A Malfoy

15

~ Chapter Fifteeen: You can't hate me forever ~

     I Apperated to Draco's apartment right after I read the Daily Prophet. Him, his parents, and my father, were free of all charges and are not going to be sent to Azkaban.

"Draco?" I call out, standing in the small living room.

There is no reply.

His bedroom door is closed. I knock on the door and call his name again. The door opens. "Emma, what are you doing here?"

"Oh, I only came here to see what you were going to do now that you're free of the charges." I say, offended.

He sighs. I look closer at him, seeing his sullen face, sleepless eyes. "Sorry, I've just been..."

"Draco," I say, feeling my throat clog up at his sadness. "Shouldn't you be happy?"

I look around at his room since he wouldn't meet my eyes. "Your bags are packed. Where are you going?"

"You don't think I'm packing to go back to Hogwarts?" He asks, but there is little emotion in his voice.

"Are you going back to Malfoy Manor?" I ask him, wondering what happened to my Malfoy.

"I can never go back there, Emma!" He snaps.

Our eyes meet. I'm not backing down from this. "And why's that?" I say quietly.

"I left! They won't let me back, even if I wanted to, which I don't."

His eyes drifted away again to his Slytherin backpack. "You miss your parents. Who wouldn't? You should go home, Draco."

He glared at me. "I don't want to go home. I don't miss them, either."

"What's your problem? They would have sentenced you to life in Azkaban!"

"Yeah, they would have. They didn't because you saved me. Do you realize how embarrassing it is to have a girl save your arse, when your reputation is already low? And it killed the reputation. It didn't help the fact that my girlfriend had to do that either." He said angrily.

"So you're upset because your reputation is now in the trash? Well, sorry, then, for trying to do something nice to help you!" I say, my cheeks flaming.

"I know you were trying to help, Princess, but it didn't work! I'm disowned. There's no point in going back to school anyways. Three weeks full of nothing."

It hurt hearing him say his nickname for me as an insult.

"You need to finish school, Malfoy. It's  very-" I tried, but failed, and it hurt badly.

"Don't call me Malfoy! I'm not a Malfoy anymore, according to..." He tries to continue talking, but I stopped listening.

My eyes were starting to burn from this argument. I was going to hate everything about what I was saying, but I had a bad assumption that doing this might be the only way to make Draco see sense.

"If you don't want help, then I won't help you. I won't do anything."

He stopped glaring and his voice faltered but his eyes never left mine. "What are you saying then, Princess?"

Butterflies flew into my stomach at hearing that again. His voice was cautiously low. I controlled my breath with difficulty. "I'm saying we're done."

I cannot think of a word to describe his facial expression. Too many emotions came at once. I wanted to take back the words the second I saw his expression, but the damage was done. The lesson needed to be learned. We both had to pay.

"You don't think a girl and a guy are equal. They are. Not everyone is your inferior, Draco Malfoy, and you should learn that." I say, my voice breaking.

He opens his mouth to say something, but I Apperated away. I fell to the floor of my room, my back against my bed, when I finally allowed myself to cry. I didn't want to cry, at all. I just couldn't stop it.

When I lifted my hands, pressing them against my forehead, I didn't hear the clink of the cold bracelet that never left my wrist. My breath caught and I stopped crying miserably.

My bracelet is gone.

I've had that bracelet since I was a little kid. I had it in America and wore it through the years at Hogwarts.

Okay, think. I tried to remember the last time I saw it or remembering twisting it today. But I couldn't. I had it yesterday, I know that. I heard it with me while I was at the big building, which I forgot it's name again. Did I lose it there?

No. I remember having it later, while looking at the pictures. I stand up, hoping. I walk a foot and a half to my desk and look at the shelf. The pictures lay in the same spot, without my bracelet. The only time I take it off is when I shower. But I had it with me yesterday and I last showered yesterday morning.

Hmm... If I had it yesterday, where is it today? I thought about it. I had it with me eating cereal this morning, but that's all I can think. I didn't finger it for the rest of the morning. It's almost eleven am now.

I give up, I think to myself in defeat. I don't know where that is. I don't understand anything that's going on.

I'm almost excited for school to start back up in a week so I can have something to focus on. A distraction.