Slytherin Royalty (Draco Malfoy)

xix) Quibbler

The rest of January passes very quickly. Alarming amounts of homework, quidditch practice, prefect duties and Inquisitorial Squad duties keep Draco and me mostly busy. The small periods of time when the two of us are free, we spend together as if we are afraid we won't be able to soon. I guess the dread has settled down completely.

And on top of them all, Draco has nightmares. Nightmares of Voldemort, him, me and what happened in different ways. The only time Draco can sleep peacefully is with me. So we changed our sleeping location to the Room of Requirement.

The room has a giant bed with a sofa on one side and some chairs and a big fireplace which keeps the room warm during extremely cold nights too. The only ones who know where we are, are Pansy and Blaise. They don't question anything and help us as much as possible.

I sometimes visit Harry's occlumency lessons and read his mind. Nothing interesting is there other than DA meetings and hanging out with Chang. I hate her but don't say anything to Harry.

Finally it is time for Draco and my first official date. I hadn't realised how we have been dating for so long and yet never had an actual date. We have even agreed on using the terms boyfriend and girlfriend.

Pansy is making sure I look really good for the date. The frock she has chosen is a nice one. It is cute and somehow makes me look better than usual.

"You are ready." Pansy tells me. I look myself over in the mirror. I give her a small smile and take a deep breath before walking down the stairs to the common room.

Draco has changed his suit too. It is usually hard to say if he is wearing the same suit everyday or different suits. But today is definitely different. The shade of black is lighter than usual.

He smiles widely when he sees me. He looks me up and down. "You look beautiful as always." He says pulling me in by my waist.

I chuckle a little as I kiss him. "Thank you." I whisper against his lips. "Now can we get a move on?"

Draco chuckles. "Of course I don't get any compliment from you." He says right before I drag him by his hand.

Draco laughs as we start to walk down the road to Hogsmeade. Neither of us saying anything but I grab Draco's arm and put my head on his shoulder. He smiles down at me as we keep walking.

"So what are we going to do?" Draco asks.

I smile a little. "Why don't we look around for now?" I suggest.

Draco starts to lead the way as we window-shop, which I have to explain to him too. It is a little cute when he doesn't understand muggle terms.

We wander toward Dervish and Banges. A large poster has been stuck up in the window and a few Hogsmeaders are looking at it. They move aside when Harry and Cho approach, I notice, and we follow him and find ourselves staring once more at the ten pictures of the escaped Death Eaters. The poster ("By Order of the Ministry of Magic") offers a thousand-Galleon reward to any witch or wizard with information relating to the recapture of any of the convicts pictured.

I look at Draco. He seems to become uncomfortable and I gently tug his arm, getting him away from there. As we wander deeper into Hogsmeade, people start to glare at Draco. I can tell he is getting more and more uncomfortable by this.