"Draco, you can eat now."
"Hm?" The Slytherin asked his best friend, Blaise Zambini as he was shaken out of his reverie.
"I told you to eat, what's wrong with you Draco?" The dark boy asked, "You haven't seemed yourself since you got here. First there were rumors that you took some potion that made you beautiful or something, now you completely miss the sorting, you usually love that!" Blaise said in a hushed tone.
"It's nothing Zambini," the part Veela replied as he helped himself to some Shepard's Pie and tried to pry Pansy off of his arm, "I'm just tired from the trip."
Zambini peered skeptically at Draco until the pale boy conceded to tell him later. With that promise, Zambini turned to talk to a boy whose name Draco couldn't think of. Just as Draco managed to regain his arm from Pansy's iron grip, a plumpish girl with long, dark red hair and stormy gray eyes slid into a seat between Draco and Pansy.
"Hi," she said breathlessly, "I didn't miss the sorting, did I?" The girl asked as she glanced around at the other tables.
"Sorry," Draco murmured, confused, "You missed it..." he felt as though he knew her but could not remember the correct name, so he frowned, quirked one eyebrow, and left a pause for her to introduce herself.
"Oh," she smiled, no, she beamed, "I'm Roanoke LaMer, nice to meet you..." she paused just as he had, for him to give his name, as she put out a hand for him to take, which she let fall when he did not take the opportunity to shake hands.
"Draco Malfoy," Pansy finally supplied, "How could you not know?"
"Sorry, nice to meet you- err- Draco," Roanoke greeted as she turned to Pansy, "That sure is a lovely name-" but was cut off when Pansy sighed.
"Oh no, that's not my name it's his, you should know that important people never introduce themselves," the Slytherin girl replied snobbily, "I'm Pansy," she clarified before turning away.
Roanoke looked back to Draco before standing and retorting, "You must not be all that important then, huh?" She said, not rudely, just as though she was stating a fact, to Pansy who had glanced at her as she stood, and now wore an outraged face, then Roanoke sarcastically bowed at Draco with a wink.
"Your Highness," she smirked, then walked quickly off to the Ravenclaw table.
Blaise, who had watched the whole scenario play itself out, had a strange look of awe on his face. The dark skinned and haired boy turned slowly to his platinum blonde friend and said slowly,
"Wow, it takes a lot to surprise me, but man, that girl's got guts!"
Draco nodded silently as he watched the girl who had called herself Roanoke converse with the Ravenclaws. Where had he seen her before? What was the other name he knew the girl by? Why did he know her? Why did he care? Just then, he saw her turn to him, from across the room, and send him a smile, the most beautiful thing he had ever witnessed. It made him want to smile back and cry at the same time, but being a Malfoy, it would be proper to do neither, so he did the one thing he could think to do. Draco excused himself from the table and fled the Great Hall, praying to any God that would listen that Pansy wouldn't follow. Thanking Merlin that he had gotten his own room, being a Veela who had just come into his Inheritance, he sprinted down staircases to the Dungeons, taking two steps at a time. With so much on his mind, he did not see two shadows following him to his room.
Speaking the password, Draco stepped into his home, for Malfoy Manor was not a home, and it never would be, here was his home, at Hogwarts. Thinking over his encounter with Roanoke, who he had once known by a different name, he drifted to sleep, and dreamt of a girl called Rain.