Ring the Bells

By: OurLoveIsForever

The Past

Staring blankly at the Christmas tree, she sighed. The Christmas spirit certainly didn't exist within the dark confines of that dungeon, no matter how hard some of them tried to cheer the dismal space up. The elves had provided the supplies as asked, but it seemed that no amount of tinsel and candles were placed about the common room, the outcome remained cold.

It was a bit pointless, truly, to try and be happy for the holidays, especially after the first semester. Christmas carols mixed with screams and cries didn't necessarily inspire dreams of gumdrops and dancing animated nutcrackers. No, Christmas was something akin to a sick joke now. Dark humor in the midst of an even darker reality.

Shifting her position a bit, she finally removed her gaze from the large conifer. One of the other girls sitting on the leather couch across from her stood, obviously growing restless. There was another loud scream that made the youngest of the group cringe noticeably.

"And a partridge in a pear tree." Daphne sang under her breath, eyeing her sister's tense form. "Maybe you should get to sleep."

"I'm not tired. You can go ahead. I'm going to sit out here for a little longer." Asteria waved her hand vaguely and turned her stare back to the tree, trying to seem disinterested. Disinterest was something she could feign in a heartbeat and with a rather frightening amount of conviction.

Daphne nodded silently, standing, knowing when to acquiesce to her sister's demands. Most of the time, the younger Greengrass girl preferred to be alone. The other young women, Daphne's posse, for lack of a better term, followed behind her as they left the common room to its lone occupant.

Asteria didn't really bother to acknowledge that the only other girls in Slytherin at that time were leaving her to her thoughts. It didn't really matter anyway. There would be no gift exchange that year. There was no way to receive packages from the outside. Even if there was, she and her sister would not receive any for her parents were deep in hiding. No, there would be no presents.

It wasn't that the gifts themselves mattered, really. It was the metaphor that was significant. The presents represented the innocence. The innocence that was lost in this ridiculous war. Christmas itself had become a shadow, a apparition of its former self, brought low by the vile hate of a madman.

Nonetheless, the magicked lights on the tree twinkled and glistened with no ears for the screams that echoed through the castle. Even if they couldn't hear, she could. Those were her friends, comrades and contemporaries that were being tortured just down the hall. On Christmas Eve, no less. Those that had nowhere to go, like she, were holed up within the castle walls. Everyone knew that there would be no Christmas dinner, no happy faces on Christmas morning.

A particularly loud scream made Asteria jerk from her reverie. Flinching out of habit, her hand went for her wand quickly as tears began to prick at her eyes. Her hand pointed toward the decrepit radio box along the wall behind the tree, charming it to begin playing Celena Warbeck's holiday tunes, effectively drowning out the cries for help.

Being that it was well past midnight, she knew that there would be no visitors to the common room, leaving her alone to do as she would. And she did, drawing her knees up to her chest.

'Darkness is approaching

Like a dementor bringing sadness and pain

But what can we do now,

When the snow has turned to rain?'

Her eyes began to fill with tears for the first time since she had entered Hogwarts.

'Bring on the fight,

We'll raise up this light

Because we have that right

To still believ—'

The music shut off suddenly, ripping Asteria from her distracted state. She raised her head and searched for the culprit while drawing a sleeve over her eyes. Whoever had turned off the song was in for it when she found them.

He was hidden well in the shadows, but she could still see the glint of white-blond hair shining in the firelight. With the mood she was in, she really didn't care what kind of harbinger he was that evening, she wasn't going to back down. Silently, she pulled her wand up and pointedly glared at him as she turned the music back on.

'—ing the bells and sound the fife

We're going to bring Christmas back to life

We don't know if we'll be alive

To see that day com—'

"Do it again. I dare you."

His voice was challenging, dangerous and a warning. She regarded him for a moment, taking in his slightly disheveled appearance and messed hair before willing the music on again. This time there was no time for the voice to emit before he send a charm to make the ancient thing begin to smoke.

Asteria stared at the radio as it fell into disrepair then looked to see Malfoy's self-satisfied smirk. She fought of the urge to curse him herself but knew that she didn't posses the skill to make it out of a duel alive. Instead, she made her own form of rebellion and for some reason, she felt the by doing this she was even going against the Carrows, in her own small way.

'Ring the bells and sound the fife

We're going to bring Christmas back to life

We don't kn—'

"Stop bloody singing!"

'—ow if we'll be alive

To see that day com—'

He crossed the common room faster than she could react, throwing a silencing spell at her before she had time to even think. It was then that she began to panic. There was a furious glint in Draco Malfoy's eyes that made her shiver with fear. And then, there was something that also made her pull back in surprise.

There, in his cold gray eyes, was a sadness that she could barely interpret and as he approached, she did the only thing that she could think of at the time. As he went to place both hands on either side of her body, no doubt meaning to threaten her into submission, she wrapped her arms around his neck.

There was a stunned moment when he tensed, his thin muscles pulling uncomfortably.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Ah," she responded quietly, pulling away. He looked down upon her as he stood upright, wielding his wand in front as if she were actually a threat. Yes, she was most likely (in his eyes) scum under his Italian leather shoes, but regardless, she didn't feel that she was and that was enough. "You looked a bit sad."

"I looked a bit sad? Don't just go around hugging people, you filthy blood traitor." To his surprise, she didn't flinch or move, she simply watched him before looking back toward the tree.

-

He had been watching her. From the shadows of the staircase, he had waited for no reason, observing as the girl, for that was what she was, sat in the stillness of the common room alone, her sister having long since gone to bed.

He knew who she was, of course. Who wouldn't know Daphne's sister? Other than that, Asteria Greengrass was a mystery, but as he observed her, he realized that she truly wasn't all that puzzling.

There was something in her eyes that made her somewhat easy to read.

Draco Malfoy was an expert at reading people and she was no different from his powers of simple observation. From his analysis, she was saddened herself.

Therefore, why was she hugging him?

He had no intention to actually harm her. How could he? He was a gentleman of the highest order, so how could he lay a hex on a female? Particularly a female that was as thin and pale as she? No, he only meant to scare her into submission. Even so, she had outwitted him entirely.

The song was what had set him off. 'Ring the Bells'. He knew it well. His mother had played the song every Christmas since he was a toddler. That song was his childhood, what little he had of it. A childhood that he didn't care to remember. Times when his family had laughed together were few and far between, but most of the time, they had been on Christmas. They were always a family on Christmas regardless of what rumors assumed. Now, his mother and father were trapped in their own home and it would be the first Christmas he had spent within the confines of the school.

"Traitor?" His attention turned back to the girl. "Yes, I suppose I am."

He gaped openly at her before hiding his shock behind his ever useful devil-may-care façade. "Admitting to it now?"

"I never denied it." She shrugged, turning her gaze from him back to the tree. There was an undeniable softness in her eyes that made him wonder just what she was thinking of when her eyes were on that large twinkling monstrosity. "Do you miss Christmas?"

"Miss what?" he asked, unsure if she had meant to ask him that. By the way that she raised her eyebrow, he suspected she did. "Do I miss Christmas?" he scoffed loudly, stepping away from her and falling onto the couch on the other side of the coffee table. Of course he did. He was human, wasn't he? "No. Why would I miss some stupid holiday?"

She nodded, "Why, indeed?" It came out as a sigh and he felt a sting of guilt.

Malfoys didn't feel guilt often and if they did the circumstances were few and far between. Just how could this little girl cause him to feel guilty? That shocked him less than what she said next.

"The music was drowning out the screams. It's too bad you broke it."

-

She almost felt the urge to look at him. There was the childlike excitement in her gut of being in close quarters with someone you fancy, even if she didn't fancy him in the slightest. She supposed that she was a bit deprived of men that even spoke to her. Her friends such as Graham Boot and Clint Merkel didn't count. They were more brothers than men. Malfoy though…

"I miss the dinner." Asteria snapped her head around to face him. His eyes were on the fire rather than the tree and the light danced in his eyes making him appear warmer and less like a man composed of ice. "The annual Malfoy Christmas dinner. That's what I miss." Malfoy seemed a bit shocked that he was deigning to answer her. Truthfully, she was surprised too.

"I miss our story time. As juvenile as that sounds, we would sit in front of our fire and tell stories. Every year we did it." He had to have known her parents were on the run. Everyone knew. She had even been 'questioned' at one point by the deranged Alecto Carrow. She missed her parents more than anything. Christmas wasn't Christmas without her family and while Daphne tried to fill the shoes, it was generally Asteria who took care of her and not the other way around. "We're not children anymore so I wonder if the meaning is still there or if it's gone like everything else."

They sat comfortably like that for a long while, a relaxed sense of peace fell over the two.

-

Draco noticed that she was beginning to fall asleep after an hour. Her head would drop down then her eyes would widen and she would lift her head again only for it to fall. The whole sight rather amusing him. To see her try and fight off something so essential as sleep gave him an inkling as to her character on the whole: a silent fighter.

When she finally nodded off, and her head did not rise, he thought through many options. He could just leave the girl there in the cold chill of the common room. He could wake her and tell her to drag her arse to bed. Or he could take her himself.

Declining all three, he opted for the easiest. Quietly as he could, which was dead silent for he was a master at stealth, he pulled a conjured blanket over her legs and shoulders before his eyes fell on her face.

His usual stony gaze softened for an instant as he took in her serene state.

For some reason, in that moment, he wondered if it would always be peaceful when she was around. Asteria Greengrass, with her faraway gaze, quiet voice, and steely resolve had made him block out the screams for a few hours. Regardless of her tiny frame and meek appearance, he could overlook her 'blood traitor' status and look upon her as something he never thought he would find, especially that Christmas.

A miracle.

-

Asteria awoke to the gentle prodding of her sister. Blearily, for she was not a morning person, she glared at the blonde who kneeled on the floor beside the couch. "Daphne, what is it?"

"You slept out here all night?"

Sitting up, she stretched and yawned, feeling the blanket fall from her chest. Shocked at the sensation, she glanced down. "I—l suppose I did." Had Malfoy—No, he couldn't have. More accurately, he wouldn't have, right? Remembering herself, she glanced up into the worried eyes of her sister. "Oh, don't worry. No one bothered me." Not really, at least. "I got a decent night of rest."

"That's not it, Asteria. I just wanted to say Happy Christmass."

"Oh, yes. Happy Christmas."

A/N: Well, this will be a short little story with three chapters. One now, one Saturday, and Christmas Eve. I really hope that everyone enjoys this glimpse. Ah yes, I also wrote the song myself so no copyright infringement problems...Please leave me some feedback.

And: her name is Asteria because I felt that the variation fit her character.