Fuckboy {Draco Malfoy 18+}

42. andromeda.

We both sit up slowly. Draco rapidly blinks away his remaining tears, sitting cross legged in front of me.

He's trying to calm down, taking slow breaths and closing his eyes.

My tears have started flowing again, and I can't stop them. Because I know I have to tell him. I can't keep it all from him anymore. I hide my legs under my tulle skirt, wiping the blackened tears away from my cheeks.

Draco's eyes are open again, and he's looking at me, numb, waiting for me to let it all out. So I take in a deep breath, looking at him in agony.

"It was the letter," I whisper. "I did it because of the letter."

"What letter?" Draco asks in a little gasp.

I tilt my head at him, my face screwing up again. He's not following, furrowing his eyebrows and wincing.

"Your mother loves you, Draco," I whisper.

His face falls and he understands, remembers.

"What did it say?" Draco asks hurriedly. When I don't answer, a little silent sob shuddering in my chest, he leans in a little, shifts closer to me. "What did it say? Show me."

"I don't have it," I say in a gasp, shaking my head.

"What the fuck did my mother tell you?" Draco asks, and he looks angry again. I'm not sure if it's directed at me.

I sob again. "It was. . . horrible."

"Tell me," he demands, looking between my eyes frantically.

I tell myself to turn off the pain, at least a little bit. I can't cry through this whole thing. When I speak again, my face is calmer and my voice is steadier, if not a little dead.

"She told me all these stories. About your aunt."

"Bella?" Draco asks in confusion.

"No," I whisper. "Andromeda."

His look of confusion does not abate.

"What about her?" he asks.

I shift a little, pulling my skirt more tightly around myself.

"She married a Mudblood."

Draco's eyes widen in understanding.

"That has nothing to do with us," he hisses out.

"It has everything to do with us."

I shift again, opening my mouth and closing it a few times before I let out the entirety of it, the whole story, minus a few of the most gory details.

"They were close, your mother and her sisters, when they were younger. Bonded over your fucked up family, I suppose," I say, and I don't pause, don't give him a chance to intervene. "Your mother told me all of these stories about it, about her and Andromeda and Bellatrix. How close of a relationship they used to have. But. . ." I trail off, looking out the window at the Black Lake. "But then Andromeda met a muggleborn. Here, at Hogwarts. And she fell in love with him."

"Evan-"

"Stop," I deadpan, and Draco goes silent, just staring at me. "And it was predictable. You can guess what happened. She was disowned, burned out of the family, completely cast out. She had no one, not even her own sisters. Their love for Andromeda was destroyed, only because of the person that she loved."

"We knew-"

"Stop," I whimper, starting to cry again. "That's not even the worst of it, so don't say we 'knew the consequences.'"