Golden Girl (reader x Draco x Cedric)

♡ 07 |I'm Sorry.

Thunder struck, echoing through the corridors of Malfoy Manor as rain lashed against the windows with relentless force. Draco stood before his father, his young heart pounding in his chest, eyes fixed on the polished leather of Lucius Malfoy's shoes. They were the only safe place to look, avoiding the burning fury in his father's gaze.

"Disgrace!" Lucius's voice roared like thunder, shaking Draco to his core. "You foolish, sentimental child! That mudblood squib has brainwashed you!"

Draco trembled, his small frame quaking with fear, his fists clenched at his sides.

"Go on!" Lucius bellowed. "Cry! Whine like you always do! You are a taint on the Malfoy name, boy! A Disgrace to be so easily swayed by a weak-minded mudblood!"

"Not a mudblood!" Draco's words escaped before he could stop them, defiance flashing in his eyes.

"What did you say, boy?" Lucius's voice turned deadly quiet, his shadow looming over Draco like a dark cloud.

"She's not a mudblood, father." Draco's voice quivered, but he forced himself to meet his father's gaze, his eyes mirroring Lucius's own cold, steely gray. "She's not a mudblood... She's my friend. I-I love her."

A searing pain ripped across Draco's face, coinciding with another booming thunderclap. The child staggered, his vision blurring as he stumbled backward, only to be caught by the steady hand of Narcissa, his mother. Lucius's expression remained unmoved as Draco crumbled to the floor, clutching his throbbing cheek.

Pain shot through Draco's body like lightning. Narcissa stood over him, her posture rigid, her jaw clenched and eyes squeezed shut.

"Narcissa," Lucius's voice cut through the air like a blade. "Sever all ties with the Y/L/Ns. Business, politics... personal. Scare them if you must. I never want to hear the Y/L/N name in this household again."

Even as Draco looked down at the polished shoes of his father, he felt the weight of Lucius's disdain bearing down upon him, chilling him to the core.

"You shall never speak her name again. Am I clear, Draco Malfoy?"

Even as Draco looked down at the polished shoes of his father, he felt the weight of Lucius's disdain bearing down upon him, chilling him to the core.

"You shall never speak her name again. Am I clear, Draco Malfoy?"

The only response was the intensifying rhythm of the rain outside, and Draco's hollow, obedient voice.

"Yes, Sir."

Draco snaps awake, cold as he's envoloped in his bedsheets, realizing he's reliving the same nightmare each night in a row since Y/N's arrival at hogwarts. He looks at the ceiling of his fourposter bed, his face cold and wet. Draco hardly sleeps nowadays. Each time he closes his eyes he is fighthing the same nightmare, his subcontious begging for it to stop. He looks around to see Crabbe and Goyle snoring on beds on either sides of his. He is in the Slytheriine Dormitory. It's the middle of the night. This is exactly where he should be. Then, why? Then why does he feel so out of place, burdened and cold beyonde belief?

That's when he notices that he's been crying in his sleep. Again. His hand touches his own cheek. It isn't swolen anymore. But it pains just as brutally as it did four years ago. Draco exhales deeply as he closes his eyes, hand still on cheek. He rolls over, his hand stretching to reach the bottom drawer of his bedside table which he gaurds with his life. He opens in as quietly as he can and retrieves what's inside. A box that fits in the balm of his hand, wrapped bright red and tied neatly in golden ribbon. On it, in childish scribbles, is writtern:

Merry Christmas, Y/N Y/L/N! You are my very best friend! I love you!

He needs to let you go. You were never soomeone he could be with, let alone assosiate with. And he just couldn't let himself fall in love with you again. Getting over you as a childhood puppy love crush was one thing, But getting pver you the second time while in adolecence, three years from adulthood was another entierly. For the last four years, you have been a fantasy to him and the christmas gift he never got to give you a token of that dream. That illusion that he wasn't a terrible person. He wasn't unlovable. That there was someone out there who loved him...Loved him.

Despite all of it, your smilling face flashes upon his inward eye and he pries his eyes open despite wanting nothing more than to indulge in that fantasy even for a moment more. Now, that ilusion is shattered. The one person he thought proved of his worthiness to live hated him.

Draco grinds his teeth together as an increadebe wave of cold, misery, heartache, desperation, isolation and sadness drowns him. He's never felt so alone. Not on the last fifteen birthdays which he spent alone. Not on chirstmaas where all he received were redeculouslyexpensive gifts form his parents and not even a "merry christmas". Not on those dreaded summers he spent wandering aimlessly through the shallow halls of his manor. Not ever in the last fifteen years where he had lived without a single "I love you" from anyone except...Except from Y/N.

Even then, it was in the past tense and immidietly followed up by a decleration that she would never love anyone as vile as him. But what hurt more wa sthat every insult she yelled at him in the hospital wing was true. Draco Malfoy was nothing but a coward and. A boy without a brain for himself nor a spine. A cyborg that followed his parent's will blindly.

Draco pounds his fist against his bed fraim till his knuckes bleed as he lets out a scream of agony that fills his ears. All this oxygen aground him yet he feels suffocated. He he falls onto the cold, hard wood floor as someone turns on the lights as trembling violently as tears splater over the wood.

If only he were stronger. If only he were braver. If only he was born anywhere but where he was. If only...There was a person in the world who loved him.

Footsteps thunder all around him, hands try to shakehim back to sanity and voices call his name. But he couldn't care less.

Draco's chest tightens as he sobs uncontroleby, fingures pulling at his platinum blonde hair that Y/N loved so much. He would give everything. His money. His status. His pure blood. The Malfoy name. Just to hear Y/N's voice. Just to hear her say that she was there with him. Just to see that amazing expression she had on her face when she ran into the dinning room to save him that day. Just to hear her laugh that still echoed in his dreams on good nights. Just to hear her say she loved him, be it in rage, one more time. Just one more time.

Finally, after what seems like hours, his eyes run dry and blood rushes to his hears, numbing him to sound. His eyes close as his head thumps with pain he knew not of as his body lulls him to sleep.

"Y/N..." he whimpers out to the only person he wishes to be with before he blacks out entierly "I'm sorry...So very sorry. More than you'll ever know."