You'll be the Death of Me

Chapter 19

Neville stepped into the silent classroom once again. It was odd how this room was beginning to feel to him; it made him nervous and excited all at once. Each time he entered this room he had no idea what he should be expecting. Granted, often times it was far from what he would have wanted, but today, for the first time ever, he felt like his meeting with Graces was going to be wonderful. He looked to the front of the room to see Graces staring hesitantly at him.

"I really liked the book," Neville began, nervously pulling the object out of his bag and walking towards the girl. "It was a lot better than Romeo and Juliet, in my opinion. I really liked that one quote.. umm.. 'Brevity is the source of wit.'" Graces nodded solemnly, and Neville, unsure of what to make of the nod, continued. "I can see why you particularly would like it: revenge, corruption, questions of morality, of death." Neville was now standing so that he was directly in front of Graces. Her back was pressed hard against the desk as though she wanted to escape from him, but refused to move. He continued to look at her, willing her to say something, but she didn't. She just stood against the desk. "One quote in particular reminded me of you though."

"Oh?" Graces was trying to sound casual, but her voice broke at the simple phrase.

"'God hath given you once face, and you make yourself another.'"

"'One may smile, and smile, and be a villain,'" Graces said breathlessly, as she turned her face away from him. Neville watched as her throat moved and she swallowed the emotions she must have been holding.

"Do you think I'm a villain?" Neville asked quietly.

Graces didn't answer, but her body began trembling. Neville, bent down so that he was now the one looking up at her silver gleaming eyes. "It can't easy, pretending to be someone you're not."

"Maybe this is who I am," the blonde said tightly, making to move away, but being stopped by Neville's hand taking hers.

"I don't believe I have seen half of who you are," Neville surmised, now standing tall again, but still clinging to the Graces hand. "And I don't believe anyone else has seen even that. Please Graces, let me know you. If not for me, that at least for yourself. Don't you want someone in this world to know who you are?"

There was a brief pause as Graces seemed to be actually turning Neville's words in her head. As Neville held on to her hand, he began to have this gleam of hope that Graces would let her guard down and accept what he was offering, but as quickly as the hope came, Graces whipped it and her hand away.

"Draco knows who I am," she proclaimed defiantly. "Draco knows me."

Neville held up the book. "He knows about this and the music?"

Graces' face pinked, and her eyes moved around nervously. "I think he knows... he just chooses to ignore it," she admitted quietly, no longer meeting Neville's eyes.

"I won't turn away, Graces," Neville promised, stepping closer to her, gently grasping her shoulders. "I won't ignore anything about you to make you more appealing, because I truly want to know you."

Neville could tell it was taking Graces a great amount of effort to not run away at that very moment. He could feel her body trembling in protest to his touch, and see the immense amount of fear that she had in her eyes as she looked up into his. "I'm not good at this," she whispered, her voice thick with emotion.

"At being seen?" Neville asked, caressing her face, before moving his hands down and wrapping them securely around her. Graces nodded and closed her eyes at the touch, clearly not ready to let her guard down yet. "I know it's scary, but just try."