Summary: You and Draco are partners in Potions class. You discover something interesting about him. (I don’t usually write reader fics, but this one is a special gift for my dear friend @softiesage who is a certified simp for ticklish!Draco. Happy (belated by 1 day) birthday stinky, I guess I love you and stuff. I hope you like the fic!)
You’ve only been hanging out with Draco for a short while, but you’ve already begun to feel those stupid brand-new-crush-butterflies around him. Sure, he can be kind of a stuck up prick sometimes, but mostly, he’s actually super smart and really funny. And, well, just look at him! The sharp jawline, his grey-blue eyes, his signature blond hair that he no longer bothered to slick back, letting it fall freely in his face.
But anyway, you’ve already fallen and you can’t get up. And you’ve managed to get on his good side already, and to be on Draco Malfoy’s good side was already like a marriage proposal. He had his little gang of Slytherin friends, but otherwise, he didn’t usually get chummy with other students, but you, you’re different so it seems, and just that thought makes your cheeks flush.
You walk into Potions class and see him sitting at the front of the class, as usual, and the seat next to him is empty. Has he saved it for you? You aren’t quite sure; Pansy and Blaise have shacked up at the table behind him. Did he tell one of them to get lost so you could sit? Or, were you just overthinking? More likely the latter, but whatever.
You walk over to where he sits, leaning against the table. “Anyone sitting here?” you ask as casually as you can muster.
Draco looks up at you, and you swear you see his eyes soften. “It’s all yours,” he replies, gesturing for you to sit down, and so you do.
Snape struts his way into the classroom after a moment of you awkwardly sat beside him, too nervous to strike up small-talk, but Draco is lost in a book anyway, which he carefully marks the page in before sliding it into his bag, fixing his eyes forward on the front of the class as the Head of his House prepares to start class.
As class begins, your eyes easily move from Snape and back to Draco, studying his handsome profile, the bridge of his nose and the curve of his lips—
“Y/L/N, if you can tear your eyes away from Mr. Malfoy for a moment, would you please tell me what color a properly brewed Dreamless Sleep Potion shall turn?” Snape asks, a sneer curled on his face.
You felt your face flush hot, and some scattered giggles fill the classroom. Draco shoots you a sideways glance, but he doesn’t look angry or disgusted...In fact, you swear you saw his own cheeks turning slightly pink.
You have no idea what color that potion should be.
“Purple,” Draco whispers.
“Purple,” you repeat, louder, feigning confidence in the answer.
Snape’s eyes narrowed. He looked between you and Draco, glaring. “That’s correct, although next time, don’t rely on Mr. Malfoy to answer for you, or it’ll be House points from each of you.”
Feeling sufficiently humiliated for your first class of the day, you fixed your gaze onto the table until Snape began instructing the class to partner up and attempt a simpler sleep potion than the one you’d been questioned on.
Draco nudges you with his elbow. “You’re welcome for the answer,” he says, but you can tell by his little smirk that he’s only teasing. “Honestly, Y/N, I know I’m good-looking, but don’t let it affect your grades.”
You flush, aiming a light kick to his shin beneath the table. “I was actually looking at you trying to understand how someone so ugly could be allowed out in the public eye,” you reply, your own grin spreading across your face.
He shoots you a playful glare. “I’ll go get the ingredients, give you some time to fix your eyesight while I’m gone then.”
You giggle as he stands and walks across the classroom to the cabinets full of assorted weird shit: bat wings, toad eyes, that sort of thing. He returns shortly after, shoving a cutting board and some weird looking flower into your hands, instructing you to crush up the petals.
You do as he says, a bit begrudgingly.
He sits beside you, reading through the recipe in the textbook, his finger trailing over the page as he does, and your eyes catch on him once again.
“Like what you see, Y/N?” he asks, smirking as he catches you for the second time.
You go red. “Shut up, Malfoy,” you reply, and, out of instinct, you reach out and jab him in the side.
The way he tenses up, a little ‘hmph!’ leaving his tightly shut lips, and his cheeks turn a bit pink...It makes you grin.
“No way,” you say.
“Shut up,” he hisses. “Just keep chopping the bloody—ah!”
His words are cut off with a little gasp as you repeat your previous action.
Your grin is even bigger now. The tough, scary Slytherin prince, Draco Malfoy, is ticklish? It’s too good to be true, seriously. And, it’s also, like, really cute. You wish you were alone, so that you could explore your new discovery further. What does he sound like when he laughs, loud and carefree, and not that stupid rehearsed chuckle that he does? How does he look when he’s red-faced and breathless, with messy blond hair and happy tears pricking the corner of those grey eyes?
While you’re lost in your own little world of ticklish Draco fantasies, he shoots back with his own jab to your ribs, and you squeak, having not expected it, and your jerk away from his finger causes you to send the cutting board clattering to the floor.
“Y/LN, Malfoy, 10 points each. Clean that up!” Snape barks.
Draco gives you a sheepish smile, and it’s enough to make your annoyance at Snape melt away.
