Draco came to bed by the time I was nearly asleep again. I pretended to be asleep. I knew he wasn't going to tell me about the blood on his clothes. I knew he had been somewhere, done something. He had turned his lamp on for a bit, and I felt the depression of his weight in the bed. I felt as though he were looking at me and I knew that he was. Draco sighed somewhat shakily and shifted. I finally opened my eyes and found that he had his head in both hands. He looked stressed. I looked closer and could see what looked like bruises on his chest, as if someone had hit him. I wondered where he had been. I only knew what Narcissa told me earlier. Draco is good at projecting his sorrow as rage. He loves taking his feelings out on others… Daemon's voice echoed in my thoughts. My mind began to race with all these horrible thoughts and I just stared at Draco's chest. There appeared to be little scratches there, too. Someone was fighting him, it looked like. Draco brushed his hair back from his face, and finally saw that I was awake. He turned off the light hurriedly.
"What is going on, Draco?" I asked. He didn't answer me, but laid down and turned his back to me. My eyes adjusted in the light, and I could see the scratches on his back.
"Draco, will you please talk to me?" I asked. He did not respond. I sat up. I slowly reached for him and touched his back.
"Dra—"
He shot up.
"Don't," he barked warningly.
"The wake is in the morning. I can't afford to look like rubbish, now stop asking questions and go to sleep," he hissed. He made sure to be as far away from me as possible without falling out of the bed. I lay down, but couldn't stop looking at Draco, wondering what had happened, until I fell asleep thinking about it…I felt cold hands on my arms and gasped awake.
"Get up," Draco said plainly, walking away from the bed and into the bathroom. I heard the shower run and rubbed my arms where he had touched me. It was as if he was the walking dead again. He was cold again. I stood and went into the bathroom to brush my teeth. I was rinsing my mouth when the water stopped and I heard Draco step out. He did not even seem to notice that I was there as he stepped out and wrapped a towel around his waist. It must have been around nine in the morning. The sun streamed through the window. I noticed that there were no clothes on the floor, let alone blood. Draco had removed the evidence. His pale hand came into view as he reached for his toothbrush and proceeded to brush his teeth. His presence was chilly, despite the steam from the shower that lingered. I waited for him to leave the room. He rinsed his mouth clean, but reached for his razor and started to shave. The steam in the mirror had disappeared and he could see my reflection through it. He paused and turned his head.
"Take a shower and get dressed," he said impatiently, wondering why I was just standing there.
"I was waiting for you to leave," I said. Draco turned around, lowering his razor.
"I said, 'take a shower and get dressed,'" he said calmly, but in a way that was threatening and I knew it.
"Will you kindly leave?" I asked, trying to remain calm. Draco's lips tightened into frustration.
"Do as I say," he said, taking a step towards me. He waited, and I waited. Draco put his razor down on the sink and took another step towards me, glaring now. I pulled my panties down from under my nightgown and he stopped. He watched me as I started to unbutton my gown.
"Can you please turn around?" I asked honestly, feeling a bit uncomfortable. Draco took another step and I kept unbuttoning the gown. He stopped about two feet from me. I took the gown off and Draco did not remove his eyes from me. My heart pounded and I hurried into the shower, not bothering to turn it on and let it run hot first. He had succeeded in making me feel uncomfortable. He was angry, and I knew it had to be because of what I'd said when we were in bed. On top of that, he was upset about his father. I felt that I was walking on eggshells with him. I couldn't have said anything without him blowing up at me. When I finished showering, Draco was no longer in the bathroom. He wasn't even in the bedroom when I came out. I felt a sense of relief and put my clothes on, the beautiful dress from the day before. Lucius's wake was not very long. The funeral was held later that night in a separate part of the manor I hadn't seen before. It was beautiful, despite the fact that I was surrounded by Death Eaters. Draco kept his eyes closed during the ceremony, and Narcissa looked on with teary eyes and a stone face, nearly void of expression. It came to my attention that this family had a difficult time expressing their emotions. Draco beside me was breathing unevenly. It sounded more like he was angry than sad. I didn't know whether I should lean my head on his shoulder or hold his hand, so I didn't touch him at all. When the funeral was over and everyone had left, Narcissa disappeared to her bedroom, perhaps to cry in peace. Draco was sitting in a chair in our room, staring out the window at the moon. He hadn't left his seat in the thirty minutes that I watched him there. After an hour, I knew something was wrong. I walked up to him carefully, but before I said anything or touched him, he spoke.
"Don't," he said.
"Don't what?" I asked.
"Don't do whatever it is you're about to do. Run. Go away. Go back to your life, like you've wanted all this time. Don't ever come back," he said. He spoke with a flat tone. I stepped around where I could see his face. He didn't look at me. He kept staring out the window.
"Draco, Pansy attacked me," I said. He looked at me then.
"When you weren't here, last night. She attacked me," I said.
"Don't lie to me. I was with her, in the States taking care of something," he said. I shook my head.
"I know you're angry with me, but I'm not lying, Draco. Why would I lie about that? She was here, and she tried to hurt me." Draco stood up, narrowing his eyes.
"She's jealous. She wants to be with you. Don't pretend you don't know this," I said, crossing my arms.
"So? What's it to you? It's not like you love me or something," Draco said argumentatively. I felt a pang in my heart when he said that. It was almost as if he'd said it to get some sort of reaction out of me.
"Do you want her?" I asked him. Draco looked surprised.
I sighed deeply, "I really hated you at first, Draco. I didn't want to be with you because of what you do. The things you do, they're terrible. I couldn't be with you because of it."
"But you've been with me now. What does it change?" he asked me. I was crying then.
"Why are you crying?" Draco asked honestly. His face softened and he just looked at me. I had finally fallen for him, and I knew it deep down.
"You kill shamelessly. You're a murderer, Draco. You purposefully inflict pain on others—on innocents."
"I know what I am. I know what I've done," he said.
"You know what Pansy said? She thinks that I somehow offed you father, so you'd inherit his wealth. She thinks I'm going to try and kill you, too, so I can take everything you own." This information struck a nerve. Draco was furious.
"It's what she told me, Draco," I said. He grabbed my head violently in both hands and I nearly screamed. He just looked deeply at me to see that I was telling the truth. His cold thumbs wiped my tears away. And then he let me go.
"Draco, did something happen when you were with Pansy?" I asked cautiously.
"Did something happen to you?" I asked, wondering about the bruises on his chest and the scratches on his back.
"No. But I did things…you don't want to know," he said, not looking at me. I felt scared for a moment.
"No. I want to know," I said, walking around him so he was facing me again. He looked down at me gravely.
"I hurt some people. That's all you need to know."
"Please tell me," I whispered, reaching for his face. He leant away at first, but then let me touch his cheek.
"I was helping Pansy kill her sorority. They would not accept the cause," he said. I looked up into his icy eyes.
"I'm sorry about your father," I said quietly. Draco looked away with a hardened expression.
"Did you want me, or were you just taking pity on me?" he asked, looking back down at me.
"What?" I asked. He grabbed my wrist with a cold hand, and his gaze wandered over to the bed. I glanced behind me to see where he was looking.
"Did you want me? Or did you just feel sorry for me?" he asked desperately. I felt my skin heat up, remembering Draco's weight on my body.
"Just tell me, damn it, Angelina," he said, squeezing my wrist a bit.
"Tell me what you did first," I said, trying to elicit more information from him, "What happened to you? Why are you all bruised up?"
He narrowed his eyes, waiting for a response from me.
"Tell me," he demanded.
"I want to know what happened to you," I demanded. Draco gave up and walked around me. He wasn't going to tell me where those bruises came from.
"Was it Pansy?" I asked.
"No," he said, walking to the door and leaving the room before I could ask him another question. I waited in the room a while, and seriously considered leaving, but I knew that if I did, I would only be bringing danger to the rest of my world, and I couldn't have allowed that. I stepped out into the hall, lighting the lights and torches as I made my way around. I didn't know where Draco had gone, but I was determined to find him and finish our conversation. I walked through the dining hall and it was empty. The place was somewhat scary in its silence. There were no more guests. I finally heard a piano somewhere nearby. It was playing that sad familiar tune, and I imagined Draco's fingers on the keys. I finally found the room and could see Draco sitting at the bench, his back to me, bathed in moonlight. I lit my wand. He did not stop playing as I approached. I stood behind him, not too near, and not too far.
"Draco," I said after a while. He sighed and kept playing.
"Draco," I said again.
"Go away," Draco said, pausing before continuing his melancholy melody. It was beautiful.
"Malfoy," I said a bit irritated. I felt frustrated.
"What are you still doing here?" Draco asked uninterestedly. I wasn't going to let him run me off. I put my wand inside my robes and firmly pulled Draco's shoulder so that he was forced to turn round. He looked up at me with wide eyes and glared, flabbergasted that I had the nerve to do this. He stood up suddenly and pushed me to the floor. He pointed his wand at me, all this rage igniting his pale face. Had the moon not been shining so brightly, I wouldn't have seen him retrieve his wand. I was panicked for a moment when I remembered that he couldn't have done a thing to me if he'd wanted. I was protected due to the fact that we were magically bound. Draco wasn't going to do anything, anyway, I soon realized, as he dropped his hand and just stared at me.
"You're not really this angry man," I said, getting up slowly, "stop pushing me away, after all this time you've been trying to get closer to me," I said. Draco stepped towards me threateningly.
"You have no idea what I've been through as a Death Eater. You have no bloody idea what I've done!"
"Yet you can sleep at night," I said, finding my back pressed against the wall. Draco slammed his hands against the wall, trapping me. He was angry, alright, but I finally understood this to be the ruse for his pain.
"I should kill you right now," he said, wrapping his hands around my neck. I winced slightly when his fingers pressed my throat rather roughly, his thumbs pressuring my windpipe.
"You shouldn't have messed with me," Draco said quietly, "I could snap your fragile little neck with the flick of my wrist. You have no idea how easily I could kill you," he said through gritted teeth.
"Then what are you waiting for?" I choked. Draco closed his eyes, as if contemplating this.
"You were wrong. I couldn't bring myself to say it," I said, placing my hands on Draco's wrists. He squeezed my neck a bit tighter and looked at me.
"I love you, Draco," I said, feeling a hot tear drop down my cheek. It touched his skin, and I knew it, because he flinched, as if it burned him, and his grip loosened until he was no longer squeezing my throat.
"I do," I said, crying more. Draco stared at the little heated drops on his skin, as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"No you don't. Stop talking shit," he spat, but he began to look quite vulnerable.
"I love you," I said again.
"No you don't," Draco yelled squeezing my throat again and slamming my head against the wall.
"That's why I'm still here," I said. I would have let him choke me to death if he'd wanted to, but he wasn't going to. His eyes filled up with clear tears this time, and they poured out. I found myself engulfed in his coldness and his face in my chest where he held me on the floor, weeping genuinely. He cried unlike I'd ever heard him do before. It was a very pained sound, which caused my heart to ache. I wrapped my arms around him and he let it all go. I believe we sat there all night, as when I awoke, I was leaning against a love seat and the sun was shining in on us, Draco's head against my stomach, his hands on my legs where he was asleep on the floor. I gasped at the figure partially occluding the light coming in on us.
"I knew it," said Daemon in a sly manner, approaching so that I could see his face in the light. Draco sat bolt upright out of his sleep, pulling his wand out and looking around frantically.
"Oh, it's just you," he said, putting his wand away.
"You're weaker than I thought, cousin," Daemon said, examining Draco's tear-stained face. Draco squinted in the light, covering his eyes. Had Daemon been hiding in the shadows, watching us? Draco stood up, pulling me with him.
"What the hell are you still doing here? Go home. The funeral is long over," Draco spat, getting in front of me so I could no longer see Daemon.
"You were never planning on making her a Death Eater, were you? She doesn't even want to be one."
"Shut up," Draco said warningly. Daemon gasped.
"Merlin's beard, I was right! You're a traitor, aren't you, Draco? You've let her rub you the wrong way."
"Shut up," Draco said, charging at Daemon, who hit him with a spell. Draco went crashing back into the wall, and slid down it. I screamed, reaching for my wand in time to stupefy Daemon. Draco was unconscious on the floor. I approached Daemon and cast a spell that bound him in chains before tending to Draco. I pulled him up and he opened his eyes.
"Draco," I said.
He knew what I knew, that Daemon knew I wasn't planning on becoming a Death Eater.
"How did he find out?" Draco asked me angrily.
"I don't know!" I said honestly. Draco got up and looked at me and then his cousin lying stupefied on the floor.
"Wh-what are you going to do?" I asked. Draco shook his head in a displeased manner.
"This isn't the first time I've had to do this, Daemon," he said speaking directly to his cousin.
"You can't keep your bloody nose out of my business, can you? Obliterate."