ikDisclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Sorry 'bout the delay. I've been BUSY and sick. Hopefully I'll get back on track! :) My life has slowed down to a boring day to day kind of deal, so I should actually have free time to write these!

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I woke up to the sound of an owl tapping on our window. It was a sound that I found most discomforting—after all; who would be writing us all the way over here?

I kicked the blankets off my legs, and groggily got out of bed. I ripped the curtains back, disconcerted by the light pouring into my room. I turned around to see if Draco had even woken up—sure enough, he was stretched out, faintly snoring.

I unlatched the window, surprised to recognize my Mother's owl impatiently awaiting for me to take the scroll from its outstretched leg. Her owl was just like her—it was true what they say about your pets. I took the scroll rather unwillingly, and watched as the creature vanished into the dim morning light.

I tiptoed into the bathroom, carefully shutting the door behind me. I sat on the edge of the tub, and precariously unrolled the scroll clenched between my fingers.

"Hayley—" It began…

I have talked to Bella about what is planned for your free time on this visit. I couldn't help but remember an exquisite wedding dress shop there. Perhaps you could take a gander at the gowns? It's not too early to start looking for one. Surely Draco won't mind—Send him my congratulations on his upcoming engagement. What a lovely match!

I've called ahead to the shop, they're expecting you within the week. I can't wait to see what you find! I know that Marcus already misses you!

Mum

I couldn't help but laugh—loud, unrestrained, laughter in which it was only natural that my head fell back. I was consumed with my laughter that I didn't notice Draco entering the bathroom.

"What's so funny?" He asked groggily, pushing his hair back from his face, clearly disoriented and not even slightly awake.

I couldn't help but laugh harder.

He walked over, and sat down, leaning his back against the base of the tub, and leaning into my left leg, "What on earth is making you laugh this hard?" He looked at me with a lopsided grin on his face.

"We can't escape," I shook my head, "It's almost foolish that we even thought we could try."

His face instantly fell, "What do you mean it's foolish? I thought we agreed that we would."

I wordlessly handed him the letter. He took it cautiously, and I watched him read it. His expression went from blank, to disbelief to humor.

"She knows about Pansy already? Merlin, news travels fast."

"I'm supposed to go shopping for my wedding dress?" I asked, looking at my toes.

He rested his head against my knee, pulling onto my leg. It was almost like old times. I collapsed into my hands, staring down at him at an angle that wasn't awkward in the least.

"We said we were going to leave that all behind with us, Draco. It's following us. Maybe this is a sign." I sighed, moving my left hand to muse with his hair. He looked up at me, his face solemn.

"No." He answered me firmly.

"No?" I felt my eyebrows knit together in confusion.

"This isn't a sign. It's just your mother meddling. We're going to ignore this—except for the shopping part. But we'll pretend it's under different circumstances. Maybe this new version of us haven't gotten engaged yet, but we wanted to take a "gander" and look at some wedding gowns. We can still have this."

I took a deep breath, after the last twelve hours, I wanted that more than anything, "We have to acknowledge though that this is going to be hard on us when we get back to England." I said quietly, sighing deeply.

"Like you said last night, there's really no point in behaving otherwise now."

"I don't know."

"There is no logic to this—you've always had to appeal to logic. Even when were kids. But that's okay. There doesn't have to be logic. We left logic in England. There's nothing that you should know or not know. Just feel. That's all I'm asking you. Is to just feel whatever it is that you do." He replied slowly.

I took a deep breath, "It looks like we need to get ready to go to dress shopping."

He looked up at me, so carefree in his gaze as he stood and kissed me on the forehead. "Let's grab some breakfast first."

The last 24 hours came back to me all of a sudden, and I couldn't wait to get out of my clothes and take a shower. "I'm showering first," I claimed.

"I thought we'd shower together." He replied ludicrously.

"Draco!" I chastised.

"I was only joking."

"Hardly," I snorted, rolling my eyes and pushing past him into the room. I walked over to my suitcase, pulling out my bag of toiletries and shuffling through my clothes, looking for a suitable outfit. It was quite a bit warmer today than it usually was at home.

I chose a khaki high waisted bell skirt, that was only a few inches longer than my fingertips. I also selected a three quarter length sleeved button down shirt that was the lightest pink. I grabbed a dark chestnut belt from my accessories bag to put over the waist of the skirt, and after selecting undergarments hurried into the bathroom—very careful to lock the door behind me.

The water hitting the muscles in my back felt amazing—totally phenomenal as I continued to let my body relax. That's what this was. A vacation. An escape from reality. I needed to tell my mind that I wasn't in the real world right now. That I was free.

It was a hard thing to convince myself, after years of the freedom living away with from my parents had presented to me, I'd fallen back into the swing of society life without blinking.

It's all in England, I told myself for the thousandth time. I wanted to do this, just thinking about the way I'd felt sleeping next to Draco last evening was enough to convince me of that.

And that's when I knew indubitably. I was going to do this.

I stepped out from the shower, dressing quickly. I kept a towel wrapped around my head and exited the bathroom humming to myself, enjoying the feeling of my feet caressing the carpet.

I sat down in front of the mirror; it wasn't a vanity—more of a desk, but I would have to make do. I slowly unpacked my makeup, my brush, my perfumes and crèmes and set them up on the desk—forgetting that I wasn't alone, I even hummed a little under my breath.

"You are so much more of a girl than anyone knows," I stopped dead in my tracks, swiveling around with my hand on my hip.

"And that's a bad thing?"

"Not even slightly," He looked at me, his eyes smoldering—I felt my stomach flutter, "Considering that I'm in love with my best friend, It would be a great misfortune were my best friend male."

I started blushing, wanting to turn away from him, but I knew that I shouldn't. I held his gaze, staring into his eyes knowing that our time was limited. I needed to stop worrying about that.

"I suppose that it would be quite a misfortune, indeed."

"Quite?" He laughed teasingly, "More than quite. I would get disowned by everyone I knew."

"That is more than true." I replied, "Now go shower. I'm hungry."

"Yes, Ma'am."

I rolled my eyes as he saluted me, before exiting the room into the bathroom. I sat down at my makeshift vanity and just stared at myself for a moment. The color in my skin, made my cheeks look so rosy. I slowly did my makeup, playing with colors that I was never expected—even allowed to wear. Instead of enhancing the pale, I played with the natural golden tint in my skin. I used a bronzing powder for the first time in my life, warming my complexion in ways I'd never even thought of.

When I was finished with my makeup, my face appeared fresh and dewy. I took the towel down from my hair slowly, applying some crème to it and then tying a gold ribbon through it. By the time I was hooking a pair of three drop earring (Each drop was a small ball, covered in white metal flowers with little gems at the center) Draco was exiting the bathroom fully dressed—in a pair of dark khakis and an olive colored v-neck t-shirt.

"Wearing green?" I teased.

"It's hard not to." He replied truthfully, "I'm so accustomed to it. Besides, it's not Slytherin green, so no one will notice anyway."

I laughed lightly, rolling my eyes. Fading back to earth I couldn't help but sigh about the way that his hair messily fell about his face, flicking towards his eyebrows.

"What? Is there something on my face?" He asked. I supposed I'd been staring for too long.

"No, I like your hair better that way."

He straightened up a little bit, I could see that the compliment went to his head. Which to be entirely honest, I'd say that I'd be surprised if it hadn't.

"What?" He looked at up at me from tying his shoes, "Why do you look irritated right now?"

His question through me off guard, people always told me that I was hard to read. I hadn't seen him in so long, he shouldn't remember me as well as he did…I shouldn't remember him as well as I did.

"Remind me not to compliment you." I replied, putting my hands on my hips, and turning away from him to find shoes.

"What? Why?" He sounded offended, I heard the bed springs creak and his feet echo across the floor towards me.

"You always get the same smug look on your face. It's so deprecating."

"You behave the same way when delicate compliments are bestowed upon you." He countered, "Besides, we're purebloods. We are better than everyone else. We already know that we're beyond spectacular. It's just nice to hear reaffirmed."

I dropped the shoe in my hand. "Bullshit." He looked surprised, "I know that's not lady like of me. But Draco, that is utter bullshit." I wanted to throw the shoe in my hand; instead I took a deep breath and slid it onto my foot, "You're not that guy." I added quietly.

"You don't know anything about the guy that I've become."

I stopped everything that I was doing and regarded him silently, solemnly even. Here I had spent all this time thinking that everything had fallen back into place as if those last seven years hadn't happened. It was at that moment that I knew that I was wrong. Those seven years had happened, and in their wake was a huge, meteor sized hole in what we thought we knew of one another.

I looked at him, breathing deeply, "You're right. I don't know you."

"Hayley," He said softly, standing up and walking over towards me, "I didn't mean it like that." He said softly, grabbing my hand, and turning me to look at him. I wanted to laugh at how soft he was being.

"I'm not mad. It's true. We can't pretend like we didn't live seven years of our lives, and that we're not different than who we once were." I replied shrugging.

"So are you saying that…last night…?" He trailed off quietly.

"No," I shook my head, "All I'm saying is let's get to breakfast. We have a lot of catching up to do."

"Okay, so who was your first kiss?" I asked, going with the string of conversation. I didn't think about the fact that I already knew the answer to that question before I'd asked it. "Oh," I laughed lightly, "I asked that before I even thought about it."

"Oh wow," He laughed lightly, "Well that's one milestone that you witnessed."

"More than witnessed," I teased.

He smirked, "How could I forget? You were the one who came onto me." I looked at him seriously.

"Even back then, in my tomboy days, I was still a proper enough girl to know that a lady never makes the first move." I responded, straightening up and regarding him stonily.

"You always say you were a tomboy back then. I don't know where that's coming from."

I scoffed, "Surely Draco, you must be joking." I frowned, "And don't think you can change the subject so easily."

He laughed lightly, "I kissed you, I know." He cleared the air, leaning forwards a little bit before continuing, "But why do you act like you were a tomboy?"

"You can't be serious," I laughed, "I was tougher than you were."

"You were a loudmouth, and you talked big." He said, "But you weren't a tomboy. I hardly saw you without a ribbon in your hair."

"Then why did you act so shocked when you saw me?"

"No one had seen you in years. Not even a picture of you. I expected you to be pretty, but I didn't expect you to be a goddess."

I looked at him, narrowing my eyes with a blank expression, "That sounds like the kind of bullshit that Flint would feed me."

"So you admit what he says is generally bull?" He countered.

"I'll be happy with him."

"That's not what I asked."

I took a deep breath, "Yes. Some of the stuff he says, is utterly ridiculous. He's always playing the game." I replied, "And the game is fun to play along to."

He sighed, and opened his mouth like he was about to say something.

He didn't have to—nor did he. We both could feel the heaviness of what wasn't said.

That what would have happened if I hadn't played along to the game that Flint was spinning. If I hadn't given him reason to hope that I possessed feelings for him.

And it was then, looking at Draco, thousands of miles away from my family, my friends, and my soon to be fiancé that I realized. I had said those thing, acted the way that I had, and led everyone to believe things that weren't true…to make Draco jealous.

Then again, I'd always known that it was Draco that I wanted to spend my days with, not Marcus Flint.