Before The Past

Ch.7

Draco offered his hand as I climbed up onto the floor from the secret passageway. When we got up there, all that could be seen was the silhouette of the trees and mountains along with the starry sky. It was perfectly clear out with only a slight, cooling breeze. When I looked up at the ceiling, there was a chart that lined up perfectly with the stars. As I looked around at the rest of the room, I noticed a lot of old, random things lying around. 

"This school has a habit of leaving things out of place." I said.

"Indeed they do. They're quite lazy, to say the least." Draco replied.

"So, what do you know about astronomy?" I asked.

"Quite a bit actually. After all, my name is a constellation as you already know. I assume you know quite a bit too considering your family names?" He glanced over at me.

I looked back at him and realized that he spoke with his eyes, his face giving away no emotion. 

"I've done my fair share of studying." I smiled. 

I continued to keep eye contact with him, watching his mind work as he studied me, and I studied him. Draco gave a soft smile before looking away and walking over to the railing. He leaned over, placing his arms on the rail and putting his hands together. He looked around, observing the night sky. 

"Would now be a good time to find out what your deal is?" I asked. 

"Awfully persistent aren't you Hawthorne?" Draco quirked an eyebrow. 

He didn't say anything, but it seemed as though he had grown a cold shoulder. I sighed, knowing I wouldn't get a full answer out of him. I'd be lucky if I got any sort of answer out of him. 

I stood over by him, but made sure to keep my distance. I listened to the trees brushing against each other, and the animals singing their songs. It was peaceful and quiet, not a single person was up here or out there. It seemed like a place that not many people knew about, but if that was the case, why would he take me up here? As if knowing my question, he began to speak. 

"This is the Astronomy Tower by the way. This time next week there will likely be a class in here to study the stars." Draco said. 

"Given the state of it, I'd assumed that nobody comes up here." I mentioned. 

"You'll notice that in a lot of places, the dust on everything is probably as old as the founders of this school." He smiled. 

"Interesting way to put it." I responded. 

More silence went by, and eventually the wind started to pick up more. Clouds started to roll into the sky, and the moon and stars became less visible. 

"I suppose we should go back to the common room. We can't keep everyone waiting." Draco said, slowly walking over towards where we came in at.

He opened the entrance and bowed slightly to let me through first. I gave a small curtsey of gratitude and ascended down the stairs. When we made it to the bottom, Draco opened the door slightly to make sure the coast was clear and beckoned me out. We quickly went back down to our common room without being noticed.

When we got back in, only Pansy and Blaise were left in the common room. Everyone else had gone to bed. As they noticed us, Blaise quickly moved back over from the couch next to pansy to one of the chairs. 

"We must have been gone a while, hmm?" Draco gave a small grin. 

"Oh shove off Malfoy" Blaise replied.

"Sooo, how was the tour?" Pansy asked glancing back and forth between us.

"It was fine, we ran into Filch, but managed to lie our way out." Draco said in a bored tone.