Dying Stars - A Drarry AU by Lucius Gerard

Chapter One - Useful Words

TW: Homophobic and transphobic language, implied abuse, bullying, mentions of HIV/AIDS

☆★☆★☆

Wednesday, October 9, 1996, 8:16AM
Holloway Grammar School for Boys
London, England

Draco Malfoy hated the world, and everything in it. Though, not really; he loved his mother, and his two best friends Blaise Zabini and Pansy Parkinson, and he could put up with Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle. But, right at this moment, it certainly felt as though he despised everything, and that everything deserved to be despised. He loathed school, and the pebbles that got lodged in the little crevices of his shoe soles, and the shape of his cereal bowl this morning, and the smell of the mud left over from last night's rain. Today, much like other days, it felt as though there was nothing about the world to appreciate, and for some twisted reason, Draco wanted it to stay that way. He didn't want his stormy mood to be spoiled with a kind thought or a beam of friendly sunlight, though he couldn't explain exactly why. He just knew that he wanted to be in a bad mood, and he wanted to stay that way.

Of course, he had no such luck.

"Draco!" Pansy called out as soon as he stepped onto school grounds, waving to him. She was sat on a picnic table⁠—not at it, on it⁠—and standing next to her was Blaise, turning to face Draco with a subtle smile.

"Hi," Draco muttered, trying to keep up his sour façade, but to no avail. Something about his friends' very existence could immediately turn a foul mood into a decent one, or an awful day bearable.

Blaise lifted a foot onto the picnic table bench to tie his shoe, glancing at Draco with a worried expression. It was quick as a wink, but Draco still noticed.

"What?" Draco prodded. Blaise shrugged, shaking his head with a sigh as he adjusted his bookbag.

"Dunno," he said. "You just seem...a bit, oh, I don't know—"

"Subdued, maybe?" Pansy cut in. Blaise snapped his fingers and pointed at her. That's the one, this gesture said.

"Subdued?" Draco repeated, kicking a small stone across the ground. It skittered over the cobblestone and came to a halt where the sidewalk met the grass strip. "How do you mean?"

"Oh, you know," Pansy said. "You're usually so much more talkative."

Draco scoffed as if the very notion of him being talkative was the most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard, though it was forced. "Pansy, it's hardly eight in the morning," he stated. "I'm allowed to not be completely awake yet."

"You're right, you're right," she said, backing off, with Draco only pretending to not notice the concerned look she shared with Blaise.

The schoolbell rang, and Pansy hopped off the table, slinging her bag over her shoulder and tightening her ponytail. She gave both Blaise and Draco quick sideways-hugs before jogging across the street to Wagner, which was the girls' school. Still essentially the same, just with less testosterone.

"Oi, there's a new kid," Blaise said, elbowing Draco in the arm and nodding in the general direction of where he wanted Draco to look. Draco followed his gaze to a kid with messy dark hair and round glasses, who was shorter than him but not by much, maybe a few centimetres. This was one of the many things about Blaise that set his personality apart from Draco's; he noticed everything. Had Blaise not pointed out this new student, he most likely would have flown under Draco's radar.

"Looks like the love child of John Lennon and Roger Taylor," Draco remarked, not entirely certain whether he meant it as an insult or a compliment, or neither, or both. Although he could say he'd prefer his appearance being compared to a couple popular musicians than to the cloud monster thing from Neverending Story, not that he'd ever tell Pansy that.