The Shift (A Draco Malfoy Love Story)

The Train

Draco's POV:

I sat there looking at her with a pit in my stomach. At first it was a bad feeling, but it eventually turned completely around.

I had been dreading telling her this, I just wanted to keep her safe and not have her involved at all. Now, however, I am so relieved that I did. Not only am I not singularly burdened with it anymore, but she was so accepting of it.

I had replayed the moment I would tell her everyday in my head since it had happened. I expected her to scream, look at me with terror in her eyes, and for her to never want to talk to me ever again. I figured her love would so easily be turned into disgust and I would be left empty and alone with no one to turn to.

But I was wrong.

She sat there and kissed my arm where it bore the deatheater mark. Her lips touched a mark that any other sane person in the Wizarding World would turn against from, shaken with disgust and fear.

For the first time in a month, I hadn't been overcast with fear. She was my peace again.

She was my good mark.

She was out of this world.

Rashana's POV:

I couldn't have let him be alone with that, uncomfortable in his own skin. I couldn't have pretended that I was afraid of such a symbol because frankly I'm not from here. I wasn't raised with the fear of that mark coursing through my veins.

Now that he had unveiled his deepest secret to me, I felt obligated to tell him mine. It's not like we could keep going on with me falling into a coma and him being stricken with heartbreak each time. I needed the right moment, the right time.

"Do you want to go for a walk?", I asked softly.

We were still sitting down, leaned up against that broken wall.

He looked up at me and nodded his head.

We got up and I turned toward the door.

"Wait", he said raising his brow, "You threw the rock through that window didn't you?"

I let out a laugh. "Kicked it, accidentally...but yes."

He shook his head and let out a playful scoff. "Should've known", he walked over to me, "We probably shouldn't use the front door, knowing Martha she'll still be posted up waiting for the 'culprit' to return."

We both laughed and I looked down at my clothes. My skirt, sweater, and long hair was definitely misleading from the boyish outfit I had worn before, but I looked up at Draco excitedly anyway.

"So how do you suppose we leave?", the anticipation ran throughout me.

"Well I would say magic but this is a muggle world we are living in", his face scrunched up disgustedly.

"Pity", I said shaking my head.

We both looked toward the window at the same time. We looked back at each other and smiled.

••••

It was way harder to climb down a fire escape in a skirt than it would've been in pants. I kept seeing Draco glance up it and I'd yell at him to stop.

"Hey hey", he laughed, "I can't help it."

I just laughed and continued climbing down. The air was cold and the metal bars felt like shards of glass because of it.

I was only halfway down when Draco jumped from the bottom rail to the ground. He looked up at me with a smirk.

"This is the best view in London!", he yelled out, staring up the fire escape.