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Pleasant Dreams, Helpful Friends and Warm Kisses
Summary: She barely even knew him. Draco Malfoy was just one of those kids she passed in the halls between classes or asked to borrow a piece of parchment from when she had none. Thanks to the Dark Lord, however, Aurelia Finn and Draco Malfoy will soon find out they have a little more than just age and house in common. And maybe a little bit greater of a task than just "that Charms essay due next period" underway.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything except my made up character and plot. J.K Rowling owns all else.
Warnings: Sexual Situations, Violence, Character Death, Substance Use/ Abuse, Adult Language, Book 7 Disregarded, Book 6 Events Slightly Altered
A/N: I'm going to be honest. I hate this chapter. I had this thought about making everything move along very fast to make it more interesting. The truth is that I suck at writing like that. I'm more of a procrasinator when it comes to writing. I like to take things very very slowly and I hate rushing the plot. This chapter took me three days to write because I kept getting stuck. I usually sit down in the morning and have a chapter complete by the end of the day because everything just comes to me. I kept getting stuck on this chapter and the quality is probably the lowest out of any of my other ones. So I hope you can forgive me if you don't like this very much.
The next few months flew by and everything moved so quickly Aurelia was a little shocked. There were bursts of courage, a few romantic risks, dangerous life-threatening situations, really awkward moments and so much more crazy stuff. The chaos started on December twentieth…
"AURELIAAA," someone squealed.
"You better be ready to lose that tongue if you continue to use it," Aurelia groaned from underneath her bed covers.
She had been having a very delightful dream and was rather upset to have it interrupted. It was another like the ones she'd been having for a while now. Where she was spinning and all she saw was silver. Then everything went black and she felt warmth escape throughout her entire being.
"Merlin, I hate you in the morning," Pansy sighed and yanked Aurelia's blanket from her. "Now, you are going to get up, get dressed and get ready to get the hell out!"
"SHIT!" Aurelia quickly realized what day it was and jumped out of bed. "I'M GOING HOME!"
Aurelia danced and yelled cheerful and somewhat cruel goodbyes to every person she passed on her way to the showers.
"HA HA I'M LEAVING!" she would scream happily in someone's face.
"I DON'T HAVE TO SEE YOU FOR TWO WEEKS!" she whooped.
"HAPPY BLOODY CHRISTMAS HOGWARTS!" she yelled at the ceiling.
Pansy just followed her laughing uncontrollably at her reaction. November was a difficult month for Aurelia.
After the first Wednesday of the month, when Pansy told Aurelia that she thought Draco fancies her, Aurelia couldn't get her mind off of him. The following week, she decided to stop being angry at Draco. They had a long conversation in which she apologized for acting childish and said she understood the situation he was in now. She told him that it was wrong for her to blame what was happening with Snape and the Order on him. Draco, in turn, apologized for being such a pest and for getting her detention.
The girl named Cara, whom they learned to be a sixth year, was still dating Draco. It made Aurelia really upset because she found that she developed feelings for him that one night. Aurelia attempted to sabotage their relationship several times which wouldn't have been difficult to do if it wasn't for the fact that she had to make sure Draco had absolutely no idea what she was doing. Draco was really observant.
Issac and Pansy were well aware of Aurelia's feelings for Draco and tried as hard as they could to help her in her quest. Still unsuccessful. After a week or two Aurelia decided that she would no longer keep trying and just wait for them to break up on their own. She saw that it wasn't going to last much longer. Draco and Cara had been fighting constantly. Although they always seemed to make up in the end, the relationship was still skating on thin ice.
"I have better things to do anyway," Aurelia had once told her two best friends.
Of course, her feelings for Draco hadn't dissipated in the slightest. She found herself liking him even more now than he was definitely unattainable. At one point, Aurelia caught herself thinking that maybe that was the only reason she actually liked him. Then Draco's smirk invaded her thoughts. Well, what more is there to say after that sentence?
No, she definitely liked Draco Malfoy. She just had to wait until the opportune moment take him and make him hers. Ha ha dance little monkey, DANCE. Well, maybe not that much.
His presence was unbearable for Aurelia, though. It was like whenever he was in the room she could feel him all around her. It was a bittersweet feeling. She liked feeling him around her but hated it because he was usually with Cara.
Well, November came and went. December was more than halfway gone. And, as Aurelia stood under the hot water of the shower thinking about all these things, the realization came upon her that she had spent nearly half of 1997, single. Granted, Blaise was always trailing after her trying to get her to go out with him. Ever since that Friday night when Aurelia went to meet her "secret admirer" he hadn't left her alone. Aurelia clearly told him that Secret Admirers were a complete turn off for her and that she didn't like him anyway. Blaise didn't give up. He kept trying to get her to like him but she had her mind set on Draco Malfoy.
Aurelia being Aurelia, of course, didn't let the term completely go to waste trying to get to Draco. She had a few one-night stands and a few random snogging sessions but that was it. She was romantically challenged. That's what she decided. Not sexually. No, she would never be sexually challenge, she was good in bed before she even lost her virginity. But that was a few years ago, so it's irrelevant. Well, not really.
"Hurry up! I want to get breakfast before we leave!" Pansy called from the shower next to her.
"Almost done!" Aurelia called back as she rinsed out the last of the conditioner from her hair. "Let's rock n' roll."
"You need to stop trying to make muggle sayings cool," Pansy rolled her eyes and the two walked out with white towels wrapped tightly around their bodies.
"They're hilarious," she laughed. "In a dim-witted sort of way."
Pansy and Aurelia dressed in identically coloured bottle-green robes and went to breakfast. The Hall was filled with Hogwarts students chatting excitedly about the Christmas holiday.
"I expect to see you at my house by noon tomorrow, Issac," Aurelia said to him as she bit into her toast.
"No doubt," Issac nodded.
"And I expect to see all three of you at my Christmas Eve party," Draco said.
"Meh, I'll have to check my schedule," Aurelia shrugged.
"Reli!" Draco gasped in mock surprise.
Aurelia stuck her tongue out at him playfully and they all laughed. Cara just simply glared at Aurelia.
"You'll be there too, right Cara?" Aurelia said in a sugary voice.
"But of course," she stated proudly.
Aurelia "accidentally" failed to mention her New Year's Eve party to Cara. She figured she would tell Draco the day before. Or the day of. Whichever was less convenient for his girlfriend.
Aurelia almost felt bad for treating a fellow Slytherin that way but when push came to shove, she'd be the one shoving.
On the train from Hogsmeade to King's Cross, Aurelia made it her own personal business to make the ride as miserable as possible to everyone that wasn't a Slytherin.
After saying goodbye to Draco, Issac and Cara (well, she just kind of nodded in the girl's general direction, after giving her boyfriend a very long hug), Aurelia and Pansy Dissapparated to the Finn Manor.
"Daddy!" Aurelia called into the depths of her house.
"In the Library, sweetheart!" she heard her father's voice call to her.
Aurelia grabbed Pansy's hand and dragged her up the stairs to the Library. She walked into an extremely large circular room that had its walls completely lined with books of all kinds. Dillard Finn sat in a rather comfortable looking chair at his desk. He stood up to greet his daughter. The two embraced in a heartfelt hug.
"This is Pansy Parkinson," Aurelia said, gesturing to Pansy.
"Pleasure," he shook her hand with a smile.
"Well, I'm sure you two will want to start having fun. I just have a few things to do before supper."
Aurelia nodded and went to her bedroom. The house elf had already taken the liberty of bringing up their trunks.
"I thought you would rather share a room with me than be by yourself in the guest room," Aurelia said showing Pansy the extra bed that had been set up.
The two girls unpacked their things and went straight to the out-of-school activities. They spent the remainder of the day running around the house like five-year-olds. At supper Aurelia and Pansy gave Dillard plenty to laugh about. They told him stories of all the mischief and trouble-making they got into at school. Aurelia's dad wasn't opposed to all of this. He thought it built good character. And by character he meant 'early death eater training'.
"Dad, I was actually wondering something," Aurelia said as the subject came up.
"What is it?" he set down his fork to give his daughter his full attention.
"Do you think you can arrange something for Pansy to be able to join the Death Eaters? She really wants to and I know she'd be terrific. Besides, I can help her."
"And who's going to help you?" he joked. "We'll see what we can do."
"Oh, thank you, sir!" Pansy clapped.
"Not a problem and please, call me Dillard," he smiled.
The three of them finished their supper. Aurelia and Pansy headed off to bed, discussing the awesome possibilities of Pansy becoming a Death Eater.
"And just think," Pansy mused. "Once you take You-Know-Who's place, I'll be the best friend of the Dark Lord."
"Bite your tongue!" Aurelia gasped. "The Dark Lord is not dying!"
"Oh, right. Forgot that has to happen first."
They laughed again, as usual, and continued their conversation. The two stayed up until about two in the morning just having fun when they finally decided to go to sleep.
The next two days were glorious ones. Issac came over in the early morning of the twenty-first and stayed until early morning on the twenty-third. He had to go home the day before Christmas Eve but the two days before it were as much fun as they possibly could have been. It used to always just be Aurelia and Issac but now Pansy was there. It was nice to have another girl around, although with Issac, there wasn't much of a difference whether he was a girl or not. The two days were basically girl outings. Issac had the same taste in guys, clothes, music and every other thing that a straight man would never have in common with two girls. When Issac had to leave Tuesday morning, the girls weren't completely sad about it because they knew they would be seeing him the next day at the Malfoys' Christmas Eve party.
Aurelia and Pansy spent most of the day at Diagon Alley, walking through shops, sitting in cafes and ice cream parlours and just basically causing mischief. The two girls came back a few hours before they had to leave to the Malfoys'.
They each fixed each other's hair and make up. Pansy made sure to work extra hard on Aurelia so she could completely woo Draco. When both girls had finished getting ready they stood in front of Aurelia's full length mirror to look at themselves.
Aurelia had her hair in light curls into which Pansy sprinkled just a slight amount of glitter. Her eyelids were coloured lightly with blue-metal eye shadow. Her long lashes were made even longer and fuller with thick black mascara. The very thinnest part of her eyelids had black eyeliner encircling her hazel-green eyes. Aurelia's full lips were glossy from pink lip shine that Pansy had set upon them and her cheeks had just a dash of cherry blossom blush. Everything from her metal-blue eye shadow to her periwinkle dress robes made her nearly glow.
Pansy on the other hand, wore light pink dress robes and everything to match. Her cheeks were flushed with pink colour, her eyelids enveloped in sweet plum eye shadow. Her lips glistened a natural rose. Pansy's black her was set in a curly updo. (A/N: Interrupting here a little. This was for all of you fan fiction writers that make party or ball scenes and have the girls put on beautiful elegant dresses and the guys wear suits or tuxes. People. DRESS ROBES! No muggles here. Kaythnx.)
"Are you ready girls?" Aurelia's dad called from the other side of the door.
"Ready and coming!" Aurelia replied happily.
The two girls stepped out of Aurelia's bedroom. Dillard looked at the two in awe and smiled. A tear nearly welled up in his eye at the sight of his beautiful daughter. Without more than a "you girls look absolutely beautiful", the three went to the sitting room. Dillard grabbed a handful of floo powder and threw it into the fire. He stepped into the now green flames and shouted,
"Malfoy Manor!"
The flames engulfed his entire body and he was gone. Pansy was next to leave and she did so with a quick "good luck" smile to Aurelia. When her friend was gone, Aurelia almost had the urge to sit on her own sofa for a few minutes to collect herself. She didn't, though, because she knew that Pansy would come looking for her. She drew in a deep breath and threw the floo powder into the dancing red flames of her fireplace. They quickly turned to a cold, airy green and Aurelia stepped into the them.
"Malfoy Manor!"
There was a rushing going through her. She felt so compressed within herself that she thought her lungs would collapse. Everything was a blurred sight and then, just as quickly as it began, it stopped. Merlin I hate the floo network, Aurelia thought to herself before she opened her eyes to take in the beauty of the Malfoy Manor sitting room. It was filled with people. The people almost seemed to be looking at her. No, wait, they were looking at her.
Before Aurelia could say or do anything, everyone turned their heads and continued their previous conversations.
"What the hell?" Aurelia said to no one.
"Aurelia! You made it," came a very familiar voice.
She turned her head to see Draco Malfoy walking towards her wearing navy blue dress robes.
"Yeah, I did. Looks great," Aurelia smiled and hugged the boy that invaded her dreams so often.
"Well, come on, no need to be around these stuffy people. We're all out in the garden," Draco said and grabbed Aurelia's hand.
He led her through a few corridors until they finally came to a glass door leading to the garden. What they really stepped into was actually a room with glass walls so it almost felt as though you were outside but without all the unpleasantness of the cold air.
A few familiar faces occupied the chairs in the dome. Blaise Zabini, Issac Roberts, Pansy Parkinson and--to Aurelia's dismay--Cara Boyd.
"Draco, there you are. I was wondering what happened to you," Cara said sweetly.
"I just went to greet Aurelia," he gestured to Aurelia, Cara glared.
"Hi Cara, are you enjoying your holiday?" Aurelia smiled.
Cara gave her a curt nod. Draco sat in Cara's seat and she sat on his lap. Aurelia sat down, grinding her teeth.
The party wasn't as fun as she thought it would be. The five of them sat in the glass room and talked for a couple hours. Cara kept glaring at Aurelia every time she said anything to Draco and Blaise kept trying to make passes at her.
"I have to go freshen up," Cara said and stood up after giving Draco a quick kiss on the cheek.
Just seconds after Cara left, Lucius Malfoy came in through the door.
"If you kids would care to join us for a Holiday Dance, we're starting in a moment," he said with absolutely no emotion in his voice.
Pansy and Aurelia quickly glanced at Blaise who was staring at Aurelia with a smirk on his face.
"Erm, Blaise!" Pansy said quickly. "Want to be my dance partner?"
"Oh, er…alright," he shrugged somewhat disappointed.
Pansy gave Aurelia a look and left the room with Blaise. Issac quickly caught on to what Pansy was doing.
"I don't really know how to dance, I'll sit this one out," Issac said and followed Pansy and Blaise out of the room.
"Cara doesn't seem to be coming back, would you like to dance with me?" Draco said, extending his hand out to Aurelia.
"I would love to," she smiled and put her hand in his.
Draco led Aurelia to the ballroom. The large room was filled with couples, preparing to dance. Draco and Aurelia took a place on the floor. Draco stood facing straight ahead and Aurelia stood next to him. The music started up. Draco put out his left hand, Aurelia placed her right hand in his left. They took a step forward and faced each other. She put her left hand on his shoulder and he put his right hand on her waist, their other hands held each other's. They both began spinning and moving in sync with each other and the rest of the people around them.
All of a sudden, their eyes locked. Everyone in the room was gone. Her feet weren't touching the ground. Aurelia could see nothing except his deep silver eyes. She wanted to be lost in them forever. She wasn't even paying attention to the dance steps yet still did them without flaw. Draco put both of his hands on her waist and lifted her into the air. They spun around once, not taking their eyes off of each other for a moment. They were forced to break their gaze as the next part of the dance called for Draco to lift her hand above his head while she went around him in a perfect circle. As soon as they came face-to-face, their eyes met again. She held his shoulder and his hand tightly as he spun her around the room.
The song ended and everyone stopped their synchronized dance. Something new had come over Aurelia. She now found that she didn't care about anyone that might be watching or anything that might happen as a consequence to her actions. Draco's eyes, those beautiful silver eyes, entrapped her in her own thoughts. All of her better judgement left her and she let her feelings go.
Aurelia took one last long stare into his eyes and then closed her own. She leaned in and felt warm lips on her. The warmth spread from her lips to every inch of her body. This was what she had been waiting for. This was the moment that she had been dreaming about for months. This was exactly how she pictured it to be.
Though it only lasted for a short moment, it was the best feeling in the world.
"Draco, I--" she began.
"Save it. I have to go," he shook his head and left her standing there.
Aurelia drew in a sharp breath. She could almost feel her face burning and her eyes welling with tears. She pushed it all back, though. She wasn't hurt. She was angry.
"What are you doing?" Issac asked when he found Aurelia in the sitting room, taking a handful of floo powder from the mantle.
"Going home."
"What! Why?!" he exclaimed.
"I'm not wanted here and I don't care. Tell Pansy I left and she can come home whenever she likes," she said and threw the floo powder into the fire, making the flames turn a brilliant green. Then, she stepped into the fire and yelled, "Finn Manor!"
"Where's Aurelia?" Pansy asked Issac back at the Malfoy Manor.
"Went home," he shrugged.
"Why!"
"Something about not being wanted here."
"Oh Merlin," Pansy sighed and went off to find Draco.
Aurelia, meanwhile, was throwing a fit in her bedroom.
"Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" she muttered angrily as she threw her dress robes off of her.
There were clothes and other things scattered all around the room. Her wardrobe was empty, its contents askew across the floor.
"Aurelia?" someone called from down the hall.
Aurelia froze on the spot at recognizing the voice.
"Shit!" she whispered to herself.
Aurelia quickly went to search for her wand to clean up her mess. Then, she realized she was in her underwear and decided to, instead, put some clothes on. She grabbed random clothes off of her floor and put them on. It was a muggle outfit but Aurelia was just glad it covered her body.
"Aurelia?" came the voice again, sounding closer this time.
She looked around frantically for her wand. Remembering it was in her robes' pocket, she lunged across her bed for the Periwinkle Dress Robes she had worn that night. Before she could recover her wand and clean up her room, however, Draco walked in.
"Aurelia!" he sounded angry. "What do you mean leaving my party like that?"
"Go away, Draco," she said quietly.
"No! I most certainly will not go away!"
"I'm not going to argue with you, Draco," she said just as quietly as before.
"Fine! Then I'm going to argue with you! You can't just up and leave my party like that!"
"Draco…" she whimpered.
"You first of all embarrassed me in front of my friends!" he continued.
"Draco…"
"Not to mention your two friends were fucking holding Cara hostage!"
"Draco…" she said again, not caring what that was supposed to mean.
"Worst of all, you fucking kissed me in front of everybody!"
"GOD DAMN IT, MALFOY!" she yelled. "DO YOU WANT ME TO YELL AT YOU?! FINE! I'M YELLING! I'M SORRY I FUCKING DECIDED TO HAVE ONE DANCE WITH YOU! I'M SORRY MY FRIENDS DID WHATEVER THEY DID TO YOUR PRECIOUS LITTLE GIRLFRIEND! I HAD NO CONTROL OVER THAT! AND I'M SORRY I KISSED YOU! I GUESS IT'S MY FUCKING FAULT YOU'RE SO FUCKING--YOU! I DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO SAY IT NOW BECAUSE I HAVE A LITTLE BIT OF A PSYCHOLOGICAL BATTLE GOING ON IN MY MIND AT THE MOMENT! SO EXCUSE ME FOR NOT EXACTLY WANTING TO SIT AROUND YOU AND CARA PRETENDING LIKE NOTHING HAPPENED!"
Draco seemed to be at a loss for words. It could have been because she called him Malfoy for the first time since they've made up. It could have been because she almost just nearly told him she liked him. It could have been because she was screaming at him. Or it could have been because she was almost crying.
"Aurelia, I--" he began, his voice cracking.
"Save it, Malfoy," she repeated his words. "Just leave me alone."
Aurelia turned her back to him, letting Draco take in everything going on. He looked around her room at the angrily thrown clothes covering her floor. He saw the gentle rise and fall of her shoulders as she took in deep breaths to keep herself calm. He heard her words ringing in his ears.
"I'm sorry," he whispered and left.
A/N: Gross that sucked. I would love to hear from you. Tell me what you thought. What you liked and didn't like. All kinds of reviews are great. So please, please leave me some :)
