Bloodlines || A Draco Malfoy Romance Fanfiction

Caught - 106

Aphry

I shouldn't be doing this.

Good God, I shouldn't be doing this.

I had managed to sneak out of the dungeons without getting caught and made my way to the fifth-floor corridor, just as Pansy had told me.

A part of me felt absolutely foolish, and another part thought I was being a bit intrusive. But, bigger than any of those parts, there was an annoying, nagging part of me that had to get to the bottom of Draco's odd behaviour. And I needed to know if what Pansy had told me was true.

I wore my black school cloak with the hood up to conceal my identity if I needed to run. And since my heels were noisy and my night slippers were not ideal should I happen to need to run, I tiptoed through the dark corridors barefoot, using my wand to light the way as sparingly as I could. My heart raced since it was not often that I snuck out after curfew.

I was able to manage the dungeon corridors without getting caught. On the stairs, most of the people in portraits I encountered were thankfully asleep, while others were so drowsy they imagined me as simply a hallucination of their exhaustion. Thank goodness, Peeves didn't seem to be wreaking havoc anywhere on my route.

Once I finally made it to the fifth-floor corridor, I made my way down the entire corridor.

It was empty. This meant that if Pansy was telling the truth and Draco was indeed supposed to be patrolling the halls, it meant Draco was indeed not where he was supposed to be.

But that didn't really confirm anything, did it? If I wanted to confirm that what Draco said was the truth, I was going to have to catch Draco red-handed.

I thought about what my next plan of action would be in order to do that. There were multiple empty rooms along this hallway. I couldn't very well just open the doors and peek, as creeky and groaning as they were. I was trying not to get caught.

Finding a cornered alcove that was shadowed that looked out along two halls bathed in faint moonlight, I stood and watched.

As soon as I had even partially settled, I started waiting and thinking. My heart beat in my chest at the anticipation, and I started thinking, really thinking, about what I was doing.

Draco could do whatever he liked with whomever he liked. Should I be buggering into that?

I tried putting myself in his shoes. What if the roles were reversed?

He wasn't hurt. Yes, he was definitely breaking rules and disrespecting his position, as evidenced by my necklace's low buzz, but it was my job to keep him safe from harm. Not police him.

The only reason that I wanted to catch him was selfishness. He was keeping things from me, and that hurt my feelings. But that didn't mean I needed to destroy his trust. That could negatively affect me protecting him should the occasion arise.

So I got cold feet, put the hood of my cloak over my head once again, and made my way out of the alcove and back the way I came.

I made my way halfway down the hallway when I heard the groaning of a door about ten feet from me.

Without thinking, I stupidly turned to see who was coming out. Through the faint moonlight, I saw two faint silhouettes. One had distinctive white blonde hair. The other wore a high ponytail.

I froze, just long enough for Draco to turn his head and see me. Then I made my attempt to dash off.

"Oi!" Draco said, starting to run after me. "Stop this instant! I'm a prefect!"

My bare feet, which were previously completely quiet, made fat, loud slaps on the stone floors that ricocheted off the halls.

Draco got close enough, grabbing a fistful of my cloak, which grabbed me by the neck and caused me to fall back and land on my rear. Tears brimmed my eyes with a mixture of regret and pain.

Lighting his wand, he looked down. Thankfully, my hood didn't fall. "Slytherin?" he said, standing over me. I turned my head down so he couldn't see me.

That helped little, as he grabbed my hood, throwing it back. I turned my face away from him again, both to shield my sensitive, dark-adjusted eyes from the bright light of his wand, and tears that threatened to spill. "Aphry?" he asked, obviously shocked to see me. He held his hand out to me. "What in the hell are you doing up here?"

I took his hand, and let him help me up. "Nothing. It's... it's silly."

He crossed his arms, raising a brow. "Entertain me," he responded. "I should be taking you straight to Professor Snape because of this."

Avoiding his gaze, I looked down the hall. I noticed that the girl was gone. She must have gone the long way down the other hall. "Pansy said that you would be up here. Snogging some random girl in an empty room." I huffed. "I thought she was lying."

Scoffing, he responded, "Obviously, you believed her to some degree, or you wouldn't be up here snooping," He sounded offended that I caught him.

My brow furrowed. "And she wasn't wrong."

He coiled back, his furrowed brow matching mine. "If I wanted you to know what I was doing, I would have told you. Instead, you try to catch me, risking detention and house points? This is low for you, Aphrodite."

I nodded, and guilt set in. "I know. I'm sorry."

Draco shook his head, apparently still angry. "Come on. I'm taking you back to the common room. That way if anyone stops you, I can tell them I'm taking you to Snape."

Silently, I nodded to him, and we made our way back to the dungeons, his wand's light guiding the way.

"Did you not wear shoes?" he asked, looking down as we walked and neared the dungeons.

"Heels don't help much when you're sneaking around," I said.

He shook his head. "What got into you Aphry?" he said, his voice softening just a hair.

I shrugged. "You aren't talking that much to me. You haven't sat with me in any classes. You're acting odd anytime we do talk. We use to share everything with each other, Draco. And I don't understand all of a sudden why you're shutting me out."

Sighing, he responded. "Aphrodite, things are different now. You cannot know everything. And my attempts to distance myself from you are to keep you safe." 

"How?" I asked, challenging him angrily.

"Like I said, you cannot know everything," he said, stopping at the entrance to the common room. I couldn't help the tears, once again threatening to spill out of my eyes. My necklace warmed. "Aphry, don't look at me that way."

I sniffled, trying to keep the tears in. "I can't help it."

We stood in silence. My necklace lost its warmth just before he said, "Go on to bed, Aphry. I have to get back to my post." He uttered the password, and the entrance revealed itself and opened.

Making my way past the threshold, the entrance ground close. Finally, the tears spilt silently, grieving the relationship that we once had.