Draco Malfoy x Reader fics

i'm only me when i'm with you | draco malfoy

credit to: malfoysmatrioshka

draco malfoy x fem!reader (technically slytherin!reader but it's only mentioned once of twice i think)

warnings: none that i can think of ! don't think it gets fluffier than this :)

word count: 1.5k

summary: based on "i'm only me when i'm with you" by taylor swift; in which there was no way draco wasn't going to fall for reader, not when she was the only person he could truly be himself with

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He had known, far before he loved her, that he would one day marry her. Even at a time where he had been conditioned to believe that love was weakness and that the only acceptable reason to get married was to gain in status and wealth, he had known.

Maybe because she was, in fact, a far better and more talented witch than he could ever dream of being. Everything seemed to come naturally to her, in a way it didn't even to him or most of their teachers. She was smart, easily the smartest kid in their year, if not the smartest kid in the history of Hogwarts, but she had never seen it necessary to rub it into others faces or show off in order to prove herself the way others did. There was something about her, the way an air of confidence seemed to follow her wherever she went, that made him understand from a very young age on that she would go on to achieve the most remarkable things, things Draco couldn't even begin to imagine of achieving. He had known, even then, that if he would be lucky enough to put a ring on her finger, she would be the one marrying down.

His parents had always been more than delighted to think of a possible union with the Y/L/N's, mainly because they were, like the Malfoy's themselves, a pureblood family with generations of proud Slytherins, but also because they were one of the few families with a fortune even bigger than their own.

And yet when he thought back to that day when he looked at her and just knew, it wasn't because of either of those reasons that he imagined having a future with her, one that was filled with laughter and warmth and happiness.

It was silly, really, but he was after all only eleven, and she had been his friend, his one true friend. No one liked Draco at school, he was aware of that. Even the people that considered themselves his friends only did so because they were either afraid of him or because they were clever enough to understand that having a Malfoy on their side would secure them a reputation they probably wouldn't have been able to obtain by themselves.

She, however, wasn't like that. They had known each other for a couple of years before they started attending Hogwarts, spending their time together at the dreadful events their parents were obsessed with throwing, finding solace in the fact that they weren't, in fact, the only child that could not think of anything worse than being forced to plaster a wide smile on their face and have elderly women pinch their cheeks and call them "the cutest little thing".

It upset him at first, how she seemed to be so much better at pretty much every game they ended up playing and how she just knew far more things than him, both related to the wizarding and muggle world. Now all it did was bring a smile to his face because Merlin how did he get so lucky?

It hadn't come as a surprise to anyone, really, when during their first flying lesson Y/N was the first one to gain full control over her broom and getting the green light from Madame Hooch to give it a go and fly around them in a small circle.

She, however, refused.

Looking at him, she gave him that one smile that was reserved only for him, the one that seemingly managed to warm him from within, the one that he ended up falling in love with. "I don't want to fly if you're still on the ground. It's only fun if we get to do it together." He knew, then, that he would rather lose his own head than her.

Somehow they had managed to grow even closer over the years, smoothly evolving from best friends to lovers. It made sense then and it still did now. They belonged together, like lock and key, like night and day, like water and land.

It had been a day like any other, going to classes and then studying for exams she didn't have to study for because they both knew she was going to pass with flying colours anyways, but sadly he wasn't a born genius and she didn't mind helping him out as long as it meant that she got to spend time with him. And like always it ended with them sneaking out to the lake after curfew, lying there on a blanket and listening to the crickets sing, painting pictures in the night sky and talking about things they had talked about a billion times already.

The pair of them had turned fourteen that year and people had told him he was too young and that there was no way he could possibly know, but he did. In a way, he probably always had known, but hearing her laugh at his corny jokes and telling him how one of these days she might actually turn Potter into a cockroach just for the hell of it, he knew that everything he ever needed was right there by his side. He knew, then, that he loved her.

Of course it wasn't all sunsets and butterflies, even for them. They fought. God did they fight. It was as if two worlds were colliding, threatening to implode and destroy each other any second. At the end of it though, they loved each other too much to stay mad for long. He always made sure to show her just how much she actually meant to him afterwards and that he wasn't lying when he told her that someday soon he would make her his wife and promise to love her until the day he died, and if there was a life after that, to love her then, too. There was never going to be anyone else for him, he was sure of that, and his heart positively melted when she looked him in the eyes and told him with as much sincerity as she could muster that he was it for her as well. 

Things changed when they started their sixth year, with both of them taking the Dark Mark and Draco not being able to live with the knowledge that the sole reason she had taken it was because she didn't want for him to go through it alone. Sure she had denied it when he accused her of it, and yes, the only reason he had taken it in the first place was so he could keep her safe, but could she not understand how scared he was that she was going to regret it someday soon and that she would end up hating him for putting her through all of this torture? Could she not see how absolutely terrifiedhe was to lose her?

She had held him tight when he had finally broken down, sobbing into her chest and begging her not to leave him, to never leave him because he didn't think he'd be able to survive without her, didn't think he'd ever wantto live a life that didn't have her in it.

Rubbing soothing circles on his back and leaving soft kisses along his jaw, she ensured him that she wasn't going anywhere, ever, and that it would take much, much more for him to get rid of her.

"I love you, Draco. We're gonna get through this, love. Together."

He was glad he had her throughout it all, someone he could be apologetically himself with, someone who he didn't have to pretend in front. There wasn't a single second in which he felt like he had to prove himself, not in the way he always felt pressured to do when he was around other people, even his so-called friends. Even after the war and everything that followed, he never felt comfortable to just be himself in front of others, not when he didn't know wether they would judge him for not being as ruthless as he pretended to be, or if maybe they would think him weak for not actually being as sure of himself as he made out to be. He never had to worry about these things with her, knowing that there was not a single thing that she didn't know about him, and that she, somehow, still chose to love him. It baffled him at times how someone as undeserving as him got lucky enough to end up with such a lady by his side, someone who could do so much better than him but still held him tight and whispered in his ear how she didn't want to ever live without him.

In the end it turned out that there were a lot of things Draco Malfoy was wrong about, but she would never be one of them.