"Nothing is ever born out of fear. Love gives birth, love is creative; fear is impotent. It has never created anything. It cannot create anything because it has no substance. But it can destroy your whole life, it can surround you like a dark cloud, it can exploit all of your energies. It will not allow you to move into any deep experience of beauty." – Osho
Draco sighed in disappointment...
'There is nothing here! Absolutely nothing... And people call this one of the best libraries in the whole fucking Britain?'
Five days have passed since Draco was given 'assistance' from the room, and the days have been... to put it simply: hectic.
The first time Draco returned to the room of requirement, he was enraged; the room had decided that there was no way it would allow Draco to waste his precious time or knowledge over the blasted cabinet again, so the room had changed its entire layout...There was a cosy-looking study desk with only the three books and the journal that the room had provided him, along with the diadem in the protective magical sheath hovering above the book titled "Soul Magic." And yes, much to Draco's annoyance, the room had also been equipped with a queen-sized bed beside which numerous blank canvases with only two colour quills emerald and black.
"The creepy old, perverted sentiment" Draco had cursed and was successful in resisting the allure of the room, till now.
Till now he had been reading and reading about Olde Magic rituals; his NEWTS would be damned and the journal entries...
The more he read about Regulus' perspective on seeing the war... the more he got intrigued. He laughs, snorts, and cries throughout...He was feeling more and more connected to Regulus as if he personally knew him. He was feeling as if he had gotten to know his uncle, whom he had never gotten a chance to know, all thanks to the nose-less bitch, as Regulus preferred to call him.
Regulus' perspective about the Muggles was...stupefying.
He had mentioned that the weapons muggles had developed were enough to cause the entire Hogwarts to explode on a single trigger of small contraception known as a "button". Regulus had investigated an explosion caused by Muggles in Japanese Muggle cities named Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively, which killed over 2 million people in a single blast...Regardless to say Draco was more than troubled to get enough sleep or digest enough food after digesting the fact...
Regulus also mentioned something about "chemistry," which Draco had found interesting as it almost ran parallel to potions and the sacred art of alchemy... Just more based on elemental properties or substituents...
So, there he was... in the Hogwarts library, looking for something to quench his thirst for knowledge. He was trying to find more information about the defensive or offensive methods of muggles and how muggles communicate rather than letters, but all he got was how to make a toast with a metal box named, "toaster," or how 'rubber ducks' reduce anxiety while taking a bath...
"Fucking Dumbledore-" He cursed, knowing the sole responsible person for the lack of knowledge and why the wizarding world considers Muggles as inferiors or adorable cuddly dumbs.
His instincts were screaming...
He just knew he needed to know...
He needs to learn...
The room, though perverted, was nothing but helpful. If it had provided him with the information that had crashed his entire bloody ideology, then it must be momentous.
He let out a frustrated groan and banged his head against the "Muggle Teddy Bears—A New Revolution" book. He could not ask the Muggle Studies professor as it will drive the attention of a certain headmaster towards him, though he even wondered whether the professor herself knows about the things.
He was stuck... The room was unable to provide him with information because the sentiment cannot summon something that is either restricted in the library or not available in the castle...
"You look miserable. Daddy says you ought to wear sun-colored clothes, for luck, you know." Someone breathed in his ear and Draco yelped, falling from his seat.
"AGHHH!" He exclaimed and a dreamy giggle echoed in the silent corner of the library. He thanked his brain for having the foresight of putting a silencing charm around his table, or he would have been expelled from the library, or worse, banned.
"The Wrackspurts are merging, the anger dooms a man's fate-" He glared at the blonde in front of him, wondering how the hell she was able to pierce through his privacy spell.
He stood up hastily, still glaring at the blonde girl who looked much like him, with blonde hair of the same shade, which was rare as it only ran through his family due to their ancestry being merged with Veelas in France to the exact same colouring of skin tone and yes, absolutely same eyes... Then it struck him...
"Lovegood?" He raised his brows and the girl in front of him raised her brow, looking only mildly interested in him. She raised her hand and did a plucking motion as if she was trying to grab something in the air. His irritation was coming back second after second as he waited for the response, but all he got was a hum as the girl continued with the weird grabbing motion.
He shook his head and sighed as he perched himself on the stool again... He was way too tired of dealing with his distant odd cousin, whom he had never met, as his father had told him they were always busy dealing with mysterious creatures only they seem to see after the death of his father's cousin, Pandora Lovegood, neé Malfoy.
"Oooh, look, a Nargooseber!" Lovegood exclaimed out of nowhere startling Draco again, and he groaned rather loudly, looking in the direction only to find empty air and the dirty rooftop decorated with spider webs. The noise seemed to attract Lovegood's attention to him.
"I've interrupted a deep thought, haven't I? I can see it growing smaller in your eyes." She frowned as she took the liberty of taking the stool across Draco as he exhaled loudly. He had heard about Lovegoods' unique antics from his father and schoolmates, but he had never gained the 'opportunity' of experiencing them himself, for which he was glad till now.
"Why and how are you here?" He asked bluntly, deciding it to be the best way to approach Lovegood but he was wrong so wrong... When the girl in front of him smiled in a daze, her grey eyes twinkled and morphed themselves into a glint of silver...
"I followed the Nargles and broke the shields as they urged me to hunt the wrackspurts around your ears, they block your intellect, you know, they cause distraction, misleading the individual towards the path where they could feed more-" she drawled eyeing his ears and Draco had sudden urge to wiggle a finger inside his ear, but he restrained the abhorrent urge...
Instead, Draco raised an unimpressed eyebrow at her when she smiled and took the book out of his hands, which made him internally scream. No one can see himself with the 'Muggle books' shit... If words go out...
"Teddy Bears are interesting. Daddy bought me one when I was five, It was fluffy and cuddly. They relieve stress-" Lovegood continued smiling in a haze, and Draco thought for a moment that he didn't really mind Lovegood sitting with him... If someone had told his past self that he would be sitting with Lovegood of all people and not making any derogatory remarks, then he would have hexed them or booked them an appointment in Saint Mungos, but here he was... After days of constant isolation, just interacting with the room's sentiments the company of another human was... refreshing.
"Oh?" He said and decided to go with the flow as Lovegood was not seeming to go away any sooner.
"Oh yes! I named it "Tickly-Tom- '' She grinned at him, showing him all her pearly white teeth, and the smile caused a weird sense of warmth to flutter inside his chest, the smile was so much like his mother... "I bought him here in my trunk, but he just mysteriously disappeared... just like my shoes-" She then raised her leg and wiggled her bare toe in front of his face, which made him let out an indignant squeak, but Lovegood didn't really pay any attention to him and lowered her foot before continuing, "I suspect Nargles behind it-" she said and Draco, not knowing what to do just hummed... He had heard some bunch of Ravenclaws stealing Lovegood's shoes and snickering at her discomfort.
"I am sorry-" Draco said, surprising even himself, but he felt a strange sense of sadness wash over him, she was bullied by her entire house, yet she never showed any response and then a sudden wave of self-loathing hit him as he gulped.
"Oh, don't worry... They'll come back; they always do in the end." Lovegood smiled and then gasped, looking at his ears, startling him even further when she hastily took his hand in hers.
"Wha-" What Draco was about to question was cut off when Lovegood smacked her other hand on his mouth.
"No, don't think like that, you are odd-" Lovegood said in a soothing voice, and Draco let out an 'oomph' sound, annoyed yet feeling somehow content at the same time. Guess how it feels to finally have someone to touch him willingly.
'Touch Starvation does weird things to people...'
"You are just as sane as I am-" her eyes bore into his and he had a sudden feeling of his occlumency barriers crack as he gasped... Not even the Dark Lord was able to break them...
"You don't like to harm people, it's only one..." she hummed as she continued, "It's just a mating dance. You crave attention, and it's the only method to get his-" She smiled before freeing Draco's mouth and Draco felt blood rushing to his face. Lovegood chuckled loudly as Draco felt himself getting hot in embarrassment.
Lovegood then stood up from the stool and she raised her hand in front of Draco's face, her long cold fingers touched his flushed skin and he himself found leaning into the touch, "Love is crazy but it always wins" she smiled lazily and she leaned so that her breath was hovering right on his ear, he duly noted a distinct thump somewhere near but he couldn't help himself to inspect the alien sound when his heart was thumping restlessly in his chest, he closed his eyes trying to calm himself down...
"Sometimes interacting with humans helps you find answers that aren't in a book-" Her voice was merely a whisper, her breath tickling his ear, and then it left. He slowly opened his eyes when he felt calm enough to do so and found he was alone...
His thoughts ran wild as he vaguely recalled his father telling him that Pandora was a seer...
"Interacting humans" he mumbled, and he placed his hand over his loudly beating heart.
The next day Draco dragged himself from his dorm to the great hall, he had to keep up appearances, he dutifully ignored the concerned glances Blaise and Pansy kept sending him and the grunts of Vincent and Gregory kept making for his approval on their daily goals...
He so wanted to just bunk the classes and the breakfast, just run to the room of requirement and shut himself away from the people. Away from the world, just reading and reading, laying on the soft fluffy mattress the room had conjured for him, letting himself relax, restraining himself in his little world. He felt a rather intense stare over him, and he restrained himself letting his eyes avert at the Gryffindor portion of the great hall.
He mentally sighed as he continued taking steps towards the Slytherin table, his nose held high, his shoulders stiff, the persona of a perfect pureblood plastered on his face.
He took his place at the head of the table, and he nodded in a subtle way to his housemates, and they started plating their breakfast...
He filled his mug with his usual black coffee. His eyes wandered around the table as he noticed no one was paying the slightest bit of attention to him, digging through their meals, he felt his stomach churn, and he gulped a rather large portion of his drink, letting the familiar feeling of the burning sensation of the bitter fluid on his tongue. Everything was as usual... nothing but ordinary until...
"Hello there, the wrackspurts seem to be struggling-" Lovegood whispered in his ear, and he choked on his drink. He coughed, glaring at the blonde as she smiled and gestured for Vincent to shift aside.
Vince stared at him for his order, and he subtly noted that the entire great hall was watching the exchange... Even the professors were watching him intently, waiting for him to explode... to make any snide remarks... to tell Lovegood to shove off, but all he did was nod at Vincent, who grunted in response and shifted, giving Lovegood space to perch herself across Draco. She hummed, and that was the only noise that seemed to echo in the entire pin-drop silent hall.
Draco raised his brows at the fellow Slytherins, and they quickly re-composed themselves and continued with their breakfast. He watched Pansy and Blaise giving him perplexed expressions and everyone seem to keep taking glances at him, but no one said anything, Lovegood was a pureblood, after all, so they didn't have anything to take as an offence, and his fellow death eaters didn't probably know about the little adventure of Lovegood along with Longbottom, She-Weasel, and the golden-trio.
The Noseless-bitch and his followers were way too ashamed of their defeat that they did everything to keep the incident from going out. His father had granted him the information for his own safety as he was confident in the strength of his occlumency shields.
"Must be nice, not having your breakfast mixed with roaches," Lovegood commented offhandedly as she took a plate and took three slices of bread and started to butter them.
"Hmm.." Draco hummed as his thoughts trailed off to the strange conversation, he had with Lovegood...
'Interacting with humans' he had thought and thought about the possibility of him asking the muggle-borns about the destructive measures Muggles use in their defence or offence.
He weighed the possibility of asking any of his year-mates and hastily disregarded the idea, 'They won't tell me anything else than to bugger off'... That only left him with the option of younger years, as the idea of asking any seventh year was just as bad as the first one... He can't ask anyone of Slytherin as it will only raise questions about his non-existent allegiance to the Noseless-bitch.
Gryffindors... Draco mentally slapped himself... 'No! It will go very very wrong-'
That only left him with the option of Hufflepuffs and...
"Eagles are excellent, you know," Lovegood made his snap out of his thoughts and nodded towards the Ravenclaw table, " wit beyond measure is our only treasure-" She chuckled lazily and Draco turned to look towards the direction Lovegood was nodding and he saw a little girl with frizzy wavy black hair tied together in a high pony sitting in a lone corner of the table where everyone was seeming to ignore her.
He turned to look at Lovegood, who gave him a grin that made his stomach flip as he found himself unconsciously smiling back.
Lovegood then raised a half-bitten bread towards his lips, he felt everyone around him watch the whole interaction with absolute interest as if they were holding their breath, Draco opened his mouth and took a bite of the buttery delight and almost moaned at the first solid thing his papillae have tasted in weeks.
Even if he did moan, it was suppressed with the sound of the shattering of the plate as he opened his eyes and whipped his head towards the Gryffindor table and watched an agitated raven-head storming out of the great hall.
"Love is unhinged, I know-" Lovegood hummed and urged him to take another bite, which he did as he felt the strange feeling of blood rushing to his face. Lovegood's eyes were twinkling, seeming to be seeing his very soul.
~Love-K.D