dragonfly || d.m. [✔]

firefly zoo,

'Cause at night I get a million hugs, from a thousand million lightning bugs.
- Fireflies, Owl City
____

a r i a  s t u n n i n g s

"Draco-," I reached for his arm and grabbed it, "This is . . . amazing."

He scratches the back of his neck shyly and says, "You're welcome. Do you like it?"

I hit his arm, "Oh my gods, look, there's the red ones! And yellow! Damn, is that orange?" A punch punctuated each of my exclamations.

"Owww," he groaned, rubbing his arm. "Stop hitting me, Rowena! And yes, that's orange."

"AHHHHH! NO WAY, DRACO MALFOY- I CAN'T-"

"You sound drunk," he said. "Also, don't call me 'Malfoy', I'm not one."

"Oh, shut up," I said. "Look!"

Draco chuckles, "I know, I made it. It took eight years though, to perfect it." Then he leans in and pecks me gently on my nose. For a moment, he looks confused, and then he realises what he did and backs away. "Sorry, sorry, sorry," he says. "It was a mistake."

It hurts though -- the fact that our kiss, the quiet night-outs, the little bits of affection were all mistakes. I brush it away, I wanted this, didn't I? 

"Yeah- about that," I start.

He brushes it away with a casual flick of his hand, "It hurts, but I'm good with it if you're happy."

My head snaps up and my eyes meet his, "Really?"

He smiles sadly and quietly as he answers, "Really." 
A million thoughts are running through Draco's head at this moment -- loss, hurt, distrust -- but I cannot decipher a single one, the landslide of emotions is too fast for me to see each rock individually. I look at the boy I have single handedly ruined -- eight years of me being away; eight years of losing fragments of his heart to a person he might never see again.

The word echoes in my brain, over and over, until it loses all coherence -- but I cannot ever hope to lose the feeling of emptiness that came along with it, and Draco's sad smile.

Draco clears his throat and gestures to the fireflies lighting up the night at a distance. "Shall we?"

I simply nod, my voice untrustworthy as heck. I follow him as he walks towards the place. As I look at it from a closer distance, I realise exactly how much of a masterpiece he had created. Each square in the wire mesh was intricately traced to let in enough air for the fireflies to not suffocate, but also not enough space for them to escape. The wire mesh itself was shaped as a dome, large enough for millions of fireflies. "Wow," I breathe again.

From my peripheral vision, I see Draco gaze at me. In his eyes, my face is framed in the glow of the fireflies, my hood fallen away long ago, the scars once again burning and my brown eyes alight with joy -- an internal one.

"Yeah," he says. "Wow, indeed."

I blush, because he is still looking at me. 

* * *

Saturday morning comes fast, and I find myself lying on Draco's chest, who in turn was lying on grass. I push myself up, all my limbs screaming out in soreness. "Wake up," I whispered. He didn't budge.

Now, I don't have much patience. And I do not sincerely care about Draco's cheeks. So I slapped him, and he shot up, wide awake. Then he saw me and groaned. "What's the time?"

"We'll know when we get back to Hogwarts," I say, standing up and dusting myself. 

"Sure, love," he says, taking his wand out. His hair is messy, locks covering his forehead, and his sweat shirt seems tighter around his chest now that his robes are off. Rings glint in the sunshine as he reaches for my arm and pulls me closer to him. 

How the hell does someone smell of peppermint after a night of sleep on mud? I wonder, as I realise how terrible I must smell.

He chuckles, "No, you don't."

"Did you just- read my mind?" 

He looks down at me, "Sorry." 

He didn't look the least bit sorry. I want to kill you, I think. 

"Sure, you do," he laughs. And then we're at Hogwarts. We're strangers once more, friends of the old.