I spent days tending to crops in the field and keeping my head down, unsure of who had what information on my current situation with Draco. I felt consistent embarrassment when any of the Order members were in my proximity, fully expecting there to be a complete backlash of insults regarding my relationship with a Death Eater.
Instead, it appeared that Ron and Harry had kept what they knew to themselves for the time being. Thankfully no drama developed over the remainder of the week.
Most of the crops were now over a foot tall and showing promise for cultivation at a later date, should it even come to that. It almost felt like the crops were an odd waste of my time, on purpose - as though they simply wanted me at the farm just to watch me. I was, on the plus side, excellently tanned and enriched with vitamins derived from being in the sunlight all day. I had great energy by the end of the week from working hard against all odds and spending so much time outdoors.
Friday was an anxious day. I had nervous dread at the idea that I would see Draco for the first time since the terrible accident at Hogwarts. I couldn't even be sure if he would show up at the roof top where we normally met briefly to discuss what was happening between both sides. In anticipation of that, I had begged Harry to give me Draco's wand back as a show of good terms which he had reluctantly obliged to do.
When midnight had rolled around I'd already spent an unnecessary amount of time brushing out my hair and cleaning myself up. I was dying to see him; I was traumatized, wounded, and I needed to update him badly on what had been happening with the Order.
I had bothered to take precautions; lifting Hermione's chest up with both hands so as not to scrape it against the wood flooring. I dropped it at the doorway to block preliminary attempts to enter into my room in case people carelessly thought to check in on me so late in the night. Then I closed my eyes and disapparated myself to the building rooftop in downtown London.
When I first appeared in the blackened expanse of architecture my heart dropped at his lack of show. Then only moments later a crack of lighting and he was across the roof from me, turning to meet my gaze with intense relief. We ran to each other and he picked me up in a considerably tight squeeze.
He let me slip down in his arms pressing his forehead to mine, "You're alive." I winced from his arm around my ribs where the werewolf slash was still aching and tight. His eyes searched my face in the darkness, "Madeleine, are you alright?"
I nodded solemnly, "I am...I am okay." I didn't want him to see the extent of the damage at that moment. I'd specifically worn a tall-necked dress for a reason.
"How bad are your injuries?" he inquired, pulling his wand out and lighting the tip. I quickly shoved his arm down in embarrassment.
"Fine, I'm fine," I assured him, lacing my arms around his neck to pull him in to kiss me. His soft, sweet lips against mine were an incredible escape from reality. We hungrily embraced for several minutes until he pulled back, brushing my hair away from my face.
He whispered against my lips, "You know, it's my birthday tonight."
I tugged at his collared shirt admiring how he'd dressed so adorably in a bright grey dress shirt with a white collar and dark grey pants. I looked up at his eyes, melting with my uncontrollable love for him, "Hmmm, well den I 'ave more dan one surprise for you." I pulled his wand out of my lavender dress and pressed it into his fingers and he took a full step back to register the wood in his fingers.
"You stole this back from Potter?" he asked in disbelief. His long fingers wrapped around the wand with jurisdiction. It was then that I noticed he was still somewhat shaky from the cruciatus curse the week before. The wand wobbled in his fingers ungracefully.
"Let's not worry about dat," I said, sliding my hands up into his hair greedily, "What age are you today?"
He shrugged his shoulders, "Twenty. Impeccable timing, I get to spend it with my wife." He ran his hands around my waist and dangerously low over my backside. He tugged me into his body as our lips met again, the desire for each other's touch was unprecedented. He pulled my leg up over his body frame and his fingers tangled in my dress thirstily as we pushed our noses together. I realized that no one else in the world mattered, that the Order could do their best to consistently humiliate me but I would always have Draco to love and protect me.
"What do you want to do?" I asked breathlessly against his kisses.
He gave me a mischievous grin, "Anything you want to do. I only have one request." He kissed along my neck as the hand that was holding up my leg slid far under my dress suggestively, his hand flat over my butt cheek groping hard. "Know what I mean?" he whispered against my ear and I shuddered from his breath on my skin.
I knew what he implying, and I wanted it too, but I winced in sudden vain embarrassment of the fresh scars on my body that he wasn't thinking of. He seemed to sense my hesitance and he pulled back with furrowed eyebrows, "Unless... you don't want that." He let my leg slide back down to the ground.
I shook my head, "I want et. But you might not like what you see." The air was light and warm with the gentle June heat, the planets above us glittering like tiny orbs.
He raised his eyebrows as it hit him, "I don't give a fuck about scars."
I looked down and away from his direct eyes, highly doubting that. It was his birthday though, and the depressing thought struck me that there was a slight possibility it could be his last and he was so young. He had hardly lived his life, having spent all of it as a child soldier, "Can we go dancing? And go to a crazy fancy hotel after?"
He laughed down at me, "Sure, we can do that." I looked at him with devilish amusement, knowing he had no idea what I meant. London would be awake all night buzzing with madness, and if it was anything like France then it would be a wild night ahead.
I tugged at his hand and we ran down the metal stairwell we had taken weeks ago at our initial departure when I was being handed off to the Order. He followed me easily and then we were out on the busy streetscape of London, England in the blossoming evening of June 5th, 2000.
He wrapped his arm around me possessively, tugging me in to kiss my forehead as we walked amongst the bustling crowd of pedestrians. He lit a cigarette and I leaned into his form, enjoying his piney scent and familiar energy. I wrapped my arms around him in the midnight chaos that was the late night public realm. He tugged me close, slipping his arm around my waist while he blew out smoke.
We looked far too posh for some of the clubs that dotted the main strips so it would be interesting at least. A thought crossed my mind that he was unprepared for the scene, and would probably even dislike it given the way he reacted to me putting on contemporary music in the Lambo in the Straight of Dover. I'd need to get him drunk, and maybe something more.
"Wait here," I pushed away from him at the end of the line we'd ended up in.
He looked around himself as though there was an invisible gremlin at his feet, "Why? Where are you going?" He pulled on the cigarette with penetrating eyes.
I laughed at his innocence, "Don' worry, just ahead a few meters to get something. You know where I am all de time, right?" He scowled at me as I pranced away towards a group of sweaty, fidgety, hyper active young men in their twenties who were halfway to the door of the obnoxious rave club. The music was loud enough to be felt from such a short distance to the door.
I leaned on the red rope that divided the lineup from the sidewalk, and they all stopped chattering excitedly and turned to look me up an down. "Well hello there babe," a tall, charming looking dark boy chirped immediately.
I waved my fingers cutely, "Hi. Would you 'appen to 'ave any extra pills I can buy from you boys?" I gave them a pouty smile with wide eyes.
One of them swayed on the spot drunkenly and I had to remove myself from the rope where he had been miraculously saved from falling head first onto the pavement by the loose barrier. "You certainly can," another boy cooed, eyeing me seriously, "You can even have it for no toss if you want to take it with us." The glint in his eyes made me want to smack him.
"Well, sadly I'm engaged, but I will pay you 'andsomely for et," I bantered. My ring glowed unmasked on my finger and their eyes shot to the unusually fancy jewelry. I produced muggle money from my satchel that I'd had left over from buying food supplies with Harry - it was an exorbitant amount for what I was asking for.
They nodded greedily at each other and pressed a bag of mystery pills into my hand. I winked at them and left, only to find Draco standing flat against the wall as a group of hardly dressed, wasted girls pestered him in the lineup behind him.
"I will only tell you one more time you uncultured peasants, do not touch me," he was warning, pointing his finger in one girl's face in particular, and I could tell it was taking everything he had to control his use of magic. He was basically helpless without it in the muggle world.
I held back to laugh at him as they pulled up their bright colored tube-tops that were slipping and poked at him jokingly, "Uncultured peasants!" They mocked his threat loudly, pissing themselves laughing at the wording, "Who's this fuckin guy? Lord of the assholes?" They hysterically belted and I could only imagine what he'd already said to them that would've sounded entirely out of context in modern London.
His arms were pulled up vertically against his chest in defensive aggravation. He lifted his head to search for me and I gave in, walking up and failing to hide my wide, amused smile at him.
"Finally," he muttered, moving between me and the heavily-accented London girls.
One of them choked back on her giggles to take in my fancy clothing, "Oh my gawd, Livvy, there's a second one - are yous two related?"
I was digging my fingers into the bag of pills, "Oui. I am 'is sister cannot you tell?"
They laughed even harder, one girl slapped her leg, "But you, eh, you're French and he's clearly a British twat." Her finger pointed at Draco's face and his following sneer only threw flames on the fire.
I rolled my eyes and turned my back to them. Draco frowned over my shoulder at their laughter, then down at the clear plastic bag filled with hard, white disks, "What is that?"
I put one on my tongue and pulled his head down to mine, sliding it onto his tongue. I kept kissing him until I felt him swallow it. Then I popped one for myself and winked at him, "Guess you'll find out, won't you?"
He turned his head to give me a sideways glance, "You're almost as bad as Fawley. You will tell me right now what I just swallowed, Madeleine." His voice had dropped to a serious tone and I raised my eyebrows with my hands up as if to say I don't know, which was the case. I could only guess at the small range of drugs it could have been, but likely MDMA.
He ran a hand through his hair in nervous anticipation as one of the girls decided that would be a good moment to stumble into him, waving a cigarette dangerously around.
"I said, DON'T TOUCH ME!" he shouted irately, spinning halfway to glare down at her. I saw him clinging to his wand in his pocket, his hand looking veiny.
"Woah, tell your brotha to go fuckin chill bitch," one girl complained at me, but there was obvious laughter caught in her throat.
I put my hand on his arm, "You'd better watch out, 'e's a wizard you know."
At this they completely lost control, and one girl had to stabilize herself on the wall adjacent to her. I turned him around with force and I heard him muttering under his breath.
Once we were at least ten people far from the entrance I saw the drugs hit him like a brick, just in time. He started staring at his hands with wide eyes and blinking rapidly. My own stomach had started to drop in an electric buzz, my breathing speeding up. The world around us felt wider and brighter. He looked down at me, "Holy fuck. This feels great." An entertained smile spread across his face as he glanced at everything around him, snaking his arm around my waist in the process. He'd only ever tried magical drugs, never the messy, down to earth drugs of muggles that were so wonderfully disabling and enthralling.
It took an unusually long time to pass through security because I had to keep dragging him away from staring in awe at a neon sign, and the bouncer had to repeatedly warn him it would burn him if he touched it. It was the same inside of the club. He kept getting caught on bright lights, people dancing in cages, and the deafening sound of the electronic DJ in the distance. Several occasions I had to swat him away from touching other people's hair; he seemed to be madly enthused by bright, unnatural colors like pinks and greens.
I kept pulling him towards the bar, dancing as I went, pulling his arm up and down. I'd been to my fair share of muggle clubs in France; it had been a young, wild start to my life that he was far behind on. We were on the upper level, and below a thunderous rave was burning on a packed dance floor. I turned around and pulled him into me with an intoxicated grin on my face, dancing and urging him back towards the bar which was still far off.
"Why do I feel so erratic?" he shouted down at me, his eyes black and his hair sweaty.
I unbuttoned his shirt twice and slide my arms around his neck to suck on his ear, "You 'aven't even peaked yet, just wait. Come wit' me, birthday boy." He finally focused enough to follow me as I tugged him towards the alcohol. I wanted to make sure we at least had some shots in our stomach's before it peaked and we had no way to stay level.
I forced him to take three shots with me at once, and he let me tip them back into his mouth with wide eyes. Then I dragged him down the stairs where the music was positively vociferous. If he'd had a problem with people touching him before, he certainly didn't anymore. The crowd was vivacious and space was limited. Most people had their hands straight in the air, pumping towards the famous DJ ahead and I laughed heartily as I watched him raise his arm behind me with an comprehending grin. He wrapped his arm around my waist as we danced and I threw my head back onto his shoulder.
He was sweaty and smelled amazing, his long hair fell down as he kissed me passionately. His hands roamed over my body enthusiastically. "You're easily the hottest girl here," he shouted in my ear and I smiled giddily in his tight hold.
He danced with me for a long while, and by the time I was feeling a come down approaching we were drenched with sweat and giggling uncontrollably. The natural smile that had been on his face for hours had been gorgeous and addictive.