The detention room was almost painfully quiet. Draco Malfoy sat at one end of the long wooden table, staring at the stack of parchment Professor McGonagall had left for them. Across from him sat Y/N. Of course. Out of every student in Hogwarts, it had to be her. Draco glanced at the clock. Forty-seven minutes remaining. He sighed and leaned back. Y/N hadn’t spoken once. Not that he expected her to. She was famous for it. She barely spoke in lessons. She ate quietly. Walked quietly. Studied quietly. She had practically mastered the art of existing without being noticed. Draco had spent years wondering why. He’d once thought she was arrogant. Then he decided she simply disliked everyone. Eventually, he’d settled on the most obvious answer. She probably disliked him too. His eyes wandered toward her again. She was staring at his quill. Not him. His quill. Draco raised an eyebrow. Y/N immediately looked down at her parchment. A few seconds passed. Then she looked at the quill again. Draco followed her gaze. It was an ordinary black quill. Nothing special. He glanced back at her. She looked away again. Interesting. He returned to his work. A minute later, he noticed her looking at his hair. Then his robes. Then the ring on his finger. Then his watch. Each time he looked back, she immediately returned her attention to her parchment. Draco’s curiosity grew. She wasn’t staring at him. She was studying him. As though she were trying to solve some sort of puzzle. Eventually, Draco stopped writing. He simply watched her. Y/N seemed completely unaware. Her fingers moved restlessly against the edge of her parchment. Her eyes darted around the room. The clock. The ink. His quill. The windows. His shoes. His hair again. Every few seconds, another detail caught her attention. Draco frowned. Then he noticed something else. She was writing. Not the detention essay. Questions. Dozens of them. Small lines filled the margins of her parchment. Draco couldn’t read them from where he was sitting. But there were so many that she’d barely left herself room for the actual assignment. His curiosity got the better of him. He leaned slightly forward. Y/N immediately covered the page with her arm. Draco stopped. For the first time, he noticed something he’d never considered before. She wasn’t hiding secrets. She was hiding questions. And suddenly, five years of memories began rearranging themselves in his head. Every time he’d spoken to her and she’d gone silent. Every time she’d looked like she wanted to say something and then stopped. Every time she’d walked away from a conversation. He’d always assumed she didn’t care. Maybe… She’d simply been afraid to ask. But for the first time in five years, Draco wasn’t convinced he understood Y/N at all. He looked down at his parchment, then back at her. A tiny smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “You know, you can just ask me.”