Canvas of my Heart

Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own anything except for my imagination.

Venice, 2005

It was a beautiful day in Venice, Italy. Cool winds were blowing everywhere and the sun was shining brightly, making Venice look even more beautiful than it already was. Lots of couples were moving around, holding hands, kissing, going on Gondola rides and just enjoying each other's company. There were also loads of tourists roaming around with their children. It was an enjoyable day for everyone, except for one. Draco Malfoy.

After the war, in order to avoid the gaze of people who looked at him like there was nothing filthier than him in the entire world, he moved to Italy. The Malfoy's were not sent to Azkaban as they had changed sides at the very last minute of the battle and because it was Narcissa's lie to Voldemort that protected Harry from dying in the Forbidden Forest that night. This made many people boil with anger especially the family of the ex-Hogwarts teacher, Charity Burbage, who was killed in their house.

All this made Draco want to die. He tried brewing a poison that would kill him instantly but was unsuccessful, he tried to find anything in his house with which he could end his life and free himself from every accusation but he failed to do that as well. The guilt of being a Death Eater made him want to drown himself in an ocean of guilt. He knew that he should've been in Azkaban for using two unforgivable curses; the only thing that made him slightly happy was that he had never used the killing curse or killed anyone.

One day he had been going through his mother's old magazines of Witch Weekly. He wanted a job because he couldn't live in his house anymore. The walls haunted him. He used to feel that the walls were trying to come closer and slowly suffocate him while he sat on his bed at night. He also imagined hearing the screams of people who died there, every night.

Late that night he found a two month old advertisement given in Witch Weekly about the training offered by one of the famous wizarding portrait painter, Milikan Istevan, who was currently living in Venice, Italy. His parents were against the idea of him moving away from them because according to them, learning the art of painting portraits of a person, with which the actual person spends time, that acquire his or her qualities was menial. But Draco found the profession fascinating, different than the normal Healers, Auror and other jobs. He wanted to do that and was not going to change his decision for anyone.

Milikan Istevan had a habit, he gave his best student the studio he worked in while living in a particular place. Draco wanted to be that student because he had absolutely no desire of ever returning to the cold manor whose memory made Draco scared to death. Narcissa and Lucius, on the other hand, didn't want Draco to go to a foreign land alone and volunteered to go with him. But Draco had heard about their plan of brainwashing his mind about painting as soon as they got there. He knew that his parents could sink that low and do absolutely any kind of magic on him to make him dance on their fingertips. Though he was sure that he wanted to go alone, to make his own life and to stand on his own feet, it was one of the first decisions he had made for himself since his sixth year at Hogwarts and was extremely proud of it.

He had sent a letter to Milikan the very next day but he got rejected due to late application submission. He didn't have the courage to tell that to Lucius and Narcissa, he actually wanted his parents to be angry with him due to his new rebelling nature because it gave him a morale boost. So he altered the words in the letter and showed it to his parents. They were furious and made him sit with them in order to make him act like a pureblood. Draco, who just kept smiling while Narcissa and Lucius were shouting at him, kept thinking of a way to make Milikan admit him in his class. Then an idea popped up in his mind that night, he immediately took a parchment, several coloured quills, paint and his wand and started creating his first master piece. The thing that surprised him was that he had achieved such peace of mind while painting that he forgot where he was. A week filled with hours of hard work later, he had completed it.

It was a painting of a little blonde haired boy crying. He looked merely five years old. His face was shining with tears leaking from his eyes, his eyes were reflecting the image of a dementer and his broken toy broomstick kept next to him marked the fleeing of his innocence. The portrait was a depiction of him, Draco. The child in it was the child inside him who was crying more nosily than a hungry toddler. The dementer showcased the lack of happiness in his life and the broomstick depicted the task that Voldemort had assigned him. The picture looked so real that when Draco looked at it, he thought it was a mirror. And when his parents saw it, they burst into tears and didn't utter a single word about not going to him again.

He had sent the portrait to Milikan and what Draco received was a tear filled letter. He had been so touched by the painting that he immediately took him under his guidance.

After three years of training, at the age of twenty-two he was graduated from Milikan's school and to his delight, he had been given the huge condo, with a studio, to work and live. Milikan left the very next day and Draco moved in his apartment. No one knew where he went this time but Draco had an idea that he'll soon be seeing a pamphlet with his teacher's name, asking for new students from a new fancy location he had set.

In the first few months of working independently, Draco hadn't been very popular but he had started gaining attention from people, eventually. Though many people were still not willing to come anywhere near him, there were some that risked. And the good thing was that they were not disappointed. They saw his work and bought it. Soon people swarmed around him just to get a look of his work, he had to set several galleries of his work just to get some privacy at his apartment.

Although even after so much work there was a time when wished he could run away and settle at a new place but his feet wouldn't let him. He had fallen in love with the place, with the people, with the weather, with the water, the boat rides yet there were times when he wished he had someone to enjoy it with. He even stooped low to think about writing to Pansy and inviting her to his home but he was pretty sure that he didn't want to go through her once again. The small romance between Pansy and him was more like a set up to keep their parents happy and to get some experience with kissing and being part of a relationship. The good thing was they had never officially begun or ended their relationship; its beginning was marked by a kiss and ended with him hexing her when she followed him to the Astronomy tower in their sixth year.

After three years of working in Venice independently, he felt that the feeling of loneliness had fully enclosed him in a shell and no one could penetrate it or break it. The twenty-two year old Draco had loved this feeling of freedom but the changed twenty-five year old felt the same old routine making him hate life again. He loved his work but he didn't understand why he was doing the work. Why he had been saving each Knut that he earned? Because he didn't have anyone in his life to spend the money on. The flicker of hope that he had in his heart was about to be blown out.

Two days later he decided to do something about it and so he took the decision of moving to another place, a faraway place. To Dunedin, New Zealand. To begin new. But before he moved, he had one last painting to make in Venice. He got the letter from his teacher, Milikan Istevan, about a lady who wanted the portrait of her daughter painted.

He heard the knock on the door and immediately ran to open it. His eyes widened as he looked at Mrs Velucia Greengrass standing on the door, wearing expensive looking purple robes, and standing behind her was a young woman who looked like she would rather die than stay there.

"Draco Malfoy!" Velucia Greengrass exclaimed, striding inside the house without permission. She looked around with the eyes of a critic and scrunched her nose in disgust. "You live in this filth! The heir of Lucius Malfoy living in this disg..."

"Mother!" The girl exclaimed, still standing at the door.

"Astoria come inside!" Velucia shouted with gritted teeth, but in a lady like voice.

"No!"

"What did you say to me young lady?!" Velucia exclaimed. Draco kept looking from his left to right as the mother and daughter fought.

"Just what you heard. I can't come inside a stranger's house without his or her permission. Remember, one of the points from my 'how to be a pureblood lady' sessions," the girl named Astoria spat.

Draco looked at her and smiled apologetically. He noticed that she had light brown hair and was wearing a travelling clock which looked very expensive. "Please, come in," he said curtly.

Velucia rolled her eyes as Astoria came in looking at the house as if it was some kind of masterpiece. She cleared her throat to clear the thoughts in her daughter's mind before saying, "Where was I? Oh, yes... The heir of Lucius Malfoy living in this disg..."

"I think it's magnificent!" Astoria said dreamily, looking at the nearby paintings in awe.

"Astoria when you are told then only you should speak! How could you possibly land a husband if you kept acting like a tramp," Velucia yelled.

Astoria looked at her mother and smiled. "You call me tramp because I am unladylike. Just accept it that I am not perfect like you or Daphne. You just need to deal with it."

Velucia glared at her and stated, "I should've killed you when I had the chance. Everyone said that I didn't look like I will have a boy that time but I was very sure that your father and I would have a beautiful boy. Instead we got you! I should've aborted you like your grandmother told me to."

"Of course. No wonder you and dad call me the biggest mistake of your life. I prefer dying than being your daughter!" she exclaimed, tears falling out of her eyes.

"Now you are crying! It's not like I have said this to you the very first time. Anyways," -Velucia turned towards Draco who was gazing sadly at the silently weeping figure of Astoria- "So it's a ritual to have the painting of every member of the family, even the undesirables, to be hanged in our library. You would've seen that Draco when you used to come to play with Daphne and by the way, she is now turned into a beautiful lady who will bear you equally beautiful children. You can owl her after you are done with this painting of Astoria. Exactly, how long will it take to complete?"

Draco looked at Velucia and said angrily, "Almost five weeks."

"Alright!" She leaned closer to him and whispered in his ear, "Even if you finish it in two days, I don't mind. Astoria isn't actually beautiful or has any nice features that will land her a good husband. I would love to see her unmarried even when she dies; you know she deserves it anyway. You know how bad it is to have no men in the family to take the family line further." She kissed his cheek and moved away from him. "She will be living in a cheap muggle hotel nearby so she doesn't delay your work. Right, Astoria?"

"Yes mother," Astoria sighed tearfully.

Velucia nodded and left through the door of the apartment right away, without even once looking back at her daughter. Immediately Draco closed the door and locked it. He turned towards the young woman who was standing in the middle of his studio-slash-apartment and looking down at the floor.

"Are you okay?" Draco asked softly, moving closer to her.

"Yeah... should we begin?" She asked, not meeting his eye.

"I don't think you are okay... You know, you look very familiar. Have we ever met?" He asked, tilting her hand up with his hand so he could examine her face. It had dried tears on it and beautiful grey eyes, like him. He couldn't understand why her mother wouldn't call her beautiful because according to him, he had never seen a woman more beautiful than her.

"Not officially but you were... or are Daphne's friend. You used to come to the house around the age of eleven or twelve with your friends Pansy and Goyle and used to eat a lot of homemade cake," she replied laughing, her eyes shining as she remembered the memory.

"Can I tell you a secret?" Draco said, smiling at the memory too. "I only used to come to the house to eat the cake. It was bloody delicious. I would kiss the person who made those or increase the salary of the house elf who made it."

Astoria blushed furiously. She bowed her head down and said, "Can I tell you a secret too? I... I don't usually kiss people I just met."

"Huh... so you are the secret chef, eh? Impressive," he replied smirking.

"Not so impressive. I wanted to make a career out of my baking skills like in the muggle world but my mother doesn't let me live my life. I feel like a caged bird... Do you know how happy I am to be here? It's this brilliant feeling that has enclosed my entire body. I mean you look at the mothers of other people and they are so warm, loving and welcoming but my mother is the complete opposite. Not to Daphne though, she is the princess of the house... I heard what she said in your ear and yes, it's true. She wants you to marry Daphne," she said sadly.

"I don't want to marry Daphne. She is annoying, a big pain in the arse!" He exclaimed.

"Oh no! She is not just annoying, she is a ruddy nightmare. She has this annoying friend, Pansy Parkinson, and they keep giggling all the time. And I can't understand one thing, if you want to laugh you should laugh loudly and heartily not the girlish giggle," she exclaimed, running her hand through her hair.

"I actually dated Pansy," Draco mumbled.

Immediately Astoria's face fell open in surprise and she started laughing loudly, as she had said. "I feel so sorry for you! You dated Pansy Parkinson! Didn't find anyone else, did you?"

"Hey, in my defence she came on to me... Well, I would've dated you but I thought you didn't like me," Draco said, smirking.

Her face turned a little red. She quickly shook her head and looked at him, "Of-course I didn't like you and you wouldn't have dated me because till today you didn't even know that I existed. But I did not like you in school at all, your friends once pulled the hair of my friend."

The happiness drenched out of Draco's face as he heard the last line. He remembered suddenly the one memory he had of her in which she had hexed Crabbe for pulling her friend's hair. He wanted the hair for the Polyjuice potion that he was making Crabbe and Goyle drink to guard the Room of Requirement. "I am sorry about that," he finally said sadly.

Astoria smiled and tip toed to kiss him on the cheek. "It's okay... Should we begin?"

Draco nodded, touching his cheek, and smiled. He began setting up his work station as Astoria took her travelling cloak off to reveal the beautiful white and blue knee length backless dress she was wearing. He looked at her from the corner of his eye and swallowed hard as his eyes roamed all over her body. He averted his gaze from her and started to set the canvas up. He waved his wand at the canvas, the coloured quills and paint, then moved near her and waved his wand to make an armchair appear out of thin air behind her.

"Oho! Thank you. By the way, I love your place. It's so beautiful," she said.

"No, this is more like a trash can of my works. I am actually thinking of moving away. To a new place, to have a new beginning. Dunedin, maybe," he said, flicking her hair with his wand so that it would stay the same way.

"Wow! I wish I could go to New Zealand too. To start new," she said, now staring directly into his grey eyes.

"I am going to start now," he said, clearing his throat.

So as he began painting with a paint brush in one hand and his wand in the other, waving it without break at the canvas as he painted every small detail. They both took ten minute breaks every three hours. At around six in the evening he put his wand back in his robes, which had various colours splattered on it, and the quills and paint brushes away. He covered the painting with a cloth and looked at Astoria who had fallen asleep in the same position.

He slowly went towards her and placed his hand on her shoulder which made her scream loudly. "Bloody hell Astoria! It's me, Draco," he said softly as she slowly remembered where she was.

"Oh! I thought I was in Transfiguration class and Professor McGonagall was correcting my essay," she stated, burying her face in her hands.

"Don't worry about it! Come let's go out for dinner," he said, extending his hand for her to hold.

She took his hand and leaned her head on his shoulder. "Transfiguration is one of my best subjects and the thought of failing it scared me," she told him.

He nodded, smiling and picked up her travelling cloak kept on the table. He helped her to put it back on before waving his own wand on his robes to make them clean again. "I will take you to a very nice place. I really like the food there, I hope you will like it too." Astoria nodded and followed him out of the house.

After dinner they strolled around the streets talking and having a great time before they reached in front of the hotel Astoria was living in. The hotel looked like a haunted mansion and had scary looking people, standing outside the main entrance, that were leering at her like she was a piece of meat. Draco immediately pulled her closer to him in a protective way and walked away from the hotel until they could not see it from where they were standing.

"Draco, what are you doing?" Astoria questioned, eyeing him curiously.

"You can't possibly think of living there. I can't leave you all alone there at night... if you want to stay there then I'll also stay there with you otherwise come to my apartment," he stated seriously.

"But..."

"No, I want you to be safe."

Astoria sighed and after five minutes of thinking she nodded. "Okay, I'll go with you but what about my luggage?"

"You go to my apartment and give me the key of your room. I will go and bring it for you," he said.

"No! It's dangerous and.." She trailed off, touched.

"If you are saying that it is dangerous for me to go in just to take your luggage then how do you expect me to leave you there all alone at night! I will be alright. Go," he said, making her move in the direction of his apartment.

An hour later, he got home with her two suitcases levitating behind him although his left eye was seriously swelled up. When Draco had come back from her room with her suitcases he didn't have any idea that the manager of the hotel would beat him up because he had prevented, in his words 'the pretty lady', from returning to the hotel and so he fought with him but Draco was full of determination of not letting her come there or leaving her luggage in that ghastly place.

No sooner did Astoria spot the swelling around his eye, she ran towards him. She made him sit on the chair she was sitting on and examined his eye as he moaned in pain. She quickly ran towards a cupboard in the kitchen where she had seen some healing potions as she looked around the house in his absence. Taking a piece of cotton from the cupboard as well, Astoria came back and started gently dapping potion around his eye as he hissed in pain.

"It's alright! Just a few more seconds then it'll be better, I promise. Please," she pleaded as he moaned in pain.

After a few moments of excruciating pain, the potion started to come into effect and stopped the pain, his eye slowly started to return to the way it was. Draco rested his back on the chair and looked at the worried figure of Astoria looking at him as if he will moan again. He sighed, sitting upright, and told her about what had happened at the hotel, making her feel more and more ashamed of herself for sending Draco there alone.

"I am so sorry. I don't deserve all the things you are doing for me," she replied tearfully.

"You did nothing wrong and I am proud of what I did for you because if they did this to me,"- He pointed at his eye- "Then I don't even want to think about what they would've done to you."

"I am sorry! If there is something that I could do for you the please tell me."

He thought for a minute and then smiled. "There is one thing that you could do... Can you stay close to me?" Astoria smiled and nodded.

And as they lay in his bed together, Draco pulled her closer to himself. He smelled her hair and heard her breathing while smiling. His instincts told him that the next five weeks might just change his life forever.

This was originally a one-shot but I decided to make it a two-shot.

I hope you all like this and if not, tell me that in a review or something. You can tell me anything you want in that review but please do review. It gives me a morale boost. If you liked this story, you can read more of my work from my fanfiction profile page.

Review! :)