Promise

- W A I T -

NEW YEARS EVE

***

Draco's POV 

"Can we make this quick? I have somewhere I need to be." I scoffed as I wiped the dust from the dungeon floor off of my black dress pants, and took mental note of how uncomfortable the chair in Snape's office was. 

She was waiting for me, god only knows what she was wearing... or what she wasn't wearing. 

And I hated being away from her. I didn't want to leave her alone. Unprotected. 

Vulnerable. 

"I apologize if our tasks have become too much of an inconvenience for you," Snap snarled the words at me, pressing his non-existent lips into an even thinner line. "Grow up. Stop being an adolescent, horned toad and focus." 

I looked down at the ground, feeling ashamed for my rudeness to him. I knew we both had a common goal, a shared lifeline. Two miserable arachnids dangling from the same hanging web attached to her. Terrified of the thin connecting piece breaking, taking her from us. 

I just wanted one night where her and I could be...normal. 

Just two student's in their last year. Legally adults somehow, about to be pushed out headfirst in to the unknown. 

Not a weak excuse for a death eater and a target. 

"Sorry." I muttered, glancing up at him. "Have you found out something?" 

He sighed deeply. Gathering himself, controlling his emotions. 

Which scared the absolute piss out of me. 

"Your other task." His eyes came up to meet mine slowly, they were dark, their feelings concealed in his self discipline. "It is time to complete it." 

For a moment I had no idea what he was talking about. 

Other task? 

Besides Adealia what other task- 

Merlin. 

 My throat felt like Snape's long pale fingers were constricting around it and strangling me. "You can't be serious... How am I-? I can't kill- I'm not- It's-" 

"Weak."  He said the word with affliction. Purpose. 

He knew what reaction it would cause. 

Involuntarily my jaw clenched as anger flared my nostrils. I stretched my fingers, trying to keep my hands from balling  into fists and letting him see my reaction. 

"Not being a murderer, does not make me weak." I said the sentence with as much confidence as I could but even I heard my own lie laced into the syllables. 

"The Dark Lord has assigned this task to you. And I have ensured him that you will follow through. It must be done. It has to be done in order to protect her. And it must be done at precisely the right time."  His monotone was unwavering, however I could hear his disappointment in the flat diction. 

The room began to spin as I felt the blood drain from the crown of my head slowly down to my neck. How could I have forgotten this? How could he expect me to do this? Kill Dumbledore? 

One of the most powerful wizards of all time. 

Me. 

Kill him.