A Beautiful Beginning

~Chapter 11~

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***
(Harry)

As soon as Draco had rushed past me, the portrait opened and out stepped Hermione with a confused look on her face. "Oh! Hi, Harry," she said with a slight awkwardness prominent in her voice.
"Look, I'm sorry for avoiding you and Ron, and I promise we'll work this out later, but I have to know why Draco just rushed past me looking absolutely terrified," I said to her bluntly. I really did mean what I said. I shouldn't have avoided them, and I will make it up to them. Just not right now, not when Draco looked like that; his already pale face even paler, his frightened blue eyes staring right through me, his uneven shaky breath, his beautiful hands clenched at his side, trembling with restrained fear.
"Oh, that," she said with a frown, "Well, this morning a letter in a black envelope with Malfoy's name on it was laying on one of the tables. I was heading back from the library when Dean told me about it, so I never actually saw the letter until I had told Malfoy about it and brought him back so he could read it. By the time he was done reading, he just kind of panicked and left. I'm assuming it was bad because he shook his head 'yes' when I asked if something bad had happened," Hermione finished worriedly.
"Thanks Hermione, I'll see you around, yeah?" I said with a pathetically small smile.
She simply smiled genuinely, and replied, "Yeah, of course. See you around."
I sighed and looked longingly at the closed portrait. I suppose sleep will have to come later.

***
(Draco)

As soon as I passed by Harry, I broke out into a run. I passed about four different pathways before I swiftly turned down a narrow corridor off my left. I slowed my pace to a fast walk, and while I was trying to catch my breath I kept thinking of places I could be in solitude where no one—especially Harry—would find me while I could think this through.
RoR?
No, too obvious, and besides Harry can get in.
Black Lake?
Oh hell no. Do you really want to escape the safety of this castle before you have to?
Ok, where does that leave? Empty classroom?
No. Anyone could walk in.
Kitchens?
If you were a muggle, you'd suck at hide n' seek, just sayin'.
Chamber of Secrets?
Now you're just listing random places. You can't even speak Parseltongue, and you have no idea where the entrance is.
Damn, this was harder than I thought. What about the astronomy tower?
O-kay, that's the best you've come up with, which is saying something. Of course, there's a small chance Harry will show up, but it's at least someplace mostly undisturbed.
Maybe I should have conversations with my common sense more often.
You don't say?
Rolling my eyes, I tweak my route so I'll end up at my decided destination. The corridors were screaming silence since it was so early, and if there was anyone up they'd probably either be in the Great Hall or the library. I was rather thankful for that actually. It meant there was less chance of people, which meant less questions asked—less ridicule, which meant that I was slightly happier with life at the moment, until something absolutely horrible happened—just like this letter from Father—to ruin my mood.
I could smell the slightest bit of must in the air as I raced up the last of the winding stairs belonging to the astronomy tower. The sight before me was so breathtaking that I forgot all of my woes. The sun was almost over the horizon spilling all different shades of pastel pinks, dazzling oranges, the purest of creams, and bright yellows across the landscape. I doubt any artist would ever be able to capture this beauty in a painting, but it would be amazing if they could. I brush off a place to sit, and pull my knees up to my chest with my arms encasing them. My eyes are instantly drawn back to the sunset, and I start thinking about how lucky I am to even have the chance to experience something so precious. My mother would've been stoically ecstatic. She always loved looking for the beauty in everything, but only around me. She once told me that nobody else would ever understand like I did. Aunt Bella would just cackle and burn everything with even a hint of "beauty" if she ever found out, and I don't even want to imagine how Father would've reacted to knowing this. Probably hurt either me or Mother. Or both. I shudder at that thought. As my mind slowly drifted from topic to topic—some good, some bad—it became increasingly harder to keep my eyes open, and before too long I drifted off into a light sleep.