Pawns | A Draco Malfoy Love Story

"Stay"

"Hi again," I said smiling as I entered the room on the next Friday.

He'd been waiting for me on the couch and got up right away. In a few long strides he had me wrapped in his arms. He kept one arm over my shoulder as we walked back to the inviting couch, warm with the heat from the flickering fire. Even after all this time, I still felt butterflies in my chest.

I pushed my long hair back and over my shoulders so that it was behind me and watched as Draco rolled up his sleeves to his elbows. The room was warmer tonight than it normally was, illuminated nicely by the glowing fire.

"Long time no see," I joked, because we had had the pleasant treat of seeing each other just a couple days prior when Harry was retrieving the memory from Slughorn.

"Feels like a long time," he said, leaning across the couch to give me a soft kiss. "How'd it go anyway, with Harry's task I mean."

"He did it!" I said. "Though, I think the part you might be more interested in knowing about is all the romantic drama Felix caused," I said, thinking that he'd want the entertainment rather than the intense, slightly depressing news of multiple horcruxes.

I managed to miss the slight flicker of disappointment in his eyes as I started to talk about how Harry managed to break up all the unhappy couples in his vicinity.

Draco laughed lightly but I sensed he wasn't too interested. I couldn't understand why, but I changed the subject nonetheless and asked him about his Apparition test. I had forgotten to ask him about it when I saw him last.

"I passed, thankfully," he said.

"I thought you were very confident," I asked, raising an eyebrow in a tease.

"I was," he said, "doesn't mean I can't still be thankful," he explained with a smile.

"Alright fair enough," I said laughing.

"And your friends? Did they pass?" he inquired.

"Hermione did, but Ron will have to take it again next year with Harry. He was very close though."

"Ahh, 'next year with Harry,'" he repeated. "Poor Potter isn't grown up enough yet for Apparition, huh. You've got a young boyfriend."

"And you've got a young girlfriend," I said, responding quickly.

It was one of those silly jokes meant to tease the other about being a "perv," but he seemed to have missed it. Instead, the corners of his mouth raised into a smile for the quickest of seconds, but then he went back to trying to hold a straight face.

I felt heat rise in my own cheeks and I tried to keep my smile to myself too.

We had never really put a name on what we were. And while we couldn't truly be a couple by name because I still had a label with Harry, it really felt like we were boyfriend and girlfriend.

And so, I decided that it was time to make things official.

"I'm going to do it, you know," I said. He looked confused and I clarified. "I'm going to break up with him. Tomorrow."

He looked both shocked and pleased. And I suppose I surprised even myself with my own words, but I knew that Harry and I had gone on long enough. And now that he had the memory, our breakup would at least not cause him any sort of detrimental distraction.

"You'll tell him about us?" he asked.

"I'm going to end things officially," I started. "But I don't think I'm going to tell him about us, not just yet at least."

He looked satisfied and nodded his head, the corner of his mouth leaning towards a smirk. I felt myself blushing at this new situation and peeled my eyes away from him, staring instead into the fire and watching the flames flicker and dance.