Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Harry Potter universe or its characters. All rights reserved to J. K. Rowling.
"Ah, have a seat."
Dumbledore sat in his chair behind his desk, it felt weird to be coming here without Harry but not unpleasant. I doubt I could feel unpleasant about anything right now even if I tried. I sat in the seat next to Draco, who looked less than thrilled to be in front of the kind old man.
"This past week has been tiring, I'm sure. So, I hope you will forgive me for speaking primarily to you, Draco. I know our dear Hermione is, less than prepared." Draco stiffened but before he could say anything, Dumbledore continued. "Hogwarts is changing, and in the interest of student welfare I will be gone for some time. Two students must find it in themselves and in those around them to take care of some most unpleasant matters."
"Why are you leaving? You can't just do that... Can you?" I unsteadily blurted out, only barely managing to fix my blunder at the end.
"I'm afraid it is unavoidable, Miss Granger. My departure will herald valuable information. Someone," a pointed look at Draco, "will change, and in that change, we may find that the answers we seek are closer than we imagined."
"What are you talking about? What unpleasant matters? What information do you need so badly that you'd leave in the middle of the school year?" Draco demanded, rising out of his chair and glaring at the wise man.
"We don't have the time to explain, I'm afraid. Miss Granger, if you can please stand and step to your right a bit."
I wanted to frown but stood up and moved anyway. The step to the right brought me further away from Draco so that we were about a foot apart, both of us looking at him dumbfounded until three people burst into Dumbledore's office, marching up to the side of his desk.
Two of them had dark brown hair, unkempt and wildly sticking up everywhere. One was short and stout while the other was tall and muscular with a goatee lining his mouth. The third one was the one that had my eyes growing wide and feeling as if, for the first time in an hour, I was panicking. He had long, blonde hair that cascaded elegantly over his shoulders. His face was pinched as it always was and held high with his steely eyes bringing out the wrinkles etched in his face. Lucius Malfoy was standing and smirking haughtily at Dumbledore before turning towards us, his eyebrows raising slightly at the sight of his son and his mouth turning down in disgust as his gaze flitted over me.
"Albus, what is the meaning of this?" It seemed his curiosity got the best of him.
"I was just discussing how fighting on school grounds is against not only school policy but also Ministry regulations. Isn't that right, Lucius?" Professor Dumbledore stood silently, his movements staying relaxed and graceful like always.
"Hmm, must not have been much of a fight if it was between my son and... Well," He turned to Draco, not bothering to look at me. "Off to class with you. Don't go wasting your time, however effortless solving the problem may be."
Without correcting him, just a smirk thrown over his shoulder, Draco turned and swiftly made his way to the door and left. When a sneer was thrown at me I realized that was meant to be my dismissal as well, I hightailed it to the door. My brain working double time to clear the fog of the potion out of my mind. When I closed the door behind me, my hand was grabbed and I was being dragged rather forcefully down the stairs.
We didn't stop, he didn't stop, until we were firmly behind the Room of Requirements door. He pressed me roughly against the room's door and held me here, his arms on either side of me. The way he heaved, his breathing ragged and his head hanging low, scared me. I reached out and touched his hair and for the first time in who knows how many years, he flinched. It was a full body jolt like I had burned him where I touched, and almost immediately after he crumpled into my arms. His head fell into my chest and his arms and fingers dug into my waist as he collapsed onto his knees.
For a while, more than I was comfortable with, we stayed there. I was effectively stuck, glued in the position he left me in while he stayed like that. Even when my feet urged me to shift positions, even when I felt a bit of moisture fall onto my thigh, and even when my strong prince let out a choking sob.
What do you do? How do you respond to the pain of the one you... Love. Did I love him? What does that mean? We'd made love, sure. However, did just one night of that mean you loved someone? Or did you love them because they had an amazing body, a cute face, and a layered personality? How would one love... Him?
Bailey came slowly skulking over to us, first choosing to hide and scope out what was going on from the safety of the bedroom doorway. When she saw the state he was in her cautious steps turned into bounding leaps and before I knew it she was patting at him, anywhere she could reach. Then she turned on me, trying to scratch my legs and yelling at me, it didn't last long. Draco snuck his shaky and out and stopped her, just resting his hand on her head. It was then I finally found some words.
"Come with me."
I held his face gently and urged him to stand, taking his hand and guiding him to the bathroom with me. I knew he watched me without seeing me as I turned on the water, adjusting the temperature until I was sure it was hot enough. The vacancy in her tired, drawn eyes told me everything. He wasn't ready to talk, not yet. I ushered him to take off his clothes, choosing efficiency over modesty and staying in there until he was under the hot spray.
The bedroom was just as we left it, tidy except for some clothes strung here and there which I picked up and folded, putting them into some of the drawers where I knew our stuff was. It took me a moment to find where he put his flannel sleeping pants but I managed, throwing them onto the side of the bed as I chatted stoically with Olive and Bailey.
"Has something happened? Well, obviously something has but is there an immediate danger?" Olive was still prone, only seeming to have moved a few inches from her normal laid out position.
"Why's master so sad? What happened?" Bailey seemed distraught, her mother purring and trying to comfort her but I could tell it wasn't having the desired effect.
"I'm... I'm not sure exactly what happened myself. If I had to guess it would be seeing his father? Maybe it was something that was said to him?" I sighed, closing my drawer as I clenched my white nightgown in my hand. "Dumbledore, our headmaster, called us into his office today. My recollection of exactly what was said is a little fuzzy but there was something about him leaving the school for something important. Then out of nowhere three people waltz into his office, one of them was-"
"My father." Draco stood in the doorway, clutching a towel around his waist, beads of water still dripping down his chest from his hair that clung to his face. "My father was there in the office, I knew he worked for the Ministry but coming to the school always seemed like something out of his purview. If Dumbledore's dealing with him I'm afraid Dumbledore's not leaving of his own free will."
While he gathered his pants and turned away from us I had a feeling that wasn't the reason he was so upset. "What does that mean? What does your father do for the Ministry?"
"He's in charge of the Disciplinary Board, mainly for prisoners and sentencing. The only reason he'd had for coming directly to the school would be either for me or to arrest someone." He turned his back to us sliding the pants on before dropping the towel and throwing it carelessly into a corner of the room.
"If he's here to arrest Dumbledore there must be some mistake, Dumbledore hasn't done anything wrong."
"As far as we know. Dumbledore is part of the Ministry but that also means he has a set of rules to adhere to. I'm not privy to them, I didn't care enough to study them, but if there are any infractions found by the Ministry they can strip him of his status as Headmaster, and possibly sentence him to time."
I let the words sink in. What could he have done that would warrant any of that. Sure, Hogwarts wasn't the top-ranking wizard academy but it was definitely in the top five percent, not to mention its accomplishments went on for miles. Albus Dumbledore was known the world over for being an exemplary wizard and collector of antique magical relics but what mischief could something like that conjure up while handling a school of nearly five thousand students?
"We can't confirm anything yet, besides, winter break is in two weeks and removing our headmaster in the middle of the school year could be more hazardous to the school's reputation."
No matter how many times I rubbed my eyes or pushed back my hair everything just seemed to be disjointed. Nothing fit, like we were taking too many pieces from too many different puzzles. I changed into my gown and turned back to face everyone, seeing Draco already ushering the two cats towards the couch. Sleepily, I got in bed and waited for him, still wanting some answers.
When he settled in and held me close by my waist I almost chickened out but finally just whispered what had been on my mind since potions today. "Why is that you always whisper things? Is it something to do with your father?"
He stayed still, not answering for a long while, taking so long that I began to think he hadn't heard me. "Yes. He... It's not like he can change his values as easily as I seem to. In truth, I never really wanted to hate anyone. It never even occurred to me that there would be witches and wizards born of Muggles and my first reaction to the thought was that they were almost cool in a way. They knew things about Muggle technology and ways that I would never know. They were almost foreign to me."
A deep breath, a sigh, and a reassuring squeeze from me. "My father had always hated them, never told me exactly why when I was younger but he always made sure to tell me that we were better. Nothing was better than a pureblood and there was no blood purer than a Malfoy's. I understood it, as I grew older I started to resent the way my father taught me to view others, it made it hard to make friends outside of the other pureblood families like Goyle, Crabbe, Greengrass, even Parkinson."
That made him pause, shuddering and kissing my hair. "However, there was no debating with him. Whenever I disobeyed he would discipline me. As I got bigger, they got worse. The house elves tended to me and made sure to keep it out of my mother's sight. Once I learned to just do what he wanted everything just seemed so much easier, it was easier to hate than to wallow in pain. Even if making other's feel pain didn't take mine away it seemed worth it."
"That's a horrible way to live. Everyone needs their own choices in life." I stroked his cheek, trying to infuse some of my warmth into him.
"Indeed. When I started to talk to you it was strictly for Bailey's sake, I could've asked others. Even a Ravenclaw would've been better than asking you but... It was always you, for some reason, it was always you I wanted to ask." His eyes settled on me but never settled themselves. "He's going to hate everything about this if... When he finds out. I can't keep thinking that. I don't care if he disciplines me until I can't move, I just want you to be safe. Although the safest thing would've been to keep away from you."
I buried my head in the crook of his neck and took a deep breath, "I may not be safest but I don't want to be anywhere else right now. If it was that dangerous to get found out why did you go flaunting us in front of all and sundry today?"
"Well, part of it was because I'm a bit territorial, I like others to know what belongs to me." He let loose a small smile. "The other part is what I told you, the hiding is what I've been doing this whole time. Hiding the fact that I didn't want any of this the way it turned out. I'm proud to be a Slytherin, I do like having people look up to me, but I don't want to hide everything that makes me happy."
He laid his hand on my own cheek and stroked it, only then did I realize I was crying. Warm, wet tears stung at my eyes and only got harder the more I acknowledged how terrible he must've been feeling. My face was hot with anger and despair, not even getting better when he pulled me tightly to him and silenced my sobs with his own insistent lips.