𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐠𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐲 | 𝐝.𝐦.

forty nine

The snow's fall is lighter this day.

It has been days since the Death Eater meeting Betty had attended against her will, but she hasn't ceased thinking about it.

She feared for her life then, and she still does now just anticipating the next one.

Maybe it is because she has little to nothing to do in the manor, other than flipping through her brother's few comic books he still happened to possess.

Sometimes, she would visit the library, purely because it was a quiet room she would have all to herself.

None of the Malfoy's were so fond of the gigantic library they had installed in their own house. Or that is what Betty believes because she has not seen a single soul every time she has been in there.

She manages to find some books -  though not as qualified as those in the school's library - that she supposes she could learn from. But they don't do much other than telling her what she already knows.

A rap on her door interrupts her train of thoughts, which were pretty much drawing to a blank because of her boredom.

Curiously, she slips out of her bed for the first time this day.

Opening the door, she is surprised to find the Malfoy boy standing on the opposite end, dressed neatly in his black coat and hair already peppered with snow.

"Malfoy." She cannot help the surprise that flutters through her voice.

"Do you have a coat?" he asks promptly.

A frown creases her forehead. "No. I didn't really have the time to pack a coat to go with me," she says sarcastically.

Draco does not look like he expected anything else from her. "Never mind. Just follow me. I'll loan you one."

He marches off, down the narrow corridor without sparing her so much as a further explanation for his sudden appearance, or how he managed to find her room.

"Are you going to tell me what I need a coat for?" she asks him, trailing briskly after him.

He turns around irritably. "Do muggles use their coats for anything other than to protect them from the cold?" he answers with a question of his own.

"No, I don't think so."

"Well there's your answer."

They both reach a corner where they have to clamber down the stairs, heading to a familiar pathway that brings Betty shivering, morose memories. One that is heading to his room.

"I don't think I'm allowed to go out, Malfoy," she informs him, though she has an inkling he would know that, too.

"You're not going out," he tells her pointedly. "I'm taking you out."

Betty is perplexed. She could turn around and run away from the boy, leaving him mystified by her disappearance. But she has grown bored of her usual routine in the manor, that really consists of nothing.

Plus, the look on his face is quite promising.

"Malfoy, I think that's the same thing in Joseph Bennett's book," she tells him. "I can't do anything without his permission. The man likes everything in order - "

They come to a resting halt in the front of his room and she falls silent.

He turns around, slightly damped hair falling over his eyebrows and merely skimming his grey eyes. Those priceless, lustre silver gleaming beneath the lantern above.

The expression in his eyes almost terrifies her.

"Since when have you ever cared about permissions, Lin?"