Christmas break is right around the corner, but you're mad at Draco...again.
~~~
Days turned into weeks, and before you knew it, Christmas break was right around the corner.
You had just played your final Quidditch game of the season, and you had beaten Hufflepuff by a landslide. You had to admit, seeing the look of utter disgust on Cedric' face had really only made your satisfaction sweeter.
But that wasn't your current focus.
Your immediate problem was that Draco, yet again, had refused to let you even touch him while on the Quidditch pitch.
Really, he'd been refusing to let you interact with him anywhere that wasn't tutoring, his dorm, or your hidey-hole.
And for someone who was supposed to be your boyfriend, it wasn't very boyfriend-y of him.
So, when you met him in his dorm to study for the Potions exam, you decided to ask him about it.
"Hey, Draco?" you asked casually, not looking up from your Potions book as he was standing up to stretch after about an hour of studying.
"Yeah?"
"How come you only act like my boyfriend when we're alone together?"
Draco froze, and you watched him start to fidget with his fingers even as he was turning back to you.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he rushed out, but from the look on his face, even he knew you didn't believe him.
"Cut the shit, Malfoy," you snapped, sitting up. "I try to hold your hand in the Great Hall, you snatch it away. I try to hug you after a Quidditch game, you push me away. I try to lean into you when we're sat on the same couch in the Common Room, you lean the other way. So don't tell me nothing's up, because it is quite clearly much more than nothing."
Draco took a deep breath, his shoulders dropping. "Y/N, you have to let me explain," he started, and you huffed.
"Better start explaining quickly, then," you said, folding your arms. "Because my patience is very quickly running out."
He ran a hand over his hair, refusing to make eye contact with you. This, you realized, had become a norm with the Slytherin boy when he fucked up. He couldn't even look his accuser in the eye.
"I mean really, if you're embarrassed to be seen with me, all you have to do is say so," you said matter-of-factly, picking at your nails absentmindedly.
"I'm not embarrassed of you, y/n, I swear," he said, his eyes panicked.
"Then what could possibly be so bad about me that you don't want people knowing we're together? You broke Cedric's nose over me, but now that you've got me; what, are you disappointed or something?"
"Y/N, I swear it isn't you. I—it's my father."
"Your father?" you asked, incredulous. "Why? I'm a Slytherin, and I'm a pure-blood. There's literally nothing about me that would embarrass your father or hurt his reputation in any way."
Draco sighed. "I know that. But if word gets back to him that I'm running around dating when my marks are as bad as they are, there's no way he'll let me come back after break."
You let out a breath you hadn't realized you were holding. You knew Draco had a point, but you also knew his marks had improved a lot over the past month.
Besides, you could handle disapproval from Lucius Malfoy. What was he going to do to an eighteen-year-old Hogwarts student? You'd already dealt with bullying from his son anyway.
"He didn't have a problem with Pansy," you protested, and Draco sighed again.
"My marks weren't shit when I was with Pansy," he responded. "Plus, I was seventeen, nothing was expected to be serious. But now I'm expected to start looking for someone to settle down with. My father will have my head if he has reason to believe I'm focusing on that and not on bringing up my shitty marks."
"But why the jump from 'young love' to 'something serious' so fast?" you asked, still confused. "Like, you're only eighteen now. It's only been a year. And we still have three years of school left as it is."
He shrugged. "My parents were married at nineteen, so I suppose they want me to take after them."
"You don't have to, Draco," you said. "You've got your whole life ahead of you to find that right person."
"But what if you're that right person?" Draco asked, finally making eye contact with you.
Despite your heart jumping directly into your throat, you swallowed thickly and tried to keep your heart rate down. "We'll cross that bridge when we get there, Draco. Right now I want to talk about actually acting like a couple when we aren't behind closed doors."
Draco shook his head. "I can't talk about that. I've told you how it has to be right now, and you'll have to take it or leave it."
You scoffed, standing up from his bed. "That's it? Ten seconds ago you were all 'what if you're that right person?' But now, if I'm not willing to stay your dirty little secret, you'll get rid of me? Just like that?"
"Don't get like this, y/n," Draco groaned, and you glared at him.
"Don't get like what? Don't get upset? Don't get upset that my boyfriend won't even look at me if we aren't alone in a secluded room? Or don't get an attitude when I'm told how much you like me one minute and tossed aside like a used tissue the next?"
"Stop...fucking getting mad at me," Draco gritted out, clenching his hands into fists. "I'm trying my goddamn best here, and I'm not just doing this to protect me. You have no fucking clue what my father could do to you."
"I'm not scared of an older, taller Draco Malfoy," you spat, folding your arms. "I've already dealt with you trying every fucking trick in the book. And really, if someone of your father's status and position does something to try to take out a fucking eighteen-year-old Hogwarts student, all that's going to do is make him look dumb."
Draco sighed heavily. "Y/N, you haven't met my father, you don't know what he's capable of. And he hardly cares about looking dumb. He cares about making sure people know who's in charge, regardless of what he has to do to make that happen."
You rolled your eyes, still not fully believing him. You didn't even care about Lucius. You just wanted Draco to act like he cared about you.
"All I'm saying, Draco, is that I want to stop being hidden. And if you can't handle that, then maybe I'm not that 'right person' for you after all."
Draco's face dropped, but you were already turned around, packing your things up to leave his room.
"Y/N, don't leave, don't leave like this," he said, and you turned back to look into his stony gray eyes.
"This isn't what I want either, Malfoy," you said quietly, blinking back the tears you could feel coming on. "But if this is your choice, then so be it."
And without another word, you walked out.
~~~
You spent the rest of the day in the Library, trying to focus on studying but having pretty shit luck in that department. Your mind kept wandering back to Draco, as it always did lately.
You didn't know what to make of it, the situation you'd left in his room just hours before. Had you broken up with him? Were you simply ending an argument with an ultimatum? What was he doing right now? Was he going to just go back to being a royal prick all the time?
You shook your head as the clock struck nine, packing your things away and heading back to your own dorm. You had two final exams the very next day, and you knew you would fail both of them without a good night's sleep to clear your head.
"Fucking Christ, Juniper, you would not believe the day I've had," you groaned as you entered the room. You slung your bookbag onto the floor, rubbing your temples as you turned towards your bed.
You jumped at the sight of the figure on your bed. Not Juniper. It was Draco.
"Really? Because I can wager a guess," the Slytherin boy said, his face blank and eyes void of any readable emotion.
"I was hoping to avoid any further conversations with you until after exams," you said quietly.
"Right, because once my father refuses to let me come back after break, you'd just never have to deal with me again, then?"
"No, that isn't what I meant, and you know it," you bit back. "What do you want?"
"I came to see my girlfriend and settle the argument I didn't have a chance to finish earlier," Draco quipped, reaching out for your arm. You backed up, out of his grip.
"I said all I had to say, Malfoy," you said indignantly. "I've been in too many relationships where I got treated like shit. And I refuse to be in one where I'm only treated well in private. That isn't fair to me."
"So what, then, we're broken up?" he asked, shoving his hands in his pockets.
"I don't want to be," you said firmly, folding your arms. "But I also don't want to be kept a secret."
"Well, if you want to stay with me, you have to deal with that," he responded. "At least until after Christmas break. My father can look at my improved marks and he'll say they're acceptable, which will be the best praise I can expect from him. And then when I get back after break, everything will be fine. I'll kiss you in front of everyone in the Great Hall or something. Whatever you want."
You felt your whole body light up at his promise. "You mean that?"
He nodded. "If my father says my marks are good enough, he won't care if I'm dating someone."
You smiled despite yourself. You looked back up at Draco, who looked hopeful about your reaction.
"You can't keep treating me like shit out in public, though," you said, forcing yourself to keep eye contact with the boy. "At least act like you tolerate me."
"Done," Draco said quickly. "Now just fucking let me kiss you."
You giggled, letting him grab you when he went to do so this time.
His kiss was like all the others: desperate to get to as much of you as possible. His hands roamed every clothed part of your body, and you could tell by their refusal to stay in one place for long that Draco didn't like the fact that your body was still clothed.
You broke away after a moment, and Draco kept up his onslaught, peppering kisses down your neck that caused your breath to hitch in your throat.
"D-Draco, we can't, Juniper could come back any moment," you whispered, but the bite he gave your neck in response told you he didn't really care.
The door clicked just then, though, and Draco tore himself off of you, trying to appear like he hadn't just been trying to put his hands up your shirt again.
Juniper poked her head inside, raising an eyebrow at the sight of you and Draco in your room together.
"I-I'll be going now," he said quickly, running a hand over his hair. "Thanks for letting me borrow your notes, Everglade, I'll—I'll see you tomorrow."
He left in a whirl of Slytherin robes and peppermint scent—leaving you with dark, swollen lips and what felt like a bite mark forming on your neck.
"Why do I feel like he wasn't in here to borrow notes?" Juniper asked, throwing you a knowing smirk.
"Fuck off, Wildfoot," you said, rolling your eyes in response. "I don't ask you about your 'adventures' with Arlie."
"Only because the whole castle can hear them already," she said in a singsong voice, winking at you as you groaned.
"Maybe someday I'll find out what's up with you and that Malfoy kid," she said with a very sarcastic, very exaggerated sigh as she crawled into bed a few moments later. "But until then, I guess it's all a mystery."
And even though she didn't say anything else about it that night, you knew right then and there that your secret wasn't as much of a secret as you or Draco thought it was.
~~~
A/N: Hi again! It's Autumn, and I know I only write a few of these last-part messages but, I hope and I know that you guys will like the next chapter. Because it has a lot of *wink emoji*vibes. But I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! <3