𝐸𝑉𝐸𝑅𝐺𝑅𝐸𝐸𝑁 𝑀𝐼𝑆𝑇 || 𝐷.𝑀.

sixteen

"Juniper, darling, where are we going?" Draco called from behind her as she walked quickly to her favorite spot near the Forbidden Forest and Black Lake. She giggled as she wasn't answering his questions, leaving him guessing about where he was going. "Please tell me we're not going into the Forbidden Forest, Juniper, where on Earth are you taking me?" Draco kept pressing for questions.
    He watched Juniper skip down the stone steps quickly as she continued to giggle, laughing that he was questioning her so intensely, but knew she wasn't going to answer him. He sighed loudly, causing more laughter to erupt from her. However, Draco did enjoy watching her walk so quickly to this secret spot she had, her eagerness to show him was adorable to him; everything she did was seemingly perfect to him. He liked the way her hair was blowing softly in the breeze, avoiding the fact that he was quite cold from the autumn air around them, he didn't care if he was with her.
    "Now, you've got to keep this little spot a secret between us." Juniper said as she turned around, walking backwards. She had a small smile on her lips as she held a finger to her lips as if she were shushing him. "It's got to be our little secret." Draco nodded his head as he walked into the evergreen trees around him, their familiar scent hit him, the exact scent he smelled from the amortentia. He could hear the water from the edge of the Black Lake hitting the shore as he let his eyes examine the area. Juniper grabbed her blanket from her bag, sitting down on it against the trunk of a big evergreen tree and she stuck her hand out to motion for him to come sit with her.
    "What is this place?" Draco asked quietly, his eyes still wandering around the intense green trees, the small meadow around them was full of little flowers and he could hear a couple birds singing songs.
    "A place to escape from reality." Juniper said as she watched Draco slowly sit next to her. "I love coming here, the meadow and trees are very comforting, but now that winter is on its way the flowers will be gone soon." She said as she let her fingers brush against the stem of some of the flowers next to her. "You'll have to come see it in the spring time when the flowers just begin to bloom, you'll never see anything so beautiful." Juniper told him.
    "So this is where you disappear to?" Draco asked her. "How often do you and Blair come here?" Juniper shook her head at him, making a confused look fix across his face.
    "Bee doesn't know about this place." Juniper said. "No one does." She said quietly. Part of her was a bit worried he wouldn't like it as much as her, that'd she'd regret showing him.
    "No one? Really?" Draco asked her. Juniper nodded her head as Draco raised an eyebrow at her, then continued to look around.
    "Well, I can't say no one now. You know about it." Juniper pointed out. Draco leaned down until his head was resting in her lap, his blue eyes were fixated on her own eyes.
    "Why'd you decide to share it with someone rather than keeping it to yourself?" Draco asked her after a couple minutes of silence. Juniper drew a breath in and thought for a moment, wondering why she did suddenly want to share this place with someone.
    "I'm not sure actually. I've kept it to myself for years now, I think I was waiting for the right person to share it with." She said slowly while her fingers were fixated on running through Draco's hair. His hair looked more white in the lighting around them, the sun peaking through the clouds illuminated the Earth around them to have a light tint, making everything seem lighter. His skin seemed more pale, his hair seemed whiter, his eyes though, they were much more blue than the grey that usually peaked through.
    Draco wasn't sure how to respond to her, showing his emotions wasn't exactly easy for him especially when emotion was being shown to him. He chuckled in response, knowing that as he looked up into her green eyes that she could tell he was terrible how to express his emotions. Juniper giggled as he laughed, letting him know that she did indeed understand. He was grateful that she did, it made it easier for him to learn how to be emotional with her. Draco wanted to show it, he wanted to be comfortable with her seeing how his mind worked, but something inside him told him that she already knew.
    "It's quite peaceful here." Draco said as he closed his eyes, Juniper's fingers playing with his hair made him feel tired.
    "Now you've got a place to come to when the world becomes too much." Juniper said. He opened his eyes a bit and saw her head leaned against the tree, her face pointed more toward the sky as the sun broke through the clouds and hit them. Draco sat up from his spot against her lap and placed his hand against her jawline, pulling her head down so he could meet her lips. Kissing her felt peaceful, the softness of her warm lips consumed him and he never felt more relaxed with anyone than he did with her. He felt as if he could be soft with her, as if there was no need to be rough, she made him want to fill her life with the passionate romance she deserved.
    "Thank you for bringing me here." Draco whispered as he leaned back from her lips, staring into her eyes and letting the green fill his vision. A small smile came across his face, it was as if he was just noticing her eyes for the first time.
    "What?" Juniper asked quietly, her pale cheeks had a pink tint to them as her eyes tried to fixate on his. Draco shook his head, brushing her cheek with his thumb as if he could run away the pink tint.
    "Nothing, I just really like looking at your eyes." Draco said, making her cheeks turn even more pink and her eyes look away from his, her cheek pushed into his hand more as she tried to look away from him.
"Stop looking at me, you're making me blush." She laughed as she brought a hand to cover his eyes, making him laugh with her as he grabbed it, pushing it away. "I wish we could stay here longer." Juniper sighed.
"I wish we could too." Draco nodded in agreement. "I can't believe we've got to start studying for exams already."
"It's better to be prepared now than cramming right before." Juniper said. She stood up and help a hand out for him to grab. "Come on, maybe we'll get lucky and be able to sit in front of the fireplace in the common room." Juniper tried to look at the positives. Draco took her hand and got up, grabbing her blanket and his bag before they headed back toward the castle. As much as he enjoyed sitting there with here, part of him was glad to go back inside to the common room where it was warm. The autumn air was cold and crisp, winter was definitely on the way and while he did enjoy winter, the cold wasn't his favorite part about it. Draco instead liked the snow, he enjoyed how it sparkled in the light and how it crunched when he walked on it. Maybe he liked it so much because as a boy about the age of seven or eight, when his father was away at the Ministry for business, Draco and his mother had gone out of Malfoy Manor into the snow and played in it for a couple hours. The memory was filled with how happy he felt with his mother that day, both of them laughing loudly as they hit each other with snowballs and made snow-witches and snow-wizards. It was one of the only happy memories he truly had and one of the reasons he loved the snow; it always reminded him of his mother.
"You're lost in a memory." Juniper remarked as Draco thought about that memory. He looked over to her and then down to the ground.
"Just thinking about winter is all." Draco told her as they were now in the corridors, walking toward the dungeons to get to the Slytherin common room. They were indeed lucky, no one was sitting by the fireplace when they entered the common room. The fire was burning brightly, heating them up from the outside cold that still lingered against them when they sat down and pulled their books out to study.
Draco took off the grey Slytherin sweater that was over his white uniformed button shirt, loosening the green and silver tie and then allowing Juniper to lean against him while they read, taking notes in the margins and making occasional conversation with questions about various classes. Draco was slightly taken aback when he came to the realization that he'd been blocking himself all this time from something so simple. Having Juniper here against him was simple, and he had no clue as to why he thought it wouldn't be, but all he knew is that he felt lucky that he gave into his feelings to allow her to have a place in his life and that she wanted to be there as well.