Draco frowned at the rose, reluctant to touch it. It could, after all, be laced with curses and god-knows-what, and Draco wouldn't be surprised if it was, considering the attitudes of the other students towards him.
"Are you just gonna stare at it all day?" Blaise asked, raising an eyebrow from his seat in the armchair. Draco scowled at him before turning his attention to the rose again.
It was a pretty rose, Draco thought to himself. Each petal was perfectly positioned and the colour was vibrant.
"You checked it for curses, right?" Pansy said boredly without looking up from her book. "Then it's fine. I doubt you're going to die if you touch it."
"You are being a tad paranoid," Blaise agreed.
"We'll see how paranoid I am when I end up cursed after I touched an anonymous rose because my so-called friends pressured me into it," Draco retorted stubbornly, but he picked up his wand and nudged it lightly.
Nothing happened.
Blaise snorted. "If you used every spell known to your father, which is a damned lot, to check for curses and jinxes, then I doubt there's anything on there."
A small part of Draco's mind agreed. The majority just wanted to punch Blaise's pretty face. But that was just Draco's default mood around Blaise.
He poked the rose with his wand again, wondering who had sent it to him. It wasn't as though he was popular - quite the opposite, after the whole war and 'being on the wrong side' fiasco. The other eighth years ignored his existence and the younger years treated him with disdain and undisguised hate. It was, in fact, more likely that someone had sent it to him to hurt him than someone sending it out of genuine...
Genuine what? Love? Draco snorted. Even before the war, he doubted anyone loved him. Sure, some of the Slytherin girls lusted after him, but did they love him?
Draco sighed heavily. "Whatever. I don't need a stupid rose anyway," he muttered, determinedly not looking at the single flower. He stood up and kicked the rose under the bed. "I'm going to bed."
Maybe he would've taken back what he said if he saw the hurt look in Blaise's eyes. Maybe he would have put two and two together if he noticed Pansy's sympathetic look to their dark-skinned friend.
But without seeing either of these things, Draco Malfoy went straight to bed.
"Another one?" Draco asked out loud, glaring at the offending flower that lay innocently on his bedside table. It wasn't a rose this time though. It was a carnation, small and delicate and a light shade of pink. There were talon marks, where, apparently, an owl had held when delivering it.
"Maybe it's a message," Pansy suggested. Draco looked up, only slightly surprised, to find her sitting in the corner of the dorm room with a heavy book. It was quite depressing that he had gotten used to Pansy spending for more time than acceptable in the boys' dorm.
"A message?" Draco mused, now looking at the carnation with wariness. "The flower language?"
"Don't look so suspicious," Blaise said from his bed. Draco looked up and his breath caught in his chest when he saw the, um, eye-pleasing sight. Blaise was shirtless, showing off his strong chest and abs, as well as his well-toned biceps. He lay, facing Draco and his head propped up on a hand. He looked downright gorgeous.
Not that Draco cared, of course.
"Draco?" Blaise asked, slightly concerned, and Draco snapped back to reality.
"It's possible," he admitted. "Roses are a symbol of love, right? And carnations are..." he frowned, trying to recall the lesson his mother had given him on flowers and their meaning when he was younger. "Unrequited love?"
"Yep," Pansy said, raising an eyebrow.
Draco frowned even more. That made no sense. Who on Earth was in love with him? He shook his head. Maybe he was overthinking it. Maybe there was no message and it was just Mother sending him support.
He repeated this to Blaise and Pansy, who, for some reason, looked exasperated and said nothing.
Draco pushed the flowers out of his mind and started on his essay.
"Two camellias," Pansy said interestedly.
Draco shot her a bemused look. "What?"
"Two camellias," she repeated, pointing up at the stormy grey ceiling of the Great Hall, where the owls were starting to come in. There was a brown owl in particular that was circling the ceiling, hold two flowers delicately in it's talon before swooping down in the direction of the young Malfoy.
"This again," Draco groaned. The other Slytherins were starting to shoot him looks and he glared at them until they looked away. Pansy gave a soft snort and delicately buttered her toast.
The camellias were pretty, Draco was willing to admit. One was white and the other was a light pink. He bit his lip, trying to recall the meaning of camellias. He was sure his mother taught him... The white one was adoration, perfection and loveliness, he was sure, but the pink...
"Longing," Blaise said, gracefully sliding into the empty seat next to Draco. "Pink camellias are longing, right? What are the white ones?"
"Adoration, perfection and loveliness," Draco admitted, feeling his face heat when Blaise raised an eyebrow, smirking.
"Looks like someone's got the hots for you, I reckon," Pansy said smugly, biting into her toast and shrugging nonchalantly when Draco rolled his eyes.
"I think we went over this yesterday," he reminded. "Not everyone memorised the flower language. Someone could be just sending them without knowing the meaning behind each flower."
"Pretty coincidental that they all point towards love, though," Pansy argued.
Draco looked at Blaise, who was strangely silent. "Are you okay, Blaise?"
Blaise looked up, raising an sharp eyebrow. Draco really wished he would stop doing that - it was unfairly attractive. Not that Draco found Blaise attractive. He just wished he looked that good when he raised his eyebrows. Seriously. He was not attracted to Blaise.
"I'm fine. Why?"
Draco shrugged. "You seem quiet."
Blaise smiled, his full lips stretching ever so slightly. Draco wondered vaguely if his lips were as soft as they looked. Probably.
When both Blaise and Pansy returned to their breakfasts, Draco slipped the two camellias into his pocket subtly. Or not so subtly, according to Blaise's smirk. But whatever.
Love, unrequited love, adoration, perfection, loveliness and longing.
Four flowers, six meanings.
Draco opened the secret compartment of his trunk, pulling out the three flowers. He laid them on the floor - first the white, then the pinks, then the red.
There was no sign of who sent them. Not even the owl gave a clue away, always being a brown owl. Whether it was from the Hogwarts Owlery or sent from Hogsmeade or even from someone else's house was not clear. There wasn't even a note.
Draco frowned. The flowers had, admittedly, taken up more of his thoughts than he knew was acceptable, but he couldn't help being curious.
And as he stared at the petals of the rose, an owl swooped into the dormitory.
Draco looked up, startled, and sure enough, there was a flower in the brown owl's talons. A red daisy. The owl dropped it next to the other four on the floor and flew out of the open window again without landing.
A red daisy. Beauty unknown to the possessor. Someone thought he was beautiful.
He took a deep breath, blinking away the tears. There was no doubt about it now. Someone out there loved him. And Merlin, did he feel loved, with these flowers, each following the other every day.
Someone loved him.
It was nice to know. After all, his apparently never-ending crush (was it a crush? Or more?) on Blaise frigging Zabini was appearing fruitless and it hurt to know the one person, the only person he had ever loved, didn't give two shits about him romantically. Maybe this mysterious flower-sending could get his mind off the olive-skinned beauty that he so torturingly spent so much time around.
He sighed, and picked up the daisy to put it in the secret compartment along with the other flowers. But when he picked it, a small folded piece of parchment fell out. Draco froze. Was this the clue he had been waiting for all along?
He unfolded it carefully, and read the inky words:
"I, Blaise Zabini, would like to court you under the intention of making you my partner. I understand and fully respect any decision you make in terms of accepting my advances. Respond soon."
Draco read it. And re-read it. And read it again. Suddenly, Blaise's trips to the Owlery made sense.
A smile blossomed on his face.
Maybe it wasn't so fruitless after all.