A New Night (Sequel to PMSM) Draco Malfoy Fanfic {Completed}

Chapter Six

Anastasia's POV

It was weird being back. I wanted to go wander about the whole castle, but the truth of the matter was that I was all too comfortable sitting alone in a room.

Castion wrote to me the other day. So did my advisor. My advisor asked why I hadn't yet returned. I found it odd that Castion didn't. He simply said, "be safe. I hope you talk to many old friends. I'd love to know how Dorian is." Why didn't he ask?

I expected my advisor to storm in here the second he realized that I was gone. Perhaps he was finally loosening the leash. Thirteen years and he couldn't have done it any sooner? But I wouldn't complain.

I decided I would fulfill Castion's wishes. It was time to go talk to old friends.

I stepped outside into the hall and spun in circles as I backed down the corridor. Medieval Gothic style with a mix of Norman Romanesque architecture. That bee loved her books and I still remembered all too much about the construction of Hogwarts.

I passed directly by the Potions classroom and reversed my steps when I noticed the teacher was in there.

"Smells the same," I stepped inside.

Draco looked up at me and smiled before turning his head back to his paperwork. "It's my special 'potions class' candle," he joked. "I haven't seen much of you in a few weeks. I thought maybe you'd been dragged home."

"No, I'm just a bit of a hermit. You don't make it easy on them do you?" I looked over the endless piles of homework, essays and quizzes.

"Well, I think my assignments are fun, but I guess I'm a bit biased."

"Definitely. I can see you're busy though. I'll let you return to it," I started out the door.

"I hope you're not just trying to get away from me, because I actually could use a break..."

I thought for a moment and nodded. He set down the papers in his hand and followed me.

"Let's see, where shall we go? Have you seen the garden recently?"

I shook my head.

"Oh you've gotta," he waved me along in the direction of the place where he'd asked me to be his girlfriend.

We pushed open the doors and stepped out. My breath caught in my throat when I saw it. It was the beginning of October, yet the entire garden was covered in glittering white like it was late December. It didn't seem wintery in the dead, brown sense, but in a living, sparkling, bright sort of way. Like the plants were covered with the feeling of Christmas.

"So no Halloween this year?"

Draco laughed. "Not in the garden. The sixth year charms class learned a new spell."

"It's not very gardeny... but it's beautiful."

"I know." He grinned and walked towards a rose. Just as his fingers settled on the petals, the white dissolved and a vividly red flower was left. "They're all still here though. Protected if anything. Hiding underneath."

His gaze seemed so content. Even when Draco was happy as a kid, there was some sort of turmoil inside. Now he just seemed so at peace. Maybe for him my presence would mean that it was time for another war.

"Do you ever wonder, if we could be sorted again, if we would be in the same house?" He questioned, not looking away from the flower yet.

I shrugged.

"I do. All the time. I teach students and I watch their eyes light up when they finally get a new potion right. I don't care about being the best. I realize how beautiful broadening the mind can be. There's no way if the Sorting Hat sat on my head now it would present me with the same verdict. Scorpius is the way he is not because of my memory of you but because of what you left in me," he said it and then furrowed his eyebrows and looked at the ground as if feeling awkward for bringing up the connection between us. "What about you?"

"Me?" How does one answer that when they've lost every piece of themself? "I don't value much of anything."

"Oh come on. As smart as you were, you were never good at knowing your own house. You thought you weren't a Ravenclaw. How crazy is that? But what is it now? Have you ever given Dorian a taste of those painfully wise words I used to hear all the time? Or has that bravery and courage taken over? Or maybe being royalty has taken charge and made you a girl of leadership and cunning. If you say Hufflepuff I might have to go back to grading my papers now though."

The more he spoke the more my head spun. None of it. None of it at all. Nothing matters to me. And it's all your fault, Draco. My skin began to boil. He got to stand here and smile at a flower. That contentedness I saw in him a minute ago did nothing but fuel my fury now. "Did the girl in the infirmary that night seem like a Ravenclaw to you?"

His face faltered. "No. She didn't. But I hope you're not still that girl."

"I'm not. I'm less than that. I'm not much of anything."

"I don't believe that. You've always been so-"

"You don't know me. You left."

"I- I didn't- I'm-"

"I- I- I-" I mocked him. "You what? You feel bad? You're sorry?"

"The princess is angry?" He raised his eyebrows like he was trying to lighten the mood.

"I'm not doing this. Quoting lines from when we were kids and in love. You don't love me. Clearly, you never did. Not like I loved you."

His face contorted in anger and now it was a two-way argument. "Don't talk about how much I loved you. You have no idea."

"You married someone else!"

"So did you!"

"You know I didn't choose that!"

"NEITHER DID I!"

"What?" My arms dropped to my sides.

"I didn't get a choice either. You really think that my parents would EVER have let me marry a muggle-born?! They'd been planning it all along. I was naive to think they weren't. Astoria and I were meant to be married. I didn't have a choice."

"YOU didn't have a choice because your parents suggested that you maybe marry another girl? I WAS THE PRINCESS OF A COUNTRY AND I WAS GONNA RUN AWAY FOR YOU, DRACO. You left me! You made that choice! I stayed with you through everything. I tried to get the dark mark for you. I betrayed my friends. AND YOU CHOSE SOMEONE ELSE. For so long I understood and I loved you anyway until I realized I was absolutely miserable because I always put you first!"

"Then why are you here?!"

"Because I'd spent the last thirteen years locked in a palace and then I was on that platform and I saw you and everything fell into place! Because even if I hate you, you have always been the one! You broke fate to leave me all alone."

"It's not my fault that you gave up when I was gone. Pansy was right about us playing damsel in distress and knight in shining armor, but it was never me who was holding on too tightly to that act."

"You're blaming me?!"

"YES! I'M BLAMING YOU! TAKE SOME FUCKING RESPONSIBILITY, ANASTASIA! YOUR LIFE COULD HAVE GONE ON! YOU HAVE A HUSBAND AND A SON AND AN ENTIRE COUNTRY! I MISSED YOU TOO BUT MY LIFE DIDN'T FALL APART!"

"YOU DIDN'T SCRUB OUR DEAD BABY FROM YOUR LEGS!" Tears were streaming down my face. My vision had narrowed in on him. We both forgot that we were standing in the middle of the wonderfully snowy plants. We brought so much fury to a place that ugliness was never meant to touch.

"IT'S BEEN THIRTEEN YEARS!"

Rage had a tendency to block out compassion.

"I hate you," I mumbled, pretty sure I meant it.

We stared at each other. Our eyes looked deeply, but it hurt so we brought our gazes back to the surface. His stare scanned my body.

And then he grabbed my waist. And our lips crashed together. And we stumbled to my room. And his touch covered every inch of me. And he was pulling at my clothes. And they were on the floor. And I was certain that it meant nothing, but the puzzle pieces fit just like they were supposed to.