Rain

By: Who Else? Me

Chapter Nine

Sitting Under a Tree

A few weeks had passed and the "incident" in the Defense Against the Dark Arts class was almost forgotten. Dorothy had tried her hardest to avoid Draco, not only heeding Pansy's warning, but Dumbledor's as well. One Saturday morning, she gathered up her books and headed outside to do her homework. She had a Gryffindor scarf tied tight around her neck and her red mittens on because, as they slowly approached December, the temperature was slowly decreasing.

She sat down under a tall oak tree by the lake and opened her Intermediate Potions book and started on that homework. Her cheeks were red from the cold and she felt tired. She'd had another, worse premonition in the middle of the night that lasted for so long she had almost fallen asleep in the middle of it. She saw a green light, and within the green there was a small sparkle of silver right in the middle. She saw someone approaching her, coming out of the silver light. His arms were open and ready for a loving embrace but just as she reached out to hug him he was struck down and he didn't get up. When she had finally come to from the premonition, her eyes were blurred with tears and she felt exhausted. It was 5:30 in the morning and the sun was beginning to rise so she couldn't get back to sleep.

Now she was reading through a few paragraphs and writing down the ingredients on how to concoct a Paralysis potion. When she'd finished writing that, she put her parchment and her book back in her bag and got out Standard Book of Spells Grade 6 and flipped to a page near the center before she stared out at the beautiful lake as the wind small waves on the flawless surface. She stared serenely out at the water, feeling a sense of peace wash over her body and just as she was about the fall asleep, right there, on the ground, against the tree, with the sounds of the waves hitting the rocks gently, she felt something fall from above her onto her face. When she opened her eyes she saw a small daisy resting lightly on her nose. She giggled and picked it up off of her face and looked at it before looking up into the tree.

There, sitting on a branch directly above her, was Draco Malfoy. She was looking down at her with his steely grey eyes and she felt as though he was looking into his very soul. He seemed to be glaring at her rather than staring at her. With a swift movement, he jumped down and was standing right before him, with his arms crossed tightly over his chest. She looked up at him and felt her muscles tightening. She stood up preparing to walk away. She needed to make up an excuse and quick.

"Er—hello, Draco, I wish I could stay and chat but I've got to..." Her mind raced. Something! Anything! "...to help Professor ahem with that...that thing!"

"Sit down!" he demanded. She looked nervously at him but smiled.

"But, Draco I just said I hat to—"

"I said, sit down!" His voice was laced with anger and it frightened Dorothy so much that she sat down so fast her butt hurt.

He was fast! In a moment he had his hand on the tree trunk to the left of her head and his face was inches from her own. She gulped and felt very helpless. She could feel his breath on her face and it made her shudder slightly.

"You've been avoiding me for three weeks! What's going on? Did Pansy say something to you?" He leaned his head forward and it rested on her shoulder. Her face was turning red and now she could feel his breath on her neck.

"O-of course not Draco. I've just been working hard to keep up with my studies."

"The only time you really ever talk to me is in Herbology and even then you seem tense and drawn off. Am I really that bad?" He was beginning to shake with rage. The hand beside her head had balled up into a fist and he was begging to scare her.

"No, Draco...it's not you...why are you acting so weird? You never acted like this before."

Draco flinched at this comment and looked up, his nose touching hers. His eyes were angry now, and she felt so tense that it hurt.

"I don't like being ignored is all," he growled, looking into her icy blue eyes. "That's all it is."

She reached up and touched his hand which made him tense. Her eyes looked so sad and she felt so tired but she pushed herself to stay awake. She then took his balled up fist and pushed it against her cheek.

"Then hit me," she whispered, closing her eyes.

"What?!" He was taken aback at her sudden comment.

"Hit me, I don't mind," she repeated, taking her hand away from his fist. "Boys in my neighborhood back home do it all the time. If you're angry, Draco," she opened her eyes and looked firmly at him, "then hit me."

"Y-you want me to hit you!?"

"Yes. Really, I don't mind."

Draco's fist unfurled so that he was cupping a side of her head. She stared at him, curiously, but she remained tense. She blinked her at him and his hand curled around so that he had the back of her head and his fingers were entwined in her hair.

"Draco...please stop..." she whispered. When he looked at her, her face was pained, like she was suffering on the inside.

She gulped and felt him leaning into her to kiss her and she turned her face away quickly so that he only got her cheek. She clenched her fists and pulled some grass from the ground.

"I don't know what's wrong with you but...you're moving too fast and I...I don't know how I'm going to act with your behavior and your emotions," she choked out. She felt the pain in her heart spreading rapidly throughout her body as she avoided making eye contact. "You act so different from what everyone else says of you and it's making me nervous. And, I haven't been here very long Draco, how am I supposed to decide how I feel about you when I barely know you...please, just stop, before you hurt yourself."

It was too late for that though. From the minute she'd turned her face to that very second, he was in pain. He pulled his hand out from behind her head and stood up, not looking at her the whole time. She watched him walk away, with his hands in the pockets of his pants under his robes. She suddenly understood her premonition now. She was experiencing it.

A/N: Oi! The Mary-Sue-ness huh? But there is A LOT of romance too! It's all coming together. When I was writing this, I really wanted them to kiss but I decided that they really were moving too fast and this gives me more ideas. I also felt bad for Draco when I wrote this. I was all like, "Awww! Draco gets rejected! How many people won't like that?" I originally had the idea of them kissing and getting caught by like Harry, Ron, or Hermione...or maybe Pansy but I thought that I really didn't like that idea. When I write, I tend to make the faces I'm describing, the same with when I'm drawing. I let my friend Peaches read this and she freaked out! "Aww, Kokri-chan (my nickname)!! They shoulda kissed!! The really shoulda! It would've been so fun to see how they acted afterward!!" It's not like I'm not gonna have them kiss eventually!!! It's a romance!! THEY ARE GOING TO BE ROMANTIC WITH EACH OTHER SOME TIME OR AN OTHER!!!! Uh, does that count as a spoiler? Well, no more ranting from the author! R&R as always. Ciao.

WEM

PS That was a long rant huh?