𝐃 𝐈 𝐕 𝐈 𝐍 𝐄, 𝐝.𝐦

𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐦 𝐝𝐢 𝐝𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐬 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐫

"Why don't you kiss it better for me?"

Adeline looked at him, her heart beating fast in her chest.

"What happened to you?" She asked again, touching a hand to his shoulder. He was burning up.

"Me? What about you?" Draco asked, leaning further against the leather couch. He started unbuttoning his ruined school shirt, revealing a deep cut against his chest and his muscled abdomen. Adeline looked in horror at his injury.

"What about me?" She asked, distracted from the blood running slowly down his skin.

"Well, you've been gone," Draco said. He didn't even seem bothered by his wounds.

"Gone?" She voiced.

He took out his wand and healed himself quickly, sitting back up as his shirt hung open.

"For quite some time, too."

Adeline peered at him. "But you know where I was. I told you."

Draco nodded his head. "Oh, yes. The Draguar boy. I saw you with him, did you know? At the ball, you were all over each other. If I'd known you liked to hide behind dark corners like that I'd probably started talking to you again a lot sooner."

"No..." She shook her head, brows knit together. She wanted to tell him it was them. It was her and Draco at the Yule Ball, that it was him who hid her behind dark corners.

"Is that where you've been this whole time? With him?" Draco was sitting close to her; she could feel how hot his skin felt without even touching him. "You could have just told me you wanted him. Why haven't you told me yet?"

She was still shaking her head lightly. "But I don't. I don't, I want..."

He cocked his head to the side, placing a warm hand on her arm. "Yes?"

Adeline looked at him with newfound clarity. "You left me. You said you'd be there, and you left me. I was alone. Why weren't you there?"

There was childish petulance to her need, an abandoned hurt that she had neglected and ignored for so long. Draco shook his head in a pitying manner.

"You can't listen to them." He said, his hand travelling up her arm and cupping the side of her neck. It was something she'd done to him before.

"To who?" She asked, searching his silver gaze. She touched a hand to his cheek, her thumb tracing a line along his cheekbone.

"Don't do it." He breathed out.

"Do what?" She asked, but he didn't respond. He looked at her with a defined urgency in his eyes, a silver streak of pleasing. A wave of understanding bubbled in her mind. "But I have to."

Draco was shaking his head, clutching her face, bringing her closer.

"Just listen, I love you. Just listen to me this one time. Why don't you ever listen?"

Adeline's heart was beating fast in her chest, his touch burning her.

But I do, she thought. Don't you understand? Even without wanting to, your words find a way to impact me and my every decision.

Draco's lips found hers and she moved against him hungrily, feverishly touching his bare chest and clutching to him, wishing he'd move closer. He parted, touching his forehead to hers.

"Delilah, don't do it."

And then he was gone. Adeline was alone, standing in a living room. It was one she recognised instantly. She looked around, spotting the burning fire and the armchair in front of it. She walked closer and knelt beside it, looking at the person who sat staring at the flames.