golden longings

XXXII

***

One day.

Draco had one day before his next class with Harry. And he planned to prolong their next interaction at the least until then.

Which was difficult, given that they shared the same living space as well as meal times. But still, Draco was able to avoid him for the most part.
Avoidance was a refined skill of his.
On a couple instances, he only escaped narrowly at it seemed that, while he was trying to keep his distance, Harry was seeking him out.

Conveniently, time felt like it was running on monday, making the day pass by faster than Draco would have liked it to.

Pansy spent about twelve hours being a little snappy with him for the worries he had caused her. And Draco apologized at least twice more.
On Sunday night, when he returned to his dorm quickly after the belated dinner, even Weasley greeted him with a short nod. A clear sign that his absence truly had been misinterpreted on a much larger scale than he had imagined.

However, everyone rather quickly caught on that no serious matter had caused it and normality settled back in quickly.
When Pansy finally came around to forgetting about her grudge, it was like nothing had ever happened.
At least once Draco had slept off his exhaustion and sleep deprivation well into monday, making him miss almost half of Herbiology.

On Tuesday, Draco had managed to catch up on enough sleep to be thinking clearly again. And he realized that shutting himself off for an entire day over a drunken thought on the weekend had possibly been an overreaction.

He tried to tell himself that all day long, before he had Charms with Potter.
Even if he knew that it was untrue and that the drunken thought had been one of truth.

Around the time when lunch was over, he disregarded the idea of lying to himself again. There really was no point. A clear plan, based on the facts, would be more productive.
And he had just about the duration of his way to charms class in order to come up with one.

He was passing the courtyard on his way when a shoulder bumped into his arm roughly, making his neck snap around to find the one responsible for the collision.
What he found was a head of ruffled dark hair, facing in the opposite direction.
"We need to talk!"
Harry hissed, his head tilted upwards only slightly, before continuing on without having spared a glance at Draco.

Draco stood dumbfounded in the same spot, blinking in the direction of the leaving boy. The spot where Harry's shoulder had touched his arm tingled lightly. A nauseous feeling spread through his stomach.
Just a few days prior he might have attributed the sinking feeling in his chest to an illness. But he knew very well it wasn't one, knew very well what it was instead.

He stayed there until the  next time a passing student bumped him, reminding him to move.
A quick charm told him that if he wanted to avoid being late again and possibly ending up in detention, he needed to hurry along.
As he continued his walk with long strides he barely noticed where he went. It was as if his body walked on it's own, without him needing to instruct it. His mind was far too busy for that.

What felt like a million ideas running in circles though his mind was mainly just irritation.
Why would Harry approach him like this and where did the find the nerve to leave Draco like that without an explanation? Draco wanted to demand one but it was too late, Harry had long escaped his field of vision.
And he needed to get to class anyway.

Those combined circumstances lead him to believe that Harry fleeing any confrontation was an intentional choice. When he knew that they would both need to get to class and that Draco would never ask him about it there.
And he appeared to have reached his goal, voicing his need to conversation without being confronted about it.
Even if charms class was a very temporary shield from the latter.