noticed how much of the Slytherin table was looking at us and whispering. Pansy was the affirmation that I needed. The death glares she was giving me could have made the Minister himself cower in fear.
"Hi, Pansy," I said brightly. "What's the matter? You look like your day just got ruined."
She silently seethed at me, her fork stabbing into her food so hard, I was afraid she would tab right through the plate. Damn, she was really riled up about this.
"Okay, clearly you're not in the mood to be friendly. My bad. I'll just leave you alone then." I turned and raised my eyebrows at Draco, who simply shrugged before sitting down near Blaise. They're not really friends, but they have a mutual politeness that works for them both. I sat down beside Draco, not really sure if I should say anything to Blaise. It wasn't like we had really ever spoken before.
Blaise turned to look at me with those cold, arrogant eyes of his, silently assessing me. I stared right back, gazing into the eyes of the beast. After a few moments, he tilted one eyebrow artfully up before he turned away again.
"What does that mean?" I whispered to Draco.
"I think he accepted your presence and won't be bothered if he has to spend more time with you because of me," he whispered back, although he didn't sound completely sure.
"Should I try talking to him?" I asked.
Draco shrugged. "He doesn't talk very much."
Because this is me, and I'm really bad at being silent, I decided that I would try talking to him. "So, Blaise," I said. He looked up at me again, his expression somehow unapproachable but not quite rude. "Do you have any plans for after Hogwarts?"
"Not really," he answered. "I might travel some."
"Oh, lovely. Have you ever been to Morocco?"
He nodded. "I vacationed there two summers ago."
I smiled. "It's a lovely place. Of course, it's much different now than it was when I... when an ancestor of mine lived there, but it's still beautiful."
Draco and Blaise both raised their eyebrows, catching my slip up. Draco understood what I had been about to say, whereas Blaise was only curious about my sudden change in wording.
"Did you once live in Morocco?" Blaise asked. Despite the fact that he was involved in a conversation with me, he still looked rather bored and uninterested in what was being said.
"Um," I answered. You know those moments when you just throw caution out the window because you feel like being reckless? This was one of those. "Yes. In a past life."
Draco looked at me in shock, but Blaise only tilted the corners of his lips up in a smile at my "joke."
"Are you mental?" Draco mouthed discreetly to me.
I lifted one shoulder in a tiny nod before tilting my head down just briefly in a nod. "Probably," I muttered so only he could hear me.
"Lovers discussion?" Blaise asked, noticing our little transactions. Man, he was good.
I smiled. "He was ever so sweetly calling me mental for saying I had a past life."
"The things she says are often very strange," Draco said.
"Oh, I don't know," Blaise said dully. "Considering all the things we can do, reincarnation doesn't seem that far-fetched." He was sitting languidly, looking for all the world like he wasn't really interested in what he was saying, but his gaze was boring into me, trying to pry the truth from my eyes.
"Well, if I could reincarnate, I certainly wouldn't waste my time here," I said. "One lifetime of classes would be enough for me. I'd spend my other lives off seeing all the world and discovering its mysteries." I sighed wistfully.
"I see," Blaise said, but he was still watching me intently. Finally, he raised his eyebrows at me and turned away again.
I let out a silent sigh of relief. Being scrutinized by those eyes was no laughing matter. They were cold and intelligent and piercing. I turned my attention to the food in front of me, but before I could take a bit, I heard Draco sigh in annoyance.
"You're being summoned," he said coldly.
I glanced up to see Ginny, who had gotten Draco's attention and then nodded at me to let him know she wanted to talk to me. I smiled at her and got up, squeezing Draco's hand briefly and nodding in farewell to Blaise.
"What's up?" I asked Ginny when I sat down beside her at the Gryffindor table.
"Lavender was told by Parvati, who was told by Padma, who overheard Theodore Nott telling Pansy Parkinson that you and Draco are dating again."
"I didn't really understand the rest of what you said, but yes, I am dating Draco. Again."
There was a spluttering couch from somewhere to my left, followed by coughing. I turned to see Ron, who had apparently choked on his pumpkin juice when he heard me say that.
"Breathe, Ron," I said, watching Harry pat him on the back.
"Why are you dating him?" Ron demanded when he finally stopped coughing. "You could probably have your pick of decent guys, but instead you go for him!"
"What can I say?" I asked airily. "He and I have an undeniable sexual chemistry."
This almost caused Ron to choke again. "Don't ever say anything like that about Malfoy again," he said, staring at me like I had just confessed to being sexually attracted to thestrals.
"So I guess you probably wouldn't want to know that we snogged for almost ten minutes before coming to lunch?" I asked sweetly.
"You're evil," he said to me, frowning.
"So when did this happen?" Ginny asked after rolling her eyes at Ron.
I opened my mouth to answer, but froze when I realized half of Gryffindor was listening in on the conversation. "Really?" I asked, raising my eyebrows. "Is my love life really that interesting to all of you?"
They all continued to stare, completely unabashed.
"Go on, then," Seamus said. "When did you hook up with You-Know-Who's shag lad?"
I laughed at his terming. "I've clearly had a bad influence on you, Seamus, because that sounds like something I'd say. Anyway, I guess we hooked up the Tuesday after Ron got poisoned."
"But that was ages ago," Dean said. "Why didn't you tell any of us?"
"Actually, it was only like a week ago. And I didn't realize I had to report the goings-on of my love life to half of Gryffindor."
"Well, now you know," Ginny said, causing me to lightly shove her.
"But why didn't you tell anyone?" Neville asked. "I get not telling the rest of us, but you usually tell Ron, Harry, Hermione, and Ginny everything."
"Well, I wasn't completely sure just what my relationship with him was, or if he wanted anyone to know that anything was going on between us. He's really protective of his private life, after all."
"So you were just gonna be his dirty little secret?" Harry asked in surprise.
I scoffed. "Of course not. I was going to give him about three weeks to decide he wanted all the world to know, and then I was going to tell everyone."
"But what if he decided he didn't want anyone to know?" Parvati asked, smiling at me from across the table.
"That wasn't going to be an option," I answered with a smirk.
"Do you think she knows how scary she sometimes is?" Seamus asked in a low voice.
"You don't know the half of it," Ron muttered to him.
I chuckled softly, choosing to ignore their statements.
"Draco's looking over here," Ginny said. "He looks pretty annoyed."
"He always is," I answered dismissively.
Ginny's eyebrows raised about as high as they could go. "I think he's coming over here."
I looked up in shock, watching as Draco stood up and walked in our direction, his eyes staying only on me. Judging by his stance, he was not pleased about coming over here. But he was still doing it.
There were whispers of surprise and apparent annoyance among the Gryffindors, but all of the ones who had been talking to me remained silent. Waiting to see what Draco would do.
"Hey, Draco," I said cheerfully when he made it to our table. "Want to sit down?" I motioned to the spot in front of me, between Neville and Parvati.
"Are you joking?" he asked with a scoff.
I rolled my eyes. "Don't be rude. They're my friends, and you're my boyfriend. You lot will have to learn tog get along one way or another."
Neville and Parvati shared uncertain glances with each other before they both scooted down, making room for Draco. We were all staring at him silently, wondering if he would actually do it. He noticed our glances and, holding his head high and setting his face in a determined look, he sat down. I smiled brightly.
"Wonderful! Now, give me a few minutes to think of something that we can all talk about. Uh..."
The Gryffindors all looked at me expectantly, and Draco looked at me with a cold stare. The situation was clearly awkward for everyone, so I finally just sighed. "Screw it. Come on, Draco, let's go so you can bitch to me about this. And later, I'll meet up with these guys again so they can do the same thing."
He stood up immediately, and everyone looked relieved. I got up and followed him, waving to the others in farewell.
"I know that was horrible and awkward, but it meant a lot to me that you did it," I said to him. "Even if it was just to accept a silent challenge from a table of Gryffindors."
"If I ever have to do that again, I will kill myself," he warned.
"Fair enough," I answered.
He wrapped his arm around my shoulders, and I wrapped my arm around his waist and leaned my head against his shoulder as we walked. I was silently rejoicing, although I'd never tell him what I was thinking. He had been able to sit civilly amongst my Gryffindors without any problems. Which gave me hope that he could peacefully coexist with them one day.