-- run to the hills (open)

[Astoria Fawn Greengrass]

For some reason, Astoria found herself unable to eat, which was why she hadn't shown up at the evening feast. According to the time, she could safely assume that it was close to ending, and that all the students, as usually practiced, would be escorted back to their common rooms by their rightful prefects. Astoria, however, was all on her own, far from her fellow classmates. She just wanted some time to herself, which was a little hard to come by in such a crowded place as Hogwarts.

This place was no longer considered a fortress, as it once had been. It was breached, supposedly, although many Slytherins couldn't agree with it. Astoria, however, didn't know how to feel about it. Too many people were up in riots for her to feel at ease with the condition of the castle, and even she almost missed Albus Dumbledore, merely for the sake that it was more peaceful during his reign over Hogwarts.

Now, everyone was angry. Everyone was scared. No one was really friendly, and Astoria felt tension around every corner of every corridor. Nothing could be done to help that. In order to get away from it all, even for a little bit, Astoria fled to the Astronomy Tower, where she knew there to be no classes tonight. After all, it was a Saturday evening. She stood on the balcony, looking up at the stars with a hopeless expression.

Her parents would have been disappointed in her, had they known her displeasure about the turn of things. They stood for the Death Eaters, but this was just too much for her. Maybe she didn't admire a lot of people in this school, but she definitely didn't think that they deserved all of this...

[Draco Lucius Malfoy]

Quiet steps carried the thin Slytherin male up the stairs. Despite the sharp dressed clothes he wore, they did nothing to hide the exhaustion pasted on his face. He clutched the smeared quill written parchment carefully as he leaned a little on the wall for a moment. A soft pant came from his lips, exhaustion oozing over his body as he rubbed his face and started to climb a bit more. The prince might have at some point been able to run the stairs, but the full out mental toll that the dark lord kept on him, it was slowly deteriorating his body. He let out a little noise of exhaustion before continuing his pace up the stairs. Finally he reached the top, breathing heavy, he readjusted the black suit coat he wore, brushing it off a little and stepping into the Astronomy tower.

He paused at the sight of the delicate Slytherin girl inside, her feet standing upon the tall balcony. He blinked a couple times, eyes a little wide before clearing his throat casually so he didn't scare her too much if she heard footsteps. He was just turning in a paper that was due to the teacher that was...very blatantly late but the male was hoping that the professor would give him a reprieve. Even just a little one for being so damned exhausted all the time.

[Astoria Fawn Greengrass]

Astoria was silent and still for a while, though at this point, her thoughts were only getting repetitive and aggravating. She growled a bit, raising a hand to the developing pain that was throbbing in her head.

She tried to think of other things - even that Potions essay was more comforting than all this trauma - but was interrupted when she heard a soft sound behind her. Tori turned her head slightly, pausing as her green eyes settled on the familiar figure of Draco Malfoy.

At first, she wasn't sure what to say. A hello directed to someone such as Draco couldn't promise a heart-warming response. He had been a little... off... since last year. She couldn't pinpoint why.

"Is everything alright, Draco?" she asked, although she had a feeling that she already knew the answer. He would probably insist he was just peachy.

[Draco Lucius Malfoy]

He cleared his throat again, lifting his chin as he heard her speak and offered a twitch of his lip in a smile. A fake one at that. "Quite fine Astoria, just turning in a paper." he said casually, not sure why she would care, much less honestly ask. Though he was glad she had, even if he couldn't just pour his heart and soul out to each person who bothered to wonder why he was in such an awful position. Instead, he could just offered coy little smile and a question as he stepped to set the paper on the professor's desk. "What are you doing up here? I thought you would be at the feast, or perhaps in the common rooms. I never expected to see you sporting yourself up in the Astronomy tower of all places." he said, almost a slight chattering babble coming from his mouth, as if he was nervous. He was always nervous talking to people now days, honestly he couldn't help it. So as he picked up a trinket from the desk of the professor, rolling it between his fingers, he set it back down and lifted his attention to look Astoria in the eye. For a split second before he broke it and looked around the room.

[Astoria Fawn Greengrass]

Just as she had expected, Draco had conjured up the false 'I'm fine' response. Astoria was usually decent with reading people's faces in order to discern emotion, and Draco was no exception. Then again, it was much too rare to see someone such as him in a giddy mood, especially in bleak times such as these.

She wouldn't press the matter. He'd probably take out any frustration out on her.

He then sent the inquiry her way, which Astoria hadn't entirely braced herself for. She simply shrugged her shoulders, turning her body to face him fully and leaning her back against the balcony's railing, fingers loosely coiled around the metal.

"I wasn't hungry," she said, playing off a cool and indifferent demeanor. She watched as he picked up a random and trivial object from the professor's desk, only to finger with it for a moment and put it back down. "It's quiet up here, and the breeze feels nice."

In reality, while all of what she said was true, it wasn't the whole story. She just wanted to get away from all of the chatter and roaming thoughts of the other students, some of which spoke too much about the Death Eaters that had overrun the castle, others of which she was simply exhausted of seeing moping around.

In the Astronomy Tower, as well as a couple of other various, secluded locations in the castle, she could get away from all of that.

[Draco Lucius Malfoy]

He listened to her speak. She wasn't hungry? It was quiet. Perhaps those were her reasons, but maybe just like him, she was tired of the rumors and the whispers constantly going on about how dangerous Hogwarts had become.....and it was his fault. He'd been the one to let in the death eaters, the one who'd had the mission to kill Dumbledore, truthfully he shouldn't have even come back this year. But his father made certain of that as not to raise suspicions. (For what he didn't know was that indeed the very people he'd grown to despise, the golden trio as they were, knew of his traitorous tendencies and his allegiance.)

"Though its getting late, it seems the sun is already set, you wouldn't want to be caught out of the common rooms at night would you?" He offered the paused, screwing up his face at what he'd just said. Why the hell did he care? Honestly? Though she was as far as she could possibly be, he wondered more why he'd even brought it up. With a sniff, he turned his head slightly and looked at her again. "Just a suggestion." he said simply and stepped away from her where she stood on the balcony, back towards the door. If she ignored him, well then she could just stay up there and stare at the sky and get caught when the teacher came back up and sent her to detention. If not well...then he might get her out of trouble if they got caught.

[Astoria Fawn Greengrass]

Astoria knew of the possibility of getting busted up here, but to be honest, she was fairly confident that the chance was very, very slim. Maybe that was just her being full of herself, or maybe she was just being careless and stubborn. Most likely the latter.

Of course, Draco had mentioned the risk of her getting in trouble. She had already foreseen it. Then again, unless he left now, he was at risk of getting caught as well.

Astoria just shrugged, watching as he made his way back toward the door of the room to leave the tower. Then, she paused, instantly catching onto the faint sound of heels on the stone floor. She tensed slightly, glancing from the door to Draco. She could either come up with an excuse for seeing her teacher or find a way to slither out of the dark room, with or without Draco.