A Study in Emerald: Silver Linings
(100 PROMPTS)
Summary: "People don't get pauses like these very often. Some people never receive them at all...I did." Kagome looked at Draco, her cheeks flushed as she smiled up at him, the cold air was nipping painfully at her nose, but she didn't care. If there had been a clock nearby, it would have stopped. Occasionally, there were minutes that got extra seconds. Moments so precious the universe stretches to make additional room for them...these moments were hers.
Anime/Book/Movie: InuYasha/Harry Potter
Pairing: Draco/Kagome
Genre: Romance/Adventure
Rated: M for Mature Content
R.I.P – Alan Rickman
(Severus Snape)
Remember
The Half-Blood Prince
~ALWAYS~
-x-x-x-
(5. Rain)
Staring after him as he left the common room completely lost in thought, Kagome wondered what was going on through his mind. He'd been quiet for several hours and she and Blaise were getting kind of worried.
"Just let him be, he's fine."
Okay, so she was getting kind of worried, "isn't he your friend, how can you not be a bit concerned?"
"I am very concerned." Blaise said with a smile on his face as he shook his head, "I'm concerned that you pay too much attention to Draco Malfoy, and not enough attention to your schoolwork. In the three hours we've been in the common room, you barely wrote a paragraph on your Transfiguration's assignment, and you still have Herbology and Charms to do. Draco will be fine, but you...?"
Rolling her eyes, she shoved her work into her bag and sighed, "I can't focus on my essay. I'll do it at night like I usually do. Um..." she turned to Pansy, "could you take this to my room?"
Pansy glanced up from her own Charms work and nodded her head, "yeah, here." She took the bag and placed it next to hers.
"I'll see you guys later," Kagome called, ducking out of the doorway and chasing after Draco in what she hoped was the direction he'd gone in. Thankfully, it hadn't been too long since he left the room. Running up stairs and making her was towards the first floor, she slowed to a stop as she saw Dumbledore standing by the top of the staircase. "Professor Dumbledore, have you seen which way Draco went?"
Dumbledore glanced at her with a twinkle in his eye, smiling a bit as he tilted his head down just enough that she could see his eyes a bit over the half moon lenses. "Indeed, Miss. Higurashi. I was trying to figure out how best to go get him...since I would rather avoid the rain myself. However, if you are up to the task-"
"Yes sir!"
He chuckled, "I do believe, then, that you just missed him, but he should be out towards the lake. That was the direction he seemed to be heading in."
She took off towards the large doors of the school and paused as the smell of rain hit her just before the doors opened to reveal a heavy downpour just outside the door. She could barely contain her excitement as she grinned and slipped off her shoes and school cloak. Laying them on the ground, she glanced at her shoes and raised a finger to them in afterthought, "don't go anywhere!" She told her shoes before standing and running out into the downpour.
Dumbledore smiled as he turned just in time to see Draco Malfoy come walking back from the library. "Oh...Mr. Malfoy, a good evening, I hope?"
Draco frowned and nodded his head, "yes sir, just finishing the last of my work before classes start tomorrow."
"Good, good...I just saw Miss. Higurashi looking for you."
"Oh?" Draco furrowed his brows as his eyes moved past Dumbledore and towards the wide-open doors, next to which, lay a cloak and familiar pair of shoes. "...she didn't go outside...did she?!"
"I can't be sure...but I think she was heading towards the lake." Dumbledore said with a secretive smile as he watched Draco leave his books in a pile by Kagome's cloak before he ran outside after her.
-x-x-x-
Kagome stopped out by the lake, brushing her bangs from her eyes as she looked around for Draco. The heavy rain fall making it near impossible to see anything around her. Huffing, she sat down and glanced out at the lake, watching the ripples of the water as each raindrop met the waters surface. She watched as the drops grew softer, fewer in-between, she glanced up before falling backwards. Her hair haloed around her as she closed her eyes and listened to the rain. She was already completely soaked through, so it didn't seem to matter to her anymore.
"what..."
Blue eyes snapped open to the confused whisper that was the familiar voice of Draco Malfoy. "Where were you?"
Draco raised a brow and tilted his head as he stared down at her. His hair was no longer perfectly brushed back but falling in his eyes as the rain pelted him softly from above. "Were you looking for me?"
Kagome smiled, "yeah, Dumbledore told me that you had come outside...why did you come outside in this storm?"
He couldn't stop himself from laughing, sitting down next to Kagome on the wet grass, he stared out at the lake and couldn't get rid of the grin on his face. Finally turning his eyes to Kagome as she sat up, "Dumbledore told me that you had taken off outside. I left my books by your cloak and shoes."
"He lied to me!?" Kagome let gravity drag herself back down as she scoffed, "I was so easily fooled."
"Yeah...you really were." He shook his head. "Why were you looking for me anyways?"
"...you looked...weird."
That was a word he'd never heard describe him, "weird?"
"Yeah, you were really quiet, and it was really disconcerting." Sitting up, she brought her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.
"I was thinking, mostly about lunch."
"You mean the Nimbus 2000..." Kagome sneered bitterly, eliciting a laugh from Draco who was watching her. "It was McGonagall, I saw the owl fly over to her after it dropped off Potters new broom."
"It's not even about the broom...it's Potter...it's always Potter. He's like..."
"The rainstorm to your sunny day?"
Nodding, Draco looked up at the grey clouds as he felt the rain coming to a stop. "Yeah, that's exactly it," he picked up a stone and ran his thumb over it, "it feels like he's always there in the limelight, but what is he really doing to deserve it? Should I pity him for being made a hero simply because his mom and dad died at the hands of You-Know-Who and he somehow didn't? I mean...he didn't die...instead..."
"Instead, the Dark Lord did." Kagome understood what he was saying. "My mum told me that if the Dark Lord hadn't gone to the Potters, he would have lived that night. She said, he'd stubbornly met his destiny on the road he'd taken while trying to avoid it."
"...Higurashi is your last name...I don't think I know of anyone by that name."
"What's your point?"
He threw the stone and they watched it skip a bit, "you called him "The Dark Lord" so...your family..." he left the sentence hanging but knew she didn't need him to elaborate.
"...mm..."
Draco was surprised when she stood up suddenly. "Kagome?"
"...my father was tortured and killed by the Dark Lord." Turning away from him, she pushed her toes into the grass and let her mind cling to the wet grass and the lush feeling of nature. "My mom was recruited by him...a Seer from Japan, she was herald by the Japanese Ministry as one of the best Seer's in the world. This was a seductive prize to the Dark Lord. I was only a baby at the time, so I don't recall any of it." Turning, she smiled at Draco who was staring up at her thoughtfully. "What I do know...is that my father loved life. My mother had a pensive filled of her memories, memories that I would watch while growing up. There wasn't anything that he didn't love. Mom, Nature, me...he loved his work, and loved animals...he just...loved. He died because he loved. That's what mom said."
"Because he loved?"
"The Dark Lord fears love...there is no stronger power in the world, but he saw it as a weakness...so...he got rid of it. Dad was a weakness to my mother, who was such a powerful witch...that's why..." tears swelled in her eyes, "...that's why..."
Standing, Draco took Kagome in his arms and held her for a moment, feeling like crap for even asking about her family. "Hey, since we're outside, why don't we go flying?" He gave her a goofy grin at her look of surprise. "Come on! We can stop by the Medical Wing after and get something to keep the flu away later."
"...something to keep the flu away?" She laughed, looking up at the clouds and feeling the soft drizzle, "yeah, sure...it looks like great weather to fly."
"You think a rainstorm is great weather to fly?"
"Well, why not?"
Draco shrugged, "if you have no problem with the weather, I'll be sure to drag you out more often. Rain or not."
"Drag me out?"
"If you aren't opposed," he laughed, guiding her off towards the broom shack where the two had begun forming their tentative friendship. Little by little it was blossoming into something more, and perhaps one day, that bud of friendship would bloom into a flourishing rose. For now, however...laughter...whispered on the wind and drowned out in the soft and subtle patter of rain, was all that mattered to the old eyes that had taken to watching over the two snakes. Be it in sabotaging the two or guiding them... and it didn't look as though he would be losing interest.
-x-x-x-
Dumbledore smiled back as McGonagall walked up to him. "Minerva, how are you?"
She gazed out the door past him and frowned at the sight of two Slytherin's walking by the Dark Lake. "Well, I was doing great until I realized that two students were out in this weather. What are you thinking, Albus?"
"Oh...don't spoil their fun, Minerva, I would wager that these moments will be the ones they never forget. Let them have it..."
McGonagall frowned and shook her head before she sighed, "...if they are still out when I circle back, I'll bring them in. They have two hours."
A small chuckle sounded as she left with a stern look on her face. A small smile found her lips once out of Dumbledore's line of sight. Yes, she supposed that she could turn a blind eye...just...this once.
-x-x-x-
Me: Here is chapter five of my 100 prompt challenge. Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and I'll update more tonight!