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DracoXOC Fanfic

Disclaimer: Not JK Rowling, But Elizabeth Marshall and alot of what gets twisted is of my own creation

Chapter six:

Sunday came way too quickly. Elizabeth spent Saturday in her room 'studying'. Mostly her nose was in a book, but it wasn't for school. It was a book on Salazar Slytherin. History, behavior, last known sightings, family, descendants. It had become relevant that Tom Riddle was the Heir of Slytherin, amongst everyone who kept up with Potter and his ridiculous shenanigans. But his portrait was the interesting thing. It was summoned by her, and not by Hermione, which kind of clued her that it had to do with Slytherin students only. She wanted to figure out exactly what made it tick. Did he only sense her, or did it realize Hermione was there. No matter what she did, she wanted to figure out why it could tell she was a mudblood without even knowing her.

Elizabeth looked up from her book, scratching her hand for the fifth time as she felt like all she had done was flipping the page and sit in her room.

It was time to stretch her legs, to get away.

As she clambered down the stairs in her jeans and her flats, her light green blouse filled with air as she halted to a screeching halt, her cloak slapped her ankles as she did.. The common room was bare except for him. Draco turned, his hands folded in his lap and his eyes directed at her.

"Where is everyone?"

"Out." He answered.

"How polite of you, to demand the entire house of Slytherin to leave just so you could terrorize little ol' me." Elizabeth sneered. Draco was on his feet, and like a predator, he stepped up close. Her heart stammered in her chest as she saw the anger, the hurt, in his eyes. Then he turned from her and started up his side of the stairs. When she watched but didn't follow, his body went rigid.

"I won't be controlled like a doll, Draco." She whispered. "And if you turn and tell me you weren't trying to manipulate me to not be angry at you, then you need to stop lying to me too." Her voice was curt and short as she turned from the stairs and walked towards the portrait. The sound of his steps as he stormed up the steps fell on her ears as she stood at the portrait door. Turn, she begged, go see him, comfort him.

He wasn't ready to talk. He wasn't ready to reach out, he hadn't eaten himself enough. A stressed snake was obvious, he was not stressed enough yet. He would never confess like she wanted him to, he wouldn't apologize, he wouldn't beg for her forgiveness, not just yet. Elizabeth pushed the portrait open and left the piece of notebook paper sticky charmed to the back of it as she stepped out and headed for the stairs. The note that had only a few words on it, that she knew when he read, would put him at the edge she needed him at.

Knight to C-3.

Elizabeth pulled her arms up and above her head as she walked down the hall.

"Looking for fresh air, Miss Marshall?" Elizabeth halted in front of Snape's open door as the dark haired professor stepped out. His tone said answer wisely, his cocked brow was a challenge. He wasn't asking if she was just about to stroll outside, it was a demand that she walk with him outside as if a teacher would instruct a student on a hard task, but he intended to scold her for something. Most likely, her actions the other day. How she knew those would bite her in the ass later on.

She shouldn't have been so upset, she shouldn't have let it eat her up until she detached herself. But Elizabeth only knew one way to keep from being a broken mess on the common room floor. That was to detach, and let go, if only for a day.

"Seems like a good day for a walk, Professor." She sighed and looked towards the stairs as he climbed them beside her in silence. Her detention had been silent. She was left to scrub and work materials into workable order. She popped the wings off a hundred beetles, she clipped the toes of atleast fifty newts, and waited for them to grow them back before she went onto more. She wasn't ready to be scolded and he wasn't going to scold her just yet.

That was the thing about Snape that others didn't see. He was a prickly cactus, he really wasn't a happy person, but his students, his good students, who earned and worked hard to hold his favor, you could see the difference in his distaste, and his teasing. He really was a good instructor and a good head of house, because he cared… in his cold, indifferent looking way.

Her second year she had been partnered with Neville Longbottom for Potions and he completely ruined their brew, he turned it into a bubbling bubble gum mixture that Elizabeth nearly couldn't get out of her hair. Snape gave them both detention, one for Neville being a complete and total dunce, One for Elizabeth for not keeping him in line. But when she came to his office with the stuff still in her hair painfully pulling at her roots, he took pity on her and made her correct first years papers for him while he worked the paste from her hair. Not even Pansy could get it from her hair, with all her potions and motions. But Snape worked it out with a simple oil and wax almost looking compound as she listened to him tell her what to write, and allowed her to correct a few on her own.

Elizabeth inhaled slowly as they reached the terrace covered walk way and he was still silent. Until they were fully alone and they began their stroll down the path of the grounds.

"You have a skill that not many young adults have mastered." Snape spoke softly, his voice was cold but not bristly yet.

"You told us First year that one should not allow arrows into our soul." Elizabeth returned her words as best she could. "I've just, mastered the shell that you told us to craft."

"You detatched your heart and fears from your brain. You thought logically and were cool as a winter in Russia." Snape snorted with a cocked brow. "Wish to explain how exactly you came to that point?"

"I told you, I found out." Elizabeth felt her voice harden with attitude, but the look that Snape shot her reminded herself that he was still, indeed, her teacher. "Draco scolded me about my nightmare, demanding I tell him what it was about. I confessed to him and he gave me this look. I asked and I asked that he tell me it wasn't true, but there's one thing Draco has never been good at is lying when he's been found out. I ripped his shirt a little to see his arm and there it was. I kind of made a messy scene and left him out in the cold." She explained as analytically as she could but her heart still cracked and splintered at the memory.

How could he be a Death Eater! How could the boy she worked so hard to keep close and yet far away, be a Death Eater? Was this what she got for not visiting over the summer, for trying to be progressive. To learn business, to be ahead of the game. Was her need to be ahead and never fall in line as other did, beginning to bite back at her?

"You feel betrayed he wouldn't tell you?" Snape prodded.

"I feel… many things." She whispered, her arms crossed and curled around her.

"Don't you shut me out child, I will show you other ways to crack that shell of yours." She turned with wide eyes at him. "I wouldn't want to see your girlish secrets and affairs, but I'm not afraid to dig in your mind to get what information I need."

"What information do I have that you need! I feel horrible betrayed by my friend for becoming the one thing that would destroy me and my life!" She blurted out. Snape recoiled with confusion, but she continued in hopes of fixing it. "I feel guilty that i was not there over the summer as it is, but to know that I wasn't there for him when he needed me most. But then for him to turn around and do what I know he's capable of saying no to! He's stronger than that! He was… stronger than that."

"Miss Marshall, what do you mean Destroy you!" Snape cut into her words.

"My family isn't powerful!" She cried out and they stopped. She wanted to say, my family is muggle. My parents are muggle! I fear for them during each raid, I worry I'll hear their names whenever I hear of the dead. But she didn't say that, instead, she wound a lie. A lie like she always did. Not exactly a lie, but the truth, or the full truth. "My family is barely known, we are rich but not powerful. I mean, in the food world, I guess we're kind of important, but my parents don't own any physical power over anyone else. If they were to decide, 'Hey! The Marshall's, they're doing us no good, go kill them', there would be no reason not to kill them… not to kill me. I'm… We're… I'm not worth…"

"You're not worth anything to a Death Eater." Snape concluded as Elizabeth nodded, tears sprinkled her eyelids but she didn't let them fall.

"When he was just Draco, being his friend held worth. Being myself was enough worth for him to keep our friendship. But, when push comes to shove, and they tell him to rid himself of me, because I'm not one of them and I refuse to become one, he'll have to choose either me or him." Elizabeth felt like she would crumble, because this was the actual truth. Would Draco kill her to keep himself alive. Elizabeth knew, the answer in her heart ate at her soul like the plague did a body. Because if she were Draco, and she was forced with that choice.

At the moment.

As horrible as it sounded and as heart breaking of an epiphany as it was… she probably would pick herself. How could she blame him for doing the same.

"And we both know they won't stop till everyone who isn't them is dead. One by one, they start with the muggles, then the half-bloods, then anyone who isn't an extremist, then all those who aren't singularly with him. That's what a paranoid, maniac cult leader does, he destroys until he's stopped." Elizabeth broke more as she looked to her toes. Snape was silent, Elizabeth didn't want to break more. She turned from him and found the closest tree and leaned against it for support as her teacher stood on the path only a few steps away.

Snape looked to Elizabeth as she shivered in her cloak. "What you are going to do, is tell no one." Snape spoke.

"I'm not a fool! I'm not going to tell anyone." Elizabeth whispered harshly.

"Good, don't stay out in the wind long, October winds can cause illness and you will not miss my class." He started with his regular bristly exterior and continued on his way. Elizabeth watched as he left and finally left to her own devices, she fell to the ground. Tears flooded her eyes as she gasped for air and curled inwardly to herself.

Sobs broke the silence around her as she held herself and cried harder, a moan leaving her lips as she cried into her knees. Her jeans soaked at the knees, her flats dug their heels into the ground as she curled into herself more. Her blouse was restricting but she didn't bother to shift or move to make it comfortable. She didn't care anymore.

Elizabeth was afraid, she was afraid of dying, she was afraid of Draco. She didn't want to be afraid any more. She wanted her friend back, she wanted her comfort and safety net back. She wanted Voldemort dead.

~!~ ~!~ ~!~

Elizabeth looked to find Draco in the hall, his eyes at the ground, but Pansy was chattering on like she always did. Blaize stood numbly near Draco obviously not even paying attention. It was Tuesday. She had spent Sunday night ignoring how hard it was to sleep, how worried she was that he wasn't sleeping. She spent monday unable to work the words on her lips. Draco was ready to snap. What did she say? Did she really think this chess game through?

Pawn to D 4.

Board presence. It was time she made sure she had board presence.

Elizabeth walked up towards them with shoulders back and no hesitation as she snatched Draco's arm harshly. He whipped in her grasp but Pansy and Blaize stared with utter shock as Elizabeth stormed down the hall and towards an empty classroom.

Draco put up a fight but it wasn't until they were in the room, the door locked behind her, her shoulders pressed up against it and his chest firmly against hers that she realized he stopped fighting. He stared down at her, her eyes lit with all the thoughts of him that buzzed in her mind.

"Marshall, what are-" she grabbed him by the tie around his neck and yanked him down. Oh how she had wanted to do this for years. To finally see what everyone who dated him, who held flings with him said. That it was like kissing fire, without feeling the burn. How in the world could magic be like first time she picked up a wand, it felt like electricity, like what everyone said it felt like to be alive. Here it was, smashed in her face, hammered into her chest.

She felt alive. Their lips pressed against each other and his reaction was instantly. His hands found her cheeks and pulled them flesh up against the door, his body leaned into hers. He felt hungry, a starved man in a desert, and she was an oasis, it ripped her air from her lungs as she fought to keep up. Her lips kept up with his as her nose inhaled sharply. He smelt like a suit and tie, he smelt like a romance novel on the beach, in the sun under an umbrella with some silly, sugary drink. He tasted like freedom from her fear that was pitted in her stomach.

His one hand found her thighs and without a thought to it, she was pressed up into the door, her legs wrapped around him effortlessly, his hand rested on her hip and the other driven into her hair. Her miles of hair that he tangled around his hands, his teeth grazed her lips. Some sort of hum trickled out across her lips as she dug her fingers in his hair, her nails scraped his scalp.

It was hot, it was a fire and no burn, it was pure magic. Her whole body felt like a sensor, every shift, every pressure he put on her, she could feel twenty times more in her bones and in her brain. Her heart was sparatic in her chest.

"Draco." She moaned against his lips as he pulled back just enough to give her air. Elizabeth gasped for air as she opened her eyes. Could Draco even care about blood status if he loved her? Could he ever care more about her? Could he ever think of her first?

"Why?" He murmured, his eyes stormy and clouded hadn't planned on kissing him, she had planned on just saying something, anything. But she had yanked him too hard, tugged him too close and every spike in her veins in the past rammed her brain. It was a hazy thought in her brain that always danced in and out of form, kiss him, it whispered. Was it lust? or did emotions come with it? Was she doing this because she finally broke down and wanted his attention and touch, or was she doing this to insure her safety…. did it matter? Could she do it for both reasons?

"I was wrong," She whispered, "About alot, I'm sorry." her apology was breathy and against his lips.

"If this is how you apologize, I'll have to make you do it more." He smirked against her lips as they met again in sloppy, short, choppy kissed. Elizabeth was panting as she looked at him from her vantage point against the door.

"I'm almost never wrong." Elizabeth correct him with a soft look.

"That can change." He chuckled darkly against her lips. "Elizabeth, I never meant for you to find out." His words hit her insides, her major organs clenched as she felt the emotions just as raw and as fresh as she ever had.

"I should have been there."

"NO!" His bark made her jump as he pressed the two of them further into the door. "You will never go around any of that. Do you hear me? You will never step foot in that mess, you will stay clear away from all of it. I will find my own way out, but promise you'll never even consider snooping around like you do." His voice was dark and laced with intent.

"Draco, I," Her sigh was cut short by a demanding kiss, a sharp tug in her hair and his fingers that dug in her hip.

"Promise me, you'll stay away from it." His hiss was a demand.

"I promise!" She yelped, as he pulled back and pressed his forehead against hers. "Never lie to me again." She hissed back.

"I promise." his breath was hot on her lips as she felt his stare on her. Elizabeth opened her eyes to meet his gaze. It was stormy and grey, a lightening storm in his brain. "How is it I've tried for years to get you to just flirt with me. Out of the blue, you turn me in here and kiss me?" He demanded as she looked to him.

"I've always wanted to," She confessed, before she looked away. Her chin was nuzzled back and her eyes locked with him. "I just didn't want my heart broken. I value your friendship more than I craved you." She added.

"I won't break your heart."

"I can't force you to make that promise." She whispered.

"Pansy and I are still close." Elizabeth's eyebrows furrowed as he looked at her. "Actually, after our affair, we're closer than ever. Will I ever sleep with her again? Probably not, she's fun but we're not meant to be." He chuckled with a look in his eye that Elizabeth couldn't dissect.

"Are you saying we're meant to be together?" Elizabeth teased as Draco slipped further back, slowly until Elizabeth was back on the floor and there was a decent amount of space between them.

"I don't know, but for once, will you stop thinking things through like you're playing chess in your head, and actually play. You might find I'm quite the lover." He winked at her as Elizabeth groaned and rolled her eyes.

"I was afraid of that."