[A/N: This is my first ever posted fanfic, so, whoo-hoo for me. Malfoy and OC named Willow. Read, Rate and Review please! Please, please don't flame, it's not nice, and I wouldn't ever do it to you.

Disclaimer: Anything you recognize is not mine. JKR is brilliant and I would never try to steal her things.]

The First of Me

Draco Malfoy needed a break. A break from everything that had been going on lately. His father was . . . well, his father, and his mother was more oblivious than ever, even Potter and his friends were becoming unbearable. He couldn't take it anymore. That's when he decided to sneak out of Hogwarts for the weekend. No one would notice, he reasoned. He wasn't really one of the "popular" kids. Sure, he made people laugh, but was that enough? No. It never had been. These people weren't his friends. They didn't know anything about him. He needed to get away. Really away. Away from magic, Hogwarts and his "obligations."
After dinner on Friday, he just left, he walked out the front doors and across the lawns, lurking in the shadows and hoping he wasn't seen. At the front gate, he hid behind a tree and waited. Ten minutes later, he heard it. The telltale click of hooves that indicated a horse pulling up. A carriage, he thought. Someone was coming to the school, the normal, official way. Maybe Muggles, maybe not, Draco really didn't care, they were his way out.

As the carriage pulled in, he ducked behind it, using it as cover so as to slip out of the gate and into the trees on the other side. He hid behind a large fir and when no one yelled, he knew he was safe. He was out. He headed down the path, and when it forked, he stopped.

The right fork went to Hogsmeade, the left, to a Muggle village. He started off down the road to Hogsmeade, but then he turned back. If he went there, it was way more likely that he'd be seen and caught. But he didn't want to go to the Muggle village. He'd never been around Muggles in his life! He hadn't taken Muggle Studies or any type of pre-Hogwarts Muggle education. What if he did something to give himself away?

Ah, what the heck, he thought, and took the left one, to the Muggle village. He'd never taken this path before, he doubted any Hogwarts student had. Why go to a Muggle town when the oh so interesting Hogsmeade was right here?

There was a little cafe on the outskirts of town, Maggie's Place, according to the sign over the door. Draco walked in and took a seat at the corner table. He ordered a hot chocolate, to be polite, and put his head in his hands, his elbows on the table. He just sat there, even when his hot chocolate came. Just sat.

Willow was sixteen. Carefree and over the moon. So what if her younger sister, Jenna, was stealing the spotlight on the school's stage? So what if she had taken Willow's place of pride in the drama club? And so bloody what if all Willow's friends preffered Jenna? She wasn't going to let it bother her, because this was her year. It was supposed to be her year. That was what everyone said: "You're sixteen now, everything's going to be brilliant for you!" Yeah right.
Now she knew why she'd never believed them. Her sister was stealing all her friends and her spot on the school stage! Her sister had tried out for the school's fall play, and got the lead. Willow didn't even get a walk on part this year! Jenna joined the drama club and now all her friends were drifting away from her to hang out with her sister. The last time she'd called Amy, she'd said she already had plans, with Jenna.
As Willow walked down the sidewalk, trying to decide what to do with her already empty and lonely Saturday night, she saw the blinking sign above Maggie's Place. It was one of her favorite hangouts, people knew her there. They knew when she needed quiet or someone to talk to, or just a cup of tea. Walking in she scanned the crowd. The regulars were all there, so were a few kids from school, a few couples from the college not too far away, and a strange man in a suit was in the corner His head in his hands, ignoring his drink. He was sitting at her table. That was where she always sat.
Was nothing sacred? All the other tables were full and not with people she was friends with. She was not going to let this man take away her happiness, even if he was sitting at her table. What options did she have?
Are you really going to go and sit with him? Her inner voice asked. A stranger? He almost looks, she struggled, looking for the right word, dangerous. Maybe you'd better just go home. Have a normal, boring night? No way. She told herself.

She shook her head a little, brushed her hair out of her face, and walked over to the man at the table. He looked up as she approached and she saw that he wasn't really a man. He was a boy, her age, maybe a bit older. She smiled at him.

"Hi, I'm Willow, whats your name? Would you mind if I sit here? There aren't any other seats." He looked around, and nodded a little.
"Sure," he said, barely looking at her. "Sit."
"Okay," Willow looked over at the counter and saw Tina, her mom's best friend and longtime waitress of Maggie's Place, looking at her strangely. She gave Tina a wide smile that said "I know what I'm doing," and turned back to the guy. "What's your name? I've never seen you around here before."
He looked up at her and scowled, like he really didn't want to be talking right now. He looked down again.
"Hello? What's your name?" he still wasn't looking at her. She sighed a little and signalled to Tina that she wanted a hot chocolate.

Draco glanced at the girl beside him, she had very long, very straight blond hair that fell to her stomach and a high, sort of breathy voice that made him think of Loony Lovegood. Not good. Why was she sitting here? Sure, there weren't many other seats open, but nobody sat by him of their own accord normally. Least of all without his permission. He may not be popular but he was somewhat feared.
"You know, I'm not going to leave until you tell me." Draco sighed heavily. She'd only been sitting there for one minute and already Draco wanted her to leave.
"Please? Come on, it's not like it'll kill you."
Maybe if I tell her and then I don't say anything else, she'll go away.
"Draco." he said. Then he grabbed his hot chocolate and took a drink. When he put it down, he didn't look at her.
"I've never seen you around here before. Did you just move here?" God, she was nosy.
Draco sighed and looked at the girl, he hoped the look in his eyes said "Get away from me, I'm not a nice guy." But the girl either didn't notice, or maybe she didn't care.
"I've lived here all my life, and this is a pretty small town, so I think I'd know if I'd seen you before, and I haven't. So that means you haven't been to town before, right?"
Draco decided that he'd just answer in short, clipped sentences, and maybe his attitude would get her to go away. He didn't have much hope for this plan, but it was the only one he had and he didn't really want to get up and go back to Hogwarts just yet.
"I go to boarding school."
"Really? Near here? I go the public school. So, do they have sports teams at your school? Maybe we've play you?"
"Not really. We're academic." he said. "Not Muggle sports," he said under his breath.
"What was that?" the girl asked. He ignored her.
"So, what are you doing here?" her hot chocolate arrived and she took a small sip.
"Snuck out."
"Why?"
"I felt like it."
"I don't believe you."
"Fine."
"Tell me!" she demanded
"No."
"Please?" Her tone changed, softer this time.
"No!" But he could feel himself wavering.
"Come on, it's not like I'll tell anyone."
"Fine, you want to know? You really want to know?" he glared at Willow. "I snuck out because I couldn't take it anymore. I needed to get away. I felt like they were all watching me because I'm supposed to become who my father is, supposed to go into the "family business" and they don't approve of that. They don't approve of him, so they get off on judging me. I put on a brave face, a proud face, the face that says "I'm a Malfoy, and I'm proud of that, and don't you dare come near me because if you do I'll squash you like the worthless insect you are." And they believe it. They don't try to see under it. They don't try to see anything but what I show them, because I'm too scared to confront my father and tell him that I hate what he is, that I hate what he does, and I don't want to be a part of it!" he stopped, suddenly aware of how much he'd said, what he'd told this Muggle. This girl he didn't even know.

Willow sat stunned. Whatever she'd expected, this hadn't been it. She could hear the hurt in his voice, could see his pain in his eyes.
"Well, I" she broke off trying to gather some words of comfort, "I don't really know what to say to that. But I don't think that's fair of them. You aren't your father Sure, he's where you came from, but you can go so many places that have nothing to do with him."
"That's not even the half of it. My life is so screwed up. At my school, we have Houses, it determines when you have classes and who you have classes with and where you sleep, and all that. My House is rivals with another school house, and there are three kids in that other House that are always trying to get me down, so I have to get them first. You know, I'm really mean to them on sight now, so they can't be mean to me without reason. Because this way I can justify to myself their reactions to me." He paused, his rant slowing down, he sounded less angry and almost sad now. "I'm not even friends with the people in my own House. In my House, you're always competing, always against each other, always trying to do better than everyone else. The closest I have to friends are these two boys who follow me around. They're complete idiots. You're just lucky to live out here, away from everyone and all their stupid prejudices." Willow looked at him sharply, her eyes suddenly narrowed.
"Excuse me?" the breathy quality was gone from her voice. "Lucky? Me? What you think it's all fun and games 'out here?' Please, you know nothing about me, or this town. From what I've just heard from you this place and your school aren't so different. I'm being overshadowed by my younger sister. I used to be the popular one. I used to have all the friends, somewhere to be every night, people to see, places to go. Now look at me." She gestured violently with her arms. "I've sunk to talking to a stranger so I don't have to be alone at home tonight. I used to be the in the drama club. Two years ago, I got the lead in all the school plays. This year, I didn't even get in, and guess who got the lead? My sister. My younger sister. I call my old friends to see if they want to do anything. Go shopping, practice lines, stuff like that, and they've already got plans. With my sister. Drama club's just like your houses apparently. We compete all the time for the spots in the plays, but we're excluded from everyone else, we're apart from the guys who play rugby and the rest of the school because they can't understand us." She crossed her arms and sat there, a scowl of her own on her face, blinking fast, like she was trying to hold back tears.
"It's still better than my life. I would love to be ignored. To have nothing to do at night. But no. I'm subjected to - " he paused, seeming to search for a word, "job training" he broke off to scoff, "I don't even want. My dad's boss wants me in with him as well as my dad. He can't come to the school, but he sends me messages through one of the teachers. He can still find me." Willow looked up at Draco sharply. She wasn't sure, but she thought, well, she thought she'd heard. . . fear, in his voice, when he talked about his father's boss. "They want me to be someone else. Someone . . . like them. I'm not even sure if they have emotions anymore, or if they're just doing their jobs."
They sat for a minute in silence. Then Willow knew what she had to say.

"Don't be that person." her voice was carefully controlled. "Don't be the person your father sees, or the person your enemies see. Be yourself. Be you. Your enemies see only your bad side, and your father, most likely, only your good. But people are not black and white, cut and dried, stuck in their little boxes never to be looked at again. People are a gray area. Never all good and never all bad. Be who you want to be, not what they wish you to be or see you as, just be you." she looked at Draco, right into his stormy grey eyes, to see if he'd gotten the message.
He smiled at her, a small smile, but a smile nonetheless. "Thanks." They sat in silence. Sipping their drinks. He stood up pulling a jacket off the back of his seat. "Your sister, she's not better than you. Your sister wasn't the one to sit with a total stranger and listen to him spill his guts, then help him out. Don't worry about other people thinking you're nice either, take your own advice and just be you. And if I were you, I would try getting a couple of new friends. Just being friends with people you're constantly competing with doesn't seem like a good idea. You can consider me your first official non-drama friend, if you like."
She smiled at him and flipped her hair over her shoulder. "I'd like that. So - " she paused and blushed slightly, "Can I get in touch with you again? Do you have a phone? Can I have your number?"
"Oh, um," he looked a little uncomfortable. "They're not allowed, but I could write to you. I have an owl, her name's Selena, and she can carry letters from me directly to you. Owls are very smart. She'll always find me, the letters will never get lost."
"Um, I guess I'd like that, too. She sounds amazing. But um, why can't we just use normal post?" Willow looked at Draco questioningly. "Not that it's not a good idea or anything," she said quickly, not wanting to hurt him. "But isn't it a bit, I don't know, strange?"

"Yeah, I guess it is a bit strange." Draco stopped. Here's where he had to start lying outright. Before in this conversation, he just told a sort of veiled truth, but now he had to tell a complete lie, because he couldn't tell her that the postman didn't come to his school because he thought the building was condemned. "But the school's really strict about outside contact during the school year. They only give us letters once a month, and I wanna talk to you more than that. I've been training Selena for a long time, nearly since I got her when I was seven. Now she knows to come back to me, and how to find people by their pictures and general location."

Willow looked at her watch suddenly. "Uh, oh," she said. "I have to go. I was supposed to be home ten minutes ago!" She got up.

"Yeah, I should probably get back too." Draco said, getting up as well. He could tell that Willow was still confused, but she was now too worried about being late to really thing about it.

They got outside and Willow looked over at him. Then, before he knew what had happening, the tall girl pulled him into a hug and whispered in his ear. "I'm glad you're my friend." Then she sprinted away.

Draco smiled as he watched her race away. Then he turned around and started walking in the opposite direction, back to Hogwarts.

END Ch. 1

Please R&R! Don't be afraid to tell me it sucks. (But you have to have a valid reason. If you say it sucks because the plot is inconceivable or something, I won't believe you.)