Title: Lost in the Shadows
Author: Stardrops
Rating: G
Genre: Angst/Romance
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. Duh. And I should probably add that in a later chapter, the idea for the constellations and star spotting was borrowed from some of "Rigella"'s writing, which everyone should check out.
Chapter Five: Destroyed
Several days had passed since the night Draco and Delphine had spent in the cemetery together. Draco had passed Delphine in the corridors and in class, but hadn't really felt like having a conversation. Luckily for him, Delphine simply smiled at him as he passed and allowed him his solitude.
He'd left Crabbe and Goyle in the Great Hall at lunch one day while he marched off to the Slytherin common room to retrieve his things for the next class. As he walked briskly down the hall, he heard voices coming from around the corner. His heart sank slightly. Just the people he didn't want to meet. Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger were coming towards him. As he watched, Neville Longbottom ran up behind them to join their conversation.
When they saw Malfoy, the four Gryffindors looked awkwardly at each other before Draco nodded coldly at them and slipped past. He'd had no nasty comments to throw at them this year, not since he'd begun to feel respect for Potter, and had met Delphine, their fellow Gryffindor. He decided his safest action would be to walk past them without causing a scene. He didn't think he had the energy to make one today.
Ron and Harry looked at each other in surprise when Draco offered no slimy insults. This would have been the perfect opportunity for some major insults. What was going on? Hermione just looked at her shoes, quieter and for some reason, looking with an unreadable expression towards Draco. Neville just glared at him, clearly itching to get revenge for all the times that Draco had gotten one over him.
The opportunity for their revenge came almost at that moment. As Draco slipped past, Ron took the chance to slightly bar his way so he was forced to suck in his stomach in order to move past. His book bag got caught on a statue of Urg the Ugly and ripped slightly. Draco was impatient to get past these people, so he pulled with all his might. Ron could not resist such an easy target, and his foot slipped out at that moment, tripping Draco. The bag fell apart completely, and Draco fell to the floor, his blonde hair flopping untidily all over the place, and his books all stained with ink.
Draco groaned as he tried to get up. The echoes of laughter from Ron and Neville were so loud, and he longed to turn around and punch them both out. Harry was grinning, but was evidently trying to be civil around him as they were all in the seventh year. Hermione looked as though she was struggling not to help him pick up his books, and he wondered why she was suddenly being so nice, and looking at him like he was a worthy piece of society instead of the piece of crap she usually referred to him as.
Draco scowled at them and began to gather his books together. Everything he'd needed for the previous classes was now permanently blue and red tinged. He glowered at the ink stains and gathered the quills. Then the hushed voice of Neville came over him.
"Oh, Malfoy..." he said in a singsong voice. Draco looked up and in horror, realized that the boy was holding a long piece of parchment...it was the last letter he'd gotten from Perseus. Draco had adorned the parchment since with decorations, and had attached the moving photo of himself and Perseus at his twelfth birthday party. But the thing that froze Draco the most was that the boy wasn't only holding that letter, he was also holding the book it had slipped out of. The scrapbook he'd created during the days since the night in the cemetery, with memories of himself and Perseus.
Draco nearly screamed. He mentally kicked himself for keeping the book in his bag; it should have been in his dormitory with a lock on the drawer. He'd taken it with him today because he'd felt like keeping it close to him for some reason. He'd not been feeling great these past few days.
Rising to his feet, he tried to keep his voice steady. "Give that here, Longbottom." He held out his hand and added a more menacing tone to his voice. "I mean it Longbottom, give it back."
"Guys..." Hermione muttered, reaching out for the book, "give it back to him."
Ron snorted with laughter. "After all the crap this git has given us? I think not."
Draco was reminded of their second year, when something remarkably similar had happened between himself and Harry. The difference between that situation and this one was that it had not been Harry's diary, but a diary Draco's father had slipped Ginny Weasley at the beginning of the school year.
"Look, just give it - no!" Draco shouted angrily.
Neville tossed the book gleefully to Ron. Draco jumped to grab it out of the air, but his fingers only brushed the spine as the book sailed past. Now Weasley had the book, and was opening it. Draco's temper flared and he lunged for him. Ron chucked the book back and Neville, who missed it. The book was headed straight for a flaming torch that lit the hallway. Draco watched as it closed the distance between itself and the fire. Completely helpless, he stood motionless as the book passed through the flames and began to burn.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" he yelled. Tears sprang into his eyes, and Neville, Ron, Harry and Hermione all took a step back, Ron looking slightly ashamed at having burnt the precious possession, though he did not know what it was. Draco ran for the book, but even as he reached it, the book curled up into ashes and fell to the floor.
Draco sank to the floor and fingered the ashes. All the memories he had left, the photos, the letters, and the place where he'd written his feelings about Perseus's death...burnt to dust.
He lowered his head into his hands, and rubbed his eyes vigorously. This was not happening. This was not happening...remembering that Harry, Neville, Hermione and Ron all stood behind him gawking, he turned to stare at them.
Harry's face was shocked but looking as though he secretly thought Draco deserved to have people pick on him after the hell he put other students through. Ron looked embarrassed, but also secretly delighted at getting one over Malfoy after everything Malfoy had put him through. Neville simply looked as though he couldn't believe he had finally done what he'd been itching to do for several years. But Hermione looked like he was going to cry. Her eyes were red and glassy with unshed tears, and she clasped a hand over her mouth.
"Malfoy..." she began, but Draco had had it. He got up and ran as though his life depended on it. But before he'd taken three steps, he was forced to halt for fear he'd knock the breath out of Delphine. She was walking towards them, looking in confusion at the piles of parchment and quills and the scattered possessions on the floor, and at the guilty expressions on the Gryffindor faces. Looking at last at Draco, she asked, "Draco, what's wrong?"
Ron's face was incredulous, and everyone heard him whisper in amazement, "Draco?" But everyone ignored him.
Draco simply looked back at the Gryffindors before continuing his escape down the corridor. Everyone watched him leave, and then Delphine turned back to the others.
"Okay...what in the world just happened?"
Hermione stepped up to the mess on the floor and began to clean it up. She gathered Draco's belongings, fixed the bag with a whispered incantation, and gathered the ashes of the book, dropping them into a little box she carried in her bag, hoping no one saw. No one did. The boys were busy trying to explain to Delphine.
"He had..." Neville stammered.
"It wasn't as though..." Ron interrupted.
"He did kind of deserve it..." Neville continued. Harry just stood back and hung his head as the full weight of what they'd done hit him.
Delphine just looked at them.
"You stood back and let someone's personal possessions be destroyed?' she said quietly. "No, worse, you destroyed them?"
"Well, he...he had it coming," Neville stated defiantly. But his resolution crumbled beneath Delphine's quiet yet unnerving stare.
"You think someone really deserves to have anything they love destroyed?" Delphine asked him.
"Well, what about all the times he's taken our stuff, and paid us out, and been a downright prick?" Neville countered.
Delphine smiled grimly. "But has he ever damaged anything of yours? Has he ever taken something and not given it back, even if it was only because he was forced to by a teacher?"
A silence met these words as Neville and Ron scrambled around in their thoughts trying to come up with something to slam back at the question. Finding nothing, their guilt was starting to make them feel sick.
"It was only an accident," Ron mumbled.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "An accident that you and Neville caused, he did nothing to even start the thing! If you hadn't tripped him in the first place, none of it would have happened."
The realization hit Ron. Even when he'd tripped up Malfoy, he hadn't fought back. He'd simply groaned and then tried to clear up his belongings. And he hadn't tried to hex them like he normally would have...
Harry looked up at last. "What was it?" he asked Delphine. She turned her relentless stare to him. He did not flinch, but stared straight back at her, pleading with her to help him understand this better.
"I don't know." Delphine averted her gaze to Hermione. "Hermione, what are you doing?"
"Getting his things," she answered. Her eyes were almost back to normal, but she had a slightly glassy look in her eyes, as though she had not yet quite reached normalcy after tears had threatened her dignity.
Delphine reached out to take his things, but Hermione drew back. "Could I take them to him?" she asked.
Delphine raised an eyebrow at Hermione, and when Hermione met her stare, the two seemed to have a conversation without talking. Delphine at last nodded after about three minutes of telepathic conversation, and Hermione took off down the hallway.
Ron, Harry and Neville were thoroughly confused. "What the hell? Why is Hermione going to give him his things? She hates him, and he hates her." Ron's face was utterly bewildered.
Harry turned to Neville and asked, "Does he seem different to you?"
Neville gave Ron the once over and then looked back at Harry and replied, "No."
Harry smacked the side of his head and then glared at Neville. "Not Ron, you imbecile, Malfoy."
Neville started to answer, but Ron interrupted. "Did anyone else notice that he didn't try to fight us at any point?"
Delphine was smiling softly. The three boys looked to her for answers. She offered none.
"Are you going to tell us what's going on?" Neville asked.
"No," she replied simply. "You'll have to go and ask him that yourselves. You started this, you can finish it."
Ron groaned. "God, no, you aren't expecting me to go and apologise to him are you?"
Delphine fixed him with her stare. "Why wouldn't you?"
Ron pretended to think. "Hmm, maybe because every single time we've run into him before, he's offered some smart arse comment about my family or Harry's parents?"
Delphine shook her head. "But has he offered any smart arse comments this year? Since the summer?"
The three boys thought for a moment and then shook their heads. "No," Harry answered softly.
Delphine nodded. "There's your answer."
If the three boys had been feeling guilty before, it was nothing to how they felt right now. They knew that Delphine knew something she wasn't telling them, and something told them that Hermione knew something as well. It was all very strange.
Harry took Ron's arm and began to walk with him towards the Gryffindor common room. Delphine started off towards the Slytherin common room when Hermione had gone. Neville quickly joined the boys, glad to be out of Delphine's guilt inducing stare.
But before they went inside, Harry turned to look back at Delphine. "Hey, Delphine!"
She turned and waited.
"Um...do you think he'll listen if we go and apologise?" he asked.
She paused and thought for a moment. "Would you listen to him apologise to you if he did the same to you?"
Harry felt the sickened feeling in his stomach deepen as he realized that no, he wouldn't. Delphine gave him a knowing smile and continued on her way. Harry and Ron exchanged a glance.
"What the bloody hell is going on?" Ron said, immensely rattled.
"I don't know any more than you do, Ron," Harry replied.
"The girls know something," Neville pointed out.
Harry snorted. "They're not going to tell us."
"Hermione will." Ron didn't look very sure of himself as he stated this.
"How do you know?" Neville asked him.
Ron sighed and scratched his chin. "I guess I don't."
Harry looked back down the hall where both girls and Malfoy had disappeared. "I wonder what's changed him."
Author: Stardrops
Rating: G
Genre: Angst/Romance
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. Duh. And I should probably add that in a later chapter, the idea for the constellations and star spotting was borrowed from some of "Rigella"'s writing, which everyone should check out.
Chapter Five: Destroyed
Several days had passed since the night Draco and Delphine had spent in the cemetery together. Draco had passed Delphine in the corridors and in class, but hadn't really felt like having a conversation. Luckily for him, Delphine simply smiled at him as he passed and allowed him his solitude.
He'd left Crabbe and Goyle in the Great Hall at lunch one day while he marched off to the Slytherin common room to retrieve his things for the next class. As he walked briskly down the hall, he heard voices coming from around the corner. His heart sank slightly. Just the people he didn't want to meet. Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger were coming towards him. As he watched, Neville Longbottom ran up behind them to join their conversation.
When they saw Malfoy, the four Gryffindors looked awkwardly at each other before Draco nodded coldly at them and slipped past. He'd had no nasty comments to throw at them this year, not since he'd begun to feel respect for Potter, and had met Delphine, their fellow Gryffindor. He decided his safest action would be to walk past them without causing a scene. He didn't think he had the energy to make one today.
Ron and Harry looked at each other in surprise when Draco offered no slimy insults. This would have been the perfect opportunity for some major insults. What was going on? Hermione just looked at her shoes, quieter and for some reason, looking with an unreadable expression towards Draco. Neville just glared at him, clearly itching to get revenge for all the times that Draco had gotten one over him.
The opportunity for their revenge came almost at that moment. As Draco slipped past, Ron took the chance to slightly bar his way so he was forced to suck in his stomach in order to move past. His book bag got caught on a statue of Urg the Ugly and ripped slightly. Draco was impatient to get past these people, so he pulled with all his might. Ron could not resist such an easy target, and his foot slipped out at that moment, tripping Draco. The bag fell apart completely, and Draco fell to the floor, his blonde hair flopping untidily all over the place, and his books all stained with ink.
Draco groaned as he tried to get up. The echoes of laughter from Ron and Neville were so loud, and he longed to turn around and punch them both out. Harry was grinning, but was evidently trying to be civil around him as they were all in the seventh year. Hermione looked as though she was struggling not to help him pick up his books, and he wondered why she was suddenly being so nice, and looking at him like he was a worthy piece of society instead of the piece of crap she usually referred to him as.
Draco scowled at them and began to gather his books together. Everything he'd needed for the previous classes was now permanently blue and red tinged. He glowered at the ink stains and gathered the quills. Then the hushed voice of Neville came over him.
"Oh, Malfoy..." he said in a singsong voice. Draco looked up and in horror, realized that the boy was holding a long piece of parchment...it was the last letter he'd gotten from Perseus. Draco had adorned the parchment since with decorations, and had attached the moving photo of himself and Perseus at his twelfth birthday party. But the thing that froze Draco the most was that the boy wasn't only holding that letter, he was also holding the book it had slipped out of. The scrapbook he'd created during the days since the night in the cemetery, with memories of himself and Perseus.
Draco nearly screamed. He mentally kicked himself for keeping the book in his bag; it should have been in his dormitory with a lock on the drawer. He'd taken it with him today because he'd felt like keeping it close to him for some reason. He'd not been feeling great these past few days.
Rising to his feet, he tried to keep his voice steady. "Give that here, Longbottom." He held out his hand and added a more menacing tone to his voice. "I mean it Longbottom, give it back."
"Guys..." Hermione muttered, reaching out for the book, "give it back to him."
Ron snorted with laughter. "After all the crap this git has given us? I think not."
Draco was reminded of their second year, when something remarkably similar had happened between himself and Harry. The difference between that situation and this one was that it had not been Harry's diary, but a diary Draco's father had slipped Ginny Weasley at the beginning of the school year.
"Look, just give it - no!" Draco shouted angrily.
Neville tossed the book gleefully to Ron. Draco jumped to grab it out of the air, but his fingers only brushed the spine as the book sailed past. Now Weasley had the book, and was opening it. Draco's temper flared and he lunged for him. Ron chucked the book back and Neville, who missed it. The book was headed straight for a flaming torch that lit the hallway. Draco watched as it closed the distance between itself and the fire. Completely helpless, he stood motionless as the book passed through the flames and began to burn.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" he yelled. Tears sprang into his eyes, and Neville, Ron, Harry and Hermione all took a step back, Ron looking slightly ashamed at having burnt the precious possession, though he did not know what it was. Draco ran for the book, but even as he reached it, the book curled up into ashes and fell to the floor.
Draco sank to the floor and fingered the ashes. All the memories he had left, the photos, the letters, and the place where he'd written his feelings about Perseus's death...burnt to dust.
He lowered his head into his hands, and rubbed his eyes vigorously. This was not happening. This was not happening...remembering that Harry, Neville, Hermione and Ron all stood behind him gawking, he turned to stare at them.
Harry's face was shocked but looking as though he secretly thought Draco deserved to have people pick on him after the hell he put other students through. Ron looked embarrassed, but also secretly delighted at getting one over Malfoy after everything Malfoy had put him through. Neville simply looked as though he couldn't believe he had finally done what he'd been itching to do for several years. But Hermione looked like he was going to cry. Her eyes were red and glassy with unshed tears, and she clasped a hand over her mouth.
"Malfoy..." she began, but Draco had had it. He got up and ran as though his life depended on it. But before he'd taken three steps, he was forced to halt for fear he'd knock the breath out of Delphine. She was walking towards them, looking in confusion at the piles of parchment and quills and the scattered possessions on the floor, and at the guilty expressions on the Gryffindor faces. Looking at last at Draco, she asked, "Draco, what's wrong?"
Ron's face was incredulous, and everyone heard him whisper in amazement, "Draco?" But everyone ignored him.
Draco simply looked back at the Gryffindors before continuing his escape down the corridor. Everyone watched him leave, and then Delphine turned back to the others.
"Okay...what in the world just happened?"
Hermione stepped up to the mess on the floor and began to clean it up. She gathered Draco's belongings, fixed the bag with a whispered incantation, and gathered the ashes of the book, dropping them into a little box she carried in her bag, hoping no one saw. No one did. The boys were busy trying to explain to Delphine.
"He had..." Neville stammered.
"It wasn't as though..." Ron interrupted.
"He did kind of deserve it..." Neville continued. Harry just stood back and hung his head as the full weight of what they'd done hit him.
Delphine just looked at them.
"You stood back and let someone's personal possessions be destroyed?' she said quietly. "No, worse, you destroyed them?"
"Well, he...he had it coming," Neville stated defiantly. But his resolution crumbled beneath Delphine's quiet yet unnerving stare.
"You think someone really deserves to have anything they love destroyed?" Delphine asked him.
"Well, what about all the times he's taken our stuff, and paid us out, and been a downright prick?" Neville countered.
Delphine smiled grimly. "But has he ever damaged anything of yours? Has he ever taken something and not given it back, even if it was only because he was forced to by a teacher?"
A silence met these words as Neville and Ron scrambled around in their thoughts trying to come up with something to slam back at the question. Finding nothing, their guilt was starting to make them feel sick.
"It was only an accident," Ron mumbled.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "An accident that you and Neville caused, he did nothing to even start the thing! If you hadn't tripped him in the first place, none of it would have happened."
The realization hit Ron. Even when he'd tripped up Malfoy, he hadn't fought back. He'd simply groaned and then tried to clear up his belongings. And he hadn't tried to hex them like he normally would have...
Harry looked up at last. "What was it?" he asked Delphine. She turned her relentless stare to him. He did not flinch, but stared straight back at her, pleading with her to help him understand this better.
"I don't know." Delphine averted her gaze to Hermione. "Hermione, what are you doing?"
"Getting his things," she answered. Her eyes were almost back to normal, but she had a slightly glassy look in her eyes, as though she had not yet quite reached normalcy after tears had threatened her dignity.
Delphine reached out to take his things, but Hermione drew back. "Could I take them to him?" she asked.
Delphine raised an eyebrow at Hermione, and when Hermione met her stare, the two seemed to have a conversation without talking. Delphine at last nodded after about three minutes of telepathic conversation, and Hermione took off down the hallway.
Ron, Harry and Neville were thoroughly confused. "What the hell? Why is Hermione going to give him his things? She hates him, and he hates her." Ron's face was utterly bewildered.
Harry turned to Neville and asked, "Does he seem different to you?"
Neville gave Ron the once over and then looked back at Harry and replied, "No."
Harry smacked the side of his head and then glared at Neville. "Not Ron, you imbecile, Malfoy."
Neville started to answer, but Ron interrupted. "Did anyone else notice that he didn't try to fight us at any point?"
Delphine was smiling softly. The three boys looked to her for answers. She offered none.
"Are you going to tell us what's going on?" Neville asked.
"No," she replied simply. "You'll have to go and ask him that yourselves. You started this, you can finish it."
Ron groaned. "God, no, you aren't expecting me to go and apologise to him are you?"
Delphine fixed him with her stare. "Why wouldn't you?"
Ron pretended to think. "Hmm, maybe because every single time we've run into him before, he's offered some smart arse comment about my family or Harry's parents?"
Delphine shook her head. "But has he offered any smart arse comments this year? Since the summer?"
The three boys thought for a moment and then shook their heads. "No," Harry answered softly.
Delphine nodded. "There's your answer."
If the three boys had been feeling guilty before, it was nothing to how they felt right now. They knew that Delphine knew something she wasn't telling them, and something told them that Hermione knew something as well. It was all very strange.
Harry took Ron's arm and began to walk with him towards the Gryffindor common room. Delphine started off towards the Slytherin common room when Hermione had gone. Neville quickly joined the boys, glad to be out of Delphine's guilt inducing stare.
But before they went inside, Harry turned to look back at Delphine. "Hey, Delphine!"
She turned and waited.
"Um...do you think he'll listen if we go and apologise?" he asked.
She paused and thought for a moment. "Would you listen to him apologise to you if he did the same to you?"
Harry felt the sickened feeling in his stomach deepen as he realized that no, he wouldn't. Delphine gave him a knowing smile and continued on her way. Harry and Ron exchanged a glance.
"What the bloody hell is going on?" Ron said, immensely rattled.
"I don't know any more than you do, Ron," Harry replied.
"The girls know something," Neville pointed out.
Harry snorted. "They're not going to tell us."
"Hermione will." Ron didn't look very sure of himself as he stated this.
"How do you know?" Neville asked him.
Ron sighed and scratched his chin. "I guess I don't."
Harry looked back down the hall where both girls and Malfoy had disappeared. "I wonder what's changed him."