foxfire [draco malfoy]

fourteen

drunken nights, shitty days

Foxfire woke up to an empty sofa, and a burnt out fire. Her head was pounding from all the drinks she had consumed the night before, and she couldn't quite remember how she had gotten to the room of requirement. On top of all that, she was seemingly late to class. She quickly scrambled herself together, using a dusty old mirror to fix her knotted up hair. Not only did she not have any of her course work, she didn't have her books, either. So she ran out of the room of requirement and hurried to the Hufflepuff corridors, only to find herself bumping right into one of the last people she would have wanted to see at this moment. "Late for something, Miss Cate?" The dreadful voice rung above her head.

"Sorry, Professor Snape. I woke up late." She let out a sigh, feeling her head intensify with the throbbing.

"Did you also seem to forget your robes?" He asked, looking at her clothes from the party last night. She looked down, and realized there was no way she'd get out of this now. "Go." He finally said, cutting her some slack for once. Which felt suspicious, as Snape was never one to be lenient. But, by the way he acted, it was clear he had other more important things to tend to, and Foxfire just wasn't worth his time.

"Thank you, Professor." She responded, relieved, and rushing on her way to her room. She ran up the stairs and threw on her robe, not even bothering to change her clothes underneath, as she was already late enough. She grabbed her bag, and ran back down the staircase and through the hall, all the way to Slughorn's classroom. She entered abruptly, to see all the students faces turning, and staring directly at her, making her social anxiety intensify. Draco's look, especially. Slughorn slowly turned around and smiled.

"You made it, I see, Miss Cate!" He announced, seeming to not be as mad as she had thought he'd be. But that was Slughorn, an easy going professor who knew that students were still people, and made mistakes.

"I'm so sorry I'm late, I uh, woke up feeling really sick and I spent all morning trying to feel better." She lied.

"Well, that's all right. As long as it's nothing contagious." He joked, clearly perfectly fine with the tardiness.

"No, I'm okay now." She let out a deep breath, feeling relaxed for once this morning. I guess it was her day for a pass. She walked over to Kat and stood by her side, Draco watching her carefully.

"Where the hell were you?" Kat asked in a whisper, sounding angry. "I was worried, are you okay?" She proceeded to ask, noticing Foxfire looked a mess.

"I'm fine. Just hungover." Foxfire told her, annoyed and not wanting to speak about it anymore. Kat shrugged it off and decided to let it go. Draco on the other hand, couldn't help but stare over at her. As they were getting ready to begin a new potion, Foxfire walked over to the supplies cabinet, searching for witchgrass, when Draco approached beside her.

"You okay?" he asked, looking at her with only his eyes, trying to make it not so obvious that they were talking.

"I'm fine, why?" She seemed confused.

"Do you not remember anything from last night?" He continued, now realizing she must not have.

"I uh, remember the party, sort of. I woke up in the room of requirement though, that I do not recall." She whispered back, looking around to make sure no one else was listening in or even noticing as they continued to rummage around the cabinet.

"So you don't remember seeing me?" He asked, as she looked over at him, confused and wanting him to explain more. "You fell asleep on the sofa. I woke you up this morning around six but you said you'd be fine to miss breakfast so I just assumed you'd get up shortly after. Plus I didn't think you'd want anyone to see us walking out of there together."

"Please tell me nothing happened, right?" She asked, worried for the sake of her dignity. "I don't drink often and when I do, I tend to uh, do stupid things."

"I think we all tend to do stupid things when we're drunk." He laughed a little. She continued to stare at him, waiting for an answer. "But no, you didn't do anything stupid." He smirked, looking back at the ingredients, still keeping up the facade. Which it wasn't a total lie, but what she did, in his mind, wasn't stupid. And he didn't want her to feel embarrassed.

"Oh, thank god. I am never drinking again." She laughed as he smirked at her again. She looked over to him, wishing she hadn't made a fool of herself, considering she assumed she did. "So hey, um, Slughorn's having this Christmas party thing tomorrow night and I was just wondering if you'd maybe want to go with me?" She asked, nervously. She wanted him to know that she wasn't embarrassed to be seen with him, and she would just tell her friends the truth, hoping they'd understand. He grew quiet, as he wanted to, but he had a mission that he couldn't avoid.

"I don't think that's a good idea, Foxfire. You know your friends over there wouldn't exactly approve." He claimed, only hurting himself in the process, as it was hard being the guy someone's friends wouldn't approve of, yet his hardened exterior tried to conceal his soft spot he held deep inside. But he had to find some excuse to not let her or himself get too attached, even though they both knew that deep down, they were already in too deep. And he knew what he had to do soon, and she couldn't be involved. Foxfire looked down, disappointed, but not surprised.

"Fox! Come on!" Kat shouted, interrupting the two, and waiting for the last ingredient they needed.

"I'll see you around." Foxfire said, quietly, with a crack in her voice, as she turned and walked away.