"Jo!" Blaise was rushing to his friend, who was reading a book in the Great Hall, "You have no idea of what just happened-" He said in a belly laugh, causing her to chuckle, too. Blaise's laugh had always been infectious.
"Let me understand." Josephine chuckled.
"So-" He started talking, but bursted out laughing again, "Oh my God, I'm crying..." His thumb rubbed under his wet eye.
"I'll keep reading, and when you are ready, you'll tell me." She patted his shoulder before lowering her gaze on the book as Blaise laughed.
"Okay, I'm ready." Blaise turned serious, catching Josephine's attention once again.
"Tell me." She said, but he silently stared at her for short time, trying to hold back another laughter by biting his lip.
"Malfoy has been transformed into a ferret." Theodore spoke for him as he approched to them.
At his words, a new big laugh fled Blaise's mouth, "Into a ferret?" Josephine chuckled, "Who is the genius who did it?"
"Moody. Malfoy was about to cast a hex against Potter, but that weirdo preceded him, and he turned him into a ferret." The brunet said as he slipped next to her. Blaise, in the meantime, couldn't breathe properly.
"No, I missed it..." Josephine mumbled with disappointment, "Please, tell me he's still a ferret."
"Sadly, he's not. Professor McGonagall turned him into an egocentric jerk again."
"Pity." She puffed, demoralized, before looking at Blaise. His body was twitching due to his laughter, "Blaise, are you okay?"
"It was the best thing I've ever seen," He panted as he tried to recatch breathe, "Especially when Moody put Malfoy into Crabbe's trousers."
"I think he liked it." Josephine said, causing Theodore to chuckle, but he suddenly blocked as soon as he noticed something on his best friend's cheeck - a small dark fleck, which he had never seen before. It wasn't there a second ago.
"Jo?" Theodore spoke her name to gain her attention as she interrupted her reading, "What's this?" His finger pointed her cheeck.
Josephine's hand touched her face, "What?" She confusely asked as she palpated her skin, not feeling nothing strange.
"It's here." He grabbed her finger and pressed it on the precise spot, "It's like a dark fleck."
"What?!" She suddenly raised her voice, almost as if she was frightened, "Was it there before?"
"It wasn't, a minute ago."
Josephine abruptly pushed her body off the chair as she grabbed her book, "I have to go-" She said quickly, covering her cheeck with the hand before running away.
"But where are you going?" Theodore asked as his eyes followed her doings, but didn't receive any answer, "Jo!" He kept saying her name, untill she hastened her steps and disappeared out of the doors.
"What happened to her?"
"I don't know, but I don't like it." Theodore muttered as he stood up, and followed her.
Josephine walked as fast as possible to reach her bedroom, without being stopped by someone. The palm of her hand was firmly pressed against her cheeck and her head was low. She didn't want to be seen.
How was it possible? Josephine kept wondering, without watching where she was going.
As soon as she walked into the common room, her body collided with a strong chest, "Blake, where are you going so urgently?" Her head lifted up to meet Draco's grey eyes.
By her gaze, he immediately understood there was something wrong. She looked terrified, as if something bad had occured.
"Nowhere." She overtook him.
"Are you going to paint?"
"No-" She merely hissed as her legs hurried to storm into her room.
"Hey-" Draco yelled, his gaze focused on her swinging hair, "What's going on?" He followed her, but his body blocked when her door slammed in front of him, "Blake!" He insistently knocked, but no one opened.
"Malfoy, is Jo there?" Theodore placed his hand on Draco's shoulder.
"Yes, she was acting strange." Draco muttered as he kept knocking, "Blake!"
Since she didn't answer, Theodore gave it a try, "Jo, love-" His knuckles softly hit the door as he spoke calmly, "Is everything okay?"
"Argh, fuck it-" Draco impatiently sighed as he took out his wand, "Alohomo-"
"No!" Josephine's sudden scream from inside the room caused him to freeze. Both of them petrified, "Don't get in. I'm okay, I want to stay alone." A weak whisper.
Theodore placed his gaze on Draco, his eyes were staring at the door as he tried to grasp what could've been happened, "Are you sure?"
"Yes."
The brunet swallowed and got closer to the wood, almost letting his lips touching it, "Jo, whatever you need, come to me. Take your time." He said, calmly and tenderly, nodding at Draco to leave her alone.
But he stayed still, "Has this already happened?" He asked, and Theodore's steps stopped.
"Not something like that...I'm pretty worried."
"It's just a moment." Draco shrugged and marched over him, "It's nothing." He lowly repeated, as if he wanted to convince himself.
"You don't know her." Theodore shook his head, catching the blond's attention, who was starting getting really annoyed.
"So what?" He acidly spatted, "It happens to everyone to have a moment like this." Draco threw his body on the couch as he grabbed a book to read.
"If you knew her better, you wouldn't be so calm." Theodore took a seat next to him, his elbow rested on the armrest as his fingers massaged his temple.
At his statement, Draco felt the blood running through his veins boil, "What the fuck should I do with that? She doesn't want to open up, and as she said, we'll wait. Passionflower!"
"Passionflower?" Theodore frowned.
"She said it means patience."
"Oh, I didn't know that." He muttered, his gaze focused on the burning fire in the fireplace.
"She brings flowers up with you, too?" Draco questioned, without showing to be too curious.
"She does it very often, but not with everyone. If Jo mentioned a flower with you, it means she told you about her aunt Maryam."
"She just said that she owns a flower shop, and thanks to her she knows the language of flowers."
The brunet's eyes flickered on him, "Only this?"
"The other things belong to Passionflowers package, apparentely." He shrugged.
"Look, you're lucky she talked to you about her aunt." Theodore reassured him.
At that words, Draco's head snapped to face him, "Really?"
He nodded, "She is the most important person of her life, Jo doesn't tell much about her. It's like a secret." He said, "So it's a great thing that you know about her existence, a lot of people who know Josephine, don't know it."
Draco puffed, almost with surprise, "Is she so secretive?"
"You don't know how much..." Theodore chuckled, shaking his head, "But don't worry, it's not so hard to gain her trust."
"Doesn't seem like." Draco bitterly sighed as his arms folded over his chest.
"I remind you that you insulted her parents and had been calling her mudblood for three years, not to mention worse words."
Draco's eyes rolled, he realized he was right, "What about her parents, instead?" He asked, remembering that Josephine never talked about them, "Is that a secret too?" At his words, Theodore's face fell into a numb look, and stood quite staring into space. Draco frowned, "You made the same face at her birthday." He said, causing his serious eyes to meet his.
"Malfoy, as I already, said she will tell you everything when she'll be ready." Theodore spoke lowly.
"Why it's a secret?" The blond slipped closer to him and chuckled - this situation was way too dramatic to him. He was getting angrier and started feeling out of this world, as if something was happening and no one told him.
"There's nothing to laugh at, Malfoy." Theodore hissed, harshly. Pure seriousness in his dark eyes.
Draco lingered and looked at him with an eyebrow raised, "Why? Tell me, I'm listening." He taunted hoarsely.
Theodore hesitated.
"Her parents are dead, Malfoy."
His words left him puzzled for a few seconds. Draco stayed and stared at the brunet, confusion combined with disbelief took over his features.
He undertood now.
That's why she overreacted the prior year.
That's why she spent Christmas with her aunt.
That's why she explained him so wistfully the reason why her mother had chosen Primrose as her second name.
That's what she had in common with Potter.
Finally, the puzzle pieces got together and, now, Draco was the blue one.
After Theodore's statement, he couldn't do nothing but staring into the space. His eyes were numb as he was thinking. He was thinking about how she must have suffered for their death, and how it must have been hard accepting it and live without them.
"When?" It was the only thing that he managed to ask, after endless minutes of silence.
Theodore sighed heavily, "She was very little, she was only eight."
The worst thing about losing your parents is learning to live without them after getting to know them and loving them. Draco would've wanted to know how she felt about this, he wanted to know her sorrow, but wished her to tell him. He didn't know how long he was going to wait, especially now that she was hiding in her room.
"Do you know something about her diary?" Theodore broke into his thoughts, and Draco sighed before nodding. He couldn't talk due to the shock, "I don't dare to read it." He gloomily chuckled.
"I thought she didn't let anyone read it." Draco said, surprisingly.
"Yes, she doesn't, but if she ever asked me to do it, I don't think I'd manage. I'm scared of what she writes." He muttered, staring at the fireplace.
"Doesn't she open up with you?"
"Jo has the great defect of keeping everything inside for a long time, and sometimes she bursts out, other times she helds it back and never let it go. Although she doesn't say so, I know that she thinks about her loss very often and still suffers very much." Theodore puffed, "I'm constantly worried about her because she's been carrying all her sorrow within for years, and she's so sensitive, so delicate. That's why I'm protecting over her, I'm scared she breaks." He finished, placing his eyes on the Draco's grim ones.
"There's something else, right?" Draco asked.
Theodore looked away and flew on his feet as he ran a hand thorugh his hair, "Malfoy, obviously, the fact that her parents died when she was just a child is already a tragedy, but, you're right, it's not just this." He spoke, agonazingly as Draco was anxiously waiting for him to tell more. He had no clue that such a girl could carry on her shoulders something so heavy.
"The real tragedy is how they died."
Goosebumps travelled long Draco's spine, "You-know-who?" He whispered, almost trembling.
"No," Theodore shook his head, causing Draco's fear that they died by his hand to ease, "They were muggles, she is the first witch in their family."
His statement remindid Draco that she was mudblood, but at the moment he couldn't care less, "Then, how?"
"I can't tell you, Malfoy. I went even too far, and I shouldn't have...now it's up to her the rest of the story." Theodore said as he walked away, leaving his friend alone, immersed in his thoughts and in his guilt.
__
Josephine didn't have dinner, and Theodore's worries increased even more. Before going to the Great Hall, he knocked on her door in order to know if she was fine, but no answer was spoken.
Only Pansy was able to enter because they shared the room. She said that she wasn't going to say anything because of her friend's will, "When she'll want to get out, she will. If you want to say hi, just knock and speak, but I'm not sure she will answer, even if she hears you." Pansy said firmly, quoting Josephine's words.
Draco didn't have dinner either. He stayed in his room, lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling and thinking.
He wasn't hungry or thirsty, he only felt that feeling of twisting that he didn't know how to describe. He didn't feel like walking in the Great Hall because it reminded him of the day he insulted her dead parents.
For the first time ever, Draco regretted something he had done, and earlier he didn't care about.
At that moment, he only felt negative feelings, and didn't grasp the reason why. Actually, he did, but didn't want to accept it. Malfoy was sorry for what he had said the prior year about her parents, and started thinking that he deserved that punches.
Till now, Draco hadn't never thought about how having no parents could be. He had always mocked Harry being an orphan, he hadn't never cared about stopping for a moment and reflecting about how he could feel about it.
Draco hadn't never wondered about how he'd feel if he lost his own parents, but now, lying on his bed, he realized the sorrow and the pain he would feel. He felt lost at that mere idea, and couldn't imagine how Josephine could feel.
Despite Draco deeply desired to get to know her, and wished her to open up with him, he didn't stop being the same Malfoy as always and couldn't totally grasp how Theodore could feel so bad for her. Draco hadn't never felt this kind of emotion, such as empathy and sorrow towards someone.
He didn't become entirely aware of the situation Josephine was drowning in, and this caused him to not feel so guilty. Draco still needed to learn how not to be so uncaring, and he was slowing succeeding, without realizing it.
After thinking deeply, Draco pushed his body off his bed and paced back and forth across the room as he fought the idea of going and knocking on her door.
Should I go or not? He silently repeated in his mind.
Hesitating for an istant, he marched over the door and his hand closed around the knob before walking out.
He walked through the corridor as he nervously drew his hand through his hair, and once he got in front of her door, he sighed heavily. He just had to knock, it was easy, but for some reason he felt embarassed and tense. Draco felt as if he was a stranger, and wasn't so sure he did the right thing by coming to here.
He took the last deep breath and the knuckles of his hand collided with the door as he said her name, "Blake?" He waited for a few moments, without hearing any sound behind the door, "Blake, I just want to know if you're still alive."
No answer was spoken and Draco looked up, due to the impatience that distinguished him. He stayed there with his hands hidden in the pockets for a few minutes, but nothing changed. "Alright." Malfoy sighed with resignation, his arms fell long his hips, "When you'll want to tell what happened to you, you know where I will be. Get a move on and come out, Josephine."