Villain, D. Malfoy

28. Favors With Repercussions

Emerald

I screwed up.

The one order I was given before I came to Hogwarts was the only order I ended up breaking.

Today, everyone was leaving the school to visit their families. Our fifth year was coming to an end, and it feels like just yesterday we were beginning this year. I can't believe in only two months we would be returning for our sixth year.

My fingers fidgeted with one another, my heart palpitating as I tried coming up with a lie to tell my mother. She sent me here to complete one task, and this was just phase number one: To watch and observe.

But in just a few months, when we came back for our sixth year, came her real assignment. The one that I was more afraid of than anything.

What if she knows I've been talking with Draco all this time? Let alone falling for him? Well, I think. I'm not so sure about that fact yet.

I approached the door and tried gathering up the courage to knock on it. We weren't supposed to be leaving Hogwarts just yet, but my mother wanted me to come the morning before we all packed our things to go home. I don't know why.

"Mother." I swallowed greedily as I felt a force open the wooden door in front of me.

"Emerald." A tiny smile lingered on her lips before she invited me to her residence.

I clenched my jaw and did what I needed to do. I fastened my arms around her shoulders, as she did the same to mine. "Why did you need me to come so early?"

"Sit down. We have a lot to catch up on." Meetings with my mother never went well. Then again, I would try my best to behave at all times. I never liked making her upset.

"You haven't been associating with... the wrong kind, as I told you, Emerald?" She spoke slowly.

I immediately shook my head. "No, mother."

"Does that include that Slytherin I warned you about? What's his name? Draco Malfoy?"

"Yes, mother. I haven't said a word to him." I lied with an upright face.

•

Draco

"Do you have what I asked for, son?" He snatched my arm before I could leave the manor.

I stooped my head down, nodding. "Here," I muttered, passing him the envelope.

"Well done, Draco." His lips curled into a smirk. I, too, was grinning at the sound of his words. I never got told them every often, so when I did, I appreciated their existence.

"I always warned you when your sixth year rolled around; you owed me a favor." He continued to say before drinking some of his tea.

"Wasn't this it? Wasn't this the favor you needed me to do?" I leaned back on the chair.

"Oh, son. This is just the beginning."

"What do you mean?" I crossed my arms on my chest.

"You know that heir of Ravenclaw? Emerald Hart."

My stomach sunk as I heard her name. I gradually nodded, not wanting to know where this was heading.

"What does this have to do with that girl?"

He hesitated to laugh.

"I need her wrapped around your finger. Befriend her, praise her, do whatever it takes for her to fall for you."

I'm afraid I've already done that unintentionally.

"Why, father? If I may ask." I fixed my tie.

"I need her killed."

•

Emerald

"You can't ask me to do that," I whispered, hanging on to the velvet couch.

"Why's that? I thought you had no ties with him whatsoever, making this easier for you." The woman I called my mother strived to persuade me into committing a crime.

"It doesn't matter. He still has a life. You can't just ask me to take it away."

"Not if I don't threaten yours, as well."

I gulped carefully, choosing my next set of words. She was all talk; she would never be able to kill her own daughter. But right now, I didn't want to bet against that.

"How do you need me to do it, then?" I said what she wanted me to say.

•

Draco and I weren't really on speaking terms. The last moment we shared was one I always dreaded. I was this close to finally getting what I wanted; him. But I realized I couldn't, and he couldn't either, for that matter.

Yet, when I left my mother's house to go back to Hogwarts and pack up my things for the break, I felt I had got to see him. Every bone in my body needed to wrap myself around his arms.

I never yearned for such a hug before, but every time my torso was connected with his, I felt his heartbeat. Something that never happened to me with anyone else.

My walking was utterly unstable. My cheeks were just starting to dry from all the tears I cried out. I felt my feet stumble upon one another as if I was walking on cobblestones.

A slightly fluster look concealed my eyes. I silently thank God when I make it to the front of his dorm. I knock, praying he was inside. The door opens, and I look up at Draco, swaying slightly as I'm this close to passing out.

"...Didn't know where else to go..." I collapsed into his arms. He doesn't pause to wrap his arms around my body.

Blaise wasn't in the dorm, so it was just us two. After he took me in, he sat me in his bed, running his fingers through my hair. I managed to regain my strength, sitting up to talk to him. He looked like he had had a shitty day as well. His eyes were red, and his cheeks were a bit puffy. It looked like he had been weeping.

"Emerald... I saw my father." He murmurs.

I stopped breathing for a second. Did he just say he saw his father? I wanted to know why he saw him, but frankly, I was at a loss for words.

"Now you know why I couldn't tell you those three little words last week? Emerald, we can't be together, and you know it." He closed his eyes shut.

"Don't do this," I whispered. He was not about to shut me out.

"I have to. He gave me one last warning. If I don't stay away from you now, something will happen, and... and I would never forgive myself if it did." He averted all eye contact with me. I laughed out of desperation, trying to tell if this was a nightmare or not.

"I don't think I can go back to the way things were before. Don't you understand? Being with you changed everything." I whisper-yelled, my voice cracking in between.

"We can't!" He lifted his voice until he saw the nervous effect his tone had on me. "We just... can't. I'm sorry I can't give you what you deserve." His voice got lower and lower. I rushed to wrap my hands around his face.

"Love isn't something you can control." I cupped his cheek, convincing him to stay with just my touch.

"You're right. Which is why I'm leaving before it can."