Laugh with the Sinners;Cry with the Saints

Draco spun around so quickly, I thought he would fall out of his chair. He fixed me with one of his more frightening glares as I stood a few feet from him, shifting my weight from foot to foot. The look on his face unnerved me a bit, and I couldn’t help but avert my gaze to the stone floor beneath me.

“Damn it, Bartley.” He sighed. “You scared the shit out of me.” I looked at him, still expecting an answer. He’d seemed to have gotten the hint, because he stammered out an answer that I wasn’t sure I’d fully believed. “It’s—it’s just an extra credit project for charms.”

“Well, it seems like you’re having a bit of trouble with it.” I commented.

“Wow, you’re a smart one, Bartley.” He growled sarcastically. Sighing, I walked around the table and sat in front of him. As I did so, he quickly snatched a piece of parchment and stuffed it in his bag. He began to gather the material in front of him, as if he were going to leave.

“I wasn’t saying that to be mean,” I sighed. “I was going to offer you help.” I could do my homework before sleeping. It seemed that Draco needed the grade more than I did.

“You want to help me?” He laughed as he paused, an open book in hand.

“Sure.” I shrugged. “It’s not like I have anything better to do.”

He looked at me for a minute before handing the book to me. I glanced at it, and my eyes widened. The pages were filled with complex diagrams and instructions that just seemed to go round in circles.

“How would your friends feel about this?” He asked. I looked up from the book before choosing to ignore him completely. “Oh, so you don’t have friends anymore?” I sighed, keeping my eyes on the book in front of me as I squirmed in my seat.

“Not like you would care if they hated me or not, even if it is your fault.” I muttered.
His pale eyebrows rose on his forehead, and his lips turned into a smirk. I heard him let out an airy laugh before turning the parchment he’d been writing on over to the other side. Then I felt his eyes on me, it felt as if two hot coals were burning through me, and I hesitated before I looked up, meeting his eyes.

“You’re right, I don’t care.” He said simply.

“Wow, thanks.” I muttered.

“You’re too good for them.” He shrugged. “I’ve always thought you were.”

“Draco?” He looked up and I continued. “Just get back to work, alright? I’m really not in the mood to talk about it…them, whatever.”

“Whatever you say.” He shrugged, picking up his quill once again.

“So, have you tried a vanishing charm?”

“That was one of the first things I tried.” He sighed.
Picking up a quill and tapping it on the table quickly, I began to think, and in my thinking, I began to mutter under my breath as I do often when trying to work out a problem. I pushed my hair behind my ear quickly as the tapping grew faster. Wow, am I this annoying when I’m trying to think of an answer during a test? I thought, but quickly pushed it out of my mind. I was aware of Draco staring at me; he probably thought I was having some kind of fit…or trying to curse him.

“Of course a vanishing charm wouldn’t work.” I muttered, shaking my head. “Of course, the object would have to have some way of getting to the other connected closet. There would be a connected closet, right?”

I ceased my tapping and looked up at the shocked blonde in front of me; quickly he nodded, as if he were still afraid. “Right,” the tapping began again. “So there would have to be some way for the object to transport from one closet to another, because with a vanishing charm the object would just…well…vanish, and we don’t know where things go when they vanish, right?”

“I-I don’t-.” Draco began to shake his head, but I interrupted him.

“Unless, the other closet has something to do with it: like, maybe the charm has to be cast on both closets by the same wand…no, that’s stupid…that would mean that any object that one person cast a vanishing charm on would be connected. What if the two cabinets have to have the vanishing charm cast on them at the exact same time? No, that’s just stupid. What about-“

“We’re getting nowhere with this.” Draco groaned, making me stop mid sentence.

“Of course we are.” I told him with a small smile.

“How so?”

“Well, now we know that those two options won’t work.”

--

Needless to say, I didn’t finish my potions essay that night. It was nearly eleven at night by the time Draco and I left the library, and we left then because we were made to. By the time we’d walked out of the library, my eyes were sore and a headache threatened to make itself known. We parted ways just outside the library doors; he going to the dungeons and me going to the astronomy tower.

I walked quickly through the darkened corridors, hoping that Jamie and Trent would be asleep by the time I reached the common room. As I drew nearer to the astronomy tower, my headache grew in intensity; so much so that it was hard to see straight. I was beginning to dread the riddle that I’d have to endure before I could enter the common room and go to sleep.

“Elsie!” I heard someone call in a loud whisper.

“Damnit.” I muttered and turned only to come face to face with Harry. Stifling a yawn, I ran a hand over my face as I spoke. “What brings you here?” I asked.
“You haven’t reported anything in a few weeks.” He stated with a shrug. “I just figured I’d ask you.”

“So you decided to sit outside the astronomy tower and wait on me like a creepy stalker?” I asked, rubbing my forehead. When he didn’t answer, I continued with a sigh. “The reason I didn’t report is because there’s nothing to tell.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, Harry, I’m positive. He’s a normal sixth year, just like you and me.”

“No.” The raven haired boy in front of me shook his head. “He’s up to something, and I’m going to figure out what it is.”

“You have fun with that,” I muttered, closing my eyes. “I’m going to bed.”

I faintly heard him say something as I ascended the stairs of the tower, but I waved him off, not wanted to delay sleeping any longer than I had to.