September 1st, the most magical day in the world. I know, my said attempt at a joke. It's hard to make a joke in these times though. I hardly remember what a joke is. Going back to Hogwarts, however, has such a wonderful feel to it. It gives one hope in an otherwise dark and gloomy world. The war had seemed to drain all of the happiness out of everything and everyone. A flash of silver caught my eye and broke me out of my reverie. Draco Malfoy, the boy who had let all the death eaters in, and ruined the world as we knew it. What were they thinking allowing him to come back to school? "Come on Gin, we don't want to miss the train," my mum told me, breaking my train of thought. 'Yet another pun in my gloomy life. Kissing my crying mum goodbye, I made my way to the train. As I stepped onto the train, I felt a huge weight lift off my shoulders. It had been too long since I felt like I could breathe.
Not wanting to sit with anyone, knowing that I would be bombarded with questions about Harry, I found my way into an empty compartment. Putting up my trunk, I settled in for the long trip up. As fate would have it, however, as soon as I had settled, the compartment door opened revealing none other than Draco Malfoy. "Weasley! What are you doing here?"
"Malfoy." My voice was thick with hatred. Quickly noticing the hatred emanating from my voice, he smirked. I noticed, however, that his smirk didn't show any of his usual hatred. Instead, there was no emotion on his face at all. Looking closer, a chill went through me as I realized that his eyes were devoid of all emotion. They reminded me of those of a dead man. I struggled to compose myself after my initial shock, but Malfoy must have noticed as he started to speak to me.
"You like what you see, Weasley?" His voice was lacking its usual drawl, I quickly noted.
"No, I was just wondering where your posse is, or have you finally grown some balls?" I replied sarcastically, hoping to generate some emotion from him just so that I didn't have to look at his dead eyes any longer. I was not to be pleased, however, as he just looked at me and said, "Shut up. I just want to sit here."
"That's not good enough Malfoy! Why can't you just let me have at least some peace and quiet to myself? Do you always have to come and ruin my life? Besides, I don't want to sit with you!" To my great surprise, he didn't reply at all. Instead, he sat down, sighed, and looked at me with his dead grey eyes. Then he surprised me even more by saying, "Please, Weasley." No excuses, so insults, nothing. Just a please, which was a huge thing in itself, and there was a faint tone of resignation in his voice. He was not just tired physically and mentally. Malfoy was completely emotionally exhausted. I looked down at my hands and contemplated the matter.
Here was Draco Malfoy, asking me if he could sit with me, giving me the decision to choose whether or not he could sit here. That didn't make him a different person though. But then I thought of his dead eyes, and another shiver went down my spine. I looked up at him, and saw with shock that his mask was off. I didn't know which was worse, his dead eyes, or the look of complete and absolute pain and horror in his eyes. The real Draco Malfoy was sitting in front of me, and he was letting me see it. His face was drawn in, his mouth turned down at the corners in a thoughtful and sad frown. It was his eyes, however, that drew my attention for the second time since I got on this train. They had started out as a dark grey, almost black, but now they were turning lighter by the minute, becoming a blue grey as a tear threatened to come out. He suddenly dropped his head when he realized I was staring at him, almost as if he was ashamed. I shook my head and cleared my throat, and told him he could stay. Again he surprised me by thanking me, and then quietly putting his trunk up, sitting back down, and falling promptly asleep. As he slept I looked down at him from my seat. He was so vulnerable looking, emotions flickering over his face every other second. There was something tragic and yet so beautiful about this pitiful boy seated in front of me. Deciding that he needed some privacy so his reputation wasn't ruined and so that he could maybe get some peace, I locked the door and closed the curtains and then fell asleep myself, wondering how long this new Malfoy would last, or even if it was real at all.
I must have slept for at least three hours, since when I woke up, the trolley had already been by judging by the pile of sweets on the seat next to Malfoy. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw with shock that there was a mountain next to me. "I'll pay you back for this when I can, Malfoy." I told him meekly, waiting for his rude remark about my family's poverty.
"Don't worry about it Weasley. It's just a bunch of sweets." Damn, Malfoy was full of surprises.
"Thank you." I said meekly again, and then dove into the sweets. They were so good. I suddenly realized, that I hadn't eaten at all today, being in such a hurry to be off to the train station.
"The train should be arriving soon by the way, Weasley."
"Oh, really? How long was I sleeping? I didn't think it was that long."
"You've been out for a good five hours."
"Oh dear, I didn't mean to! I guess I'll just go find somewhere to get into my robes I guess." Oddly enough though, Malfoy being in such a close space with me had become strangely comfortable to me though, and I didn't want to leave.
"No, it's okay. I'll just turn around. I don't want to rush you or anything. Unless you'd rather leave? Or I could leave? Whatever you want." I was too shocked to speak. I was completely lost for words. I had no idea who this creature in front of me was. I just motioned for him to turn around and quietly changed, wondering over this complete change in character.
As soon as I had finished and sat back down, the train started to slow. Finally, I was back at Hogwarts, away from the complete claustrophobia of the Burrow, and my mum. Excited about the upcoming year, I quickly gathered my unfinished sweets, and my trunk and left, forgetting all about Draco Malfoy and his unusual manners. I got into one of the carriages, and waited for others to get in, hoping that I would still have a couple of minutes of peace without people recognizing me and bombarding me with questions about Harry. Luckily a bunch of second years climbed into the carriage. They started off and we slowly made our way up to the castle.
We finally got to the castle and as I entered the Great Hall, Draco Malfoy's presence was finally explained, and the memories of last year came rushing back at him and hit me full force. There, sitting in the headmaster's seat, was none other than Severus Snape, the murderer of Professor Dumbledor and most trusted follower of Lord Voldemort. Looking to his left and right, I saw that there were death eaters everywhere. Of course Malfoy would be allowed to come back. I made my way to the Gryffindor table, a feeling of dread creeping into my stomach. I sat down, not really listening to Snape, but from the groans of the Gryffindors and their cries, it was definitely not good. Feeling a set of eyes on me, I expected to see Neville or Dean or Seamus, but instead looked up to see the once again cold dead eyes of Draco Malfoy on me. Quickly finishing my meal, I then got the password from a prefect and made my way to the Common Room to escape the oppressiveness not only of the Death Eaters, but of the dead eyes that seemed like they could see straight through to my soul. I quickly got ready for bed, and then fell asleep very quickly, dreams of haunting grey eyes pervading my dreams.