Angry
The first few weeks of school did nothing to improve Draco's mood. The looks and the rumours had not stopped. They hadn't even abated any.
After a fortnight, he was ready to stand up in the middle of the Great Hall and just scream at the top of his lungs. Every look he received made him more angry. Every whisper he heard made him more bitter.
There was one person, however, that refused to sink into the crowd of indistinct shadows as they passed each other in the hall. Unfortunately, it wasn't his girlfriend.
Yes, he was dating Pansy Parkinson. He couldn't really tell you why. Yes he could. She was there for him. He trusted her. She knew him and she knew him better than anyone else did. He relied on her. She disdainfully denied countless rumours for him. She distracted him when the glares and the speculation got to him. She knew better than to mention the name of Lucius anywhere near him. She never got mad when he vented his anger in her direction. More than that, she never gave him reason to go off on her but she allowed him to vent anyway.
The only problem was her. The girl that just wouldn't behave like she was supposed to. She made eye contact with him in the hall and it wasn't menacing. She watched him from a distance and it wasn't critical or judgmental. She never winced or cringed when he glared at or insulted her. She simply replied with some witty, but not offensive, remark and went her way. If he didn't know better, he would be tempted to believe she was actually concerned for him, but that was impossible. She was, after all, a Gryffindor.
He had long since ceased to hope things would get better. No, he just got angrier. He knew that if he was going to move on with his life he really needed to get over this all encompassing rage, but that was easier said than done. He knew that he should just live, regardless of what anyone else thought or said. After all, the ashes that he would leave behind would be his and his alone. Shouldn't he live so that they would be worth more than the dust they became?
He wasn't making much process toward changing his attitude and had decided to take a walk on the grounds. That turned out to be a mistake. She was there, leaning against the tree under which he had intended to take refuge. He didn't adjust his course. He didn't know what he was going to say when he got there, but he was fed up with letting other people effect the decisions he made.
As he approached she noticed him and began walking toward him. No, that couldn't be right. She had merely concluded what his destination was and would rather return to the castle than share the shade with him and the most direct path back led the way from which he had come.
As she approached him, he barely heard her say, "You have every right to be angry, but some rights are best observed when unexercised." As she passed, she finished with, "It gets inside you and tears you up."
He turned around and stared at her. "I'm not angry." What a lie. Worse, she knew it was a lie. How could she not? "Though I've never been above it." What was that supposed to mean?
She just kept walking.
He watched her until she disappeared into the castle. Speaking to her absence, he whispered, "You see through me, don't you?"
