Charmolypi

Ten

          " I don't understand him anymore," Arabella grumbles, pacing around her and Hermione's room, " I mean, one minute Draco and I are having a peaceful and productive conversation only for him to turn around and insult me in the hallways. Why won't he just make it clear where we stand with one another- make it make sense!"  Hermione is sat on the bed, keenly taking in Arabella's word vomit over Draco. The stress Arabella was enduring was painfully clear to see, yet even her friends couldn't quite place why she was entertaining this situation  with Draco in the firsr place. As Arabella pauses for a moment to catch heher breath, Hermione takes the opportunity to interject herself, " I'm trying to help you make sense of things with Draco, but I can't do much until you take a deep breath, slow down, and let me look into what happened the other night." The agitation and deliriousness clouded around her fade slowly, and Arabella tales a seat beside Hermione on the bed. 

          " The Legilimency Spell is going to help me see into your mind, allowing me to access your memories and therefore, find out what happened between you and Draco in the astronomy tower," Hermione spells out the plan for Arabella as she readies herself to preform the spell, " are you ready?" Arabella takes a deep breath and nods her head. Hermione raises her wand towards Arabella and speaks the incantation, " Legilimens." 

Earlier during that night in the Astronomy Tower

"  Go ahead and add in the jobberknoll feathers,"  Draco instructs Arabella. The girl looks over his case for a minute trying to find them, right as she reaches for them Draco goes to grab them and their hands touch slightly. They pause, both staring at their hands. Draco pulls his hand back slowly and continues to work on the potion. After all the ingredients are mixed together, Draco turns to Arabella, " Well we have awhile to let it brew." Arabella smirks cheekily, " let's play potion roulette." Draco hesitates for a moment but decides to play along, " OK... you go first. Close your eyes." Arabella closes her eyes, Draco walking over to his potions case. He examines all of his options, before carefully selecting two for Arabella to choose from; Alihotsy Draught (The laughing potion) and the Hair Raising Potion. " Keep your eyes closed and pick one from my hands," Draco instructs as he walks back over to her. Arabella reaches out cautiously, her hand wavering between the two. Finally she grasps the Hair Raising Potion, taking off the cork and quickly drinking it. Draco chuckles to himself as Arabella opens her eyes. "What? Why are you laughing?" She asks, " I don't feel any different." Draco covers his mouth with his finger as he shakes his head, trying not to burst into a laughing fit, " Just take a look in the mirror." She walks over to the mirror in the corner of the room and takes a look at herself. She gasps as her mouth hangs open, beginning to laugh, " Draco!" She tries to force her hair down with her hands but it continues to float as if it was being pulled up by static. The two laugh together throughout the rest of their game, hours passing like minutes as they take turns giving one another potions to try. Finally the last round begins, it's Draco's turn. " Close your eyes," Arabella demands softly. Draco does as she says while she walks over to his case. She examines all of his potions carefully, wanting to make the best out of the last round. " Hurry up," Draco groans, causing a giggle to escape the girl. She carefully picks up an already finished bottle of  Veritaserum, followed by a vial of  Pompion Potion (The Pumpkin Head Potion). "You ready?" She questions, standing back in front of Draco. He nods, reaching out to her hands. He pauses for a moment, as if he was thinking, before grabbing the vial of Veritaserum. He uncaps it and downs it quickly before opening his eyes. Almost instantly its as if his demeanor had changed, he was serious once again. "Draco, are you ok?" Arabella asks, her smile falling slightly. He steps away from her, walking over to a couch and sitting down, " Arabella can we actually talk for once? There is a lot I have been meaning to tell you." Arabella nods and walks over, sitting beside him, " What did you want to tell me?" Draco huffs, fluffing his hair, but he remains silent for a moment. There is a minute or two that passes, the room falling quiet as neither say a word. Finally Draco breaks the silence, " When my father ordered you to leave and for us to stay away from one another, I tried to stop you. Maybe not at first, but I ran after your car screaming for you to wait. I knew you couldn't hear me but..." He pauses again, looking around the room, trying to find something, anything to look at so that he didn't have to make eye contact. " But what?" Arabella whispers, moving her head to the side so that she's directly in his line of sight. "But part of me has held that against you... and blamed you for it ever since then. I thought that if I couldn't have you in my life as a friend, at least if I was mean to you it meant I could still talk to you, or be around you." Arabella is taken off guard by this softer, open side of Draco, whether it was caused by the serum or not. Her eyes glaze over and her voice weakens, becoming breathy, " Draco, why are you telling me this?" He holds eye contact with her for a moment before pushing himself from the couch and slowly walking around the room, " Arabella, I've been forcing how I felt about you deep down, trying to ignore it for four years now. In the last few weeks, something changed in me. Whether it's just how much time we've spent together or how you've treated me, the fact that regardless of how I treated you- you still came to my room to check on me when I was missing class. I don't want to hide myself from how I feel anymore." Arabella sits, taking in everything he's saying, quieter than a mouse as she listens. As Draco looks back at her over his shoulder, she forces herself off the couch and paces over to him, softly laying her hand on his shoulder, " Then don't hide it. Tell me, Draco. How do you feel?" Draco turns to face her, a solemn look on his face. " You know, it's funny how life twists and turns. One moment, we're invincible—two kids, just... just being kids, wrapped up in our own little world. And then, in the blink of an eye, everything changed, " He pauses, looking out the tower window, " I never meant for things end the way they did, Arabella. You were my best friend. When I look back, I can't help but remember those nights we spent talking until dawn, planning our adventures that never seemed to happen. I took that for granted." He turns to face her, his eyes earnest. "What are you saying, Draco?" Arabella is trying to make sense of everything he says, but he continues to ramble, " Maybe somewhere along the way, I got lost. Maybe it was the weight of expectations, the pressure to be someone I thought I should be. I pushed you away, thinking it would make everything easier. But it didn't. It just made me realize how much I... missed you," Draco's voice continues to soften as vulnerability continues to seep in, "  I've been thinking a lot about us—about how I never told you what you really meant to me. I was too proud, too scared. I let fear drown out my feelings. And I hate that I hurt you. You deserved better than my rude, snarky behavior." Draco takes a step closer to her, their eyes locked on one another as he continues to confess everything he's hidden all these years, " I thought I could move on, but the truth is, I can't. I don't want to. You're not just some chapter in my life; you're the story I want to keep writing. I'm standing here, heart on my sleeve, hoping you'll hear me. Hoping you'll see the truth behind the facade I built." Arabella begins to shake anxiously as she hears the words Draco is pouring from his heart, she asks, " So what are you saying?" He takes a breath, the weight of his confessions building in his chest, " I'm ready to face whatever comes next. I'm tired of living in the shadows of what could have been. I want you to know that I still care—deeply. And if there's even a chance that you might feel the same, I'm ready to fight for it," silence lingers in the room as the anticipation of the moment fills the air around them, " Whether you feel the way I do or not, Arabella, I regret everything that happened between us. I need you back in my life, in anyway I can have you. But I need you to know that above all else, I've realized seriously, that I think I've been falling in love with you this whole time." Draco's fingers twitch nervously, his heart racing as he studies Arabella's face, waiting on her response. She takes a step closer to him, her hands wrapping around his to calm his nerves. She whispers, " Draco..." Just as she moves her head to reconnect their eye contact, he leans in and slowly presses is lips to hers. The kiss was different this time, Arabella melted into it, her heart fluttering like she'd never felt. Draco's hands slip out of hers, one moving up to cusp her jawline and the other resting in the middle of her lower back to support her. A beautiful moment passes before Draco slowly pulls back from Arabella, maintaining eye contact. " I've always loved you," she starts quietly, " You know that. But I'm not sure if it's just a friendly kind of love now. This is just something we'll have to figure out together." Draco nods, a small smile taking over his usual cold-flat facial expression. "Let me check on our potion really quick," Arabella turns to the table to check on their project potion, but as she turns she accidentally knocks over a Forgetfulness potion onto the flame, causing it to turn to smoke which she inhales. "Bella?" Draco asks, walking over behind her, resting his hand on her back, " What was that?" Arabella looks at Draco with a confused expression, " What was what? When did we get up here?" Draco freezes, realizing what had happened, and worse, realizing she'd not remember anything they'd just talked about together. Arabella yawns, " I'm getting tired." Draco frowns slightly, " Just grab the pillows off the couch and lay down, I'll watch over our potion as it finishes." Arabella nods, still confused as to what is going on but she does as he instructs. After awhile she's dozed off on the floor, Draco looks over at her, his expression sad. Slowly Draco slips off his house robe and walks over to where Arabella is laid, covering her in his robe to keep her from getting cold. He sits beside her as she sleeps, thinking to himself. If she won't remember anything he said, he'll have to go right back to his rough exterior towards her, and continue the facade he thought he'd finally escaped. "Goodnight, My sweet bella," He whispers, kissing her forehead.