I step out of the fireplace into the extraordinarily large room, a staircase to my left, it's beautiful and even though it's stone everywhere it's surprisingly warm.
"Come I want you to meet my mother." He says walking towards to the large staircase, at the top there are more stairs on the left, "Leave your bags here, we'll get them in a minute." Draco points at the ground at the bottom of the second staircase I drop my bags down and stand with him outside a room that says '1st Reception.'
Draco looks at me and gives me a small smile before knocking on the door gently, "Mother?" He says.
"Draco?" I hear from the other side, "Come in, come in." There's a lot of noise from the other side of the door, Draco opens it and we see his mother cramping loads of parchment and books into drawers.
"What are you doing?" Draco asks as we both step into the room.
His mother looks concerned, "Just things, there's a lot of forms, your father." She looks over at me and smiles. "You must be Jasmine, oh Draco." She turns her attention back to him, "She's lovely, isn't she?" She kisses him on the cheek and then comes over to me, "Narcissa Malfoy, it's wonderful to finally meet you." She embraces me in a tight hug and hug back awkwardly.
"It's lovely to meet you." I say.
Narcissa smiles, "Draco's been talking about you for so long now, it's magnificent to see that you two are finally together." She turns to Draco, "After all this time."
"Okay, mother." Draco snaps, "That's enough."
"Draco, it's nothing to feel embarrassed about, Jasmine probably knows all sorts of embarrassing things about you by now."
"What are you doing?" Draco says, in a sort of rhetorical question type way.
I watch the two of them as the exchange uncomfortable eye contact, like they are talking telepathically.
"Sorry," Narcissa snaps out of it, "I'm not sure what I was- I- sorry." She stutters. "I'm going to get some food and things... Draco show Jasmine around." And with that she apparates out of the room.
I look over at Draco, who is now looking a bit put off and more uncomfortable than ever.
"Sorry about her, sometimes she does doesn't know when to stop speaking." It seems like Draco thinks his mother has just done a terrible injustice, but I didn't think she was doing anything wrong.
"It's fine; honestly, I think she's just happy for you." I say.
Draco heads for the door, "Must be." He says on the way out.
Draco and I grab my luggage and we start to walk up through the manor house. I can't help thinking about what his mother said though, 'after all this time', I hadn't mentioned it to Draco as I thought it might make him feel even more awkward or maybe it was just the way his mother said it and it wasn't weird at all. It hadn't been that long since Draco hated me so I'm sure it was a weird thing to say 'all this time' too, she said it like it had been years.
"It's at the end of this corridor." Draco says.
"Huh?"
"My room, down here." He says, now taking the lead and walking off in front of me.
I follow closely behind him as we walk down the ridiculously long corridor. It is very dimly lit up here and the paintings on the walls kind of put me on edge, its lovely here, put all little creepy. The room must be huge here, because we've only walked past three doors and the corridor goes on for ages. At the end of the corridor is a large oak wood door with a thick metal black handle and lock on it. On it, it reads, 'D.L Malfoy.'
Draco puts his hand in this pocket and produces a key; he puts it in the lock and turns it, "Welcome." Draco says as he pushes the door to step inside.
I follow closely behind him and watch as his whole bedroom comes to life. There's a large fireplace that suddenly roars with flames, there's a shiny black leather sofa in front of that where a blanket lies itself across it and the pillows plump themselves. The green velvet curtains on the king size 4 poster bed open up, and so do the curtains on the windows. The lamps on the bedside and small coffee table also switch on and glow a slight yellowy colour.
"The room is full of enchantments." Draco says taking some of my bags over to a chest of drawers on the other side of the room.
"It's amazing." I say following him with the remainder of my bags.
"I'm glad you think so," He takes a set on the sofa in front of the fire and watches me as I explore the room further.
There's a wardrobe on the other side, I open it and it's full of Draco's clothes as well as a double mirror that folds out automatically and lights shine from above it.
"I have to make sure I look perfect." Draco says.
As I step away the whole things shuts on its own, I go to the bed. I sit down and it's so comfortable, on the wall behind the bed there is a large picture of scenery, a large green area with a river flowing through it and trees, it's only when I see a flock of birds fly over it that I realize its moving picture.
"Nice to get away sometimes." Draco says.
There are two bed side tables but the one furthest away from me is the one I'm most interested in, there's another moving picture, in a frame this time. I shuffle over on the bed and go and look at it, it's me. I pick it up to study it, it's not a resent picture, it's me at the Yule Ball, I'm all dressed up and fiddling with my hair.
"It's good to have you there." Draco says.
I stand up from the bed, the frame still in my hands, "This was 2 years ago, is that how long you've it for?"
He nods, "I think Blaise took it on the night, I found it at the end of the Ball."
"Why would you-" I start to say but then it dawns on me. Someone who hated me wouldn't fall in love me the way Draco did, not that fast. He wouldn't have opened up to me so much that fast either. I'm not thinking that maybe his mother did mean it was a long time when she said, 'after all this time.'
"You didn't hate me did you?" I say to him.
"No. For the first few years I stayed away from you and was mean to you because I thought you didn't like me. 4th year I realised something, I wasn't just mean to you because you didn't like me, I was mean to you because I felt something for you, something stronger then I could explain and I think I must of got scared and taken it out on you. The rest of that year wasn't bad, but when 5th year came along I used to see you with your friends and I got so jealous that I wasn't one of them. The fact that you spoke to me this year broke that, I could open up to you and tell you things because you made the first move, I didn't have to hurt you to get your attention because you seemed to genuinely want to get to know me. And now here we are."
"Now here we are." I repeat his words. I put the picture frame back on the side table and go over to Draco, he is still sitting on the sofa so I sit down on his lap my face centimetres from his, "I love you, Draco Malfoy."
"I love you, Jasmine Gold," He replies.
The manor is amazing, I've now had a guided tour by Draco and it's just wonderful. I can't help thinking about how it's going to be used as a death eater base though, it just ruins it really.
"Dinner should be ready now, shall we go downstairs?" Draco says taking my hand in his.
I nod and smile before following him downstairs to the dining room. The table could easier sit at least 20 people so it feels weird when Draco and I sit down together with his mother all the way at the other end.
"Dinner is served." Narcissa says, smiling. "I'm sorry about earlier, Jasmine. I don't know what come over me, I'm just happy for my son." She looks at Draco and he avoids her eyes and starts to eat the soup that sits in the bowl in front of him. Narcissa looks back at me and does an equally as lovely smile.
"It's fine." I smile back at her.
Draco looks at me out of the corner of his eye and I see him smirk.
We get through three courses in the time we are in the dining room. Each as wonderful as the last. By the time we are finished it is dark outside and Draco is standing up from the table.
"Excuse us mother. Jasmine." He turns to me and puts out his hand. He doesn't say anything else so I take it and he pulls me up.
"Lovely dinner, Narcissa." I say before Draco walks me out the room.
There is a door directly opposite the dining room which we seem to heading for. Draco walks up to the door and opens automatically, I cold breeze instantly hitting both of us. Draco turns to look at me and gives a small smile, "It's alright, I'll keep you warm in a minute."
I smile even though he's turned away again.
We walk out the door and into the fountain court; a path with trees; bushes; flowers and pretty lights lead to the main part where a great fountain sits. The water sprays high up and lights inside it illuminate it and make it look amazing. 2 wooden benches are on either side of the fountain, facing it. Draco takes me and we sit on one of them together. He pulls me closer to him; I guess this is him keeping me warm.
"Well?" Draco says.
This is the last thing of the manor I had to see and I'm glad he left it until last. The flowers, trees, bushes and lights carry on around the edge of the court and frame everything magnificently.
"It's beautiful." I say, resting my head on his shoulder as his arm is around me.
We watch the fountain for while, and the stars, it doesn't feel as cold outside anymore.
"Hey, it's getting late; we should probably get back inside." Draco says to me. He doesn't move, neither do I. But he's right; we should probably get back inside.
I move from him and stand up I go over to the fountain and dip my hand into the cold water and swirl it around. I then take my hand out again and turn to Draco before flicking the water onto him. I laugh and start running back up the path.
"Jasmine!" He shouts laughter in his voice. I hear him running after me.
The door seems far away, I can tell Draco is close to me.
He grabs me a few meters from the door and spins me around then back down again, "That wasn't funny." He says with a smirk on his face.
I laugh at him, "Come on." I say, taking his hand and walking back inside.
We walk up the stairs and head back to his room. The door opens and the lights and the fire turn on as we walk in. I let go of Draco's hand and sit on the sofa, he heads over to his bedside.
"Jas?" He says.
"Yeah?" I say back putting my feet up on the sofa and facing him.
He stays over by the bedside, his smirk has now fully faded and he looks slightly upset.
"Everything okay?" I ask.
He nods, "It's just, I thought I should tell you something. I mean, it seems the right time."
I shuffle in my position so my full attention is on him, "What is it?"
He looks down at the ground, "You know the death eater thing."
"Yes."
"Well, it's not easy. There's something I have to do."
"What do you mean?"
He looks at me, "Voldemort's making me do it. If I don't then he'll..." His voice drains off.
I stand up from the sofa but stay away from him. "Draco?"
He's looking at the ground again; I can see he's mentally in pain.
"Draco, what's going on?" I say.
He shakes his head and this is when I see that he is crying, he's trying hard to conceal it but I can see. "He's going to kill me." He looks up at me, "Unless I kill Dumbledore."
I stand there in shock, staring at him, his eyes red with tears.
"Jasmine? Say something." He says.
"Why? Why is he making you-"
The shaking of his head cuts me off.
"Draco, what are you going to do?" I ask.
"What I have to, I don't want to die, Jasmine. Especially not now." He says.
"What will happen to you? They'll send you Azkaban."
"The death eaters are supposed to help me, be there, and take me away after it's happened."
I stand there and watch him, this can't be happening, Draco can't kill someone. The death eater can't take him away; he'll be caught, locked up for sure.
"What about me?" I ask, "What will I do once you're gone? I can't come here, not when they're here, not when he's here."
Draco stares at me, "I don't know, I don't want to be away from you. But I have too; he'll kill me if I don't."
I turn away from him and face the fire as I feel tears come into my eyes.
"Jasmine?" His voice is coarse, "I don't want to do this, I don't want to be part of it. But I have no choice."
I turn back and walk over to him, he watches me the whole way.
I shake my head at him.
"What-" I put my finger to his lips to silence him. I don't want to talk about this anymore, if we only have a short time together I want to enjoy it, I don't want it filled with death eater bull shit!
I strip down to my underwear and get into the bed, without talking he does the same. I lay my head on him and the lights go off. We don't say another word to each other.