Draco Malfoy sat down and stared out the window. The world was gray around him. The skies were the colour of cement, dotted with clouds just a bit darker. The trees around his house were covered in silvery gray leaves. The sidewalk was made of a lovely shimmery material which reflected the sky, which was, at the moment, gray. The grass was dull and sad looking-gray as a matter of fact. It was depressing, like a weight on his chest. He felt like he was suffocating-completely gray.
Recently there had been no colour in his life. It had been months since he'd last seen a flower, or a rainbow. You'd think that he'd like that. But he didn't. He hated it. He'd conformed while conformity equaled to survival. Now there was no need. But no one accepted that. He had been moulded all his life. They expected that he was moulded still. He had tried to set free, but it didn't seem to work. He'd been in the same position for so long, that he'd forgotten what it felt like to be anything else.
The door of the compartment creaked open. He turned to look, and saw Hermione granger at the entrance. She looked hesitant, then to all appearances quelled her hesitation and sat down opposite him.
"I'm sorry about your parents, Granger," he said softly.
She was startled. She had never heard him speak so softly and gently. "I'm sorry about yours too."
"No, you're not," he said with a dark humour. "You're relieved."
She shook her head. "No, I'm not. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy, and you're not even that. Nobody deserves to be an orphan, and no matter what I thought of your parents, they were your parents, you know?"
He saw at her for the first time. She was really quite beautiful. Her chestnut curls were something beautifully different from the grey world outside.
"Do you ever think, that maybe there's something more out there?" she asked him, eyes transfixed on the same scene Draco had been watching. "That there's more to life than this? That we're meant for something greater than good—like happiness, maybe?"
She didn't sound like she expected an answer, but he didn't expect to give one either. "No, I don't. The world is what we've made it. We're pushed forward by out own loves and our own desires, but that's not what life did to us. Life is us. We did this to us. I don't believe that we're meant for anything, except for what we want to do and how we screw up. But I do wish we could change things. I want to be happy, but I don't really know how, see? I've never been happy. I've heard I look constipated when I smile, but the point is that if I can change the past, maybe the burden would go away, and I could breathe again, and maybe be happy." Now he wasn't even consciously talking. He was just talking.
She didn't look startled, like he expected. She looked like she got it. "I know what you mean."
He didn't have to ask, his eyes asked for him.
"Yeah, I do. I am Harry's best friend. I was there through the worst of it. Can you imagine how it weighs on me?"
He conceded.
"I've heard, that sharing a burden with a friend splits the burden in half."
"Nice saying."
"But it's true!" she exclaimed. He raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Don't you feel better already?"
But it was true. He did feel better. And suddenly there was a strip of warm, golden sunlight that warmed his chilled bones. Her hair shone like a halo, and to her, his eyes looked unreadable. But he had never seen such a beautiful sight. He was imprinting it in his mind.
Suddenly, on some weird impulse, he held her small, warm hand and kissed it. "I do. Thank you."
She blushed and got up to leave as he knew she would. But there was no shame in it. she left in silence, and he remained with his thoughts. Sunlight filtered in from the wet-ish window and suddenly, the world wasn't grey anymore.
Well, what say you? REVIEW!!!
Love,
Lady Merlin