draco malfoy sat in the slytherin common room, legs folded beneath himself on the leather couch as he eyed pansy and blaise, who were seated across from him. they both looked flustered and draco was anything but skeptical. he knew what was going on between them.

"you two matched on seekr, didn't you?" he asked slowly, tapping his fingertips against the armrest on the side of the couch closest to him.

pansy blushed and blaise chose to look anywhere but at her. or draco.

"you can tell?"

"obviously. the both of you look like a couple of secondary schoolers who've just been caught close-mouthed kissing at a school dance." the blond rolled his stormy grey eyes.

"that's very specific, draco," pansy joined in. "did that happen to you?"

"pans, darling, you really are a tool. we've been coming here since we were eleven, and prior to that, you know i was independently studying at home." draco rolled his eyes.

"oh, alright... well, have you had any matches yet, draco?" the pug-faced girl asked and his expression faltered. he could not tell them about potter. every time he and the gryffindor spoke, he deleted their messages immediately afterwards.

"i had one." he said quickly.

"really? who?" blaise became interested.

"was it a slytherin? oh god, please tell me she wasn't a gryffindor..." pansy queried.

"she was a slytherin," draco said easily, because it really had been someone from his own house. she'd just been in a lower year. "it was astoria greengrass."

"daphne's sister?" blaise's eyes were wide. "you matched with daphne's sister?"

"oh, wouldn't they just make the cutest couple!" pansy exclaimed, jumping off of her and blaise's couch to wrestle draco, kissing his cheek in exaggeration.

"hush, pansy, you know daphne will kill me if she hears." draco pleaded, pushing the dark-haired girl off of him.

"oh, what would she care? i hear she's been off snogging nott." the girl rolled her eyes.

"what?" draco was genuinely surprised by this. theodore nott was in their grade and draco knew for a fact that that boy was as gay as himself. he'd kissed him enough times to be well aware of it.

"yeah, they matched like two weeks ago and have been inseparable since." pansy explained and draco frowned. then again, he'd failed to notice theo's absence as he'd been distracted by potter. he guessed it wasn't really that much of a big deal, but it did still hurt. he could've sworn theo was gay.