CHAPTER TEN:
kiss me — sixpence none the richer
( 𝐌𝐀𝐋𝐅𝐎𝐘, 𝟏𝟓 )
Draco Malfoy learnt the meaning of consent when he was eight.
It was during the summer holidays, and his mother had taken him over to the Greengrass estate. Mother had said it would be good for him to socialise with other wizards and witches his age, rather than stay holed up in his room reading the whole day. Then, Draco hadn't understood why. He had kicked and screamed as his mother tried to drag him from the house in his best clothes. "Come on, Draco! You'll like them!" She said, grunting with effort as she finally managed to get him into a car. Although the Malfoy's were pureblood supremacists, they did appreciate the muggle's for creating the 'car'.
His mother was right. He did like them. Astoria Greengrass at least. He didn't particularly care for Daphne Greengrass who turned her nose up and stomped away in a fit when Draco wouldn't play with her. Naturally, like any innocent seven year old, Draco thought he'd fallen in love. Why, she was the perfect girl, wasn't she? She shared her toys and had even given him flowers she had picked from the garden.
In the stories for little wizards and witches his mother read him sometimes ( although, more often than not, it was a house elf ), the prince always kissed the princess at the ending of the story. So of course, Draco had made it his mission to kiss little Astoria Greengrass. To be her prince charming. And he tried to, in the Greengrasses' garden by the fountain. He had leaned in, lips puckered, and tried to plant a kiss on her cheek, but the girl had shrieked and slapped him away.
Confused and hurt, Draco had yelled at her, "What was that, Greengrass?"
Astoria had yelled back, clenching her fists, "My mommy said that I have the right to say no to creepy people like you when I don't feel comfortable!"
He didn't kiss her.
He wanted to, Merlin, more than anything. She was right there, the princess of his fairytale, staring innocently up at him with her wide eyes, face still smeared with flour, some even clinging to the tips of her long lashes. His fairytale ending was there, in front of him.
But he wasn't a prince. Wasn't her prince. He couldn't be.
Draco Malfoy was an utter complicated mess. Everything in his life was just dark and confusing and no one else deserved the burden of this. Of his death-eater father, his terrified mother. Of his failures and incompetence to uphold the Malfoy name. Couldn't even top Granger in his classes, and his blood was as pure as it got. Draco Malfoy was a failure. And he didn't want Meredith Darling caught up in his mess.
They could remain friends. They could be uncomplicated easy friends like he was with Pansy, Blaise. She could remain at the gate, catching a glimpse of who Draco Malfoy was, who she thought Draco Malfoy was, who she wanted Draco Malfoy to be, but he wouldn't let her into the war zone.
"You've got a little something there," He said instead, his voice flat, all emotion dropped, brushing away a particularly thick lump of flour near her eye. She blinked, as if breaking out of a trance, plastering on her sweet sugary smile once again, scrunching her nose. Better for her to fake a smile than to deal with whatever chaos was Draco Malfoy.
Then they were back again; the lonely prince and the smiling princess.
"Merry Christmas, Draco."
It had been two weeks since the incident in the kitchen. They never spoke of it again, even forgetting to ask for cookies from the kitchen. Silently made it back to the Common Room, the snow gently falling outside, going their separate ways to their respective dormitories, with a distant, "Goodnight, Darling." "Goodnight, Malfoy.". Draco had showered and brushed his teeth, slipped into bed and shut his eyes tight. Yet, in the hours that followed, was unable to fall asleep, and soon opted for staring at the canopy of his bed. The hours ticked by but Draco just could not go to sleep. He gave up when dawn started to break over the horizon, heading off to breakfast early. Meredith was back to her usual self again.
"Merry Christmas, Meredith." He greeted her as he entered the room. It was in the wee hours of the morning, dawn having just broken across the sky splashing it with shades of orange and pinks, but she was already in the Common Room, scribbling in her textbook and eating out of a tin of Christmas cookies she had purchased from Hogsmeade the week before.
"I like your sweater." He commented; It was an oversized green wooly thing that reached down to her thighs with a large M down the front in gold. She beamed, looking down at it , "Mrs Weasley made it for me. Harry must have told her I'd be staying at Hogwarts over break. Was on my trunk when I woke up this morning with a funny little owl snuggled into Parkinson's duvet. I think it took a massive dump; I encouraged it." Draco sometimes wondered what it would be like to have a mother like Mrs Weasley. Without the red hair, of course. He would not know how to live with himself.
"And yours isn't festive enough!" Draco looked down at his pullover. It was a black cashmere made from the finest merino wool. What was so wrong with it? But before he could protest, she waved her wand and his sweater turned the exact green she wore. At least it was in Slytherin colours, if she had turned it red, he might have just thrown it away.
He rolled his eyes and sat himself next to her, grabbing a cookie from the tin. She had braved her way into Madam Puddifoot's for them. Draco hadn't dared to step foot into it and instead pretended to be interested in a new set of quills in the window of Scrivenshaft', remembering the extra hundred galleons he had lying around. Then he got an idea and spelled a note to Meredith saying: I'll meet you back here in ten minutes.
"Here." He shoved a package towards her. It was a small box wrapped in silver paper and tied with a green string. Meredith raised an eyebrow, taking the package in her hands. "This is terribly wrapped."
"Oh would you just—"
"I'm kidding, Draco. Calm Down, it's lovely." She laughed at his exasperation, placing the gift down on the table. What was she doing? Did she know she had to open it? Draco wanted to just unwrap the damn thing for her. He was just about to when she wrapped her arms around him instead, engulfing him in a hug, pulling him close.
"Thank you. I'm going to love it." She whispered against his cheek, making the hairs on his neck stand. Draco didn't get many hugs, even when he was a child. They kissed his forehead, his cheek, held his hand, but hugs were a rare occurrence in the Malfoy household. His father said they showed weakness as you were completely exposed and vulnerable. Draco then decided that it was nice to be vulnerable once in a while.
She pulled back, settling herself back down on her cushion again with her legs crossed. The fire crackled softly in the background. Draco sighed internally; he wanted her to pull him close and just hold him again. Meredith neatly unwrapped the gift, tucking the gift-wrapping and ribbon under her textbook. Inside was a black box. "Very fancy wrapping, Malfoy."
"Only the best for you, naturally." He scoffed, rolling his eyes playfully but he was beginning to get impatient, "Why don't you just open it already?"
"Alright, you twit." She pouted, taking the cover of the box. Unfurling the layers of crepe paper inside, her smile grew even wider, white teeth showing, as she held it up to the light. The gift was slightly cliched, but as he was actively avoiding looking into Madam Pudifoot's for fear that he would barf, it caught his eye. It one of the hippie witches who sold trinkets on their footstools. Draco normally would not deem them worthy of his attention but he felt so drawn to it that he knelt down and picked it up.
"I'll give you that for ten galleons." Draco sneered at the woman; No trinket in her little junk shop was worth ten galleons, more likely she had stolen it off some other poor witch or even a muggle. Draco would disinfect it thoroughly if he could bargain a better deal. He opened his mouth to argue but the witch glared at him, realising who it was, and snapped, "Fifteen galleons for the Malfoy."
Draco paid fifteen galleons.
"It's lovely. Thank you, Draco." She admired it, the bracelet sparkling in the morning winter sun. Draco gently grabbed it from her and took her hand in his. He ignored the thumping of his heart against his chest. It was rather plain, a chain of pearls surrounding a blue crystal that reminded him of her eyes; He unclasped the hook and closed it back around her wrist. It was a little smaller than expected, but it fit all the same. She smiled genuinely, shaking her wrist to see it glitter in the light. Draco wanted to buy her a gift everyday if it meant she kept smiling like this.
"Oh, I've got something for you too!" She exclaimed suddenly, rolling over to her satchel placed on the couch. Draco raised his eyebrows in surprise. She had gotten him something? Meredith pulled out a box and handed it over to him, "Well, I didn't technically get it—"
He opened it impatiently before she finished. It was a grey sweater. With a giant D in green on it. How in Merlin's beard she convince Mrs Weasley, whose children he made fun of at every given moment, to—then he realised that it wasn't the same as hers. There were a couple of holes which she had sewn little buttons of different dragons over.
"Well, I didn't know Mrs Weasley was about to send me a sweater that looks almost like that but a little less...holey. I made it over the past two weeks when I couldn't fall asleep. Couldn't figure out how to charm the needles to do it for me so thought I'd learn a fun new muggle skill." She looked almost shy at sharing her creation. Merlin, Draco loved it. He immediately stripped off his Merino wool sweater, throwing on the gift in its place over his undershirt. It was a little scratchy and airy in some places but he adore it. He couldn't say it with words, but he knew that she knew he loved it.
"So does that mean you turned my two hundred galleon sweater green for no reason?"
"It was worth two hundred galleons?" Her eyes widened, mouth opening slightly, "On the bright side, our sweaters now spell either of our names depending on where we sit. That's fun, right?"
He wore his new sweater to the Christmas Feast that night.
Dumbledore had removed the four long tables in favour for a large circular one instead with sixteen seats. It had been laid beautifully with fat roast turkeys;mountains of roast and boiled potatoes; platters of chipolatas; tureens of buttered peas, silver boats of thick, rich gravy and cranberry sauce.
Draco felt strange, sitting side by side with people he had loathed for years. He supposed he could loathe them less for one night.
Draco liked Christmas at Malfoy Manor. They had the most delicious meal served by the House Elves in the beautifully decorated Manor and everyone dressed to their nines. Spending Christmas at Hogwarts was drastically different.
Firstly, he was dressed in a matching handmade sweater ( The greatest domestic skill his mother knew was gardening ) made by a friend. That was strange enough in its own. They ate juicy turkey legs, they set off Wizard Crackers, they laughed about their term before and hoped for the year ahead. Malfoy even spoke to Finnigan ( he was weary at first ) and had a conversation about their favourite Quidditch teams. It was so...nice.
The best part of his night, though? Every time he turned to his left, he would see Meredith Darling, her dark wavy hair glowing under the warm light, eyes sparkling, the bracelet seeming to glow under the candlelight, uncontrollable laughter coming from her lips every moment she wasn't stuffing her face.
His heart was full.
my chapters seem to be increasing in word count every time lol. the chapter started off sort of frustrating, i wanted to cry writing it but i didn't want to make it to cliche and move too fast. overall super wholesome with baby malfoy and astoria, christmas sweaters and seamus finnigan.