a rose by any other name

chapter eighteen ❃ best friend

Tomorrow.

I woke up at around 2pm, meaning I had slept for around six hours, I was still very tired and was about to go back to sleep when I remembered that Draco wanted to speak to me. I quickly got up and got changed, Pansy was still asleep, so I quietly snuck out of the room and down into the common room. As I'd expected Draco was already sat on the green leather couch that occupied the middle of the room. "You're late love." He said as he got up, "Let's go to the room of requirement, we don't want to discuss these... things here." I nodded and followed him out into the corridors, we soon came across the room of requirement as we saw the door starting to form on the wall in front of us. We looked around before going in and Draco shut the door behind us. We found a table and chairs in the middle of the room, I think, it was hard to tell, there was just piles and piles of random things stacked to the ceiling it was hard to tell where you were. Neither of us spoke for a bit we were both just looking down at the table until Draco spoke; "Tomorrow, meet me outside the great hall at half eight, we don't want to miss the train, I heard Dumbledore is not happy about us leaving after what happened during the tournament and some crap about how we 'all have to be a team right now' but it's hard to say no when two ministry of magic workers request it." He smirked like he was proud our dad's had managed to manipulate Dumbledore, they must of, everybody knew he never just let students leave term early except for under extreme circumstances, but I just thought Draco was being smug, I said nothing and just nodded my head. "Look Parisa, I know neither of us really want this but what choice do we have? We might as well look for the positives in the situation." I turned my head to look at him now, "Positives? Draco, I'm really struggling to find any good things about what will happen tomorrow." Draco sighed, "Parisa you know what happened yesterday, yes Potter is absolutely pathetic, did you see him crying it was hilarious?" I rolled me eyes, "But Diggory is saying he's telling the truth and 'perfect' little Diggory wouldn't lie about anything, he's too 'good'." Draco said this with disgust. He was right, Cedric wouldn't lie for Harry what purpose would there be? He would never lie about being tortured. It was true, he was back, Voldemort was back and soon me and my blonde-haired friend were going to belong to him. "Yeah but Draco, I'm still not seeing any positives here." He rolled his eyes this time, "Yeah well if you'd let me finish, as Voldemort really is back, which by the way has to be what's so special about your birthday. It means he's going to be after Potter, especially if him and Diggory escaped him yesterday, he must be fuming. Parisa, as much as we don't want to be, were on the right side, yes we're just kids but at least we're protected, he surely wouldn't hurt one of his followers." I wasn't sure about that, he was willing to use The Cruciatus Curse without a second guess, I didn't think he had many morals at all to be honest. I didn't say anything again.

"Parisa for god sake!" Draco raised his voice at me now, making me flinch away from him. "I-I'm sorry, It's just so frustrating. I saw you crying at Diggory yesterday! You can't do this! Do you know what your parents would do to you? Do you know what he would do to you? Potter wasn't the only one who escaped Voldemort last night and I don't think he'll forget that any time soon. Parisa, believe it or not I care about you. And you better not tell a bloody soul about this or so help me Merlin. I actually care about you and I don't want you to get killed or hurt, but I can't protect you if you're just being stupid. I see the way you look at him, the glances you two share, how you sneak out most nights. Parisa, you have to stop before it's too late." Draco was stood up now pacing around his side of the table. I sat back in the chair, I was annoyed, and I hated having to hide everything, even to my best bloody friend, just because of who Cedric was, just because of his bloody name 'Diggory'. "You think it's that easy? You think I can just stop? Draco I-I love him." Draco stopped pacing and looked at me, "What? You're not serious Parisa, seriously?" He looked horrified. "Yes! And I'm sick of bloody pretending I don't! Cedric is the only escape I have from all of this, and soon enough he's going to hate me, the one truly pure person in my life and he's not going to want me. Okay, I know! I know I can't love him because if he knew he would probably get me sent to Azkaban, but I can't help it." I had started crying now, I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders, but I also felt so nervous, Draco could so do me in right now, he could probably get me killed with this information. I knew he was right about the fact that Voldemort was going to want Cedric as well as Potter now. Draco looked guilty and walked over to me crouching down in front of me. "I know Parisa, I do but there's nothing you can do, there's nothing either of us can do. I haven't told Pansy, I-I don't know how she'll react." What was he even talking about? We both knew she'd understand. "What do you mean Draco? Pansy will probably love you more for it." He looked down "No, we were speaking last night, and I was going to tell her, but she started telling me how everything that happened scared her, I don't want her to be scared of m-me." This made me feel bad for Draco, he was just a boy, and I was just a girl, I kept forgetting that he was going through this too. I did something then, that I'd never done before, and that I never imagined myself doing, I hugged Draco. He wrapped his arms around me too and we just kind of sat there, holding each other, it was weirdly comforting. Knowing there was actually someone going through what I was, he pulled away from me and we both burst out laughing. "Right that was bloody weird." Draco said still laughing, "Yeah, agree to never do that again?" I giggled. "Yeah agreed, look at us becoming all soft." We both smirked and then Draco sighed "I suppose we better get back. I need to make the most of my time with Pansy." He looked up at me, "If I look the other way when you don't come back to the common room tonight will you promise me tonight will be the end of whatever you and Diggory have?" I knew he was right; it was what I'd already planned but telling someone else made it official. "Yes." Was all I said before Draco nodded and we left the room of requirement. It was 5pm now, dinner would be soon now which meant I could finally see Cedric again. Why was I dreading it? I wasn't ready to say goodbye.

authors note: I know Cedric wasn't in this one, but I really just wanted to show how Draco is changing too, and how close Parisa and Draco actually are, although obviously they will never be more than friends, I hope that was clear haha. I'm about the write the next chapter and it's probably going to make me cry haha. The next chapter will be just Parisa and Cedric mostly, I think, I always have a plan when I write but most of the time I change things. Thank you all so much for reading and please vote!!!