Song of the chapter: Claire De Lune- Claude Debussy
"Please?" Draco whined.
"You really think we're ready for something like that?" I asked skeptically.
"I think you can handle anything Darling." He smirked and I melted.
He had his legs open and I was sitting in between them on the ground of the library, book in hand but forgotten.
"But would your parents be fine with it? You already missed the first train because of me and I don't want to upset them more by showing up uninvited."
"But don't you see Angel? I wrote to them and told them why I had missed the first train home and they invited you to come meet them!"
I took a deep breath and turned my face up towards his.
"In all honesty your parents scare the hell out of me. I want them to like me. It's just really short notice!" I said breathlessly.
"They'll love you."
He kissed my forehead as if that would sway me (it might have) and looped our fingers together as if that would make my heart flutter (he succeeded in this too).
I gasped for air as if I hadn't been breathing normally for hours and almost laughed at myself.
"Fine," I muttered.
"Great! Come on, get up. We're going to pack your bags."
He wrapped his arms under mine and lifted me to my feet. Before he could walk away I grabbed his wrist, pulled him to me and kissed him breathless.
"What's that for?" he asked with a smile.
"You do realize how much you mean to me, correct?"
"Of course I realize. You're coming to meet my parents for god's sakes! That's pretty bloody terrifying."
He laughed and the knot in my stomach eased.
"I've been meaning to ask you something actually," he said. Our hands were locked together by our sides as we walked back to the common room.
"Go ahead then," I smiled.
"Would you like anything specific for Christmas?"
I stopped in my tracks and he continued before being yanked backwards by our connecting arms.
"Draco Lucius Malfoy," I began.
"Angel Claire Grey," Draco replied.
"You aren't under the impression that you have to get me a Christmas gift are you?"
"Well- see I've already gotten you one but I figured I should check and make sure I also got you something I knew you'd like."
He blushed profusely and moved his hand to the back of his neck. I thought immediately of the gift hidden in my school trunk I'd gotten for him.
"Draco!" I exclaimed.
"What!" he said back, eyes wide.
"When did you even have time to get me something?"
"Never mind all that. Will you just answer the question?"
"I'm sure I will love whatever you got me Draco. Don't worry."
I smiled and he seemed content with my answer.
We walked the rest of the way back to the common room while I told Draco about football. A muggle sport I'd loved before coming to Hogwarts.
"So the ball is black and white?" he asked, astonished.
"It's not really that interesting. I mean the Quidditch balls can fly and have minds of their own! That's impressive!" I replied.
He shrugged his shoulders and pushed open the door to my dorm room.
Almost immediately he flung himself dramatically onto my bed. I giggled and jumped up after him. It had been so long since we'd lain this close to each other somewhere other than on a floor. I could feel what seemed like electricity between us.
"Angel," Draco murmured into my hair.
"I thought we came up here to pack," I muttered back, not really wanting to move.
"We have a few hours before the train arrives."
And then his lips were on mine, one hand in my hair and the other tracing my spine. I shivered and he paused, taking his time now and pressing his lips to every spot on my face and neck.
"You react to me so- differently, than most girls do Angel," he whispered.
"Who says I react at all?" I laughed softly.
He chuckled and spoke again.
"There is a place, right under the edge of your jawline, where I kiss you." He put his pointer and index finger to my jaw. "I know that feeling lingers on your skin long after my lips have left. Then there is a place, right where your back dips inwards in two small dimples," his fingers moved again, fluttering under my shirt and touching the small of my back, "Where my fingertips rest. And I know you remember that feeling even after my hands aren't on you anymore. You can't lie to me Angel. "
I gasped and sat up onto my knees. He followed suit, pushing himself onto his elbows.
"I'd stay here all day with you if I could. But the train comes soon and we have to pack if we want to be on it."
I kissed him once more and got to my feet. He sighed but did the same and began to help me fold the clothes that were strewn all over.
When he opened my trunk he paused. I turned to see what had caused the stop and realized I hadn't taken the present out or at least hidden it from him.
"What's this Angel?" he smiled into his words and picked up the wrapped box.
"I may have gotten you a present as well."
I smirked and he lifted me up by my waist. It was the smallest touches that left me wishing he'd stay. The faintest smiles that kept pulling me deeper into his ravines.
"And before you ask," I spoke against his cheek. "No you may not open it yet. It'll have to wait for Christmas Day."
He fake pouted but set it back in the trunk and kissed me again.
.........
By the time the Hogwarts Express rolled into the station Draco and I had packed and even gotten a few bottles of butterbeer for the journey. We climbed aboard the scarlet train and took our seats in a compartment near the back.
"Are you nervous?" he whispered to me.
"Terrified," I said back. He took me into his arms then with the lightest of touches and the gentlest of movements. In that moment I knew he truly cared how I felt about the whole, meeting-the-parents ordeal.
"Me too," he muttered.
An hour into the journey he picked up Pride and Prejudice from the spot next to him.
"Did you like it very much Draco?" I asked curiously.
"I found Mr. Darcy to be quite relatable but also regarded him with the utmost annoyance. Frankly I don't know why you like me!" he said seriously, although I heard the smile in his words.
"Many reasons. Will you read to me?"
He cleared his throat ceremoniously and opened to the first page. I closed my eyes and let his velveteen voice wash over me, the peace utterly unbroken.
I suppose I hadn't been sleeping well because within minutes I was asleep with my head in his lap. Only a week before, he'd told me of his hopes for escaping the tightly knit group of Voldemort's followers and I'd forgiven him. There was no regret, no second guessing the choice I'd made when I'd let him back in. Although I wondered how much this was going to hurt.
Maybe not at all. Maybe all too much. It did not seem as if there was any in-between.
In my sleep I heard his voice, felt his skin against mine and wished it could always be like this. The warm confines of a train car. His hands wrapped in mine. His voice reading for Mr. Darcy and Miss. Bennett whom I'd come to like in all her strong manners.
I'd come to like Draco in all of his too.
There was something about the way he smiled at me, like everyone else in the world deserved a lesser smile. Maybe he couldn't give me the world, maybe he could barely even give me a home, but he could give me infinite moments just like this one. Really that's all I could ask for.
Two hours later I woke up, still in his lap. His eyes were shutting and I smiled. I sat up and moved him, as gently as I could until he was laying on my chest. I'd let him sleep until we got into the station. He seemed more like a boy in his sleep, his mouth half open, his eyes lightly shut.
The scenery that passed outside the windows felt just as much like home as Hogwarts did. I wondered if Malfoy Manor felt like home to Draco or if he only saw the bad moments when he looked at the hallways and grand rooms. I hoped it was the former, for his sake and mine.
There were sudden moments in my life where I could've sworn the air released its pressure and the sky darkened but in a most beautiful way, like drapes over a cracked window, hiding the disaster behind them. I wasn't sure what happened in the sky, if anything at all. But I'd like to believe in wizard school up there. Places among the stars where you could sit and finally find a burning light that matched your own. In these moments my mind wandered to every place it could possibly go. Even places it hadn't yet been.
In this moment it wandered to the childhood of a certain platinum-blond boy with his head in my lap. What horrors had he seen that I would never understand? That I could never be sure of.