Under the Willow Tree | Draco Malfoy

chapter 48: you can't hog my best friend

Lorelei Jones | 5th Year

After sleeping in as long as possible that morning, Lorelei made her way to breakfast by herself. Draco had been taking a shower, and she didn't want to disturb his time getting ready — and she had wanted to change back into own clothes — so she left without him. She would give him back his clothes later because now she was wearing a soft pink jumper with a pair of soft denim jeans that her Gran had gotten for her over the summer after getting ready in her own dorm .

Lorelei approached the Hufflepuff table and waved to roommates, who she hadn't seen since supper the night before, but they looked away and didn't say anything. Since they had heard of her falling out with Draco, they had gone back to being distracted and not noticing her very much.

At least, that's what Lorelei told herself. She didn't like to think that they were ignoring her.

Lorelei set her things down at the table and was about to take her seat when she felt someone come up behind her. She twisted her head and grinned when she saw it was Draco and Theo. They both smiled at her before their eyes flickered over to her roommates. Lorelei followed their stare and was surprised to see her roommates were paying a bit more attention now.

Ashley's voice came out shaky as she greeted, "Oh, uh, hi, Lorelei."

"Good morning, Lorelei," Heather said as she stared at her lap with wide eyes.

"Did you sleep well?" Emily coughed.

Lorelei beamed at how wonderfully this day was going already. She said good morning to each of them and told Emily she slept wonderfully. Lorelei plopped into her seat with a wide grin, believing her roommates were just more awake now and had processed her kind smile a little late. She was completely unaware of the venomous stares from the two boys behind her.

Theo and Draco took seats on either side of her as she loaded up her plate with food. She grabbed a muffin, and then handed a second to Theo. He carefully took it and said, "Thank you, angel."

Lorelei's right hand was resting in her lap as she ate with her left. She tried not to jump when Draco's cold fingers interlocked with hers under the table. She moved her fingers to rest against his hand instinctively. Draco's thumb glided over the back of her hand as he ate, and her cheeks flushed scarlet in response.

The little smile she couldn't contain wasn't missed by Draco. He smiled smugly to himself as he ate his eggs and toast.

Lorelei ate very slowly that morning — not because she was self-conscious, but rather, she was very distracted. The thumb rubbing small circles onto her hand drew her attention from her food, as did Theo's light-hearted conversation and the way Draco's slightly damp, silvery blond strands fell into his eyes. She really wanted to fix it for him, but she wasn't sure if he'd like her to do that. Especially because it would mean that she'd have to let go of his hand, and she wouldn't want that either.

Someone dropped a plate rather aggressively on the table across from Lorelei, and she flinched involuntarily. She relaxed when she saw that it was Pansy. The black haired girl eyed Draco suspiciously before she grinned at Lorelei and said to Theo, "I missed the memo that we're eating at the 'puff table today. Would have been nice to know ahead of time. It's hard to see in here."

"It was more a spur of the moment thing," Theo said and stuffed the last of his muffin into his mouth.

He gave Pansy a tired smile when she frowned at his animalistic eating. "You have crumbs all over your face, Nott."

Theo's cheeks grew pink as he used the sleeves of his robes to brush away the debris. He looked up at her after with his eyebrows lifted in question. She scanned his face and then gave him a wordless thumbs up. She slightly smiled to herself as Theo tried to cover up his embarrassment by shoving forkfuls of eggs into his mouth.