A/N- yay! first Chapter is UP!!! Happy happy joyjoy! eeeeeeeep!
okay, i'm good now. on to more important things; like chocolate! no, actually, i would just like to say that this is not going to be a Draco/Oc romance. fyi. i'm not saying why not, cuz that would give away my plan,s but its basically impossible. and, i'm officially establishing a timeframe here for when this is set. i didn't even think about it till after id written this, cuz im an idiot like that, but its officially set in fourth year now. anything i may say in the chapter contrary to this is wrong! okay, long author's note aside, please enjoy the very first official chapter of-
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It was a wonderful, sunny September afternoon; one of those rare days where the air is crisp and cool, the sun is shining like there's no tomorrow, and all the world seems good and happy.
Anyone with half a brain was outside enjoying the last nice weather before winter really set in.
But it just goes to show that some people have less than half a brain, because guess who was inside, studying?
Aside from Hermione Granger, I mean.
No guesses?
Alright, I'll give you a hint: his name is Draco Malfoy.
I know right?
Isn't that the most wonderful hint ever?
What's that? Shut up and get back to the story? Okay! ahem...
The tall, aristocratic looking blond and his pair of cronies waltzed into the library.
They quickly staked out a secluded table by the back; after all, if you have to be in the library during your lunch period on such a gorgeous day, then at least you should be able get some work done. Also, this way no one would see them study. Because, you know, it's so undignified and all.
Ahh, the workings of the Slytherin mind; still a mystery to the rest of us.
The leader of the three tossed his books onto the table with a loud bang, earning himself a very stern look from Madam Pince. He smirked, and made a mocking bow in her direction, much to the amusement of the other two. Madam Pince scowled even more fiercely, and stalked off among the books.
"Honestly, Vince, remind me why we're here again?" drawled the blond, plopping himself down at the head of the table. The two goons slouched into the seats beside him, and started digging through their bags for parchment and quills.
"Because," one of them grunted, "you promised to help me an' Greg with our Herbology assignment. You know I can't tell an 'erb from a not-'erb to save my life!"
The blond made a mock-thoughtful face, and replied, "hmm, yes, I suppose I did, didn't I? And it's pronounced 'herb', Vince, not 'erb'. This isn't America, this is Britain."
Vincent Crabbe snorted. "Yeah, whatever. Anyway, are you going to help us or what?"
"Yes, I suppose I'll have to. You'll flunk, otherwise, and then I'd have to help you with make-up homework and we'd never get out of the library. And locking myself away in a barn full of books is not my idea of fun."
Crabbe and Goyle nodded heartily in agreement, and they got started.
"No, Greg, its Hyssop roots you put in calming draughts, not holly berries!"
"Oh, right." Goyle quickly scratched out the offending sentence and rewrote it.
"Vince, you've got this wrong. You don't find Nasturtium in Greenland! It's from Peru, for Merlin's sake, it'd freeze!"
"Right, thanks!"
"For heavens sakes, you two, how you haven't been kicked out is a mystery to me."
At last Crabbe and Goyle were both on the right track, needing only an occasional nudge from Draco to keep them going.
Draco relaxed, letting his eyes wander. He'd finished his own essay ages ago, before Vincent and Greg had even started, but he had promised to help them.
And Malfoys don't go back on promises.
Well…. Not often, anyways. Not to friends. Well, not good friends- And it's not like he had much else to do anyways.
Draco's eyes fell on a slightly darker rectangle hiding beneath one of the shelves.
A book, he realized.
Somebody must have dropped it.
Twitch. Twitch. Book- floor- not good…
He stared at it on and off for several minutes before his OCD got the better of him.
Must- clean!- book on floor- evil! Noooo!
He wandered casually over to it ( Yeah right Draco, more like tried to run and twitch insanely at the same time. That's right, you can't lie to us! We own you! Sort of…) and knelt down, his fingers sliding under the shelf to pick it up.
He flipped it over, taking in the dusty brown leather of its cover and the golden lock on the pages.
Aha! Someone's secret diary! It looks like it's been down there a while.
He tried to pry it open, but to no avail. It was locked, after all.
"Oh yeaah, kinda forgot about that…."
"Draco? Why are you talking to yourself?"
"Oh, no reason, Greg. You just keep working away, kay?"
"Okay Draco."
Greg went back to his essay, while OCD boy over here started trying to pick the lock, with minimal success.
"Ow! Stupid diary stung me! Damn girls, stop being so paranoid! I mean really, who's gonna read your diary anyways? No one cares what you write!"
This from the fourteen-year-old currently pulling with all his might at the covers of said diary.
Crash! Bang! SLAMMO!
"F**k!"
"MR MALFOY! I insist you leave at once!"
"aah hell…."
"MR MALFOY! OUT!"
Draco fled the library, calling a hasty apology to Crabbe and Goyle over his shoulder.
Stupid librarian kicking me out…it wasn't my fault! The diary attacked me!
Speaking of the diary…
Draco hadn't even realized he was still clutching it when he'd ran out. The indignant shrieks of Madam Pince had drowned out all rational thought.
Damn, that woman's scary!
But hey! At least its open now! Although I think I'm bleeding…
It was true. As Draco had yanked at the covers of the book, the lock had suddenly given way. Unprepared for the sudden release, he'd continued to pull and ended up slamming his hand into the bookshelf at high speed. Causing it to fall on him. Causing Madam Pince to ban him henceforth and forever more from the library.
And good riddance!
So, now that we're all caught up on Draco's state of health, lets have a look in that diary, shall we?
Draco gingerly flipped it open with his non-bleeding hand, half expecting it to bite him again. However, the little book put up no resistance, and Draco found himself looking at something rather surprising.
Eyes.
Not real ones, drawings.
Hundreds of them, gazing out unblinkingly from their paper prison.
Each and every one of them was different; unique. It was as if a crowd of people had been there, and then faded away, leaving behind only their eyes, captured in lines of ink.
They made him uneasy.
If he stared at them long enough, he thought he could see a few of them winking at him.
Draco narrowed his own grey eyes suddenly. There was something else here-
He peered closer at the lower right-hand corner of the page. The artist had written something there in curving lines of script, but the writing was so tiny he had a hard time making it out.
At last, he succeeded. It appeared to be a poem of some sort, if only a fragment of one.
Reality.
A harsh, unkind place,
Filled with uncaring people
I am anonymous, face in the crowd.
I dare not reach out to you, lest I am broken
A silent observer is all I will be.
I am invisible.
Fantasy.
Kinder and gentler
An often-used safe house
Here I will harbor out all of life's storms.
No sorrow, no pain, just the-
It cut off suddenly, clearly unfinished. A rivulet of black ran from the last loop of the 'e' to the edge of the paper, and the page itself was wrinkled and creased in several places.
Of course, it could have been from being left on the floor for a few days, but it looked to Draco as if it had been hastily slammed shut and away before the ink had been given time to dry.
Draco raised an eyebrow.
So, someone at Hogwarts was a closet poet and an artist. A damn good one too, judging from the drawings in the notebook. He riffled quickly through the pages, stopping whenever something caught his eye.
A cat, sitting on a wall. A boy sitting huddled against a wall, crying. Another, different boy licking an ice-cream cone as he walked down a busy street.
Interesting. It looks so real...
It was probably one of the muggle-borns, he decided.
Not many proper wizards were too keen on poetry.
I wonder who it is?
He tucked the thought away in a corner of his mind for later, but right now he had to go.
"S**T!!! Divination started five minutes ago! I'm gonna get eaten!"
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HI!!! did you like it!? i certainly had fun writing it! draco may be a tad OOC, but first of all, he's 14! he's supposed to be immature! and secondly, we only really see his nasty side in the books, when he's around Harry. for all we know he could be less evil when he's alone or with friends. so dont freak out. he's not gonna start being nice to Harry or anythig freaky like that. not yet, anyways.
OH! thank-you to the reviewer who told me that it actually is pronounced 'herb' in britain. i always thought it was with a silent 'h' there too, but apparently not. i felt so silly. and then i started imagining your review in an english accent, adn i started laughing. in the middle of a Bio Exam... hehe.
this is snails-on-the-french-riviera. over and out!! lalalalalalalalla!