The Surprise Date
We all went to breakfast after that, leaving Hermione and Ron alone for a while. For Christmas, I had gotten Draco and I these enchanted notebooks that allowed us to communicate. So, I could write something, and he would see it appear, and vice versa. On an impulse, I decided to grab it. When I saw that he was in the Great Hall also, I was excited we would get a chance to talk.
Hey there, I wrote to him. I looked over to him, hoping he would notice, and the immediate smile on his face told me he did.
Hey. This was a really great idea, you know. He wrote.
I know, right? I'm such a genius. I looked over to him, and saw him laugh out loud, which made all the other Slytherins stare at him.
Hey, how is Ron? I heard something happened to him.
He'll be alright. He was poisoned.
What! How?
Well, he accidentally took this love potion that Romilda Vane sent for Harry.
That doesn't surprise me. That Romilda gave Harry a love potion, I mean. That girl will go after any guy who's even mildly famous.
I know, right? Anyway, Harry and I took him down to Slughorn so he could fix it, which he did.
That's good.
Yeah, but then Slughorn decided to share this bottle of some sort of brandy or something, which turned out to be poisoned, and Ron drank his first. I guess that was the only reason the rest of us didn't get poisoned, too. I looked over at Draco, and he suddenly looked panicked. What's wrong? I wrote to him.
Nothing. I'm fine. Hey, you want to meet me in the Astronomy Tower tonight?
I'd love to! But we should meet somewhere else, like in the Room of Requirements or something.
That would work. Why?
Because Harry has this magical map that he's been watching, where he can see everyone and where they are and what they're doing. And the Room of Requirements doesn't show up on the map.
Where did he get that!?
I'm not telling you! I shouldn't even have told you that he has it! I said, and looked at him with a playfully evil grin on my face. He shook his head and started writing.
Alright, I guess that's fair. Meet me there after curfew?
Perfect.
And then he got up and left, hurrying a bit. I wished I could help him somehow; he's got so much on his shoulders. Those wonderfully broad and muscly shoulders. And then I started fantasizing about him, and his hair, and his amazing body, and how he looks naked, and those beautiful eyes. Everyone always said that his eyes were grey, but when you saw them up close, they weren't any specific color. They were a perfect mixture of green and blue and even some speckles of gold. I loved him, so much. I felt a nudge in my side, and looked up from my gazing to see that it was Ginny. She leaned over to whisper at me.
"You were watching Malfoy leave, practically drooling."
"Oops. Sorry. And I was NOT drooling!" But I turned my head and wiped my face down, just to make sure. She laughed.
"What's so funny?" Harry said.
"Oh, Ginny and I were just discussing her break-up with Dean." I said, and Ginny turned red. Revenge is a bitch, Ginny.
"Oh, you two broke up, then?" He said, obviously trying to sound uninterested. Subtle, Harry.
"Yeah, a while ago. I just didn't want to talk about it." She said, turning toward me at that last part. I smiled big at her. That's right, Ginny.
"Hey, Harry, did Talia tell you about her new boyfriend?" I stared at her, terrified. I couldn't believe she had gone that far.
"You have a boyfriend, Talia?" He looked at me, interested. I hated Ginny just then. I couldn't seem to get any words out, so I was basically just sitting there, with my mouth open, looking like a dumbass.
"Yes! Well, she DID, at least. They broke up, too, though. I just thought that since we both had break-ups recently, we'd want to discuss them both." And Harry shrugged, and went back to his food.
I couldn't believe Ginny had thrown me under the bus like that, and then pulled me back out. I waited for her to look at me, which didn't take long, and gestured her to follow me out of the Hall. When we were safely out in the hall, we both burst out laughing. I mean, I was about ready to fall on the floor and start rolling around. Ginny was gasping for breath, and I was clutching my sides because they hurt. After we calmed down a little, we were able to talk.
"I can't believe he bought all that crap!" Ginny said.
"Holy Shit, Ginny, I can't believe you brought up Malfoy!"
"Well, come on, you KNOW you had it coming. You brought up my break up with Dean! In front of Harry!"
"I was just trying to cover up the fact that I was caught drooling over Draco Malfoy."
"So you admit you were drooling!" And then we started laughing again. Ginny and I had always been very close. She always reminded me of my sister, Kayla. It's not like I was replacing Kayla or anything, because no one ever could. But I always thought if Kayla had gotten to grow up, she'd be just like Ginny. We met up after class, deciding to skip supper and hang out in the Gryffindor Tower. We even snuck into the kitchen to get some food to bring up to the common room. Man, those elves just LOVED me. When we were sitting in our room, chomping on some snacks, Ginny started talking about Malfoy.
"So, how IS it going with you and Malfoy, anyway? I mean, I assume you guys didn't ACTUALLY break up, right?"
"No, we haven't broken up. Things are really great. To be honest, I can't imagine NOT being with him."
"Well, come on. Be realistic, here. It's not like you two will be together forever, right?" I stayed quiet, not making eye contact. "Are you serious?" Then I made eye contact. I smiled really big, and she smiled back. "Whoa. This is really serious, then."
"Yeah, it is. Actually, I'm meeting him tonight, and I've been trying to decide what to wear all day."
"Ooh, I can help with that. Do you think it will be somewhere fancy?"
"No way. We're just meeting somewhere in the castle, probably just talking and then kissing and then sex and then sleep. The usual. He really likes it when I wear blue."
"Okay, so casual with a bit of fancy underneath. Blue. We can work with that."
After a few minutes of going through all of my clothes, we had found the perfect outfit. Cute, casual, with a splash of blue. The same blue as the necklace Draco gave me for Christmas, the necklace I had worn every day since.
"Where the hell did you get all these clothes?" Ginny asked me, bewildered.
"They're mostly from thrift stores and blow-out sales."
"Are you serious?" I nodded.
"I'm a very skilled shopper."
"I can see that. This is amazing!"
"I'll remember to take you shopping more often. And feel free to ask me to borrow things, whenever you want."
"Yes yes yes!"
….
I walked through the halls, under the invisibility cloak, feeling a roller coaster of emotions. As usual. I mean, I always got super excited when we had plans to meet. I felt like it couldn't come fast enough. But I was also a little nervous. This was Draco Malfoy, Death Eater. I loved him, maybe always would, but I always felt something was going to happen that would ruin everything. Oh God, we were Romeo and Juliet. Our friends and families hate each other. This couldn't end well.
When I got to the Room of Requirements, I was only expecting to find Draco, sitting in front of the Vanishing Cabinet, with some food and drinks. Maybe even with a prepared bed and everything. But what I found instead amazed me, as usual. How does he always manage to amaze me? There were flowers everywhere, and candles (where does he get all these candles?!), and yes, a bed. With rose petals. He was wearing a black suit (what's new?), and looked amazing in it (again, what's new?).
"Wow. You've really outdone yourself this time, Malfoy." I said. He smiled, came over to me, hugged me, and then we kissed a very long kiss. "I feel so stupid. Me and Ginny spent, like, twenty minutes picking out this outfit, and I still feel completely under dressed." I said when we pulled away.
"You look amazing. As usual."
"What's all this for, anyway?"
"Well, we've done so much sneaking around and meeting up for quick sex in between classes, so I thought you deserved a little romance."
"You're the greatest boyfriend ever. I never thought I'd say that Draco Malfoy was the greatest boyfriend ever." I said, and we both laughed. Leaning against a random piece of furniture, was his guitar. "I see you brought the guitar again."
"I remembered that you said that you missed being able to sing. And I thought, since we already had sex, and you're already good at controlling it, that you could sing just for me. That seems to benefit both of us, don't you think?"
"I don't know…"
"Please? For me?" He gave me the cutest puppy dog eyes ever. Another thing he must have picked up at Blaise's house. I gave in.
"You bloody git."
"Yes!" And he ran over to the bed, grabbing his guitar, and started to softly play. He was so good at this. I sat next to him, leaning on some pillows.
I'm dying to catch my breath
Why don't I ever learn?
I've lost all my trust,
Though I'm surely trying to turn it around
Can you still see
The heart of me?
All my agony fades away
When you hold me in your embrace
Don't tear me down, for all I need
Make my heart a better place
Give me something I can believe
Don't tear me down
You've opened the door now, don't let it close
I'm here on the edge again
I wish I could let it go
I know that I'm only one step away
For turning it around
Can you still see
The heart of me?
All my agony fades away
When you hold me in your embrace
Don't tear me down, for all I need
Make my heart a better place
Give me something I can believe
Don't tear it down, what's left of me
Make my heart a better place
I tried many times, but nothing was real
Make it fade away, don't break me down
I want to believe that this is for real
Save me from my fear
Don't tear me down
Don't tear me down, for all I need
Make my heart a better place
Don't tear me down, for all I need
Make my heart a better place
Give me something I can believe
Don't tear it down, what's left of me
Make my heart a better place
Make my heart a better place
"I don't think I'll ever get used to that." He said after we stopped.
"Me neither." I said.
"Isn't it weird that I always play a song that you know? Is that some sort of psychic Siren power thingy?"
"No, that's actually just a coincidence. We both just have great taste in music." We looked into each other's glowing, green eyes, and then we went at it. You know, maybe he was right. Singing for him wasn't that bad, if it was always going to end like this.
…
Bliss. Utter, complete bliss. That was what I was feeling at that moment. How could anything bad ever happen after something so amazing just took place? I knew it was crazy, but I couldn't even remember why I had felt nervous coming up here. There was nothing to be nervous about, or scared of, when I was with Draco Malfoy.
At least, that WAS how I felt. Until Malfoy RUINED it.
"There's something I need to tell you, Tal." He said after a few minutes.
"Go ahead."
"I'm not really sure how to go about this…"
"Draco, you can tell me anything. You know that."
"I know. But this is something that I don't think you'll be able to handle as gracefully as you have in the past." I sat up, and he did the same. I ran my fingers through his hair, hoping to relax him enough to talk. He sighed.
"I think I poisoned Ron."
My hand paused, and my eyes widened. My mouth opened, but nothing came out. I was speechless. And I wasn't exactly sure, but I thought I might've been getting really angry. I shot out of bed, pulled a blanket with to wrap myself up in, and started pacing. I think I might have been muttering whilst biting my nails also, because Draco suddenly looked like I was losing my mind.
"Um, Talia, are you okay?"
"Oh, I don't know, Malfoy, do you think I'm okay?" Yep, definitely angry.
"Well…"
"YOU JUST TOLD ME YOU POISONED ONE OF MY BEST FRIENDS! MY BROTHER! OF COURSE I'M NOT OKAY! Oh God, that makes Ron Tibalt…" My face felt really hot.
"Talia, please just calm down and listen—"
"I can't listen to this, Malfoy! I just can't! Just let me vent for a second, okay?" He nodded, and leaned back down. I kept pacing, and muttering, and biting for a while. Like, five minutes. I couldn't believe what I had just heard. What was I going to do about this? This was some crazy shit! And what's worse, was my mind kept on changing emotions on me. I went from angry to terrified, from terrified to borderline depressed, and from that to exhausted, and back to angry. And finally, I cooled down, and went back to sit next to Draco.
"Okay, I think I'm good now. But you need to explain this."
"Look, first you just need to know that I didn't mean for this to happen. That bottle was not meant for Ron, or Slughorn for that matter. But I did poison it, and gave it to him. What makes this worse is that I just realized that it could've poisoned you, too. I didn't think of that."
"Well, of course you didn't. How could you know that we would be there, and he'd open the bottle with us?" He looked grateful that I understood, but he wasn't off the hook yet. "Draco, why did you poison that bottle? And you can't lie to me, or say that it's better that I don't know, because that won't work anymore."
"I know. I'll tell you." I could tell this was really hard for him, so I put my hand on his cheek. "I poisoned the bottle, and switched it with one he already had, because I knew he was going to give it to Dumbledore as a gift."
"But, why? Why would you want to poison Dumbledore? Unless…" I looked at him, and he looked completely defeated. And weak. Now that I really looked at him, I noticed how weak he's looked for a long time. "This is the task that Voldemort gave you, isn't it?" He nodded. "To kill Dumbledore." I moved my hand from his face to his hand, and he looked down at them. He looked like he might cry, but not the girly, snotty cry. The scared for his life cry. "Oh, Draco. This is awful." I pulled him in for a hug, and he hugged back as if his life depended on it. And then he wept. And I was there for him, to comfort him, to hold him, while he let out everything he had been bottling inside himself for the whole school year. "This is going to be alright, you know. It will be alright." He looked up at me.
"How?"
"Don't do it. Draco, I know you're afraid for your life, and your family's, but you can't do this. Please don't." He was thinking about what I was saying, I could see it in his eyes.
"Okay."
"Okay?"
"Alright. You're right, I can't do this. I won't." And after that, we didn't talk. Until Draco said something a little random.
"Hey, what did you mean when you called Ron 'Tibalt'?"
"Oh, earlier I was compairing our relationship to the Romeo and Juliet story."
"And Romeo kills Tibalt, who is part of Juliet's family. I see."
"Hey, don't think about it. We're okay, okay?"
"Okay." I pushed him back against the bed, and laid my head in his chest. And we slept.
A.N. The song is called All I Need, and it's by Within Temptation. If you've never heard of the band, you should look them up. They're pretty hackin' awesome.