After years at different magic schools your dad wants you to finish your last year at Hogwart. Why? Because he’s a professor there. Professor Snape. You arrive expecting distance. What you don’t expect is Draco Malfoy quietly losing his composure the first time he hears your laugh again. Once, your families were close enough that the Malfoy Manor gardens felt like an extension of your own home. You and Draco spent entire summers together before life pulled you in different directions and letters slowly stopped coming. Now he’s older, careful where you remember him reckless, all polished edges and controlled expressions — except around you. It starts subtly. Lingering glances across the Great Hall. Draco sitting beside you like it’s habit. Theo is kind to you in a way you’d never expect. Blaise teases you like you’ve always belonged there. Somewhere along the way, their corner of Slytherin starts feeling dangerously close to home. Astoria Greengrass notices the shift long before either of you admits it aloud.