Around us || Draco Malfoy

55

"I should probably go" I said quietly as I let my head rest against Draco's chest. He was holding me close, his arms protectively around me as we laid in his bed.

"What if I won't let you?" I could practically hear his grin as the words left his mouth.

"Then I guess Umbridge is going to expell the both of us as she finds us like this" I said and felt Draco's fingers drawing sircles on to the palm of my hand. It was soothing.

"You just had to ruin the moment by mentioning that toad, didn't you?" Draco chuckled.

"I'm sorry, since when have you been such a romantic?" I teased. "And just for the record, I'm not the one who was working for her" I add, pointing my words towards the fact that Draco was in the inquisitorial squad.

"I said I'm sorry alright" Draco said back. "At least I didn't spend all my time around Gryffindors"

"Whatever"

We both chuckled. It was a perfect moment. Just the two us, nothing around us. Until the reality hit us again.

"Esme, my family can't know about you" Draco said as we turned to our sides, staring at eachother's eyes. "There's literally no pretty way to say this –" he took a deep breath. "they would kill you"

I stared at him and let his words sink in. It wasn't like I didn't already know all that, but hearing it being said aloud made it real. We couldn't do this, not in the current situation.

"I know, love. I know" I closed my eyes and let my forehead lean against his. "What are we going to do?" I asked quietly.

"I don't know what's going on right now, my parents won't tell me anything anymore. But I can feel that something is happening, and I don't think it's anything that would make this easier" Draco sighed.

"Esme, I cannot put you in danger for simply being with me. I won't be able to live with myself if something happened to you" his words made me open my eyes again and turn them towards his grey ones.

I was so sick if this. I was tired of living in fear, of feeling like there was always a greater force and which I could do nothing about. Maybe it was Potter's ridiculous couraging speeches, but I wasn't spending the rest of my life with just sitting around and waiting for someone to tell me what to do or what to be like.

"Then don't let anything happen to me" I said and saw how Draco's eyes widened as he was taking my words in. "We'll be able to keep low profile. And you just said it yourself, there's something going on. They probably don't have time to look after us all the time now"

Draco just looked at me, his mouth slightly open by my statement.

"You're something else, Diggory" he chuckled and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. "Fuck it, you're right" Draco then admitted.

"But you have to promise me one thing"

"Which is?"

"If anything happens, you'll let me protect you. No matter the cost"

                                           

The O.W.L;s were almost here and though I had tried to study a little, my thoughts had been spinning around all over the place. I was now in the place where I felt that I would be happy if I even passed the exams.

We were studying at the library with Leona and I just looked at her as she was writing down her notes. I let my upper body drop down to the table on top of my books.

"Hey, you promised to stay awake" Leona said and hit my shoulder with her hand so many times that I had no other choice than to lift mysel up again.

"I hate this, I don't even know what I want to do after school and now I should know which subjects I have to fucus on" I groaned and lifted the potions book back up.

"It sucks, believe me I know" Leona chuckled and continued writing.

"Lunch break?" I grinned and saw Leona's face lighten up by the mention of food.

"Fuck, you know me so well" she said and smiled at me. We both jumped from our seats, gathered our books and almost ran out of the library.

"You're going to make me fail if you won't let me study" Leona said as we sat down to table in the great hall.

"That's the plan, at least then I'm not the only one that doesn't pass these stupid exams" I grinned at her. Then we both started laughing.

Though everything was going on, and everyone was so focused in the O.W.L's, I finally felt quite normal. I felt like everything was going to be fine and that everything seemed to go back to the way it used to be.

Although we had to be careful with who to trust with Draco, and we couldn't look like a couple to the outside – I was wearing his ring again, which was all that mattered to me.

After all the drama and the fighting, we finally had our group of four back. Me, Draco, Leona and Blaise.

I could say I was almost happy.