In Everlasting Peace - CHAPTER 1
Although the sun was shining cheerily through the windows in his dormitory, Draco Malfoy had pulled the curtain shut tight around his four- poster, making himself an artificial night. He laid his head back down on his pillow and looked at his watch. It was nearly noon, and Draco still hadn't dragged himself out of bed yet. He had woken up early, listening to the sounds of the others also waking up, but he stayed in bed thinking. It was best that way, because he didn't have to get up and pretend like he didn't have a huge hangover until he felt like it, and he could do what he liked without being interrupted. The only problem was, he was running out of things to think about. He stared up at the ceiling as he continued trying to remember his dream."Ugh..." he told himself as he covered his face with his hands, searching his brain,"it's no good...might as well get up." He swung his feet out of bed and winced as the sun fully hit his eyes this time. Stuffing his near empty bottle of Firewhiskey underneath his bed, he sleepily walked over to his trunk and pulled out a dark gray sweater and some black pants, stretching and arching his back as he went. He threw his clothes on tiredly, and made his way to the bathroom. Stumbling over his own feet, he staggered through the door and looked at his gaunt expression in the mirror. Draco snorted and shook his head at the dark circles under his eyes and his palid complexion. He had definetly looked better. He stayed up rather late, going for his usual nightly walk around the castle and choking down his Firewhiskey, wishing he was dead. Draco shook his head again as he brushed his teeth and ran his fingers through his hair. Eventually, deciding he could pull off not having a hangover, Draco walked out of his dormitory and down the stairs into the common room. Pansy was sitting in his favorite chair waiting for him. Pansy wasn't exactly good or intelligent company, but Draco had to admit that she could be amusing at the times that she wasn't annoying. Hell, any company was good. Pansy was nothing more to him than just another obsessed stalker, but she kept him from being lonely. Crabbe and Goyle were more into food and being stupid togther to do anything with him anymore; the only reason he was ever 'friends' with them during their first few tears was because he had no one else. Now that he had pulled away from them, they seemed to have forgotten that they had ever been friends with him. Pansy turned, seeing Draco come into the common room, and she batted her eyelashes at him. Nearly all the girls (and some of the guys) in Slytherin had a strange obsession with him. Draco didn't know why, it wasn't like he was exactly personable. What was left of him this year had turned into a staring, blank little nothing. He just didn't care about life anymore. Yet, somehow, Draco found that no matter how bad things got, he always dragged himself out of bed and just went about things. He wasn't sure why he bothered.
"Draco..." Pansy drawled seductively as he sat down in a chair furthest away from her,"I wondered when you might come down. I've been waiting to ask you if you'd like to go for a walk around the castle with me."
There was a glint in Pansy's eyes that he didn't like. He knew what she was after and he didn't want it. Lots of his classmates told him that he was mental for not shacking up with Pansy. She was apparently "hott." Whatever.
"Not particularly," Draco answered boredly.
Draco detected a flicker of hurt come across her face, but she quickly covered up by getting up and sitting on Draco's lap. Draco sat his elbow on the arm of the chair and leaned his chin on his hand. He rolled his eyes as he said,
"Haven't I told you just about every day this week that I don't want to have sex with you?"
Pansy giggled as if she hadn't heard a word he'd said.
"I always get what I want," she whispered in his ear.
Seeing that this was going nowhere, Draco got up, and Pansy fell to the floor. He didn't bother to help her up. He could feel her looking at his ass as he turned to leave. She got up and followed him as he walked out of the common room.
"Where are you going?" she asked desperately, eager for his company.
"I don't know."
"Well, I'll walk with you."
"No."
"You can't stop me."
"Fine."
He knew where he was going well enough, he went there often when he had time to spare. He turned a corner and trodded up a staircase towards the Fat Lady's portrait. He had always seen the Gryffindors come this way on their way to their common room, but it wasn't until this year that he knew exactly where it was. He had had to sneak around a lot in order to figure it out. Pansy followed him, still jabbering about something or other. He had learned that it was really best with her just to say,"Yeah" often and occasionally nod. He really had no interest in what she had to say. Now was not one of the times when he was glad for her company. He leaned up against the wall next to the Fat Lady and folded his arms. He took a few minutes to examine his cuticles and wish with all his being that Pansy would go away.
"What are we doing here?" Pansy whined after a while.
"Nothing."
"Obviously," Pansy said loudly as she stared at him.
He wasn't going to tell her where they were. Let her find out soon enough. And right on cue, none other than Ron Weasley stepped out of the portrait hole.
"How's it going, Weasel?"
"What are you doing here?!"
"Oh, What's the matter? Wake up on the wrong side of the bed? Or maybe Scarhead pushed you out of his..." Draco sighed as Pansy squealed in laughter.
"Shut your face, Malfoy!" Ron spat and pulled out his wand.
Draco sneered and said,"Don't even try it, Weasel. I don't feel like getting detention today. Besides, you're not really worth that much of my time."
"Then why were you standing out here?"
"That's not really your business is it?" Draco turned to leave and forgot himself as he smiled appoligetically at Ron and went back down the staircase. Damn, why did I smile at him?!?!?! Draco thought angrily.Draco liked seeing Ron. He went by the entrance to Gryffindor tower every chance he could to see him. Usually he didn't stand out in the open where Ron could see him, but today Pansy was with him, and she expected a show, which Draco had to give. Draco remembered the first time he had laid eyes on Ron at the beginning of the semester. Ron was at Platform 9 3/4, with Potter and Granger, hugging his mother goodbye. Ron's back was towards him. He stared for a moment. His mother never had given him a hug before. No one had. Then Ron turned around to get on the train. In that brief glimpse that Draco caught of him, he knew all he needed to know. He wanted Ron Weasley, and he wanted him badly. But wait, that wasn't right. He'd never wanted anyone this way before, and he didn't even know Ron. Sure, he had been attracted to other guys, but not like this. Ron had grown even taller, and his face was losing it's preteen-like qualities; it was more elongated and angular. His hair had grown so that he had that sort of rather shaggy 'I'm not a hippie quite yet, but I'm getting there' length so that it hung just above his eyes. He was still kind of lanky looking, but it suited him. Draco noticed that the first years' eyes who weren't on himself were on Ron, or either darting back and forth, trying to decide who to look at. Draco came back to reality as he led Pansy doggedly for a walk around the castle to please her.
A few minutes later, Ron had joined Harry outside.
"What's up with you?" Harry questioned Ron as they sat down on a bench outside, for lack of anything else to do.
"Malfoy."
"What did he do this time?"
"If you can believe it, he was standing outside the portrait hole when I came out to meet you, and Pansy Parkinson was with him, so of course he had to make a scene."
"But how does he know where our common room is?"
"I dunno, but I'm going to start locking our dormitory door from now on because you can be sure he knows the password."
"Oh shit."
"Yep."
Harry rolled his eyes as he said,"Well, anyway, don't listen to what he says, he just likes to stir things up to pump more air into his already fat head. You know that. C'mon, let's go for a walk or something..."
"Okay," Ron said as they got up and started towards the lake. But something was still bothering him. He thought that just before Malfoy had turned to leave, he had smiled at him. Draco Malfoy, smiling? No, I must be mistaken. I've never seen Draco Malfoy smile in his life. And what were the odds of Malfoy smiling at ME? It didn't look like a very happy smile, but it did brighten up his face a little. He actually wasn't bad looking at all when he smiled. Wait, WHAT? What am I saying? Urgh. What kind of pervert am I? I couldn't have possibly let myself just think that Draco Malfoy was attractive. Besides...I'm NOT gay. I'm not. Not. NOT GAY-
"You're quiet," Harry said, cutting into Ron's thoughts.
"I'm thinking."
"About Malfoy?" Harry said, right on target.
"No. Urr...about food."
Harry laughed,"Do you think about anything else?"
"Not much."
"Do you still fancy Hermione?"
"I dunno...why?"
"I'm not allowed to tell you..."
Harry produced a peice of parchment, a quill, and some ink, and squatted down so that he could bear on his knee while he wrote. He wrote,'But I guess I can write it. Ha...she fancies you.' He handed the peice of parchment to Ron. Ron snickered as he read and said,
"She must really be thick to think that you wouldn't tell me."
"Yep, pretty much."
They crossed over to the tree at the edge of the lake and sat down again after walking around the lake a few more times. Ron brushed leaves off the damp grass and sat down in a shady spot. Harry also sat and brought his books out of his bag and rummaged around for some spare parchment. Ron dug out his Potions homework and started to finish it. Snape was loading them with more homework than ever and the beginning of the semester had just started. He consulted his book to find an answer, but he found that no matter how many times he read the same sentence, his brain just wouldn't register it. He wanted to think about other things. Like 'food.' Ron snorted quietly as he thought about what a ridiculous lie this was. He might as well just let himself admit it. He had thought Draco Malfoy was attractive, in that dark, mysterious, quiet way for a while now. Ever since he had first seen him at the start of term feast, he had held that opinion. But he had always dismissed it, telling himself he wasn't gay, and besides, Draco hated him anyway. And Harry would kill him for sure if he so much as let on that he was even thinking about Draco Malfoy this way. Ron heaved a sigh and let his head fall back against the tree trunk. He mentally asked himself if he was losing it, and thought about whether crazy people actually knew they were crazy or not. He closed his eyes, still thinking about Draco and questioning his mental health. Before he knew it, he had fallen asleep to the scratching of Harry's quill.
The first thing that Ron was aware of was that it was nearly pitch black. He was walking down the corridor leading to the dungeons. He pushed his right hand up against the stone wall and tried to find his way around. From his left, a hand reached out and grabbed him. He gasped, but a vaguely familiar voice whispered,
"It's ok, I'm not going to hurt you..."
Then he felt a warm pair of lips on his own. He felt like his stomach had shrunk up into his esophogus and his feet were rooted to the floor. Ron kissed- whoever it was- back hotly, but then broke away.
"Who are you?"
"Your worst nightmare," the voice responded jokingly.
"I'm being serious."
"So am I."
"Tell me."
"No. You'd strangle me."
"Fine, if you want to be that way," Ron muttered, taking his wand out of his pocket.
"Lumos." Ron gasped again and dropped his wand. It clattered away as Ron looked into the pale face of Draco Malfoy. Ron could still make out Draco's face from the now distant light of his wand
Harry was shaking Ron awake and saying,"Comon, mate, we've stayed out here too long, we're late for dinner."
"Oh...right.." Ron croaked groggily. He was still shell-shocked as he attempted to get up and hoist his bag up onto his shoulder. He was shaking all over and almost fell several times on the way back up to the castle. As Ron treaded back into the castle, he felt immensely thankful to get out of the muggy weather, it was making him clammier than he already was.
"What's wrong with you? Your face looks weird...like it's really white, but then your neck is really red."
"Oh...I- uh...had a weird dream."
"About what?"
"Umm..."Draco Malfoy "...food."
Harry laughed as they made their way through the doors into the Great Hall. They found Hermione and sat amongst all the other Gryffindors as they waited for their meal to appear.
"Hello, Ron," Hermione said breathlessly, turning to face him.
"Ur..hi."
"Where have you two been all day?"
"We went for a walk and tried to finish some homework."
"Good. You should have come to the library, I was there."
"You're always in the library."
"I know. Believe it or not, it's not painful to read a book."
"If you say so."
They all dug in as dish after dish of food arrived on the plates in front of them. Ron snuck a look over at the Slytherin table, and sure enough, there was Draco Malfoy, obviously entertaining Pansy by doing nothing but breathing. Pansy was sitting in the seat next to him talking excitedly, plainly keen just to be in his almighty presence. Ron noticed how unusually unhappy he seemed to look. He wasn't talking to anyone or even eating, just sitting there quietly, occasionally mumbling a yes or no to Pansy to shut her up. Then, Draco jerked his head up and met Ron's gaze, feeling his eyes on him. He didn't smile or sneer, just stared back. Ron turned around
quickly, telling himself mentally that it didn't mean anything.
"Oh, is he bothering you again?" Hermione asked him looking back at Draco with distaste. Before Ron had a chance to answer, Harry said,
"Yeah, Ron says he was hanging out outside the portrait hole this afternoon shooting his mouth off."
"Oh, please. If he has to do that to make himself feel better, he's worse off than I thought, which is saying something."
"No shit," Harry agreed.
They eventually finished their meal and got up to return to their dormitory. Ron looked back over to where Draco was sitting. He was still surveying Ron with interest. Ron's neck turned red as he left the Great Hall. Draco noticed and began to think about what this meant.