Little Memories

The next morning was only brightened with the prospects of getting new schedules. And it was a very dim brightening, indeed, in Charlotte’s case. This year, she did not have the luxury of having at least one class with Draco like she did last year. She was continuing on with N.E.W.T. level potions, while Draco did not. The two of them sat by themselves in a small, yet sanctioned section of the Slytherin table, since Gregory and Crabbe had made it a point to sit far enough away from the two of them. As the compared schedules, Draco noticed that Charlotte was taking a more than full schedule in preparation for her final year at Hogwarts.

“Did you see the way he looked at me when he handed me my schedule?” Charlotte asked softly, shaking her head as she placed aside the bit of parchment before taking a sip of her orange juice. Draco’s brow knit together a bit and he shrugged.

“Did I see the way who looked at you?” He asked, glancing over at her with a sort of clueless, curious sort of expression.

“Professor Slughorn,” she snapped, sending hard glance over to him before letting out a sharp sigh. “It was like I had some sort of contagious disease that he was going to get by merely being in my presence.” She suddenly looked very sad as she stared down at her plate. “Double potions with him should prove to be very interesting.” Draco stared at her for a moment before carefully, and tactfully, trying to change the subject.

“I don’t know why they’ve let him become Head of Slytherin House,” he said, glowering hard at the walrus-like professor, who sat at the professor’s table and chatted happily with his other colleagues. “I mean, I know he was a Slytherin, but for Merlin’s sake, he’s a bit of a coward…and not to mention a drunkard.” Charlotte merely stared darkly over at the professor before letting out a heavy sigh, shaking her head a bit.

“They say this year isn’t going to be very different from the last…and it already is to me,” she said in a soft voice, looking over at Draco with wide blue eyes. “I can deal with people not liking me because they think I’m mean and cruel. I don’t like that they all know I’m a murderer.” Draco gently cupped her chin in his hand and looked over her face.

“I have a feeling they know that I’m a Death Eater,” he said in such a soft voice that it nearly died within the noise of the Great Hall as he brushed a curly strand of hair behind her ear.

“You don’t know that,” she breathed as she looked up at him, wearing the most stoic expression he had seen her produce since she arrived at the school.

“I don’t…but I can see it in their eyes,” he said, to which Charlotte gave him a look of pure disbelief. “And no, it’s not because they’re seeing me with you, so don’t you try to have it all boil down to you…because it’s most definitely not.” Charlotte merely let out a small hum, staring at Draco before carefully picking up an apple and taking a bite out of it. She chewed it for a moment, noticing that less students were paying attention to her than they were the night before. Perhaps this meant that she would eventually be forgotten, but knew that they had the added distraction of schedules to deal with.

Charlotte suddenly let out a heavy sigh and rested her head on Draco’s shoulder, placing down her half eaten apple.

“I’m going to miss having you in my potions class,’ she said through a sigh as Draco took her hand in his and intertwined their fingers.

“I’m going to miss having you help me in your potions class,” he murmured, causing Charlotte to smile suddenly and let out a small, bittersweet laugh.

“You best be thankful you dropped out of potions, or you probably would have failed this year,” she said, lifting her head from his shoulder and glancing over at him with a smirk. Draco pulled a small pout and looked over at Charlotte.

“You mean you aren’t going to help me this year?” He asked softly, inciting another small laugh from Charlotte. It was a bit refreshing from Draco to see her smiling and laughing, if only just for the moment.

“I’ll help you with your homework if you ask me to,” she said softly, still smirking, “but help by my definition may be a bit different than yours. Doing your homework while you relax is not the same as helping.” Draco shook his head a bit and leaned over, kissing Charlotte’s cheek sweetly.

“I love you,” he murmured in her ear, causing her lips to pull up into one of those million galleon smiles that he rarely got to see anymore. She looked over at him from the corner of her eyes and replied.

“I love you more.” Draco merely smiled widely and kissed her on the cheek, not wanting to risk anymore of a public display of affection when there were so many professors around. Charlotte looked up at him, her eyes wandering slowly over his features as her smile slowly began to fall.

“What’s wrong?” He asked suddenly, hoping he hadn’t done anything. She glanced around nervously before bringing her eyes back up to his.

“I never got to tell you what I needed to,” she said softly. Then, as if to spite them both, the bells rang, signifying the start of classes for the day. Charlotte closed her eyes in agitation as the Great Hall suddenly gave way to a flurry of movement. Draco watched her closely as she let out a heavy sigh and opened her eyes. “Meet me in the Prefect’s bathroom before dinner,” she said as she stood from the table.

“But I’m not a prefect anymore, you knew I gave that up half-way through last year,” Draco said quickly as he caught her arm as he stood, lest she walk away and he be left in the dark longer.

“I know. I forgot,” she said softly, leaning over and snatching up her schedule from the table. “The password is ‘nitwit’ and if I’m already there a good alohomora should do the trick.” She leaned forward and kissed his cheek, causing him to smile a little bit. “Come with me to get my books,” she said with a small smirk as she took his hand in hers.

“I don’t have a choice, do I?” He asked as he matched her smirk. Charlotte’s smirk widened as she shook her head, her partially unruly ringlets bouncing slightly with the movement.

“Absolutely not,” she said as she intertwined their fingers and began to walk with Draco, side-by-side, out of the Great Hall. No one paid much attention to them, perhaps since they realized that it may be potentially dangerous to stare and whisper at one known Death Eater and a suspected one. They thought and gave it a great probability that once they made their way to the Slytherin Common Room, no one would even so much as blink at their presence. They were very, very wrong.

The moment the stone wall had closed behind the two of them, they were immediately approached by Theodore Nott and Jackson Harper, who were toting their satchels full of books. Harper was a student in Charlotte’s year. He was brilliant as far as common-knowledge went, but he never really did well in classes. Charlotte had helped him more than once on Transfiguration homework.

“Look…we know about you two,” Nott started, glancing between the two of them. Charlotte almost gave him a sharp retort, but he continued before she had the chance to. “And we know that there are some students here who would take the opportunity to look down up that.” Charlotte and Draco sent a hesitant glance to one another, but didn’t say a word.

“We’d be willing to walk you to classes in case anyone decided they wanted to try an attack one of you,” Harper said with a slight smirk. “I mean, I know you’ve got Crabbe and Goyle, but they can’t be around you both during classes, especially you Charlotte.” Draco let out a sharp sigh as he glanced between the two of them. Charlotte, however, was giving the both of them a sweet, yet slightly malevolent smile. She knew she was more than capable of protecting herself and would have balked at the idea of having someone following around to keep her safe. But she also knew that she had a numerous amount of enemies, so any opportunity to make nice with someone, she would jump at.

“I don’t think that will be necessary, Nott,” Draco said in a steely sort of voice to match his steely gave. Charlotte shot a glance to him before looking over at Harper.

“Well…it wouldn’t hurt to have them around, would it, Draco?” She asked, glancing over to the platinum blonde boy beside her. “My brother has since found his new interest…so I doubt he’ll pay attention to me anymore.” She turned back to Harper and gave him a small smile, not waiting for Draco's answer. “Would you like to walk me to Herbology, Jackson?” She asked. He merely nodded and smirked.

“Yeah, I’ve got that first thing this morning,” he said, glancing to Draco to gauge his reaction.

“I’ve got to go get my books, but I’ll be right back,” she said to Harper before turning to Draco, who was wearing a sort of stolid expression, keeping his eyes glued to Harper. “I’ll see you at lunch, okay?” He merely hummed in response and Charlotte leaned over, kissing him on the cheek and making sure to catch the corner of his lips in the process. Without another word, she strode past the three boys and disappeared down the corridor to the dormitories.