Draco finally convinced me to stand and disapparate back to the base for the final night there. I had cried out in pain the entire time, fighting to stay in an upright position on my damaged soles until I was lying back in the bed we shared. He paced before me nervously for several minutes before leaving to wake Luna for healing assistance.
She came and brought healing potions and carefully inspected my feet before wrapping them up again loosely. She left quickly, sending a sweet smile in Draco's direction, which he naturally rolled his eyes at. I immediately began feeling better after her care, and after I had shed the unflattering tutu I curled up naked with a sigh of relief.
He ripped off his dirty clothing from the horrible day, and I watched with half-closed eyes as he undressed before me. His body was unforgettable; toned abs, muscular arms... fit to death. He climbed into the bed in his boxers and nudged me over. He loomed over me in the darkness as I laid panting in sadness and lingering pain. His long fingers slowly crept across my waist as he stared down into my eyes, taunting me with affection and sexual energy. He held me like a doll, loosely but possessive at the same time.
"What ef we die tomorrow Draco?" I asked.
"Then we die," he replied dryly. He slid down and wrapped me in his arms, tugging me sideways across him as he rolled onto his back. I buried my face in his bare chest next to the moonstone nestled centrally in his pecs, and we were both suddenly feeding off of it's grounding energy. His arms constricted me against him in the desperation of the late hours before the war began.
I dragged my fingers against his skin, suddenly pointlessly curious about what he had been up to in the late evenings prior to coming back to the Manor and claiming me in his bed. "Draco, 'ave you been to dat Burlesque place before?" I craned my neck up to face him in the darkness.
He leaned back to look down at me with surprise, "Yes. Many times. It wasn't exactly a choice."
My eyes wandered around vainly on his features and he watched me hesitantly bite my lip. The idea danced between both of our minds at what I was contemplating. His eyebrows rose in amusement, "Are you jealous?"
"Should I be?" I asked feebly.
His hot breath blew down across my face as he laughed against my forehead, "You really think any of those women could compare?" His fingers drifted up to my shoulders to tickle me gently until I looked up to him again. It was not that I felt compared to, but worried about what he'd seen or been exposed to.
He brushed hair away from my face in the pale moonlight that was blaring in through the cell window. "Unlike you, I've been entirely celibate. I have been forced to attend evenings there I otherwise would have never been caught dead at - don't confuse work with pleasure." The words stung for so many reasons. I was in fact unrealistically jealous that he'd been watching girls dance nakedly before him prior to coming home to me.
I must have seemed like a silly little flower petal dancing in the ballroom, making gardens and sleeping in his bed when he came home to me after that club. In my wildest dreams I couldn't imagine what kind of hyper-sexualized things he had witnessed while being there, and then he had come back to me, in little French dresses with bows on them, begging him to be gentle and sensitive.
I stared at the moonstone on his chest where it glowed with what was now a dark purple hue before my eyes. It had no doubt absorbed a hefty sum of dark energy from his being by that point. He waited patiently for me to say anything else and when I didn't I could sense him beginning to tense. I had nothing else to say. I was disappointed by the thought of him mysteriously being at a sex club for months but it wasn't his fault, and I felt paralyzed to explain how much it was upsetting me.
"I know you're pissed, you can just say it," he finally quipped restlessly. "There's a reason why I didn't want to rub it in by informing you I was going there."
I looked up into his glittering blue eyes in the brightness of the stone, "Am I... am I enough? Are you pleased wit' me, in bed?"
He closed his eyes and cracked his neck, sighing emphatically, "You're being ridiculous. Have I ever suggested that you aren't enough? It's not as though I went to that club of my accord or in response to something lacking in my personal sex life." His voice was dark and steady, with a hint of aggravation lining it. He rubbed his face with his free hand, running his hand up through his messy hair.
I wrapped my arm around him as tightly as possible and shut my eyes against his chest. He was mine. And I wanted him to only be mine in every way. I suddenly had a humorous thought that I was thinking like he did, jealous and possessive. He continued in the absence of yet another response from me, "You can't imagine how refreshing it was coming home to you every night. You were always up to adorable, unpredictable things. The way you looked at me...Nothing could compare to having you naked in my bed. There is no competition." His fingers toyed with my long strands of hair as we cuddled.
I moaned in a nervous high pitch, as my mind switched gears with his words. If I was adorable, I probably wouldn't be so for long, "I 'ave a very bad feeling about using my Veela magic tomorrow. What if I lose control of et?" I suddenly sat up, hyperventilating with a dizzy head. I put my face in my hands, trying to banish the notion that I could become entirely evil from overexerting the poisoned Veela magic. An entire army of people were depending on me to destroy the castle wards and it would be greatly demanding - if I was even successful. I was already struggling to deal with the mix of boiling rage and sadness that threatened to bubble up at any moment with the addition of the dark mark, let alone channel it in massive quantities.
He sat up as well and slid his arm around my shoulders, "We have to do this, this has to end." I leaned into him and he pet my cheek with his fingers, "You tried to warn me once that your wandless magic seemed different. Now I'm convinced you're more powerful than me. You can do this." His fingers drifted down to my chin and commanded my face up to his.
He nudged his pointy nose into mine and his lips danced against my lips just barely. I pushed into the kiss and we held it, breathing anxiously and sensually. My heart was still pounding with horrific trepidation with regard to the coming day, but I was bleakly aware it was possibly our last chance to be intimate together.
He matched my thinking, leaning over me to direct me down into the mattress. He spread my legs while hovering above me and kissed me achingly slowly in the pale darkness of the barrack room. His fingers ran up my naked body with careful caresses, taking in my skin as though to memorize it. The taste of his sweet lips mixed with cigarettes and brandy was addictive. I pulled down his boxers as he ground against me erotically and it was moments before he naturally slid inside of me.
We both groaned at the tactile experience that the slow love making provided. He moved to kiss along my jaw line while slipping back and forth between my legs in a sensual rhythm. His voice came out in a barely audible whisper as he spoke, "When this is over, I sincerely want a child with you, Madeleine." He moved back to my lips to continue kissing me and a shiver ran down my spine at the thought that he desired such a thing. Up until recent events I'd always pictured Draco ending up as a bitter father to any child of ours against his own will, trapped at the mercy of Lucius and the dark lord forcing us to mate.
The words only intensified the experience as we both silently imagined the life we could potentially have together. I could see visions of small platinum haired children running around the villa in France, or learning to build cars with Draco in the sanctuary. He continued to kiss me until I was peaking, and I groaned lightly, "Draco, I'm going to cum."
He pulled back to clamp his hand down over my mouth to muffle my moans, "Good girl. Cum for me." He dug deep and slowly, and I could see his bright eyes transfixed on my face as I orgasmed, biting his lip the entire time. When he was satisfied with my reactions I then felt him pulsing deep inside of me, and he swore under his breath before moving his hand away again to kiss me passionately.
He gradually pulled away and invited me to cuddle him once again. I laid in his arms with my head on his shoulder and my nose in his neck. I eventually fell asleep despite the terrorizing day ahead, held by the boy I loved so profoundly.
The morning came with a dreadful sense of morbidity and solemn. By five am I could not feign sleeping any longer, and Draco was clearly in the same state. When my eyes stopped fighting to remain closed and fluttered open I looked up at him to see that he was staring straight at the concrete ceiling, looking faraway, concerned and pale. Tendrils of dull blue light were seeping in through the caged window behind our heads and he was holding me tightly with both arms as though if he let go I would slip away like Jack from the Titanic.
We dressed in silence, sparing sad glances at one another. I pulled on a black dress that felt fitting for the melancholy day and he finally broke the quiet affair, his eyes trailing down the dark Victorian clothing I had just darned, "I thought you did not prefer black?"
I shrugged, and he frowned deeply at the inconspicuous response. Perhaps he was mourning the loss of some former version of myself that he could no longer recognize in my contemporary, marked form. Unfortunately, I did not have the attention span to address his worries regarding my attire and I said nothing in return, allowing him to simply watch me brush out my white hair with patience.
"Your hair is nice. I've come to appreciate the ivory," he complimented, standing close to me with a clinginess I hadn't seen since the day I awoke following the fire and glass accident in the Manor. His eyes roved over me eagerly as if it would be the last time that he saw me. I turned to him with a raised eyebrow in surprise and he smirked slightly, "Although, it is a little unsettling that we could now be confused as being related."
I was suddenly struck with a vile wave of nausea. I breathed out with a gag catching in my throat and my hand flew to my stomach. He reached out to me with a disturbed expression, "Are you going to be sick again?"
"Yes," I barely squeaked out before I ran from the room to the front step once again to retch off of the railing. He hovered behind me with unmasked perturbation.
By six in the morning almost everyone in the complex had made their way to the main hall of the military complex. Evidently, Order members were restless and afraid of the daunting battle ahead. Luna Lovegood went to the expensive effort of making food that hardly anyone touched out of the shared, anxious trepidation for what was coming.
We all clustered at wonky metal tables as Hermione, Ron and McGonagall talked in hushed voices with Mad-Eye in the center of the room. Moody came to a conclusion, nodding his head and then rotated to address the room, his ghastly spinning eye swung around in his head gyroscopically. Seamus leaned towards Blaise who was next to me and I heard him whisper, "How he doesn't hurl from all o' that motion is beyond me."
Blaise let out a faint, breathy snort of amusement. Moody narrowed his one real eye while the other stopped abruptly moving and honed in Seamus. "Unless you'd like everyone here to know the color of your underwear Mister Finnigan, I'd suggest you keep your remarks to yourself. Now listen up," his grouchy voice suddenly echoed around the room as all members fell silent attentively. Mad-Eye paused for some kind of dramatic effect, his eye swirling around the brave group before him.
He rested both hands on the shoddy wooden cane in his grasp, "Malfoy here has graciously informed us that the burning of Potter is scheduled for noon today. We need to breach the castle wards before this can occur. Step one," he pointed the cane at Draco who furrowed his eyebrows at the unwanted scrutiny of the crowd which turned to look at him. "Malfoy number one goes in this morning, and tries to get a wand to Potter beforehand."
Draco nodded, his eyes darting around all of the gazes glued to him. Moody drawled on, now shifting the axis of the extended cane to myself, "Step two - we meet at the gate of the bridge with Malfoy number two, to breach the wards and start the fight. Hopefully this little one can actually outperform the magic cast to prevent our entry. In the event that this doesn't work, she will go in and help Malfoy number one to free Potter and defeat the dark lord. Let's all cross our fingers it doesn't come to that."
Not a peep was released in the room. Ron shifted uncomfortably next to Mad-Eye, and the properly dressed woman named Minerva to his other side wrung her hands with a shivery stature. She spoke with a sagacious expression on her elderly face, "I won't lie to you all. Many of you will perish today if we do breach that castle. There is simply no other way around it; it will be...it will be a bloodbath. Your bravery today will be noted in history, and your actions...your actions could very well earn our freedom for centuries to come." She looked as though she were about to cry as she turned away and fanned at her face.
"Right then, prepare yourselves. We move for the castle at ten," Moody curtly dismissed us, sauntering away like an ogre.
I stood and beelined for Hermione and Ron who were hugging tightly. I tapped her rudely on the shoulder and she unwrapped herself from the ginger boy. I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Draco had followed me across the room like a child in a grocery store glued to it's parental figure. He stood to my left and exchanged heated glances with Ron. I spoke with authority, "'ermione, 'arry mentioned dat you need to find de diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw and destroy et."
Her eyes moved back and forth as she focused on her thoughts before us all. She raised her brown gaze to Ron, "That must be the last Horcrux, besides Nagini." Ron bobbed his head in agreement. He seemed sickly and unkempt, showing off a scruffy orange beard that was forming on his jawline. Dark semi-circles had appeared under his rich blue eyes.
With the information conveyed I twirled around to Draco and took his hand to lead him out the front door. He followed me obediently out into what was a fittingly stormy day. We clustered close together under the tiny canopy as rain droplets dripped down onto our hair. The sound of the ocean smashing against the stone barricade several hundred meters away monopolized the atmosphere.
I tangled my fingers in his arguably garish Death Eater robes. He pulled the large, droopy black hood over his platinum hair and stared down at me with his shiny silver eyes. I had predicted that he was going to leave immediately after Moody's speech and we both stood there with anticipation, tantrically entwined.
He spoke in a choked voice, "I have to leave." He visibly swallowed.
My bottom lip started trembling against my will as I said the words we were both thinking, "Draco, I'm so afraid dis is de last time dat I will see you." My fingers were coiling desperately in his clothing as he simply offered me a bleak expression. I shook on the spot, attempting to memorize his gorgeous, pointy features. He eventually wrapped his arms around me, pulling me against him. I stood with my head sideways on his chest and my arms around his neck, listening to his unsteady heartbeat. The salty prickling of tears threatened my eyes as I trailed my vision along the façade of weathered bricks cladding the military building.
He turned his head downwards and rested his cheek on my hair, "It may be. But we have to try. Promise me that you'll be alert today, and do everything that you can to stay in control and survive. That's all I ask of you - not to exercise unnecessary abandonment for your own safety...I may not be able to protect you." His hand ran down my back and I leaned backwards to push on my toes and kiss him. He kissed me back energetically and we embraced for minutes before he finally stepped away with a guilty look, "I need to go, Madeleine."
With my arms still twisted around his hood I gaped, wordless, as tears slid across my face. He looked down at me with tears rising in his own eyes. I slid my fingers down to the center of his shirt and closed them around the moonstone below the lavish fabric of his outfit, "You 'ave my 'eart. You 'ave me wit' you. I love you, Draco." My eyes went protectively to the watch around his wrist, hoping and praying nothing happened to our final line of defense.
He let out a sharp exhale through his nose and his eyebrows softened to a point, "I know." He closed his hand on mine. "I love you too," he whispered, blinking away tears as he inevitably cried despite obvious efforts not to. His eyes rested on mine for a moment before he stepped back once again to untangle our point of contact and my heart lurched painfully with the immediate separation.
He gave me one last look of longing while raising his wand, "I'll always love you, Madeleine. No matter what." Then he was gone, and I felt like dropping to my knees in the wake of the black smoke that engulfed me and dragged my emotions deeper below the surface.