“What is it, Flint? I’m rather busy,” Draco spat at me with a bored voice. He didn’t even look at me.

“It’s about this stupid note, Malfoy,” I spat back, trying to keep up with him. His long legs were carrying him faster than my shorter ones could carry me. I mean seriously, why couldn’t I be at least four inches taller? I was just a measly five foot seven, while Draco was most likely six foot. “Slow down!” I cried, tugging on his shirt sleeve.

He stopped and turned towards me. “What, Flint?”

I took a second to catch my breath. “This,” I breathed, holding up the note in his face.

“What about it?” he asked, not breaking eye contact to look at it.

“What in the bloody hell did you mean by it?” I asked, feeling the warmth on my cheeks, but so not wanting to break the eye contact.

“I meant exactly what I wrote. Jeez, Flint, what more of an explanation do you need?”

“Are you really with Pansy?” I asked, not meaning that to be the first question out of my mouth.

He looked away. “Why? You jealous?”

I rolled my eyes. “Of course not, Malfoy. I just can’t understand why you would even write this in the first place. We have nothing going on. Besides, I didn’t care whether you kept that stupid picture or not. Why would I need to know that you were leading me on? Yeah, I was surprised by your actions in the library, but they didn’t mean anything to me,” I took in a breath so my voice wouldn’t waver as I kept on lying. “I also don’t care if you’re dating Parkinson. She’s just a whore anyway, which is most likely the reason why you’re dating her in the first place.”

“What does that mean?” Draco jerked his head back to me, but didn’t close the distance between us as he did before.

I shrugged. “You’re about as deep as a puddle, Malfoy,” I turned and started walking away. “I don’t that won’t ever change.”

“Flint!” he called, but it didn’t stop me. “I’m not going out with Pansy! Alright?”

I smirked before turning back to him, and he closed the distance that I had put between us. “Why did you lie?” I asked as our eyes locked once again.

He shrugged and looked down, but I reached out and moved his face back to face me with my hand. “I guess I just thought I owed you an explanation, okay? I just added that I was dating her because I didn’t want you to come after me.”

“Come after you? Do you not know me at all?” I smirked once more and removed my hand. “We did grow up together after all.”

“No, I don’t know you, Court. You’ve changed quite a bit since we’ve been friends,” he then broke into a smile. “You’ve changed for the better,” he said gently as he took his fingers and moved a piece of hair behind my ear. “I’ve changed a lot since then as well, you know.”

I nodded. “Yes, but the true you is still in there, somewhere deep inside,” I smiled and tapped his chest. “I know the real you, and the real you would never like Pansy. Not for a second.”

“God knows that’s the truth,” he said as his hand finally moved away from my face. “Well, I’ve got to go. See you around.”

“Yeah,” I nodded, watching him walk away. “See you.”

I then turned and ran up to the astronomy tower, where I was supposed to be. I was late for Divination because I had to talk to him. I was glad that I had chosen to talk to him though. It brought out the Draco that I had grew up with, even if it was only for just a few minutes. It was worth it.

“Where have you been?” Kamrynn whispered to me as I sat down in my usual seat. “You were supposed to meet me in the common room, but you didn’t show.”

“I had something to take care of,” I said, not even looking at her, but trying to catch up with what Trelawney was saying.

“It doesn’t have to do with Draco does it? Because you two were like staring each other down all during dinner last night,” Kamrynn had whispered once again.

I sighed and looked over at her. “Yes, it had to do with Draco, but I’ll fill you in on everything later. Okay?”

“I’m holding you to that.”

And she did. As soon as we were in the Great Hall for lunch, she attacked me with questions. Ron joined us mid conversation. He was so confused about what we were talking about, but when he finally figured it out, he wasn’t shy to voice his opinion.

“Courtney, you can’t be serious, can you? I mean, Draco Malfoy? Damn bloody Malfoy. You can’t possibly have feelings for him. I don’t care if he showed kindness for just five seconds. You cannot like him,” he had stopped eating (for once!). “No, you’re forbidden to like him.”

“Forbidden, am I?” I narrowed my eyes at him. “And what makes you think you can forbid me? What are you my father?”

“I might as well be while you’re in school because, obviously, you need some guidance,” he said in all seriousness.

I sighed. “Well, you can’t, alright? I don’t need another person to tell me what to do. You’re just my friend, okay, Ron?”

“That’s one for Hot Badass girls, but still one for Ron,” he smiled at me and began to eat his food once again. “You’ve made up your mind, I guess I’ll just be unhappy with it.”

I started laughing then. “I wasn’t even talking about liking him. We were just talking about him, Ronald. Gosh, you jump to conclusions so easily.”

“Yes, Ron. You have got to learn to listen to the full conversation,” Kamrynn teased before taking a sip of her pumpkin juice.

“But I wasn’t here for the whole conversation!” he protested, food flying out of his mouth.

I popped a grape in my mouth. “Well, then. Perhaps you shouldn’t just jump in on a conversation unless you’re absolutely sure of what’s going on.”

With that said, I grabbed my bag and Ron’s hand before making my way to Potions class with Kamrynn right behind us. It was obvious that he wasn’t watching the time, so I had to make sure he knew when to be in class. We sat down in our usual spots. Draco came into the room with a nod and a smile in my direction. I waved at him while he sat down.

“You so have got it bad for him,” Ron smirked at me.

I elbowed him in the side. “Shut it, Ronald.”

We actually managed to complete the potion without making a mess of everything because of me being distracted. I was distraction free that day. I didn’t have any trouble with anything until I got to History of Magic, where Binns called Draco and me to his desk at the beginning of class.

“You two have not completed the proper amount of work for us having been in school for almost a month. You should have some idea of how your paper is going to go. You have only handed in notes on the beginning of the Goblin Rebellion. I need for you to know your subject thoroughly by now. Miss Flint,” he directed it towards me, “I know that you have the drive and the will power to get through this. Mr. Malfoy,” he looked at him with much grief, “you have zero drive to do anything that involves my class. I thought at least when you two were paired together that she would rub off on you just a little, but it appears to have been the opposite way around. So, you two have an outline of your paper by next week, or I add a second project. One week is all you have, do you hear me?”

“Yes, sir,” I said and then nudged Draco, who mumbled the same under his breath.

After class, I caught Draco and made plans to meet with him after classes the next day. We needed to get a jump start on it or we would fall even more behind. I can’t believe that I let my feelings for him get in the way of my grade. I just needed to suck it up and get on with it.

Needless to say, he stood me up that next day. So, I stopped him on the way into Potions class. I was a little pissed, so he tried to steer clear of me, but I caught him but the edge of his robe. He wasn’t going to get away that easily.

“What the hell is your problem, Flint?” he asked, trying to pull his robes out of my grip.

“You,” I spat, pulling on it and he walked closer to me, not wanting to rip his clothing. “What the bloody hell was your problem last night? We were supposed to meet and work on our History project, but you blew me off. Is there something more important than your grade, Malfoy?”

“Look,” he said as his hand slipped over mine and pulled it off of his robes, but he didn’t let go right away, “There are some things in life that are more important than school.”

“Like what?” I asked, my eyes glancing from his eyes to his lips and back up. “I don’t think that there is anything in your life that is more important than school, especially if you’re staying at a boarding school such as this.”

“You wouldn’t understand even if I told you. We’ll meet tomorrow right after class, okay? I promise to be there this time,” he said, getting a little closer. I could feel his warm breath on my lips. “I promise, okay?”

“Pinky promise?” I smirked, taking my hand and pushing him away slightly so I could offer him my pinky. We used to pinky promise all the time when we were little. If we pinky promised, it meant that you could hurt the other person that broke the promise. It meant that there was hardly ever a promise that was broken.

He looked at it for a second. “Isn’t that a little childish?”

I shook my head. “I think it’s perfect. What do you say?”

“Alright,” he said, wrapping his pinky around mine. “I pinky promise.”