Stolen Paradise - Dramione (ON HOLD)

Ch. 3

Him sighing and shutting his book caught her attention and she looked back towards him as he said, "I understand that this is all very confusing right now but-"

"No, I don't think you understand that," She interrupted then, her brow furrowing.

He didn't say anything, shifting to pull one leg up so that his ankle was resting on his opposite knee, and he leaned against the arm of his chair.

"How can you be so calm right now?" She demanded. "You know everything that is going on and yet you're choosing to ignore it."

"Can you blame me for choosing to ignore everything, after I was forcibly shoved into the middle of it?" He asked quietly. "Do I not deserve some peace for once?"

She gaped at him. "You think this is peace?"

He shrugged. "It is compared to living at the manor. You can't tell me this isn't a peaceful place."

Words struggled to come together for her and she clenched her jaw shut angrily. He wasn't wrong; the cottage and the beach radiated peacefulness. But she couldn't enjoy it knowing what was going on outside of the cottage.

"Regardless of whether or not this place is peaceful, and regardless of whether or not you deserve peace..." She started slowly. "There is still a war going on, and it's not going to just go away simply because you choose to ignore all of it. You need to let me go; I need to get back and help Harry."

"Why?" He asked calmly.

Staring at him, she said, "What do you mean, why?"

"Why do you need to help him?" He asked. "Potter may be unobservant most of the time but he's smart."

She continued to stare at him, and her reaction caused a slight smile to form at the corner of his mouth.

"Yes, I realize I just paid him a compliment but you know I'm right," He said. "He'll save the day, just like he always does. I'm surprised you don't have more faith in your own friend."

Her stare turned into a glare then as she slammed her own book shut. "It's not a matter of me having faith in Harry or not. You have no idea what we have been doing this entire time, how we have been trying to defeat him. There's so much more to this than you would ever know, and there's a lot of pieces to the puzzle that we are still working to solve."

"And why do you have to be the one to solve it?" He asked quietly.

"Because Harry is the only one who can defeat him, and if I'm not there to help him figure things out-"

"Aren't you exhausted, always helping him figure things out?"

She gaped at him. "Things can be figured out faster if there's a team of people working on it together!"

There was a very slight hint of amusement in his eyes that drove her insane as he asked, "Is there a time limit to figuring everything out?"

"I would think the sooner the better to end all of this," She said through gritted teeth.

"So if there's no time limit to figuring out everything, why not give yourself a well-deserved break?" He brought his arm up to rest on the chair's arm, propping his chin up in his hand as he smirked at her. "I don't think I've ever seen you take a single break in the years I've known you."

"You know what I think, Malfoy?"

"I don't; why don't you enlighten me?"

"I think you're a coward."

Any amusement he had immediately disappeared from his expression at this. She didn't give him time to respond as she continued: "You've lived a cushy life growing up, never having to know hardship. Now there is a war going on that could very well mean the end of the wizarding world as we know it should the wrong side win, and what do you do? You go and hide in your cushy little cottage in Merlin-knows-where to get away from it. You don't seem to care that hundreds of innocent people are losing their lives every day simply because of who they are, and you think that everything will just go away on its own while you sit here doing absolutely nothing!"

His face was completely devoid of any emotion as he watched her, his jaw clenching every so often as the silence hung in the air between them. She found herself breathing heavily, waiting for him to say something, anything in response to her small outburst.

But he didn't. And if anything it infuriated her more.

She stood up from her chair, angrily leaving the room and instead going to the room he had designated as hers. She half-expected him to follow her; the old Malfoy would never have backed down from an argument with her. But when she slammed the bedroom door shut and heard nothing else, she found herself standing there, waiting for a reaction that never came.