Author's Note: The shortness of this chapter will be made up in the following as I have some juicy stuff coming up soon...mwahaha


"Can I change my ways? Can I confront the past?"

Bad Suns- Learn to Trust


I carried the platter with our dinner out to the living room where Draco sat. The insulation in my house was awful and I had always had too many other things on my mind to put a heating charm on the house. We sat by the fire instead. I set down the tray and gave him a plate and a glass with lemonade in it. "Are you sure that this is good?" Draco asked. I smiled and took a plate of my own before putting a sandwich on both my and his plate.

"It's cheese on toasted bread. How could it be bad?" I replied. Draco still seemed concerned about the food in front of him; muggle food was still foreign to him, even something as simple as this. I took a bite myself and sighed at the familiar flavor, letting Draco know it wouldn't poison or kill him or anything.

He bit down on the sandwich and his eyes widened. "Holy shit. You have to give me the recipe," Draco exclaimed. "What is this called?"

I giggled a bit and said, "It's a grilled cheese sandwich Malfoy. And there's no recipe just put butter in a pan and fry the bread with cheese in the middle in it. Simple really."

"I could live off of these," he said. I just smiled and flushed a bit; if nothing else he liked my simplistic cooking style.

"So," he said in between a big bite of the ever smaller sandwich. "Tell me why you leave that beautiful instrument locked away when you could be playing it."

I put my plate on the floor and looked into the fireplace, hugging my knees to my chest. "I don't know how it happened really," I started. I could tell this would be awhile and Draco would not let it go. "My mother taught me to play as well. Every Sunday afternoon we would sit in the drawing room and just play for hours." I smiled at the memory. "I used to love coming home on vacations, simply to relax on the keys, playing all day. I had to obliviate my parent's memories before the war." I stopped and looked back to Draco. The fire still danced in my eyes, reflecting back into his, tinging them gold. They encouraged me to continue.

"I wasn't able to get to them after the battle. Deatheaters found them in Australia. They were tortured and then murdered because I was their daughter. I bought the piano a year ago, but, honestly, I had no intention of playing it. It hasn't been played since tonight. My mother died never knowing that we had spent countless hours at the piano. They died without a memory of me."

I wiped away a tear that escaped my eye. I wasn't used to telling people about my past. It put me in too vulnerable of a situation.

"Why do you spend so much of your time focused on the past?" Malfoy asked. No one had asked me that before either. Damn him.

"It's how I cope."

"I hate to break it to you sweetheart, but constantly reminding yourself of the pain you've gone through and the things you had no control over is not coping." He sighed. "Look, I know that you lost people and probably blame yourself for what happened, but that shouldn't stop you from enjoying life."

"Do you enjoy life Draco?" I asked.

"When I play piano. When I see my old friends that don't hate me." He laughed. "When I eat these amazing sandwiches. When I forget the past." Draco looked into the fire like I had before. "You're decent to be around," he said. Draco turned his head with a quizzical look on his face; we both seemed to be surprised at that outburst.

"Well, anyway," he said, clearing his throat, "I guess-"

"Draco," I interrupted. "Did you leave those feathers on the bed the first night you stayed?" He shook his head yes slowly, like he was hiding it.

"Would you happen to have them with you?" he asked. I nodded and held up one finger. I thought through what I had done with them, then said, "Accio Feathers!" The two pearly white feathers flew down the staircase and one fell in my lap and one in Draco's as well.

I picked up the one that landed on my legs and handed it to Draco. "Thank you," he said. "I must have left them…" he trailed off.

I was confused at why he said he had left them purposely but then insisted that he forgot them? I decided not to push him; he seemed worn out, maybe not physically but emotionally. Was he always like that? Emotionally drained? Maybe we both were.

We were silent for a moment so I looked to my plate to avoid his wandering eyes. I still had a bite of my sandwich, and, although it was a bit cold, I took the final piece in my mouth. I chewed slowly and then swallowed, the silence deafening.

"I think I'm going to head upstairs," Draco said. I looked up to see him crouched over, about to stand when he said, "You, uh," he started. He brought his hand out and brushed something off of the side of my mouth. "Crumb," he said. Draco stood quickly, cleared his throat, and did a fast walk up the stairs, going two at a time.

I placed my hand on the spot that Draco had touched. We had only touched once before: in the hallway upstairs the first night he stayed. (Of course excluding the time I punched him and the probable few other times when we were mortal enemies. Since when weren't we?) This touch had the same effect. It was a cool touch, even though it was dreadfully hot in this room by the fire. My skin was tingling and felt prickly. My stomach was doing flip flops and I felt like my head just might explode from a simple touch of a man who was barely my friend. Was he my friend? If he was he had a strange way of showing it. Although-he had been being civil and he seemed to have changed his ways. He hadn't talked about blood purity since...well I couldn't remember the last time.

I tried to forget about it. It obviously meant nothing, same as everything else. Damn sweet nothing. I checked my watch and saw that is was still early, only ten and knowing me, I wouldn't be able to sleep with my mind racing as it was. I took our empty plates to the kitchen and washed them slowly, the water scorching my skin, and by the time I was done my hands were red.

I put out the fire on my way through the living room and grabbed my book that I had been reading before off of the table near the couch. Draco and the song he played and the touch and the feelings inside...I was ready to explode. He was infiltrating my mind and taking away the usual sadness that was there and replacing it with...confusion? Was it better this way?


Author's Note: So if you noticed, at the top of this chapter is a quote from a song. Now if you are only reading this chapter you wouldn't see that I added one to the rest of the chapters where a song wasn't initially introduced in the story. I decided to make a playlist of all of the songs in the fic so throughout, as you see quotes, I recommend listening to the songs! On my profile page there is a link to the playlist I created on Soundcloud so you can check it out! As always thank you for the reviews/favorites/and follows they mean so much!