A/N: Alright, here's chapter 2 of Love from the Owl's Beak.
I'd love some headers to include if anyone thought of a good one (tenacious twit, etc.) those kind of things.
Wanna help me decide? I don't know if I want Draco to find out first or Hermione. I'm thinking Draco.
I'm sorry I spelled Blaise's last name wrong in the previous chapter, it is supposed to be Zabini. Sorry!
. - . - . - .
Draco swiftly shot a glance around the Great Hall before he dashed out to an abandoned corridor to take the message from his post owl's leg. He had seen the owl tapping the glass of one of the Great Hall windows and he looked at it excitedly.
. - . - . - .
Draco did not notice the twinkle in his headmaster's eyes or the small glance shared between Professor Snape and McGonagall as he hurriedly left the hall.
Crabbe and Goyle looked at each other stupidly and Goyle shrugged his shoulders, "Maybe someone slipped him some instalax from Weasley's Wizard Wheezes."
Crabbe merely grunted before lunging back down at his breakfast and eating heartedly.
Hermione speared another sausage cheerily, glad that her correspondence was finally opening up – never suspecting who her correspondence secretly was.
. - . - . - .
Draco ripped open the letter hurriedly, impatient to read what it said. They had been sending letters for a week and generally they averaged around ten letters per day, sending each other snide remarks (in a joking manner) and sending challenges about the other person's intellectual statute. They also never refrained from their name-calling in the addressing of 'to' and 'from' but they were less rude to some extent.
This was one of the reasons why today's letter had been so… astounding when he had first read it.
Not once since the beginning of the letters had they said anything about their personal lives, the only thing he knew for a fact was that his partner was a Gryffindor. He was also pretty sure it was a girl (from the neat handwriting) and he knew that they had a vast intellect.
He read the letter one more time before scribbling out a response. The note read:
Dear minutely tolerable being,
I've been thinking, I know that you are different than other Slytherins, it is easy to tell that just from reading your very first letter, but I would really like to get to know you better, and I am sure you'd like to get to know me better. In this letter I'll tell you some personal things (yet, not trivial) about myself, and I can hope you will send me one with the same kinds of information. After that maybe we can progress into slightly more personal questions.
Here goes nothing.
I am in the seventh year, in Gryffindor (obviously), I have three best friends, two of which are also in seventh year, my favorite class is Arithmancy. My favorite color is teal blue and I love anything sparkly. Oh, and I'm a girl if you haven't figured that out yet.
-Your impatient Gryffindor associate
So she wanted to get to know more about him huh? Draco pondered this for a minute, he would answer her certainly. But should he tell this girl – his only true friend other than maybe Zabini – about the true Draco, have her be the only person other than his mother and Zabini, that he let see through his 'tough guy' façade or does he tell her about the cold, icy Draco – the exterior he so wanted to shed.
The slight lurch and drop his stomach seemed to make when he thought of this gave him his answer and he turned back to the owl, ready to make his letter when the bell rang for him to go to classes.
He cursed under his breath and stalked off to Double Potions, his first class of the day.
Draco sent the owl on its way with a wave of his hand, yet the owl simply sat there and watched as he stalked off.
. - . - . - .
A minute later none other than Hermione Granger jogged out of the Great Hall, headed for the potions hallway.
Her (and Draco's but she didn't know that) post owl hooted to her softly, and she turned around stroking its feathers softly before checking to see if it had any post on its leg. Looking disheartened, she gave it a small owl treat and sent it on its way.
Hermione then descended the slightly moist stairs that lead down to the dungeon. She never noticed the two pairs of eyes following her – one pair deep chocolate brown, the other bright green.
. - . - . - .
"See you later Hermione!" Ginny yelled, after waving over her shoulder to her best friend. She sent a swift glance over to Blaise Zabini from the Slytherin table before skipping through the double doors of the Great Hall out into the bright light.
She heard a noise and turned around to see Blaise pretty much on top of her. "You know, they make robes to make girls less sexy, so how come you make me feel this way with your clothes on? And robes of all things?"
Ginny giggled. Blaise was her boyfriend of a month, she had told no one, not even Hermione, and he likewise hadn't told anyone. They were afraid of what people from their houses would think.
Without caring about lessons or the consequence of what would happen if Filch caught them, Ginny pulled Blaise into an abandoned broom closet in the deserted corridor.
As soon as the door shut she jumped on him, her legs wrapped around his waist, pulling his head in for her to kiss.
They stayed like that for a few minutes before they had to come up for air, over her haggard breathing (and Blaise's) she had heard someone in the corridor.
Ginny's curiosity got the better of her and she put a finger up to her now-slightly-swollen lips before pulling the door open just enough so that they could see who was in the corridor.
Her breath caught in her throat and she breathed, "Malfoy…" lightly her tone malicious, but Blaise had heard her none-the-less.
He looked over to her and whispered in her ear lightly while gently making circular patterns on her back, "Bloke's not all that bad you know, he's had a hard life… He's not the way he lets on."
Slightly dazed from Blaise's antics Ginny simply nodded as she watched Malfoy read a letter from an owl perched on the windowsill next to him. Holy Merlin! That looks like the owl Hermione uses! Ginny thought suddenly, but she dismissed the thought almost as soon as it had entered her mind – she was simply being paranoid.
The bell signaling they had five minutes until classes sounded and Malfoy cursed loudly before retreating to the staircase for the dungeons, located just around the corner. They continued to watch – not being able to come out due to the flocks of students leaving the Great Hall – until they saw Hermione come, about a minute after the bell had sounded. She walked straight over to the owl and stroked its feathers lovingly before checking for a letter on its leg, after not finding one, hurt evident in her eyes, she walked down the staircase to potions.
Blaise and Ginny simply looked at each other – both remembering the nice things they had heard from their respective best friends about the correspondence they had. Neither of them knew the other was supposed to be their worst enemy, but now their best friends knew.
"We need a plan." Ginny said, finality in her tone.
"But you need to get to class." He said, speculation in his voice.
"I have Trelawny first, I could just tell her that my inner eye decided to grant me with a visit on my way up to her tower and then feed her some bullshit about Harry drowning, or some other terrible misfortune for him." Ginny said, rolling her eyes.
Blaise snorted and nodded his agreement.
"What about you?" the red-head asked.
He shrugged before saying, "I have Snape first, I could probably tell him that I was in the middle of the Black Lake and I got in a fight with a Mountain Troll and he would simply say 'don't let it happen again'."
She smiled at him and they began to let their plan unfold – if this worked not only would Draco and Hermione get to know each other outside their letters, their friends might just accept their relationship also.
This is perfect. Ginny thought with a sigh.
A/N: Okay, so let me know what you think. I'm thinking about how much they're going to ask each other before they know who the other person is, I was thinking it would be easier if they asked when they knew each other though, I don't know, send me ideas!