I'd looked everywhere for her. She wasn't around and she'd promised to help me with the Charms homework. She's always excelled at that subject and I've always counted on her to help me out with every assignment. She agreed to do this just so long as I help her with Potions. She's awful at it. Thanks to me, Snape still thinks she's the prime student right below me.
And after all I've done for her; she's not even showing up! And I sat there, looking like a complete idiot, which is totally out of character for me, in the library for a full hour. Classes are over; dinner is over, where is that girl?
She could be off with another one of her worthless boyfriends or one-night-snogs. To think I could've spent the last hour snogging that girl, Jarilyn Brown, just eats my insides.
She's not even roaming the Dungeons, which I know she's taken to doing. She's always roaming somewhere, pondering, acting like the whole world is weighting on her shoulders. Like she could carry it. She's too tiny and weak. She doesn't know a thing about the real world.
Oh, honestly! Not even in the Great Hall with her insufferable gang of simpering girls or pretending to do Prefect duties as an excuse to be taunting the younger students. Merlin knows they'd never turn her in. She's Pansy Parkinson, why would they?
Now I'm looking like more of an idiot, roaming the corridors looking for some girl who could be anywhere she wanted with anyone she wants. They'd have her. Even Potter'd have her if she'd give him the chance. He's deprived of any sort of intimacy.
And the last thing I want to do is walk in on her with some boy, seeing as Pansy can't find a real man like me, getting at it in some empty classroom. But if it means getting this Charms essay done, I'll risk it.
Where are the empty classrooms anywhere? I think there are a few in the Dungeons and a couple in the first floor. As far as my knowledge stretches, which is very far, there's none in the other floors. Maybe she's in one of the other classrooms, sucking up to a teacher or doing her homework in the privacy of the Astronomy Tower.
Well, best get started. The Dungeons are cold and smell of rotting eggs, of course she wouldn't set a foot down there unless for class. And even then, it's just a possibility.
The first floor would suffice for her intense need for a good three hours of privacy a day.
What could some empty-headed girl need with three hours a day? So she's not all that empty-headed. Her friends are. If they're even her friends. She's always looks so dreadfully annoyed by them, I don't know.
Not even in the first floor! Where else could she be? I suppose she might be in some other classroom and that's all I've got left, so I'll go for it. I know she won't be outside on the Grounds. She hates the Grounds.
I'm not keen on getting caught in some fascinating conversation with Flitwick or another fading elder like that. She might as well be in Snape's classroom, getting her help there. She must think that gets her out of helping me! Silly, silly girl. She'll pay for this!
Surely she wouldn't be in the Astronomy Tower… It's rather dark and cold. She wouldn't bother with going up there. Would she? Maybe she likes the sky. I don't know. I've never seen her looking at it. Unless you count the Great Hall.
Ah well, it's worth a shot. Even if these stairs are annoyingly tall and wide, I'll look up there. Besides, these Charms books are getting heavy.
She's not in the classroom. Not even in the Observatory Room. That leaves the roof. I hope it's not raining. Imagine what that would do to my papers.
As I climbed the stairs, I was certain I saw someone standing on the very ledge of the tower, her arms spread and her school uniform flailing with the breeze. It couldn't be Pansy… Could it?
It is! I can tell by that blonde hair flopping around like that and the way she wears her uniform. The knee-high socks, shortened skirt, the tie missing and the robes probably somewhere in the common room. She's always losing them.
"Pansy?"
She doesn't turn. Maybe it isn't her. Of course it is! That hair. You can't miss it. With no answer, I suppose getting her attention by poking her would be more sufficient.
So I poked her leg with an outstretched finger.
"Parkinson?" I tried again. She didn't turn.
At last, about three minutes later, she got off the ledge. Her hair looked windswept, in a good way, and her eyes watery and larger than normal.
"You're supposed to be helping me with Charms-…"
She cut me off by pressing one of her long, boney fingers to my lips. For some reason, it made me stop talking.
She moved the finger to the sky, where I could see some odd lights reflecting in every color you could think of. She took my hand, pulling me onto the ledge with her. After moving a considerable distance away, she spread her arms out again and let the wind pick up her hair and blow about her uniform restlessly.
Her eyes trailed to me and I just stared at her. What was this, some kind of trick? My arms were up though. She wouldn't stop staring. I had to do something.
She smiled, a rich and genuine smile, before laughing into the wind. I didn't know what she was laughing about and despite how much I refused to laugh, I noticed hers sounded…pretty. Genuine. She was really laughing. Not the shriek or the fake laughter she uses around her friends or even me.
Her hand locked again with mine and she moved dangerously closer on the edge. My eyes widened. She wasn't going to kill herself, was she? And no damn way she was taking me down with her.
But she did. She jumped and I went with her. The fall was magnificent. We were falling. Falling faster than the wind and nearing the ground when suddenly, everything was soft.
It couldn't be. How had Parkinson managed to her hands on a magic carpet? And what did she think she was doing, bringing it out in Hogwarts like this? Even if it is pitch black not including the brilliant colorful clouds, it's dangerous. It's illegal.
She looks to me as the magic carpet goes directly up, sending a sick plunging feeling in my stomach. She's smiling again, that rich smile.
I opened my mouth to speak but couldn't. We'd landed back on the Tower and were sprawled out among the roof, staring up at the lights.
I looked to her and saw the lights reflecting off her pale face, mine as well.
"It's freedom, Draco."
I clasped my hand in hers, watching as she stared up at the sky.
"We can't have it any other time."
It was true. We'd been boarded up in school because of Death Eater attacks and both rose in a similar family. We weren't free. We'd be married soon. We'd be joining the Dark Lord and living as prisoners.
"We're young, Draco. We've got a life planned out ahead of us. Forget about the arrangements. Forget it all."
Her words were sinking into his skin and eating his insides, just as his fury at her not being there had done earlier.
"We can't, you know," She contradicted herself, turning to meet his gaze finally.
"Why not?" I practically sputtered, and her eyes closed for a while.
"It's like a dream. We can be free while it's on but when we wake up, it's back to what we have. Even if we tried to escape it, it's always going to come back and envelop us again."
He didn't respond, but knew she was right. And he'd felt a lot more free than he had ever felt.
Silently, he moved over to her and captured his lips with hers. Her eyes closed softly and his did shortly after her own.
They were free for the moment. And for that moment, he forgot everything he didn't like about her and she forgot everything that bothered her about him. They were free together.