Eleanor and Draco had done the deed. It was awkward and fumbling despite their history of being more intimate than most. They were still young teenagers, very much in love and very much concerned with being enough for the other. But it was perfect. Not perfect, but perfect for them. Eleanor thought about her birth mother and Remus, and how they had found each other and were immediately having sex all of the time before falling in love (Remus did not tell her that in so many words, however Sirius compared them to various woodland creatures when his friend wasn't around.)
Eleanor loved the story of Nora and Remus, a whirlwind romance where her mother threw caution to the wind, told it like it was, and didn't care what anyone thought. But that wasn't Eleanor. Eleanor liked to take her time. And while she acknowledged that she could use a bit of her birth mother's boldness in other areas of her life, her little peace with Draco was exactly what she had wanted.
But the two of them still had to face reality eventually. Blaise was still a Death Eater, Draco's family was still what it was, he still had school to deal with and Quidditch to practice for. The world still felt overwhelming, but Eleanor didn't. She felt like coming home.
The two fell into their new normal pattern as the year progressed. They tried to spend as much time together as possible. Draco was immersed in studying, and would follow Eleanor around with his books in tow so he could sit with her wherever she went. He attempted to retain his friendships with fellow Slytherins, but he felt less connected with them now. His power had been taken away with his father imprisoned and his mother fled. His loyalties had shifted over the summer, and so his friendships began to shift also.
The only housemate that he felt connected to anymore was Blaise, and that was because Blaise began clinging to him out of desperation and fear for his life. Eleanor and Draco spent any spare moment they could learning about Vanishing Cabinets and their history. Both of them figured that he was trying to get Death Eaters into the castle, but they didn't know when or why. They didn't know what to do with their theory, and Eleanor knew better than to tell Harry her thoughts. Draco was already feeling so alone, she didn't want her friends turning on him for fear of disloyalty.
The pair were careful not to completely isolate themselves, but they found more peace with each other than with anyone else.
One particular October afternoon, Eleanor was tending to the Hippogriffs before Hagrid's lesson. Draco was sitting a healthy distance away, his quill moving slowly across a piece of parchment.
"What a long way you've come from trying to get these animals banned, to spending your afternoon with them." Eleanor called jokingly over to a preoccupied Draco.
"Don't remind them of it, I'm afraid they'll turn on me any second." Draco chuckled without looking up. "I don't understand how everyone was so excited about Potter's ride when you are basically a Hippogriff whisperer."
"I didn't realize my Hippogriff whispering skills until after Harry had ridden Buckbeak. You weren't there, you'd already caused an unnecessary scene by that point." Eleanor rolled her eyes.
"Oh come on, El, I was 13 and jealous."
"And now you're 16 and what?" Eleanor raised a brow and began walking towards him.
"In love. And hopefully better at showing it than when I was 13." Draco smiled up at her as she approached the tree he was sitting against.
"You're terribly cheesy." Eleanor tsked with a laugh.
"Only when we're alone, love."
"What are you working on over here?" She asked, gazing at the parchment that didn't look anything like homework.
"It's actually a letter to my mum. I was hoping you'd come with me to ask Granger to help me send it when I'm finished."
Draco was always surprising Eleanor. After their discovery about Blaise, Eleanor had braced herself for the worst. She had been prepared to drag him out of the dark place, but it seemed that every day Draco was growing more and more. She felt really solid with him. "I'm sure Hermione would be happy to help."
Eleanor fidgeted on the bench outside of McGonagall's office. She was anxious for their meeting to discuss her progress in her teaching assistant positions, eager for a chance to prove herself. To avoid chewing her thumbnail in anticipation Eleanor played with the tattered cover of a leather-bound journal that her parents had gotten her years before. It was intended to be a place to write out her anxieties, but Eleanor had never been the journaling type no matter how hard she tried, and the journal had been abandoned for years. She had recently found it at the bottom of her trunk, slightly worn but all of the pages still fresh. She had brainstormed idea after idea of projects she could do around Hogwarts to build a portfolio for herself once she graduated. Her hope was that McGonagall would approve some of them so she could put her busy, anxious energy to work.
"Miss Cordarri," McGonagall greeted, opening her office door for Eleanor to enter, "please come in. I'm interested to hear about your progress this term."
"First of all, thank you for the assistant teaching positions, they have helped so much with getting me back on track." Eleanor immediately began gushing in gratitude.
"You earned them." Her professor smiled.
"I didn't, you were very gracious to offer them to me and I am so appreciative." Eleanor sucked in a deep breath and laid her notebook on the desk between them. "I've been talking with Professor Sprout about how I can make an impact using my passions. I'm not sure if the traditional career paths are really for me. I decided, instead, to come up with a list of things that need to get done, and then come up with solutions for them. I thought maybe I could try to start implementing them and building a portfolio." Eleanor began to spill out as she opened her notebook to a page filled with drawings and notes. "An example would be a community garden where we can all work together to grow our own fruits and vegetables. Professor Sprout had even mentioned that it could be used as extra credit for Herbology, and I think it really fosters a sense of community when we all build something together. Also, if we built it in a nice way, it could also be a new study spot outdoors, which I think is really relieving rather than being inside. Another idea I had was a lake clean up project. I was doing some research and there is a new invasive species of algae in the lake, and I thought it might be nice to organize a committee and have a lake cleaning event. Maybe meet for a few weeks beforehand and start building the nets together." Eleanor had rambled for a long time and decided then to look at McGonagall to gauge her reaction.
"These are very ambitious." McGonagall noted, sliding the pictures closer to her and inspecting the pages closely. "How many ideas do you have in here?"
"Only a few well thought out ones, the others are still in progress." Eleanor admitted sheepishly.
"This is showing a lot of passion and dedication to your work. I'm very proud." The older woman smiled. "You have taken a very unfair hand and come out with new gumption."
"It wasn't easy."
"It seldom is, Miss Cordarri." McGonagall agreed. "These are impressive plans, though I am afraid your faith in your classmates is a bit...over enthusiastic."
"They can do it."
"Wow, what a great turn out." Eleanor gave a tight lipped smile to the greenhouse an evening a few weeks later. She had gotten permission from McGonagall and Dumbledore to create an Environmentalist club at Hogwarts and Professor Sprout excitedly agreed to sponsor it. The only people in the greenhouse were a giddy Professor Sprout and Neville Longbottom, a spaced out Luna Lovegood, and several unenthused first and second years who were given the choice between attending this meeting or attending detention. "Well, I'm Eleanor Cordarri and I'm really excited to get to work today. Basically this club is all about finding ways to love the world around Hogwarts. I've got a few exciting projects coming up that we are going to start working on. My first is a community garden and study space outside. I am going to start breaking ground on that soon to plant some vegetables that we could all enjoy. I am also planning on doing a clean up of the Black Lake from an invasive algae in the Spring and we need to start prepping for that by building nets and finding a tonic to prevent it from returning. We're going to meet here once a week so work on those projects." Eleanor paused and looked out at all of the blank faces who had nothing to say. "So let's start with the garden, does anyone have any ideas of what should go in it?"
Neville's hand shot up in the air. "We should plant holly bushes and mistletoe for people to decorate the dorms with for Christmas. I know a tonic for accelerated growth that will get them ready in time. It would be a great way to get the club's name out there!"
"That's a great idea, Neville." Eleanor said excitedly as she wrote 'holly and mistletoe' on the chalkboard.
"Oh, yes, Whim Whams love holly berries," Luna spoke up, "it will be great for them to get some to eat before hibernation."
"Oh," Eleanor blinked at her comment, "all the more reason." She smiled. Eleanor then looked to the younger students who were staring blankly.
Professor Sprout leaned in very close and whispered something Eleanor couldn't quite hear, but sounded as though it was a threat for more detention, and immediately their hands started to raise.
"Maybe we could have class out in the garden sometimes." One suggested.
"I like sweet potatoes." Another put in.
Eleanor wrote all of the ideas down and smiled. "Thank you so much. Um, I have an activity, you all could draw a picture of what you want the garden to look like and to have in it and we could possibly work from there? Yeah? I'll give you all a few minutes to work on it, let me pass out some parchment."
After all of the parchment was passed out, Eleanor noticed Draco standing in his Quidditch gear at the very back of the greenhouse, lurking in the shadows. With everyone immersed in their work, she bounded back to quietly say hello.
"How was practice?" She asked softly, leaning in to kiss him but pulling back at the smell of his sweat. She pulled him by the hand out of the greenhouse so they won't be overheard.
"Fine." He retorted shortly. "How's this going?"
"Um, okay. No one really seems interested besides Neville."
"Where are your friends?" Draco asked.
"Hermione is shadowing Head Girl tonight, and Harry is doing some Quidditch thing tonight."
"They don't have the Pitch." Draco stated in confusion.
"It's not practice, it's something else." Eleanor waved off.
"What is it?"
"I'm not giving away precious Gryffindor secrets just because I'm sleeping with the enemy." Eleanor joked, Draco only half cracked a smile and looked at the ground. Something about his mood was off, Eleanor could tell. "Are you going to stay? We're drawing our dream gardens right now."
"No, I need to get back." Draco snipped shortly again. Eleanor narrowed her eyes and leaned in, forcing him to look at her.
"What's up?" She asked.
"Nothing, alright? It's just… dream gardens and all that, it's...not really my thing." Draco retorted. Eleanor took a step back and examined him closely, but he didn't flinch under her gaze.
"Meet me later in the Room of Requirement." Eleanor stated.
"Eleanor, I really can't tonight." Draco rubbed his neck. Eleanor ground her teeth at the sound of her full name.
"It wasn't a question." She snapped back. Draco let out a breath and nodded once.
"I've got to go shower then I'll meet you there." He turned on his heel and began to walk away, looking mopey.
"I love you." Eleanor called after him in annoyance. He raised one hand in a small wave.
"You too." He let out quietly. Eleanor rolled her eyes at him, and wondered what got him into such a poor mood. She returned to the greenhouse and finished up the meeting, her heart definitely not in it anymore.
Once everyone dispersed, Professor Sprout came up and helped Eleanor to clean the chalkboard. "May I offer some advice?" She asked softly.
"Please." Eleanor begged.
"Try to use 'we' statements rather than 'I' statements when you talk about your plans. And don't present your activities like they are questions. This is what we are going to do and let's do it."
Eleanor let out a breath and nodded. "That's helpful, thank you."
"It's only going to get better."
"Okay, what's going on?" Eleanor immediately asked upon Draco's entry into the Room of Requirement. That night the room provided a large fireplace, and a comfy sofa. Eleanor had stopped by the kitchens and was able to convince Dobby to provide a bottle of wine for them. Draco's hair was still slightly wet from his shower and he was wearing casual clothes that indicated he was ready to go to bed. His Slytherin Quidditch Team sweatshirt clung to his body and his cheeks looked slightly flushed.
"Nothing, El, really. Practice was just frustrating."
"Frustrating how?" Eleanor wondered, bringing Draco into her arms and laying his head on her shoulder.
"I think they all hate me and I can't tell why. I didn't see them all summer, but I'm also not all buddy buddy with Potter. I don't know what I did."
"What makes you think they hate you?"
"Oh, I don't know El, I got rushed off my broom three different times." Draco sighed in agitation. "Luckily I was always close to the ground, but there is no way they were accidents."
"Are you okay?" Eleanor pulled away to look at him.
"I'm fine." Draco retorted, but winced at her movements.
"Take off the jacket." Eleanor demanded. "Don't make me ask twice."
"Yes ma'am." Draco tried to joke and continued to grimace while he slid the sweatshirt off to reveal purple bruises forming along his arm. Eleanor carefully lifted his shirt to inspect the bruising that was forming around his ribcage and down to his hips.
"Draco," Eleanor let out softly, feeling the raising of his skin beneath her fingers. "Why did they do this?"
"I just told you I didn't know." Draco hissed at the pain from her touch.
"You should see Madame Pomfrey."
"They'll all think I'm weak. It'll make it worse."
"Well, being hit by a broom going full speed so that you fall to the ground several times in the course of a few hours doesn't make you weak. You could have a cracked rib." Eleanor pointed out.
"If it doesn't get better I'll go." Draco agreed. "I just wish I knew what I did to upset them so badly."
"It isn't fair." Eleanor huffed.
"Nothing in life is fair, El, you know that."
"Do they really think they are going to beat Gryffindor by beating the shit out of their own Seeker?"
"Hold on, you think we have a shot at beating Gryffindor?" Draco asked teasingly.
"No." Eleanor responded automatically, as she was required to do as both honorary sister of the Gryffindor team captain, and a proud Gryffindor herself. "However, you do have a shot at beating the other two if they didn't push you to the ground."
"I'll have you wearing the Slytherin colors by the end of the season, I'm sure of it."
"You'd have to dress my dead body in them, because I would never let that happen."
Draco chuckled and leaned back into Eleanor, feeling slightly more uplifted by her presence.
Dear Mum,
I hope you didn't throw this away when you saw Granger's name on the outside. El and I thought it might be safer to have her send it in case our comings and goings are being watched. I don't want to lead anyone to you.
Living with Eleanor and her people over the summer was not as bad as you would think. They were kind to me and made sure I was safe - no doubt the reason El gets along with them so well.
Everything feels different now. Part of me wishes things would go back to normal, but I guess normal wasn't what was working for us. I just want us to come out the other side safe. I really hope you're safe.
Oh, and I gave up being a Prefect. With the way everything was going it just didn't make sense to add that. But I'm still focusing on Quidditch and I think it's going to be a good season. El is working as a teaching assistant for two professors and she has so many ideas and is trying to make Hogwarts better.
I don't know when I'll see you next, but I hope it's soon.
Best,
Draco
Hi all! This chapter jumped around a fair bit, but I wanted to give you all an insight on the different struggles and triumphs that Draco and Eleanor are facing separately so far this year! I've completely rethought and crafted the ending of this story so these little moments now are going to become bigger players later in the game! Please let me know what you're thinking about the story so far, and please, please stay safe and well!
