You and Draco return to your house after retrieving the elder wand.
~~~
Draco kept looking down at you, his sleepiness wearing off with every passing second. "I'd gotten worried you'd left without me," he admitted, sitting down next to you. "Are you going to tell me why you're holding the Elder Wand or are you going to just sit there and stay mute?" he asked plainly, his voice holding a bit of annoyance in it.
"Draco," you finally breathed, holding out the wand. "I realized why it didn't come to me when I summoned it by calling it Dumbledore's wand." Draco looked at you, confusion clear in his features.
"Because it's really the Elder Wand," he replied. "I thought we'd figured that out."
"No," you pleaded then, not even wanting to look at the wand resting in your open palms any longer. "Don't you remember the actual story? The eldest brother in the story demanded a wand more powerful than any other, and once he received it and crossed the bridge, he went and killed another wizard he'd had a fight with beforehand. Then he went and spent the night in the inn, and Death transformed himself into a wizard so he could kill the brother, and then once the brother was dead, the allegiance of the wand transferred to the wizard who had killed him."
Draco stared just a moment more, before the lightbulb went off behind his eyes. "And you killed Dumbledore," he breathed, beginning to wring his hands together as you nodded grimly.
"The wand did belong to Dumbledore, until I killed him," you said, your voice barely above a whisper. "Even if I didn't kill him with the intention of taking ownership of his wand, I'm now technically the rightful owner of it."
"But surely if you give it to Voldemort, it will realize you're giving it up, won't it?" Draco asked, and you shrugged. "I don't know."
Draco's eyes widened. "If it doesn't work—" his voice cut off, his breath catching.
You nodded again, not wanting to force Draco to finish the sentence. "He'll have to kill me."
~~~
The two of you had walked in silence for the better part of four hours, but Draco also had refused to let go of your hand. You knew you were nearing the end of the path, things were beginning to look familiar. You didn't know where Draco was going to Apparate the two of you, and you weren't sure if you wanted to help him deliver the wand to Voldemort or not.
But you knew you had to, since you were the rightful owner of it at that moment. You couldn't very well give it up without being present to give it up.
Draco paused as you reached the spot you finally realized was the end of your walking. He looked back down at you, his eyes searching every inch of your skin, like he was worried he'd never see you again.
"I'm not taking you back to the Manor today," he said then, the first words he'd spoken in hours. You felt relief at the statement, but not a lot. "Won't Voldemort know we're delaying on purpose?" you asked, and Draco shook his head. "I don't know," he admitted, "but we need rest. And—" he cut himself off again, setting his mouth in a hard line that you had come to realize meant he wouldn't finish his sentence.
But you knew what the unspoken words meant. He was terrified that Voldemort was going to kill you in order to take the wand from you.
So instead of arguing, you nodded simply. "Let's go back to my house then," you said gently. "My parents will be mad that we just disappeared, but if we just tell them you had a family emergency of some sort, they'll get over it."
Draco nodded, remaining silent still. He slid an arm around you, holding you tightly to himself, and drew out his wand. He never said a word, but you had shut your eyes already—and the familiar squeezing feeling came and went more quickly than it normally did.
You found yourselves back in front of your house. You were slightly unpleasantly surprised to see your parents both sitting on the front porch, their chairs rocking back and forth in their normal unison.
Your mother spotted you first, shooting up out of her chair to run out to you. "Y/N Everglade!" she shouted, skidding to a stop in front of you and Draco. "How dare you just run off in the middle of the night!?" she demanded. "With nothing but a note, no less!"
You glanced behind her to see your father standing up on the porch as well, his arms crossed as he evidently awaited your answer alongside your mother.
"The note explained everything, Mother," you responded, trying to keep your voice steady. "Draco simply had a—family emergency and he wanted me to accompany him to the Malfoy Manor. I thought that if I explained everything to you once we returned that it wouldn't be as big a deal."
Your mother sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of her nose. "You can't just—leave without saying anything, y/n," she said then, her voice still annoyed, but a bit more controlled than she had been just a moment before. "It isn't safe."
You bit back the response you wanted to give, since telling her you were protected regardless would be just as bad as pulling up your sleeve and showing her the Mark. So you nodded, hooking a hand around your arm to shrink into yourself a bit more. "Yes, okay. I'm sorry," you said, ending the argument there.
She sighed once more, turning around and returning to the porch. She and your father disappeared into your house wordlessly, leaving you and Draco still standing outside in the front yard. He turned to you, a question in his eyes you couldn't read.
"What do you think we should do, y/n?" he asked, and you were a bit surprised. Normally he told you what to do, he wasn't asking you to come up with a plan.
"I don't know," you admitted. "My parents think we just got back from the Manor, it will be really odd if we say we're returning. But we can't stay here for very long, because Voldemort is impatient as it is."
"But if you're the owner of the wand, it won't do what it's supposed to do for him," Draco responded, his voice shaky. "He isn't going to just—let you kill Harry Potter for him."
You nodded. "I know that. We're just going to have to hope for the best at this point, Draco."
He set his lips in a tight line, evidently keeping himself from saying anything else. You turned around and headed back into your house, following your mother and father.
Draco followed behind you, barely even acknowledging anyone else in the house. The two of you traveled straight back into your bedroom, shutting the door behind you.
You hadn't even had the chance to sit down before a knock sounded at your door, your mother opening the door before you could tell her to come in.
"Y/N, might I have a word with you?" she asked, in a tone that let you know in no uncertain terms that she was going to have a conversation with you. So you stood up, ignoring Draco's look of concern, and followed your mother into her own bedroom just down the hall.
"How long is...Draco going to stay here?" she asked, her voice slightly pained. "I know he's your boyfriend and everything, but this seems a bit excessive, the two of you simply travelling back and forth between your house and his to stay with each other. I feel as though you could go a week without seeing him."
She was right, whether or not she knew it. Before he'd shown up at your house just a week before, you hadn't even spoken to him in the better part of a month. So you nodded. "I know. We're just working on a project, that's all."
"A project?" your mother asked, arching an eyebrow. "Forgive me, y/n, but I do believe it's the middle of June. You can't possibly be working on a project when you aren't even in school."
You hummed in acknowledgement. "I know," you said quickly. "This is more of a personal project."
Your mother narrowed her eyes. "What kind of personal project?"
You shrugged, though your mind was racing for possible lies, anything to get out of the conversation you were currently having. "Nothing big," you lied, trying your best to stall for time. "It's just...something we're trying to keep a surprise for right now."
Your mother sighed, and you knew she hadn't bought a word of what you had just said. But when she didn't press the issue further, you allowed your shoulders to sag in relief.
"Well, hurry up and get it finished then," she requested impatiently. "Your father and I would like to spend some time with just you here before you have to return to school all over again."
You nodded quickly. "Understood," you said then, bowing out of your mother's room before she had the chance to ask you anything else.
You hurried back into your own room, sighing heavily as you shut the door behind you, looking over at Draco sitting on your bed. You hated lying to your mother, but you couldn't show her the Dark Mark. Showing her that you had openly allied yourself with someone who wanted people like your brother tortured and killed would get you kicked out of your house in seconds.
Draco noticed your tense state, standing up to walk over to you. His hands found their way to your neck, rubbing the knots out of the base of your neck and your shoulders.
"Don't stress, it'll be fine," he said quietly, but you couldn't help but wonder if he was talking to you or to himself.
~~~
The next few days were fairly quiet. You and Draco sort of just hung around your house, and you didn't interact with the rest of your family outside of dinnertime. You hated that you felt like you'd basically ruined your family dynamic, but it wasn't like you could just make Draco stay in your room all day while you spent time with the rest of your family members.
So when the day arrived for the two of you to finally travel back to the Malfoy Manor, you couldn't very well say you weren't relieved to be leaving.
"And you'll be back alone, correct?" your mother questioned quietly as you prepared yourself to leave, your suitcase with most of your things inside it held tightly in your hand. You gave her a look that begged her to keep quiet, though you knew Draco had heard the question.
"Yes, Mother, I'll be back alone," you hissed, though your stomach clenched even as you spoke the sentence to her. You knew there was a chance you wouldn't be coming back at all.
But when your mother hugged you, you felt the annoyance that had built up in you melt away—how could it stay, when this might be the last time she ever saw you?
So you hugged her back, before turning back, gripping your suitcase tighter and linking your arm in Draco's. You spared her just a smile as Draco flicked his wand and Apparated the two of you to his front step.
The Manor looked more formidable than ever—the white house surrounded by black gates, the yard still in pristine condition.
You felt your breath catch in your throat as you faced the giant house in front of you, knowing who lay inside. You hadn't been so fearful of facing him before, but then again, you also knew exactly why you felt this way.
And as you looked up at Draco, whose eyes plainly showed his terror, and felt his hands against your face as he kissed you more feverishly than ever before, you could feel the fear radiating off of him as well.
As the two of you broke apart, you turned back to the gates, setting your head as high as you could as Draco raised his wand to wave the gates open.
And as you crossed the threshold into the house itself, you knew it then and there: this was it.