Mandy Brocklehurst gave Professor Sprout a small smile, thanking her for giving Ravenclaw ten points as a reward for Mandy answering a question correctly. It was the first class of her sixth year, the sun was shining brightly outside Greenhouse Four, and so far the day held nothing out of the ordinary. Gazing around the room, Mandy quickly slipped into her favorite activity: watching. Although observing the people around her gave her pleasure, Mandy felt rather indifferent as to what her classmates were doing. It was their lives, not hers, and as much as she wished they could switch, she knew it was impossible. And so, she felt merely as though nothing they were doing really mattered.
Vincent Crabbe appeared to be taking a nap, his head cradled in his thick arms. Eden Du doodled all over a one-foot piece of parchment, covering it with hearts of various sizes drawn in dark blue ink. Pansy Parkinson was desperately trying to catch Blaise Zabini's eye, even going as far as making little coughing noises like Dolores Umbridge. Blaise, however, was attentively listening to Professor Sprout and seemed quite unaware that Pansy was even in the greenhouse. Mandy didn't think he liked Pansy very much, or at least wasn't interested in what she wanted. Anthony Goldstein, who went by Ant, was looking wistfully out at the sunny grounds. His friend, Michael Corner, was slowly lowering a piece of parchment that read 'Jinx me' onto Anthony's back with his mahogany wand.
As Mandy continued to observe, she just barely saw out of the corner of her eye a certain blonde, turning away from her as she, in turn, looked his way. She blinked.
"Draco Malfoy was looking at you," she told herself in a puzzled tone, brushing a strand of straight brown hair out of her face.
Draco was one of her favorite people to watch and study. He seemed so cruel and heartless on the outside, but every now and then she witnessed something that made her believe him to be a good person underneath. He seemed unaware that he sometimes let his guise slip. She pitied him, frankly. To her, he seemed trapped in a narcissistic, harsh, and meaningless life. He was probably aching to leave it.
But why was he looking at her? She was just the Ravenclaw girl in the back of Herbology, silently earning the highest grade in the class. She wasn't anything extraordinary with her tan skin and brown eyes. She didn't even have any friends, at least, not since the end of her fourth year when her best friend Lisa Turpin started going out with Terry Boot. Now Lisa spent all of her time with Terry and his friends, and rarely even talked to her. Now Mandy just blended into the scenery around everyone else without Lisa to acknowledge her existence. So why was Draco looking at her as something other than a wall? It wasn't in his nature. Or, she corrected herself quickly, it wasn't in the nature he showed the world…
Mandy slowly brought her eyes back onto Professor Sprout. It would not do for her to be so deep in thought that she missed the rest of the lesson right up to a possible homework assignment. She could always catch up in the library later, but she felt that wouldn't be a good way to start her sixth year. And since she had no idea what NEWTs she'd need for her nonexistent career choice, she needed to pay attention in all of her classes. The Herbology professor was quite interesting to watch herself, in any case.
A dozen minutes or so passed this way, with Mandy listening to Professor Sprout, but she found her attention wandering back to the blonde Slytherin at the other end of Greenhouse Four. She wondered if he was truly all he seemed to be. She found herself hoping that he wasn't. How else would she explain the odd seconds when he seemed caring, or sympathetic, or lonely? He was so wonderfully difficult to figure out and place in a category with all the others that for a minute Mandy forgot who she was: nobody. Why did she even bother trying to dissect him? Even if she did somehow manage to find something, anything, to support her theory, no one would listen. Actually, no one would hear, because Mandy had no one to tell. So doing this was pointless.
And he could never help her with her problem. Draco Malfoy had no idea who Mandy Brocklehurst was, even less than Mandy herself did. He may have been looking at her just twenty minutes ago, but that meant nothing. He was probably just bored, like everyone else in the class. It was nothing to get excited about. Sighing, Mandy firmly placed her attention back on Professor Sprout. She couldn't spend time thinking about Draco Malfoy when she had a life to create.
The Morning House
Walking in silence
along the empty house
Early morning not
enough to lighten
Everything
All quiet but for a few
birds outside the window
I go about my business,
not caring
Unseeing
As morning brightens I
slowly appear
No one in the silent
old house
Nothing
Stopping you from
intruding into
