☆ CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE ☆
☆ STAR-CROSSED ☆
"there's a word that describes the way they're at odds with each other, buried somewhere in a play from some muggle playwright from the 1500s."
☆☆☆
For Eunbyeol, March passes quietly. Well, as quietly as it can. Between Professor Trelawney getting fired, Tony, Lee, and Angelina's birthdays, and O.W.L.s quickly approaching, it seems like a rather hectic month. She knows what people expect of her, of course—she stays a doting companion to her friends, a dutiful student to her teachers—but Eunbyeol keeps her head down otherwise. Above all the little roles she's been silently assigned, the role of a proper pureblood lady is her overarching station in life, so most of the time, she's silent and inoffensively polite. She knows her role and she plays it well.
Roles. Eunbyeol always feels as if she's playing a role, acting out some sort of persona that everyone expects from her. It isn't something she feels that she has the right to complain about. Everybody puts up a front and hides behind some contorted version of their true self, after all, but Eunbyeol can't seem to shake the feeling that nobody will ever see her for her. Blaise looks at her, sees someone useful. George looks at her, sees someone who's exceptional in every way that she isn't. Her parents look at her, see a mere extension to their bloodline.
She voices this concern to Draco one night in the vast, empty halls of Hogwarts. She tells him of her frustrations, how she doesn't want to be known as that one Asian Ravenclaw girl that isn't Cho Chang or that prodigal Potions student or that ballet dancing pureblooded girl. She just wants to be seen for what she is, wants to be seen as Eunbyeol. "What's wrong with people seeing you for more than what you are, though? Doesn't that just mean you have a lot of potential?" he asks her.
"No," she replies plaintively. "But maybe yes. It's easier to let people down when they expect so much from you, and that's a potential itself, I suppose."
He catches her by the wrist at the end of their prefect rounds and tells her in a voice that's almost pained, "I look at you and I see the stars, Eunbyeol." He tucks a stray lock of hair behind her ear. "Is that really so bad?"
Her name does mean silver star, so maybe, just maybe, Draco Malfoy looks at her and sees nothing but Eunbyeol Moon.
She views Draco differently after that. It's like she's viewing him through the haze of a Supersensory Charm gone awry: she sees him in dizzying clarity, but the lines of what he is to her are blurry. She thinks about what Blaise had told her that night Harry's interview came out, what he had said about hurting Draco. She doesn't really get it, but it's not like the meaning is completely lost on her. She's against Umbridge, which means she, to some extent, is against Draco. There's a term that aptly describes the way they're at odds with each other, a word buried somewhere in a play from some muggle playwright from the 1500s. Star-crossed, Eunbyeol thinks it was.
The pair, as star-crossed as they are, catch each other in odd hours of the night, in the library, in the kitchens, during prefect shifts. Draco doesn't talk much when he's comfortable, Eunbyeol soon discovers. He gets the bare minimum of his thoughts out into the open and doesn't feel the need to say much afterward. Eunbyeol does enough talking for the both of them, really, and chatters about anything: little anecdotes about her friends, rants about her parents and her home, random academic tangents about Potions. Draco just listens, only opening his mouth to laugh or ask a question. People usually open up more when they're comfortable, but Draco talks and talks and talks when he's in public (he tells her that sometimes, he just strings together and spews random words to see if anyone would notice) and putting on a show. Putting on a persona at all times takes a toll on you—Eunbyeol would know—so it makes sense that he's a little worn and weary when he's alone. It makes sense that he'd retreat within himself and just appreciate the silence.
It contradicts human behavior, though, and it's fascinating to her, the way tiniest details about him seem to exist just to be anomalies. She's curious about what other bits of evolutionary defiance she'd find if she delved deep enough into his psyche, but Eunbyeol is content holding onto the scraps of information she has. He likes his privacy. It's precious to him, which is why Draco, in his purest, most unadulterated form, is silent. Eunbyeol knows it goes beyond just weariness and privacy, though. He never seems to be able to find the words to describe exactly what's going on in his head and keeps his mouth shut as a result. A tiny part of her thinks she loves him for it.
She still isn't quite sure though. About the entire love thing. She barely knows what it's like to love someone, to truly love someone in a romantic sort of way. It's different from how she had felt with Cedric, so she still feels lost, like she's blindly trying to feel her way out of a dark room. That sort of delirious happiness she remembers from Cedric doesn't really exist with Draco. There's a sense of contentment instead and while it's more subdued, it's constant. His presence is reassuring and safe and while he's quiet, everything he does in her presence speaks to her in a way that words can't. Draco communicates in soft nudges and looks, a raised brow tells her he's listening, hands wrapped around her's tells her he's there for her.
There's this one look, a fond, barely-there smile, that she can't quite decipher, though. He cares, he trusts, he... loves her? Again, she just isn't sure. She doesn't try to explicitly ask, though. She doesn't push or pry because when his shoulders drop and his steel-grey eyes go soft in her presence, she knows he's making a silent declaration of vulnerability, as if he's telling her, "I'm putting my fragile, fragile soul into your hands so please don't do anything cruel to it" and that means the world and a half to her. That hypothetical Supersensory Charm is recasted with a little more accuracy this time and the lines of what he is to her sharpen ever so slightly.
Maybe it is love.
☆☆☆
March passes slowly and quietly, but April brings everything crashing to a fiery, screeching halt.
The D.A. is practicing Patronuses during their second meeting in April. Eunbyeol doesn't want to cause another scene again, so she spends the lesson sitting at the edge of the room, a book in hand. "You look like you're having fun," George slides down next to her with a grin.
"The most," she agrees wryly. "I love spending a D.A. session doing Potions homework."
"You don't have to be doing Potions homework," George points out with a wrinkled nose. "Snape's foul for that seven-foot essay, though. Who cares about the chemistry of the Essence of Insanity?"
Eunbyeol frowns. She opens her mouth to defend her favorite subject when a house elf pops in to the Room of Requirement with a loud crack, teetering over to Harry. The rainbow of hats stacked on his head leans precariously and he would've made for an amusing sight if not for the look of sheer terror on his face. "Hi, Dobby!" Harry greets cheerfully before peering at the house elf more closely. "What's wrong?"
"Harry Potter, sir," the house elf—Dobby—starts, "Dobby has come to warn you," he continues with great difficulty. "But the house elves have been warned not to tell!" He must have been going against someone's orders because he runs towards a wall to slam his head against it. Eunbyeol flinches at the impact, despite the hats cushioning the little house elf from any real harm. Harry catches Dobby to keep him still.
"What's happened, Dobby?"
"Harry Potter, she," Dobby falters again, stuttering and shaking like a leaf. "She..."
The boy's eyes narrow. "Who's 'she'?" Eunbyeol and George exchange a look of dread, both expecting the worst. Harry confirms their fears when he asks Dobby, "Umbridge?"
Dobby wails, trying to kick himself in the shin. "Yes, Harry Potter, yes!"
The room's silent for all but a few seconds before everyone scrambles into action, Harry bellowing above the noise. "Run, everyone! GO!"
It's sheer pandemonium. The D.A. isn't a particularly large group compared to the full student population of Hogwarts, but Eunbyeol feels as if she's in a herd of centaurs, being pushed one way and another. George manages to catch her before she falls and drags them over to Tony, who is holding a pile of bags in his arms. He hurls their bags at them and shoulders his own. "Where's Fred?" yells George, fumbling with the strap of his bag.
The other Weasley twin shoves his way out of the crowd on cue. "Let's go, you lot!"
The four sprint out of the Room of Requirement and round a corner before they hear Umbridge's voice echoing in their wake. "What about Katie? And Angie and Terry and Lee?" Eunbyeol gasps as she glances over her shoulder.
"They'll make it out," Tony huffs. "They have to."
"We need to get somewhere safe." Fred says as they turn yet another corner. "Shit."
Pansy Parkinson smirks from the top of the staircase. "Of course I'd find you here, Moon! Blood traitor twat." The girl shrieks when she's promptly hit with a Bat-Boogey Hex and the four turn on their heels and sprint away from the Slytherin girl and the ruckus she makes.
"Ginny teach you that?"
Eunbyeol lets out a breathy laugh and nods.
"So about that safe place, Freddie!" George veers sharply around a corner.
Fred dodges a pillar. "How far is the Ravenclaw tower?"
"Too far," Tony shakes his head. "We could head for the greenhouse. It's not even in the castle," he suggests. "Why would they look there?"
The group pauses and exchange looks, weighing their options. A flurry of footsteps comes hurrying in their direction and George hisses a curse under his breath.
Eunbyeol scans the empty hall before her eyes fall on the door of an abandoned classroom. She darts over and twists the handle frantically before it swings open. "Come on!" she whispers. She pulls the door shut just as Umbridge's group of students round the corner.
Despite it being daytime, it's dark inside. Tony clamps a hand over his mouth to muffle his coughs in the dusty room and Eunbyeol squints, barely making out the red of Fred and George's hair. She wanders over to the door and presses her ear against the wood, listening.
"Alright, let's check the classrooms." Eunbyeol frowns at the sound of Draco's voice.
Someone blows a raspberry. "What's the point, mate?" complains Blaise. "Nobody's going to be inside."
"We get fifty points with every student caught." Draco argues. "That basically guarantees us the House Cup."
"Who cares?" Blaise laughs. "It's just a stupid trophy." There's a moment of silence and Blaise scoffs. "Fine. Whatever, mate."
"Everyone take a set of classrooms. I'll take this cluster. Crabbe, you take those and Goyle, go to the right. Blaise, take the set next to Goyle's."
Time crawls at an achingly slow pace as the classrooms are checked, one by one. The door swings open and Draco freezes at the sight of the D.A. members. His mouth twists at the sight of Eunbyeol and she bites the inside of her cheek nervously, watching him. She can feel Anthony and the twins hovering around her nervously. "Did you find anything, Draco?" Blaise's voice calls out.
Eunbyeol gnaws at her bottom lip and Draco's shoulders slump ever so slightly. He sighs with soft eyes and Eunbyeol recognizes the gesture from numerous occasions before. She's spent hours reading his body language, after all. "Nobody's here," Draco replies, forcing a bit of artificial dejection into his voice. "You were right." He gives her one last look—a fond smile that's so faint anyone else would have missed it—before shutting the door behind him.
a note from startreatment;
an early new years present for u all <3
byeol is catching onto dracos feelings! this is called progress.. i had a lot of fun developing eunbyeol's feelings and getting to characterize draco a little more in a way i found to be fitting! the silence just made sense bc draco is publicly suuuuch a drama queen like the potter stinks pins.. that kid would love a michael's craft store
second half of this chapter is so bleh but its when the da gets busted so i had to put it in :p