Chapter 2
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"This story begins a long time ago, when I was very young.

It is, of course, going to be a story about love and this love is between a girl and a boy. These two, the boy and the girl, were not always close, in fact most of their lives they were brought up to hate each other and even more than hate each other, disrespect each other.

The amount of energy we spent, just to dislike each other, seems silly and overdramatic now. Our only excuse was youth and that when you are younger logic is lesser to passionate, even if incorrect, action. Perhaps we are worse off when we lose that though.

You could not totally blame youth for our less than perfect impressions of each other though; in fact it was our parents that really started it. Our parent's despised each other for as long as our families remember. Each of my own six brothers despised him and he them. It was a feud as old as our families, a deep seated hatred, unquestioned and unparalleled and also completely unreasonable.

All of us kids ended up going to the same school but being the youngest I only actually attended school at the same time as one of my brothers, my brother and that boy. Our school was... how shall I say this, a specialty school I suppose. We boarded there all year except for summer holiday and for a handful of students, Christmas as well. The school was located somewhere way out in the countryside so contact with outside society was minimal.

Even though there were a few hundred kids it is inevitable that you end up closer to everyone than you could imagine, and often more than you would like. To that extent this boy and me ended up spending six years practically living together and with feuding families, let me tell you, there were more than a couple rifts.

It wasn't only our families that didn't get along, even within the school we were divided and rivals. We respectively belonged to Slytherin and Gryffindor, opposing houses. At our school each student was placed in a house based, well, on personality traits I suppose; that seems rather silly now as a child's personality changes most rapidly but that was how it was, and this boy and I were put in the most infamously opposing houses in the school, another feud practically as old as time. His house verses mine, house rivalry was, at that time, tumultuous.

We'd gone to school together for 5 years when it all began, or where at least we began. With barely had any interaction, except for the occasional unpleasantries, until our sixth year. In our sixth year something happened, we collided.

I call it a collision because it was the combination of complete opposites, so it had to have been a little explosive. It wasn't really a collision though, it was more like an unexpected merging. Our houses and our families were different as could be, not to mention ourselves. His house wore green, I wore red. His house lived bellow ground I lived above. He was an only child; I was the last of seven. He was rich, I was poor. My hair was vibrant and the color of fire, his was pale, almost white. And that was just at face value. He was all pride, I was all passion. He loved morning, I loved night. I loved art because it made me feel alive, he loved life because it felt like art. We were different but not completely incompatible.

Perhaps it was just one of those 'opposites attract' kind of things. I wouldn't really call what we had attraction. In the beginning we were never really attracted to each other, we just bumped into each other one day and fit, without knowing it, it took us a while to see the whole picture too.

Our first meeting or collision or whatever it's called was during mid autumn when the leaves were falling everywhere. I had a short break between classes, for once all my work was caught up with, so I decided to take a stroll around the grounds away from the castle and away from the people. However lovely it is to have a nice big family, there is often a fair amount of smothering that goes on, especially when you're the youngest. One of the greater freedoms of living away from home was the ability to be alone.

Completely caught up in myself, I walked farther and farther from the school. The weather was cold but a cold that felt nice on my skin. So I barely noticed anything around me. I took pleasure in not having to think or do anything but just walk.

That's where it happened. Looking back it wasn't a spectacular meeting but it was something.

He was sitting on a rock over looking the forest and smoking a cigarette. He looked so at ease, so undisturbed by his surroundings and at the same time deep in thought. It was an odd way to see him. In my eye's he was just a bratty rich kid that was always up to no good. This was the first time I thought of him as just another kid.

I turned, deciding maybe I'd just leave him alone. But he moved just then, I guess he'd heard me. He looked at me for a second and then turned around again and just took another drag from his cigarette. I don't know what it was but something about being ignored just made me snap.

I felt as if I were the one doing the right thing, being the bigger person, willing to leave him to his peace and cigarettes, but there he was, trying to snottily show me up by being indifferent to me. I guess the bigger person doesn't just scream this at someone though, so I walked over and sat near him.

'Hey' I said. Maybe if I annoyed him enough he'd snap and I could feel okay about it. Maybe if something normal happened I could forget about him maybe being human too.

His head barely turned, I wondered if he could even see me out of his peripheral vision; and then he just sort of nodded. What was that? Acknowledgement? Was he trying to goad me or did he really not care that I was invading his privacy, that we were sharing space? Heck, I was annoyed at him being in my space.

As I got closer nothing happened, he didn't even ignore me he just acted with an air of complete indifference. I hated that.

'You don't mind?' I asked, say yes, and please say yes. I knew he would know what I was talking about, even if he wouldn't react to it.

'Whatever.'

Whatever? So un-feeling, so nonchalant how could he not care? I cared for him!

Then, even I'll admit it, I lost it maybe just a little. I think I was more confused than I would have liked to admit. At that moment I just couldn't stand looking at him and even more couldn't stand to be the one to walk away. It was petty and for no reason, but there it was.

'Leave.'

He didn't even respond.

'Leave!' I yelled

He didn't even turn, he just sort of smiled. He just kept smoking and looking and ignoring my outburst.

'Just let it be, alright?' he said, irritated. But I think he might have just pretended to be so to pacify me, to show me up in a way.

I guess I kind of gave in, maybe I realized that I wasn't fighting anything other than the unexpected, I doubt it though. I can't pretend I was that level headed; I was probably just too intrigued to risk actually upsetting him. So we just sat there and watched the leaves fall.

He finished his cigarette and lit another and leaned back on his arms. Then he turned to me like I hadn't just been shouting, like I wasn't a sworn enemy and like I didn't matter in a positive or a negative way. He looked at me like I was nothing and I liked it, it was my first clean slate and blank canvas. Then it occurred to me, I could be anyone I wanted, I could be a bitch I could be flirty or tomboyish, but even better than all that, I could be me. It was so refreshing and at the same time, so scary. Because to him, it wouldn't matter.

'Look at all the red, just like you' he smirked nodding at all the leaves taking a breath between drags. It was almost a complement I felt, one I couldn't figure out but it seemed more than just not nasty. Then he added 'look at all that red, falling and dying.' he was being nice in his own way, he was making it easy. Easy to be me without feeling obligated to be anyone because he would still be the same old Malfoy for me.

'It's still beautiful' I replied not nastily but stubbornly with my chin jutting out. 'Plus it's a whole winter before anything turns green again' Our house colors were green and red you'll remember, and that represented so much more than just school spirit.

He looked at me for a second, then shrugged a little and turned his gaze to the leaves again and nodded slightly, 'I guess so,' he agreed. What? He agreed?
'But' but, that was more like it, 'it's green for a great deal longer than this. This is nice in its own way though, I guess, if you don't count its deceptiveness." he said waving his half smoked cigarette through the air.

'This isn't deception... there's more truth to this than endless fields of green. These moments of autumn are close to momentary but it's beautiful in these moments, it's real; it's temporary, but that's just like real life, temporary, tragic but beautiful none the less! Just like truth.'

'Sure Weasley it's truth.' he said with a knowing smirk. He was done with his cigarette and he tossed it. 'See you Weasley.'

That was it? 'Hey don't throw that! What, do you want to start a fire!'

He walked towards me and leaned down and looked at me at eye level 'It would be temporarily beautiful though, wouldn't it Weasley?'

I just stared back at him, I just didn't get him, and what annoyed me worse was that he always seemed to be one clever remark ahead of me; one clever true remark. He started to walk away and then turned his head a little and said 'Make sure to bundle up for winter, don't want your fire going out or anything like that.' and then he just walked, steadily, unaffected and calmly with his hands in his pockets, back to the school.

Then I realized something, maybe he wasn't being Malfoy for me, maybe he just always was; maybe he was the real one. With that thought I watched him walk with a detached almost uncaring feeling. Sure, the whole situation weirded me out some but autumn really was just too beautiful to waste and I had just realized it; so I sat there, leaning back on my arms for support, enjoying autumn until it was time for class.

That was out first encounter. Our beginning. After that we didn't run into each other again until winter.

Autumn might have been our defining moment but winter was our month.