Hello, everyone! Here's another Dramione fanfic! But we've added something interesting to it - a ghost girl who is another love interest, and one with a very difficult request for Draco. I wrote this story some time ago, and now I'm finally getting it down. The ghost is obviously made up, as is her relation to a certain other ghost. I hope you like the story! =)
Chapter 1
Draco has encountered ghosts before in his past five years at Hogwarts so far, since they like to wonder around like the students, but never has he seen this ghost, a ghost of a beautiful girl who looks around his age. He's not normally mushy or sentimental or whatever you want to call it, but that girl was probably the most beautiful girl he has seen up close. And she had just floated up to him after he had eaten dinner on one particularly cool autumn evening and surprised the snot out of him, and nothing normally can surprise him that immensely. She told him some interesting things to say the least… the first thing being her name.
"Annabelle Ravenclaw..." he muttered as he walked to the Slytherin common room after encountering the ghost girl just twenty minutes before. The second interesting thing was just how long she's been wondering the halls of Hogwarts unnoticed. He would have certainly heard of a beautiful ghost girl from the male students. He loosened his tie, recalling that amount of years—exactly one-thousand years ago, eight years after Hogwarts was founded, to be exact.
"One-thousand years," he said, still not quite believing it. She must have died not that long ago since no one has seen her, or maybe she just hid herself expertly.
Draco entered his common room and didn't bother greeting his friends sitting on the sofa near the lit fireplace. He went straight up to the bedroom and found his bunk in the far left corner, away from everyone else's. He changed and got into bed, staring at the stone ceiling. He thought about Annabelle. He just got her name and how long she's been dead, then someone came into the empty corridor and scared her off. He was truly curious about her. How did she die? She looked as if she was his age, maybe a year older. And why did he see her in the corridor he usually walked to get to the common room? Given, it was a back way, but still. You would think that a ghost with the last name of Ravenclaw would haunt a corridor near the Ravenclaw common room.
Draco closed his eyes, and the next time he opened them, he had just come out of a dream where he encountered Annabelle again, only she was a living, breathing human. He about asked how she died, but someone shouted and jolted him awake. He sat up, groggy, and made a mean glare at the boy who shouted, but he didn't notice. He got out of bed, got ready for the day, while trying not to look at his Dark Mark tattoo. Thank goodness he hasn't needed to do anything for the Dark Lord lately, aside from his current task, but now that he has thought that, he'll be asked to do something else he doesn't want to do.
Draco took the same rout he did last night, hoping to see Annabelle again. His pride told him is was just to satisfy his curiosity of just how she died and why she randomly popped up now, but the male in him just wanted to see that face of hers, even thought it was gray-blue because she was a spirit.
He came to that corridor, but it was empty. He stood there for a moment, and he thought he saw something like a ghostly dress come out through the wall, but someone came into the corridor and the dress vanished. Draco blew air out of his mouth in irritation as more people started walking through the corridor. Maybe he'll just give up for now. He walked on to the Great Hall and almost ran into Hermione Granger of all people as she was walking in with Potter and Weasley. He avoided the impact because he didn't want to touch a mudblood. Before, he was disgusted by them, mainly her, but now, he just avoids them because being near them would tarnish his image, and how he feels. Meaning, he would feel like he would need to shower if he touched one.
He eventually sat down with his posse and ignored Goyle's questions on why he just left without waiting for them and why he was late. He just sat there, staring at his sausage and eggs as Pansy Parkinson eyed him skeptically. He could avoid Crabbe and Goyle, but not Pansy. She could see right through him most times, like he could see right though Annabelle. She's more like a sister to him, even though she has a massive crush on him.
"What?" he asked, a tad agitated, and meeting her brown eyes.
"I should be asking you that," she quipped. "You've been in a total daze since you walked into the Great Hall."
Of course she was watching him. "It's none of your business. Just leave me be, Pansy."
"Someone's in a mood," Pansy huffed and left him alone after. He sat there thinking. He should just skip his first class and go to that same corridor to find Annabelle. No one will be walking through the corridor while classes are going on.
Some time passed and he noticed people leaving the Great Hall to head for their classes. He took that as his leave to go. "I'm heading to class," Draco said to Pansy and his other friends as he got up and left, his breakfast finished. Pansy said something, but he didn't care to know what it was. Maybe a "see you in class."
The corridors were packed with students going to class, and Draco had to shove kids away in order to get to that corridor. Maybe he left too soon. Once he finally got there, there were about a dozen students walking around, students from Slytherin house, and he recognized a few from Ravenclaw. He waited against the wall until the students left, and once the corridor was empty, he continued to wait, his arms folded, and his heart beating faster and harder in anticipation as every second passed. Where is she?
The clock tower gonged eight o'clock. He knew he would be late for class. In his earlier years, he wouldn't have cared all that much, but it now being his sixth year, he needed to at least try to get decent grades. Hogwarts will not last much longer—he needs to make a good impression for the Malfoy name. He held his left arm where his dark mark tattoo was. Fulfilling the Dark Lord's request to kill Dumbledore was another way of doing so. His chest tightened at the thought of killing that innocent man. Draco may not like him, but the old wizard doesn't deserve to die.
"Lost in thought?"
Draco popped his head up at the sound of that familiar female voice, a voice that came out smooth and attractive. He's never thought a girl's voice attractive before. Heck, he's never paid much attention to girls and romance and all that nonsense. And he's convinced himself that this, what he's doing now, is just to fulfill his curiosity. He jumped when he saw Annabelle standing there, her whole form pale gray-blue, and transparent, like it was before.
"Why are you so surprised to see me?" she asked. "You only saw me yesterday."
"Yeah, I know..."
Oh how pathetic he sounds right now! It grated on his nerves.
"And? You came here to see me, did you not?"
He needs to get straight to his questions. "I just want to know a few things. First, how old are you?"
She blinked her long, dark lashes. "You never ask a lady that." When Draco didn't say anything, she revealed, "Well, alright. I'm one-thousand and seventeen years old."
He remembered what she told him the day before and did the math. "So you died when you were only seventeen?"
"Yes. I told you yesterday that I lived one-thousand years ago."
"How did you die?"
She smirked, and Draco guiltily thought it very attractive. He forced himself not to look at those lips of hers. If she were alive, he would guess that they would be a soft pink. "Full of questions, are we?" She looked him in the eye with a blank expression. "I died for a foolish reason, which… I don't want to discuss at the moment."
Draco huffed through his nose, irritated. He folded his arms, challenging her, and giving her a daring look. "Fine. Maybe I can ask your relative, Rowena Ravenclaw."
Annabelle pursed her lips, and she herself seemed agitated. "You sure are persistent, Mr. Malfoy. Why do you want to know so badly?"
He shrugged his shoulders and stated the truth: "Curious. Doesn't everyone who comes across you want to know? Or, has anyone come across you?" he added, challenging her again. Maybe he could catch her in her lie, if she was. Some ghosts here have been around since Hogwarts opened, and before.
She looked away from him, and floated off to the other wall. Draco noticed her expression—it looked as if she was debating with herself in the ghostly head of hers. She looked at him, then fully faced him. He couldn't help but eye her curvy waist that her dress showed. Is that what students wore back when Hogwarts first opened?
"This is the first time I appeared to anyone," she confessed. "Before yesterday, I have always kept myself hidden. I don't think the ghost of my own cousin Rowena has seen me."
Draco's eyebrows pushed together, slightly confused. "Then… why appear to me?"
She floated up to him, and he could see the flecks in her eyes clearly. She looked like a normal person, just gray-blue and a tad transparent. "Because I've been waiting for you."
That confusion grew, and he pushed his brows together. "Me?"
"Yes, you, Draco Malfoy. I knew about you since before I died."
Draco felt his pulse rise at that answer, not expecting it at all. How is that even possible?! "How the devil did you know about me one-thousand years ago?"
She smiled full-on this time, and Draco refused to react to it in any way. He needs to get to the bottom of this. She said, "You have no idea how many times I've rehearsed this conversation in my head over the past hundreds of years. When I came upon you yesterday, I had a hard time keeping my composure."
"What are you talking about?"
She took in a let out a breath, and he momentarily wondered why she needed to do that since she's dead. "I knew who you were because I had a gift when I was alive, a gift that showed me the future. I have had those kinds of dreams before, but this one caught my attention—I was showed a blonde young man who would be chosen by a horrible dark wizard, and asked to kill the headmaster at Hogwarts School, all as punishment for what this young man's father did. And I saw a few other things…"
Draco stared at her in utter disbelief. No one knew about the horrendous task he was given by the Dark Lord! There is absolutely no way she would know about it unless she somehow talked to his father, mother, some of the Death Eaters, or the Dark Lord himself, which is highly improbable.
"I saw you, Draco, as you are right now," she continued, and his fists clenched together tightly and painfully. "I've waited all these years, looked at every student… And then I came across a boy with stark blonde hair a little over six years ago. I knew it was you the instant that I saw you."
Draco was still having a difficult time ingesting this, but he didn't let his confusion show. "Why me?"
She remained silent for a moment, then said, "I don't know. But I knew you were destined for something great. And because…"
"Wait," he interrupted her. "What destiny?"
Hers eyes became more serious than they were before. This had to be huge, what she's going to tell him. "To estrange yourself from your family—a powerful family who has had traditions going back hundreds of years."
Pressure throbbed at Draco's temples due to the blood that was rapidly pounding from his heart. Shock filled his system. "W-What? Estrange myself from my family? Are you mad? Are you saying to go against what my father has taught me all my life? To disobey him?!"
Her expression didn't change, even though he bellowed that last bit and it echoed through the corridor. "In a way, yes."
Something surged through Draco, which made his chest constrict to a painful degree. "Do you want me to bloody die? I'll get murdered if I don't do what I was asked!"
Draco sucked in a breath. He shouldn't have revealed that, but it's too late to take it back now. Annabelle remained as calm as can be, still. "No, of course I don't want you to die, Draco. And I knew you would be angry about all this. But I can tell you… I saw the outcome. Everything turns out fine."
Draco stared at her beautiful face, now suddenly becoming repulsed by it. "You waited in vain," he spat. "That vision of yours must've been just a stupid dream."
"Then how do I know exactly who you are and what you have to do?" she demanded, glaring at him him with hurt in her eyes, but he looked away. "Draco, I'm telling you the truth! I saw you and what you do. I waited for you when I was alive, but when you never showed up, I waited for you after. And…"
"You wasted your time," he cut her off again in an agitated voice. "You're just a nonsensical girl with wild fantasies. There's no way I'm going against my family, and disobeying orders."
He began to walk away from her, regretting ever trying to find her in the first place.
"You thought me beautiful, didn't you, Draco?"
He stopped.
"Didn't you?" she repeated.
"Why does that matter?" he asked in a low, annoyed tone, mainly because she noticed his attraction to her. It hurt his pride.
"Because I had that same reaction when I saw you in my vision. I saw you and thought you were the most handsome young man I have ever seen, and that's why I was so desperate to find you. And to help you."
He stood there, feelings the slightest desire to go along with this, but… "You wasted your time."
He left.
