the girl with all of the choices

s e v e n t y - e i g h t

4587 words

may fourteenth- reckonings

~ Addison ~

It had almost been a month since that awful day in the sixth-floor boys' lavatory. Draco had been healing nicely. Or at least he told me so, as he wouldn't let me look at his scars. Any time he would take his shirt off in my presence, he would turn around so I could only see his back. 

It was a bit infuriating. I only wanted to make sure he was okay, that his healing hadn't been stalled, that had been taking care of himself, that he wasn't neglecting his health. But, he wouldn't let me. He never said why, so I eventually gave up.

Ever since Fawn revealed to us that she knew Draco's secret, we had been trying to act as normal as possible. He had accompanied me everywhere we had been going together, his fingers entangled in mine. It was strange if I was being honest. We hadn't ever really been like that before, not like we were now. Even during the fall of fifth year, when everything was perfect, he would only very rarely walk around school with me attached to his hand. He didn't use to ever like it; he preferred to not have the prying and judging eyes of the other students. But now, we were on display. 

It made sense if I had to think about it. People were suspecting him of being a Death Eater. Flaunting his mudblood girlfriend around the school certainly would not be a pastime that a Death Eater would involve themselves in. If only they knew. However, this meant that everyone knew about us. We weren't a secret anymore. Everyone knew. 

It was strange to hear first years talking about us. First years. They should have been talking about learning how to fly, something that still to this day I had not been able to master. But they were talking about us. About how I, Addison Corbyn, a muggle-born Hufflepuff had managed to bring the Slytherin Pureblood Prince, the Draco Malfoy, the culmination of centuries of pureblood witches and wizards to his knees. 

We were walking together now, on our way to the Great Hall for lunch after Transfiguration, hand in hand. 

"You know what I think is ironic?" Draco asked as we walked down the stairs to the second floor. 

"What's that?"

"The fact that McGonagall said today she taught us Vanishing Spells in fifth year. I really could not tell you about that because I was asleep half the time," he chuckled.

"That is ironic considering it's now that you really needed them."

"Right? Although, I know the incantations and I'm sure I could find other uses, especially for Evanesco," he said with a smirk, pressing his lips to my temple before grazing them down to my ear, his teeth nipping at me as they did in the Room of Requirement during the Christmas holiday, implying he had other intentions for our free afternoon.

"Draco!" I giggled, my face flushing from his words. 

"I've missed you, Corbs. All this lovey-dovey stuff in front of everyone makes it hard for me to keep my hands off of you."

I turned to glance at him in absurdity. "You haven't let me see you without a shirt on since everything happened," I said in an accusatory tone. 

"I have good reasoning for that," he said, placing another kiss on my temple. 

"You might want to take that elsewhere," a familiar older voice mentioned. 

Tonks.

"Malfoy," she said, stopping in front of us, still a respectable distance away.