Draco's Not a Stalker
Why was he here? In this position? Draco looked like a stalker, which he obviously wasn't but you wouldn't be able to convince anyone who saw him like this, hiding behind a pillar staring at the place Astoria stood a moment before in interest.
Why was he awake at the moment? He had a nightmare, simple answer, everyone in his year had nightmares. Most of them about the war. It was common knowledge that people would wake up screaming or yelling out their friends' names in the middle of the night.
Mentally, everyone was at least somewhat scarred. Physically... Well, no one really likes to talk about those injuries.
This particular nightmare started off normal as all nightmares do. Draco was sitting on his bed and then, out of nowhere, Dobby appeared. A knife was in his chest, glassy-eyed, he approached him.
"Hello Draco!" he greeted cheerfully, "Have you seen Lady Bellatrix? I must return her weapon,"
Draco crawled backward, pale-faced, his back hit the wall.
"No need to be scared," Dobby assured him, "This wasn't your fault, it was your family's fault! They killed me, not you!"
"Of course Dobby," a new voice said, Sirius Black, "It wasn't his fault,"
His head shot between the two, he heard someone else, "Poor boy,"
The voice was soft, Draco immediately recognized it, "Professor?"
There was a shriek of laughter, Lavender Brown, "No need to call him Professor! We're all dead here!"
Not true, Draco told his dream self, Sirius came back
"Oh but he died first," Lavendar said, tilting her head to the side, she regained her cheerful attitude, "But you didn't kill him!"
"Yeah!" Draco had to look down to see this one, "It wasn't you,"
He felt his stomach do a flip as he saw how young the boy was. Younger than him, maybe sixteen? He recognized him as the boy who followed Harry around in their second year. Colin Creevey held a camera in his hands, the same way he used to when he was eleven.
He brought it up and said, "Could you smile? I don't have any good pictures of you, you're always sad,"
"Always...sad?"
Colin didn't respond, instead, he approached him. Draco couldn't move. There was nowhere to go anyway, but his legs wouldn't do anything. All he could do was stare in fear as he got closer and closer until he was on the bed too.
Colin raised the camera higher so that it was covering his face, "Smile!"
A huge flash filled his eyesight and then -
'Is he dead?'
'No Goyle, you idiot. He's having a nightmare,'
Draco opened his eyes before simply staring at the two boys looking at him.
Finally, someone spoke, "Um - Are you okay?"
He blinked, "Yes,"
"Oh," Blaise looked away slowly, and awkwardly, he went back to his bed.
Goyle looked back down at him, "You sure?"
Draco nodded quickly and just like Blaise, he went back to bed, leaving Draco to stare at the top of his bed.
For the first three minutes, he didn't do anything, then, quietly, he got up and made his way out of the commonplace careful not to wake anyone. The sun was coming up, he noticed, but when he went upstairs he found every professor awake.
"What - ?"
Professor McGonagall turned around, he quickly hid behind a wall. She eyed the space he was a second before suspiciously before facing Flitwick again.
Draco cursed, he had forgotten that curfew existed. Slowly, he walked in the other direction, speed walking so that he could get out of there as fast as possible.
The sound of two people talking filled the neighbouring hall and they were going in his direction.
"Aren't you coming?"
Athernon, Draco recognized as he quickly slipped into an empty classroom, but he kept the door open just as it was before.
There was a pause then a girl, Astoria, he noticed, answered, "No, you go ahead,"
Roman's footsteps passed his room, eventually, they faded away. Draco poked his head out and saw that Astoria was now running in the other direction, where the Hufflepuff dorm was.
He slipped out and quietly followed her, she turned a corner, he did too and this, my friends, is how he got into the position he was in right now.
Watching Astoria fight with a portrait.
"Of course I'm back!"
He watched her roll her eyes, tap her feet, and basically be a pain in the arse .
Draco's eyes widened as the portrait swung open and Astoria scramble in as if it were a very normal thing to happen. The portrait muttered some not-so-nice things as it closed and there he was, standing there like an idiot.
The woman in the portrait locked eyes with him and groaned, "Malfoy,"
He blinked, "What?"
"You're a Malfoy," she said with an air of boredom, "And you're following around a girl - Honestly, the men in your family were always terrible flirts. It was the arrogance, you know? Drove everyone away from them,"
Draco didn't know why this portrait was badmouthing his very amazing family.
You know they're a load of dicks, a small voice in his head said but he ignored it.
"Where did she go?" Draco asked, stepping away from the wall he had leached onto, "And - And when was there a room here?"
"Hogwarts has many secrets," she said, "And the founders left many opportunities for the students,"
A silence, "What the actual heck does that mean?"
The woman rolled her eyes, "It means that it's a secret room Malfoy,"
"Oh,"
An uncomfortable (and very awkward) silence filled the room.
"Can I go in?"
She sighed and swung open revealing a small hole. Even from the distance, he could see Astoria in the room huddled over a piece of paper, sitting at a wooden table.
He paused, unsure if he should actually go but the woman, who's name he still didn't know barked, "Well? Get in!"
And so Draco did, the painting closed behind him. The sound filled the white room and Astoria looked at him in horror.
He waved awkwardly, "Um, hello?"
And that was when she started to get annoyed.
-
Astoria didn't like Draco. It was known fact for anyone in Slytherin.
Problem was, Draco liked Astoria enough to keep up the whole dating thing, which she absolutely hated.
When did this start? The crazy half-baked plan her mother put into place happened about three months ago at a celebration dedicated to the one and only, Harry Potter.
She remembered it like it was yesterday.
"And once again I'd like to apologize to all the wizarding families who had put under the Imperius Curse to work for You Know - Ehm, Voldemor..."
"Voldemort!" a portrait on the right called.
Percy Weasley cast a sideways glance at it, "Yes, Voldemort,"
He cleared his throat and continued, "Such as the Malfoy - "
"THEY DID WHAT?"
Draco liked Astoria.
Er, not too much though. She was annoying, stubborn, rude, she hung out with the other houses.
Okay, so maybe the last part wasn't too bad but he had just enough patience with his parents to have a nice, polite conversation with her. They barely saw each other, only when he and Daphne (her older sister) were talking and even then she didn't even look at him.
Draco was also clueless of how big of a crush she had on him before his sixth year, but that didn't really matter anymore, Astoria didn't like Draco.
She watched him awkwardly read the papers she had on her table after she had rather violently threatened him, and couldn't help but feel a disgusted expression creep onto her face.
He looked so innocent, so genuinely interested in her work. It was absolutely infuriating. How many times had she yelled at him, called him names, done anything to get him to break up with her? Too many! He had too much patience with her and that was not what she needed at the moment.
Dating Draco Malfoy, ha! That would've been a dream to her 14-year-old self, now, it was a really heavy burden that she had to carry. Act like you like him, go on dates, have fun, god her mother was too much, she didn't even know what she was thinking.
"Um," he said interrupting her from her thoughts, "So, I get what all this means but... why do you have papers of Greek Gods?"
Astoria studied him for a second wondering if he really was this stupid, the reason was right there on the papers. In the top left corner. Everything she had learned about Percy from their conversations written down.
Percy Goldcrest is good at potions.
Percy Goldcrest was seen talking to horses on the first day of school.
Percy Goldcrest has a weird thing with water.
Percy Goldcrest knows a lot about Greek Mythology
Percy Goldcrest doesn't know much about second year transfiguration
Percy Goldcrest doesn't know what O.W.L's are
Percy Goldcrest is famous where he comes from
Percy Goldcrest comes from America
Who else came from America?
That random dude that visited her saying, 'Take care of Percy Goldcrest,' and that promptly turned into dust.
????????????
Percy Goldcrest is built like a Greek Demigod -
Wait.
Percy Goldcrest is built like a Greek Demigod.
Oh.
Astoria stared at Draco for a bit before answering, "I like Astrology,"
"Huh," Draco looked at her, "I didn't know that about you,"
"Well, I've got a lot of spare time, so I come to this place. You learn some things,"
Technically it wasn't a library. The room, as large as the DA was made of light stone and wooden floorboards with a huge glass chandelier above multiple wooden tables, just had a lot of books. Stacked in the most bizarre places. In plants, under desks, out in the open. Towers of books stacked on top of each other like someone had played Jenga with them and had just left them there.
"Really? And... what is this place,"
"Oh I don't know," Astoria shrugged, "No one ever told me so I just call it 'That Place,'"
"Creative," he remarked
"I know,"
And they fell into another awkward silence as Draco poured over the other papers and Astoria was left to look at him with a disturbed look on her face, crossing her arms, and glaring.
~
It had been a month since September and Percy still didn't know how the hell he was supposed to get to the Great Hall without getting lost at least once. Katie, Luna, Thalia and Nico seemed to be from another friend group because of how little time they saw each other. Percy hung out with Navja, and now, she was telling him a story of a new subject. 'The boy,'
Roman had spoken about 'The Boy' once before, he said that it was one of Navja's friends that he had never met which was strange seeing that he knew almost all of Navja's friends one way or another.
Navja was one year older than Roman and Astoria but they still saw one another a lot somehow. Percy really didn't know.
He was starting to realize that he didn't really know anything at all but he couldn't care less, this was as good as a quest was going to get for him.
"And yesterday," Navja said, "He made me tea and said that there was a potion in it that could make anyone smile and I tried it," she turned around on her seat, "And it actually worked! Can you believe that? I was just smiling for the rest of the hour,"
"Really?" Percy asked, "Could let me have some later?"
"Oh, I suck at Potions," she admitted wholeheartedly, "I'll ask him for one next time I see him,"
"Thanks," he grinned, "Homework sucks by the way, what did you get for the last test?"
"A 70 in transfiguration," Navja beamed, "And an 85 in charms, great, right?"
"Brillia - "
Oh.
Percy stopped himself as he said the words again, "Brilliant,"
Navja's eyes widened for a split second before bursting out in laughter, "You - " she got up and pointed at him, "You sound like us!"
"No I - " Percy cursed, he did sound like them, and so did Thalia and Nico.
"Oh no,"
"It's funny,"
He pouted, "It's nooooott, everyone's going to make fun of me!"
"I'll be there," she paused, "Unless it's in America. You can't force me there, I'll stay in France,"
"Don't you live in England?"
"Nope," Navja sat down again, "You can't force me there either, you know, the first time I came here everyone looked at me like I didn't know English, Percy," she looked at him intensely, "I am amazing at English, but everyone here couldn't get it through their thick skulls that anyone off their little island could speak English!"
She sighed and crossed her arms, "Beauxbatons has those croissants that I like, I could've gone there and had all the croissants that I wanted,"
Percy blinked and decided to ignore her rant about all the English people at Hogwarts, "You speak French? When were you going to tell me this?"
"I only stay in France for two months every year," she said, "So my accent comes and goes, but last year it disappeared and then my family from France started making fun of me saying that I was an English woman now," she threw up her hands, "Hogwarts is in Scotland, Percy, do I sound Scottish to you?"
The only Scottish person Percy had ever heard was Merida from Brave, "Um, no?"
"I tried to tell them that but apparently they don't know the difference between a Scottish one and a British one, how was I supposed to keep the accent when everyone here is British?"
"Not everyone - "
"Basically everyone." Navja corrected, "I think Seamus isn't,"
"Why didn't you go to Beauxbatons?"
She sighed, "Something about a guy named Nelly, grandma always talks about him but I don't know who he is,"
"Is he related to you?"
"Probably," she shrugged, "But apparently he wanted me to go to Hogwarts,"
"Huh,"
"Huh indeed,"
~
Navja didn't have a diary per se, she had a piece of paper where she would scribble down all her thoughts, and today, the thought that was taking up the most space in her head was Lamia.
Lamia was a nightmare.
Literally, she was such a b!tch in Navja's opinion. She's also so dramatic for what? She's all, 'You are special Navja,'
'At what?'
'You will see in time,'
Honestly, her flair had just disappeared, now she was just annoying.
And she kepy saying 'What an interesting ancestry...' in this dark mysterious voice it was impossible to take her seriously when she wasn't being legitimately scary (which was rare)
'Interesting ancestry?' she wanted to say to her, 'I'm just a normal brown girl with that one random white guy in the family, what kind of ancestry are you looking at?'
Of course, she couldn't say that or else she would send her one of her 'Super Scary Nightmares Deluxe' and let her stare at the ceiling all night, so she just sucked it up and acted like she was terrified of her long (boring) evil monologue of how she would come back and get revenge (though she wouldn't specify who)
"In conclusion," Navja said as she wrote the same words down on the paper, "Lamia is an overdramatic b - "
"Navja I swear to god if you don't go to sleep I will Avada Kedavra myself,"
"Oh,"
Don't you hate it when you suddenly remember that people actually live with you?
"Sorry,"