Stultifying shadows swirl around me,

They suffuse my very heart,

And wreath my soul, like a trembling shade

I am blinded, deafened, dumb

And slowly, my fingers turn numb

As I stand, nearly swept away

By things the likes of which I cannot say

I yearn for you, for your light

To sear the shadows and make them flee

Even if in the process, you might just burn me.

Better to stand in the light for once,

Than to perish alone in the darkness.

Draco heard them talking, his ear pricked around the corner from where the Gryffindors were talking. It wasn't a frequently used hallway, but it led by a particular view that Potter (or maybe Granger) seemed quite fond of. At any rate, they often came here to talk, when they wanted to do so in a bit of private. Not enough to cast silencing spells, or to boot everyone else out of their dorm room, apparently, but enough so they'd have a bit of space. Draco did as he often did, listening in.

"So, Malfoy, of all people, he says to me... that I'm going to need to know what he does, if I hope to get this house elf liberation rolling." Granger said, and then cracked a smile that Draco could hear in her voice, "Well, 'If I don't want to break heads' at any rate." Granger's impression of Draco's drawl was surprisingly inaccurate. Sure, she had the pomposity down, but lacked most of the arrogance.

"That Malfoy, he's really unbelievable, isn't he?" Potter said with a chuckle.

"Yeah, if anyone can make something... unlikely, like freedom of house elves, it's Hermione" Ron Weasley said stoutly.

"You want we should teach him how to act around a lady?" Potter said, in a strange accent*.

"That's the funny part," Hermione said, and Draco could hear the start of a frown pulling at her lips, "It almost sounded like he might be willing to help..."

"Malfoy?!" One of the boys said, as they both cracked up in laughter.

Sensing his cue, Draco Malfoy glided around the corner. He had opened his mouth to say something (Hermione's eyes had gone wide at the sight of him, never you mind that they hadn't been saying anything positively awful or anything), but Potter leaped a full foot in the air, spinning around and glaring at him. "Do you always eavesdrop on conversations that are none of your business?"

"Always? Certainly not. Yours, for example, was about me, so I do think that it possibly pertains to my business." Draco Malfoy said with a smile, "Besides, I've got two ears and one mouth for a reason."

"What is your business?" Granger spat back.

"Only to say this, there's no point in offering when the other person will come begging." Malfoy said with a devilish smirk.

"As if! Me, beg you-!" Granger titled her nose up, and spun around, as if she was completely done with talking.

"Well, I suppose when you boil it down, you're too cowardly to ask for help. Sure hate to be one of those house elves, I would, when my liberator deliberately confounds herself into stupidity." Draco Malfoy said with a sneer. Granger kept walking, her spine stiff as a flagpole, while her friends pulled their wands.

"Boys, boys," Draco Malfoy said, walking between them (to make them hesitate at least, if they were that far off the rational) and placing a hand on both of their shoulders to push by them, "I'm not even armed." Turning, directly, into the next sidepassage, Draco Malfoy let his voice echo back to them, "You wouldn't curse an unarmed man, now would you?" His laughter echoed all around him.

*New Jersey Italian. Mafioso joke.

[a/n: Yes, Draco is quite aware of why Granger isn't willing to ask him for help.

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