Chapter Two
It was late in the afternoon but no one in the common room could tell. That was one of the things that Draco didn't like about Slytherin; there were no
windows, and thus no sunlight. Trying to hide in the corner of the common room, books and homework spread out across a dark wood and silver writing
desk, Malfoy was gritting his teeth in frustration. It seemed to him that he was surrounded by gorillas and hyenas, all vying for each other's attention. The
silver and green room was a cacophony of noise and movement. From one corner came loud bangs and peels of screaming and laughter where Crabbe and
Goyle were throwing pairs of exploding snap cards at girls. The Quidditch captain was boasting to a group of fourth years about his trip to Kenya and
showing them the contraband curses he had picked up there. On top of all of this, Pansy kept coming over to his table and trying to get Malfoy to notice her
new color of eye shadow, or something shallow and girly like that. When he refused to look at it, or indeed to even answer her whiny questions, she huffily
launched herself away from the table and entered back into the general fray.
I am surrounded by absolute morons, Malfoy seethed. He sunk even lower into his chair, scrunched his fists over his ears and tried to concentrate on his
ancient rune cyphers. Then two sixth years sat on his desk and began making out. Something tiny seemed to snap within his brain. With a cry of
exasperation, he wrenched his work from underneath their passionate embraces and stormed out into the corridor. He pounded furiously down the hallway
and people stepped away from him in surprise. He fancied that they could literally feel the waves of anger pulsing out of him and simply knew not to get in
his way. It was only when he turned into an empty corridor and his heart stopped thumping that he realized he didn't know where to go. Or, to be more
specific, he didn't know where he wanted to go. Still feeling angry at the immaturity and lack of consideration shown by his peers, Malfoy knew that he
needed to escape to somewhere quiet, somewhere far from his fellow Slytherins. He needed somewhere that the imbeciles wouldn't find him either, if they
dared to come looking. But where?
The first place that came into his head was an empty classroom, but they always felt too quiet to Malfoy. It was unnerving. He sat down on a stone ledge
underneath a window to think. The sunlight splayed itself across the ledge and onto the ground in a warm pool. No ideas came. Draco was at an all-time
loss, worse than last year when he ran out of funny slogans to put on anti-Potter badges ("Potter Sucks" was as far as he got). However, after a little
consideration, Draco had a brain wave. The light had begun to turn deep persimmon orange as he jumped up from his seat and swept his study up into his
arms. He decided that the best way (or rather, the only way) to temporarily rid himself of his oafish friends would be to go to the library. There were books
there, right? And it was always quiet in libraries, but the quiet of other people trying to be quiet. That sort of quiet was okay. Draco could deal with that sort.
Not the lonely, empty classroom quiet. And so, he loosened his green tie and stalked off briskly towards the library.