Mayla had taken us to our childhood home. A large cottage on the Mediterranean sea. I longed to see my aging mother once again.
I stumbled a bit with the landing, but was able to gain my balance, unlike Ron; who fell flat on his face and ended up landing on Griphook.
"Get off of me you fat, ginger oaf," mumbled Griphook. Hermione pulled Ron to his feet. Griphook brushed off his dirty white shirt.
Suddenly, Draco fell to the ground. I kneeled over him. His eyes had rolled back into his head and he looked far paler than usual. His arm was drenched in blood. Oh my god, I thought to myself, he's lost far too much blood.
I cursed under my breath. The cuts on his arm were still active, and the apparation had made them far worse.
"Hermione!" cried Mayla. "you must have something in that god forsaken bag of yours to stop blood! get it now! Somebody run up to the house and get bandages, towels, and water. Tell my mother what happened. She's a muggle nurse and will be of help!"
Hermione dug through her bag as Luna and Harry sprinted up the beach to the villa. Ron stood by Hermione, trying to calm her down. She looked to be on the verge of tears. I carefully pulled Draco's torn sleeve away, revealing his pale flesh.
I pressed my ear to his chest. "His heart's still beating, but it sounds irregular," I said. Harry and Luna ran back down the beach followed by none other than Neville, Ginny, and my mother.
"Hermione," said my mother as she knelt over Draco, "give me your blood stopping liquid." Hermione finally pulled her hand out of the bag, grasping a small bottle of yellow liquid. She ran it to my mother who promptly poured the liquid over Draco's arm.
"That only stops it temporarily," said Hermione. "Enough time to wipe away the current blood and wrap his arm."
"That'll work," said my mother. "Clarisse, start to clean the blood , Mayla lead everyone except Clarisse up to the house. It is best to give the boy some space when he does wake up. Keep cleaning the blood, Clarisse. I'm going to go get some disinfectant from the villa."
I continued to dab the towel up and down Draco's arm. "You'll be okay, sweetheart, you'll be okay," I whispered to him. I stroked his head with my other hand. The cuts had not become reactive yet, so I replaced the towel with a new one and continued my job. I could see letters being revealed from under the blood.
My mother made her way back down the beach and kneeled down next to me, placing the disinfectant on the sand. "You're so good with this, darling. That's why I sent your sister back to the house. She looked a bit like she was going to vomit," said my mother. I nodded my head. Mayla had a tough exterior, but on the inside not so much. I wiped away the remainder of the blood. The word Traitor was scrawled across his dark mark.
"He has a dark mark," said my mother," I nodded my head. "He's regaining some color. He'll wake up soon." She picked up the disinfectant from the sand. "Put this on his cuts." I took the small bottle from her and spread it over the letters with my index finger, careful not to reopen the cuts. "I'll go find a fresh shirt for him," said mother.
"Hermione's probably got one in her bag," I said.
"Good, I'll check with her," responded my mother.
I began to wrap the bandages around his cuts. Suddenly, he opened his eyes.
"Goodmorning," I said as I continued to wrap his arm.
"Clarisse?" He said sluggishly. He tried to sit up but I shoved him back down.
"Stay down, I don't want to have you nearly die again," I said. "You've lost a lot of blood, you know. You scared me."
"You've seen the cuts then?" Asked Draco.
"I was the one that wiped away the blood, darling," I said.
"Everybody else?" He asked.
"They saw the blood, but not the letters," I said.
"Keep it that way," said Draco.
"Of course," I said. "Let's go inside, it's getting dark out here." I helped Draco to his feet and wrapped my arm around his waist for support, he put his good arm tightly over my shoulder. I could tell that he was stumbling, but he was trying to hide it so I let him believe that I didn't notice.
I quickly led him through the house to my own attic bedroom. I sat him down on the queen bed. I always loved this room. Not only because it was mine, but because of the view. The room had no walls, just indestructible windows that my father had installed when he was alive. Looking from the outside it looked like a normal wall, like the rest of the house, but on the inside it was transparent. I had a view of the sea, miles of vineyards, and even the Swiss alps on a clear day. I looked over to the field of Azaleas that was now long dead. After my father died, so did the magic of the villa. My kingdom of Azaleas died and I stopped venturing through the field. The house could no longer clean itself, and the pictures stayed still, or the people left in the images all together.
"Where exactly are we?" Asked Draco.
It dawned on me that I had never actually told him where we were.
"Welcome to La Villa di Fontana," I said.
"What?" Said Draco with a laugh.
"Oh darling, I need to teach you some Italian," I winked at him. I sat down on the bed next to him.
"So this is your room then?" Asked Draco.
"It is," I responded.
"I kind of figured. Most teenagers have posters all over their walls, but not you, you're different," said Draco.
"A good different?" I asked.
"An amazing different, actually," said Draco.
I rested my head on his shoulder. I felt his arm wrap around my waist. Draco pulled me closer to him. We slowly began to lean back on the bed until we were both laying down. I rested my head on his chest. I could hear his heart beat, it seemed normal once again. I began to close my eyes, lost in him. I felt him rest his hand on my stomach.
I love him, I thought in that moment. I had had my fair share of boyfriends in the past. I lost my virginity to a Ravenclaw in the room of requirement in my fifth year. We had only been dating for four months. I thought that I loved him, but we broke up the week after. I realized in that moment that I hadn't loved that boy from Ravenclaw, because it felt nothing like this. I loved Draco because we could (and quite possibly would) lay on this bed for the rest of the night. Not saying a word, and not making a move. Not that I wouldn't let a move happen…
Suddenly, the door to the room swung open. I quickly pushed myself off of Draco into a sitting position, he did the same. Mayla stood in the doorway with a big grin on her face.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" She said. She was holding a blue plaid button down and a massive tray of food. I laughed.
"Looks like mom's made an Italian feast!" I said. On the wooden bed tray, there was a bowl of ravioli, a side dish full of parmesan, a giant salad, a filet of salmon, bowl of orecchiette al' Alfredo, a baked potato, a glass of wine, a glass of water, and about fourteen assorted Italian pastries.
"Oh my god," said Draco, "Is that for the entire house?"
"Haha you wish. By the end of this meal you'll have gained ten pounds and or will be vomiting into the wine glass. Trust me, I've done both before. And you two have to finish it, you know. Italian mammas get upset when you don't eat the whole meal. I doubt that you want to upset my mother," Mayla winked at Draco. I felt my cheeks get hot. "Oh don't blush, sweetie, I saw you two on the bed. You were two layers of clothes away from full on sex." Mayla plopped herself down on the bed beside me. She slung her arm over my shoulder.
"So what exactly is the plan?" I asked.
"We'll figure that all out tomorrow morning over breakfast. Everybody seems to be pretty consumed in other tasks." Mayla raised her eyebrow at Draco and I.
"What do you mean by that?" I said sarcastically.
Mayla rolled her eyes, "Well, Harry and Ginny have resided in my bedroom. No direction there. They just chose the first room that suited their 'needs'. They closed the door and lets just say the noises coming from that room aren't exactly 'sleep'. I was going to be mean and make the sounds even louder for the whole house to hear, but I silenced the room instead. We've all been through a lot today. Griphook fell asleep on the couch. Actually he might be in an alcoholic coma. If he is I swear I'm just going to toss the fat oaf into the sea. He cleaned out half of the wine cabinet. The old wandmaker is doing whatever in the guest room. Probably sleeping, possibly dying. Luna and Neville fell asleep next to each other on the porch swing. So that's adorable. And Ron and Hermione are sitting by the shore having a heated discussion about god knows what. If they start having sex holler for me. I'd love to see that little mess. You have a front row view from here Clarisse. You missed a big fun Italian meal as you two 'slept' together by the way. Me and mamma tried to teach them some Italian to no prevail. Mom's got a new muggle boyfriend apparently. So that's interesting I guess. He stopped by while we were having dinner. Had a filet of salmon and now him and mamma are taking a walk on the beach. Old people getting romantic disgusts me, so I came up here to bug you guys," Mayla took a breath.
"Done with your spiel, sweetheart?" I asked.
"I am now," said Mayla.
"Good, I've been meaning to ask you why exactly Neville and Ginny are here," I said.
"It's a safe house. They came here to escape. They're headed back to Hogwarts tomorrow," said Mayla.
"Escape from what?" asked Draco.
"The hell that is Hogwarts right now, of course," responded Mayla.
"And, is Hermione okay? Her arm was drenched in blood too." I asked Mayla.
"Yes, she's fine. Lestrange carved the word Mudblood across her arm. She healed the arm back at the manor, but the scar will always be there. So, I guess you're both branded," said Mayla. "The mudblood and the traitor."
"You saw my arm?" asked Draco.
"No, actually I took a wild guess," said Mayla. "Good to know you joined the wild band of spies." Mayla raised her sleeve to reveal her own dark mark.
"I'll be going now. Eat all of the food and then get back to your lovemaking. Maybe do them both at the same time!" Hollered Mayla as she closed the door behind her.
I turned to Draco. "You're my spy," I said with a grin. A smile crept across Draco's face.
I pressed my lips against Draco's and felt his tongue penetrate my lips. He wrapped his arms around me, pulling us closer together. We fell against the cold glass, his body still against mine. I rested my palm against the back of his hand, intertwining our fingers. I lay against the bed. His body pressed to mine. I guided his hand along my torso until it was on my breast. I felt his body tremble against mine. Suddenly, he pulled away.
"I can't do this to you, Clarisse, I don't want to hurt you," said Draco.
"Oh sweetheart-" I started, I met his eyes and wrapped my arms around his shoulders.
"I've done bad things in my life, Clary. You don't want a person like me," said Draco.
I pulled my arms away, still holding his gaze.
"Darling, I know all of the bad things that you've done. I know that you are a death eater, I know that you tried to kill Dumbledore, I know that you nearly sent Harry back to King's Cross, I know that you were a massive asshole to my friends when you were younger, I know so much shit that you've done from Harry and you, and I know that you come from a family that expects you to be evil. But you're not." I stroked the back of Draco's neck, still holding his gaze. "Draco I know you better than anybody else on this planet, and surprisingly I'm still in love with you." I felt my cheeks flush.
Draco pulled me closer to him. "I'm in love with you too, Clarisse," whispered Draco. "Don't let me hurt you. Please."
"Make love to me, Draco," I said, pressing my lips against his neck.
We fumbled with each others clothes until we were down to just undergarments. I crawled under the covers and pulled off the remainder of my clothes. I felt Draco on top of me. He sunk into my body and ran his tongue up and down my neck until our lips met.
And so I lost my virginity for a second time. I don't want to count the first time with the boy from Ravenclaw. It didn't feel like this at all. I didn't feel the oneness with his body like I did tonight. I didn't love him like I love Draco.
I gazed out the window toward my field of azaleas. The magic was gone from it, but it was still a kingdom, and I finally had a prince. Nobody could ever replace my king.