Bright

-8-

TRIGGER WARNING: GRAPHIC DEPICTION OF RAPE.

READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

                  Meet me at eight o'clock tonight by your window, there is a lot I want to discuss.

                                                                                                                              -Adrian

Elle shared a fond smile when she received this letter. She and Adrian have become very close since second year, almost inseparable. They would do everything together, from going to class everyday, to quidditch practice, to dinner, to different alcoves in the castle to sit and talk to each other without being interrupted by a bombarding team. Draco, in particular, enjoyed bombarding the two with questions and picked on them in other ways. Elle knew that this was because Adrian and Draco scuffle and argue a lot about mundane things, they can't seem to get along with each other over anything except for the shared notion of protecting Elle, which is what the whole team did.

Draco, over third year, grew more protective of her, not liking when she had to be apart from him, and she rarely was. Lucius made sure that Draco and Elle were together in doing almost anything for the sole purpose of Draco looking out for Elle. She didn't mind it too much as long as Draco wasn't crazy about it, and he almost always was when it came to Adrian. And Harry Potter. And Granger. And almost anyone that so much as looked at Elle the wrong way.

Elle decided mid way through third year that she was tired of Draco ruining friendships and not letting her defend herself, because she was more than capable of doing that. She fought hard against him in the common room one night until she said something that she would always regret.

"Why do you always insist on protecting a person that doesn't need protecting, Draco?!"

"Because it is something I need to do!"

"WHY? Because dear Lucius told you to? Because you have a vendetta against anyone that I care about that isn't you and Blaise?! Or, is it because you think that you need to have control over me, because you cannot control anything else in your life?"

"Elle, stop."

"No, I will not stop until i've said what I need to say. You insist on believing in the notion that I am helpless and cannot do a damned thing without you, or blaise, or anyone else for that matter! Adrian is the only one that understands personal boundaries. He is the only one that cares enough to ask me how I feel about everything that is going on! You have not asked me one time how I have felt since I found out about my father! You just continue to try to do everything for me when I don't want you to! So please just stop trying to act like you care, because it's getting old."

Elle stormed off at that point and slammed the door of her and Pansy's shared bedroom, while Draco just stood there fuming. He had never been talked to like that and he normally would never allow it, but he did for Elle. He would do anything for Elle, even if it meant that she would hate him. He decided to continue keeping a watchful eye on her, but more from a distance.

Draco and Elle have barely spoken to each other since the incident, and Elle preferred it. She knew that she didn't say nice things to him, but she was so angry with him that the things she said were overshadowed by her anger.

Over the summer, she mainly stuck to Narcissa's side during meal times and was off with Adrian the other hours that she was not sleeping or eating. She didn't see much of Lucius, as he worked a lot more this summer. The few times that she did see him, he was trying to groom Draco into the family business, so she refrained from joining them. Only twice while she was home did she need Lucius to sing her the lullaby that calmed her spirit. Both times, she was thinking about Draco and how bad she wanted to repair things with him.