I have updated a little faster than I thought. Probably because I am excited by the prospect of a new story and this has really got the plot bunny out of the closet. o.O I intended people to not know at the beginning of the story, who the person being bullied was, and I hope that it being Draco was a surprise! Enjoy!
Bullet With Butterfly Wings
- Chapter 2 -
Draco's eyes fluttered open throwing his right arm out in hope that he would hit the alarm that had just awoken him. But to no avail. Annoyed with the alarm that persisted to beep tediously he turned onto his side and peered at it through hooded eyes, and tried pushing the little black switch again. After a few attempts he sighed when his ears finally adjusted to the quietness around him, pulling his pillow closer to his face and nuzzling back into it with his eyes closed.
After all he did have a good hour or so to get ready and he only needed to rest his eyes for a few more minutes.
"Draco dear, you're going to be late."
He moaned tiredly and glanced up at his mother who had just nudged his shoulder.
"Huh?" he incoherently replied, face still plastered to his pillow. She laughed at him and pushed his shoulder once more.
"Come on sleepy head! If you're quick I can drop you into school."
"Just one more minute!" he mumbled.
"Draco." He recognised that tone she had just used and grumbling to himself he turned over and glanced at his mother.
"I'm up I'm up!" he exclaimed. She raised her eyebrow and he sighed. "Fine, see," he said standing up and crossing his arms across his chest with a smile threatening to replace his pout.
"Now hurry up and get washed so I can take you to school," she said and kissed his cheek. She closed his door behind her with a click to leave him to get changed.
He still felt tired that morning as he entered the building. Yawning he made sure his school tie was securely placed around his neck and that he had everything in his bag. Of course he wouldn't have forgotten the most important book he owned, which was his sketch book. He prided it amongst all his others after all.
He glanced down at his timetable and groaning under his breath about having the worst first lesson again he headed to the maths corridor. Unlike last year, when he had Mrs Butcher for maths, he now had Mrs Sinistra whom he remembered from his first year at Hogwarts - precisely how terrible she was. She would be likely to give you a detention if you so much as got a question wrong!
He was happy that many people felt like himself about their next maths teacher. Only a few people sat behind their desks twiddling their pencils or drawing in their books as she specifically forbids any one to speak unless spoken to. Sighing, he sat down at a table with not too many seats around it and arranged his books and pencil case onto the table.
Usually his table would be the last to become occupied by other people as they chose to sit else where - unless of course there were more than plenty spare seats then he would just sit by himself.
The second bell rung and most of the students finally filtered in around this time, not daring to be any later as their teacher was one of the strictest hired at Hogwarts. He nearly laughed out loud at the look on Blaise's face when he was told to sit outside the door because he arrived twenty seconds later than the bell chimed.
His amused thoughts came to an abrupt end when a hand touched his shoulder. Turning his head to the side he was met with the green eyed boy from yesterday smiling down at him.
"Can I sit here?" the boy Draco knew as Harry said.
"Yes," he muttered and then looking up at Harry he added, "if you want to that is." He wondered whether he was only sitting there because everywhere else was taken. It wouldn't surprise him if that was the case.
"Yes, actually I wanted to talk to you," Harry said sitting down beside Draco and pulling his own books and pens out of his bag. He opened his mouth to continue when Mrs Sinistra started taking the register. He smiled rolling his eyes. They both looked down at the text book they had to read before answering the questions. It wasn't until the end of class that Draco managed to speak again; though begrudgingly he knew it was a step up from not talking to anyone at all.
"Well bye then," Draco muttered, tucking a stray piece of blonde hair behind his ear.
"Wait," Harry exclaimed packing his books away into this bag and hauling it onto his shoulder. "What lesson do you have next?" They fell in step beside each other walking down the corridor.
"I think I have art next," he said glancing up from the floor and looking sideways at Harry.
"I have music now so if you want we could meet up at lunch with a few of my friends?"
Was that what Harry wanted to speak to him after all, he thought. "Urm, well I don't really know your friends…" he murmured again looking down at their feet.
"Well then, we could just hang out," Harry suggested again. "I can meet my friends some other time."
"Well," he began and chanced a look at Harry. Did he really want to talk to him by his own free will? It felt oddly different and out of place for someone to offer spending time with him, but at the same time he couldn't stop feeling somewhat excited because he could spend time with people instead of books in the library. "Okay then," he continued. For the first time that he could remember he kept a steady gaze with Harry without blushing and looking away.
"Good. Well I will meet you outside of your art class then?" Harry smiled and when Draco nodded he left down the other corridor to the right that led to the music department.
Art was more productive than he would have thought. He didn't get much done in the sense of art work, which he needn't catch up with anyway, but he had found out the person he had been talking to was called Seamus Finnigan. Although they only said a few things together, before being engrossed in what the teacher had to say about nineteenth century artists, he already began to think the year was going to be much better than last.
Lunch approached and instead of eating his food in a rush as he normally did, he had sat down with Harry outside on a bench and ate a sandwich his mother had prepared for him. They talked about nothing of significance and it was oddly surprising how easy Draco found it to talk to the brunette.
When the bell rang signalling the end of break they both stood up and walked side by side to their next class. History. They both groaned as the class came into sight and then looked at each other laughing slightly.
Draco sighed as he sat down at his table. Lunch had been unusual, yet undeniably interesting. It was definitely an experience he could get used to.
"Harry mate, where were you at lunch?" Ron asked his friend as he sat down at their table.
"I was with Draco," he replied. Ron looked in the boy's direction, curling his lip and turning to face his friend again with a look of utter confusion on his face.
"Him? Why the hell were you with that loser?" Ron exclaimed. Draco tensed. The room wasn't that big and if anyone was to actually pay attention during the class you could hear what was said; though Draco wasn't expecting anyone to talk about himself.
He looked to his right seeing Harry pointedly look at the ginger haired boy, his eyes glistening with something he couldn't decipher.
"Yes Ron. I was with Draco. Got a problem with that?"
Hermione interjected before Ron could so much as mutter a word. "No he doesn't, and in fact maybe you should ask him to sit with us Harry?"
Harry glanced at the blonde and frowned. His shoulders were tense and shaking slightly as if he was trying to control all of his emotions at once. He decided it wasn't best to ask him over, not when Ron obviously disliked him so, and instead he grabbed his bag and weaved in-between the tables saying to Hermione and Ron that he would meet them after school. Draco didn't look up from the piece of paper he was writing on when Harry sat beside him.
"I'm sorry if you heard that. Ron can be a bit…judgemental at times," murmured Harry.
Again there was that warm hand on his shoulder, though he never intended to shrug him off this time because in some strange way the gesture made him feel better. As if that one simple touch and his soft voice could wash away his fears. Which, Draco had begun to realise, Harry had slowly managed to do in only two days.
"It's okay. That's nothing new you know? I'm used to people saying stuff about me." Draco's voice was surprisingly calm as he muttered that to Harry.
Harry sighed and glanced at the blonde smiling in what he hoped was an uplifting manner.
Twenty minutes passed in a somewhat awkward silence. Every so often Draco would look up from his book, open his mouth and then close it again. He couldn't understand why he found it so easy to talk with the boy earlier and now all he could do was bore him to death in an uneasy silence. Though Mr Binns was doing a pretty good job off that by himself!
He chewed his bottom lip, worrying if the only friend (if he could even call Harry that) was annoyed of him already and had thought better about sitting next to him. His mind though was put to rest though as Harry glanced up from his own book, smiling when he realised Draco had been staring at him.
"How old do you think Mr Binns is, eh?" Harry whispered humorously, titling his head towards their teacher who was napping on his table at the front.
Draco felt as if the sudden weight that had settled at the pit of his stomach had disappeared. He smiled, laughing under his breath at the sight of their teacher almost drooling with every snore and intake of breath.
"Maybe he's not really alive and he didn't realise he was dead after all of these years?" Draco pondered out loud and smiled at the bemused look on Harry's face, slowly etching into a lopsided grin.
They had an amusing conversation about their teacher for the rest of the class, straying from how old they thought he was, to 'do you think his hair is real?' It may have not been the most interesting conversation, but at least it was something.
That day Draco left the school with a smile plastered to his face. Harry shouted goodbye to him, standing in-between his friends Hermione and Ron whom he had mentioned at lunch time to Draco and waved goodbye as he opened the door to his car. Even though they had got a surprise assignment from Mr Binns just before they all left - for once Draco was excited about his next history lesson. He and Harry would be working on a project of their desire as long as it was about World War One. He would have expected him to join his two best friends for the project, but instead the brunette had agreed and even offered to do it with him.
This thought alone made his happiness appear so obviously on his face. His mother quirked an eyebrow at him and asked how was his day as usual, glancing from the road to her son's smiling face.
"We started a history project today." he answered simply.
…to be continued…
Hmm, well there relationship doesn't just fall out of the sky now does it? I won't take the progression of it too slowly, but then again you can't just make a relationship between them out of nothing. Sigh. Review?