Of Horn And Halo | Draco Malfoy

Chapter 29 | 1998

Maeve and Daphne hurried from the Muggle Studies classroom as if they had been lit on fire. Daphne's usual pallor had turned slightly green. For the first time since she'd learned of Daphne's illness, she wondered if her friend's declining health was in part due to the stresses imposed onto the students at Hogwarts.

Maeve wasn't knowledgeable in family curses, but it seemed rational for a weakness of mind and body to make way for the inevitable.

It was bizarre to even think of the death of a witch she'd known since she was eleven, but Daphne had been rather unceremonious with the facts. Daphne would die sooner rather than later. Maeve had a feeling it would be slow, though. It seemed every day her friend grew more fatigued, but then she would have a week where she was almost just as she had been years ago.

"I think I'm going to be ill," Daphne murmured, before darting in the direction of the girls' toilets.

Maeve thought about following her friend, but she was distracted when she caught sight of a familiar blonde hastily walking in the opposite direction. She hadn't seen much of Draco Malfoy in weeks aside from the odd shared glance in class, but at that moment, she felt a tug of guilt in her stomach.

Acting on impulse, Maeve steeled herself and began to trudge after him. It was probably blatantly stupid to chase after someone who had viciously accused her of following him in the past, but she didn't care.

As much as it had seemed malicious at times, Draco had stumbled upon her more than once when she'd been spiralling through her mind to the point of queasiness and accidentally intervened. It was strange to feel partially indebted to such an arrogant person, but whenever she'd caught a glance at him for weeks she'd been feeling a tug of guilt in her stomach.

Draco Malfoy had been suffocating in the world around him since he'd been tasked with the murder of Albus Dumbledore. Maeve knew because she had been since she'd realized the gravity of her vow on the train home from her sixth year.

Draco was walking too quickly for Maeve to catch up with the tides of students pushing against her. She didn't command the same fear and disdain Malfoy did. When he walked the halls most gave him a wide berth.

The hallways thinned out as Draco slipped down a familiar passage. Maeve rounded the corner to find him staring at the blank wall that led to the Room of Requirement. His shoulders hitched as he took steadying breaths.

Maeve hadn't been quiet in her pursuit, so when she stepped beside him and asked him softly, "what exactly are you doing?" She was surprised at his jolt of shock.

"Merlin!" Draco glared at her, "this is why I thought you were trailing me, Selwyn."

"I'm sorry that you're unobservant until I accidentally give you a few suspicious looks," Maeve replied, but her snide tone was forced. She hadn't sought him out to banter with him. Wiping a hand over her face before freezing him with a hard look, she spoke, "I wanted to make sure you weren't doing something stupid."

"Like picking a fight with a flagstone wall?" Draco sniped, before flinching at his own words almost imperceptibly, "I'm fine. I don't know why you bothered — "

"No need to be arrogant, Malfoy," Maeve cut him off, "you are allowed to be human. I just wanted to check because it's what I would want. You're the one who keeps insisting at how alike we supposedly are."

"And what incited this change of heart?"

Malfoy's haughtily pinched face grew weary, his mouth forming a grim line. Maeve wasn't offended or taken aback by his frosty hesitance. She hadn't exactly been forthcoming and kind to him, though she believed her treatment of him was well-deserved.

"I just decided I didn't want to suffer alone anymore," Maeve decided. It shocked her when she found the words to be the truth, "you seemed like the obvious choice, as the two of us have no reason to exploit the other."

Draco scoffed at her words, "as if you don't have any reason to exploit me."

"Conceit, thy name is Draco Malfoy," Maeve couldn't help but roll her eyes, "stop acting as if you aren't just as miserable as I am. Misery demands company, and the faster you accept that — "

Maeve's voice warbled to a stop when his hand lifted to her face, long and thin fingers splaying against her cheek. She felt her heart speed up as she stared up at him. It hadn't occurred to her how close they had become until he was a breath away from her, staring down at her with wide eyes.

It was as if neither of them truly understood what was happening. All thoughts of being with Malfoy, talking, and sharing their pain died in Maeve's mind. She wasn't that type of person. She did not cry and share her feelings. And Draco bloody Malfoy would not be having tearful discussions of his feelings with her, that was a fact.

It had been a vain hope, brought on by watching people like Saint Potter himself, and how his friends stood by him. People like Anthony. People like Neville. People like Luna.

So Maeve fell into old habits. She slipped back into the part of herself that shut off compartments of herself to stay sane, to keep the darkness at bay.

She sought out a distraction from the chaos in her mind.

It was impossible to tell who initiated it, but the next moment Maeve and Draco were kissing. It was bruising and all-consuming. She felt like she was pure fire and nothing more. The world around faded to a senseless nothing that brought the most weightless sense of relief.

Maeve pulled away from Draco, her heart pounding and head spinning, "je - I ... What?"