Laugh with the Sinners;Cry with the Saints

“And that’s all I have to do?” I asked the green-eyed boy sitting on the ground in front of me. “I just have to tell you if he does anything weird?”

“Yeah,” Harry said, nodding, his glasses sliding down his nose a bit. I watched as he pushed them back up the bridge of his nose.

“Well, he does weird things every day.” I scoffed. “You’ll be hearing from me regularly.” Laughing, Harry nodded.

“I know.” He paused. “But what I’m asking you to look for is anything that seems out of the norm for Draco.”

“In other words, if he starts being polite and nice, and starts hugging small children and cuddly teddy bears, then I should come running to you?” Again, Harry laughed, and started to answer when, from behind him, Ron interrupted.

“Yes, I’d like to see that.”

“More along the lines of him acting,” Harry thought for a moment before continuing, “suspicious. If he looks like he’s up to something, tell me.”

“Alright.” Elsie shrugged, “I can do that, no problem.”

“Thanks!” Harry smiled, “You’re the greatest, Elsie!” He looked as if he could jump for joy. He also looked horribly grateful— as if he could hug me, or even better, kiss me at any moment. Smiling, I shrugged, trying to hide the blush that was beginning to creep up my neck and to my cheeks.

“Sure, no problem.” I tried to play it off like my heart wasn’t thumping spastically in my chest, but I’m sure everyone on the grounds could hear it. Looking at my hands that lay in my lap, I spoke again. “So, when do I start this mission of great importance?”

“Do you have astronomy tonight?” He asked and I nodded. “Then tonight.”

“Alright.” I said as I watched him rise.

“I’ll talk to you tomorrow at breakfast.” He told me as he walked off.

Smiling, I turned back to my friends. The looks on their faces were a little less than amused, and by that I meant they looked completely unamused. The frowns on their faces did little to ruin my good mood though. Rolling my eyes, I shook my head.

“What’s wrong with you two?” I asked as I returned to my Transfiguration notes, biting my
lower lip as I scanned over them for what seemed like the thousandth time.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Jamie snapped, causing me to look up at her, mouth slightly agape, “I just think you’re digging yourself a hole that you’re not going to be able to get out of.” Beside
her, Trent agreed. Rolling my eyes again, I laughed.

“You two are funny. It’s not like he’s going to find out, I’ll be perfectly fine.”

“If you say so.” Trent shrugged opening his school book once more.

“Just don’t come running to us when you can’t get out of that hole of yours.” Jamie muttered.

“You guys are overreacting.” I sighed.

“No.” Trent said, “The only reason you’re doing this is to get into Harry’s good graces.”

“What?” I shrieked, “No I’m not. Actually I want nothing to do with Harry Potter’s graces, whether they be good or bad.”

“Oh come off it!” Trent laughed, “You want all up in his graces!”

“God, I hate you.” I grumbled as I buried my nose back into my notes. “I hope you fail this quiz.”

I think deep down inside I was really angry about the fact that my friends knew me so well.
They knew the only reason I agreed to do this was because Harry Potter asked me. No matter how much I denied it, I knew it was true, and so did they. It was times like these that I really hated my friends. I really should have been a loner…

--

“That’s Jupiter.” I pointed to a rather large dot on the star chart in front of Draco. He had labeled it Saturn. Looking at it, he looked as if he were about to snap at me until he realized I was right. Instead, he ran his hand through his hair and crossed out what he had written and corrected it.

“Thanks.” He muttered. Taken aback by his lack of sarcasm, or the like, I looked at him.

“What?” he asked looking at me once more. I shrugged.

“I don’t know… you just aren’t your usual unbearable self.” Leaning closer to him, I whispered, “Something wrong, Malfoy?” Pft, like he’d actually tell me anything, although inside I wished he would. At least then I’d have something to tell Harry.

“No,” he snarled, “and if there were, I wouldn’t tell you, Bartley.”
Leaning back, I shrugged, not particularly hurt by his snide comment, “Just trying to help.”

“I’m sure you were.” He muttered sarcastically.

“See,” I smiled, “now there’s the Malfoy I know.”

“Just work, Bartley.” He muttered. Shaking my head, I picked up my quill and set to work once more.

Looking at the pile of homework, as I walked out of class, I sighed. We were going to have to meet outside of class; there was no way we’d get this done otherwise. Sighing, I ran to catch up with Draco before he slithered out of the classroom. When I approached the blonde about my worries he rolled his eyes and sighed.

“Alright, we can meet,” he thought for a moment, “right after dinner, for an hour. Blimey,
Bartley, I do have other things to do other than Astronomy.”

As I watched him walk away, I thought of a witty comeback, but I bit my tongue. It probably wasn’t as witty as I thought it was. Also, knowing Draco, he would have an even wittier comeback. On second thought, my comeback wasn’t witty at all.

--

I had been in the library for an hour, piles of books in front of me, and scraps of parchment scattered around the table. I tried to concentrate on the work in front of me, but all I could think about was how furious I was. He had stood me up, completely blown me off. I could have strangled him. The more I looked at the pile of work in front of me, the angrier I became.

He was daft if he thought I was putting his name on this along with my own. I was doing all the work; it was only fair that I got all the credit. Dipping my quill into the dark red ink, I brought the tip to the parchment, and with a scowl, crossed out Draco’s name. Smiling at the sight, I continued on with my work. Humming a little tune, I happily worked, just seeing Draco’s name crossed out made my day a little brighter.

“You can write my name again.” The voice drifted over the screech of chair legs scraping against the stone floor. Looking up, I came face to face with the pale blonde Slytherin. His eyes were tired, and his usually perfectly groomed hair fell in his eyes.

“Maybe if you were here on time, I wouldn’t have crossed your name out in the first place.” I muttered as I returned to the work, not bothering to rewrite his name.

“I had things to do, Bartley. Not all of us set homework as our first priorities.” He growled as he pulled a book towards him, and set to work skimming over the pages.

“Classes aren’t my first priority,” I argued as I pushed my hair behind my ear. “My future is.”

“So is mine.” I heard him whisper, but chose not to respond. There was something very off with him lately.

And so it went on like that for an hour and a half. I would make a smart remark, and he would make one right back. The consistent bantering that went on between the two of us even got us a few disgruntled looks from Madam Pince. I, for one couldn’t wait until we had finished our work so I could leave and seek refuge with my fellow Ravenclaws.

Sighing, I set the last of the work on the pile in front of me.

“I think we’re done.” I muttered, looking around to see if I had missed one, only to see that Draco was nowhere in sight. Grounding my teeth, I let out a low growl. Well, I thought, at least he had the decency to do his half of the work. I thought as I leafed through his work, and surprisingly finding that he had completed it before deciding to go AWOL. Shaking my head, I gathered our work, fitting it into my bag as neatly as I could, careful not to bend the edges before storming out of the library

--

“That’s it?” Harry asked as I retold the happenings of the day before.

“Yeah,” I nodded, “He just looked a little tired, but other than that, he was his regular Malfoy self, even left early and everything…just like something he would do...” Sighing, he closed his eyes and nodded.

“Thanks, just, keep your eye on him, would you?”

“Of course,” I nodded as we walked into the castle, leaving our friends to follow behind us, wearing what I assumed were sour looks upon their faces. Walking into the crowded Great Hall, I turned to him. “I’ll report to you tomorrow O’Captain my Captain.” I saluted him. I watched as he walked away, turning towards the tall red head on his left as he spoke to him.

“Stop looking at his arse.” Trent told me as he appeared at my side. Turning to him, I pushed him as hard as I could, grinning when I succeeded in making him stumble a few steps back.

“I was not staring at his arse.”

“Sure you weren’t.” Jamie’s sarcastically laced voice floated to my other side as she caught up.

“Elsie was looking at Harry’s arse?” Emily came out of nowhere to stand near Trent.

“God, I hate all of you.” I sighed as I took a seat at the Ravenclaw table, my chin falling into the palm of my hand as I planted my elbow on the smooth wood of the table. Around me my friends laughed. This was going to be a long day.