The Slytherin Princess | Draco Malfoy x Reader

Chapter 20: Christmas Break

"Oh," you said simply. You had absolutely no idea how else to respond. You hadn't considered what would happen with Draco being back in the castle for Christmas break. A lot of things could happen when two kids who were attracted to each other were left nearly entirely to their own devices, as had been demonstrated in the great Hufflepuff Pregnancy Scandal of your second year.

"Yeah, Snape practically shot out of the castle to get to the train to find me. I was already aboard the train, I'd been sat down for all of five minutes. They had to delay the train from leaving, I had to get all my stuff out of the bins overhead, it was a proper mess."

You chuckled. "Well, at least you get to be here with me now, and once we get word about what your father has to say about your report card, we can finally go public to the rest of the school!"

Draco nodded, but his lack of a verbal response worried you. "I—isn't that what you want, Draco?"

He shrugged, igniting the all-too-familiar annoyance in you. "I thought going public to the rest of the school after break was your promise," you snipped, climbing out of your blanket cocoon to see the boy more fully.

"I didn't promise anything," he said in return, which only caused your annoyance to grow. "I said we'd see."

"No, you didn't!" you cried, throwing your hands up in the air. "You said it yourself—your marks have improved, your father would say they were acceptable, and then he wouldn't care if you were dating someone. It was your idea to kiss me in front of everyone in the Great Hall, I'll remind you."

"I just don't know, y/n. If he's really dealing with shit that he doesn't want me involved with back at home, I don't think he's going to handle me dating someone very well either."

You huffed, fighting the urge to stomp your foot. You bit the inside of your cheek to stop yourself from crying again, but it didn't work very well.

"It's always going to be some excuse like this, isn't it?" you whined, not caring at all about how pathetic you sounded. "It's always going to have to do with your father and it's always going to be something I have to deal with or leave you over, isn't it?"

Draco didn't respond. He just kissed you instead.

Pulling away, he looked you straight in the eye, the intensity of his gaze making your insides turn to liquid. "I'm fucking in love with you, Everglade," he said, his voice a dark, low rumble. "I'm doing my best to balance my father and you, and to protect you as long as I can from whatever my father will do to you once he inevitably finds out about you. This is a lot more about me keeping you safe than it is me being embarrassed of you or scared of my father. Because there's a lot he can do to me, and I won't care. But if something happened to you, I'd never recover."

You brought your hands up to grip the hands that still cupped your face, and you couldn't bring yourself to keep arguing. You still wanted to go public, you still wanted him to acknowledge you beyond secluded rooms, but once he kissed you again, you decided that was a problem for another day.

He walked you backwards into the room, never removing his face from your own as he shut the door behind you. His hands moved from your face down to your waist, as they normally did. He pulled away from you to look down into your eyes, moving a hand back up to stroke your face with his thumb.

"Is this something you want to do, y/n?" he asked quietly. "Because right now I'm entirely under your control."

You melted at his words, and you nodded in response. "Take me far away from here, Draco," you whispered, and he smiled as he bent down to whisk you off your feet.

You squealed loudly as he did so, and he laughed as he put you on the bed.

"I'd tell you to be quieter, but there's nobody else in Slytherin House right now, so do what you please," he said, a mischievous glint in his eye as he crawled atop you.