I went to the library. The Malfoy mansion, for all it's gaudiness and extravagance actually did have something useful in it. The library was huge, filled mostly with biographies of famous and important people, but it was my salvation in this house. The one other place besides my room where I was guaranteed to be left alone.
Reading was my only solace. So far I had read three complete biographies, an entire Quiddich rule book and a thick book of children's tales.
I trailed my fingers along the spines of the books, looking for a certain one that I'd seen the previous Christmas. Memories of that day flooded back to me. Although it was the day that I was branded with the mark and declared an official Death Eater, not everything about that holiday was bad. The day I sat with Draco watching the sunset, reading a book and feeling like things could be better. It was all an illusion, of course, I knew that now.
I found the book that wanted -a poetry book - and turned back to leave the library. To my surprise, Draco was standing a few steps away from me, staring at the ground. I stopped walking. Was he going to talk? Apologize? Or was he just here to call me for dinner? I didn't know what to hope for.
"Hey," he greeted.
This casualness took me back. Did he just say 'hey'? I had no idea that that word still existed in Draco's vocabulary to me.
"Hi," I replied, my heart beating faster than usual.
We stood, a couple of feet apart, neither of us really looking at the other.
Draco seemed to have improved since he'd been home. It made sense to me. He was in his home, with his mother -now with both parents - and he had his aunt to assure his protection. He had stopped looking unhealthily thin and sick, and to an extent he looked... good.
I, on the other hand, had been avoiding mirrors as much as I could. I didn't want to imagine what I looked like. In whichever way this house and it's occupants was a source of comfort to Draco, it was a source of pain to me.
Draco finally stopped tracing the carpets patterns with his eyes and looked up at me. For a long moment, we simply stared at each other, waiting for the other to speak.
Then he broke the tension by cracking a smile and saying, "I miss your green hair."
And I laughed.
The sound was so foreign in Malfoy Mansion that it seemed to echo a hundred times around the library.
He walked over to me, and slowly, so I could pull away if I wanted to, he put his arms around me.
I didn't pull away.
Instead, I leaned in and relaxed. His arms felt welcoming, like coming home after a long day. I tried to gather my thoughts. Finally, I managed to speak.
"You are a complete pisspot Draco Malfoy." I managed to maneuvered a punch to his midriff while he was hugging me.
His laugh sounded halfway between a laugh and cry.
"I know," he said.
I pulled away and smiled, still holding his arms. "What brought this along?" I asked.
"I'm not sure," he admitted. "Maybe because my father is back."
"That's not actually good news," I warned.
He looked confused. "Why not?"
I sighed impatiently, and for a second I reminded myself freakishly of Hermione Granger.
"Well, obviously now that your father is out of Azkaban the others are too. This means a full house of death eaters, and that means a meeting with... You-Know-Who."
Draco's mouth made a small 'oh'.
"Right. You know what that means for us, don't you?"
He nodded grimly. "I do."
Draco let out a big breath. "How long do you think he'll give us?" he asked.
"I don't know," I answered. "A day? Maybe more. This is definitely happening soon though."
We both looked away, unsure of what to say to each other.
"Well," Draco said, attempting a smile, "let's try to enjoy today."
It was so easy to fall back into our routine that it surprised me. Draco had been cruel on occasions before, he had betrayed me, yes. But we had also had some great memories. I had cared for him a lot, over the past few months. It was easy to be that girl again.
We took to sitting in his room this time. There were always people roaming the garden, and it wasn't safe for us to be seen so close.
Draco's room looked the same way it always had.
It looked more lived in now than it did last Christmas. There were clothes scattered along the bed and floor, and a few dishes that proved he'd been having meals in his room too lately.
I could relate.
When we both agreed that his room was too messy for us to catch up in, we moved over to my room.
The peach room looked almost exactly the same as it did when I arrive her after Dumbledore's death. I'd stuffed the bag with my paltry possessions under the large canopied bed, and my robes were stuffed in a drawer. My meals had been given and taken away under the sharp eye of Narcissa and her house elf, and I'd allowed them to do that, so my room looked mostly uninhabited. The exception, of course, was the large book with the silver seal that held Tom Riddle's diary. The bitter teenager's memories weren't healthy for me to dwell on, nor were the cruel spells he'd invented, so I'd taken to reading the included notes from Salazar Slytherin that was in the beginning of the book. The notes weren't much, frankly. It consisted of histories of the founders, and a few insights into Slytherin's life, and although it was interesting to see life as he saw it, so many years ago, I did know most of it already.
I tossed one of the large pillows over the book as Draco entered behind me. I didn't need questions about my choice of reading.
I sat cross-legged in the middle of the bed, and Draco sat across me on the floor, his back to the wall and knees drawn up to his chest.
"What do you want I do?" I asked.
He laughed without humor. "Anything that doesn't include something we're dreading," he replied.
I racked my brains to think of something innocent that we could do, that didn't include waiting for death-threats, guilt, or speaking about You-Know-Who.
I finally came across something that I remembered playing years ago, under the big purple tree in Zayn's yard. The two of us were wincing and laughing as we asked questions about each other that we mostly knew the answers to. We knew each other too well for that game to be fun, but with Draco it would be different. I still felt like I didn't know him.
"We can play 20 questions."
"I've never heard of it," Draco said.
"It's a simple game, but it's fun."
"You can explain the rules then, and we'll play." A small smile edged the corner of Draco's lips.
"Okay." I shifted and stretched out onto my stomach, facing Draco.
"I'll ask you a question, and you have to answer it, then you ask me one, and I have to answer it. It's simple enough."
"What if I don't want I answer it?" he asked.
"Well... You're allowed to have one question where you don't answer."
Draco smiled a little more and shifted. "Okay, but you have to start," he said, smirking slightly.
"No problem.
Let's see... What's your favourite colour?"
Draco's smile was one of the best things I'd seen for a long time.
"Bringing out the hard questions huh Em?"
"I can't help it, I'm brutal." My answering smile must have been just as bright.
"I like blue," Draco answered.
"What kind of blue?" I asked.
Draco help up his finger. "You have to wait your turn."
I pulled a face and waited as he thought of a question to ask me.
"What're you scared of?" he asked.
My face dropped. "You already know that," I said softly.
He sat up and moved closer to the bed.
"That's not what I meant. I meant something silly, like... the dark, or spiders or something."
A smile tugged the corners of my mouth. "The dark? You wish." I stretched and punched his shoulder gently. "Spiders? A little. I guess I'm afraid of noises in the middle of the night. We always had those at home, and it used to frighten me a lot as a kid."
Draco laughed. "I used to be scared of those too. My father would always make me go back to bed," he said.
"Mine too," I admitted.
"My turn. What makes you smile?"
Draco seemed to think for a moment.
"Let's see... My friends, sometimes, teasing Harry Potter used to be amusing." We both laughed. "Old books, music, finding out things that no one knew." He smiled up at me. "You."
I tried to force down the smile that came with that.
"Alright. What bring's you up when you're down?"
"That sounds like a riddle! Let's see... Books, ice cream, tight hugs, tea..." I laughed. "Good news always does. And it would seem, so do you."
"Seems like we bring out good things in each other," he said.
For now, at least.
"What was your most embarrassing moment?" I asked.
"Ah... Can I give you a list? There're too many."
"Anything that stands out?" I asked.
"Well... There were a couple of times that my father made a scene infront of others. A couple of times Potter humiliated me." He smiled bitterly. "Nothing I couldn't come back from."
I smiled sadly at him.
"My turn now," he said. "If you could change one thing in the past, what would it be?"
Oh Draco. I wouldn't have read your newspaper clippings when they fell out of your book.
I hesitated.
Narcissa's sharp knock on the door saved me from answering.
"May I come in?" she asked.
Of course. It is your house.
I sat up straight.
"Come in, mother," Draco replied.
Narcissa's opened the door slowly but didn't enter. face was a mixture of upset and grimness.
"What is it?" I asked immediately.
She gave Draco an apologetic glance before saying, "It's Bella. She arrived early today to announce a meeting."
I felt a sinking in my stomach.
"All the faithful are out of Azkaban, and He doesn't see why we should wait any longer. The meeting will be in three days time."
That was about as I'd expected.
"He will want to see you sooner. Perhaps tomorrow."
Draco and I glanced at each other at the same time.
Narcissa didn't look surprised to see us friendly with each other again. She lingered in the doorway.
"Are the two of you free?" she asked. "I'd like to speak with you, Emma. Alone."