Author's notes: Thanks to the wonderful IMissPadfoot (user ID1133633) for beta'ing for me – if you're a WWE fan, check out her story 'The Trouble With Love' – it really is amazing.
Additional thanks to Hannah Loves Lupin,Indeffinate and Disco Inferno1 for you wonderful reviews. I really appreciate the support, and I'm glad y'all are enjoying the story.
Chapter Nine: An Obvious Answer
Draco leaned back in his seat, took a sip of his drink, and brushed his white blonde hair out of his grey eyes.
Morrigan suddenly had the overwhelming urge to wash it, comb it, and then run her fingers through the tresses.
Trying to shake the fantasy from her head, she swished the ice around in her glass.
"I was thinking, Morrigan. You were right, I should at least let my parents know I'm ok," he began to explain. "I mean that way, at least they might stop looking for me, and blazing my name all over the Daily Prophet."
"It's a good idea," she agreed with a smile. "But then what will you do? You can't stay here forever."
"I know. I was thinking, I could try and get a job, and then find my own place to live. It can't be that hard. I have a few good OWLs and NEWTs," he insisted hopefully.
"I actually think it'll be a lot harder than you imagine," protested Morrigan. "I mean, you haven't got much money, have you? And what happens when that runs out? You can't look for a job if you have nowhere to live. And, no offence, but you kinda need a good bath."
Draco looked at her with disappointment, but then burst out laughing. "You have a point. My hair is so dirty, you can hardly see it gleam any more," he joked, before turning serious again. "I do have a fair bit of money left, but it's not going to last forever, and I can't really visit my Gringotts vault without my parents finding out where I am. I imagine father will have told the goblins to keep an eye out for me by now."
"Also, what kind of job are you hoping to get where you family won't find out what you're doing? People are bound to recognize you and contact them. I'm actually surprised they haven't found you here already," Morrigan added, with a small frown.
"You know, what I really need is a place to stay where they'd never find me. Somewhere I can eat, sleep and get myself together, before I start looking for a job," Draco mused, more to himself than anyone. "There was that place Aunt Bellatrix's cousin lived, but I think Potter's lot use it. Maybe I can find a deserted Muggle house or something, although I think I'd rather risk my parents finding me, than slumming it with Muggles."
Draco drifted off into silence, trying to solve the situation he was in, not realizing an obvious answer was literally sitting next to him.
Morrigan scooted her stool closer to Draco's, and tapped his shoulder to bring him out of his thoughts.
"You know, you could always stop at my grandmothers house?" she suggested casually, and he stared at her in a mixture of amazement and disbelief. "After talking to Sean today, I've pretty much made up my mind that I'm going to stay there, at least for a while. It's a big enough house that we wouldn't be in each others way, and then you'd be able to sort out everything you needed to."
Draco continued to look at Morrigan as though she'd suddenly grown an extra head.
Blushing slightly, she added, "And I would kind of like the company."
"You just want me there so you can take up my offer," he said with a smirk.
"Oh forget it then," huffed Morrigan. "I was trying to be nice, and help you out. But all you can do is make snide remarks."
Feeling frustrated, Morrigan pushed her empty glass aside, and rose to leave.
"I'm going back to my room," she announced, before turning on her heel and storming off.
Back in her bedroom, Morrigan flopped onto the mattress and sighed.
Even though she and Draco had only known each other for a few weeks, she honestly thought they were becoming close friends. He'd told her things that would shock many people, but she had accepted him for who he was now, not then. In return, she'd opened her heart to him, like she'd never done with anyone aside from Mary...and Lilith. Heck, she'd even offered to give him a home, for as long as he needed.
Morrigan had never had male friends at school, and had certainly never been in love with anyone. However, as the days of her friendship with Draco had passed, and their bond had grown, she found herself thinking of him more and more. She wondered what he was doing when they were apart, and awaited his arrival in the bar every day.
Replaying his snide remark, and the sneering way he'd said it, Morrigan began to wonder if she really knew him at all. Was she merely somebody he used when he wanted company and a few drinks? Did he see her as someone he could take advantage of and then throw away?
Angered by his callousness and her own stupidity, Morrigan threw the pillow from her bed across the room.
It hit the door with an unusually loud band, and it was then that she realized someone was knocking on her door.
"Morrigan, I'm sorry, please come back to the bar?" Draco called through the wood of the door.
"Get lost!" she shouted back. "I'm sick of you thinking I'm your human drinks dispenser and personal agony aunt. Go find some other fool to use!"
"Come on, Morrigan. I didn't mean anything with what I said downstairs, I was just kidding," he insisted, his tone almost begging now.
"Fine, I'll talk to you for a minute," she huffed, rising from the bed, opening the door a few inches.
Morrigan turned without looking back at Draco and flopped onto her bed again. Hesitantly, he inched the door further open, cautiously crossed the room, and gingerly perched on the stool in front of the desk.
"You know, your eyes almost glow when you're angry," Draco said, in what he hoped was a light and friendly tone. "You're pretty scary."
"I thought you said you were sorry?" Morrigan accused. "So why did you come up here to taunt me more?"
"I am sorry," he said sheepishly.
"You have a funny way of showing it," she countered.
"Well, I'm not really good at this type of thing," protested Draco. "At school, everyone pretty much did as I asked them to."
What he hoped was an admittance of how stupid he'd been, Morrigan took to be another sneering taunt.
"Oh, I see," she said through narrowed eyes. "You're so used to getting your own way, that you have a tantrum when someone says no to you? No wonder you only lasted a matter of days with the Death Eaters."
Morrigan knew in that instant, that her words had been a huge mistake. Draco's eyes turned from cold grey, to burning with a deadly fire.
He rose from the chair like a ghastly spectre, his robes billowing around him, and Morrigan immediately backed further across the bed in fright.
Trembling with rage, Draco menacingly stalked closer to the bed, his eyes full of wrath.
"You see this?" he demanded angrily, pulling up his sleeve, as he mounted the bed and pressed closer to Morrigan.
She looked up, quivering with fright at the mere sight of him, and her eyes fell on a hideous tattoo of a snake entwining a skull, emblazed on his forearm.
"This is the Dark Lord's sign. A constant reminder of everything he put me through. A scorching emblem of how my parents sold me out for power," he hissed through clenched teeth. "Don't you ever mention the Dark Lord in my presence again, or use him to taunt me. You do, and I really might hurt you."
He turned and went to leave, but as he did Morrigan grabbed his arm and her shaking fingers touched the Dark Mark. It felt strangely cold and made her skin crawl.
"Draco, I'm sorry," she pleaded, her voice chocked with emotion.
Draco allowed himself to be pulled back onto the bed by her trembling hands.
"I should have never used what happened to you because of Voldemort as a way to hurt you. Please forgive me?" she begged.
Looking down at the frightened and vulnerable woman before him, Draco's expression softened.
"I'm sorry too, Morrigan. I shouldn't have got so angry and threatened you," he whispered in return. His voice no longer sounding warped with anger, but drowned with regret and remorse. "It's just, everything he put me through, all that he did to me and my family, it still hurts me so much. Sometimes I lie awake at night, imagining he hasn't really gone, and I feel terrified again. I hate that he still has this hold over me, and that I'm so scared of him even now."
"Oh Draco," Morrigan sighed, her clammy hand still pressed against the Dark Mark. "I'm so sorry. I can't imagine anything so awful. I don't know how you survive, and go on trying to make a life for yourself. I know I couldn't, I'd have given in long ago."
"I've got no choice," he said bitterly. "If I give in, I let him win finally."
Morrigan moved closer to him, overwhelmed with the desire to comfort him. Draco's grey eyes were so sad suddenly, that she could barely keep the tears from leaking down her own face.
Her body still shaking from everything that had passed within the last half an hour, Morrigan sighed and gently brushed a stray strand of hair from Draco's face. It broke her heart to see him looking so truly unhappy, and like the world would never hold peace for him again.
Without even thinking, she pressed her lips to his, and in doing so tasted fire whiskey and salty tears.
Draco flinched back for a second, but then allowed his mouth to cover Morrigan's in a passionate gesture of affection.
To be continued...