Title: You and I
Author: Mage
Rating: R
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CHAPTER ONE: Of Blazing Emerald and Steely Silver
The elderly man was rarely tense, rarely showed discomfort or apprehension, yet as he sat gazing into four pairs of hostile eyes he felt like running.
His sparkling blue gaze swept the room, coming to rest on a pair of jade eyes that were blazing with emerald fire, conveying a burning fury that could incinerate steel. And at that moment the eyes were directed at him.
"I hope you have a good explanation for this Professor."
"And by explanation, we do not want an elaborate excuse."
The cold steely voice sliced through whatever else could have been said, diverting the old man's gaze to a pair of silver orbs.
The man resisted the urge to flinch away as he saw the cold fury in those silvery depths. Unlike the jade gaze that burned with fire, these eyes held in their depths a coldness that could turn a desert into an eternal winter.
"Lay off him, Malfoy. Albus has a reason for everything he does."
Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, nearly sighed in relief as those words were spoken. He glanced at the glaring hazel eyes and breathed an internal sigh of thanks that the anger in those orbs was not directed at him, but clashing with silver.
"Do not tell me to leave him be when your wife was the one that began the demands, Potter," Malfoy sneered.
"You were the one that was threatening him," Potter spat back.
"'Threatening'? I was merely telling him to give a proper explanation and not a damn excuse for once. My words held not a grain of a threat."
"Have you never heard of an unspoken threat, Malfoy?"
"Believe me Potter, if I was going to make a threat, even someone as ignorant and fatuous as you would know when I'm doing it. A Malfoy does not waste their time beating around the bush."
Malfoy and Potter stood in the middle of the office looking as though they were ready to beat the other into a bloody pulp and still not be satisfied.
As if foreseeing that very thing from happening, a firm voice broke through the argument. "Would you two please leave it be. We have neither the time nor the patience for petty childish bickering and finger pointing."
Albus could not help but smile at the delicate, willowy, blue eyed figure that sat before his desk.
'Ever the level headed Ravenclaw, young Black', Albus thought.
Out loud he said, "That is correct. There is no need for fighting. All will be explained in due time."
Albus looked around the room, capturing the gazes of its four occupants. Silver eyes still held the cold fury that could make even him flinch; dark blue gaze held his with a steady calm that he knew belied a frightening temper of their own; an emerald pair looked into his eyes with a fierce defiance and a promise of repercussions if he did not explain his part; and then there was that hazel gaze, that even after all this time still held in their depth a sense of the legendary Gryffindor loyalty unlike any he had ever seen before.
Yet he knew that he should not let that calming gaze pacify him, for this was the gaze that would later hold within it the most amount of fury when all was said and done. Albus internally sighed. The thing about Gryffindor's was that even with all their nobility, with all their honor and loyalty, they were perhaps the most close minded of the four houses. They believed in their beliefs and they believed absolutely. They left little room for anything else.
'Well there are some Gryffindor exceptions.' Albus had to smile at that thought. 'Yes there were some Gryffindor's that are the exceptions of their house. Which brings us all here today…'
Suddenly the office doors swung open, the soft creak of the heavy wood sounding louder then it would normally have in the quiet room.
'Speaking of exceptions…'
"Ah, Young Mr. Potter. Young Mr. Malfoy. Finally you have arrived. We can now begin."