The first time Damian noticed you, it was in the library.
Not because you were loud — Merlin, no. You were the opposite. Curled into one of the high window alcoves with three books open at once, annotating notes while the rest of the students panicked over NEWTs.
You had your Ravenclaw scarf half falling off your shoulder, completely unaware someone had been staring at you for ten straight minutes.
Unfortunately for Damian, that someone was Damian.
And Damian Wayne did not handle crushes like a normal person.
“Why are you glaring at a Ravenclaw first thing in the morning?” Tim asked from across the Slytherin table.
Damian didn’t even look away from you. “I am not glaring.”
“You’ve been holding your spoon in the air for like… five minutes,” Dick added cheerfully. “That’s either murder thoughts or feelings.”
Jason snorted into his coffee from the Gryffindor table nearby. “Same thing for Demon Spawn.”
Damian finally blinked. “They are simply… academically interesting.”
Tim nearly choked.
Dick grinned immediately. “Oh my god, he likes somebody.”
“I do not.”
“You watched them walk into breakfast like it was a cinematic entrance,” Tim said.
“They walked into breakfast normally.”
“You tracked them with your entire head,” Jason called over. “Like a damn owl.”
Damian’s eye twitched.
Meanwhile, you were completely oblivious.
You just thought the Slytherin boy with the sharp green tie and permanent judgmental expression hated everyone equally.
Which… to be fair… was mostly true.
Except you started noticing weird things.
Like how your books kept appearing before you could even grab them from shelves.
How certain annoying students suddenly stopped bothering you after one conversation with Damian.
How he always somehow ended up sitting near you during shared classes despite claiming Ravenclaws were “insufferably pretentious.”
“You missed a question,” Damian muttered one evening during Potions.
You looked over. “What?”
Without another word, he slid your parchment slightly and pointed at a tiny mistake in your calculations.
“…Oh.”
“You’re welcome.”
“You could’ve just said that nicely.”
“I was being nice.”
From two tables away, Dick looked physically pained trying not to laugh.
Tim had his face hidden behind a textbook.
Jason leaned over from the Gryffindor side. “That’s Damian flirting, by the way.”
Damian looked ready to commit homicide.
The worst part for Damian?
Everyone knew before you did.
The Slytherins noticed he stopped hexing people near you.
The Ravenclaws noticed he listened when you talked.
Even the professors noticed.
“You seem calmer lately, Mr. Wayne,” Professor McGonagall remarked one afternoon.
Damian immediately answered, “I fail to see how that concerns you.”
You looked up from your notes. “I think you seem calmer.”
And that—
That completely short-circuited him.
Tim watched in absolute disbelief as Damian Wayne, terrifying Slytherin menace of Hogwarts, forgot how to speak for a solid ten seconds.
Dick whispered dramatically, “He’s gone. We lost him.”
Jason cackled loud enough to echo through the corridor.