Belong (D.M)

Part twentysix

"Calm down, I'm only joking Draco" she said, jumping down from the window sill where she had been sitting, waiting for him.

"What are you doing here Ellie? I broke your heart remember?"

"Yes and I am giving you a chance to mend it" she said, walking up to him as she observed his sickly features "what's going on with you?"

"Nothing" he mumbled, looking away as she reached out to touch his pale skin.

"You look sick Draco"

"I'm fine" he said quickly, swallowing hard.

"Let me help you" she said softly.

"You can't help me Ellie"

"Yes I can" she argued, stroking his cheek "I'm quite skilled when it comes to healing remember"

"I'm not sick Ellie" he mumbled, shaking his head "you can't help me, no one can"

She slowly nodded her head, letting her hand drop to her side. His eyes looked hollow, dull and empty, nothing like how they used to sparkle before.

"Sit with me for a moment?" she asked, nodding her head towards the window sill. He nodded his head and she took his hand, leading him to sit down. His hand felt colder than usual.

He wasn't speaking, so she took it upon herself to bury the hatchet.

"Draco whatever reason you had for not writing, it's alright, let's just move past it"

"Why?" he asked surprised, looking at her with uncertainty in his grey eyes "I didn't write to you for two months, why would you just let that go?"

"Because I miss you, and you look like you need a friend"

"Oh" he mumbled, looking away "yes a friend"

"We used to be friends remember?" she asked with a slight smile.

"I don't remember kissing my other friends though" he mumbled, looking away.

She laughed, combing her fingers through her brown curls. Outside of the window they were sitting by it started to rain, the droplets hitting the glass one by one.

"Then what would you call a friend that you kiss?" she asked, looking at him.

"A girlfriend I suppose" he answered, looking at her with glossy eyes "but I burned that bridge many months ago when I acted like a jerk and didn't send the letters"

"Send the letters?" she asked confused, furrowing her eyebrows at him "what do you mean you didn't send the letters?"

"I wrote you, I just didn't send them" he said, grabbing his black leather book bag with shaking hands "here you go"

He pulled a stack of letters tied together with a thin ribbon out of his bag and handed it to her.

"You just carry these around with you?" she asked, taking the letters from him.

"Yes, I was working up the courage to give them to you" he said, looking at the rain that hit the window "you don't have to read them, but at least now you know that I did write"

She nodded her head, holding the stack of letters in her hands. The rain kept falling, and it looked like all the joy of life had been sucked out of the pale boy's soul. She wished she could heal him.

....

Dear Ellie,
I hope you are well, and I hope your family is happy and healthy. I am home with my mother and aunt, and my father's absence has thoroughly reminded me how important family is in our lives. We may live them separately, but we always seem to come together in the end. I've never before seen my mother so distraught, she cries in her room every night when she thinks I can't hear. My aunt struts along like it's nothing, but she doesn't really have a sense for family or love.
Much has changed very quickly, and my beloved family home isn't what it used to be. I used to feel safe and loved here, now I only feel empty. I wish to come and visit you, to live in your blissful world for just a moment, but I'm afraid that I can't. I'm stuck here.
I want to tell you everything that's going on in my head, but yet again I don't know how to do so. I never seem to have the correct answer. But I want to let you know that I miss you dearly, I feel you everywhere, I look for you everywhere I go in this house. Sometimes I lay awake, looking at the stars and the moon upon the night sky, and I can't help but wonder if you do the same. It calms me down, and it gives me a sense of closeness to you even if we're apart, for I know that you are under the same moon and stars, no matter what. Maybe when the time is right we will find each other again?
Yours sincerly,
Draco Malfoy.

She laid in her bed, unable to sleep as she read the first letter in the stack Draco had given her. Her hands trembled as she put the letter back into it's envelope and put it into the drawer of her nightstand before she rolled around in bed. Thoughts of him and his adoring eyes consumed her, and she found herself slipping into dreams about him.

The next day she felt exhausted as she walked to breakfast with Hermione, Katie and Ginny. The school day passed slowly and she found it hard to concentrate in her classes. In the afternoon she went with Hermione, Seamus, Dean, Neville and Luna down to the Quidditch pitch. It was time for the first match in the yearly inter-house Quidditch cup, and Gryffindor was playing against Slytherin. The red house against the Green one was always an intense game.

Everyone except the Slytherin students cheered as the Gryffindor team walked out on the pitch led by their new captain, the seeker Harry Potter. Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinett had graduated last year, to replace them as chasers were Ginny and a sweet girl named Demelza Robins. Katie Bell was still chaser, and she walked next to Ginny and Demelza with a happy smile. Behind them came the beaters Jimmy Peakes and Ritchie Coote and Ron the keeper.

When the team wearing green and silver entered the Quidditch pitch the Slytherin stand erupted into loud cheers and shouts. She was rather sad to not see Draco as team captain, instead the new chaser Urquhart led the team out. She thought it was quite odd that he had been appointed as captain seeing as he was new and he had not held any position whatsoever on the team before. Behind Urquhart walked the other two chasers Blaise Zabini and a boy she didn't know the name of. Usually it's a boy who's last name is Vaisey who plays alongside Urquhart and Zabini, but the commentators Luna Lovegood and Zacharias Smith reported that he was apparently out with a head injury due to being hit by a bludger. The beaters Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle stomped onto the pitch, and right behind them walked the keeper who's name she didn't know. She looked for Draco, excited to see him in his Quidditch robes once more. But he did not walk out, instead came a boy who looked nothing like Draco.

"Another substitute on the field, the Slytherin seeker Malfoy is out and it seems like Harper is playing in his abscence"

She looked at Hermione and Neville.

"Where is Draco? Why isn't he playing?" she asked.

"I don't know" Hermione shrugged, looking at the pitch "maybe he's ill"

"Yes maybe" she mumbled.

The game began and it was indeed a intense match. Slytherin wasn't interested in fair play, as usually, and their substitute seeker especially lacked good sportsmanship. Harper was a dirty player who deliberately rammed into Harry on multiple occasions, which seemed to make Harry more and more angry.

"Come on Harry, don't lose your cool" Hermione mumbled, biting her fingernails.

Slytherin's substitute Seeker, nearly caught the snitch but in the end Harry managed to get the upper hand, ending the game with a Gryffindor win. Most of the students cheered, especially the ones dressed in red and gold. The Slytherin students however, seemed gloomier than ever.

After the match the Gryffindors celebrated in the common room, and Ron seemed to have gotten quite the love interest. Everyone cheered as Lavender Brown, a girl with blonde curls, pulled Ron over to her and kissed him. Everyone except Hermione that is, she only looked away. And as she saw Hermione and Harry walk off, she decided to slip away from the celebration herself and try and find Draco.

Why wasn't he playing in today's game? That boy breathes Quidditch.