The Prince's Love

Chapter 1: Falling in Love

Before I start my story, I would just like to say that this story is based on the books by J.K. Rowling. So all the characters, except Melissa and her family (whom I created), belong to J.K. Rowling. I do not own them.

Melissa's POV

I've never been the most popular girl, but I'm not unpopular either. I have a few friends, and that's good enough for me. I've been best friends with Draco my whole life. We've known each other since we were little kids. I think our families wanted us to get married or something, but we could never think of each other that way, and luckily our families were accepting of that.

I am a part of the Bennett family. We're a well-known wizarding family -have been for generations. Though, most of the wizarding world despises us now. You see, my family joined The Dark Lord in the first wizarding war.

My father is a loyal follower of The Dark Lord. He was one of the first to join him when he first rose to power. My mother, on the other hand, really only joined because my father did. Thankfully, the Ministry understood that when The Dark Lord fell. My father was captured and imprisoned in Azkaban for his deeds as a death eater, but my mother was granted freedom. Which was lucky, because otherwise, I would be in an orphanage.

However, The Dark Lord rose to power again. And he broke my father, along with others, out of Azkaban. So where does that leave me? I'm stuck being a death eater too. Along with Draco.

Though, in a way, I guess it is a good thing that I became a death eater. If I hadn't, I might never have fallen in love with him.

We met at my first death eater meeting. My father was still in Azkaban at the time. He saw when I got initiated, and the dark mark got seared onto my arm. He could tell I didn't want it... He also saw my mother, and the pain in her eyes as she watched. Then, after the meeting ended, and The Dark Lord had left, he pulled my mother to the side.

While they talked, I hung out with Draco. He had gotten initiated that day as well. Sadly, his father was there with him at the time, or my professor might've saved him as well. Or at least, as much as you can be saved.

A few minutes later, my mother had called me over. She told me that, just like the potions professor standing in front of me, I could become a member of the Order of the Phoenix and follow Dumbledore, just like I had always hoped to do, even though I knew deep down I never could.

"How?" I asked. "Severus here has offered, under Dumbledore's suggestion, to teach you to shield your mind, so that you can work as a double agent just like himself. I'm sure he can explain it better." my mother answered.

And that's when he explained it all to me, right then and there. He told me how he would teach me Occlumency and Legilimency, as a way to shield my mind and enter someone else's, if need be. How I would pretend to spy for The Dark Lord, while in reality, I would be spying for Dumbledore.

"It is the safest option," he said. "If you joined Dumbledore and The Order of the Phoenix and declared your loyalty to them, that would put you in danger of The Dark Lord's wrath. Instead, with this plan, The Dark Lord will still trust you, but you will be able to be loyal to the side you really want to be loyal to. You also won't have to worry about the Dark Lord finding out your true loyalties, because your mind will be shielded from his."

I looked over at Draco then. "Why can't Draco do this too?" I asked.

"I wish I could help him too," he answered. "But first, his father is here at the moment, and he would spoil the whole operation to The Dark Lord. Second, The Dark Lord already mistrusts his family, so Draco learning all of this would make The Dark Lord suspicious, which could potentially put him in more danger. And third, if everyone does this The Dark Lord will become extremely suspicious of everyone's loyalty."

"I understand. Thank you so much for giving me this chance! You have no idea how happy this makes me!" And with that, I ran up and hugged him. I know it sounds crazy, hugging the snarky, heartless dungeon bat, but he had just made my life feel amazing at that moment. Besides, he had also just shown me that he isn't heartless and that he does care. Sure Dumbledore suggested this, but he had still agreed to it, hadn't he?

When I hugged him, he was a little startled, which isn't surprising, I can't imagine the last time he had gotten a hug, the poor guy. Eventually, though, he hugged me back and rubbed my back a bit. When I looked up, I swear I saw a hint of a smile.

I think that's the moment I started to fall in love with him.

After that, we went back home to Bennett Manor. I wasn't allowed to tell anyone about my true allegiance. My father obviously couldn't know. Not even Draco, which was the saddest thing. This was the first time I had ever not told him anything.

I became closer with Hermione in the time I spent with the Order of the Phoenix. I never really got close with Harry or Ron, I hung out with them, sure, but we never had much of a connection, we just hung out with each other for Hermione's sake. Draco didn't seem to care if I chose to hang out with her sometimes. He even let her hang out with us when Draco and I were together. Our families (except my mother) probably thought we were just doing it because I had to pretend to like her, for the sake of spying on them, but I could tell Draco had feelings towards her.

I also grew closer to my potions professor during my lessons with him on Occlumency and Legilimency. I fell even more in love with him. We gradually got to know each other better. He obviously took a while before he opened up even a little bit, but he eventually did.

On the last day of my fifth year, I finally told him I loved him after one of our lessons. I didn't expect him to say anything to it, I just felt he should know, and I didn't think I would get another chance to tell him. Our lessons were ending now, after all.

However, as I turned around to leave, I heard it. It wasn't very loud, but it didn't need to be.

I love you too.

Author's Note:
Okay, there's the first chapter! I really hoped you liked it, I tried really hard to make it good. I realize that you might think this is going a little fast, but I have places I want to go with this, it's not going to be that fast after this, I just needed to get the background story set and everything. I also didn't really know how to show them slowly falling in love, so I did it this way. I hope you guys don't mind! If I'm being honest, the next chapter is originally what I was planning on writing, but I figured I should write a good backstory first, or else it would seem a little weird. Please vote and comment, I would love to hear feedback on this! This is my first time writing, so I hope it's not too terrible. I'm also planning for an update tomorrow, I hope you guys will like it!

Lots of love and stay safe! Thank you so much for reading this! ❤️ 😊