𝐎𝐟 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐀𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐥𝐬 {𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐨 𝐌𝐚𝐥𝐟𝐨𝐲}

| 𝐌𝐈𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐂𝐎𝐏𝐈𝐔𝐌 | 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨

Microscopium is a minor constellation in the Southern skies. Named after the compound microscope, its stars are barely visible from the Northern Hemisphere.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

🖤

Despite the crushing anxiety about the unfixed cabinet, Draco secretly looked forward to his nightly rendezvous with Angel.

Sometimes, they might catch each other's eyes during Potions and in the hallways. She always smiled. He never returned it.

They did not speak in the day, and instead, communicated the time to meet through small slips parchment they pushed into the other's hands as they passed in the corridors.

10pm. - A

9.45pm, D

10.30pm. Sorry, Herb. Club meeting - A

9.45pm. Don't be late again tonight, D

At night, they sat up on the Tower for hours, talking about anything and everything - and sometimes, nothing at all.

It took some time, but he felt himself warming up to her. He began to tell her things he had never told anyone before - not that they ever bothered to ask anyway.

He found out her favourite food was apple strudel, and he told her his favourite season was winter, to which she delightfully agreed. Christmas is the best, isn't it? she had gushed. Was it? He could not say. Christmases were always a dull affair at Malfoy Manor.

They also had a similar distaste for pumpkin pasties. She had always wanted to see the aurora borealis - preferably in Sweden - , and he shared that he wanted to have his very own apple orchard one day. She found all animals and magical creatures wildly fascinating, and he scrunched up his nose when she mentioned that her favourite was the Hippogriff, saying that his was the Norwegian Ridgeback.

He never shared anything deeper, and she never forced him to tell her anything he did not want to. He dodged questions about his family like Bludgers, which she did not seem to mind at all, casually breezing on to the next topic. He never asked about hers.

He discovered she was also vastly intelligent, knowing lore, poetry, and difficult spells by heart. But above all, she seemed to have a deep understanding of the world, and of people. She saw them not for who they were, but for who they could be.

She treated all things and people with particular gentleness. But Cornish Pixies bite, he said, to which she replied, so they don't deserve to be treated with respect, just because they don't know any other way?

He thought her dreaminess rather silly, and did not hesitate to tell her so. She had only laughed at that, and shook her head at him. He did not know what this meant, but one thing was for certain - he came to realise he had been quite wrong about Hufflepuffs.

Albeit naive, he found her kindness and empathy - qualities he had despised - strangely magnetic. She was happiness and peace, things he had never really quite known.

At the start, he had been content to just listen as she rambled on, because her chattering served as a distraction from his dreaded task and frustrations. He rarely had much to add.

But as the moon transitioned through its phases above them, he started becoming enraptured by the world as told through her eyes. His own suddenly no longer felt grey and shadowed, and the years of anguish growing up in the Malfoy household seemed to melt away like ice cream on a hot summers day.