Dedicated | Draco Malfoy

Chapter 7

"What's up with Theodore?" Hannah asked.

Susan had invited her over for dinner tonight. They visited each other's houses so often that Susan's house felt like a second home to her.

Tonight however, she was very distracted. Her fingers were itching to get back to the story she had been writing for the past few days. It was weird. One moment she had been stuck staring at the blank page and then suddenly she was so inspired that she couldn't stop writing. It wasn't anything like the writing process of her previous stories. Then, she had felt in control. She was the author putting the words down on paper and bringing the characters to life. Now, she felt consumed by the story. Like the characters were demanding her to write about them. Like she hadn't any say in what happened in her own story.

She had arrived about half an hour ago. Susan had led her into the living room and had started chatting about work while they ate some appetizers. Theodore hadn't said a word yet.

That in itself wasn't very strange for the introverted man, but he also had barely touched any of the food. He was still holding the same olive on his skewer he had taken from the plate of food when Susan had brought it into the living room. In his other hand, he was holding a letter and he stared at it with furrowed brows.

"He got a wedding invitation," Susan said. "And he is trying to decide if he wants to go or not."

"Whose wedding is it that he is even considering it?" Hannah asked. Theodore was almost always against social events. If Hannah would ever marry he would probably only show up because Susan would force him to.

"Gregory Goyle," Susan replied.

"Goyle?" Hannah said in surprise. She hadn't ever imagined him marrying. Or dating for that matter.

Theodore mumbled something incomprehensible. Hannah ignored him. "Do you think Draco is attending?"

Susan looked at her with questioning eyes. Like she was saying: "You're on first name basis now? Really?" Hannah didn't even know why the question had come out. What did it even matter if Draco was invited to the wedding? She wasn't. And he would probably be there with his wife.

"I don't know," Theodore spoke up. Apparently he had been listening to their conversation. "Goyle has probably invited him though."

Hannah imagined what Draco would look like at the wedding. He would probably wear an all black suit and expensive cologne. She imagined him sipping from champagne with a smirk on his face.

Nope.

Don't go there. Do not think about him.

Who was she kidding? She thought about him all the time. He was the fuel for her obsessive writing of the past few days.

"Maybe I should go," Theodore then said.

Hannah and Susan exchanged a surprised look.

"You want to go?" Susan asked.

"Yeah, Goyle stood up for me once at school. I feel like I should support him in this."

"Do you want me to come with you?"

"Of course," he scoffed. "Do you really except me to attend a wedding without you?"

Susan smiled at her husband. "I love you, you know."

Hannah averted her gaze from the two. Like always, she was happy for them and the love they had found, but a part of her was also extremely jealous.

___________________________________

Draco lay on his bed, surrounded by Hannah's books. He was on his back and he held one of her books up. His eyes were flying over the pages. The covers of all of the books were slightly damaged from turning the pages too brusquely and the spines were broken.

He understood why romances were mostly published in paperback. He couldn't stop reading, so he had to take a book with him everywhere he went. A paperback was easier to carry around than a hardcover, but the downside was that he couldn't keep the books in pristine condition.

He had been reading non-stop ever since he had purchased the books. It was becoming a bit of a problem. He hardly could get any work done. When he tried to focus on something else his mind would wander off and he would wonder what would happen next in the story he was reading at that moment. His leg would bounce up and down as he impatiently handled the most urgent tasks. Once they were done, he immediately grabbed one of the books and started binge-reading again.

This probably wasn't how he would get over Hannah. On the contrary, he was getting more and more obsessed. Not only with her writing, which was ridiculously good, but also with her. He was desperate to see her again. To touch her again. To try out some of the things she wrote about in her smutty romance books.

His libido was also becoming kind of a problem. And again, reading Hannah's books wasn't helping with that. She had triggered something in him. Ever since Astoria had passed away his libido had been dormant. But now, it was more alive than ever.

And it was distracting him immensely.

___________________________________

Hannah was furiously writing again. She sat at her writing desk at home, parchment all around her. Her hair was a mess and her fingers were smudged with ink.

It was already four in the morning. She rarely wrote in the middle of the night, but she just couldn't stop. She had been at it for ten hours straight already, only taking small coffee breaks. She had forgotten to eat. This story had completely taken over her life.

She proudly put a period after the last sentence she had just written. She had finished another chapter. That was already the fifth one today. She held the parchment up and studied her work. Yes, this was going somewhere. This was good. Maybe even the best thing she had ever written.

She pulled a blank piece of parchment in front of her and put down the chapter number at the top of it. She started writing again, but somewhere in the middle of the chapter she got stuck. Her writing flow had ended.

She stared at the page for a few minutes. She had given the love interest a pretty dark past. His family was obsessed with dark magical artifacts. This chapter revealed more about his past and Hannah came to the realization that she didn't know a thing about dark magic.

How did she solve this problem? One of the best writing tips she had ever gotten was 'write what you know', so most of the time she gave her main characters jobs she was at least interested in. But this book was different than her previous ones which meant she had to do more research.

Hannah stood up and went to bed. Tomorrow would be a research day. She knew exactly where she had to go to learn about dark artifacts.

___________________________________

Draco strolled along the shelves in Borgin and Burkes with his hands in his pockets. He hadn't been here in a long time, maybe even a few years. He used to love searching for rare dark magical artifacts. He didn't use them, not anymore, but he liked collecting them. The darker the history of the object, the better.

The reason for this random visit was his obsession with Hannah's romance books. Because what better way to overcome a new obsession than by getting back into an old one?

He leaned forward to study a glass eye that was put upon a pedestal. The pupil moved and stared at him. Draco took a step back. The eye reminded him of Mad-Eye Moody. He shuddered. He had always found that man rather creepy and even though it was actually Barty Crouch Junior who had turned him into a ferret, the face of Moody always brought back that particular trauma.

The bell rang as the door to the shop opened. Draco couldn't see the other customer from where he was standing, but he hoped they wouldn't bother him. He wanted to browse on his own.

He moved further through the shop. As the other customer stood on the other side of the shelf he could see that they were wearing a long black coat. Their footsteps echoed through the shop as they started walking again.

Draco looked up as they turned around the corner. For a second the face beneath the hood of the coat didn't register as his brain wanted to dismiss the other customer as not important. But then he looked again.

His eyes widened as he realized who was standing in front of him. She had pulled her hair back, but he would recognize those eyes anywhere.

"Hannah? What are you doing here?"