The end-of-year ball arrives, slithering in around the month of May and the corridors are flurrying with conversation about who's taking who, who's wearing what, etc.
Standing at the top of the stairs looking down, the Great Hall is immersed with vivid decorations, elaborate, scintillating chandeliers hanging from the the enchanted ceiling, this time charmed to be a starry sky.
She's wearing a deep scarlet dress, ornate with lace. He's at the bottom of the steps, wearing a white buttoned up shirt and black dress pants, watching as she moves down them. His eyes are fanning her up and down, gaze fixated on first her face and then her dress. It sends rich flames to the pit of her stomach as she reaches him.
His hand glides around her waist, pulling her briefly to the corner of the hall, where no one can see them. With a sharp intake of breath, his other hand slides under her dress to her inner thigh, rings plunging into her skin.
Pressing his lips close to her ear, he whispers, "Just checking for a knife."
Her lips curl upwards into a smirk. "It could be anywhere in my dress."
"Yeah?" He says, pressing his lips to the side of her throat. "No worries, I can check later."
Rolling her eyes and chortling, she pulls at his hand, leading them back towards the dance floor. Sweet, melodic notes of piano music stream through their ears, trickling through the other sounds of laughter and chatter.
He pulls her close, wrapping his cold hands around her waist and she can feel the chill of his rings labour through her skin.
She's confined by his hold, although it felt anything but restricted. All captured, a prisoner of his eyes, yes those eyes. She could almost trace the azure tinges permeating among the silver hues.
Grey. Like that silver sphere whirring in the night sky.
She's reminded of the last time they danced like this, among all the other students. Her averted gaze and fingertips humming with nervousness. She could hardly look him in the eye then, afraid of the grey in his eyes. And now, she's never been more locked upon his gaze, searching for the cerulean color, a comfort to her soul.
"Look at me."
"I'd rather not."
"It pains my eyes to do so too, Hawkings. But when you dance with someone, you look them in the eyes. Or do you not know how to dance?"
She's not even aware of her beam at the recollection as she reminisces, until he gives her a smirk, as though he's aware of what she's thinking about.
They pass by other students and she becomes uncomfortably conscious that people are watching them, their eyes occasionally flitting from their partner to her and Draco.
More whispers. She desperately focuses on the piano music, on him, but her mind traitorously returns to those hushed words and the unspoken words that halt on the faces of many.
"The death eater's son and that Slytherin failure?"
Marcus Flint. His partner, wearing a dark purple gown, lets out a snicker, causing heads to turn and requesting Flint to repeat his taunt.
She can tell that Draco had heard him, can tell by the way his fingers dig into the silk material of her dress, the way his eyes darken slightly, and his eyebrows furrow together.
She feels an unsettling warmth edge its way across her face and the faces around her begin to blur. Was it just her or had the piano music begun to adopt a more ominous tone? One that causes her heart to thud and her breath to jerk away from her throat.
She tightens her hold on his shoulders and Draco's eyes move away from Marcus Flint and return to her. He raises one eyebrow in a questioning matter.
She does not want to speak, not with everyone still lingering around them with their cemented stares. So, instead she looks away towards the door of the Great Hall and his eyes follow her gaze.
He gives a swift nod and releases her waist, leading her off the dance floor. They hurry out of the Great Hall into the coolness of the corridors.
So blissfully empty. And cold. She relishes in the cold.
"Was it Flint?"
She takes a deep inhale and gives a half-hearted shrug. "I just - I wanted to get away. I mean, everyone was watching."
His foot twitches forward, almost as though he wants to return back in the Great Hall, seek out Marcus Flint and deal with him.
She reaches out for the sleeve of his white button-up. "No, don't. It's fine - I'm okay. It's honestly nothing."
His hand reaches instinctively towards her cheek, wrapping unspoken words within the caress. Her breathing slows at his touch and she leans against the wall, closing her eyes.
"You want to go to the Astronomy Tower?" He says. "It'll be empty."
"Yeah, I'd like that." She smiles a little. "The sky has been really clear lately. Maybe we could just stargaze - Draco? What is it?"
His hand had fallen limp to his side, his eyes suddenly widened. His other hand moves towards his tie, tugging it loose as he blinks, almost in disbelief.
"Draco - what is it?" She says, her breathing quickening again.
"I - it's nothing. We should get going," he mutters, grabbing a tight hold of her arm and leading her in the direction of the Astronomy Tower.
She jerks her arm out of his grasp. "No, I'm not letting you do this again, it's obviously not nothing. What is it?"
He lets out of a violent hiss of swear words under his breath as he closes his eyes tightly. "Look, Astra. It might not even mean anything - "
"Draco - "
"The Vanishing Cabinet. In the Room of Requirement. The one I was fixing, you know, the one I told you about?"
"I don't remember you telling me anything about a - "
"Okay, well I'm telling you now," he says, his pale skin flushing up. "It was to let in the - the Death Eaters. Into Hogwarts. There's an identical one in Borgin and Burkes, I've been fixing it all year."
"But you've obviously given up on it, right? After what we talked about." She says, almost threateningly. It's unnerving to see him like this, to see him so nervous and - and frightened.
"Well - I did. But right before, I was having some trouble. There was a kind of - magical glitch, and - "
"Draco," she begins, her heart now brewing with thunder, "you just realized that now?"
"No, I've known about it a couple days but I just now realized what it could mean - "
"Which is?"
He closes his eyes again, pressing his lips together as though closing the gateway to speech, refusing anything to escape.
"You can't just leave it at that - "
He suddenly grasps her wrist, so hard that she gasps, thinking his rings nearly cut through her skin. It's instinctive, almost protective.
She'd heard it before she'd seen it. The soft shuffle of footsteps and then a wisp of a shadow, just towards the end of the corridor.
"Draco - " she chokes out, eyes widening to see as much as she could in the darkness. She's so focused on the hallway that she barely registers the hold on her wrist beginning to loosen.
Six silhouetted figures now stand at the edge of the corridor, their outlines ghostly in the darkness.
Death Eaters.
When she turns to the side, Draco Malfoy is gone.
a/n: only two chapters left, loves!
what did you think of this chapter and what do you think is going to happen?