The Little One with Green Eyes

46: Pink is the Deadliest Color

-December 6, 1991-
Draco woke up in the morning with the overwhelming feeling that something was wrong. He wasn't sure why he felt that way, especially since everything had been going so well lately. His grades were doing fantastic, he hadn't had a fight with any of his friends recently and his mother wanted him to come visit over the weekend. Nothing pointed to misfortune, so when he woke up in the morning with a foreboding feeling and anxiety bubbling in his stomach, Draco didn't know what to do.

He knew that he was acting weird since his friends kept giving him weird looks as he went through the motions of getting ready for the day. Theo actually stopped him on the way to the Great Hall with a concerned look in his eyes. "Are you alright?" he asked.

Draco shrugged---something so uncouth would have made his mother purse her lips, but Draco was too bothered to care. The motion, though, only made Theo more concerned. "It's... It's probably nothing..." Draco said to appease his best friend.

"What is?" Theo asked as they made their way through the halls of Hogwarts.

"I just have a weird feeling, is all," Draco said, his grey eyes scanning the stone walls and portraits for any sign of trouble. "Has something happened lately? Something bad, I mean."

"I don't think so," Theo frowned. "You think something is wrong?"

"I don't really know," Draco responded glumly. "I'm probably just being paranoid. I'm sure it's nothing."

Theo eyed him dubiously for a few seconds before he nodded. "If you're sure." he said, but Draco could tell he didn't believe him. That was just fine seeing as Draco didn't believe himself either.

The pair continued their venture to the Great Hall in silence after that, the comfortable and familiar noises of Hogwarts doing nothing to ease Draco's anxiety. When Draco arrived in the Great Hall he was surprised to see the Headmaster missing. It was odd for the students to arrive before him.

The food was already laid out on the table when they sat down, the delicious smell momentarily distracting Draco from his ominous feeling as he filled his plate. Beside him, Theo eyed him for a few moments before he followed suit. Draco ate silently, half paying attention to Pansy and Blaise as they argued over schoolwork.

"I'm telling you that it's due today! Not next week!" Pansy exclaimed, throwing a dangerous glare at Blaise who continued to scoff.

"No, it's not!" he refuted, jamming a forkful of eggs into his mouth. "Crabbe and Goyle both agree with me. It's due next week."

"You'd listen to those buffoons?" Pansy scoffed. "They were sleeping in Charms, so how would they know?"

Draco slowly ate his breakfast, watching with mild disinterest as the argument between the pair escalated until it began to involve some of the other students sitting around them. Beside him, Theo shook his head fondly at the pair. "Pansy's right," he whispered so that only Draco would hear. "Blaise knows it too. He's just making a big deal out of it to get a rise out of her."

"I know." Draco said with a conspiring smirk. Watching the pair dance around each other was getting old. Draco knew that they'd eventually get together, but waiting for them to pull their heads out of the sand was getting tiring.

Just as Pansy was about to storm off in a fit of anger, the pair's argument was interrupted by the arrival of the morning mail. Hundreds of owls flew into the Great Hall, dropping off letters to the students and teachers alike. Draco's stomach dropped, however, when he spotted his mother's owl flying towards him with a letter.

His mother had sent him a letter a few days ago, and it was odd for her to send two letters in one week. Suddenly, the eggs he'd been chewing tasted like ash in his mouth. He saw Theo give him a concerned glance as his mother's owl dropped off a heavy letter by his plate. Draco nervously handed the owl a few strips of bacon before he picked up the letter.