Apricot time
Paws on notice: Harry Potter & all the HP characters belongs to J.K.Rowling. Pls don't sue. =P
It was a quiet evening, and even quiter and darker in the study, there sat a young man working on his table. His hair was a shade of
pale blonde, his eyes were stormy and grey, stone cold to be more exact, his skin is smooth and milky, with all that, this boy certainly
looked very handsome. He was writing on a parchment with his quill but suddenly stopped as he heard a knock on the door. "Damn!"
he thought as he put down his quill, looking rather annoyed but still remain seated there, trying to ignore it, but then, who ever was
knocking on his door seems to continue knocking till he gets an answers. This time, it really got onto his nerves, so he sat straight and
threw an irritable stare on the door, stood and walked towards it with heavy footsteps. His footsteps echoes the empty hallways of the
Malfoy mansion so does the knocking sound. But then, the person who was
knocking on suddenly stopped. The door flew open, and an elderly man walked in, he looked very infuriated as if he could kill, but then
took in a deep breath and speak in a very low tone "Draco, how long do you want me to wait for you?"
"I'm not going, that's all," reply Draco reluctantly.
"Wait there young man, who do you think you're talking to?" The young man stood there speechless, no he wasn't speechless, he just
didn't want to further the conversation. But he knew that it won't help him much by just keeping his silence so he held his head to look
at the elderly man, then begin "I'm not goin..."
But before he could finish, a voice cutted in. "You WILL be, and that's final," said the elderly man coldly as he looked at the face of his
son with his pair of cold eyes. His son looked back at him with the attempt to retort but remained his silence, since he already knew,
no matter what he does, his father will stand his ground, so, it was pointless even for a try.
Suddenly, they both heard a voice of a lady and that broke the silence between the two father and son. "Draco, honey, are you
alright?" said the lady. Draco looked at her and gave a silent nod. Then, she turned to the elderly man and said softly "Lucius, if you
want to give him a lecture, please do it later. Our guests are waiting!" and continued "now to the hall."
The three of them walked throughout the long hallway and entered the guestroom. Lucius and Narcissa walked towards their guests and
greeted. While Draco stood behind them, with an amazed expression. It appears that their guests were Gregory and Eliza Parkinson
(Obviously they were Pansy's parents) "We're sorry to keep you two waiting for so long, it took Draco quite some time to get dressed.
Y'know!" said Narcissa, who told a white lie trying to cover up what was happening at the study just moments ago.
"We understand Narcissa. It feels like yesterday since Gregory's parents when to my place for the first time," said Eliza.
"So how's Darco been doing? The holidays are about to end soon," asked Gregory cheerfully. But of course, he wasn't that cheerful, he
was smiling in the slyest way anyone could've ever seen for the first time. Heads turn to look at the young man and Narcissa told him
to come forward since he hasn't greeted them yet. He then marched forward and said "Good evening and nice you Mr and Mrs.
Parkinson."
"Pleasure to meet you too Draco. As I've heard much about you from Pansy, I haven't seen you since you were 10," said Gregory,
"hope you didn't forget us," he continued.
"Nope" Draco replied coldly. How can he not remember about this man when his daughter has been hanging around him since the age?
of who-knows-how-old? It was one of the faces that Draco wishes to see most than anyone else's when he was young, this was
because Gregory would pick Pansy from Draco's home at the evenings, while Eliza's the one who send her into his house in the morning.
This was all their parents' arrangements the let the two kids get to know each other and then get married when they grew up. Until
Now, Draco still thinks that it will be impossible if Pansy wants to get married with him, because he will never agree to that. And to back
up with what he thought, Lucius never really liked her either. But, he was VERY wrong, the arrival of Mr and Mrs.Parkison had already
proved it. And he was still wondering why are they here in the first place now?
"So tell us dear, when will you two love birds plan to held the wedding?" Eliza said excitedly.
"Huh? Wedding? We aren't even engaged, nor are we lov..." said a confused Draco.
He was cutted off before he could finish by Lucius. "We've had an agreement that the both of you are engaged now. The both of you
can held the wedding anywhere you desire," Lucius said forcefully.
"What? Agreement? I haven't heard of it yet!" yelled Draco as his eyes widen up. They nearly popped out upon hearing this for this was
his worst nightmare, as being forced to be a member of the Dark Lord's followers wasn't enough, and now he's forced to marry Pansy
'pug face' Parkinson? How horrible! No! he would never agree to it, never did he ever loved her before, she was the one who's dangling
all around him, calling him pet names and make it looked as if they were really a couple. He lets her stick around him mainly because
he didn't have a girlfriend and wanted to make Potty and icky Weasel look bad(they, afterall, had Hermione). But never did he thought
of marriage, what the heck? With that girl? All she was to him was something to show off, that's all. Besides, being at the age of 16, he
never ever thought about it.
And just now, he thought that Lucius wanted him to go to the Dark Lord. Never did he expected that something this bad, worst than
being the follower of the Dark Lord will pop up in such an inappropriate time. He was one of the school hottest guy who every girl
dreamed of, and he could've fooled around having more girlfriends that just Pansy. He of course wouldn't want to settle down with
'that' untoleratable girl.
Draco was lost in his strings of thoughts when Eliza brought him back to reality, "so, we're breaking it to you now dear."
She went on "Pansy told us that you were keen on getting married so we decided to discuss it with your parents. They agreed it that
too. And so today, we made a trip here to tell you."
All of the sudden, Draco flared up and burst, this was too much for him to take. "I've had enough of all this shit! Damn, won't you all
discuss it with me first before deciding anything?"
"But Pansy said that..." Narcissa spoke.
"Forget what she said, that girl have been hanging all over me in school. if only you all can see how she behaves around me, like a slut
I tell you. And she lied about the whole marriage thing!" Draco shouted sarcastically.
"How dare you Draco? I will not tolerate anyone calling my daughter names like this!" spat Gregory as he said in a very angry manner.
"Oh Lucius, how did you educate your son? Calling my daughter a.. a... SLUT? The nerves!" said Eliza angrily too as she scowled.
Before Eliza could open her mouth to throw another remark, Narcissa quickly apologises to them, "we're really sorry, he's just not
feeling well lately, please go back now and we'll make sure that everything's fine. Really sorry!"
The Parkinsons left the Malfoy mansion hurriedly. The situation now was worst, Lucius was eyeing Draco as if he wanted to cast the
unforgivable curse on him. Draco didn't care much either, to Lucius, he was only a boy, a boy for Lucius to control, Lucius was certainly
not concerned about his feelings. He was just like a tool to Lucius, just like Lucius was to the damned Dark Lord. On the other side,
Narcissa was looking at Draco furiously too, but she couldn't help herself to yell at him. Seeing how her husband was eyeing her son,
she knows better than to do that because it'll only add salt and pepper to the situation. "In your room now!" she said to Draco, hoping
that her husband wouldn't explode into a fury and punish that boy.
Soon, Draco walked to his room on the second floor and slammed the door. He walked to his four poster and fall flat on it, with his
back on the bed and scowled. His room was beautiful and posh(of course!), it was furnished with teak furniture painted in a tone of
reddish dark brown. At the side of the room, near the windows, there lays a green coloured lazy chair with silver linings on its cushion.
Though this is not the Slytherin common room, but Draco liked it's colours and persuaded Lucius to order a special made one for him.
And Lucius did so. The skies outside the glass windows were darkening and it seemed like it's going to rain. Draco got up from his bed,
pulled the curtains and opened the windows for the strong breeze to blow in. He stood in front of the windows and stared outside for a
moment, enjoying the breeze and the sounds of broken tree branches and dried leaves being swept up by the breeze.
He felt very comfortable looking at the dried leaves that were being swept away by the strong breeze. Looking outside the window for
a while, he then turned to picked up his quilt from the nearby table and scribble in on a piece or parchment. After awhile, he got tired
and drop himself on the bed and fell asleep with the parchment still on his hand. As his grip on it loosen, it flew away being swept by
the strong breeze
life down here won't be such a torture
I'd live live the way I want
out of your reach
you can't catch me
I'm free, freedom is all I need
is there an option for me, to free myself from all these?
Now tell me father, do I have to fulfil all your wishes?
How I wish
I could just vanish
From all the pain and suffering
I'm currently experiencing
How I wish.....
~Draco Malfoy
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On the other side--Hermione Granger's house
She was sitting on her bed, reading the textbooks from Hogwarts for the 6th year's students. She didn't have a window in her room, it was a glass slide door instead that leads to the balcony, and it was opened. The strong breeze blew in her room and papers flew around, so she got up in attempt to close it shut. Before she shut it, a small owl in brown flew in and landed on her bed, nearly knocking Crookshanks off while it landed. Hermione turned around to take a look at what had flew in, and recognised that it was Pigwidgeon. It held a letter in its beak and passed it to Hermione as she approached it. She hurriedly opened the letter and read it when she got it, obviously, it was from Ginny and it reads:
Dear Hermione,
We haven't seen each other for quite sometime and I really missed you! Hope everything is fine over there and you're enjoying your holidays back at the muggle world. Dad recently told us that muggles have a device called Compact Disk Player and he says that it is used to play music. I thought it sounds interesting so I was wondering if you have one, will it be alright to let me have a look at it?
Oh and, it's only 2 weeks before the semester stars, mom and dad suggested that we invite you and Harry to stay a night here, and then we leave for school together the next day. So are you coming or not? We really missed you a lot and I hope that you'll come. So please, I can't wait to see the both of you.
And thanks Hermione for the suggestion you gave me on what to get Harry for Christmas. I followed what you told me and it really worked! I'm surprised 'cause he really likes it! Guess he's a quidditch fanatic.
That's all for now. Please do reply whether are you coming for the stay or not. I'm really looking forward to it.
Love Ginny
Hermione folded that letter, closed her eyes and take a deep breath. Sure she wanted to go to the Weasley's for the stay, but then, she'd meet up with Harry and Ginny. Even until now, a year after Harry rejected her, she still can't forget him. And she remembered how Harry told her that he sees her as his best friend, and right after that Ginny confessed her love for Harry and he accepted it. And later, the both of them went on dates and were going on steadily. She also remembered that she witnessed Harry and Ginny kissing right after the Yule Ball while she was sitting in the corner all by herself with Ron and Parvati constantly coming back to accompany her. And Draco Malfoy plus Pansy Parkinson constantly mocking her about losing her boyfriend to a red haired weasel girl. School was like a living hell and she couldn't concentrate on her school work much.
And the thought of school, how is she going to face Harry and Ginny? She felt tears escaping her eyes upon seeing them together, but then both Ginny and Harry are her best friends, and she couldn't possible ask them to break up just because of her, can she? So, she made up her mind, to forget about Harry and to, well, keep on studying, pay all her attention on books like she once had.
She got up from her bed, walked towards the slide door and pulls it open. The breeze blew into her room and it made her felt better, as if all her sorrows were blew away. She was rudely interrupted while enjoying the breeze when she was slapped in the face by a piece of parchment. It stayed on there while she struggled to take it down, and when she got it, she went agape. It happened to be some sort of writing by who? DRACO MALFOY? She walked back to her bed, leaving the slide door open as she read the parchment.
"What?" she said to herself.
That prat.... knows what torture means?" she said slightly giggling.
The piece of writing wasn't cleverly worded but it was quite good, to say at least for a ferret like him. She was quite surprise to read something like this, especially when it's from Malfoy. It didn't suit his persona to write things like that, and it surprised her more to find out that he eventually knew and felt what is torture. Or, was that just a piece of something he doddled out? Anyways, she still hoped that he experienced it since he'd always give her and her fellow students(mainly Gryffindors) a hard time, and hell, that was torturing.
Then, she heard her mother called out, "Hermione, you have guests!"
"Great, they're finally here!" thought Hermione excitedly. She had earlier made an arrangement with Lavender and Parvati. The both of them wanted a shopping spree in the muggle world and Hermione agreed to be their 'tour guide'. Immediately sprang out of her bed and hurried downstairs where her guests are waiting for her.
But, when she got downstairs, it turned out they hadn't been the guests she's been expecting.....
A/N: Alright now, I know this fic suck, and there are lotsa grammatical errors and other stuffs, but eh... this is my first fic! ^^;; So please, R&R, tell me how well/bad I did. Thank you very much for reading! ::bows::