friends with benefits - draco malfoy

chapter fourty nine

'you look beautiful' draco reassured me 'but we really have to go downstairs now' he laughed. i grinned at him, looking him up and down. he was wearing the matching black suit, complimenting my dress that had been delivered earlier today. 'wait, before we go' he turned and ran back towards his bedside table, opening the drawer and producing a little black box. 'what's this?' i gasped, watching as he produced the little necklace i had admired in the shop in london. 'i was going to save it for your christmas present, but that's months away, and it would match your dress so perfectly'. he held out his hand to me, revealing a new matching ring on his middle finger. 'i got a ring to match'. he grinned at me, holding his arm out for me to take. 'm'lady' he joked, bowing as i accepted his arm. 'why thank you sir' i smiled, playing along and curtesying.

we walked down the stairs in to the party, going completely unnoticed by all of the adults. most of them were drunk already, or just too caught up in their own perfectly fragile lives to look at anyone other than themselves, but we didn't care. i leant against the wall, waiting as draco went away for drinks. the hall was full of expensive people, wearing expensive dresses and expensive suits, with expensive makeup and expensive hair, expensive perfumes and drinking expensive drinks, but so little of them seemed actually happy. everyone was checking over the shoulder every few seconds, as though they thought the friend they had just said goodbye to could be sneaking up behind them ready to slit their throat. i think that's the thing in life i'm the most scared for, the thought of settling down with someone i didn't even love, simply because they were seen as 'good husband material'. living out a superficial life, with superficial friends and a superficial job. everything for the purpose of reaching some kind of imaginary social bar, trying to impress the very people that they shouldn't even feel the need to impress. it's weird sometimes, how a group of seventeen year olds can have a greater understanding of friendship and relationships than adults. it's not about being around people that make you look good, that you feel like you can impress, that you feel like are of a equal social level of you. it's about how they make you feel good, how you know you don't need to impress them because at the end of the day they love you no matter what, and how it doesn't even ever occur to you to wonder what kind of social level they are, because it never mattered in the first place.

i spun around, seeing draco return with our drinks. 'thank you' i smiled, clinking my glass off of his and taking a sip. 'what were you thinking about? i could see you frowning from across the room, you looked pretty deep in thought'.
'life' i smiled, downing my drink and placing it on the table next to me. 'shall we dance?' i asked, not waiting for a response and dragging draco out on to the floor with me, barely giving him time to down his drink and place the empty glass next to mine. i shrieked with laughter, spinning him obnoxiously in a large circle on the floor. i had no idea how we weren't bumping in to people, they must have been moving out of our way. i didn't know if i'd love draco forever, i hoped i would. i didn't know if he'd love me forever, but we loved each other now; and in this moment, it was like nobody else mattered to us. just two teenagers, with the world at our feet. we could do anything, we could be anything, and we could help each other through it. he spun me around, jumping up and down with me madly. i felt so present, i could feel the touch of my dress hitting my legs as i jumped, i could feel draco's cold skin pressing against mine. i could hear his laugh above all the other noises in the hall. i could see his smile, his head thrown back as he laughed, his eyes shut tightly. i could smell his familiar warm smell of designer cologne and old books and smoke, mixed in with the fruity smell of my body spray that he thought i didn't notice him spraying on his clothes. i could taste the expensive drink that draco had bought me, most distinctly the lack of alcohol in it, because he knew and remembered that i didn't want to be drinking at a party with these people. and as draco roared with laughter in front of me, dancing without any care in the world, i knew without a doubt that if he'd asked me to now, i would die for him. if he'd asked me for the clothes off my back i would have gave them to him. i wanted to steal all the stars from the sky one by one, so i could keep them safe for him to look at any time. i wanted to steal him away from all the madness of being a death eater, put him in a normal school and let him live. i wanted to wrap my arms around him and never let him go. for the first time in my life, i felt so strongly that i knew i should have been scared. but i wasn't, because i knew he felt so strongly too. we were just two teenagers, dancing dangerously on the edge of a cliff. we didn't know what was in the water below us, we didn't even know if we'd survive it. the world was telling us to be careful do near the edge, and we should have been terrified, but we weren't. we knew that if we fell, we wouldn't be alone. 'and did we fall?' draco prompted, shaking my arm. 'did i say all that out loud?' i blushed, stopping myself from dancing. 'you were mumbling under your breath' he grinned, 'well, did we?'.
'i don't know' i smiled, kissing him gently on the lips 'you tell me'.