"I- I'm sorry." Draco stammers and I tilt my head, my wand arm far from lowering. It was good practice never to turn your back on a snake.

"Sorry is a hard word for me to believe from you." I frown, ignoring Theodore's pleads with us both to lower our wands.

"Obliviate." I utter as I focus on erasing Draco's memories of what happened during my time with them in the last few hours. Clearly, he was not mature enough to handle the truth just yet. Perhaps little bits of information fed to him over a certain amount of time was better.

"Stupefy!" I use the stunner as soon as I finish obliviating his memories and watch as he grows unconscious and limp in his seat. This was simply a precaution; I didn't need the younger blonde asking questions about why I was in his house.

"Expelliarmus!" I hear Theodore cast behind me and the presence of the wand against my neck quickly disappears. I turn to face the uncle and nephew behind me.

"I did promise." My face is impassive as Mr Malfoy's glare attempts to sear my skull. He was clearly angry that his wand was in Theodore's grasp, leaving him defenceless.

"And quite frankly, after four years, this is the kindest your son deserves. Now, I can sense when my presence is no longer needed, so I shall leave you to answer your own questions." I glance at Theodore before quickly exiting the library, determined to leave the manor as soon as possible.


"Mariana, wait!" My scuffed trainers stop crunching against the gravel path as I stand outside the Malfoy's entrance gate. I gently turn to face my soulmate, who looked at me with concerned blue eyes.

"What do you want?" My tone is biting, but there was a part of me that didn't care. Everyone wanted something from me, and I wasn't about to pin Theodore as any different just yet.

"Come home with me," he rakes his thin fingers through his light brown curls. I doubletake.

"Excuse me?"

"The muggles, they can't be very nice to you."

"Not very nice is an understatement." I correct him as I turn back around, opening one of the iron gates. I didn't trust Mr Malfoy not to attempt to take my life whilst I was talking to Theodore. I had just forced his son unconscious after all, and the blonde patriach had tried to end my life in Second Year after I'd freed Dobby from him. I wouldn't put it past him to try again, his nephew's soulmate or not.

"Then stay with me. You don't have to be in the same wing as me, and I wouldn't be offended if you even placed wards around your room so that you can feel more secure."

"Can't we have this conversation somewhere else?" I sigh. Theodore takes a step forward, but I can't bring myself to avoid from him. He gently takes my free hand, the other still holding my wand since I hadn't thought to buy a holster, or wear the jeans Aunt Petunia had brought me from the charity shop.

Dresses were so unpractical, despite how beautiful they could make you look.

"Mari, please. You've seen the test result, you may think it's silly but it's not. I've been dreaming of this day since I was younger. Please, let me into your life."

"And what if my life isn't for you?" I breath doubtfully, my eyes filling with tears because truthfully, the notion of a soulmate seemed so wonderful.

"Then I will go through the deepest storms with you until I can finally walk on water beside you."

I swallow before looking away from the crystals of blue that showed me so much compassion and trust.

"But," the tears start to fall. "I'm a half-blood, you're not. Your family will not allow it."

Theodore chuckles, gently smudging my tears across my cheeks in an attempt to console me. "You silly girl. I don't care what they think. They don't even care what I think."

"I promised myself that I wouldn't be naive anymore," I take a shaky breathe as I squeeze his hand, "so why is it my defences shatter around you?"

Theodore simply shakes his head in response before pulling my frail body into his own thin one. I lean my head onto his chest as the tears leak onto his suit. He rests his chin against the crown of my head, gently rubbing his hands against my back in a comforting manner.

"Because you're tired of pretending that everything is okay when it isn't." He says and that's all it takes for me to start full-on sobbing.

I cry on the Slytherin boy for a good ten minutes before I calm down to the point where I'm not hiccuping noisily and my vision is not blurry with unshed tears.

I'm surprised that nobody has come out to join us and return the favour I gave to Draco. Still, it could have gone much worse when I stunned the platinum blonde boy.

He could have fell into one of the bookcases behind him and risk damaging all of those beautiful books.

"Feeling better?" Theodore asks and I gently nod my head before stiffening.

"We used magic outside of school!" I realize, my face as white as a piece of paper.

"I don't care," Theodore argues. "Draco needed to be put in his place and I needed to protect you from his Father."

I blush at the word 'protect', which is glaringly noticeable, but the mousey haired boy only smiles at me kindly. I gingerly return it.

"If we have to live without our wands and in exile than so be it, they can't stop us from learning wandless magic. It's inside us, not a piece of wood."

"I suppose that wouldn't be so bad..." I trail off before observing the sky above us. It looked like it was going to rain any moment.

"We should go," said Theodore as he matches my view. I nod in agreement and soon enough, by Theodore's word of command, another house elf is in front of us. This one is dressed better than the Malfoy's and I'm grateful that I won't have to give my soulmate and his family an earful about the treatment of their house-elves.

"What can Tipsy do for Master Theo?" The elf squeaks out, pulling on her ears. Theodore frowns at the elf, removing a hand from me and placing it on top of Tipsy head.

"Tipsy, how many times have I told you not to do that? You'll hurt yourself, or worse damage your hearing."

Tipsy squeaks again, placing her hands together in front of her stomach now and looks up at us with her huge, lilac golf-ball sized eyes. Theodore bites his lip before looking back to me.

"How good are you at travelling by House-Elf magic?" He asks and I shrug in response.

"First time for everything, I guess. Tipsy, take us home!" Theodore orders and Tipsy bows her head in respect before snapping her fingers together. A bright light surrounds us and we are transported away from Malfoy Manor.

Finally.