"Oh, please - go ahead," McGonagall answered, no real hesitation to her voice. Harry could tell she - of all staff present - knew what time it was, yet breakfast had been served for long enough that he could realistically have downed a cuppa and toast.<br/>As if to compensate, the corners of Harry's mouth upturned slightly.<br/>"I will see you at lunch then, professor," the headmistress offered as her parting words. She spoke with an almost tender tease that made Harry huff out, more than anything made uncomfortable by the title.<br/>"You will. I'll make sure to pace myself better then," Harry answered, some awkwardness in his voice as he still attempted to adjust his view of McGonagall as not solely a friend (and, Harry unwillingly admitted, a motherfigure) but as his<span style="font-style: italic">boss</span>.<br/>"I will see you, too, professors," Harry added, this time turning towards Neville and Malfoy. Though he glanced at both with a smile, his eyes never fully settled on Malfoy. "Enjoy your meals."<br/>Then, Harry turned around and left the proximity of the high table. For a brief moment, both McGonagall and Harry had turned away from the conversation, leaving them both out of earshot of Neville.<br/>"He didn't eat," Neville muttered, some tension to his voice as he helped himself to a second serving of scrambled eggs. He hadn't intended his voice to go sour, nor for it come across as if he blamed Draco, though he heard it as soon as he said it out loud. It was merely a worried observation.<br/>Neville's eyes flickered sideways towards Draco; then a few inches above the other, eyes inattentively finding McGonagall who once again approached them, this time on the right side of the table.<br/>When Neville once again spoke, his voice was slightly lower, and its over all expression had softened. "He had only just gotten here."<br/>His eyes had yet again found Draco, and his eyebrows furrowed in an expression that was partially worried and partially inquisitive. It wasn't as if Neville had been deaf to Draco's disinterest in Harry; though it made Neville's heart drop at the prospect of spending an entire year like this, he wanted to give Draco the benefit of the doubt. Maybe, Neville settled as McGonagall joined them to his left, Harry had just caught Draco off guard.<br/>"Did you sleep well?" Neville instead offered after a moment of silence, the radical change of subject both unapologetic and prompted by McGonagall's proximity.