A Heavenly Betrayal (Draco Malfoy Love Story)

Painful Questions

Maria’s holidays were wonderful. She had been skiing almost every day with her dad and had spent the New Year’s countdown dancing and singing karaoke in her uncle’s basement. Everything had gone smoothly, except for that one little rough conversation on Christmas Eve. She had been telling her family about her first Quidditch match when her brother had asked: 

"What broom are you riding on? School’s?" 

"Nope, a Firebolt," she had replied with a proud smile. 

Her brother’s jaw had dropped. 

"Where, when and how did you get one?! They cost a fortune!" 

"Um, well, it was a gift," she had said, pausing and starting to feel uneasy. 

"From who?" her mother had asked. 

"Roger Davies," she had replied shortly. 

"Isn’t he captain?" her brother had recalled. 

"Yes." 

"Since when do captains buy firebolts to their team mates?" 

"Um, well…" 

At that point, she had become very red in the face, looking down to her lap. 

"Alright alright! You win; we’re… going out," she had said, giving in. 

An uncomfortable silence had fallen upon the dinner table. She had been relieved when her brother had spoken: 

"Seventeen… that’s not too bad. I mean, it is late but…" 

"Hey!" 

Maria had whacked her brother, although she should have thanked him for un-tensing the atmosphere. 

However, instead of dreaming about Davies, she had often found herself thinking about Malfoy. She had been counting down the days until the Hogwarts Express’ departure, which was very unusual for her; she usually disliked school. She missed him, fair and square. She wanted to see him, she wanted to talk to him and she still had to help him. She was determined to lose no more time than necessary once she got back. She was sick of strolling around and wondering. She wanted to get straight to the point of his mission, but also, she hoped to clear up certain... arousing feelings... 

*** 

Malfoy couldn’t get the thought of Maria out of his head over the holidays. Whatever he did, wherever he was, she followed him like a ghost. He missed her teasing him about his arrogance, he missed her laugh, her smile... heck, he even missed her yelling at him. 

Back on the frozen lake, when he had held her in his arms, he had felt unusually warm; and that was something, since these days, everything left him bone cold. He was handling an inward debate; he wanted her close to him, and not only physically, but at the same time, far from him. Why? Because he hated the idea of exposing himself completely to her – which would be inevitable since she was a clever witch and would settle for no less. He had already revealed parts of himself... too many... only to be greatly deceived: ‘Slimy Davies.’ If disappointment was all he was going to get, then he would rather not risk it. However, so far, she had somehow always managed tricking him into doing so anyway. Sharing his state of mind with her was... refreshing, reviving; he didn’t want to live a life of lies; all it did was drive him away from… from himself. And now, there was finally someone willing to accept the truth – or so it seemed - when the rest of the world was intent on hearing his lies. 

***

Soon enough, Maria was back at Hogwarts. She was glad to see that everything was just as she had left it. Classes resumed as well as Quidditch training and DA meetings, which kept her quite occupied. It was strange, dating her own captain. During practices, he would treat her like some fragile object, and she never missed the opportunity to make fun of him for that; the others too seemed to enjoy teasing their captain. For example, once he had warned her: ‘Careful! Bludger on right!’ and she had responded by sending it straight to him. He had dived to avoid it and almost fallen off his broom doing so. They had had quite a laugh.