Lunch was fun. I seemed to fit in with my new group of friends flawlessly. We laughed, we talked, and joked with one another. All in all we really had a great time.
Hermione had quickly became my best friend, me and Ron constantly picked on each other and joked around, he felt like the brother I never had. Harry on the other hand was quite shy. He wasn't as quick to trust me as the rest of his friends were. From what I had read in the book some pretty terrible things had happened to him, so he had every right not to trust me right away. He didn't talk much at lunch, but when he did manage to speak it was always hilarious.
I thought it was so great that I was getting along with everyone so well, but their was one person who I was having a hard time with. Draco.
I planned on trying to speak with him at lunch, but he never turned up. My eyes kept scanning the Slytherin table for him, but the white haired boy never showed.
"Olivia who are you looking for?" Neville (who I was also becoming friends with) spoke up nervously.
"No one, I was just admiring the architecture of the great hall." I lied, ripping my eyes from the table that lied on the other side of the room.
The rest of the day was simple. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny, two boys names Seamus and Dean, and I hung out in the common room.
They told me about what they had done over the summer, and about all of the teachers that I would be encountering at Hogwarts, they gave me tips on how to do well with each teacher. It turns out that Neville was in my Herbology, so I wouldn't have to be alone there after all.
"It's rather late, don't you think we should turn in?" Hermione interjected, while pointing to the clock. All eight of us looked up at it.
"Hermione, it's barely 8'oclock." Ginny argued.
"Now that you mention it, I do feel a bit tired." I admitted while pulling myself up off the couch.
"Are you serious?" Ginny asked in disbelief.
"Well someone woke me up very early this morning." I looked over at Hermione. She just smiled innocently and tried not to laugh at me.
"I'm a bit tired meself." Neville stood up after me. He said his goodnights then headed up to his dorm.
"Fine then, I guess were all going to bed early then." Ginny whined Then made he way to the stairs.
"We'll be up in a moment Gin." I gave her a nickname.
"Are you guys seriously going to bed right now?" Ron asked.
"Yes, and I suggest you three do the same." Hermione insisted, before heading up to the dorm herself.
"I guess I should go too. Night Harry, Night Ron." I gave a small wave.
" Goodnight Olivia." They half heartedly waved back . I made my way over to the staircase slowly.
"Guess we should turn in to mate." Ron said to Harry.
"Yea I guess." I heard their footsteps getting softer and softer as they went up to their room.
I was about to make my way up the steps when I hears a faint thumping. I turned around and tried to figure out what it was coming from.
I followed the light thumping. It became louder as I got closer to the common room entrance.
"Is someone there?" I said, barely louder then a whisper. The thumping stopped.
"Olivia? Is that you?" I heard an recognizable voice ask from the other side. I opened the door to see the white haired antagonist.
"Draco what are you doing here?" I asked surprise and annoyance clear in my voice.
"Just wanted to let you know that we'll be finishing the tour of the castle tomorrow." He said rapidly.
"Okay… but why didn't you just show up like you did this morning?" I stepped out of the bright, warm common room and into the dark, cold hallway.
"Well… this morning it seemed as if you didn't like me showing up without warning."
"So let me get this straight…" I started "In order to not show up unexpected tomorrow, you show up unexpected tonight?" I laughed at the situation. He didn't but I could see that he was holding something back. I wasn't exactly sure what it was though.
"Yes that's exactly what's happening." I was still trying to decipher what he was holding back. I settled on embarrassment, because he had obviously not thought his plan of informing me about our tour the next day.
"So what happened to you today?" I tried my best to get him talking.
"What do you mean?" He replied a bit harsher then necessary.
"Well you kind of ditched me, and I didn't see you at lunch, or dinner." he listened to me quietly with his hands behind his back.
"I was working on something?" he said simply.
Now Draco was very easy to read, when he wasn't wearing his mask of stolidity. And at that moment in time he was trying as hard as he could to keep the mask from melting away, and revealing what he was truly feeling.
I quickly decided to make a bold move, and call him out on what I felt was a lie. "Liar" I quickly accused.
"What?" His voice rose in shock.
"You heard me. Your lying to me." I said calmly while leaning up against the cool stone wall.
"How dare you! Who do you think you are? Calling me a liar. On what proof?" he spoke quickly, and angrily.
"Oh it's quite simple. I'm smart and you're a bad liar." I smiled victoriously at him.
"Smart? More like a smartass if you ask me." he smirked.
"Well no one asked you." I crossed my arms and smiled wider. He simply scoffed and left down the stairs. But I wasn't going to let the guy who I was supposed to be befriending leave angry.
"So what were you doing?" I followed him closely down the steps.
"I already told you. I was finishing up homework from over the summer." he kept walking.
"And we've already established that that's bullshit. So what were you really doing?" I skipped over to his side.
"Are you aware of how annoying you are?" I wasn't trying to be annoying, but I have to admit poking fun as Draco is well… Fun!
"Hey I asked you a question first. So answer mine and I'll answer yours." I tried to compromise with him.
"Once again, I was doing homework from over the summer. Now answer my question." we were both walking rather quickly and the situations tone kept fluctuating from pals poking fun at one another, to two people who were tired of one another and just trying to be as mean as possible.
"No, because your lying… again." I stopped grabbing his wrist, stopping him as well.
"You didn't say that I had to answer truthfully, you just said answer the question. So are you aware of how annoying you are?" he smirked thinking he had won.
"Well I assumed that honesty was implied." I quickly snapped back.
"Obviously you assumed wrong." he then started to walk away, in an attempt to end our little conversation.
"If you don't tell me I'm only going to assume the worst." I called after him.
"I doubt you'll even come close to the truth." he yelled, without stopping or turning around to face me.
"So you admit it then." I yelled stopping him in his tracks; my guess is, he realized that he had accidentally reveled that his excuse was just as I said it was; a lie. He turned around and practically charged me.
"Why are you pushing this?" He growled, grabbing me by my arm and shaking me a bit. Right then is when I realized the danger I was putting myself in by pushing Draco. I mean if he had gotten physically violent or even pulled out his wand then I would have been totally screwed. Right then is also when his mask fully melted away and I could see every emotion that he had locked away come out on his face. I could see that he looked troubled, and afraid, he felt threatened, unsure, and the most dominant emotion that I saw was loneliness. "Answer me!" he raised his voice, and his grip on my arm began to tighten.
No doubt he could see the fear growing in my eyes.
"Because…" I started, trying to think of something I could say that would contain some honesty. "Because I'd like to get to know you, I think we could be friends." I nervously smiled.
He stood their. Still gripping my arms. Probably thinking about us actually being friends. Then it seemed as if reality hit him square In the dome. The look on his face went from angry, to thoughtful, and then to an uncontrollable smiled and him laughing at me.
"Friends? With you? Never." He went on to list the reasons "You're a bloody "Gryffindork", who hangs out with mudbloods, and calls herself a muggle lover. Not to mention you're friends with Potter and Weaselbee. What gave you the idea that I would ever stoop so low and become friends with you?" His reaction stung, but I knew I couldn't give up, I really didn't have a choice.
"You did Draco." I forcefully removed his hands from my arm.
"Oh that makes sense. What could I have possibly done, to make you think that?"
"Everything!" I yelled at him. "The way you act like you don't need anyone when in reality your begging for someone to come and save you from your loneliness, and how you act all tough, like nothing effects you when really your just scared. You are drowning and you need a friend to come pull you out of the water and put the air back in your lungs." By the end of my little speech he had calmed down. He was processing every word that I had spoken.
He quietly leaned up against the cold stone wall, and sunk to the floor.
"You got all that from just spending a few hours with me? I don't even think half the people I hand out with even know my middle name, and I've know them for years. Are you any good at Legilimency?" he asked jokingly.
"No, not at all." I laughed and went to join him on the floor. "I'm just really good at reading people." Even though I already knew some of what he was going through it didn't make a difference. You didn't have to talk to the all knowing Dumbledore to know that something was up with Draco.
"Why do you even care?" he asked getting defensive again.
"Because I don't like seeing good people in bad situations." he shook his head rapidly.
"I'm not a good person." he breathed out in frustration.
"Yes you are. Or at least you could be. It might be just a small part of you that's good, but things change, they grow, and they become better with time." he wouldn't look up at me.
"Things also become cold, evil, and they die." was his short reply.
"Only if you let them get that way. Draco you have the potential to be a good, maybe even great person." He finally looked up at me. But it wasn't the type of look I wanted. It was a look that held no hope. A look that said I've excepted who I'm suppose to be, even though it's killing me, I just don't know any better.
"You act like you know me so well, when we only met yesterday. How can you be so sure that I'm not some heartless jerk?" he questioned, a small but noticeable light entered his eyes.
"Well lets face facts you are a jerk/" He let out a small laugh. "But I know you have a heart, and trust me, it's a good one."
"Oh Merlin…" he groaned, putting his head in his hands.
"What?" I asked alarmed.
"I think I'm warming up to you…" He whined. "A bloody Gryffindor… and a friend of Potters. Whatever this is it's doomed to fail." He groaned, running his hands roughly through his nearly white hair.
"Have you ever heard the expression Look on the bright side?" I joked.
"Why don't you educate me Miss. Stone. Tell me what is the bright side of this situation?" He put his head back in his hands.
"Well I'm cute as a button and funnier then Betty White." I smiled.
"Betty who?" I forgot, Draco was completely incompetent when it came to muggle things and people.
"Never mind." I didn't want to get in another fight about muggles and wizard bloodlines. So are you actually willing to do this?" I changed the subject quickly.
"Fine, but don't expect me to be all buddy buddy with you, and I'm defiantly not lightening up on the rest of the Gryffindork friends." He sat up and brushed the dust off his pants.
"Yea I didn't think you would." he helped me up off the ground. "Hey that was a friendly buddy-buddy thing you just did." I was referring to him helping me up.
"Oh I'm sorry." he pushed me with just enough force to send me back down to the ground, then he walked away.
"Draco! That wasn't funny!" I yelled after him.
"It was to me! See you tomorrow chum." he called back.
"Jerk!" I gathered myself up off the ground and headed back to my dorm.
I tried as best as I could to sneak into bed without waking anyone but I think Hermione had super wizard hearing or something.
"What took you so long?" she huffed while rolling over in her bed, just in time to see me dive under my covers. I stayed silent hoping she would think that she was seeing things and that I had been asleep in the dorm the entire time. "Olivia I know your awake. I heard you stomp your way up the steps."
"Damn I was trying not to wake you." I brought my head out from under the sea of blankets.
"Well you did so tell me what took you so long." she asked again.
"Draco stopped by." I decided that their was no need for me to lie to her… well not this time anyway.
"Really?" She sat up alarmed.
"Yep." I rolled over so my back was turned to her. She ferociously threw a pillow at my vulnerable backside. "Ow! You know just because it's soft doesn't mean it won't hurt when thrown at a speed of what felt like 100 miles an hour." I sat up, took her pillow, and placed it under my head.
"You see that joke would be funny in America, but here in Europe we use kilometers, so I have no idea how fast you said it was going." She laughed.
"You're a smart girl figure it out." I huffed.
"Um… can I have my pillow back?" She asked sweetly.
"And give you more ammo? Not a chance, this pillow is mine now." I laughed "If you keep this up by Christmas break you won't have any pillows."
"Were getting off topic. What did Draco want." Sometimes Hermione's good memory could be a real pain in my ass.
"He just came to tell me that he was coming over in the morning to finish showing me around the castle, and we talked for a bit, he pushed me on the ground, and now I think we might be friends." I spoke quickly leaving Hermione sitting there with her mouth ajar in confusion.
"Hold on a moment… He pushed you… to the ground, and that made you friends?" she asked slowly, making sure she had it right.
"No he pushed me after we became friends." And with that I laid my head back and closed my eyes.
"Don't think that were done talking about this." I faintly heard her as I was slipping into dreamland.
"Goodnight Hermione." I mumbled with a smile on my face. I then fell into what felt like a short but much needed sleep.