From the Stars to the Stars → Draco Malfoy

xxxv. Crater

this chapter is dedicated to 
Gifta97 

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     Roses had never been Orion's thing.

     Orion grew up surrounded by flowers, whether in her house or her grandfather's. Wherever she's going, flowers follow. Her fascination with flowers grew even more after her parents died, maybe in a way, she was also trying to grieve. Her grandfather's favourite thing would be gardening with her while talking about each flower in his garden and their relation to her mother. Orion never really thought about having a favourite flower, they were all equal to her, they're all pretty. But there was always one flower in the midst of her house, one that her mother would always have on every corner of every vase in her house, narcissus.

     Although, despite her mother's infatuation with narcissus, that was the one flower that her grandfather hated; a constant reminder of why her mother left. After her parents' death, Orion has heard at least a hundred times of the reason why her grandfather never missed sending her a bouquet of narcissus flowers on the date of her death. The irony of her mother's favourite flower which was also the one flower that the Goddess Persephone was about to pick when Hades snatched her, well, that one was the story that her grandfather often told her. Though, Orion had already had a different idea of how the story went.

     Rose had never really left an impression on Orion before. Many associated the flower with Aphrodite; the symbolisation of her grief over one of her lovers. To say she was confused would be an understatement when she woke up and found two stems of roses laying on her bedside table. She assumed it was from Hadria, probably trying to lure her into finally talking to him; but Orion still didn't know what to say, if she brought up the conversation, she knew he was going to ask more from her, a relationship, while she had stated clearly multiple times that it wasn't what she wanted.

     Orion picked up the flowers, a letter was attached to the back of the wrapper. Frowning, Orion grabbed the letter hesitantly, it was pink; she became curious and started to wonder maybe it wasn't Hadria, or maybe it was Hadria and he wanted to ask her for another date.

     "Open it," a voice from the bed across her said, Orion didn't even hear the sound of them opening up their bed curtains. "It's not from Hadria," Cho continued while pointing to the envelope in her hand.

      "How do you know?" Orion asked, furrowing her brows as Cho was now sitting on the edge of her bed.

     "I was here when they put the roses," Cho answered shortly, she put both of her legs back to her bed. "It's five in the morning, I'm going back to sleep, okay?"

     "Yeah, I don't even know why you woke up," Orion said, letting out soft chuckles, making sure it was quiet enough not to wake the other two up.

     "I heard you waking up, I wanted to make sure you open the letter," Cho said, murmuring a good night as she closed her curtain. "Orion, go back to sleep after."

     Orion rolled her eyes immediately when she heard the hint of concern in her friend's tone. Of course, Cho would tell her to go back to bed, she had always reminded her of Cepheus, the one person that would make sure everyone was taken care of.

     Orion flipped the letter in her hand, but did not find any clue of who it was from. She opened it, pulling out the parchment inside. The scent of rose immediately seeped through her nose, even the letter smelled more like a rose than the roses did. She put the roses down, opening up the folded letter in her hand.