This was written for the persistence is futile challenge by s i l v e r a u r o r a. Who beta'ed that story, thank you for your help!
Here goes DracoGabrielle. Kind of.
Enjoy and review!
Draco wonders why he is coming again. His business trip to Paris is almost over and it's his last chance. Perhaps it's the veela charm. But he'll blame it on his co-workers who showed him her representation play. She's beautiful and it's the fifth time he's seen it. The story is banal, the actors aren't that great and most of the time, he doesn't even understand what they're saying.
Like every day he sends her flowers and chocolates and La Durée macarons - he had heard they're her favourite. They're muggle but he doesn't care.
Like every night he comes she sends back the flowers and the chocolates. He smiles when he sees that this time she kept the macarons. It's progress. And he's a little afraid. He wants to please her. He wants to go on a date with her.
But, Merlin, he's been married for years and it's the first time his mind has diverged from Astoria. He shakes his head: what the heart doesn't know, the heart doesn't suffer from.
It's the sixth time tonight. He watches the play and understands it a little more. Chloé (Gabrielle Delacour) had been left by her husband who ran away with another woman. She stays with her father-in-law. It's all he understands by now, but the situation seems ironic. It's about adultery and it's what he wants.
This time he approaches the actress' lodge and asks her, directly, to have dinner. She politely declines the offer, but gives no reason.
He finds himself in front of the theatre again the next day, for the next showing. And he watches the play. Again. And he bursts out laughing when he understands another part of it. A tragic part, but it makes him laugh: Chloé's father-in-law actually says he's proud that his son left her. He's courageous, he says. And Draco had thought that he was supposed to support his daughter-in-law. He's still laughing.
He goes to the lodge again and she's upset because he laughed. She spotted his white-ish hair, she says. It's a drama, it makes people think about it, not laugh. She declines his dinner offer, again.
He leaves the country and gives up on the whole dating Gabrielle Delacour thing.
Astoria asks him about Paris and he tells her about the théâtre. He says he saw Je l'aimais and she replies she read the book and lends it to him.
He reads it and understands it, finally. And yes it's a drama. Not because of Chloé who's alone with two kids, but because of her father-in-law who, by cowardice, never followed his love, never succumbed to his impulses. And he recognizes himself in it. Not about the lost love – his attraction towards Gabrielle is purely lust. But about the regret, about not following one path because you are trapped by another.
The next day he goes back to Paris and he sees the play again. But this time, when the red curtains are closed, he understands. It's all about courage and surrendering to his desires.
The audience applauds and he goes to present his excuse to Gabrielle. She's in her lodge, surrounded by roses. She explains it's la dernière, the last representation, and that's why there is so many flowers. So it's his last chance to explain himself, he thinks. And so he does.
He tells her he is very sorry and it was a misunderstanding, because clearly he is terrible at French. She laughs and agrees and asks him why he had come to see the play so many times. Gabrielle and the other actors had noticed him in the small théâtre.
He's bold and he says it's her fabulous looks. She's outraged but he adds, not today. Today he came because of the play and because he has read the book at last.
He says the truth: he's afraid to arrive at the end of his life and to be like Pierre, the father-in-law in the play. He doesn't want to feel empty and trapped in a life he hadn't chosen, because lets face it, he didn't choose a lot in his life. He omits any mention of Astoria and, taking his chance, he kisses Gabrielle.
It's an impulse and probably she feels it too and finds herself kissing him back.
She breaks the kiss and excuses herself and leaves him in the lodge. And Draco smiles because it's not him who excused himself when he's the one who should have. And he laughs because he has surrendered to his desire and it felt better than he could have ever imagined.
If you wonder what play is it: Je l'aimais (Someone I loved) based on Anna Gavalda's book.