Eleanor strained her eyes to try to find Draco in the air on his broom. With the sun setting earlier, and a Quidditch Match fast approaching, evenings on the Pitch started turning into drills in the darkness. Still, Eleanor wanted to catch a peak and say hello before retiring to the Gryffindor Common Room.
She'd been trying to avoid her friends in the last few days. When Ron wasn't snogging Lavender in some corner, he was picking fights with Hermione, who would let out her frustration with Harry and Eleanor, but really it was just Eleanor listening to most of it because Harry was either watching Dean and Ginny, or staring deeply into his Potions book. Eleanor tried to comfort Hermione as much as she could, after all, last year when things were bad with Draco, Eleanor wanted nothing more than a shoulder to cry on. But the trouble was Hermione rarely cried, she mostly got angry - it was one of the qualities the two girls had in common. And if Eleanor were being honest with herself, Hermione's anger frightened her sometimes, so she tried to take leave and find refuge with Draco when she could.
She heard a whistle blow from above her head and heard the quiet descent of seven broomsticks. Most of them made their way to the far end of the Pitch where the locker rooms were located, but one broom found its way to here.
"I never thought you'd be petty enough to spy." Draco joked once his feet touched the ground.
"Spy?" Eleanor repeated in mock shock, "How could you think so little of me?"
"What'd you think? How do we look?" Draco's teasing tone changed to one of seriousness.
"Honestly, I couldn't really see you with how dark it was. I just wanted to walk back with you. Professor Sprout and I were plotting out the garden."
"Likely excuse." Draco chuckled, but grabbed her hand in his and held his broom firmly in the other. The pair walked slowly so as not to bump into any of the others on the Slytherin Quidditch team, and even paused outside of the main entrance to snog for a few minutes to buy themselves more time - or so that was their excuse. Eleanor cherished these quiet, domestic moments with Draco. Their lives were full of death, mistrust, Death Eaters, Voldemort, a war. But when Draco got his fingers, still gloved from practice, tangled in her curly hair, or when her back was pressed against a cold wall as they kissed quietly, avoiding the eyes of professors, or when he whispered that he loved her so lowly that only Eleanor could hear, all of these things made her feel like life was normal.
With the way things were going - friends becoming Death Eaters, Harry having secret meetings with Dumbledore to prepare him for his inevitable encounter with Voldemort, the Order ramping up security - Eleanor didn't know when the sense of normalcy she had would vanish from her life.
So her and Draco stayed interlocked under the moonlit sky though they were both cold. Their frigid noses would bump every once and awhile, but Eleanor stayed firmly there. Pinned gently between him and the wall, their lips moving together so pleasurably the world could have stopped and Eleanor would have been content.
"Oh, honestly you two." Eleanor heard Hermione groan from a few yards away. "They're about to close the doors for the night, get inside." Eleanor froze beneath Draco and giggled lightly, while Draco tried not to look sheepish.
"Eleanor, have some respect." Ron chimed in jokingly, to which Hermione shot him an irritated glance. Eleanor felt her heart drop slightly for her friend, so in love with Ron, and unable to express it. Eleanor imagined their Prefect rounds together must have been torture. She knew Ron bounced between making Hermione laugh to talking nonstop about Lavender. Hermione always returned confused and hurt.
"Well, at least we had the decency to keep away from the majority of the public eye, isn't that right, Won-Won?" Eleanor snapped back, irritated on behalf of Hermione. Ron turned red at that and looked away.
"Come on, 'Mione, we've got to finish our rounds." Ron urged, grabbing Hermione's hand to lead them away from Draco and Eleanor out of embarrassment for his nickname being revealed to his sworn enemy. Hermione looked over her shoulder to Eleanor as she was pulled away, and glanced down at their intertwined hands. Eleanor gave her a sad smile and a slight nod, a silent promise to wait up for her so they could discuss her confusion.
"I'll walk you back up to the common room." Draco offered, Eleanor tore her eyes from Hermione and Ron and smiled gratefully at him.
"Always a gentleman." She chirped happily and fell into step with him.
"Aren't you glad that I don't lead you on like that?" Draco chuckled.
"Wow, you're a whole six months ahead of Ron on the 'telling girls how you feel' and being more emotionally mature growth rate. Do you want me to bake a cake?" Eleanor quipped sarcastically. He had been doing a lot better by not being vicious to her friends, but she still needed to check him for sarcastic comments every now and again.
"Okay, smart ass, watch it. I was just making an observation."
"How's Blaise?" Eleanor tried to shift the subject from her friends to his.
"I dunno, fine, I suppose. As fine as you can be." Draco shrugged. "Sometimes, I forget he's even...you know."
"I wish I could forget." Eleanor muttered softly, kicking a piece of loose parchment on the floor out of her way.
"What does that mean?" Draco asked.
"I mean, I wish that I wasn't worried about the lives of everyone I loved because there is a Death Eater in the school every minute of every day. It would be nice to have a break."
Draco paused for a moment and looked at Eleanor critically. "I thought you understood why I don't want to turn him in right now."
"I do," Eleanor nodded, but didn't continue her thought and returned her eyes to the ground.
"You just don't agree." Draco finished for her, crossing his arms across his chest.
"It isn't that I don't agree, it's just-" Eleanor stopped herself and ran her hands through her hair, "look, let's not do this tonight. I don't want to do this."
"I do. I want to do this." Draco insisted, then waved a hand, welcoming her to continue her thoughts. "I'd love to hear Eleanor's honest opinion about my decision, perhaps you might also explain why you weren't honest in the first place."
"Draco, stop." Eleanor was almost begging now, she didn't want to argue with Draco about Blaise. He was Draco's best friend, and Draco would get defensive, the way Eleanor knew she always did with her own friends.
"Why can't you just be honest? I'm not angry, I'm just curious." That was a lie, Eleanor could tell plainly in his voice. She rolled her eyes slightly at him.
"We're tired. We're going to say things we regret if we aren't well rested. Let's talk tomorrow." Eleanor continued walking up the stairs but Draco stopped moving.
"I won't regret what I'm saying." Draco stated firmly. "Just tell me what you're feeling about this whole situation and be honest."
Eleanor sucked in a breath and tried to form her words carefully before she started talking. "I think you helping and protecting him is very noble, loyal, and very characteristically you." Eleanor paused and looked at her feet for a moment. "But we've a pretty good idea of what he's up to now, so at this point if we aren't actively stopping him and getting him help, we're partly responsible for whatever shit goes down as a result of it."
Draco clenched his teeth. "You want me to turn him in?" He asked tightly.
"Is it the worst idea?" Eleanor asked. "I mean, is it? That was supposed to be you and you and your family got protected."
"Not all of my family." Draco returned quickly. "He's still my father, Eleanor, even for all his sins."
"I never said he wasn't." Eleanor huffed, grinding her teeth at the sound of her full name from him.
"Look, I know you don't get it because your parents were perfect, but these people, my people, would do anything for their families. Even if it is not morally sound. That's what he is doing right now, protecting his family. What kind of friend would I be if I turned him in and got his whole family killed."
"Your people?" Eleanor repeated. "What are you talking about? I know exactly what position he is in right now. We grew up together, Draco, your people are my people."
"You found new people, Eleanor. You lost one family and fell directly into another one. The world doesn't work that way for everyone. If I turn him in, his parents are dead, and where is he going to go? All of the people who he grew up with will feel betrayed, all of the people he ran to for protection won't trust him. Are you going to take him in? Fill Cordarri Castle with your own personal island of misfits who can't go home again?"
"Why shouldn't I?"
"You are not reasonable. You cannot save everyone." Draco retorted.
"So we should just let Death Eaters walk around when there are three people in this school that Voldemort is actively searching for, and probably a hundred others he wants to kill for fun?"
"That isn't Blaise's goal."
"But he's working for that goal."
"The world is not black and white, Eleanor. Things are complicated. I thought you understood that. I thought we were on the same page. Where is this coming from?"
"I thought you were going to figure out what he needed to do, and help him get out."
"I never said that. I specifically said that I was going to help him. And you said 'I figured that's what you meant,' those exact words. I'm not sure where the confusion is."
Eleanor rubbed her forehead in frustration. She wanted to scream at him but was forcing herself back. "When we had that conversation, I thought that maybe his mission would be to keep tabs on us, learn more about ways to travel and report back. I didn't think they would actually make a 16 year old try to sneak a bunch of Death Eaters into the school."
"We don't know for sure if that's what he's doing." Draco clarified.
"Okay, what do you think they want a Vanishing Cabinet restored for? Hide and seek?" Eleanor raised her voice then, but immediately quieted, realizing she was still in a public part of the school though it wasn't crowded.
"I don't know what to tell you, Eleanor. I'm not turning him in and putting him and his family in danger when we don't even know if he's dangerous yet." Draco shrugged. "I'm sorry you're apparently so disappointed in me. I wish you would have told me that from the beginning."
"I thought you understood my concerns. I thought you shared them."
"Of course I share them! I'm not an idiot." Draco took a deep breath. "I obviously realize this is risky, but he's fine. He trusts me and he's still coming to me for support. If I break that trust, we lose our information, and he loses his whole family."
"I just hope you know what you're doing." Eleanor finally puffed out.
"As much as you apparently like to think that I'm stupid and that I don't realize how fucked this whole situation is, I do. I don't need your snark, Eleanor, I really don't."
"I don't think you're stupid." Eleanor rolled her eyes. "I think you're forgetting that there are a lot of lives at risk here. Including mine."
Draco stared at her with an open mouth. His eyes wide for a few seconds before he rubbed his face and looked at the ground. "If you think I forget, even for a second, about your life then this is a really sad moment for me, Eleanor." He turned on his heel and began walking down the stairs, away from Eleanor, while she just stood and watched. "I'll see you tomorrow." He let out quietly, sadly. "Goodnight."
After Draco disappeared into the shadows, Eleanor turned and began walking quietly back to the Gryffindor Common Room. Tears slowly rolled down her cheeks and she only wiped them when she was faced with the Fat Lady.
"Baubles." Eleanor bit out.
"Are you alright?" The Fat Lady asked.
"Baubles." Eleanor repeated firmly. The Fat Lady rolled her eyes.
"I was just asking, no need to be rude." She huffed as she swung open so that Eleanor could climb into the Common Room.
"Eleanor," Harry stood up when she entered, only a few fourth years remained in the far corner of the Common Room so Eleanor felt less embarrassed for being teary. "What's wrong?"
"I guess I just forgot how good Draco and I can be at arguing." Eleanor whimpered slightly, wiping another tear. Harry gave her a tender hug and offered her a crumpled napkin from his pocket - one he'd obviously shoved in there at dinner and had since forgotten about. Eleanor chuckled slightly and took it to wipe her eyes.
"What were you arguing about?" Harry asked.
Eleanor wanted to tell him. She wanted validation that she wasn't being unfair, that it was normal to be afraid. But telling Harry meant outing Blaise when Draco swore he had it under control.
"Something stupid." Eleanor chuckled dishonestly. "You'll only make fun."
At the end of the day, Eleanor felt she had to trust Draco.
Oh man, I'm sorry. Draco and Eleanor were doing so well for so long, but even the best couples hit rough patches, and they are pretty good at arguing! I'm writing ahead and y'all, I'm so stoked about what is in store so I hope you'll forgive a bit of trouble in paradise to see what comes next! Let me know what you think, all of your reviews really energize my writing SO much and are always so appreciated, so please, please leave one so I know how I'm doing!
