Under the Willow Tree | Draco Malfoy

chapter 15: you can have the prettiest ones

Draco Malfoy | 4th Year

It was two days until Halloween when Draco received that last note, and he was itching to learn if his horrible suspicions were correct. It was the day of his awful date to Hogsmeade with Pansy, but Draco's mind was preoccupied. With the note still tucked into the pockets of his trousers, Draco trekked across the school and onto the grassy grounds of the school.

He hadn't seen Luna Lovegood or that blonde girl inside the castle, so he thought he'd check outside. As he paced about, he finally noticed a girl ahead of him dropped into a squat and grabbing something from the ground below. As he got closer, he realized the girl had long wavy blonde hair, and she was plucking wildflowers near the base of a large oak tree.

When his steps became louder and he drew nearer, the girl stood up abruptly and whipped around to face him, her hands full of the colored flowers. She paled looking at him, and Draco frowned at that.

"What are you doing?" he questioned with his gaze locked on the multicolor collection resting in her loosely shut fists.

"Collecting wildflowers. I'm sorry, did you want some?" she asked and shoved a fist of flowers towards him. She said, "The pink ones are my favorite, but you might like the green ones... They'd match your house color."

"Who are you collecting them for?"

Her hand slowly lowered as she realized he wasn't moving forward to take a flower. She frowned deeply and avoided his eyes.

"They're for the Hogwarts house elves, but I assure you that I don't mind sharing them. You can have the prettiest ones if you want," she said with a pinch in her voice. Her words were almost rushed as she repeatedly met his displeased gaze.

Draco's stomach dropped at her words. It was her. His suspicions were correct, and karma was already destroying him.

Seeing the torment on his face and hoping to make it better, the girl took a cautious step towards him and once again held the flowers out within his reach. "You can take as many as you'd like."

Her little smile was adorable and soft, and Draco acted without thinking. His eyes stayed latched on hers as he slowly lifted his hand and plucked one of the pink ones from her hand. She beamed when he did so and breathed, "That's my favorite!"

He thought she looked proud of him.

He tucked the little stem under the band of his ring on his index finger and stared at it emptily for a moment.

"It's so wonderful that you like the pink ones. Pink is my favorite color actually," she confessed, unaware that it was not her first time telling him this.

Draco didn't say a word or even acknowledge what she was saying. He just backed away slowly and avoided her curious gaze. He hardly even breathed until his feet touched the stone floors of the castle again. In those silent steps, he knew what he had to do, even if it would be painful at first.

So, Draco went back to his dorm and constructed up a lying letter about how Moody had caught him writing the letters. He explained that they wouldn't be able to communicate like this anymore. Draco snuck into the DADA classroom, securing the note to the underside of the desk, and then he returned to his dorm and got ready for his date in a mood so much worse than he could have imagined.

—

The time of their date to Hogsmeade approached all too quickly, and Draco barely had enough time to stuff down his miserable regrets. Pansy was doing anything she could think of to get the miserable boy's attention that day, including accidentally sitting on his lap in the common room. Given how often this had happened in the previous weeks, Draco figured this probably wasn't as much of an "accident" as she was letting on.