Flowers and Oranges - Ron Weasley

THREE

The green grass was soft beneath the rough touch of his shoes as they took long strides from the big castle haunting most of his nightmares. After the feast, he'd told his friends that he would meet them in Gryffindor Tower later and that he needed to use the bathroom.

That was a lie.

The truth was that he wasn't ready to go into the place he'd grown up. There were too many memories there. Of his fellow housemates that weren't as lucky as him. Of Fred who would pull pranks on everyone with George by his side. Of Lavender Brown who he'd hooked up with on several occasions.

He just couldn't.

So he just walked and walked and walked until his feet had carried him outside the castle and for the dark forest instead. He knows he shouldn't step a foot there. He knows that he could get severely injured by whatever creature that's inside those thick trees.

But he did it anyway. And he didn't stop until he had walked deeper into the forest for at least seven minutes. Hogwarts was still visible from the top of the tree branches, which wasn't comforting at all. But it was safe.

Ron sighed and leaned back against one of the trees, letting his head fall back. It was still light out and the sun shone through the leaves, casting a warm glow amongst all the green and dirt. As he felt the warmth creep up the back of his neck, choking him, he yanked his robes off and threw them to the side, along with his tie.

He hated this. He hated being here.

Squeezing his eyes shut, he tried to not think of the memories. Didn't matter if they were good or bad, because they both hurt. A soft humming made him snap his eyes open, looking around for the source of the sound.

The voice was light and female.

His feet carried him gently in the direction of the melody, until he got so close that he could see the figure. Ron hid behind a tree, not wanting to get seen by whoever this person was. Leaning against the bark, he looked at her as she hummed the melody of the tune.

Her back was turned to him and she had too discarded her robes, because she was just in the button-up much like him. Her long blonde hair ran down her back, the light reflecting against the softness of each strand-

He knew that blonde hair.

The urge to slap himself got severely bigger, because of course he had to walk up to Leilani Malfoy of all people while she clearly thought she was alone. But little did she know that Ron was watching her every move, watching her lips move as she hummed whatever song she sang.

She was sitting crossed legged amongst the flowers and dirt that surrounded her. She held something in her hands and narrowing his eyes so he could see more clearly he noticed it was a flower. Lightly spinning it between her fingertips, she inspected it in fascination as the wind blew softly through the petals.

At that moment Ron wished he knew more about flowers.

He sighed and stepped back, feeling like he was intruding on something more vulnerable than he thought. But fate wasn't in his sight, because the second he took another step back, a branch snapped under his feet and her back became stiff and rigid.

Squeezing his eyes shut, he cursed in his head. He heard her sigh, making him dare to peek one eye open. Her back was still to him, but he noticed that her shoulders had relaxed yet again. Just as he thought that she might have not noticed him, her voice spoke up "Stalking me, Weasley?"

"Uh-" he cleared his throat and stepped out from the tree so that he was now fully visible to her. Noting how she still spun the flower in her hand, he scratched the back of his neck "not necessarily. I just happened to walk by and you were- here"