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s i x t h y e a r
Draco opens his door, a frown etched into his face. His chest is pale and bare, defined and sculpted like the heavens sent to torment her. When his silver eyes fall on her, concern rakes her body up and down. A sob leaves her lips, and the tears fall.
"I didn't know where else to go." She whispers the confession as old as time and striking this angel right in its crooked halo.
His lips pull into a tight frown, delicately touching her bare arm to invite her inside. The room flickered in candlelight as she enters and the door closes. A fire crackles, the mantel above it bare of any memorabilia. Adeline hadn't ever been inside Draco's dorm and she didn't bother to rake her eyes over whatever lay inside it.
She stands before the fire, shaking and frail. Draco is so cautious to get any closer, his hands are tightly drawn at his sides, his steps practically timid.
The warmth of the fire is burning Adeline's exposed skin, her collarbones and arms. She doesn't move, not even when she feels Draco standing behind her.
His warmth burns her more than any fire ever could.
He reaches a hand out to her; to touch, caress, care for and to hold. He lets it drop back by his side before it ever makes contact.
A tremble of hope curls around his heart, hope and fear. This girl stands before him, came to him and he's terrified she'll go again. He's terrified she won't ever come back. He has already known what it feels like to have her slip out of his grasp too many times.
"What is it?" Draco asks, faintly heard over the fire. Adeline has tears running down her face, pooling at her chest and in her collarbones. She turns to him, finding Draco so close. He's barely a breath away. There's a piece of Adeline, one she buried and hid away, that is itching to touch his bare skin. There's a part of Draco, one he has dug up and forced upon himself, that yearns she touch him.
She sniffles, almost childlike. "I think someone's trying to kill me, Draco."
A fresh wave of tears fall down her face, her cheeks rosy with sadness. His body is rigid in front of her, waiting with bated breath for her next words.
"I think they've been trying to kill me all semester, and they've been wanting to hurt me for years." Her body is shaking, but not with sadness. There are tremors coursing through her bones, but not with fear. "Do you think it's possible, Draco? Do you think someone is trying to kill me? That someone has been trying to hurt me all this time?"
Adeline looks at him from beneath her wet lashes, looking at him like he's her only chance at survival; like she needs him. Draco can't find his words for a moment, can only stare into her lovely sad blue eyes.
"I don't know." He doesn't know what he's doing. "Maybe."
Adeline let out a shaky breath and a sulky sniffle. "Why would someone want to do something like that?"
