FORBIDDEN LOVE

Ch 6 A FRIENDLY GESTURE

It was the night of the 3rd of October when on my way to dinner, I saw Malfoy turning the corner to go to our common room. I quickly told Ginny that I was supposed to finish this project for tomorrow and I had completely forgotten. I saw him enter his common room, and I hesitated. Should I confront him, as I have been planning to do so all week, or not? I suddenly was unsure.

I decided to be brave and just do it. Worst case scenario we hate each other again. 

When I entered the common room I saw that Malfoy was sitting on the sofa near the fire. He didn't look up when I came in, instead, he was staring at the fire. He looked horrible.

He had purple bags under his eyes like he hadn't slept in a long time. He was skinnier and paler. His face was lifeless. His eyes, ice cold.

It was then, that I noticed that he was crying.

I felt a strong urge to comfort him again. But resisted. 

"Draco?" I asked in a small voice, not wanting to startle him.

He broke his gaze to the fire to look at me.

Instantly, his features changed. He seemed relieved. But why? Because he saw me? Fat chance!

"Bella" he said slowly. His voice broken, from all the crying.

Again he called me Bella.

And for the first time ever, hearing him saying my name made me smile.

DRACO's P.O.V.

I watched as Bella made her way to sit on the sofa opposite to mine. I still can't believe she smiled at me. She had such a beautiful smile. Watching her, I realised that I had missed her. The morning after her detention, I woke up because my mark was burning. I got up disquieted, Bella wasn't there anymore. I hurried to the common room, when I didn't find her, I checked her room and found the bathroom light was on. Good, she was in there. My mark burned once again.

The Dark Lord was calling us all.

I quickly made my way to the Headmaster's office, to use the floo powder to the Manor.

It was the worst week ever.

The Dark Lord was anxious to find Potter. He made me torture every victim before he killed them without pity.

I barely ate anything. I didn't get more than two hours of sleep per night. I was a mess.

I watched as Bella took out a parchment and a book.

"Doing homework this late?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

"UHM ... Oh yes. I helped Neville today and got a bit behind with my own ..." she said sitting down.

That's when I notice that the book she has was Potions.

She has probably been doing my part too for the whole week, no wonder she is behind.

"Is that Potions?" She nodded.

"Maybe I should help you with that," I said sitting next to her.

"Draco, are you OK? You were gone for a whole week!" She said looking up from her parchment.

"Yes, yes I am fine" I lied.

"You don't look fine" she stated. She got up from the sofa and turned to look at me. "Come with me" she said getting up. 

 "What? Where?" "Just come with me" she insisted. "It's almost past curfew, Weasley" I reminded her. 

"Who cares! Neither of us had dinner, and I am hungry!" she explained. 

"Besides, we are heads. We'll just invent we are patrolling the corridors ... extra credits ... whatever ... something"

 "Anyway, we won't get caught Draco, relax," she said smiling.

At that, I couldn't resist. I got up and followed her outside the portrait.

Once in the corridor, she stopped and lifted her hand towards me. I hesitantly took it.

When I did, I felt something I hadn't feel in years. All my problems were gone. Nothing mattered. Nothing. Except for this one girl. The way she made me feel was incredible, so peaceful and calm. I had forgotten what that felt like. All I cared about was being with her. We walked in the halls silently hand in hand, she was checking every now and then, if the coast was clear. She seemed to be knowing exactly what to. She has probably been sneaking out often this year. I smirked at this. She wasn't afraid of getting caught.

We stopped at a portrait with a silver fruit bowl. She then did the strangest thing. She touched it and the pear turned into a door handle. She opened the door and we were greeted by dozens of elves.

"Hello, Miss Bella, what a pleasure seeing you here tonight!" The bowed. They knew her name, it wasn't the first time she came here. I was disgusted. Why would she be friends with these scums? I was astonished to see how she let them treat her like her equals.

"Hello, how are you all?" She smiled at them.

They looked scared at the sight of me instead.

"It's OK. He's with me. Don't be afraid" they immediately relaxed.

"So I was wondering, if you could prepare us something to eat, please. We missed dinner, unfortunately."

"YES!" 

"Of course, Miss Bella" 

"Straight away, Miss Bella," they all said happily and started working right away.

After a few minutes, they handed her a small basket. She thanked them, and we left.

"What was all that ab-" I asked, but she silenced me, putting her index finger in front of her mouth. 

"Come on" she mouthed.

We headed back to the common room quickly.

When entered, she let out a heavy sigh, that she was clearly holding.

"We made it! You see, I told you, no problems at all!" She said happily and handed me the basket. "You should eat. You need it" What! She did all this for me? She risked getting in trouble with the Carrows just so I could eat? I was shocked.

"Why would you do that?" I asked bewildered. "I told you, you need to eat, besides I am also, hungry," she said simply.

I took the basket from her hands, and she smiled, clearly pleased with herself. "Thank you" I mumbled.

"It's nothing," she said shrugging.

But for me, it was the opposite of nothing. She was taking care of me, and she was my enemy. No one ever took care of me. Not even my mother. Yes, she loved me, but she always left me with house-elves. They took care of me, but it was their job to do so.

Bella here, did this because she wanted to, not because she was forced.

After eating, I felt really better, we found butterbeer in the basket, and we drank them all. I can tell we were a bit tipsy. We were constantly laughing for no reason.

All of a sudden, Bella started yawing. It was 2 am. She was unmistakably tired, and I was too.

"We should go to sleep," she said, yawning again.

I nodded, heading towards the stairs.

She was about to turn right when I said something I never thought I would have said to her. "Can you sleep in my room with me? I have really bad nightmares, I don't want to be alone"

I excepted her to say NO, that I was crazy.

Instead, she said, "Sure, Draco, I will".

We lied in my bed, and what she did next, was the most surprising thing she did tonight. She snuggled closely to me and put her head on my chest. "Good night, Draco"

"Good night, Bella". And I fell asleep, to the best sleep I ever had.