AUTHOR'S NOTE: Ta-Da! I'm doing rather well at playing catch up, am I not?

DISCLAIMER: I still don't own Harry Potter.


Word: Cimmerian: very dark; gloomy; deep.

Characters: Draco Malfoy and Astoria Greengrass

Genre: Romance and Comfort

Word Count: 928


Everything had been so dark since the war. The sky over the Malfoy Manor seemed to be a dreary shade of grey all the time since the war. The Ministry was always coming in and out of the Manor, taking any and everything that looked even remotely suspicious. The book selves were empty, save a few books on the History of the Wizarding World. The paintings of the Malfoy ancestors had been removed for questioning. All of the precious jewels that they could find where taken and tested for Dark Magic. Some of the jewels were returned; others had not been. His mother's Wedding Band had been among the jewelry taken. It appeared two weeks later with and owl saying that her ring had no dark traces. However, she had not put the ring back on her finger.

Draco walked about the Manor with his hands pushed into his pockets. His head was down following the black rug that lay of the ebony hardwood, wherever it took him. He didn't look at the walls, for he knew that blank spots where the paintings used to hang would greet his cold, grey eyes. He passed his father's study, which was still being raided by the Ministry's workers. They'd been searching for weeks. Couldn't they just call it quits already? Draco kept his eyes down as he walked by the study. He didn't want his father, who was sitting behind his desk monitoring the raiding, to see him and call him into the room. However, his father said nothing to him as he rushed by. Once past the study door, he slowed back to his usual pace. The next room that he passed, was his mother's study. The Ministry had given up on raiding Narcissa's belongings, seeing as everything that they took from her came back negative. However, she sat behind her desk proudly. Draco walked by even quicker. He didn't want to speak to his mother either.

The male made his way to the stairs, and descended the staircase, and the ebony hardwood and black rug followed him. Two Ministry workers walked pass him carrying a portrait of his great-grandfather, Brutus Malfoy. The old man in the portrait, who was usually unkind to strangers, was mute. The workers had charmed him to be silent. He wouldn't be too happy about that when he was released from the charm. Draco kept his head down and walked around them.

Then there was a knock on the door. Finally, Draco's grey eyes lifted from the ebony rug and looked towards the door. His father had taken the charm that opened the door when it was approached off as soon as the Death Eaters had lost the war. Now, the person closest to the door had to answer it. However, the only people that came in and out of the house were the owners and the Ministry workers, and neither of the groups bothered to knock. One of his blond eyebrows arched as he approached the door. Who could it be? Who would want to come and visit the Malfoy's after their fall from glory? Draco opened the door, and his cold, grey eyes were greeted by warm, brown ones.

"Hello," the owner of the brown eyes said.

"Hello," Draco answered looking out at the dark sky. It had never looked as gloomy as it did now. Maybe it was because of the warm-eyed girl on his doorstep.

"It's a very Cimmerian day, don't you think?" she asked warmly. Draco looked down at her and noticed that she too was staring at the sky.

"I do," Draco answered. "What are you doing here?" he asked, trying to sound as polite as possible.

"Oh," she exclaimed. "I'm Astoria Greengrass."

"And?" Draco drawled not quite understanding why she was on his doorstep.

"We, my sister, mother, brother, and I, moved in next door," the brown eyed girl pointed to a smaller Manor to the left a fair half a mile away from the Malfoy's. "You know my sister actually, Daphne, she's in your year, and house."

"Yes," Draco said. He did remember Daphne. "But why are you here?"

"I just came to see how you were doing," Astoria said. "I read that the Ministry was raiding you home. That can't be pleasant." Draco tensed and his knuckles grew white around the doorknob. "Oh, did I offend you?" she asked as a pink blush graced her cheeks. "I'm sorry."

"What do you want, Greengrass?" Draco asked through gritted teeth.

"I just wanted you to know that if you ever wanted to talk or anything, I'm next door."

Draco started at this girl before him. This girl was offering to be his friend. She was standing on the doorstep of the Malfoy Manor offering to be his friend. She had to be mad. There had to be something wrong with her. Then he remember what Daphne had said about her sister, who was two years her junior. Astoria had been sorted into Hufflepuff, not Slytherin. She was mad. Did Hufflepuffs not know that the Malfoy's were bad people?

"I don't need to talk to anyone, Greengrass," he said before closing the door in her face.

"You do, and I'll be next door when you realize you need to talk," Astoria shouted through the door.

Draco rolled his grey eyes and walked away from the door. Once again he trained his grey eyes to the ebony carpet and walked. However, instead of the seeing the ebony carpet, he saw her warm brown eyes, set against the Cimmerian backdrop.