Malfoy's Moon

room of requirement

It's nearly one in the morning in the Slytherin common room, and she's sitting on the black leather couch, staring into the glowing, dark green embers of the crackling fire. The room is empty and can feel her eyelids grow heavy as the pounding rain lulls her off to sleep.

She's nearly asleep, when suddenly she hears the gentle creak of the door up to the boy's dormitories. Without thinking, she hurls herself towards the girl's dormitories, flattening herself against the door, chest heaving.

Malfoy enters and surveys the common room. Unable to see Astra in the shadows of the corner, he crosses the room and leaves.

She hesitates. What would Malfoy be doing in the dead of night? Especially when he's still in that black suit, with no indication of sleeping. Clutching her wand tightly, she hurries across the room and exits the common room, head slightly aching.

The next fifteen minutes she spends following him throughout the castle, maintaining several feet of distance. She casts a silencing charm on herself to mask her footsteps. As she wanders across the empty, dark hallways with fire flickering in its hanging torches, she can't help but notice how he's walking so briskly, with a purposeful stride in his step.

He stops right in front of a blank stretch of wall, closes his eyes, and begins walking back and forth past it. Bewildered, she stands a few feet behind, waiting for something to happen. As she takes in her surroundings, she becomes aware that they're on the seventh floor in the left corridor of the castle. It feels familiar, perhaps a place she's read in a book somewhere.

With a loud scraping noise to announce its arrival, a serpentine, arched door appears in the middle of the wall, dark and brooding.

She steps back, heart thudding. She tightens her hold on her wand itching in her hand. It seems so simple, to utter the word, and with a casual flick, he would be on the ground, unconscious. It's so irritatingly clear, and yet, every nerve in her body seems to be tense, waiting for the word to tumble out of her mouth.

Malfoy pauses at the entrance and he seems to be working up the courage to enter.

Astra holds out her wand, keeping her hand steady as she focuses it on his back. In her mind, she runs over the simple incantation repeatedly.

Before she can even open her mouth, he whips around. In those few seconds of eye contact, she can swear her heartbeat stops with terror and her mind numbs with sudden lightheadedness.

"What – decided to just go on a midnight stroll, did you?" He says quietly, his grey eyes flashing.

"What do you know about the Room of Requirement?" She says loudly. If any chance of attacking him was lost, the least she could do was find out what he was doing. But even this seemed futile.

His eyes travel down to the wand firmly held in her hand and the corners of his mouth turn up into that familiar smirk. When he looks up, that harsh glint in his eyes are back.

"Trying to curse me, Hawkings?" He taunts, pulling out his own wand. He doesn't point it at her, just holds it in his hand in such a tight grip, she can see his knuckles turn a deathly white at the pressure. "Well, get on with it, then."

Feeling heat rise to her cheeks, she pockets her wand. Clearly, trying to Stun Malfoy, with his own wand held tightly in his hand, would not work.
As she turns to leave, he says, "Did Potter put you up to this?"

She looks up at him, unblinking. "What –"

"Or Weasley? It would be their idea of a joke."

"Shut it, Malfoy," she says, narrowing her eyes.

"Don't know why'd they ask you for this, though. You're a pathetic excuse for a Slytherin, aren't you?" He drawls.

From a corner, a dark cat peers out from under the shadows, her yellow eyes glowing in the darkness.

"You'd better leave, Malfoy. Filch is coming soon. You wouldn't want to be caught, would you?" She says, maintaining cold eye contact with him.

His jaw clenches for a moment, staring at her and then Mrs. Norris. Muttering curses under his breath, he turns on his heel and then leaves, disappearing into the shadows.

She exhales loudly and finally loosens her grip on her wand, which she had been clutching so tightly, the grooves were making marks in her palm.

While she hurries back to the Slytherin common room, her head is spinning with her encounter with Malfoy. She silently curses herself for not uttering the word to make him drop unconscious while she had the chance. A reckless thought crosses the daring part of her mind, a thought urging her to follow him, and strike his smirking face down with her wand.

a/n: sorry for the short chapter, the next several are going to be exciting ;)