At a quarter till midnight Andria got out of bed and changed out of her pajamas as quickly and quietly as possible. Hermione had agreed not to tell Harry nor Ron about Andria's rendezvous, but she definitely didn't approve either. And Andria did not feel like getting a lecture right now.
As quietly as she could, Andria left her bedroom and began descending the steps towards the common room. She didn't hear the voices until she was about halfway down, and they made her freeze instantly. "No but Ron I swear he's up to something. I saw him sneaking out of the dungeons. Where would he be going so late?" Harry asked. It wasn't really hard to guess who they were talking about.
Andria could just barely make out Harry's figure pacing in front of the fire. He was looking at the fire, so she couldn't really see where Ron was. But she thought she saw some movement on the couch. "Ok, so why didn't you follow him to find out where he was going?" Ron stifled a yawn. From the direction of his voice, she was ninety nine percent sure that he was on the couch.
Which luckily meant that neither of them could see her where she was standing. She could easily slip back upstairs and go unnoticed. Hermione would definitely be happy about that. But Draco would probably be mad. Would she be able to send him a letter tomorrow and let him know what happened? If she was stood up she didn't think she would even read the letter. Crap, she had to get out of that common room.
"I didn't follow him because Filch was snooping around with that creepy cat of his. He wasn't that far behind me, and I didn't want to get caught. Hopefully he catches Malfoy and he gets in trouble. I just know he's up to no good. Did you notice how he kept looking at us today?" Ron made a movement that from this angle looked like he might have nodded his head. But the gesture was lost on Harry who still wouldn't take his eyes off the fire. "We need to figure out a way to find out what he's doing. Any chance you think Hermione would brew up a polyjuice potion for us?"
Ron's laughter rang out across the common room. It was so loud and unexpected that it made Andria jump, and nearly fall down the rest of the stairs. "No way! Not after last time! I think if you want a polyjuice potion you're on your own!" He managed to spit out between bits of laughter. Despite herself Andria found herself making a mental note to ask Hermione about that tomorrow.
Harry turned around to laugh with his best friend when he noticed Andria standing on the stairs. " Hey! What're you doing awake?" Ron turned to give a smile at Andria before laying back on the couch, still chuckling to himself.
For a split second Andria thought about turning around and running back up to her bedroom, before she remembered Harry had no idea she was going to meet Draco. Just because she felt incredibly guilty didn't mean that he could automatically read it on her. "Uhm, I couldn't sleep. I thought I might roam around the castle."
Harry shrugged his shoulders, "Sure. You want company? I could show you around. Tell you where the main things are. Like where the owls stay and things like that." He began walking towards the portrait, turning around to wait for her.
This would be bad. Maybe though, if she walked by Draco with Harry then he would understand what happened. But then what if Harry wanted to follow Draco? "Hey, Harry I think I just saw Malfoy running towards the Quiditch Pitch. Any idea what that was about?" Hermione asked coming down the steps.
Harry was instantly out the door, with Ron at his heels. Yelling something about him being up to no good. Hermione chuckled and motioned for Andria to follow them through the portrait. "Thank you." She smiled, reaching to give her best friend a hug. Hermione simply nodded and pushed her through he portrait.
Andria raced her way towards the Great Hall realizing that she was late. Hopefully Draco wasn't too opposed to waiting a few minutes. When she reached the Great Hall she was really upset to find that it was empty. He hadn't waited for her.
She was contemplating waiting to see if he would come back, or just going back to the common room when he stepped out from the shadows. "Hey." He whispered. She smiled and walked over to him. "Wanna tell me why Potter and Weasley just ran outside yelling something about me and quiditch?" He asked cracking his amazing smile.
Without being able to contain it, Andria began laughing so hard she almost fell to the ground. She could only imagine all too well how idiotic they looked running down the hall and how idiotic they were bound to look when they got there and found no Draco. "Hey! Who's over there?" A mean voice yelled in their direction.
Draco clamped his hand around Andria's mouth, his other hand snaking around her waist, and pulled her back into the shadows behind a statue. An old man appeared in the hall moments later, Andria could only assume this was the Filch Harry had been talking about. His hair was stringy and looked like it really needed washed.
It took about five minutes for Filch to give up looking for them. Still, Andria didn't want to move. She didn't want to get in trouble so quickly. And with Draco? Harry would murder her. Draco must have been thinking the same thing, because even though he moved his hand from her mouth he stayed in the shadow with his arm carefully wrapped around her waist.
"You think it's safe?" She whispered turning her head to see Draco a little better. When she did, she was surprised at what she found. Draco was standing behind her like a statue, with a pained look on his face. She moved out of his grasp, and his right arm automatically wrapped around his left forearm. "Hey, what's wrong? Are you hurt?" She asked reaching out for his arm.
It snapped away from her so quickly that she just stared dumbstruck at Draco. "I have to go." He murmured. She moved so that she was blocking him from the only way around the statue. If he wanted to go he was going to have to pick her up and move her.
Again, she reached for his arm, and again he moved it out of her reach. "What's wrong with it? Did you hurt it on the statue?" For the third time she reached out and this time was actually able to grab his arm. She pulled up his sleeve expecting to find a nasty cut or something else that could cause pain.
Instead, she found a tattoo. It looked like a skull with a snake running through it. It was kind of morbid, and she hadn't really pegged Draco for a tattoo kind of guy, but it wasn't completely hideous. He snatched his arm back and pulled his sleeve down immediately. "What's wrong with you?" He almost yelled.
She flinched away from his voice. "I… what? I didn't do anything? I mean, does nobody know you have a tattoo? Is it against the rules here or something? I won't tell anyone." She began, very unsure of what she did and how to fix it.
Draco's eyes softened, and reached out for her hand. "No, you can't have tattoos here. Not this kind at least. Please don't tell anyone Andria. Especially not Potter and the others. I could get in a lot of trouble. Please." She just nodded her head. "I'm sorry; I didn't realize how little you knew about our world. I really shouldn't be here Andria. If my parents found out, if He found out, I would be dead." Andria felt a chill, her mind going back to when she first saw him and he was talking about being murdered. Something told her their meetings were far more serious for him than they were for her.
She took a risk, thinking she might already have a clue who he was talking about. "Draco, who's he?" He looked around like she had meant a person physically there. "No, you said if he found out. Who's he?" His body stiffened. Like a chain reaction, hers did too.
Without saying a word he reached out and stroked her face. They stood like that, her face in his hands, just looking at each other. Then Draco gasped out in pain and his hand went to that tattoo again. "Andria, I can't tell you. I wish I could, but I can't. Believe that. And I have to go. Right now. As soon as I leave run to your room. Don't stop. I don't care if Filch or anyone else catches you. Get to your room. Do you understand that? Can you do that?"
The look in his eyes frightened her so much that she simply nodded. She moved, so that she wasn't blocking his path anymore. He bent down and kissed her carefully before turning around and running towards the dungeons.