Story: Hidden in the Shadows

Chapter Title: 3rd Time's the Charm

Summary: The first time he saw her, she was surrounded by paint and glitter. Entry for Goldenfeather's Love and Laughter challenge.

Genre: Romance/General

Prompts Completed: #39- Glitter, #48- Paint, #85- Potions

The first time Draco saw her, she was surround by paint and glitter.

Crabbe and Goyle were behind Draco when the three entered the common room from the dorms. The two ran into Draco when he suddenly stopped at the bottom of the stairs. He saw her moving throughout the green haze of the Slytherin common room with the can of paint slung over one arm like a purse. The jar of glitter was held in the hand of the opposite arm, and she had a paint brush stuck behind her ear.

Draco didn't stay around long enough to see what would happen.

The second time Draco saw her; she once again had the paint and glitter. She was sitting on the floor of the common room with the two jars were on either side of her and a cauldron sitting in front of her. Draco watched as she stirred the potion three times counter-clockwise. She did everything right for the Heart-Reviving potion, but when she was supposed to put in the fur of a wolf, she picked up the entire jar or paint and poured it in. She stirred fourteen times; seven counter-clockwise and seven clockwise. She then added the jar of glitter and poured it in to mixture and stirred it with the rest.

Surprisingly, the potion turned the deep violet it was supposed too. The girl wrote something on a small note card. She grabbed the cauldron and note and moved both to the bottom steps leading up to the boy's dormitories. Draco moved further back into the darkness at the top of the stairs as he watched her prop up the folded card up against the side of the cauldron where it was sure to be noticed.

She stood up, put her hands on her hips and sighed. She shook her head and left the common room; her stick straight, light-brown hair falling out of her loosely tied pony tail. When Draco was sure that she was gone, he went down and picked up the note to read.

Ashford,

I'm terribly sorry for the way I acted the other day. You were right, a mere 4th year would never know the answers to the 6th year quiz that you had to complete. I was incredibly... hateful to you. To make up for my incompetence, I have fully made your potions assignment for you.

My Deepest Apologies,

Juliana Hellsten

Draco saw that 'sorry', 'hateful', and 'incompetence' were written oddly, as if they never wanted to be written.

Draco found out a lot of information from that note. Her name (Juliana); she was a fourth year (a year younger than himself); and he was utterly in love with her. Of course, he didn't realize the latter of the three at that moment. No, he would realize that much later. But something would happen soon that made him a step closer to his utter realization.

The third time Draco saw her, the potion blew up.

Slytherin had a combination class with 4th, 5th, and 6th year. It was a 5th year class with the 4th years being there for an advanced class and the 6th years there for a remedial class.

Snape was going around the classroom criticizing the work. When he came to Lawson Ashford's, a look of shock spread over his face. In a split second it was gone again.

The end of the class came and Snape asked for a flask of every potion. As Lawson was putting his potion into the flask, it started to bubble. Within a moment, the concoction blew up. Lawson's hair was burnt black instead of its normal blond and a spark of fire was still on one strand. The potion had spilled on the floor and proceeded to spell out a word.

Hateful

All but two students looked at Ashford as he grew pale and almost fainted. Draco looked at Juliana. He watched her as she had a slight smirk on her face and poured a drop of blue paint into her potion.

Okay, I normally don't write Draco (I'm still mad that he called 'Mione a Mudblood in 2nd year), but I love this! --squeals-- Juli, Juli, Juli, you're going to tease Draco so much!! --evil laugh--

-Jillian