The Malfoy Diaries (A Draco Malfoy Fanfiction)

n i n e t e e n 💛

Draco Malfoy was dedicated to completing the evening no matter what happened and he wasn't about to let anyone get in the way of that. 

"Do you want to dance?" he asked Aria, managing to keep his voice relatively pleasant. 

His question indeed pleasantly took Aria by surprise, as the honey colour of her eyes warmed slightly and a small smile made its way onto her face. 

"Yes or no?" Draco asked. He could be a patient person, when it suited him. Now was not one of those times and he did not want the Hufflepuff, of all girls in Hogwarts, to turn him down and humiliate him. Draco sensed that there was more to his feeling than that but he shrugged the thought of it away. 

Aria, although entirely taken by surprise, managed to answer his question. 

"Yes," she breathed out. 

Draco almost smiled despite himself, but he quickly caught himself before he did such a thing. The last thing he needed was Aria thinking that he actually liked her in any way shape or form. That thought repulsed him. His grey eyes warmed slightly, as he and Aria walked into the center of the room and began to dance together. 

As Aria remembered Hagrid's words about stepping on Malfoy's toes if he upset her, she couldn't help but release a gentle laugh. 

"Something funny, Hufflepuff?" Malfoy asked, trying to keep his tone of voice cool and even. 

"Just something that Hagrid said. It's...nothing really," Aria quickly said. 

Malfoy didn't ask another question after that, as his features seemed to relax. Under the glow of the lights above them, his dark eyelashes cast shadows on the faint silver circles under his eyes. He would have looked sort of angelic, Aria thought, if she didn't know of the dark and cold thoughts and feelings that ran through his body and mind.  

 "You know," Aria started to say, as she and Malfoy swayed on the dance floor. How was he such a good dancer? Aria wondered. More to the point, when had she actually become good at dancing? She decided that McGonagall must have charmed the dance floor or something like that. Though maybe, just maybe, Aria considered for a second, it just took the right dance partner to get Aria to dance properly. "You're actually not so bad at this." 

Malfoy released a short laugh at that. 

"Well, my father hosted a lot of dances back before...whatever," he said. "I used to go with Astoria. I don't know where she is at the moment." Malfoy almost missed her. Almost. He had more important thoughts to deal with. 

"I'm sure she'll be back soon," Aria said. 

Malfoy nodded. He realised, in that moment, that he didn't really care if Astoria returned or not. 

Aria smiled a small smile, even though it was forced. She found that her eyes began to glance around the dance hall for some sort of distraction and soon caught sight of Hermione, Luna and Ginny all dancing together. All three of them looked incredibly beautiful, Aria believed. 

When there was a pause between songs, Malfoy told Aria that he was going to go and get some fire whiskey. Salazar knew that he needed it. 

In the meantime, Aria made her way across the dance floor to join Ginny. Hermione and Luna had gone to the ladies' room, Ginny had said. 

 "Don't you think this dance is incredible?" Ginny said energetically, as she spun Aria around. "I'm so glad that McGonagall suggested it. I think we all could have used a distraction after, you know...everything." 

Aria gave an understanding nod at that. She supposed that Ginny did have a good point. It was always nice to have a distraction from day to day qualms. Helga knew that she had plenty of those in recent times. 

"It's been...decent, all things considered," Aria said, as her eyes wandered to the tall platinum blond for a few seconds. 

Her eyes glanced towards the window nearby Malfoy and she watched as another raven swooped by. It unsettled her. She knew that it was probably just some silly muggle urban legend but she had always thought that ravens were a symbol of bad things to come. When Malfoy returned, he caught sight of her anxious expression and she ended up telling him all about it. He was dedicated to get through the evening without a hitch and he couldn't have Aria fretting over bloody birds, of all things. His will wasn't about to let him give up, either, even though Aria insisted that the two of them should just leave. 

"Fire whiskey?" Malfoy offered. 

"Thank you," Aria  replied, as she took the goblet from him. "I, uh..." she trailed off. 

"Ravens?" he reminded her. 

Aria nodded. 

"It's just a legend. I promise you that they're not going to hurt you," Malfoy said. 

"Why? Are you going to punch them?" Aria asked, as the fire whiskey soothed her head a little and also removed her inhibitions slightly. 

Malfoy laughed at that. It was the first time, Aria quickly realised, that she had actually heard Malfoy laugh a real laugh, other  than the short, humorless ones he usually interspersed into conversations. 

"I'll be honest with you, Hufflepuff, ravens are probably the least of your concerns right now," Malfoy said, "There's worse things." 

"Oh, really?" Aria asked, as she placed a hand on Malfoy's arm. 

He chose to ignore it, even though the mere action caused his heart to skip a beat for some stupid reason. 

"Really. Like me, for one thing," he said, as he took her hand and placed it back down by her side. 

"You're not so scary, you know," Aria said. "Anyway... are you uh..." Aria trailed off. 

Malfoy's eyes locked with hers again, then. 

"Am I what?" he asked, "Amazing? Always." 

Aria released a short laugh. 

"Heh. No. Are you still working for...you know, the scary Malfoys," she said, "And Lestrange."

Malfoy's eyes widened. Oh. So, there had been a reason behind her asking him to the dance after all. She wanted information. 

"Oh, no. Not anymore. I don't give a shit. I'll probably die, as far as my father's concerned," Malfoy said.

"What? Really?" Aria asked. 

Malfoy scoffed. 

"No. My loyalties don't fade that easily, Hufflepuff," he said. "My family are helping bring the Dark Lord back to his full capacity, as we speak." 

"Hm. Maybe you should find someone new to be loyal to," Aria said, before she gently pat his forearm and walked over to share her new information with Harry.