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The first thing he noticed about her were the mud-stained Converse that didn't even fit with the sunflower dress she was wearing. Her knees were scraped too, marked with dirt and fresh blood, and it made him furrow his brows. That wasn't how princesses looked like.
"Hi," he said, trying to be a gentleman nevertheless. When he raised his head, meeting the girl's eyes, he immediately fell speechless for she had the most beautiful chocolate-coloured irises he'd ever seen. Her face was really pretty. "I'm Draco Malfoy."
"You stepped on my flowers."
Draco blinked at her before looking down–and yes, the elegant shoes his mother insisted on putting on were crunching on the soft spines of some daffodils.
"Uh–"
He quickly stepped back, but it was too late. The girl was still grimacing, probably close to tears. Draco had no idea what to do until he remembered that when his mom was sad, his father sometimes brought her flowers and it made her feel better. Maybe he could fix the flowers too.
He had no wand yet, but he kneeled next to the crushed daffodils and waved his hand, biting his lip hard in concentration. He just wanted the flowers to stop being broken. He wanted them to be back to being beautiful.
And to his relief, nature somehow listened to his magic and plea, and the daffodils straightened their heads and green spines, looking as if nothing had happened to them, as if they weren't sentenced to clinical death by his shoes mere minutes ago.
Draco raised his head to stare at the girl, now the beginning of a tentative smile on her face.
"Here," he said. "They are okay now."
"I can see that."
She came back home with a freshly plucked daffodil in her hand.
She wore other shoes occasionally too, but even to the school robes she added those awful sneakers.
"They are called Converse, Draco," she repeated noisily, making him roll his eyes. "They are fashionable."
Fashionable, his arse.
Well, maybe they looked good on her legs, but pairing them with dresses or skirts was an atrocity. And she was definitely not a fashionable girl–she didn't even really care about what she was wearing as she spent most of her days outside, in the sun, playing with flowers and staring at the clouds and telling Draco stories about the shapes she saw.
"You could start wearing decent shoes for change," he grunted out when she presented him with a brand new Converse of bright crystal clear sky colour at the beginning of spring.
But honestly, she didn't want her to change. She was perfect, Converse or not.
She never stopped loving daffodils, either, so he made it their tradition to sneak them into her dormitory every year when spring exploded into blossom. He knew that she enchanted the bouquet to stay fresh as long as possible, then always dried one of the flowers between the textbooks; it always made him smirk. It was also adorable that she cared to save some reminders not just of the spring, but also of him .
He had no idea when exactly those mud-stained Converse started to make him go crazy. Honestly, they should be forbidden-–not because they didn't fit her outfits, but because they did , and they looked good on her. When she wore them to her loose skirts or floral-stamped dresses, she usually uncovered her long legs, and Draco couldn't help but look at the naked skin. She wore scares of her childhood adventures there, accompanied by some beauty spots, and Draco drank it all in whenever he could, especially when they lay out by the lake, lazing on the blanket in the spring sun.
"You're staring," she teased him sometimes, her cheeks always covering in a sweet blush. He grinned at her then, completely unabashed, but he made no further movement though he was tempted to just reach out his hand and touch her leg.
For now, he could just swear that those damn Converse would be the death of him one day.
“Why do you love those damn shoes so much?”
“They are comfortable.”
With furrowed brows he watched her packing her stuff into the trunk, all folded neatly and sorted out–that very same thing couldn’t be said about his own as he packed hastily, mostly throwing whatever the heck he was supposed to take back to their third year at Hogwarts.
“They are ugly.”
She scowled at him. “You’re just jealous you don’t get to wear them.”
“Sure.”
He rolled his eyes but deep down he couldn’t help but think that he was in fact jealous that the Converse touched her holy legs–and he didn’t.
Merlin, it was a perverse thought–
It wasn’t until the ball during their very last year at Hogwarts when he chuckled at the sight of her wearing the most beautiful midnight blue coloured gown and black Converse. Her hair was falling down her arms and back in rich golden waves, and he couldn’t help but stare. She didn’t look away from him either, her eyes sparkling with warmth, though she seemed a bit shy in the way her cheeks covered in red.
“Ready?” he asked, reaching out his hand to her. She caught it; their fingers intertwining felt just right .
“Always.”
He told her that they should go to the ball as friends, but his heart clenched at the thought. He saw other men eyeing her during the party–because when she danced, she looked like a queen, like a swan, like a goddess–and he felt molten gold gathering in his stomach. He desperately wanted to take a step closer, but he was also scared to scare her away
“Are you okay, Draco?”
“Yes.” She didn’t quite believe him, studying him for a while before finally nodding. “Do you want to get out of here?”
“Merlin, yes.”
They got out, not caring ever for the light spring shower. It passed as quickly as it appeared, so they lay down in the wet grass and looked at the stars, holding hands. But stars were nothing in comparison to the sight next to Draco, and with a start he realised that he really wanted to kiss her.
“Can I kiss you?”
The question was out of his mouth before he processed it properly, but he didn’t take it back. He couldn’t take it back, even though he was agonising over her answer.
“Yes,” she breathed out quickly, and Draco’s heart hammered. “Yes, please.”
So he leaned in to kiss her, making the spring even sweeter than usual.
She loved all spring flowers, but daffodils were her favourite. When the winter aura was gone every year and the air outside seemed clearer, though still a bit cold, and the sky sometimes foretold a storm, she usually put on her jacket and went out to stare at the sky and dream of spring. And if she was lucky enough, she always found some snowdrops or daffodils or lilies of the valley at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. But honestly her favourite flowers were the ones Draco brought her.
And honestly, her heart bubbled with liquid gold when for her next birthday Draco gifter her with a brand new pair of Converse–emerald green.