always. // dm.

5 - moment of weakness.

Elora's POV

Beep beep beep.

Shit. I'm late.

I shoot out of bed and get dressed into my robes and uniform. My stupid tie isn't cooperating, so I try to tie it to the best of my ability in that moment.

I tackle my long hair with my brush and spray dry shampoo into it. It actually looks good for waking up, a mess. I throw on a little mascara and concealer and rush downstairs.

————

After lunch, I have potions with Malfoy. The worst time of day. I slump into my chair next to him and he's looking at me.

"Rough morning?" He says, a smirk on his face.

"Shut up." I smirk back.

He smiles. Not a smirk, but he genuinely smiles. With teeth.

Never seen that before.

My attention snaps to the front of the room, where Slughorn is going over the plans for that day.

"You and your table partner will be making a Draught of Living Death potion. First pair to create the potion correctly, will be awarded a vial of liquid luck." The professor states, and dismisses the students to make the potion.

I turn to Malfoy.

He's just sitting there, fiddling with his goddamn rings.

"Get the ingredients, Malfoy." I snap.

He looks at me and smirks again.

"Yes, ma'am." He gets up and grabs all the ingredients we need for the potion.

————

Malfoy and I didn't win the Liquid Luck. Harry did.

Finally, school is out. It's the weekend. Thank God, because my uniform was getting so annoying.

I decide to have a nice walk down to the library to study for my many classes. I find a nice, secluded space to read.

Suddenly, my book is snatched away from me. I look up and see Draco standing there, my book in hand. He's reading it.

"An Amortentia potion is a love potion. It does not create real love, but gives the consumer a powerful obsession. The smell of the potion is different for each consumer, based on what they are attracted to." He reads aloud.

"Give it back, Malfoy." I snap, standing up and reaching for the book. He holds it high above my head.

Damn his height.

I sit down again and he eventually hands me the potion book, then sits down in the chair next to me.

"Need some help studying, Baxter?" He says, nodding to the pile of books sitting on the desk next to me.

"Nope." I answer, opening the potions book again.

"I think you need a tutor actually. We would have won the Liquid Luck in potions if you hadn't put the wrong ingredient in." He smirks.

"You need a tutor, Draco."

His face turns serious. He moves closer and closer to me, so I'm in a corner.

He leans close to me.

"What'd I say about calling me that?" He whispers, making strong eye contact.

"It's your name, Malfoy. I'm going to call you it because it's your given name." I whisper back.

"If you call me Draco again, I might have to punish you."

holy jesus what the fuck.

I don't say anything, but I continue to stare into his grey eyes.

He smirks again and turns back to the books.

so many butterflies.

————

After a while of studying, Draco and I get kicked out of the library because it's closing. We wander the halls for a bit, talking, as we make it back to our common room.

I never knew this side of him before. He's actually pretty sweet and funny.

He suddenly stops in the middle of the hall and turns to me.

"Follow me." He offers me his hand, and I take it. "Close your eyes."

I do so and I feel him leading me up and outside somewhere. When I open, we are in the astronomy tower. He looks at me and we sit on the ground.

"You were crying here before." He says in a low voice, his accent heavy. "Tell me why."

"It's nothing, Malfoy. I'm serious." I look away from him and out into the far distance.

He puts his hand on mine. I look back at him. He's staring straight at me and those grey eyes I'm so used to are boring into mine again.

"Tell me." He whispers. "Please."

I suddenly start crying, quietly. He notices this and pulls me close to him. I explain everything to him, about my mother and brother and Kayla. He seems supportive and stays silent, comforting me with his arms and chest.

I bury my face to him. His cologne is intoxicating and it suits him well. Draco's arms are wrapped tightly around me.

Why is he being so sweet? Why isn't he like this around everyone else?

After a while, I calm down and release myself from his embrace. I blush slightly when he makes eye contact again. He turns back to face the horizon.

"I'm sorry about your family, Elora." He says, then standing up and helping me stand as well.

"Thank you, Malfoy."

He smiles. Almost invisible, but it's there. We walk back down to the corridors. We are about to turn the corner when we see a light coming closer and closer to us.

I look at Draco with panic in my eyes. If we were caught, we would get detention or worse.
He suddenly grabs my hand and pulls me into the closest classroom, inaudibly closing the door behind us. He stands against a wall and motions for me to do the same.

We stay there for what feels like forever. I end up almost falling asleep, but then Draco shakes me awake.

"How the fuck do you fall asleep standing up?" He laughs quietly, crossing his arms across his chest and looking at me.

"Shut up, Malfoy." I laugh.

He moves over to the door, slowly opening it. No one is there. We slip out of the classroom and silently run to the Slytherin common room.

We are both laughing as we walk into the common room. He falls onto the sofa and I fall onto one of the empty, green chairs next to it.

"I had fun." He says, a small smile on his face. "I mean, except for the part in the tower."

"Me too. And honestly, I thought you were going to be rude, Draco." I smile back. His face turns dead serious.

He gets up and walks over to me. Shit.

"Did you not listen before?" He whispers.

"Yes I did." I breathlessly say. "Why do you get so upset when people call you 'Draco' ?"

He stays quiet. His eyes still locked with mine. After a moment, he looks down at the floor and turns around. He walks up to his dorm, without a word.

I take a moment to fully understand everything that had happened tonight.

He knows everything now. In a moment of weakness, I told the infamous Draco Malfoy everything about my family and my life before Hogwarts.

I slug up to my room, exhausted and confused. Pulling myself into bed, I wonder why Draco is so sweet to me, but not, in front of his friends. My mind is running a hundred miles a minute as I drift away into a tired sleep.