分卷阅读19（2 / 2）

Potter looks surprised.

Draco already hates himself. He’s not supposed to be doing this. “Tomorrow. Come back tomorrow, I mean.” His heart’s beating loudly in his chest, and he swallows, tries to steady his voice. “You have that cloak of yours.”

And he doesn’t know what it is that he said, but Potter’s smiling, and god, it sucks how much he’d missed that smile. His head still hurts, but he finds himself smiling back anyway.

“Okay. After dinner.”

Potter leaves, and Draco thinks, No. No, no, no, no, no.

Chapter 3

At breakfast the next day, Harry is back to shamelessly seeking out that blond hair. He’s relieved to see Draco at the Slytherin table, looking well and talking with some of the seventh years. He’s so engrossed that he doesn’t notice the girl behind him, not until Ron elbows him quite harshly in the stomach.

“Oof!” he exclaims, at the same time a quiet, lilting voice says, “Harry?”

Harry completely forgets about glaring at Ron and whips around in surprise.

A girl, tall and with brown hair falling down to her waist in soft curls, looks at him nervously. Around them, the people nearest are starting to whisper, watching with bated breath and wondering why a Slytherin would talk to Harry Potter.

“Hi, I’m Astoria.”

Harry knows. He glares at the fourth year Ravenclaws on the other table whispering just a tad bit too loudly. With a sigh, he turns back to Astoria. “Hi, Astoria. You’re Daphne’s sister.”

Astoria relaxes, knowing that she doesn’t have to introduce herself after all. “Yes.” She glances at Harry’s already empty plate. “If it’s alright, can I talk with you?”

He glances at Ron beside him, who just shrugs before returning to his breakfast, and then at Hermione across from him, who smiles at Astoria in greeting, before turning to Harry and nudging her chin towards the door. “Go on, then. We’ll save you a seat in Professor Slughorn’s class.”

Harry smiles at her gratefully. He stands up and motions towards the door. There are too many people watching here. He hates it. “Mind if we take a walk?”

Harry already knows what they’re going to talk about. They walk out towards the entrance courtyard, but there are still students milling around, killing time before their first class, and so they walk towards the boathouse instead.

Astoria ploughs on without preamble. “Draco told me about what happened last night.”

Harry doesn’t know what to feel with the knowledge of Draco and Astoria being close enough that she can call him by his first name and that he had already told her of what had transpired last night. “Oh.”