Apart from the OC, or otherwise cited, JK Rowling owns the rights to everything in the story.
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Morning arrived bringing heavy rain, lighting and thunder. Outside, the wind howled and heavy drops hit the castle's windows with ferocious strength. Inside his room, Draco rested against three pillows, halfway sitting up with both his hands behind his neck in a relaxed manner. He enjoyed just listening to the rain, and Sofia's presence made it even better. He had been upset two mornings ago when he woke to find Sofia gone, not because she had left without a word, but because he did not have a chance to watch her sleep.
This time he had managed to wake up before Sofia did, and he cherished the opportunity to watch her. He spent several minutes memorizing her face, taking full advantage of the chance to stare at her without interruptions. He watched the covers rise and fall, keeping pace with Sofia's breathing. She was curled up against his left side, her face over her right arm, while her left hand sat atop his chest. She looked so vulnerable and defenseless he felt the sudden urge to protect her from the world. It pained him to imagine the things she would have to face in the months to come, as the Dark Lord grew stronger.
He laughed to himself, his gloomy mood melting away, as he watched her left hand twitch again as if she was trying to catch something. Her hand had twitched a few times in the past few minutes and she had murmured something incomprehensible under her breath. Wondering what she was dreaming off, he lowered his left hand and began stroking her hair. She had let it down before going to bed, and it now fell over her shoulder and back sprawling over the bed.
I could stay awake just to hear you breathing, he thought, to watch you smile while you are sleeping, while you're far away dreaming… I feel so happy just lying close to you, feeling your heart beating*
He shook his head, perplexed. Had he really just thought of himself as happy? It was such a foreign concept lately and yet, happy was exactly how he felt with her. As he continued to watch her a particularly loud thunder startled Sofia, causing her to jump a few inches in the air. Draco watched as her eyes opened and her head snapped towards the window.
"It's ok" he said gently "It was just a thunder"
Sofia's gaze shifted to him; her eyes were still heavy from sleep and she seemed a little disoriented. She blinked a few times, a yawn escaping her lips. Then she stretched leisurely before placing her head on his chest and looking over at him, her eyes meeting his.
"Morning" She whispered, a smile playing on her lips.
"Morning" He said, leaning over and kissing the top of her head.
They stayed in bed for several more minutes, enjoying each other's company. Finally, Sofia stood up and dressed. They had less than half an hour before they were to meet with everyone else and take a portkey back to Hogwarts and she still needed to shower and change. After making sure the hallway was empty, she made her way back to her room, a huge smile on her face.
As the Hogwarts delegation arrived at the entrance Hall they were nearly deafened by screams and cheers coming from what it looked like every student, faculty, and ghost in the castle. Professor Dumbledore was at the center of the commotion and he welcomed and congratulated them, before stepping aside.
Soon they were surrounded and Sofia found herself being patted in the back by several people, the vast majority of whom she didn't know, and she lost count of how many times she had said "thank you" in the past minute alone. Finally, to their relief, professor Dumbledore spoke.
"Students" He said, his voice amplified by a spell "Please let our delegation make their way to the Great Hall for breakfast. You will all have a chance to congratulated them later on"
The crowd began to make its way towards their respective tables and Sofia found herself being dragged with Hermione by a wave of fellow Gryffindor's. As breakfast progressed, the girls found themselves speaking more than eating as they were being asked to tell all that had taken place. Sofia knew the same was happening with the other students and she wondered if they were feeling as overwhelmed as she was.
When mail arrived, the front page of the Daily Prophet bore a large picture of the entire Hogwarts team. The extensive article recounted the tournament and ended with quotes from all the teachers. The second page had quotes from the interviews with the students and a picture for each pair of them. Sofia stared at her picture with Draco for a very long time. Draco's famous smirk was plastered on his face, and Sofia had to admit he was doing a great job faking his usual impatience. Even though he looked so arrogant, Sofia decided to keep that picture of them as it was the only one they had so she stuff the paper in her pocket.
Towards the end of breakfast, professor Dumbledore stood up to address his students again.
"Now that we are all here and have filled our bellies with this delicious food, I have an announcement. To celebrate Hogwarts victory and the accomplishment of the students who represented our school, we will have a feast for dinner. The awards and points given to the students by the tournament and the teachers will be presented to them at the end of the feast, in front of the entire school"
People began to make their way out of the Hall as they finished eating, animatedly discussing the feast later on and the noise in the Great Hall gradually decreased. Sofia and Hermione made their way to the common room with Harry, Ron and Ginny and they sat together by the fireplace, hoping to catch up uninterrupted but were soon joined by Seamus, Dean, Neville and other Gryffindor's who wished to hear more about the past few days. As much as they enjoyed retelling the events of the competition, both Sofia and Hermione were thankful when they finally had a chance to escape the common room and go to their bedroom to unpack their trunks. Because they had eaten so much during breakfast and because dinner would be a feast the trio, Sofia and Ginny made their way to Hagrid's house for the afternoon, skipping lunch entirely.
As always, visiting Hagrid proved to be memorable, as he proudly showed them the new creatures he had acquired for his classes. To Sofia and Hermione's relief, he asked only a few questions about the past few days, as professor McGonagall had kept professor Dumbledore informed and he had shared the news with all the other teachers. After Hermione had made them tea, Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hagrid carried on a conversation about the upcoming quidditch games while Sofia and Hermione sat next to each other, writing very extensive letters to their parents.
When night arrived and the feast was about to begin they made their way to the Great Hall together, stopping at the Owlery so the girls could send the letters away. Harry had offered Hedwig, as his owl hadn't delivered a letter in a while and would welcome a chance to do so. After watching Hedwig disappear in the horizon, Harry, Hermione and Sofia returned to where Hagrid, Ginny and Ron stood waiting and they resumed walking towards the castle.
The Great Hall was decorated much like the end of the term feast, except this time a huge banner with the Hogwarts crest was behind the teachers table and the remaining banners represented all four houses. A table had been placed next to Professor Dumbledore's podium and all the Excellence Awards and the Trophy rested on the table. The students' individual awards given by the tournament had remained with the respective students.
As dinner materialized in front of them, Sofia made a mental promise to stop by the kitchen and thank the house elves as soon as she had the opportunity. The amount and variety of food was beyond anything she had seen, although judging by the comments she overheard, this was not the first time the house elves outdid themselves. When every student had ate their fair share of food, and in Ron's case a third serving of pudding, professor Dumbledore made his way to his podium and the room fell silent.
"That was indeed a feast. I am afraid I will need bigger robes" He said with a wink, hands over his belly, causing a few students to laugh although the sight of his blackened hand was still hard to behold. Then, he congratulated the teachers and students on their performance once again.
"I would like to officially present our school with the Conscientia Trophy" He raised the trophy high above his head so that all present could see it. "I will personally place it in the Trophy room later tonight. Now, Ms. Granger, Mr. Wang, Mr. Wayne, Ms. Williams, Ms. Smith and Mr. Malfoy, Professors McGonagall, Snape and Flitwick, please join me"
Dumbledore waited until they had all joined him before continuing.
"The professors have rewarded their students for their hard work with awards and house points, which haven't been added yet. Each professor will now formally award the students"
He stepped to the side and Professor McGonagall took his place. She called Hermione and Daniel, gave them their Awards of Excellence in Transfiguration and a hundred and fifty points each. Then Professor Flitwick did the same for his students, followed by Professor Snape. Once all points were added, Gryffindor took the lead, closely followed by Ravenclaw, as both houses had been awarded three hundred points. After another round of applauses Dumbledore dismissed the students.
Hermione had been devastated when she found out that all students who attended the tournament would not be required to make up any assignments for the classes they missed. They would however be required to learn the material covered, as they could be tested on it during their final exams. While Harry and Ron played wizzarding chess, the girls were busy catching up and afterwards reading the boys' essays. Before going to bed, they spent the good part of an hour catching up and were one of the few left in the common room when midnight arrived.
Draco sighed for what it felt like the thousand time. He sat in a comfortable armchair in the Slytherin common room, Pansy across from him. She had bombarded him with questions, mainly concerning his interactions with Sofia during the tournament, a copy of the Daily Prophet on her lap. She was clearly jealous, but thankfully had no idea of the true nature of Draco's relationship with Sofia.
He finally grew tired of listening to her and, spotting Blaise across the room, made his way towards him. Behind Draco, Pansy sat with an infuriated look at being ignored.
"Girlfriend getting on your nerves?" Blaise mocked him.
"She's not my girlfriend" Draco said, clearly annoyed.
"Have you tried telling her that? I don't think she knows it"
"I have told her several times, she knows it too bloody well. She just chooses to ignore it"
"I know mate, she is heads over heels with you"
Draco grunted in response.
"Would you like me to jinx her?"
"No, if anyone will have that pleasure it will be me"
"Whatever you say"
"So, anything interesting happened while I was gone?"
"Actually yes, two days ago…"
As Draco halfway listened to Blaise, he thought about Sofia and how he wished they could be together somewhere. Then, he realized he had yet to learn how to play the song Sofia had randomly chosen from the book she gave him for Christmas. Because it was a Muggle song, he had refrained from playing it at the Manor, choosing instead to play some of his favorite songs one of which was the one he had played for Sofia last week. He waited until Blaise was done talking, mumbled a quick excuse about prefect duties and left the common room. He arrived at the Room of Requirement a few minutes later, opened the book to the right page and began playing, completely unaware of how late it already was.
"Are you ready?" Draco asked Sofia.
From her spot in the couch, across the piano from him, she nodded yes. It had been almost two weeks since they returned from Italy and Draco had been practicing the song Sofia had randomly chosen every day since then. It had taken him less than a week to learn it, but he had wanted to practice for a while longer, before playing it to Sofia.
"I will give you a hint, it is a Muggle song"
Sofia nodded again. Draco found the look of concentration on her face very amusing, but as she had said, she was determined to guess this one and the more they had talked about it, the more they agreed on making this a habitual pastime between them. Sofia would randomly pick songs, Draco would learn them and Sofia would try to guess them. That would give Draco a chance to practice and learn new songs, while giving Sofia the chance to listen and to watch him play, as well as to test her knowledge. Her parents had always been fans of classical music and Sofia was very familiar with composers and their works.
"Ok, here it goes"
At first Sofia did not recognize the song, but the longer Draco played the more familiar it became until it finally hit her and with a big smile on her face she simply sat and enjoyed the melody until Draco was done playing.
"I take it from your smile you know this song?" He said, smiling a little himself.
He had been smiling an awful lot lately, but how could he help it? He was happy with Sofia and her laughter was highly contagious.
"It's Moonlight Sonata, by Beethoven"
"Certainly"
"It is a very good song. My mum's favorite actually"
"Tell me again why you never learned how to play the piano? If you and your parents are such big fans, I would have expected you to"
"Guess I was just too busy reading and playing with my potions kit. I wish I had though…"
"I can teach you if you want" He said with a sparkle in his eye.
"I'm not sure I would be good at it" Sofia said uneasily.
"I am sure you will never be as good as I am, but one can always try" he said teasing her, his signature smirk back.
"Just like you can always try to be better than me at potions, but we both know it will never happen" She jokingly jabbed back.
"I do recall doing exceptionally well at the tournament"
"And I do recall doing exceptionally better than you"
"It was a close call"
"Maybe… and anyways, I did promise Ron I would not be outperformed by a ferret" she said, without thinking.
As soon as she finished speaking, both of her hands flew over her mouth and she looked at Draco with an apologetic expression. Draco's expression grew darker for a moment before growing indifferent.
"Weasel told you about that huh?" He asked with a hint of anger
"Yes… He was very excited and provided a very eloquent description. It was very funny" She chuckled, halfway looking at Draco.
"I don't suppose he told you about the time he threw up snails for a couple of days, did he?"
"No" She said, twisting her face in disgust.
"Well then, let me tell you" there was something very close to revenge in his voice and he stared past Sofia, lost in memories, before collecting himself.
"On our second year, he and Potter crashed a flying car in the Wimping Willow and Weasel broke his wand. One day, he got mad at me and tried to jinx me but because of his broken wand, which he had taped back together, the jinx backfired. He threw up a striking amount of snails for a while" Draco said, his sneer back again.
"That is disgusting" Sofia said.
"I find it quite funny"
"I am sure you do. And why was he trying to jinx you, may I ask?"
"I called Granger a… mudblood" He said, looking at Sofia with a cautious expression as if expecting her to snap at him.
"You don't have to look at me like that. It happened over four years ago, no sense in me getting mad about it now. Not to mention that if I were to get mad at that, then I would have to get mad at everything else you have done in the past few years and… well… we wouldn't be here right now. I just prefer to ignore it"
"I don't think other people will overlook it that easily" he said gloomily.
She shuddered, and they grew silent, each lost in their own thoughts.
"Draco" Sofia said after several minutes had gone by. "Can I ask you something?"
"Always"
"Well, uh, what do you think will happen if, er, when Harry defeats You Know Who?"
"You are not asking about the Wizarding community as a whole, are you?" Sofia moved her head from side to side. Draco sighed. "I don't know, I might not be alive by then"
"Don't say that!" Sofia said in a high pitched voice, sitting up.
"Why not? It is a very real possibility"
Sofia crossed the room and grabbed Draco by the elbow, pushing him until he stood up. He was much taller than she was, but she stood facing him with such intensity that Draco felt himself shrink under her gaze.
"Listen to me Draco Malfoy, and listen very carefully. You are NOT to die on me. I forbid you! When Harry defeats the Dark Lord, you and I will stand together once and for all. Am I clear?"
Draco stared at Sofia, not sure how to respond. He obviously had no desire to die, and he wanted nothing more than to have her for the rest of his life, free of worries. But how could he promise something like that? Didn't she understand that eventually a war would break and he would be forced to fight? Didn't she realize the dangers he would face pretending to be under Voldemort?
As he continued to face her he realized that, behind the determination wall in her eyes, something else was showing. It was slowly growing, threatening to break her wall and wash past her defenses. It was, unmistakably, fear. He embraced her then, marveling at how perfectly her body fit into his. Her head barely reached his chin, so he had to bend his over to kiss the top of her head. Before long she began to cry and they stood in place, Draco holding her and trying to think of something he could say to comfort her.
"I will make you a deal" he said, when Sofia had stopped crying and she looked up to meet his eyes. "I will not die, if you promise me to do the same"
"That's hardly fair, I won't be in as much danger as you"
"True" He thought for a few minutes before continuing. "I won't die if you promise me not to die and that you won't force me to spend much time with the Golden Trio afterwards"
A small laugh escaped Sofia.
"You know they will be around some and that you will all have to get along, right? I don't want to lose their friendship because I would pick you over them"
"I know, but that doesn't mean I will tolerate hours of it and neither will them I suppose"
"Fine, but it goes the same way with your friends. Especially Pansy"
"She is not my friend and I want to be near her as much as you do, which is to say not at all. Besides, I doubt I will have any friends by the time everyone realizes I have switched sides"
"You will have me" She said softly
"And you are all I will ever need"
He kissed her briefly and they stood together in place, arms wrapped around each other.
"And Draco…"
"Yes?"
"I need you to promise me you won't die afterwards either…at least not until we grow old together and all"
"And why would I?" He asked puzzled.
"You will have to face my father"
*"I don't wanna miss a thing" – Aerosmith