Chapter Text
Snape had allowed both boys to leave since he saw them hug, and had decided that they had made up already. Draco, naturally, rushed out as fast as possible, and so did Potter.
Apparently Potter wasn’t the best at reading a room, because he decided to follow Draco and walk side by side with him. It was dark, so everyone was already either eating lunch or in their rooms for the night, taking this into consideration Draco decided to walk back to his common room so Potter wouldn’t follow him since he knew Potter had not eaten dinner yet.
Potter kept walking with him, and Draco was starting to get both confused and nervous, so he slowly stopped. Potter stopped too, and he kind of looked over at him, but he couldn’t look directly at his face, as if he was ashamed of something.
“Aren’t you supposed to go eat in the great hall?” Draco asked sheepishly. Potter shrugged, “Well, yeah… I guess. I mean, you aren’t going to eat either.” Potter pointed out.
The conversation was a bit awkward, and Draco was fighting hard with himself to get up the courage to ask what exactly Potter wanted. “Well… I already ate a lot earlier, and I’m not really that hungry.” Draco said quietly.
Potter made a face, “No you didn’t, you barley ate at all, just some cereal at breakfast… And I’m not that hungry either.” Draco was about to retort, but he stopped himself. How in the bloody hell did Potter know that he hadn’t ate much? Was he actually watching him eat, and closely enough to remember what he had ate?
There was a long pause, in which Potter slowly seemed to realize his mistake and he began blushing hard. “Um… What?” Draco asked, hoping that Potter would magically come up with some kind of excuse for his weird comment which heavily implied that he was the cause of Draco feeling watched during breakfast.
“I… Just happened to look over.” Potter mumbled quietly, aiming his eyes towards the floor as he did so. Draco tried to meet his eyes for the first time in almost two years, but Potter refused to look at him, so he started walking again, silently.
Potter, even after being blatantly embarrassed of his actions, surprisingly followed him again. Draco didn’t know what was going on, so he walked down one more hall and then stopped again, “So, Potter… Why exactly are you following me again?” Draco finally got up the courage to ask.
Potter froze and finally looked at him, pausing as though he was trying to find a good excuse, “Oh, I don’t know. Um, Snape just said I had to before I could go to dinner, because I was the one that started the fight earlier today and he let me off easy.” He finally settled on an answer, obviously a fake one.
Draco just nodded and continued to walk without further comment while he figured out what to say or do. It wasn’t long before he reached the Slytherin dorms, and he paused awkwardly in front of the entrance, “Ok. I’m going to go sleep now… bye.”
Potter have him a weird look, “You aren’t going to eat dinner?” He asked, “I’m just not hungry, I guess.” Draco said, trying to brush off the comment. “But you never eat a normal amount.” Potter, again, immediately sensed his mistake and looked towards the ground in a snapping motion to attempt to avoid anymore awkward questions.
There was a long pause. “…Potter. Have you really been watching me eat?” Draco asked, frowning. Potter looked towards anywhere but Draco, “No, I just… Um, well, I don’t really have an excuse, actually…” Potter’s sentence trailed off, leaving the boys in yet another minute of awkward silence.
Draco took a deep, disappointed sounding breath and opened the door to his common room. “Goodnight, Potter.” He said tersely.
***
Draco couldn’t forget about how awkward and weird his conversation with Potter was. He stressed about it all night until he had to get out of bed and go for a walk to clear his head, rid his mind of thoughts about Potter casually watching everything he ate… for whatever odd, strange, weird reason.
He snuck out of his common room and went to the astronomy tower to feel the cool breeze of the night air through his silk, cropped pajama set. He had been made fun of before for wearing a cropped pajama top, but he like to feel free in clothes as simple as pajamas.
He tried to push the awkward thoughts of Potter out of his skull, and in the process he remembered the things he yelled when they fought. One thing really stood out to him, somewhere in his choppy memory of cut off sentences he tried hard not to hear, he remembered him saying, “It’s not fair that you’re like this! When you first came up to me, you got my hopes up.” Which Draco assumed translated to, “when you first approached me, I thought we were going to be friends.”
He brushed that thought away too, leaned against the wall with his back facing the open air of the astronomy tower. Draco closed his eyes and took in a lung full of cool, fresh night air, and when he opened them he nearly jumped out of his skin.
Potter stood in front of him, barley five feet away. “Potter?! Salazar’s balls! What in the bloody hell are you doing here?!” Draco whisper shouted, clutching his chest as he felt his heart beat rapidly with surprise and shock.
Potter blushed, “I was going for a night walk. I didn’t mean to scare you.” Draco made a face that suggested a scoff was coming, but they both paused when they heard flinch call out, asking who was up so late.
Draco’s eyes widened and he looked at Potter, who rushed over to him and threw his cloak over them both. They crept to the entrance hall leading out of the astronomy tower and down the hall, where they passed Flinch with their hands over their mouths as to not make a sound.
They wandered a safe distance away Draco tried to take the cloak off, but Potter stopped him by lightly grabbing his wrist and pulling him back under, way too close if you asked Draco, “It’s not safe to be out there anymore, I’ll walk you back to your common room.”
Draco frowned, but Potter grabbed his wrist and took him back just like he said he would. Once they were safely back, Draco got out from under the cloak and entered the common room, leaving Potter and the awkwardness that followed him behind.