dragonfly || d.m. [✔]

together,

[i am going to try and complete this today - i've been dragging it on too long, and it barely has 4 chapters left.]

-

From the Apparating Point, I was off once more, the Muggles giving me stares - but then again, I had an unconscious boy in my bloody arms. I apparated to the middle of the Forest of Dean, the Quidditch World Cup had been held here and my intuition told me that I might find friends here. 

"Aria?" 

"HERMIONE!" I could almost cry with relief. I'd been wandering around for the past two hours searching for a sign of the fact that life existed in this forest. And if Hermione was here, Potter and Weasley would be here too - oh wait, that might have been Weasley in the dungeons.

She ran towards me, and tried to wrap me in a hug, but I held up the unconscious Draco I was dragging on along with me. "Oh. What happened to Malfoy?"

Tears crowded my eyes and I looked up in hopes that they disappeared, "Cruciactus Curse."

Hermione gasped, although they'd done it to her too. "For how long?"

How long had I been gone from the Manor? I did not know - it felt like years. "Fifteen minutes," I replied, confused but happy to find her.

Hermione stared at his body, her face pale, "D-did you check his pulse? Because according to 101 Curses and Antidotes, a person is liable to die from a Cruciactus Curse if it goes on for more than-"

I stopped her with a short, "Yes."

Walking along with her in silence, I saw the night gulping down the trees around me down, the campfire some distance away clearly visible. Hermione ran forward, probably to warn Potter and Weasley that I would soon be coming. 

I entered the tent, Potter and Weasley eyeing Draco's body suspiciously - "Did you kill him?"

That made Hermione punch Potter in the face, effectively making his eyes water, "Sensitivity!" I smiled at her, meeting her eyes for the first time since we'd met and the warmth of her brown eyes made me feel comfortable in the otherwise cold atmosphere of the tent - which was huge. 

"Ria!" I was encompassed in a hug, the smell of spring and rain filling my senses - Madeline. "Mads?" I smiled back, wrapping one arm around her. 

"Shh," she said, pressing her index finger to my lips. Her eyes widened as she looked at Draco's limp body - "What happened to him?"

"Cruciactus Curse."

"Keep him there, that's my bunk - no I don't mind, he was my friend too." I could see the gentle, sweet Luna in Madeline.

"Thank you - you have no idea about how much I appreciate this," I say, smiling tiredly. I look at her and Hermione as I say it.

"Not a problem," Hermione says.

Madeline turns my face towards her, placing her index finger beneath my chin, and looked into my eyes. "We remain friends, you remember that, right?"

"Right," I smile.

We had dinner, and Madeline and I got into the same bunk because Draco's unconscious body was below us. There was awkward silence throughout dinner, Potter and Weasley making faces at each other. I honestly didn't care, my gaze flickering back to Draco's body every two minutes. 

Even after the lights switched off, my mind didn't. It ran in circles, the same one - Voldemort; "Crucio! "; "Stuperfy! "; Draco Malfoy. The wardrobes of piled thoughts flew open, my mind falling into absolute chaos. Pictures floated up, pictures of Draco Malfoy. Him laughing, him making weird faces, him kissing me with his eyes closed, his lips on mine. And to think that I might never quite see him awake again.

My home was gone, and I was homeless once more - overstaying my hospitality, making enemies, running into trouble, flying into trials. 

Eventually, I climbed down from the bunk, making sure that I did not disturb Madeline. I felt for his wrist - it was still warm, and his heart was fighting on. However, his fingers were trembling; a normal symptom of the Cruciactus Curse. Skin deathly pale, he lay there, his hair shimmering in the moonlight - just like that night in the Astronomy Tower.

"Hold on, Draco. Please," I said, a tear of mine falling to his cheek. I hadn't cried in five years - not even when my aunt died - and here I stood, next to a bunk on which a boy, who I wasn't even a couple with, lay, letting the tears fall. The absurdity annoyed me.

Please. Please. Please. Please, the words echo in my mind, making me shake my head from falling into the abyss of insanity. This was all my fault, if only I hadn't let Voldemort into my mind that night ... perhaps.

A trembling hand makes its way to my own. "Dragonfly," he murmurs. "I am furious at you right now. Absolutely furious."

I leap into his arms, burying my head into his chest, grabbing his shirt and pulling him towards me. His fingers stroke my hair. "Where's your hoodie?"

Truth was that I had forgotten it at my dorm with Madeline, but I just shook my head and burrowed further into his chest. 

"Why would you wipe my memories?" he grimaced. I sigh, I had known that this would be coming. 

"How did you find them again?"

"The Cruciactus Curse - it brings back obliviated memories. Answer my question."

I sigh once more, "Can we do this later?"

"No," he says, flinging his legs over the edge of the bunk and wincing slightly. "Damn, that curse hit home."

"Are you sure you want to do this?" I worry over him.

He strides towards the outdoors, and turns decisively towards me, "Yes."

We sit on the grass lit up by the moon. I smile up at her. "Well, I thought that it would protect you. When the Dark Lord first threatened me, I immediately thought of the harm it would do to you - I just wanted to protect you!"

"By removing the happiest days of my life from my memories?" He fake clapped, "Bravo, bravo. However, it did not help. Even when I didn't know you, I felt a pull towards you - a long lost memory in a landslide of other long lost memories. I didn't understand, but I knew one thing - if you died, I'd die for you."

"Really?"

"Yes, my love, very obviously yes. Can you not see? I like you. I fancy you. I- I'm in love with you-"

I scoffed, "No, you're not." It scared me, this love, as Draco called it. It was sucking me into it, a never-ending rabbit hole of absolute bliss. I didn't want to admit it because I never in my life had ever faced my fears and I didn't want to start. Not now.

His face fell, and then he laughed, "You're right. I was just joking."

But he wasn't, and I knew it.