"You know, you're really quite handsome when you're not sneering like that."
"Why do you act like that? I can tell that's not who you really are."
"I wish you'd let everyone else see how kind you can be."
"Are you really so afraid of disappointing your father?"
"What am I to you, Draco?"
She drove him crazy. Her name was Celeste Evermot. A beautiful girl with cocoa colored hair and eyes like emeralds. Beautiful and only made more exquisite because she never flaunted it. Whether that was because she wasn't aware of her looks or she simply didn't care about them, no one was sure but no one could deny that she was a very attractive young woman.
Even Draco Malfoy had to admit it. But if he were forced to say so, he would also have to admit how much he wished to stay away from her. She could read him like no one else could. She seemed to be able to see into the deepest parts of him. Then she'd have the saddest look on her face and, though this he would never say, he couldn't bear to see her that way.
"Why do you act like that? I can tell that's not who you really are."
Some days when he had decided to go off on his own for a while, he'd come across her and, instead of sneaking away from her or insulting her, he'd sit and talk with her. He would even show her a softer side of himself, like when he showed her how to get a robin to eat from her hand. It was in those moments where she would show him her rare smile. If anyone had seen the two of them together in such a moment, they would have thought the two in love.
Again though, he would have to weather her sorrow once they were around others again. Those times affected him more than any other, because he knew that it was far more upsetting to her when she saw his behavior.
"I wish you'd let everyone else see how kind you can be."
Eventually, he began seeing a change in her when they would cross paths alone. He noticed she seemed more closed off from him, almost depressed. He would ignore it for the most part until there came the day that she was so far away from him that she didn't even speak in their time together. Finally, it bothered him enough to start questioning her. She would brush him off for the most part until he had yelled at her in a moment of frustration. What she said had made him question himself more than he ever had before.
"What am I to you, Draco?"
It was weeks before he walked the grounds alone again. He made a point to stay around at least one of his friends no matter where he went. He wasn't sure why. He wanted to believe it was because then he wouldn't have to confront her about their last meeting, or so he could keep from thinking about how exactly he felt for her. When they met up again, he had his answer for her, but as happy as he was to tell her, his own sorrow was winning out. She was in Ravenclaw, and though that wasn't as detestable as Gryffindor or Hufflepuff, she wasn't a pureblood. And even though she had changed his view on that entirely, his family and those they were affiliated with would not accept something like the two of them together.
"Are you really so afraid of disappointing your father?"
Even so, she never seemed to give up on him. Through all the snarky comments he sent her way in the face of his other Slytherin friends, and his cruel jokes all for the sake of saving face. She still met with him when he was alone, and she still did all she could to bring out his better side, even if he wouldn't show it in the face of others. She even began calling upon his kinder half in public.
"You know, you're really quite handsome when you're not sneering like that."
No matter what, she never gave up. In the midst of the war, he was forced to make a split second decision. His father's life or hers. In that one decision, he had betrayed everything he was groomed to be since he was born. When the war was over, she had welcomed him to her with open arms. When the time came for mourning, even the strongest of them broke down in tears, and Draco was no exception. For his father, he cried, and Celeste was there for him to hold on to while he mourned.
She had always stayed by his side, whether she was being lead by his hand in their own private world, or silently showing she cared for him in public. If he thought about it, it was obvious if only to him that she had always loved him.