Colour of the Soul
Chapter 4
When my eyes open this time, it's still dark out. I mean, it's always dark in the dungeons, but none of the lamps were on because it was the early hours of the morning. I take a few moments to let my eyes adjust to the darkness, and slip my legs out from under the covers. I sit on the edge of the bed for a while, just thinking. It was only the second week of school, and my life was so much different than it had been every other year. It was different in a good way, but it still took some getting used to. Plus, today was the day that they would finally announce the champions. Well, that should be interesting. I couldn't even imagine what would happen if one of the twins was chosen. I just laugh under my breath at the thought, and finally get up to get ready for the long day ahead.
Once I was dressed in my robes, I reach into my top drawer and take out my wand. Everyone else was still asleep, so I take a few moments to admire it. It was a light colour of wood and it was carved so it swirled as it got closer to the bottom and had vines and flowers swirling as it got closer to the tip. It was very different from most Slytherin student's wands, which were normally dark colours and simple designs. I slip it into the inside pocket of my robes and head into the bathroom. I grab my brush out of the cabinet and start to slowly brush through my golden brown hair. It was that kind of straight-but-wavy-at-the-same-time sort of style, and it didn't do what I wanted it to do every often. Once I had it the way I wanted it - not that it would stay that way very long - I head out of the bathroom and down the stairs.
I had taken my time getting ready this morning; so many people were already up and about. When I'm halfway down, I can see the couch in the common room, and there sat my brother, with a least five girls sitting around or on top of him. I noticed it was becoming a regular thing this year. Sure, he had grown up a bit during the summer, but really, these girls needed to figure out that he wasn't interested. Of course, he didn't really make it seem that way, of course; he loved the attention. At least to some extent; once they got too clingy, he will become annoyed. Most of the time I had to intervene, just as I'm about to do. Once I finish the last step, my shoes hit the stone floor, making a clicking sound. They all look up at me. Draco pushes one of the girls out of the way to see who it is. As soon as he sees me, he gives me a look of thankfulness, since he knew I was going to save him from the girls.
He runs his hands through his white blonde hair, and it just falls right back into his eyes. I think that I should probably give him a haircut during the Christmas holidays, maybe even before then, considering how long it is now. I walk up to the group and they part so I can grab his hand.
"Come on, Draco, I'll walk you to class." He uses my arm to pull himself off the couch. We're on our way out, and I could feel Pansy staring daggers into my back with jealousy. I just smirk to myself, and walk out of the common room with my brother beside me. Draco stays silent for most of the way but then speaks once we are nearing his first class.
"Thanks for the help, Lira. They just won't leave me alone." He sicks his hands in his pockets casually and sighs.
"You're welcome, but you are partly to blame for those girls not leaving you alone," I tell him. He grabs my shoulder and slows my walking, almost making the girl walking behind run right into us.
"Whatever do you mean, Lira?" he says with a fake shocked expression, throwing his hands around in obnoxious gestures.
"Stop being such a sarcastic git, Draco. We both know that you lead those girls on even, even though you don't like them. Just because you like the attention," I say teasingly, slapping his chest. He rubs his chest where I hit him and just smirks.
"That's actually not the reason, as a matter of fact," he says as we reach the classroom door. Before he can leave, I grab his arm to stop him. He looks back at me over his shoulder.
"What is the reason then, you git? I'm sure everyone would love to know," I say, gesturing to just me.
"Two reasons, both I don't want to tell you," he says with a straight face.
"Draco, I'm not kidding, tell me." I stay looking right at him, trying to figure out why he wouldn't tell me. Before either of us can say anything else, Hermione comes out of nowhere, and slams a whole bunch of papers against Draco's chest. He brings a hand up to hold them there so they don't fall, and looks at her, shocked. She smiles over at me before turning back to Draco.
"This is the work you have to have done before the end of this week. We have two sessions: one today and one Friday." He stares at her, shocked again, before thrusting the papers back to her.
"You can't tell me what to do, you mudblood," he exclaims, giving her a filthy look.
"Oh, give up the act right now, Malfoy. It's just Lira here; your d*** rep won't be compromised," Hermione tells him, pushing the papers still in his hand back into his chest.
He goes to say something else but I give him my signature 'don't you dare or I'll kill you' look. I'd been using it on him since we were little. He gets the message right away, and just gives a child-like 'im not getting my way' sigh and moves off to the side to look at the papers. She raises her eyebrows, evidently wondering what just happened, and then turns to me.
"How have you been, Lira? I saw you yesterday, but a lot can happen in twelve hours, you know. But maybe you're the same as you were yesterday, which would make this question stupid and not useful or interesting at all..." She begins to ramble on before I speak up.
"I'm wonderful, Hermione, thanks for asking." I glance over at Draco and he's looking down at the paper, perplexed.
"So what's up with the stack of paper you gave Draco?" I ask Hermione.
"Oh, I'm his tutor. Snape assigned me to him at the beginning of the semester." I glance at Draco then back at her and then at Draco again.
"You tutor him. You?"
"I'm sorry, I don't follow?" she says, confused. I shake my head.
"Not that I'm doubting your tutor skills, but you and Draco don't see eye to eye very often. Actually, not at all." She laughs.
"Draco knows he need my help, so he doesn't really care as long as he passes. Of course, no one can know I'm his tutor, or that he even has one. He's a handful sometimes, but I think I can get his mark up before midterm," she says as if it's the most normal thing.
I try not to show my shock too much. I glance at Draco again, but he's still shuffling through the pages. As we stood near the doorway, more and more students filed into the classroom. I was confused: why would Hermione Granger want to help my brother pass his classes? They hated each other, called each other names, and tried to one up each other at any opportunity. So why would she help him?
"Okay, wait, I have one more question. Why would you help him? You guys have been trying to get better grades than one another since first year. Plus, he freaked out at me yesterday for talking to you. Why the sudden change of heart?"
She looks over her shoulder at Draco and sighs. It wasn't an annoyed sigh or a contemplating sigh. It was that kind of sigh that you do when have a reason for an action but you can't figure out why you're doing it anyway. I can see a slight smile form on her lips when she sees Draco try to blow his side bangs out of his face. Was that what I thought it was? But it couldn't be. She turns her attention back to me.
"The first few days weren't easy because of exactly what you said. We didn't see eye to eye, we still don't on most things, actually. But I made it clear to him that we needed to put our differences behind us for an hour a day so I could help him. He wasn't really happy with me, but once he got used to talking to me as an actual person, we started to get along. Of course, once again, no one can know that I'm actually a decent person. Oh, and yeah, he may be okay with me when I'm helping him with this work, but talk to anyone who doesn't know and I'm just muggle scum again," she laughs.
Everything she just told me just confused me more. So what was that sigh and smile when she was looking at Draco? Maybe I read it wrong, I've been known to do that, but it looked like she... no, it couldn't be.
"Well, Lira, we really should be heading into class; the second bell is gonna ring soon. Have a good day," she tells me, pushing past me and Draco, heading into the History of Magic classroom. Draco watches her walk by and then stuffs the papers into his book bag.
"See you at dinner, Lira." With that he's shuffled into the class. I watch through the doorway, and see him sit down behind Hermione. I was going to get to the bottom of what was really going on with them. Not only was I curious, but it was my duty as a sister to get into my brother's business. On that note, I head to my class.
Draco and I walk out of the hall together.
"Once again, Saint Potter gets himself into trouble," he complains into my ear.
I just let him rant, tuning him out. The champions ceremony had just ended, with an extra special bang. Harry's name had shot out of the goblet after the three champions had already been chosen. So naturally, the school was in an uproar; he is under age and never should have been able to put him name in anyway. As was walk back to the dungeons, Draco walks ahead of me with some of his friends. Suddenly, I feel a hand in mine. It scares me, and I yank my hand away and turn around to see Blaise grinning at me. You're kidding; this guy really just can't take a hint. I roll my eyes and continue walking. To my distaste, he keeps walking right beside me, way to close for liking.
"Can I help you, Blaise?" I ask him, pulling the sleeves of my sweater over my hands.
"I don't know, can you?" He leans in closer to me as we walk and I grab his shoulder and push him further away. Now it was getting creepy. I knew Blaise had always had this pretend/real crush on me, which I didn't understand at all, considering he's a hot popular kid, and I'm 'Lira Depree', Draco Malfoy's loner childhood friend. I mean, I used to think the mock attention was cute; now I wasn't sure exactly what was going through Zabini's head.
"Can you just tell me what you want so I don't lose sleep over whatever it is," I say with clear sarcasm in my voice.
He chuckles and steps in front of me, so I can't go any further. I watch Draco and the rest of group turn the corner, leaving me to deal with Blaise. He grabs a strand of my hair that was in front of my face and twirls it around his finger.
"Can I ask you a question and get a sarcastic free answer?" I nod, looking at his face in evening light, trying to figure out what he's thinking.
"Why do you always turn me down? Do you actually think I'm joking all the time?"
"Blaise, it's just what we do: you ask me out, I make a joke out of it and turn you down."
He sighs, nodding his head, saying he understands. Then it dawns on me what the question actually meant. Oh, Merlin, I'm so stupid sometimes.
"Wait, so you're saying that all those times you asked me out, you were serious?" I ask him, hoping I was wrong. If I was right, this would become really awkward and complicated. He looks up at me.
"Yes, Lira. I was serious. Took you long enough to figure it out."
He goes to step closer to me, but I bring my hand up and place it on his chest, stopping him from coming closer. I can feel his chest through his shirt. He was so hot, Merlin, but this couldn't happen. No, it couldn't, it just wouldn't; he was my brother's best friend - not that he knows that – and yeah, I found him attractive, don't get me wrong, but that was it. Nothing else about him appealed to me. I didn't like him like that, I was sure of it.
"No," I tell him.
"No what?" I take my hand off his chest so I would stop hyperventilating.
"This..." I gesture to him and then to me. "... Can't happen. I just don't like you that way. I said no all those times for a reason. I'm... I'm sorry, Blaise."
He looks shocked - defeated, even. I guess it was probably the first time a girl's ever turned him down. I mean, I was still wondering why I did. Even after all of this, I still don't understand why he liked me. I was chubby, a loner, and I was a half-blood. I look back up at him, hoping he wasn't going to make a big deal out of it.
"Okay, I respect your decision." That's all he says before he goes to walk away.
'Wait, Blaise," I call after him. He turns back towards me with his hands in his pocket, standing in that I-know-I'm-better-than-everyone pose.
"Can I ask you a serious question now?" What was I saying? I'm just making it worse.
"Shoot," he tells me.
"Why do you like me anyway? I'm nothing special; you could easily have any girl in this school if you wanted." He bites his lip and looks off into the distance, as if he's thinking. Oh god, I'm really starting to regret my decision.
"I mean, there's lots of things I like about. I guess the biggest one is that you're untouchable. You have Draco watching your every move; you turned me down at every opportunity. You're intriguing; you look like you have secrets, Lira Depree. You're not the average girl. I guess I just wanted to know what was going on in that the pretty little head of yours." I suck in a breath.
That was definitely not the answer I was expecting. He smirks and steps towards me. There was a lot of walking away and coming back in this conversation.
"Plus, I don't think Draco being my best friend is one of the reasons you turned me down." He walks closer. "I think it has something to do with Draco, but that's not the reason. It's more complicated than that, and I'm gonna figure out what it is." He takes one more step and he's practically breathing down my neck.
"Oh, you've got secrets, Lira."
He was onto something; he suspects something with Draco and I. What was I going to do? I promised mother that Draco and I would do whatever it took to make sure no one ever found out. I clear my face of any emotion.
"You have no idea," I tell him.
He smirks, and I can see he's trying to read my face, just as I was him minutes before. I had learned how to cover up emotion, so he was looking for a silver coin in a gold bank vault.
He licks his lips and tucks the strand of hair he was playing with earlier behind my ear.
"I like secrets." With that, he turns on his heels and walks down the hall.
I watch his retreating back until it's out of sight around the corner. I let out the breath I didn't realize I was holding. It felt cold now that I was out of his view. When he as staring at me, it felt he was looking into my soul. I had to talk to Draco as soon as possible. We may have a possible forest fire ready to burn down our lives just because of Blaise.
Author Note: Whats Blaise up to? What is Draco going to say? Read the next chapter to find and out and review below to let me know what you think.
