That next morning when I woke up, I finally felt rested. I looked up at Draco, who was still asleep. I put my head back on his chest until a few minutes later when he started stirring. "Morning sweetheart," I said to him when I saw his eyes flutter open.
"Morning," he murmured, rubbing his eyes. "How long have you been awake?" he asked me.
"Five minutes maybe. It's almost eight," I said, gesturing towards the big round clock on his wall. Yes, I couldn't read until I was eleven but I could tell time since I was five.
"Perfect," Draco murmured. I moved my head off his chest and onto a pillow, so I could get a better look at him. "So, I have something planned for today. I really think you'll enjoy it," he said, perking up.
That sounded interesting. Tell me more, oh handsome knight. "Oh, I like the sound of that. What is it?" I asked him.
"Ever been to the States?" he asked. The United States, of course. I shook my head, because I obviously hadn't. School and here were the only places I had ever been. "There's this really cool theme park kind of thing in southern California. It's called Disneyland," Draco said.
I'd heard about it, once or twice. Dudley always begged his parents to go to it. Of course, the Dursleys weren't wealthy enough to fly that far just for a little theme park. They promised that they would take him to it 'next year.' Of course, it never happened. I was surprised that Dudley's fits weren't enough for them to find some way. I mean, if I could hear them, all the way up in the attic, then they were pretty damn bad. "So we're going there?" I asked Draco.
"No," he said. Ok, the information about it was interesting, at least. Draco smiled, and I knew he was joking. "What, you think I would bring it up just to bring it up?" he asked, grinning. I rolled my eyes, but I had to hide a smile that was peeking out. Draco squeezed my hand gently and then got up.
"When are we leaving?" I asked him, still not getting up.
Draco shrugged. "As soon as you get dressed and we get Whimpy to make us some breakfast," he said.
That was when I got up. I walked over to my small black backpack and reached in to grab something out of it. My arm went much deeper into a certain pocket than it should have, and Draco looked at me strangely. "I put an expanding charm on it before school ended," I explained. He nodded and I pulled out a long-sleeved black v neck t-shirt, a pair of black leggings, a black skirt, and a pair of black combat boots.
"You aren't going to wear that, are you?" Draco asked, disapprovingly. I rolled my eyes and asked what was wrong with what I was going to wear. "You wear that exact same thing to school every single day, and it's going to be blazing hot. Wear something a little less black and thermal," he said.
"I honestly don't have anything else, Draco. Besides, nobody wants to see the hideous scars covering, well, everywhere," I said bitterly. It was part of the reason why I only had the clothes I had. I got rid of everything that wasn't long-sleeved when I awoke from my coma.
"Screw everyone, then. Just because people might stare a little doesn't mean you should force yourself into heatstroke all day. I have something that you can wear today that doesn't involve as much black," Draco said and went into his walk-in closet before I could say anything.
He brought out a loose dark red tank top that was made out of a light, soft material, a pair of black short shorts, and a pair of all black lo-top converse (the plastic lining was black, and so were the laces, and obviously the canvas covering the majority of the shoe). He handed the outfit to me. "What, you have a whole wardrobe for me in there?" I asked him.
Draco looked a little embarrassed and looked down at the ground. "I just wanted to make sure you had something to wear if you ever came over here," he said, surprisingly shy. What was up with this? Draco Malfoy, being shy? A little out of character, I'd say.
"Thank you. That's really sweet," I said, giving him a little smile. I squeezed his hand gently, and then I went into the bathroom to change into the clothes I was given. I came out a couple minutes later, and Draco was all dressed in a long-sleeved black shirt and a pair of khaki shorts and green lo-top converse. "Hypocrite," I said, looking at his shirt.
"In my defense, scars are completely different than dark marks. Scars might get a couple stares, where as my dark mark can get me arrested. You don't want to see me in Askaban, do you?" he asked me.
I'd shoved the whole Dark Mark thing to the back of my mind, so talking about it wasn't something I particularly liked. "Okay. I see your point," I said, dismissing the subject. I then went over to my backpack and pulled out a pair of dark sunglasses and put them on. Draco looked kind of confused. "If we're going to be around muggles, they can't see my eyes. My eyes usually freak muggles," I explained.
"Your eyes are beautiful, though," he said, still confused.
"To you, maybe. Every time I look at Dudley, he flinches. Same with every other muggle I ever see," I said.
"Have you ever considered that the reason they flinch isn't because of your eyes, but because you intimidate people?" Draco suggested. Well, that was one explanation, but that wasn't it. I was convinced of that.
"People have told me that my eyes freak them out," I said.
"Well," he said, pulling off my sunglasses, "I think your eyes are beautiful." He kissed my forehead quickly. I held out my hand for him to give me the glasses back, and he did. I didn't put them on, though. I put them on my shirt, instead. I held out my hand for him to take, and we walked to the small dining room.
Breakfast was lovely, and Draco didn't push a ton of food on me, which was surprising. Of course, I didn't know that he would make me eat those sugary but delicious snacks at disneyland. "How are we going to get there?" I asked him.
"Floo powder. That town hall place has a fireplace that welcomes wizards," Draco explained. With that, we went over to one of Draco's fireplaces. "Make sure to speak very clearly. Say Disneyland California, very clearly. I cannot express how important that is," Draco said.
"Believe me, I know. Remember when Harry ended up in Knockturn Alley because he couldn't say Diagon Alley correctly?" I remembered that day very well.
"Yeah, he's lucky I ignored him. He thinks I didn't notice him, but I knew he was there. I wish it was you there, instead," Draco said.
"You got to see me a little later, and you got to talk to me, so I think it worked out pretty well," I said.
Five years ago, I went into Flourish and Blott's bookstore with the Weasleys and my twin brother. Harry was all dirty from ending up at Borgin and Burkes. The second we got into the bookstore, Gilderoy Lockhart grabbed Harry and took him up to take pictures. I, on the other hand, was pushed to the back. My first thought was that nothing ever changes.
Luckily, being pushed to the back brought me to Draco. "Nobody ever pays attention to you. Everyone's so concerned about precious little Harry," he said.
At first, I had no idea who it was. Draco was just a voice behind me thus far. I turned around and saw a blonde with a smirk on his face. I smiled when I saw him. "Hey, Draco," I said.
"Great to see you, Tori," he said and gave me a hug. Nobody was watching, which was a good thing. Remember, it wasn't even second year yet. We were friends, in secret, and people would probably kill us if they find out. Well, that's what we thought, anyway. We weren't completely wrong.
"So, how's life been since school ended?" I asked him.
Draco shrugged. "The usual. Parents trying to buy my affection, me taking the bribes. Being left alone at home with a deranged house elf who only talks about wanting to be freed. I swear, sometimes I just want to give him a sock and be over with it. My parents would kill me, though," he explained, rolling his eyes.
Of course, that house elf was the very one who visited me, and I knew then. I knew long before Harry did. I figured it out because Dobby talked about me when he visited. He said certain things that were almost verbatim to things that Draco said to me. Draco complimented me a lot, probably because he had a major crush on me. I didn't know that until a few years later. "So, what about you? How's life been?" he asked.
"The usual. Very little to no food, being left alone in the attic, no sunlight, birthday alone, no presents," I said, shrugging.
"Actually, I have something for you," he rooted around in his pocket and pulled out a ring. It was silver and there was some engraving on it. It read Serpentes et Dracones, and there was a little dragon on the side that said dracones and there was a little snake on the side that said serpentes. "Look at the inside band," Draco said. The inside said Happy 12th Birthday, Tori-Draco. I thought it was the sweetest thing ever.
I fiddled with the ring on my middle finger. All my other fingers were too small to fit in it. I wore that ring every single day since then. I wore the earrings a lot, too, but the ring was the first wearable gift Draco gave me. "I do love this ring," I murmured.
"I had the biggest crush on you when I gave you that. Less than four months after we'd known each other, I was crushing on you hard," Draco said.
"I wish I could say the same thing about you. But, I honestly just considered you a friend, my best and only friend. I never even considered the fact that we could be more until just a few weeks before you asked me out. And, I dismissed it because I was scared it would ruin our friendship," I said.
"Of course, you were wrong about that. Truth be told, though, I was scared of that, too. You were, well, you still are, my only real friend. I was just willing to risk it all because I knew what could happen if things went well. And, here we are," he said. The last sentence was the exact thought that was going through my mind.
"I'm glad we took that chance," I said, and I hadn't meant anything more in my whole life before that. I mean, I just couldn't imagine life without the past being that I had been pestered into agreeing to go out with him. I couldn't imagine myself even thinking about any other guy. Draco is mine, and I am his. Anything else is just completely unthinkable. Before Draco could say anything, I put my sunglasses on and threw the powder into the fireplace, saying very clearly, "Disneyland California."
I ended up in the inside of that town hall building on Main Street. I was in a small, dark room lit up only by a small orange lamp. The lamp cast a dark shadow over the elegant furniture. It looked like the den of a hunter from the thirties. Was I in the right place?
Draco appeared next to me a few seconds later. "Don't worry, we're in the right place," he said. He walked over to a small table that had what looked like a sign in sheet. There were several signatures on the paper, the most recent being my late godfather. I almost started sobbing right there. The date next to his signature was just three days before his death. I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned my head to see Draco with a sympathetic look on his face.
We signed our names and picked up one of these passes that was on the table. It gave us free access to any food we wanted, and a purchase of up to one hundred American dollars worth of merchandise.
It was strange, stepping out of the empty room into a huge crowd of people. Nobody even seemed to notice that the door was even there. People were just swarming the inside room, looking for assistance or whatever it was they were looking for.
We found the exit, and stepped out into main street. It was mobbed with people, at least a ten thousand, I'd say. I didn't even know that that many people could fit into such a small area. How was I not going to get lost in this? Draco grabbed my hand and promised "I'm not letting go." It was really reassuring for me, because I was really scared of getting separated from him. I'd never, ever been in such a huge crowd. I wasn't scared of large crowds or anything. Getting lost, on the other hand was terrifying.
Draco and I tried to squeeze out of the crowd, but it was nearly impossible. Finally, we found a little area near a gift stand that wasn't so crowded. "Where do you want to go first?" he asked me. I shrugged. "Matterhorn. According to this ticket thing, we don't have to wait in line for that, Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain (apparently they have some obsession with mountains), Star Tours, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin," Draco said, listing off the tickets we had.
"Matterhorn sounds great. Let's go," I said and started pulling Draco in the direction of Fantasyland.
He held me back and said "First, I need to get you one of these," he said and picked up one of those ridiculous Mickey and Minnie Mouse ear hats. He got one each-one for me and one for him.
"No, Draco, please don't. Those things are so cheesy and touristy and just terrible. I'll look stupider than hell wearing one," I protested as he walked up to the counter.
Draco just ignored me. "Can you stitch our names on these?" Draco asked the clerk. The clerk said he could, but that it would cost an extra ten dollars. Draco said it was no problem. The clerk then asked for the names. "Tori on the Minnie one. Spelled T-O-R-I. Draco on the other one, spelled D-R-A-C-O," he said, very carefully pronouncing the letters. Many Americans, I realized by the end of the day, were idiots. Also, they had a strange reaction to British accents. Some obsessed over them, where as others were completely dumbfounded by them.
Draco wouldn't move until I put on the stupid hat. I wasn't going to give in. Finally, I realized how badly I wanted to get on the ride and gave in. First, though, I had to take my hair out of the ponytail it was in and put it in a side braid. That took about a minute. Then, I put it on, unhappily, of course. "Babe, you'll thank me soon enough. We are trying to have a normal muggle experiences," Draco said when we started walking towards the Matterhorn.
We went on the Matterhorn, which was really fun. Draco claimed that it was nothing compared to the thrill of riding a broom, but it was enough for me. I was not expecting that big abominable snowman to scare me. Of course, Draco claimed it would be so much better at night.
Then, Draco made us go on the stupidest ride in history. It was also the longest wait in history, as well. And, guess what? We didn't have a pass to the front of the line for that one, either. The music that they played during the line was I think the muggle's version of the Cruciatus Curse. You know what ride I am talking about, don't you. Because, of course it is a small world.
"Will this line ever end? I mean, seriously, this is worse than the cruciatus curse," I complained while we were in line. We'd been there for over two hours already, and I was surprised that I didn't rip my own head off before then. I DON'T GIVE A CRAP I GET IT'S A SMALL WORLD.
"I wouldn't know, but if you say so. Still, we need this muggle experience. Waiting in line for three hours for a ride that drives you just a little past insane," Draco said, and he honestly didn't seem annoyed at all.
"That's the understatement of the century, Draco. I was 'a little past insane' an hour ago. If this line doesn't end soon, I'll go all Avada Kedavra on my ass," I said. Of course, Draco took the last part seriously, and looked really worried about my safety. "I didn't mean literally, Draco. I'm not actually going to kill myself," I said, slightly annoyed. Then, I grumbled, "But I might kill those damn mechanic singing things."
"Mommy! I'm tired! When is the line going to end?" I heard a little boy's voice say behind me. I don't know why exactly I heard that. I mean, there were hundreds of complaining little boys around me, and that particular little boy had been talking and complaining right behind me for over two hours.
I turned around, out of sheer boredom and curiosity, to find a little ginger headed American boy with bright green eyes. "You know, I think that they are trying to get us excited for the ride, which is why they won't let us go on yet," I said to the little boy.
The young mother (late twenties, I'd say) of the little boy, who was also ginger, except had eyes that were more blue than green, wasn't completely freaked out that a stranger just talked to her son. Instead, she was enthralled by my British accent. "I love your accent," she said.
"Thanks," I said. I wasn't particularly interested in more conversation with this woman, but I wasn't about to be rude.
"I'm Maya Winchester," she said, sticking out her hand for me to shake, which I did.
"Victoria," I said. I brought Draco over, and said "This is Draco," I said, introducing the two. He shook her hand.
Maya brought over the most gorgeous man in the world. Seriously, he had the face of an ANGEL. He had brown hair and the same eyes as their son. "I'm Dean," the walking version of sex said.
If I didn't have Draco next to me, I probably would have started making out with that man, because, god, he was gorgeous. His lips were so perfect, and he had just enough torture behind those eyes to make him even sexier. I wondered why he was so tortured. Maybe he served in the army or something. "Victoria," I said again. Luckily, I just happened to be excellent at hiding my true feelings.
"This is Sean," Maya said, picking up her son. I just nodded. I wasn't too eager to keep talking. "So, where are you guys from?" she asked.
Based on our accents, I thought she would know. "We went to school at USC for the past few years, and now we live in downtown San Diego," Draco explained.
"Is that where you guys met? In college?" Maya asked.
"Oh, goodness no. We went to the same boarding school for seven years before that. We've been best friends since we were kids," Draco explained. I was planning on another cover story, but oh well.
"That's really sweet. When did you guys start going out? Forgive me if I'm wrong, you guys just act that way that people in love do," Maya asked us. Dean wasn't the particularly talkative type, or maybe Maya was just the exceedingly talkative type.
"About two and a half years ago," Draco said. Well, we weren't going to change how long that was going on. "But," Draco added, "I've had a crush on her since forever." I rolled my eyes.
The line was moving, and we were almost there. All I could think was finally! I could tell the little boy thought the same thing. He didn't like the long line any more than I did. We were seated in the same boat as the Winchesters.
I'll admit, it was a little cool, with all the different languages, but those puppets creeped me out. Everything was just so happy, and it drove me crazy. No way in hell am I against happiness, or anything. I love being happy, just like any normal person. But, after a while, it starts to drive you completely insane. Things just aren't that happy. A little darkness is okay if it keeps away the blinding light.
"I swear, Draco. Anymore happiness to that degree, and I'll puke," I said.
Draco laughed. "That music, or whatever the hell that awful noise is, is stuck inside my head," he complained.
The same thing was for me. I GET IT! IT IS A FUCKING SMALL WORLD STOP ANNOYING THE CRAP OUT OF ME. Sorry, I get annoyed. You would understand if you ever had to wait in line that long for the most annoying ride in the world. I'm sure that many of you have. No matter how much you protested, your stupid parents (or in my case my boyfriend) still made you wait in that never ending line.
Maya came up to us after the ride. "Hey, I know this is going to sound really weird, but do you guys want to come with us to lunch?" she asked us.
Honestly, that was the last thing I wanted. Having lunch with three complete strangers, even if one was the hottest man in existence, wasn't my ideal situation. Draco, on the other hand, seemed to think it was a great idea. "We'd love to, if we aren't intruding on anything," he said. Polite was not a word I usually used to describe Draco. Considerate about me, yes. Polite, no.
"It's no trouble at all," Maya said cheerfully. I could see Dean, who wasn't nearly as happy about this as his wife. He was kind of just standing there, taking care of Sean.
"Where should we eat?" Draco asked.
"The Blue Bayou. It's the best restaurant here. Kind of expensive, but who cares? Good food is good food," Maya said.
"Great," Draco said and we started walking toward the restaurant, which was pretty far away from the most annoying ride in the world. I just looked at Draco on our way, silently telling him that I thought it was a terrible idea. I could see Dean giving Maya the same look, which grabbed my interest. What did Dean Winchester have to hide? Or was Maya the one who had something to hide, and Dean was just trying to keep that secret? Or maybe Sean had a secret… I knew that look, and the only reason why anyone would be giving someone else that look was because they were trying to protect a secret.
We got to the restaurant and had to wait ten minutes before we were sat at a table. The restaurant was exceedingly dark, and I felt really ridiculous wearing dark sunglasses, and it was a little bit difficult for me to see. Still, I did not take them off. When we sat down, Maya asked, "Why don't you take off your sunglasses?" When I didn't respond, she made one of the stupidest assumptions ever. "Wait, are you blind?" she asked me.
"Maya, you can't just ask people if they're blind," Dean grumbled. I silently agreed with him on that one. I mean, seriously, it was just rude.
"I'm not blind. Just don't make me take off my sunglasses. I have my reasons," I said. Draco and I were on one side of the table, the Winchesters were on the other. Sean was sandwiched between his parents, Dean on the side that was directly across from me, and Maya on the side across from Draco.
Maya and Draco started talking their heads off, conversing about the stupidest little things, while Sean was drawing on his pirate paper placemat. Dean and I just kind of sat there, not really doing anything. Neither of us were much of the talkative type. But, finally, for Dean at least, the silence became uncomfortable. "So, do you like pie?" he asked me.
I'll admit, that question surprised me. I wasn't really prepared to answer that question, so I shrugged. "Pie's good, I guess," I said.
"Pie is life," Dean said firmly. Not something I really expected from someone as gorgeous and masculine as Dean, but I guess everyone had their quirks. Dean just happened to be obsessed with pie.
"Okay. Um, what is your favorite type of pie?" I asked him.
"I cannot answer that question," he said, and he was dead serious. Then, he smiled, "Too many choices." He wasn't as normal as I thought he was, which I appreciated. I returned the smile. "So, why haven't you taken your sunglasses off? It's really dark in here, so there's got to be a pretty good reason why you still have them on," he said.
I debated between lying and telling the truth. The only reason I settled on the truth was because I couldn't come up with a lie at the time. "My eyes usually freak people out. Also, I have a few scars around that area from when I got all of these ones," I said, gesturing to the scars on my arms.
"What happened?" Dean was genuinely concerned, and I didn't know what to think about that. People usually faked concern for me, even my own brother. I mean, everyone felt bad for me and all, but they never really were truly concerned. It was the hype to feel bad, so it wasn't real. For Dean, it was different.
This is where I had to draw the line. It's not like I could tell the truth, unless I used a metaphor. Instead, though, I decided to go all quiet and not respond. Thinking about that hurt. Every time it was mentioned, I went back to that graveyard. "If you don't want to tell me, I understand. But just know that I truly am concerned. So many people fake being concerned, because it's the hype or whatever. I say-if you aren't really concerned, don't act like you are," he said.
I don't know why I started spilling my guts. I had every opportunity to stay away from the conversation. "I was attacked by a dog," I said. Dean nodded, but I could tell he was looking for a longer story. "It was just over a year ago, and I was just walking down the street when bam, the dog charged right at me and mauled me. I remember seeing Draco running over to me, crying and yelling out to someone, anyone, to help me. Then, I passed out and I was in a coma for over three months. The first face I saw when I woke up was Draco's," I explained.
"Where was he when you were getting attacked?" Dean asked. I didn't like the accusatory tone he had, so I quickly made it clear that it wasn't Draco's fault.
"We were going to a basketball game, and I needed to go back up to my room to get something. I insisted that Draco get us seats, and he noticed when I was gone longer than I should have been. It was a freak accident, and Draco has no blame on what happened," I explained, making it very clear that it was not Draco's fault.
"Does he blame himself?" Dean asked.
"A lot of the time, yes. He thinks that if he had insisted to come with me, things would have ended differently. Personally, I think the damage would have been worse," I said.
"Probably, yes. The dog could have easily done as much damage to Draco as it did to you. If he hadn't found you, you would be dead. If nobody had found either of you, you both would be dead. It's as simple as that. But, I think he wishes he could have traded places with you," Dean said.
I never really thought of it that way. I never would want anyone to trade places with me, except for maybe Ol' Voldy. I could never wish that immense pain on anyone, especially not my precious Draco. "I would experience that pain ten thousand times before I'd let him trade places with me," I said.
"Well, that's love, Victoria. Sacrifice, or at least the willingness to, is a huge part of love. I would do anything for Maya, even if she does drive me crazy a lot of the time. Same thing with my brother, Sam. I can't even count how many times I've had to bend the world to clean up his messes," Dean explained.
"Yeah, I wouldn't do that much for my brother. I don't have the best relationship with my twin. He's always treated me like I don't matter, so I found family in Draco," I said.
I talked to Dean during the rest of the lunch, mainly about family and how sacrifice was really important. He was really really wise for someone that pretty. I'll admit, I was surprised. I ended up telling him Harry's first name, and I never gave away my last name. He never asked to see my eyes, and I never offered.
The lunch was over really quickly, and I thought I'd never see them again. I mean, what were the chances that I would? Zip to none.
"I liked Dean, he was a nice guy," I said to Draco when we walking to the front of the line for Pirates of the Caribbean.
"You just thought he was hot," Draco said. Well, he was hot, but I really meant it. "It's fine, you're allowed to think guys are hot. After the whole Fleur Delacour episode, I think you have the right," he said.
"But he really was a nice guy. He had an interesting insight on things," I said. We went on all the rides that we could have possibly wanted to, and then headed back to Draco's place at the end of the day. All was well.