the chase (draco malfoy)

chapter seven

It was July first. I had just returned home from my very first year from Hogwarts, and it was my fourteenth birthday. For as long as I'd remembered, my birthday had been an extravagant occasion. We'd have an amazing feast with friends and family, followed by my favorite cake. I always got loads of gifts. 

But my fourteenth birthday was different. 

My parents were cold to me. I thought maybe they'd forgotten, but I knew that wasn't the case when a single gift sat on the grand dinner table with a note that said my parents and brother had gone out for the day. I was left to spend my special day alone. 

Milly baked me a cake, and she pat me on the back as I cried. I knew my parents had been disappointed in my sorting, but I couldn't believe the way they had just pretended that I didn't exist. I felt too sorry for myself to enjoy the day meant to celebrate me.

But there was one thing that could have brightened my mood.

I hadn't seen much of Draco at school, but that was only because we were in different houses. I was young, naive, and certain that he would cheer me up.

I packaged a slice of cake and sprinted out the door, circling the house and not stopping for a breath until I had reached the meadow behind our homes. He wasn't there yet, but I knew he'd be there soon. I had been so excited to hear about his year at Hogwarts.

I waited.

I watched the sun go down and listened to the distant howls of wolves, crying with me on the night of my birthday. 

I spent every day there. Sun up to sun down. Each day I became a little less hopeful, my heart a little more heavy. He never showed. Not once.

I was still the same person. I never changed who I was. The only difference was a label. A stupid title that an old hat had slapped on an thirteen year old. A title meant to decide how I was supposed to think, act, live.

But to my parents, to Draco, that was everything. They bought into the ideal that a person can be only one thing. Aren't we more complex than that?

My chest felt heavy, like my ribs had turned to cement. But on the last day of August, I decided I wouldn't let the people who couldn't accept me make me feel bad about who I was. I decided that it was time to love who I am, because no one else would. As the sun sank behind the trees, my dreadful summer, my ignorant parents, and the friend who had broken my heart were all in my past. 

My face hits the crisp November air and I am awakened. Cedric's hand is wrapped tightly around mine, and he beams when the crowd erupts with cheers. I have no idea how long I've been underwater, but it seems that Cedric is the first to retrieve his loved one. 

We swim to the dock and Cedric helps me out, wrapping a warm towel around my shoulders. It's a cloudy morning, and the lack of warmth from the sun causes my teeth to chatter.

"There's a tent over there," Cedric says, pointing to a small tent next to the forest line. "Go on and warm up, I'll be there soon." He smiles.

I wrap him in a hug, congratulating him, and head for the tent. From the outside, it just looks like a small, plain, tent. However, when I enter, I'm astonished as it quadruples in size. Its been charmed. Must be heated, too, because I'm immediately relieved from the harsh cold air.

I shrug off my now soaked towel and enter Cedric's "dressing room". Each competitor has their own in the large space. I find a stack of clothes with a small piece of parchment on it. Written in Hannah's handwriting is my name. She must have prepared a change of clothes for me at McGonagall's request.

My wet robe falls to the floor. As I'm just about to lift my shirt over my head, the door opens.

"He could've gotten you killed!" Draco screams, closing the small space between us in two long strides. He looks elegant in his blacked out suit. 

His face twists with anger.

"I'd have murdered that Diggory boy and sent every Professor here to Azkaban if anything had..." 

I cut him off.

"Shut up, will you?" I say, shocking myself. "Cedric wouldn't have put me in danger."

"He just did!" He retorts. "If you had never been involved with him you'd never have been put in that situation!"

"I'm fine, Draco!" I shout. "It's not any of your business anyway!" 

"It is my business!" He takes another step toward me and I back away, against the wall.

"That's rich, Malfoy," I scoff. "Anything that concerns me stopped being your business when you decided not to show up!"

I slap my hand over my mouth, desperately trying to push the words back in. His demeanor shifts and his face softens. He knows exactly what I'm talking about.

"I waited for you." I say, words spilling out without my brain's permission. "Everyday, the whole summer after our first year. You never showed. You deleted me from your life. Like I was nothing."

He takes another step towards me, closing the space between us entirely. His breathing quickens, feeling hot on my face as a single tear rolls down my cheek. He carefully raises one hand to wipe it away with his thumb. 

His hand moves to the back of my neck. Our eyes are locked while he brings his other hand to my face and presses his lips against mine.