When We Fell: A Draco Malfoy Romance

Chapter 17- Worth the Wait

Woken up by a slimmer of light peaking through the draped windows, I drag myself out of bed and head across the hall to freshen up in the restroom. Unfortunately for me, the dirty shower seems to only produce freezing cold water. Nevertheless, I lather up my hair with a bar of soap and wipe away all the remaining filth from Azkaban. 

After drying off and redressing, I head downstairs to look for a glass of water. The hall is pretty empty at this time, so I grab the closest seat and sit down. 

The barkeep from last night saunters over to me, "Looks like Tom had a room for ya."

I give him a small smile of thanks, "Yes, thank you for your help yesterday. I'm feeling much better this morning after a night's sleep."

He nods, "I'll bring you over some bread and cheese to nibble on." 

Leaning over the table to grab a newspaper, I flip through the pages lazily to pass the time. The barkeep brings over some stale bread and cheese while I read an article pertaining to Hogwarts. It seems like they have finished repairing another sector of the school. 

My time at Hogwarts was short, but I will always remember it as the brightest point in my life. I arrived completely alone and left with someone who loved me for me. What more could I have asked for? I never believed there would be someone out there that understood my scars even better than me, but I somehow managed to find him. 

With Draco on my mind, I busy myself with taking the used dishes up to the bar. On my way back to my seat, I hear the ring of the entrance door. 

Turning around to see who entered, I spot the only person left for me in this world. Draco is standing there, staring at me from across the room, his eyes blazing with determination. 

My mouth slowly forms into a smile, "Well, hello there."

He doesn't answer and instead looks to the ground and puts his hands in his pant pockets as he saunters over to me. Right before he reaches me, he pauses and looks up with a smirk, "Hello there, Olliana."

Words escape me as I rush into his arms, his warmth surrounding me as he picks me up from the ground, "How did you find me?" I breathlessly ask.

He holds me away from his chest so he can look at me while talking, "I figured you wouldn't know a place in London, so I thought to check here first. Just my luck that my girl is sitting here waiting for me." 

"I just got here last night and was just about to come up with a plan to break you out of Azkaban if I needed to," I joke. 

"Ah, well, lucky for you, I got off scot-free. All charges were dropped." Setting me down, he throws his arm around me and leads me to a seat. 

"So what's the plan?" he asks, folding his arms on the table and leaning in close. 

"I'm not really sure..."

He sighs and leans back, "I think a trip to Gringotts is in order. I'm sure to have enough in my family's vault to get us by for a while. What do you think?"

I let out a breath of stress that I've been holding since leaving the Ministry of Magic, "I just can't believe we are both here right now. This doesn't seem real."

His face falls serious, "I know. I didn't think we were going to make it out of there. When they took you from your cell, and you didn't return, I was just hoping that you were let free, but now here I am. We can have a fresh start together like we always planned."

"A fresh start would be bloody nice." I laugh quietly. 

"Well, let's get going then. We have a lot to do before the day ends." 

Draco quickly grabs my hand and pulls me up from my seat. Before leaving, I wave to the barkeep and send him my thanks. 

London...here we come.

______________________________________

After leaving the Leaky Cauldron all those months ago, Draco and I were able to obtain enough money to stay in a nice hotel in London until we figured out a more permanent place to stay. 

These past few weeks have been filled with touring fancy flats that satisfied Draco's refined tastes, but only one stood out among the rest. 

I grew up in a nice home, but my two-story country house was nothing compared to Draco's family estate. That being said, my only requirements for our new home was a large tub for me to soak in and a terrace to garden in. Even since leaving my dark Azkaban cell, I've found that I prefer spending my time outside in the sun. I've even picked up my mother's hobby of herbology recently and found that I also have quite a talent for it. 

Draco and I picked a large flat in a quiet neighborhood of London that satisfied us both. The living spaces were filled with large floor to ceiling windows, and there was a giant outdoor terrace with plenty of space for my experiments. Importantly, the flat was very secluded, so he and I didn't have to hide our non-muggle characteristics. The flat was on the top floor of the building, and the elevator was only accessible to us. 

We left purchasing furniture and decorating up to a stylist as we preferred to spend our time at local cafes or pubs. Draco began busying himself with a potential business idea that could continue the wealthy Malfoy legacy while I toyed with the idea of returning to the wizarding world. With my herbology experiments going well, I thought of a possible new store for Diagon Alley.

"I can't believe we finally found it," I whisper while looking out the towering windows, watching the muggles on the street below. 

"I'm just glad to be done with the search. I feel like we looked at a thousand places by now." 

I turn to Draco, a smile on my face, "Yeah, but it was worth the wait. We found our London flat; it's just like I pictured." We don't mention our time in Azkaban, but we both know what I meant by that. All those torturous nights, shivering in the cold and dreaming up our imaginary home. 

Draco pauses before wrapping his arms around my waist, "Yeah...it was worth the wait, and so were you." He leans down to kiss me, his lips familiar to me now after all this time. 

Before I found Draco, I was falling. My past felt so dark and inescapable; only a matter of time before I reached the bottom. Draco felt like a familiar flame meeting mine when I first saw him in the Great Hall. We both had pasts that caught up with us; we both had sins that we couldn't forgive ourselves for. But we were able to find a similarity that strengthened us through the hardest parts of our redemption. 

And then we were set free. 

**Wow...I can't belive it's over! I'm definitely going to go back and add in some extra scenes, but When We Fell is officially complete. Thank you all for reading and commenting- it means a lot! Please, if you enjoyed this quick fanfic, vote and let me know what you think! :) **