Where Your Loyalties Lie

Chapter Fifty-Seven: Work and Play

I sat up in my bed quickly, shaking from my most recent dream. "Draco," I whispered. It was so lifelike. He tortured Draco and I, then killed Draco. Despite knowing it was simply a dream and that you-know-who couldn't possibly have done anything to Draco, I felt I had to see him just to be sure. Slipping silently out of mine and Maddie's room, I padded down the hall to Draco's room.

Kneeling down next to his bed, I gently nudged him to wake him up. He grunted before opening his eyes, looking annoyed. "Katie," Draco breathed, his facial expression changing to concern. "What's wrong?" He moved over and patted the space beside him. I obliged and laid down next to him. "Did you have another dream?"

I nodded. "H-he t-tortured you. Then k-k-killed you." A tear slipped down my cheek. Draco wrapped his arm around me and pulled me in close so my head rested on his chest.

"Shh, it's ok. I'm here, nothing happened," Draco cooed. I cried silently for some time until I finally fell asleep.

~~~~~

After that night, Draco and I slept on the couch in the common room together. With him next to me, I didn't have a single dream about you-know-who. I only had good dreams or no dreams. We slept on the couch so people wouldn't start rumors suggesting that we were doing more than sleeping if they saw me going into his room every night.

We woke up one morning in late January to find that there was a fresh blanket of snow on the ground. "Draco, let's go out to the tree today," I suggested as we walked back to the common room from lunch. He remained silent. "Oh come on, Draco! You need a break from working on that task and we haven't had much time alone other than sleeping lately." I grabbed his arm and made him stop walking. Leaning in, I whispered, "It'll be fun," before kissing him gently.

We pulled away and he smiled. "Alright," he whispered back.

"Yay!" I cheered. We hurried to put on our winter gear before heading to our favorite tree nearby the lake.

The first thing I did when we arrived was lay down in the snow to make a snow angel. "What are you doing?" Draco asked, standing at my feet smiling down at me.

"Making a snow angel!" He looked confused so I told him to lay next to me. "Move your arms and legs together and apart over and over again." After a minute we both stood up to look at our snow angels. Draco's was slightly bigger than mine.

"Cool," Draco said.

"You've honestly never made a snow angel before?" He nodded. "Wow.." I trailed off. "What's that?!" I pointed behind him and he whirled around only to see nothing. I grabbed his hat and started to run, laughing.

"Give it back!" He called as he chased after me. I began to run around the tree.

"I don't think so! You didn't know about snow angels. Your brain obviously needs more air." I caught up behind him as we circled the tree and jumped on his back. He stumbled a bit, but stayed standing and grabbed my legs so I wouldn't fall off. I put his hat back on and then spread my arms out like a bird. Draco began to run around the tree again and I screamed with happiness. "I'm flying!" I yelled.

Author's POV

The former potions master watched above in the Headmaster's office from the tower window as Katie and Draco messed around below near the tree. "Look at him, messing around. He should be focusing on his task," Severus Snape mumbled.

"Oh leave him alone, Severus. It does no good to have all work and no play," the Headmaster told him. Snape grumbled something inaudible. "Just because you haven't found your true love doesn't mean you should be bitter towards Katie and young Malfoy."