"Where are you off to, Vitelli?"

Malfoy rounded the couch of the Slytherin common room where I had been sitting reading a book for an hour or so. However, I had just gotten a note from Granger saying that she needed to see me immediately.

"To see our Head Girl. She has some job for me, I'm assuming." I didn't mind doing patrols at night (especially since Draco had been skipping most of them lately), but every so often she'd ask me to do an odd job for her that randomly came up and she couldn't handle herself.

"I got the same instruction," he mused, holding up a slip of parchment. I tried to get a better look at it, and realized her owl had sent me the same message he held in his hands.

"Terrific," I sarcastically rolled my eyes. "Let's hope Granger has something extra tedious for you to attend to."

"Can you just tell me where the head girl dorm is? I've wasted enough breath on you as it is," he huffed.

"You don't know where it is?" I snorted. "I thought you had the intel on everything in this castle."

"Just point me in its direction and I'll do the rest," he mocked, throwing the parchment message on the couch, frustrated.

I picked up my bag that was resting on the seat next to me and cocked my head in the direction of the door. "Come on, I'm headed over anyway. I'll show you if you don't act like such a prick on the way there."

"I'll do my very best to control myself," he sarcastically replied.

I groaned and made my way out of the common room with Draco trailing behind me. He eventually caught up so we were side by side once we started making our way to the upper levels of the castle.

"The Head Boy and Girl are real lucky they get private dorms, all for just making other people do their own damn work," he huffed.

"Maybe you should've tried for Head Boy then," I snorted. "Get your own dorm far away from the rest of us in civil society."

"Come on, Vitelli. Don't act like you wouldn't love having a room all to yourself. It must get tiresome listening to Greengrass babble on incessantly."

"Daphne happens to be my best friend, actually; I love her company. No doubt you can't say the same, what with your... friend group being not nearly so riveting."

"Don't pretend like you know anything about my personal business, Vitelli."

"You forget that I'm friends with Theo, so yes, I unfortunately do."

"Forget?" he became suddenly a bit more animated, eyes widening and tone rising. "How could I forget when you— never mind. How much farther are these dorms?" he changed the subject, shaking his head.

I wanted to ask about what he was referring to, but I didn't bother. The less I had to interact with Malfoy was better for me.

I ignored his question and simply quickened my pace. After a short while of leading him to the dorms, we stood across from a painting of a young girl holding a basket of fruit.

"Password?" the young girl asked, causing Draco to jump back and let out a quick shriek.

"Merlin! Real children are bad enough, now I have to deal with this?" he ran his hand over his tie, straightening it out after the fright he just had.

I smacked his chest annoyedly and he yielded back, again. "You act like you've never seen a moving portrait before."

"Of course I have. She just... surprised me," he shivered.

"Sorry, honey," I apologized sweetly to the girl in the painting. "My partner here is... difficult. Could we just let the Head Girl know we're here?"

The little girl's eyes narrowed on me for a second, before lighting up happily. "Wait! I remember you! You complimented my dress once, and then my hat another time! Did you forget the password?"

I smiled and shook my head. "I remember it, I just don't think the Head Girl would like for him to know what the password to her common room is."

Draco stood with his arms crossed over his chest like a child. "I'm right here, Vitelli."

"Good," I deadpanned before looking back to the painting.

"I know I'm not supposed to break the rules, but you can come on in. It's nice to see you again!" the little girl laughed, opening the entrance.

Draco tailed me closely, almost too close for comfort. "Merlin that child is creepy. And I thought the Bloody Baron was scary..." he shivered.

"Man up, Malfoy," I almost chuckled, amused by how unnerved he was just by a little girl painting. I thanked her and she allowed us to enter.

We walked inside to see the common room of the Head Boy and Girl, which I had become most familiar with in the past week.

The common room was much smaller than a regular common room, but was decent enough with a large couch, a few chairs and tables, a fireplace, and some other functional amenities. On the left side of the room was a small doorway leading to the Head Girl suite, and on the right was a similar doorway for the Head Boy.

Draco gawked around, obviously never having stepped foot in here.

"So this is what this place looks like," he murmured, before his eyes landed on me walking over to the left doorway to find Hermione. I knocked. "A bit big just for one person, though."

I turned my head to look back at him. "It's for the both—"

"Finally, you two are here," Granger exhaled in a relieved manner and brushed past me, locking her door with some wandless magic.

As much as I didn't really like Granger, the poor thing looked so stressed. She was carrying a pile of books, her hair was frizzy and she had bags under her eyes. No doubt she had been studying the night away, in true Granger fashion, but I still felt some remorse for her.

"I'm so sorry to have to call you in at this odd time," she half-heartedly apologized while flipping through one of her books. She plopped it down on the table and began rummaging through the pages.

"Get to it, Granger. What is it you'll order us around to do?" Malfoy asked annoyedly.

She looked up at us and ran a hand through her knotty, tousled hair. "I'm really sorry... I know it's the weekend, but I need you two to run an errand for me."

As much as I dreaded that would be the case, I tried not to look like I was all that upset. She was my Head Girl, after all, and any order she gave I would have to listen to. It's why I took the job of prefect; to do these little things if needed. It didn't exactly fill me with excitement to do Granger's bidding, but if I had to then so be it.

"Slughorn has ordered in a new batch of potions books since the ones we have currently are quite dated. They've just come in at Tomes and Scrolls this morning... I would go pick them up myself, but I have other things to attend to."

"So you're just sending us off to be your delivery people? Granger, we can hire people for this sort of thing," Malfoy mused.

Granger rolled her eyes. "Yes, Malfoy. That's your job as a prefect, to do things for this school. Now if you two don't mind, I need to head off immediately for a pre-arranged meeting," she answered, frantically shoving books into her bag like she was losing time in some sort of race.

"Why can't you have the Head Boy do it? What's he up to that's so—"

"Speak of the devil, Malfoy," Cedric opened the door to his room and entered, almost as if on cue. He had a smirk playing on his lips before his eyes shifted and landed on mine. "Y/n, oh! Wasn't expecting to see you here," he briskly walked over to give me a side hug. He grinned down at me. "Was the painting excited to see you again?"

I chuckled, turning my head to avoid him seeing the blush on my face. "Yes, she was. It was so sweet, she let us in without the passw—"

"Ahem," Malfoy loudly coughed. "I'd hate to break up this touching reunion, but I think we have something to do, Vitelli."

"Since when are you so willing to take orders from your Head Girl, Malfoy?" Cedric mused, his voice laced with a ghost of a laugh.

Draco rolled his eyes. "Since I decided I want to get this over with as soon as possible. Come on, y/n," he huffed, brushing between Cedric and I to break our contact apart.

I groaned. "I'm sorry about that... Hermione, I'll make sure we bring those over to Slughorn. Cedric, I'll see you soon."

He grinned and walked me to the door, waving me off politely.

As I was bidding Cedric goodbye, I looked behind me to notice that Draco was already halfway up the corridor. Embarrassingly, I had to almost run to catch up with him.

"Malfoy! Merlin, wait!" I called out for him as I finally met up with him.

His long legs allowed for him to take long strides, ones that my shorter self simply couldn't match up with. For every step he took, I was taking two.

"You could have at least waited for me, Malfoy," I huffed, trying to catch my breath from the small sprint I just endured.

"Wait for what? Your snog-fest with Diggory to end?"

"'Snog-fest'? All we did was have a simple, human interaction. I know that's a difficult concept for you to grasp."

"You know, I was wondering why you knew where the Head dorm was, that it was for both of them, how that painting knew you... I should have figured it was because you sneak off with your lover to his private suite."

"Would you quit it with that? We're just friends, Malfoy. End of story. The sooner you stop harassing me about that, the better."

"The sooner you stop acting like a slut with that half-blooded Hufflepuff the better! Associate yourself with people of your own caliber for once!"

I pulled him back by his forearm so abruptly in the middle of his stride that I could've given him whiplash. I pulled him to me, with him slightly hunched over so that we were making serious eye contact, and although he still towered over me in height, I clearly was dominant in our mutual gaze. I must have looked furious, my eyebrows narrowed together and gaze deadly.

"What did you just call me?"

"I, uh—" he choked out, clearly surprised that I plucked up the courage to confront him about it. "I didn't call you anything," he gulped anxiously, trying to regain his composure.

"You didn't?" I deadpanned. "You called me a slut."

He shook me off of him, standing up straighter and looking like he regained some confidence. "I didn't call you a slut, I said you were acting like one."

"The implication is the same, prick," I shoved at his chest, not enough to actually hurt him, but just let him know that I was serious. He was pushed back a couple steps.

"If I thought you were a slut, I would have said so clearly. I know what one looks like, and you have been acting like one."

"Am I not allowed to speak with any males anymore?"

He crossed his arms over this chest and peered down at me, looking more domineering than he had the entire conversation. He glared at me, narrowing his grey eyes to look like a storm was brewing.

"Don't make me answer that, Vitelli. You won't like the answer."

———

A/N: Hey besties! Apologies for this being on the shorter side. The Hogsmeade/book patrol will be kind of pivotal in making their relationship less hostile, so it will be much longer and (finally) will have some more wholesome y/n + Draco moments!!

ps... I have the special event coming up for the two of them in a couple chapters!