Mine. (A Draco Malfoy x Harry Potter fanfic) *COMPLETED*

Chapter 34

"What country do you want to visit the most?" I asked Draco as we sat on Brighton beach at sunset eating salty chips.

"Well I rarely leave the manor except to go to school so I'd start with anywhere. I haven't really seen much. You?"

"Paris. It's my favourite city and I've never been, maybe after school I'll go travelling before I become a professor."

"So you really do want to be a potions Professor then?"

"I briefly thought about being an auror for a while but doing potions comes so naturally to me that I would be stupid not to teach. It was either that or Quidditch. Hey what do you want to do after school?"

Draco looked down at the stones. "My family has some plans for me" he said glumly.

I reached for his hand, intertwining our fingers together. "You get to pick your own future Draco, not them. It's your life." Draco looked at me and gave me a weak smile.

"I would love to be an auror but no one in my family has ever done that job, we all end up doing the same thing."

"Well how about we make a pact. We'll both take a year out after we graduate and go travelling. See the world, experience everything, and then worry about what lies ahead of us."

"I'd love that Belle." Something in Draco's eyes told me that he wanted nothing more than to do this with me, but it's almost like he knew it wouldn't happen. We were a couple of weeks into the summer holidays and Draco had apparated to see me whenever he could. He acted like his old self but I knew that something was different with him, he never wanted to talk about the future much and he always looked sad whenever I brought it up. Harry had written to me to tell me about how things were at Privet Drive with his aunt and uncle, and Hermione had told me all about her holiday in Madrid. Ron hadn't written but that was typical Ron. Draco hadn't written but that was because he was coming to see me instead, and because his family didn't know about us and he wanted to protect me, apparently he's only allowed to date pureblood wizards. I didn't know much about his family, Draco never really opened up to me about them. I had to do my own research, from reading books in the library about the dark witches and wizards who support Voldemort. Death eaters were what they were called, joined together by the tattoo on their left forearm, the so called "dark mark". They disbanded when Voldemort was defeated back when Harry's parents were killed, but he was well and truly back now and we knew of the darkness that lay ahead of us. Draco and I both pretended everything was fine, but the reality was that we were on two different sides of a war that threatened to tear us apart, after we've fought so hard to be together.

"I'd better get going, can't be gone too long or Mother will be suspicious." Draco stood up, and pulled me to my feet before enveloping me in a long hug. I nestled myself into the crook of his neck and smiled, breathing in his scent of apples and expensive cologne. I wish that moments like this can last forever, where the world just seems to melt away and it's just us, us against the world.

"God I'm going to miss this" I heard him whisper to himself, thinking I hadn't heard.

"Hmmm?" I said, my blue eyes meeting his grey ones.

"I just mean that I'm going to miss this until we go back to school" he said quickly, but he avoided my gaze as he said this.

"You mean you won't come and see me again?"

"It's pretty busy at home, I might not get a chance."

"Well..will you write to me?"

He looked away from me, looking out to the sea, his blonde hair floating around his face in the evening breeze and I could have sworn I saw his eyes glistening with tears. I'll try to. I love you Belle, never forget that." I was about to reply when I heard a loud crack and saw that he had gone.

~

The rest of the summer dragged by at a snail's pace. I wrote Draco several letters detailing about mother and I's day trips to London, and the research I had been doing on travelling. I sent my owl, Blink, off clutching the various letters in hope of a reply from him, but every time she came back empty handed, giving me apologetic eyes as she flew into my window each time. One day I did receive a letter, and I hoped it had been from Draco but when I saw the small owl come bounding into my room bouncing around noisily I knew it was from Ron. He had invited me to come and stay at the burrow the week before school started, three days from now, to chill out and then catch the train together back to Hogwarts. I wrote back to him accepting the invitation, and it took me a good 5 minutes to attach the letter to Pigwideon's leg before I sent him off. I passed my apparation test a day later, meaning I wouldn't need to use muggle transport to get to the burrow, I could simply apparate there. "Are you sure you don't want to me to come with you, the first time?" My mother asked as I held my trunk in one hand and Blink in the other. "No mum, I know what to do", I replied, thinking back to when Draco helped me get to the ministry just a few weeks ago. She gave me a kiss on both cheeks and I closed my eyes, thinking hard about the burrow and with a loud CRACK I landed directly in front of the door.

Molly Weasley swung it open. "Victoria my dear how are you! Come in, we've all been waiting for you!" I walked into the cosy front room of the burrow, putting my trunk down and noticing Hedwig, Harry's owl, in the corner.

"Long time no see Greenwood!" Said Fred bounding towards me and swooping me up in a hug. After I had made the rounds of saying hello to the twins, Ron Harry, Hermione and Ginny I took a seat in a cosy armchair and looked around happily, feeling more content than ever. But one thing was playing at my mind, making my stomach full of knots.

Why hadn't I heard from Draco?