Paper Flowers

Disclaimer: I solemnly swear that I do not own Harry Potter and/or any other characters used in this fic. They are all property of J.K. Rowling.

A/N: Thank you to everyone who has restored my faith in the site. I wouldn't stay if it wasn't for you guys. :)

Thanks to Strife for beta-ing this!

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Draco looked up in surprise as an owl swooped down, dropping a bouquet of paper flowers in his cereal, splattering milk all over the table cloth. He eyed the bunch in distaste, reaching into the bowl and plucking out the bouquet with two fingers. The dripping paper flowers looked wilted as they dripped milk onto the table.

Blaise leaned over, looking closely at the blossoms made of brightly colored blues, pinks, and yellows. Draco gave them a shake, sending more droplets of milk over the table. He set them to the side of his plate carefully as if he didn't want to touch them any more than was necessary.

"What is it?" Blaise asked, poking the bouquet.

"Paper flowers?" Draco said incredulously. "Who would send me paper flowers?"

"Could be that boy from Ravenclaw," Pansy piped up, examining the flowers closely.

"I already told him he was better off trying a Hufflepuff," Draco drawled.

He continued to look at the bunch of flowers that now sat wilting in the milk next to his pumpkin juice. They were colorful and had many layers of paper making them up, looking quite similar to Carnations. He tentatively touched one of the petals, making sure they were, in fact, just paper.

"How 'bout that fourth year that's been ogling you?" Blaise offered, plucking one of the flowers out of the bunch, a pale pink one with a green stem. He twirled it in between his forefinger and thumb thoughtfully.

Draco reached over and pulled it out of his grasp and slipped it back into the bouquet with a glare. Blaise rolled his eyes and went back to his breakfast momentarily.

"Why are we so sure it's a guy?" Pansy asked suddenly.

"Why are we even thinking they're from an admirer?" Blaise added.

Draco scowled at them both. "One, because I am gay, and everyone knows. Two, because what else are flowers for?"

"Funeral," Blaise offered.

"Party," Pansy said.

"Wedding."

"Apology."

"Thank you."

"Bribes."

"Okay, okay!" Draco exclaimed. "I get it."

Blaise smirked at him smugly as Draco scowled. He looked once more at the flowers, wondering who had sent them. He didn't have much more time to ponder the situation, though, as the bell rang, and they were forced to leave their unfinished breakfasts for the darkness of the dungeons.

Draco settled himself at a table in the back with Blaise and Pansy, watching as the rest of the class filed in the room. The Golden Trio shuffled in the room, and Draco shot them his trademark sneer as they saw him. The Weasel glared, the Mudblood scoffed and pushed Potty into his seat, muttering something under her breath.

Draco smirked to himself and settled into the lesson, barely listening as Snape lectured them on the importance of rosewood in calming draughts. Draco allowed his attention to wander as he droned on.

It wasn't until sometime later, when Blaise elbowed him painfully in the stomach, that he snapped himself back into reality. He glared at Blaise momentarily before Blaise motioned his head slightly toward the front of the class. Draco looked up to find Snape looking very angry about something or other.

Draco looked down at his desk to find a tawny owl sitting on it, staring at him dolefully. Snape was standing by the door, obviously having opened it when he had heard the tap of the owl's beak. Draco looked back down at the owl, who was still staring up at him through its large, amber eyes.

Tied to its leg was a parcel about as big as a shoe box. Draco untied it from the owl quickly which then took off suddenly out the door, cuffing Snape on his cheek as he did so. Snape glared after the owl, slamming the door after it. He stalked back to the front of the classroom, not bothering to comment to Draco, who had begun to unwrap the package.

He pulled off the brown paper to find a plain brown box which he then opened. Inside the box was another box, this one of chocolates. Draco pulled it out, looking at it closely. He used his potions knife to break the seal on the package. He had never seen this brand before.

He flipped the lid back and reached in and took out a chocolate, noticing there was something different about the way it felt. He turned it around; trying to figure out what was different. Blaise and Pansy were both looking over his shoulder as he examined the chocolate carefully.

"Don't mind if I do," Blaise said, reaching over Draco's shoulder and picking up the chocolate just as Draco realized.

"Blaise, wai--" he started to say, but it was too late. Blaise had popped the chocolate into his mouth. He stopped suddenly, his eyes widening.

Draco watched him, his eyes wide before his mouth curled into a smirk. Blaise gave a cough and spit the chocolate back out.

"What is this?" he asked, disgusted.

"It's plastic chocolate," Draco said disdainfully, throwing the piece he'd been holding back into the box. Next to him, Pansy was beside herself with giggles at what Blaise had done. At the front of the class, Snape took a moment to glare back in their direction, effectively shutting Pansy up.

"What would anyone want plastic chocolate for?" Blaise asked, scowling at the box as if it had done him a personal wrong.

"Muggle children play with them in something they call 'playhouses'," Pansy supplied, and both Draco and Blaise stared at her. "I learned about it in Muggle Studies last year before I dropped it."

Draco just shook his head at the fact that Pansy had actually taken Muggle Studies and that she had learned something. He grabbed the box of fake chocolates and shoved it into his bag along with the paper flowers from that morning.

When they were finally released from Snape's class, they walked from the room, primly ignoring the scowl from Snape. They walked up the stairs, discussing the chocolates.

"Do you think it was a Hufflepuff?" Draco asked, disgustedly. "Only they would do something so sappy."

"Maybe it was another Slytherin," Blaise suggested.

"Oh, right. I think they know better than to send me plastic anything. Hey, watch it, Potter," he growled as he bumped into Harry on his way up the stairs. Harry only scowled and glared at him as they walked on.

"I still think it's that Ravenclaw," Pansy said, throwing in her two cents.

Draco rolled his eyes as he walked into the Great Hall for lunch. They sat down at the Slytherin table, Draco still trying to figure out the riddle of the day. First he had been sent paper flowers then plastic chocolate. Who could possibly think he would appreciate that? Didn't they know who he was?!

He looked around the Great Hall, trying to figure out who it might be. His eyes traveled over to the Ravenclaw table where the boy Pansy had been harping on was sitting. He was not looking at Draco; in fact, he seemed rather involved with the boy sitting next to him. He seemed far too busy to have sent Draco anything.

Next, his gaze fell to the Hufflepuffs. Draco gave a shudder and immediately moved on. The Gryffindor table was next. As his eyes swept over the group of people there, no one seemed to catch his eye. He did catch Harry Potter's gaze as they both looked up at the same time. Draco tossed him a sneer and turned to his own table.

No one down the table seemed likely to be secretly in love with him. There were perhaps a few first years who might have been enamored with his physique and power, but none were quite brave enough to send him something so cheesy.

In the end, he had to settle for the fact that he still didn't know the sender. He ate his meal moodily, more picking at it than anything else. Finally, it was time to go to the next class.

He, Blaise, and Pansy walked slowly from the Great Hall, each silently contemplating the meaning of the two mysterious presents from the morning. They walked out of the castle and down the sloping lawns to Hagrid's cabin for their Care of Magical Creatures class.

Once they got there, most of the rest of the class was already gathered around Hagrid, waiting to find out what they would be running from this day. To their great relief, he reached into the large box behind him, which most people had been eyeing nervously, and pulled out an animal that resembled a cat except for the fact that it had two tails, one white and one black. It hissed at the class as Hagrid held it up.

The class took a collective step backward as the cat hissed again, reaching out with its paw, claws opened and poised, swiping at them. Hagrid told them their assignment for the day was to observe and mark the behaviors of the cat as it roamed freely among them.

Most of the class looked frightened at the "roaming free" part of the assignment but were also glad they didn't have to touch the hissing animal. Draco, Blaise, and Pansy climbed up on a small slope and settled themselves under a large, towering tree to "observe" the cat.

Draco left Pansy and Blaise to do the watching and tilted his head back to lean against the bark of the tree. He lay there in the sun, relaxing in the warmth of its rays, nearly falling asleep as a quiet washed over all the students.

Suddenly, though, he felt another unpleasant poke in his ribs. He cracked open his eyes, annoyed. Blaise was gesturing in front of him where another owl sat, this one midnight black with spots of silver on its wings.

Tied to its leg was a simple piece of parchment. Draco sighed and untied the letter slowly. The owl took off once relieved of its burden, flapping its wings that shimmered as the sun beat down on them.

Draco tore his gaze away from the owl and looked at the parchment in his hands. Blaise and Pansy scooted closer excitedly. Draco gave them both withering looks but slid open the letter nonetheless.

He shook it open and saw a childish script that covered the page.

Roses are red,
Violets are blue.
I've seen you,
And you've seen me too.

Eyes that slide over the unknown
Haven't seen what they've been shown.
Ignorance, a gift that few receive,
And those who do simply don't believe.

In a room is everything and nothing at all.
Past the eight as the clock hands fall,
Bring the body, strong and tall.

Roses are red,
And violets are blue.
There you are.
I see you.

Draco stopped as he reached the end of the letter. None of it made sense. Blaise and Pansy also finished reading it, looks of confusion etching their faces.

"I don't get it," Blaise said quietly.

"I've got to meet this person somewhere," Draco said, rereading the letter.

"Where?"

"'In a room is everything and nothing at all'," Draco read out softly. "That doesn't make any sense!"

Neither Blaise nor Pansy seemed to have any ideas either as to the mystery room that the mystery person was talking about. Draco groaned quietly to himself. This was getting ridiculous! He needed to find out who this was and fast!

Draco reread the letter once more. Obviously this was someone who knew who he was. Well, obviously, everyone knew who he was! He was Draco Malfoy, Slytherin Prince. He sighed and folded up the letter, unable to figure out what the letter-writer meant.

He stuffed it into his bag where the plastic chocolates and paper flowers remained. He was relieved when Hagrid announced the end of the lesson and he was able escape to his dormitory for a bit of thinking.

He threw his bag on his bed as he entered the Slytherin dormitories. He sat down on his bed and reached over, removing the letter from the bag. He flipped it open and scanned it again.

According to the letter he was supposed to meet whoever it was at nine o'clock. It was just the where part that was irking him. He reread the line over a million times, trying to think of a room where there was everything and nothing at the same time.

He lay down on his back, the letter still in hand, staring up at the dark green canopy of the bed.

'Where is there a room with everything and nothing?' he wondered. This letter-writer must have been out of his mind. It was impossible for a room to have things inside and nothing at the same time.

How was that even possible? Draco contemplated this thought for a while, coming to the conclusion that the letter-writer was crazy. There was no such thing.

He lay on the bed, staring absent-mindedly at the canopy, wondering if this wasn't all some elaborate joke the Slytherin's had come up with to get back at him for hexing them all those years. If it was, then they had so far succeeded.

His mind slipped further into the darkness at the edge of his brain as he became tired from lying on the bed when an almost irrational thought entered his brain.

'The only place with nothing and everything must be magical... therefore; it must be inside the castle. But there's nowhere like that unless you count that stupid room on the seventh floor that Potter got caught in a few years back.'

Draco sat bolt upright, his eyes wide then yelled in triumph. It was the Room of Requirement! Why hadn't he thought of it sooner? He didn't bother to answer why, simply happy that he had figured it out.

He glanced over at the clock on his bedside table, noticing that he had missed dinner and it was well past eight in the evening already. He slid off his bed hurriedly, changing his clothes, throwing off his school robes and pulling on a pair of much tighter black slacks. He threw off the white shirt and green tie, exchanging it for a light blue tee shirt that accented his silver-blue eyes.

He looked at himself in the mirror momentarily before grabbing his wand, just in case, and leaving the dorm. He walked through the common room, ignoring Blaise and Pansy's questions of where he was going, and out through the hidden door.

Up through the castle, up winding stairs and through hidden tapestries, Draco finally reached the corridor that held a portrait of the dancing trolls. Across from the painting was a stretch of bare wall. Draco stared at the wall, unsure of what to do when a door handle suddenly appeared on the rock face.

He was taken aback but, nonetheless, opened the door. He stepped inside, looking around, his mouth dropping open in utter shock.

The entire room was covered with flowers. Every surface, and there were many, held vase upon vase of flowers, mostly Carnations, but dotted here and there around the room were single rose buds in glass vases. A small table in one corner was stacked high with what looked like premium Swiss chocolate.

Draco moved forward cautiously into the room, not noticing the door dissolving behind him into stone once more. His eyes roved over the many tables covered in flowers and chocolates. There was a couch facing a roaring fire and, on the other side of the room, a purely magnificent bed.

The posts of the bed reached up to the ceiling. It was draped in a dark blue, satin material that shimmered in the low lights that came from candles lit all around the walls of the room. Draco took another step into the room, looking around him carefully, wondering where this mystery person was hiding.

He saw a rustle of movement out of the corner of his eye and whipped around. In a corner where no one had previously been, stood standing a boy that Draco knew very well.

"Potter!"


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A/N: Review? There are 2 more chapters for anyone interested :)