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Shades Of Gray

By princessofplanets

E-mail: princessofplanets@hotmail.com

Part 4 / 9

Draco inhaled deeply, once again straightening his robes. "What if he tells me off again? He's been doing that for the past month… No, don't think like that. It's great, everything's great," he murmured to himself. "What's the worst that could happen?"

"Never ask what the worst thing that could happen is," Alex stated calmly. She was leaning against the frame of his dorm doorway leisurely as she commented on his statement. "Besides, the worst that could happen is that you come across as an arrogant jerk who cares for no one but himself, and you've already done that." She grinned at her friend's nervousness.

"Sod off," he muttered to her darkly. "And how the hell did you manage to get into the *BOYS' SLYTHERIN* dorm room?"

Alex just grinned, twisting a strand of her long blonde hair around her finger. "I have my ways," she said, grinning again at the boy's dark look before he once again turned his attention to the mirror. He attempted to finger-comb his hair again worriedly, apprehension filling his movements. The girl sighed.

She walked over to him and pulled him into a backward hug, locking her arms around his shoulders as she gently rested her chin on his left shoulder. "Onii-chan, you look fine. Come on, if you don't go down to breakfast now we'll miss him." She added under her breath, "And breakfast, demo…" But…

"What's ohn-ee-chan?" Draco asked mindlessly as he attempted to straighten his robes. *AGAIN.*

"It's older brother," the blonde replied. "With an endearment that shows we're close. See, suffixes are really simple – "

"Forget I asked!" Draco begged quickly. Alex shot him a glare in the mirror as she released him and they started to leave the dorm.

"Blank-sama is extremely formal and used for someone higher than you are…"

"Then why aren't I Draco-sama?"

Again she scowled at him as she continued, "As in someone you revere, like a really important boss or royalty. Blank-san is polite, and used for people older than the person speaking or people you aren't very close you or who you have great respect for. Blank-kun is used for boys the speaker's age or younger and who they're friends with – or at least fairly close to. Blank-chan is used for girls the speaker's age or younger who he or she is friends with slash fairly close to. If the –chan suffix is used on a guy the two people are either really close or dating, that sort of thing. And of course the way two people show they are closest is if they don't use a suffix at all."

Draco looked at his friend, shaking his head as he entered the Great Hall. "Remind me NEVER to take Japanese," he muttered to himself as he walked toward the Slytherin table. Alex stood in confusion as she blinked at the closed, heavy doors. Suddenly it sunk in about what he said.

"I HEARD THAT!" she yelled at the door angrily.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

STAB! STAB! *STAB!* Ron and Harry glanced at Alex, who was viciously spearing her eggs, then at each other over her head. They each shrugged before returning to their breakfasts, each silently agreeing it was better than when she was practicing science with her food.

"Uh… Hey, Harry!" a familiar voice said. Draco nervously twisted his hands inside his pockets, carefully making sure his apathetic expression was in place. The raven-haired teenager brushed him off immediately.

"Sod off, Malfoy."

Draco's silvery gray eyes flashed to Alex before he stated, "But… I really was hoping to be able to talk to you…"

"Malfoy, I told you to *SOD OFF!* I'm SO sick and tired of you doing this! LEAVE ME ALONE!" Draco forced back the tears that wanted to form in his eyes.

"Fine," he murmured softly. He walked away quickly as the Gryffindors laughed.

"DAMN IT!" The explosion made laughs die on their lips as Alex stood. "Damn it," she said again softly. "Damn you, Harry! Every damn day! Every FREAKING *DAY*! You keep saying that he's being a jerk," Alex said quickly, cutting off a shocked raven-haired fifteen-year-old. "Ok, so maybe he has *been*. But what has he done to you in the past month? In the past *YEAR*?!" The blonde slammed her chair into the table as she murmured softly, "You can be so cold sometimes, Harry. How could you do that to him?" She stormed out of the Great Hall, following Draco's blazing aura of hurt emotions.

The trail led her to a stone wall on the left side of some minor hallway. She searched carefully for a way to open the door, frowning when she couldn't find them. "I'm not going to like this," she murmured as she thought of a solution to her problem. She took a deep breath and released it as she walked into the wall.

Her mind was strictly focused on transparency, and she forced herself to press forward through the solid material. When she opened her eyes she frowned again in concern. Draco was huddled crying on a large bed in the middle of the room. The girl crawled up its length to lie next to him, only to be rudely pushed away. She lay there for a moment, waiting patiently until a moment later he wrapped his arms around her waist. She ran her fingers through his hair almost automatically, trying in the only way she knew how to be comforting as she held him close in a friendly hug.

"You know, you'd never see any of my so-called friends trying to comfort me," Draco said bitterly through choked sobs. "Besides, crying is a weakness."

"Iie!" Alex disagreed strongly. There was a small silence, save for the blonde boy's muffled tears, before the blue-eyed girl attempted to fill it. "You remember second year?" she inquired softly. Feeling her friend nod against her shoulder, she said, "So you know that it was then that Dumbledore told me and my friends that I was Voldemort's creation for the first time." Draco nodded again, tightening his arms around her in an attempt to comfort her.

Alex stared at the canopy above the bed, forcing away tears. "You'll remember that I didn't cry then – I always saw it as a way he would have won over me, and I wouldn't allow it." Memories and emotions engulfed her as she attempted to calm the winds, water, and fire that rose to console her as her magic flared. The rocks surrounding them rumbled in sympathy.

"I didn't cry when Harry fought Voldemort for the first time, I didn't cry when my friends were trapped in the Chamber of Secrets without me while another was in a coma-like state… I didn't even cry when Cedric died, even though it was my fault." She put a finger up to his lips to stop his protest, propping herself up over him as tears filled her eyes.

"Believe it or not, Draco, it was. I can block the Adava Kedavra spell if I want to. I forgot – for one instant – and it cost someone their *LIFE*! Draco, I – " Tears were choking her voice, though she refused to allow them to fall.

"Draco, if I chose to I have the power to destroy the *galaxy*."

The blonde boy groaned and pulled her down, holding her in a tighter hug than before. "You worry too much," he whispered into her hair. "It's starting to show. You're pale all the time, and you're constantly tired…"

"I'm singing at the Halloween dance," she explained in a soft voice. "That's on top of my homework and study sessions with Professor Karr. Of course I'm tired."

She's lying, Draco realized almost immediately. He frowned, but chose to ignore it for the moment. He held her quietly, silently comforting her.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Harry stared in disbelief, staring through the wall with the help of a translucency spell. NO! That's not possible! Alex CAN'T like Draco! The seeker felt jealousy boiling through his veins, and for a brief moment he examined it. If I'm jealous… why do I feel like I'm jealous of Alex?

TO BE CONTINUED…

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