The subsequent days were kind of a blur.

Well, I said "days", but the haziness I felt probably made it a week or so; I wouldn't have noticed a difference anyway. I was stuck in some odd time continuum of emotions. It was a mixture of heartbreak, longing, and yet... something was relieving.

It was the fact that I didn't have to hide anything now, or feel bad about it. As much as I felt for Cedric, it simply wasn't acceptable that I was entertaining those emotions with him for so long. It's not that I suddenly lost all the feelings I had for him, but I couldn't bring myself to act like I wasn't almost living a double life with him. Going to parties, off to fancy dinners, then going back home and remembering who I actually belonged to.

It was draining, to say the least. The day after, I stayed in bed and didn't leave for anything except what was completely necessary, and on Monday Daphne practically dragged me to my classes, which I paid no attention to. Professor McGonagall even ended up asking if I was feeling alright or needed to take a trip to Madam Pomfrey.

That didn't change the fact I was upset, and as much as I tried to hide it, my friends around me took note. It was too difficult trying to hide any sort of heartache, or at least trying to mask it for extended periods of time.

In addition to Daphne and a few other girls I was friends with, Draco caught on. As much as I wouldn't have wanted him to know, he picked it up during our first prefect patrol since I called things off with Cedric. He noticed I was being unusually quiet and absentminded, and then in classes said I was acting the same.

In addition with the... unfortunate moment we shared in the common room where I cried into his shoulder, he seemed to be very in-tune with my emotions. That, or he had just been walking on eggshells ever since that night, probably wanting to know whatever happened. I never told him, after all.

Regardless, Draco was among the first to know something was wrong.

To make matters more complicated, Draco had been an absolute sweetheart in the time I was grieving. It made me feel all the more guilty for having been with Cedric, but juxtaposing, I also felt more relieved that I ended it. It was strange that I could feel polar ends of the spectrum in terms of emotions, but I told myself that it would be balanced out.

Rather unexpectedly, he seemingly brought it upon himself to make me feel better. The only downside was he badgered me multiple times asking why I wasn't well, but every time he asked I just clammed up and said it was a personal issue. He usually stopped asking after that.

Nonetheless, he indeed did his best to try and raise my otherwise low spirits.

The morning after that prefect patrol, I was greeted with a basket outside my door with specialty breakfast foods he'd asked the house elves to prepare; it even came with an espresso made the way that I showed him at home.

He also warded off Theo and Blaise, who had continued to have quite the attitude like they did the night of the Slug Club. Part of me wanted to walk up to them and tell them that their harassing of Cedric worked, but I was too tired or depressed most days to entertain it.

More than once in that time period since, Draco and I had sat in the Slytherin common room together, silently reading or biding time, and he'd made sure to shoo off the boys before they could make any comments that he feared would upset me further.

He even offered to let me take the night off prefect patrols, just so I could get some more rest at night. However, I refused him on that one, despite knowing full well that he would've found a new partner or doubled the ground covered and done it himself if I wanted him to. I took it upon myself to finish my prefect duties; being around him made it easier. I could tell that he was genuinely trying to make me feel better, and it certainly was working. It was a distraction, at least.

I found myself enjoying our conversations more and more, which he tried to make lighthearted in efforts to raise my spirits. (Mostly) gone was the Draco I knew that sat and sulked, or directed the conversations into more depressive moods. In that short time period, his only focus was making me smile. And he succeeded.

"I have a surprise for you once Binns is done yapping," Draco whispered over to me, his individual desk next to mine.

"You do?" I smiled bashfully, but also feeling the ghost of guilt creep over me. "It's really not necessary—"

"Shh, nonsense," he smirked. "I have a feeling you'll like this one."

"You've been doing too much already, I swear, you don't have to be my personal caretaker."

"You're right," he paused, then lowered his voice again, "I don't have to."

He didn't have to say the rest of it; the "I want to" was implied by the cheeky grin on his face. It wasn't malicious, but more so content with himself or with some sense of self-satisfaction.

He sunk back in his seat, scribbling down some notes on what Professor Binns was wrapping up for this lesson. I noticed Blaise at the front of the class look back at us a few times; it wasn't often that Draco would rather sit with me than him, but I couldn't stop him from snatching up the seat next to mine before class even started. Every time I'd came to class, he'd already been there with a smile on his face. That, unfortunately, left Blaise alone and bitter since Theo refused to take Advanced History of Magic.

Binns usually dozed off around halfway through our lectures, but today actually was finishing the lesson. Very slowly. Nonetheless, it meant all the longer I had to wait for whatever Draco's "surprise" was. Every so often I'd look over at him and he'd shoot me a sly grin; it was almost cute, in a boyish way.

After enduring the longest lecture on Grindelwald (and being assigned an obscenely long essay on the material), I felt a tap on my shoulder as I was putting my books away into my bag.

"Hope you're not planning on stealing Draco away again," I turned to find Blaise standing above me, appearing more domineering than he usually does. "He would do well to make time for his real friends every now and then."

"Shove off, Blaise," Draco yawned, inching closer. "We talked about this already."

Blaise glared down at me before his eyes shot back up to Draco. "Then I trust I'll see you at quidditch, captain."

"What was all that about?" I asked cautiously, my eyes glued to the back of Blaise as he walked out of the room.

"He thinks my mind is... elsewhere, lately," he shrugged. "Probably just upset that I've been tending to more important things."

"Have you been neglecting quidditch?" I asked, turning my attention back to him.

"Never. I might've just omitted a practice or two."

"Draco..." a look of concern washed over my face, "really, I'm fine. You're the captain; don't miss practices just because you want to entertain me for the day or sit with me in the common room—"

"Nonsense," he repeated, "now shall I show you what I've got planned?"

As much as I wanted to protest, my instincts got the better of me as I nodded slowly, a grin tugging on my lips which he returned. He bobbed his head in the direction of the door and instructed me to follow him.

I was actually surprised when he brought me to the third floor, outside of Snape's classroom of all places.

"Do you have to talk to Snape or something?" I awkwardly stood outside the doorway, shifting my weight from one foot to the other.

Draco was already inside the classroom, but once he realized I hadn't understood what was going on, he stepped closer to me and gently grabbed my arm, urging me inside.

"Draco, what are we doing?" I looked around, trying to see Snape. "I don't think he's in here right now."

"Precisely," he smirked.

"Don't you think we'll get caught—"

"Relax y/n, don't stress."

I didn't like the feeling of being in a teacher's classroom without the professor in there. It felt... off. Especially since I wasn't used to Snape being the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, everything felt a bit wrong.

I instead focused my attention on Draco, who used his wand to move the desks out of the way and quickly transfiguring a few things to make cushiony, comfortable chairs across from a larger table appear. I opened my mouth to ask what he was doing, but was quickly shut up once he pulled a small, luxurious looking black velvet pouch out of his book bag and plopped it on the table. With a flick of his wand, it grew in size maybe five or six times.

"You'll definitely like— wait; close your eyes," he instructed, before his hand reached into the now, much larger bag.

Reluctantly, I did as he said, only hearing the sound of some rattling and clanking together. Maybe metal? Plastic? No, it was too heavy and dense to be plastic.

"Okay, open them," I heard him say, prompting me to flutter my eyelids, before my vision focused on a series of games, both magical and non-magical, laid out on the large table.

I noticed, among a few others, there was Senet that we played at home, as well Hounds and Jackals which we mentioned we might get to at some point.

"Oh, Draco, this is really quite lovely," a smile beamed across my face as I walked closer to the table and inspected everything that was laid out. I quickly noticed there was Exploding Snap, Wizard's Chess, even muggle checkers and a few other games I didn't know the names of.

"You like it?"

"Very much," I assured, reaching out to squeeze his forearm affectionately. "Thank you, I really appreciate it. You didn't have to do all this, though."

He looked down at my fingers around his arm, and for a second... maybe a tint of red flushed his cheeks? No, it was quite hot in the room and we both had our long robes on. He met my gaze with large pupils and just smiled, much less cheeky than he had earlier in the classroom.

"I'm glad it's to your satisfaction," he smiled before pulling away slightly to gesture to one of the chairs. "Care to join me for a game... or five?"

———

I'd only played Senet with Draco before, but it turned out he was much better at pretty much everything else except Senet, including a few muggle card games which I was not expecting him to even know about. I'd learned about them from friends or between classes, though never having played much.

During our second round of rummy (the first of which I narrowly beat him), he sent for some snacks that we could munch on. An elf from the kitchens came up and brought us something shortly after.

I took note of how Draco interacted with the elf, not just taking the food and leaving. I was waiting for a few minutes as the two chatted before he returned back to the table.

"Didn't know you were so tight with the worker elves," I joked, eating a cracker with some cheese.

He shook his head, laughing a bit. "Not quite. I just... know them from around. Used to work for my family."

"Your father released a house elf?" I asked, surprised that Lucius would ever do something like that.

"Doesn't really matter how, but regardless, one works here now. He checks up on me still if I ever need anything. I make sure to tip," he laid down a few cards, me following suit.

"Whoever he is makes a good espresso."

The ends of his lips tugged up in a smirk, as I referenced the breakfast that Draco had sent over for me some days ago.

"He's gotten good at it. I've been having one every morning with my breakfast."

"Really? Thought it wasn't going to be replacing your tea."

"Lets just say that after a few days, I was missing the coffee."

"Let's go with that," I chuckled, as I looked around the room. "By the way, are you going to tell me why in Merlin's name we're in Snape's classroom? We couldn't have played cards anywhere else?"

"Nowhere else is as fun," he sarcastically replied as I rolled my eyes. "Okay fine, I sneak in here from time to time. Actually, not even sneaking. I just come in here every so often."

"Snape lets you? I knew you were his favorite, but loitering in his room is pushing it," I laid down another card.

"It's not loitering, y/n. It's... important business."

"Right, because rummy and snacking on cheese and crackers are 'important business'," I laughed, him doing the same. His teeth shone bright and white, the smile on his face meeting his eyes. It was nice seeing him so happy for once, and not gloomy all the time.

"Fine, fine. Severus is my godfather. He lets me do whatever I want, within reason. I get free range of most of his knowledge. And classrooms, apparently."

"Ah, that makes sense. I'd heard you two were close but I had no idea it was like that. No wonder you're his golden boy."

"It's the only time I get to play that role," he picked up a card, then laid another down. "Might as well take advantage of it."

The first thing I thought of was Lucius, how he used to adore Draco as a child, when he was just a carbon copy of the senior Malfoy. Recently? Not so much. Maybe he was compensating by clinging onto whatever attention Snape would give him. I didn't want to overanalyze, but I could tell from over the years that Draco and Snape had a close relationship. That might be the reason why, but I didn't want to ask. We had a nice afternoon going and I wasn't going to ruin it.

"So... you come in here a lot then?" I asked, veering the discussion away from what I was actually thinking.

"You could say that. He might not teach it anymore, but Sev is still a master at potions, so if I need something, I'll ask him to whip it up. Or just take the ingredients myself and do it."

"What kind of potions would the famous Draco Malfoy need? Let me guess, something for pranks: itching potion, causing indigestion, inducing vertigo to make someone trip?"

He laughed again, shaking his head. "You think so juvenilely of me. I swear, I've grown up since first year."

"Don't act like you didn't try to put a leg-locker curse on Ron Weasley last year," I laughed.

"That git deserved it! He knocked me off my broom during quid— okay, maybe you're right," he chuckled. "But I've never made a potion for something stupid like that. A jinx maybe, but I wouldn't waste my time on brewing up a prank."

"Enlighten me, then. What kind of potions do you opt for?"

"This and that. Whatever I need."

"Not revealing your secrets?" I laid down a card.

"Never," he followed suit, smirking.

"I doubt Slughorn would let you get away with any of that."

"Hence why I hang out with sponsor Severus," he grinned. "Perks of having him as a godfather, I suppose."

I paused for a second, letting the weight of their relationship sink in. Draco was his godson, yet I'd never seen him around. Maybe his name had been dropped at a family event here or there, but I chalked that up to just discussing teachers of Hogwarts.

I looked back up at him curiously.

"Do you have any idea what he was up to this past summer?"

He cocked an eyebrow. "The same, I'd figure. Whatever Sev gets up to... brewing potions, wreaking havoc on the newspaper boy."

"He wasn't travelling or perhaps gone for something important?"

"Not that I can remember. You ask, why?"

I thought he'd get what I was implying, but clearly not. I'd have to be more blunt.

"He's your godfather. Why wasn't he... at the wedding?"

I noticed Draco stiffen, sitting a bit more tensely in his chair. With a turn of his neck, he flicked the hair over his forehead to the side, making it appear a bit messy in a boyish way.

He cleared his throat before speaking. "You didn't want anyone from school knowing."

"I suppose at the time I didn't," I treaded carefully, hoping not to upset him, "you still told Blaise and Theo."

"That's different," he stated matter-of-factly, "if I'm being honest, they knew way before it even happened. Severus would've been... part of the wedding. I doubt you would've been comfortable seeing him as head usher," he forced a laugh, although clearly insincere.

That was interesting to hear. I'm assuming he told Theo and Blaise once our fathers finalized the agreement then? I couldn't blame him, I told Daphne only shortly after. Still, it didn't make any sense for him to not invite Snape, though, if they had such a close relationship.

He was right in that it would've been a bit strange to see him there, but he's his godfather. It would've been fine. It's not like Snape is a gossip who'd be telling everyone, anyway.

I clicked my tongue and tried to return my attention to the game, which judging by his body language, I could tell he wanted to do the same.

"How are things with them? Blaise and Theo," I mused.

"I wouldn't know," he shrugged.

"You wouldn't?"

"You saw us in class, the common room. I haven't been on the best terms with them. Not while they've been assholes."

"But you share a dorm with Theo. It's not like you can avoid him, maybe Blaise though."

"You can when you're not sleeping in the same room as him."

My eyes almost popped out of my head at that. Had Draco moved out? That was really unnecessary.

"You're not? But that's your room, too," I chided.

"I'm aware. It's just to send a message that he can't treat you—" he sighed, "can't act like that. I've transfigured a bed and am staying with Crabbe and Goyle for the time being."

"I didn't think it was that bad between you and Theo."

"It is. Until he gets his act together, anyway."

"Don't you miss him?" I asked, a bit timidly. The two of them were best friends, I couldn't imagine them being separated for too long.

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I do. A lot, actually."

"You ought to make peace, Draco. It's not fair for you to be caught in the middle of this."

"I don't take kindly to people, even my friends, treating... certain people like shit. Especially when he keeps saying it's no big deal and can't tell me what's wrong."

I wanted to avoid the subject as much as possible; I wouldn't be telling him what the issue was between us. I could circle back to Snape? Whatever it took to get off this subject. I wasn't letting up.

We had a short gap between speaking, but neither of us made the silence awkward. It was necessary to flush out the subject matter to something else.

"If you're so close with Snape, how do you feel about Slughorn? Better or worse professor?"

He grimaced jokingly. "Worse professor, better personality."

"I've seen you in Slughorn's; pretty high marks. Even if he doesn't let you loiter around," I laid down another card.

He scoffed with a half grin on his lips. "Right back at you. Still, Sluggy doesn't have that... je ne sais quoi. Severus does."

"You're just saying that since you didn't get invited to the Slug Club," I teased jokingly.

"Like I'd want to go to that club, rubbing elbows with lesser people of lower houses. The thought scares me," he chuckled.

I somehow doubted he was joking, though. There were a few muggleborns, half-bloods, people from different houses. Not quite the people he would typically associate with.

"Your friends were missing you, to say the least."