Never • The Lost Daughter | A Draco Malfoy Love Story

Chapter 11 - Astronomy Tower Once Again

It had been a long time since I last came to the Astronomy Tower, my favourite place in the world.

Now I would have the chance to think things through. It had been a month since Draco and I had started getting a little better acquainted - that, of course, if you can call studying silently in the library getting better acquainted. It surely felt refreshing and charming to have the attention of someone who I had a crush on since our first year in Hogwarts. 

I never thought that it would ever get to a point like this one. If I ever thought he was cute, it would be shortly destroyed by him teasing some helpless student or him calling me and my friends' names. And yet now I was getting to know a different face, a calmer one.

I noticed how he only showed this face when no one was around. Apart from that one time in the train where he didn't let me fall after the Dementor rendered me unconscious, he never showed any sign of affection when someone was watching. He always kept himself at a safe distance for no one to notice him looking.

The silence didn't last for long.

Oh, he can't have found me out here! I thought and shouted inside my head.

I heard his footsteps first, but I didn't turn to look because I didn't need to. I knew it was Draco and he was closing up. When he reached me he stood next to me for a few seconds waiting for me to turn my eyes to him. But I didn't so he decided to lean against the railing.

Should I have left by now? I will never know. Because despite how much my brain was forcing me to resist, all I wanted to do was stay.

"Hey," Draco finally spoke. I was trying to avoid his wondering eyes that couldn't take themselves away from my face. "You know, I was thinking about it earlier and I realised I hadn't properly introduced myself," he said and smiled widely showing the porcelain teeth. "My name is Draco," he said with a laughter.

"I know," Oh, why would you say that, Anne? You sound so stupid! I thought inside my head. "I mean, 'hi'."

"I suppose this is when I have to ask what your name is," he said.

"Anne," I simply answered but my heart was beating so fast I thought he would hear it.

"I know," said Draco examining my face with his silver eyes.

"Then why did you ask?" I said and smiled without controlling it.

"I..." he said and shook his head awkwardly. He was laughing at himself – just a little – which I had never seen him done before. This told me he was truly feeling awkward so I laughed a little as well just to make him feel more at ease. "I... don't know why I asked that, to be honest. I rehearsed this so many times!"

Again, there was the casual tone of easy sarcasm underlying, one that he used so often that it was hard to know if he was using it only to camouflage the honesty. In my mind, I couldn't imagine Draco rehearsing an opening line, yet something told me he actually did it.

I was trying so hard to take my eyes away from him but that was just impossible now. When I finally looked at him, had this sweet and silly smile that I had never seen on his face before. He was not the same Draco I knew a few months ago.

"We have been studying in the same desk for a month but this is our first conversation; this is officially the strangest thing that has happened in my entire life," I said.

"'Strange' doesn't begin to explain. We did it right this time, though," he answered.

We stayed in some comfortable silence for some time. I lost track of time in my thoughts while we were examining the landscape bellow us.