Draco/Anya 2

[Shava]

Anya had spent the majority of the day after running into Nat brooding. The atmosphere at school was changing, everyone distrusting everyone, especially the Slytherins. Remembering the way she'd seen him yesterday brought with it fresh pang of sadness. He'd had his heart broken, that was certain, but something else too. It had taken several hours after the encounter for her to realize what it was. Being rejected by the DiLaurentis girl had broken not only his heart, but his pride. This had brought on another decidedly scary revelation, Draco Malfoy's hatred suddenly made sense. The thought had momentarily horrified her.

However, as she thought about all the times she'd called him out both in the dorm and in public, she winced. No wonder he'd hated her. He was notoriously proud of his name and his accomplishments, and she'd repeatedly mocked both extensively. She brushed one hand over the spot where his mark would have been if it were still in place. The time for being petty had passed. He was part of one of the most influential families in the wizarding world, he did have some right to his arrogance, though it still pained her to admit it even in her own thoughts. She had bigger things to worry about now, and that meant the old grudge had to die, even if it meant swallowing her own pride momentarily in the process.

Still, she hesitated to seek him out. Why add insult to injury if he rejected the olive branch. Which, she acknowledged, he probably would. Still, with everything else she had going on, with all that loomed just beyond the horizon, she had to try. No need to harbor enemies in her own house when the other three were already enough. She needed allies, and though she doubted she and Malfoy would ever be good friends, she had to start somewhere. Footsteps on the stairs caught her attention, and she turned in time to catch the flash of platinum blond as he crested the landing. With a sigh, she straightened only slightly from where she sat at the edge, watching the gears turn. "Malfoy, you really do have impeccable timing."

[Shava]

The note, delivered through another's mail from home, was short but unpleasant. Draco could read the worry in his mother's handwriting, the extreme panic in her thoughts. She was smothering in some ways, but at least she was keeping out of his monthly packages from home of treats and things. Those letters were boringly commonplace. This note was far from that indeed! He read as he walked, his head a mix of nerves from her writing and a mix of nerves from trying to conquer the last knot in the cabinets magic. It was a very sophisticated piece of magic, carefully designed and set in specific ways.

It's breaking by Peeves had, apparently, upset it's workings far more then might have been expected, but he was so close, so very close to having it. A certain desperation to finish it tempered by the knowledge he had to go excruciatingly slowly to get it apart was at war in his head. Knowing that outside the Dark Lord was adding pressure on his parents, letting them know what to expect when he failed was making things far more critical. The stress was hugely distracting, enough so he had actually broken into tears of fear in the bathroom the other day embarrassingly enough! Even his close friends had pulled back now, sensing something huge was happening.

Failure was not an option. His parent's lives as well as his own hung in the balance and he was still young enough to know true fear.

Walking up the steps to the tower he was distracted enough to not notice anyone was there till he was practically stepping off the landing and into the tower itself when he heard the voice. Head snapping up, he grimaced and his brows dropped into a frown of hatred at her sitting there, expecting her to lash into him with some new taunt, some degradation of his character again. "Timing? What do you want now, Belenko?" he sounded and looked hostile, but a much lower level then normal; no right now he had an edge of someone pressed to a breaking point who would lash out at anyone who tried to push him much farther.

Nature has a way of flashing warning signs at those who need it most.

[Shava]

His response shouldn't have surprised her, and it didn't really. Actually, what surprised her was that it hadn't come out more venemous. He, like her, appeared bothered by something, beaten down in a way. She supposed it came with the territory now of being in the most notoriously biggoted house in the school. Was it even fathomable that they might have something in common? She frowned, but it was more thoughtful than angry. Either she was on the brink of total exhaustion or her time with Nat had put things into perspective. In retrospect, it might even have been both. From the look of him, he was on guard, and she couldn't blame him really. To her memory, she hadn't even attempted to get to know him, merely judging him based on the front he put up, which she supposed, made her somewhat of a hypocrite, since she was equally guilty in that regard. They probably all were on some level. The untouchable purebloods, all the class and influence money could buy, and yet they were all on edge, wondering when some group of self-righteous Lions would jump out of a corner and take vengeance for some percieved crime against humanity.

She sighed, taking a deep breath and thinking for once before she spoke. "I think, in militant terms, they'd call it a truce." There, she'd said it. Let him laugh and mock and jeer, at least she'd tried. She even took it a step further. "If I'm going to die", which at this point seemed fairly likely. "I'd rather do it fighting for something than running from something." She'd never considered herself particularly brave, unless goading one of the only heir of one of the most powerful families in the magical world counted. Still, she wanted some happiness out of all this mess. She'd been beaten, branded, humiliated and ultimately probably broken. It was time to stop wallowing now, time to grow up and start building something out of the ruined ashes. She owed herself that much, she realized, and the first step would be to eliminate as many of her enemies as possible. As enemies went, he was her fiercest, and so she'd wanted to cross that line first. After this, everyone else would be like first year flying lessons by comparison.

She stood, crossed the room so that she was standing close enough while maintaining an appropriate distance. Invading his personal space didn't seem wise right now. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that..." Here she hesitated as though whatever was about to come was difficult to draw out. "I'm sorry. If its worth anything to you at all. I don't think you're worthless. I don't think I ever did. The truth is, I really have no idea who you are except for what I've seen." Here, she smirked, "though admittedly what I've seen wasn't pleasant, well mostly." She realized she was rambling and closed her mouth a moment. "Salazaar, I'm really awful at apologizing." She inhaled deeply. "I know now how much damage wounded pride can do, and if I'd known before I'd like to think I'd have thought twice about trying to hurt yours. I can't promise I would've, but I'd like to think so." Something else she'd learned in the past month of spending time with Nathaniel Shire, everyone had a value, a purpose, even if it was only to be part of some grander plan. She appeared to gather nerve, or possibly just adrenaline. "This", she motioned between the two of them. "There's just no point in it anymore. Not for me." Maybe in the midst of sleep deprivation and all the stress from the last few weeks, she'd aged some. In fact,, she was almost certain of it.

There, now she'd done it. There was no going back now. If he laughed or tried to hurt her, she'd have to accept that what had been done couldn't be undone, and try to move on as best she could. Still, she had something she couldn't remember ever having before: friends who needed her. It had been enough to do what Draco's idea of a punishment had not. She was willing to swallow her pride for them, for him especially. Nat Shire had melted the ice queen, and he hadn't even been trying.

[Shava]

Whatever he expected from their next encounter (mostly versions of him slamming her through a wall then collaring her as she lay under the remains of it struggling to escape his power), there was no quiet conversation rather than loud verbiage war. Their war had begun, really, in words and he expected to finish it with action, period. Hearing her speak up suddenly about a true seriously surprised him! He stopped, looking at her in puzzlement and maybe a tinge of curiosity; was she trying for a delaying tactic, a chance to pull something else off?

She went further into backing up her statement and he found himself a tiny amount respecting that position. Straight forward indeed, she knew he would kill her (though he really wanted to break her entirely) and she was trying to save her life. Reasonable finally compared to her past; this was starting to sound promising. "Is this a trick? No, scratch that. Go ahead and have your say, you've got my attention." Turning to face her dead on he crossed his arms, staring at her. She was pretty in her own way, maybe a bit more severe than he normally liked, but pretty. She wasn't anything like Astoria at all.

Momentary startlement in his mind; why had he compared her to Greengrass?

He nearly fell over when she said sorry. As if in answer to his mental question, she explained why and how she didn't really know him. Draco nearly objected to the 'not pleasant" part, but then she modified it slightly and he was more then willing to let that point slide by. He nodded, showing he was listening, but not saying anything yet at this point. The fact she wasn't good at it made it all the more sincere, something he had not realize before would happen. When she finished, he just looked at her for a moment, still taking it in. "So...let me get this straight."

Draco frowned, trying to think how to word this carefully enough. "You are taking back what you have been saying all this year? To my face and to others about me? What about after this? Am I going to find you doing this again in another week? A month? I'm not buying into a trick, Belenko, and I want to hear something about that. Your word if you will." His face wasn't as aggressive as a moment earlier, but he wasn't exactly warm either; they had been through enough she shouldn't expect that anyway.