Draco Malfoy's Dirty Little Secret

Chapter 37

I wanted to scream yes, but my voice wasn’t working. I think my whole body went into shock when the question had popped out of his mouth. He stood with a smirk on his face, and I pulled him in for a kiss as soon as he was upright. It was like my lips were the only thing on my body working at the time. I pulled away when I could feel my toes again and told him my answer.

“Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!” I yelled and pulled him in for another kiss. “I love you,” I whispered against his lips.

“I love you too,” he smirked and pulled the ring out of the box. “I know that you would rather wear the ring on your finger, but it might attract too much attention. I thought that you could wear it on a necklace until its safe for people to know about us.”

I nodded. “It’s perfect,” I whispered admiring the ring while he pulled out the chain to put it on. “How much did you spend on this, Draco? It had to be pretty expensive.”

“No,” he said and took the ring from me. “It was my grandmother’s ring. She gave it to me before she died to give to the woman that I truly wanted to marry. She was the only one who ever believed in me besides my mum, but she seemed to care more.”

“I believe in you,” I told him, taking his hands and steadying them so he could clasp the necklace around my neck. I turned to him after he was finished. “I have always believed in you.”

He smiled. “I have always loved you, and I knew there was a reason.”

“Well, obviously it’s because of my rocking body,” I laughed and he did too.

“That is the icing on the cake,” he pulled me into his arms. “I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what would’ve happened if you had gotten into Slytherin. You know, if you hadn’t asked to be in Gryffindor. Would we still want to be with each other? Would we even be able to be together?”

I nodded. “I believe that you only find a love like this once in your lifetime. We’re meant to be, Draco. If I had gotten into Slytherin, we probably would still be together. We would probably be able to be together. We would probably be able to marry. We couldn’t have to hide like this. You could’ve asked me to marry you out in public.”

He sighed. “You probably wouldn’t have been the same, Courtney. If you would’ve gotten into Slytherin, you would have never met Kamrynn. You would’ve never been friends with Potter and Weasley. You wouldn’t be friends with that mudblo- Granger,” he corrected himself when I shot him a look. “Your heart wouldn’t have been as big. You wouldn’t be you. I couldn’t have fallen in love with you. I wouldn’t have allowed myself.”

“Who says that I would’ve been different?” I smirked at him. “I don’t think I would’ve been turned into someone like Pansy. I despise her, always have and always will. I have a strong will to just be me, and if that isn’t good enough, then who cares? I still would’ve been myself, Draco, and you would still be you.”

“We could argue this point all day long. Do you want to go for a walk?” he asked, changing the subject pretty quick, but I nodded anyway.

On the way down to the Entrance hall, I wished desperately that we could at least hold hands. It was tough having that hidden relationship. It made me wish that we wouldn’t continue it, but I couldn’t imagine not being with Draco, just the little that we did have made me grateful for his love. I could wish all I want, but nothing was ever going to happen. I just had to accept that. We walked along the shore of the lake once we were outside.

“I would’ve still been in love with you, Draco,” I smiled and grabbed his hand since we were far enough away from the castle. “I can’t imagine loving anyone else, even if I was in Slytherin. I am who I am for a reason, and that reason right now is to shed some light onto your dreary life. I wouldn’t change anything. Yes, I regret leaving you, but it was obviously meant to be like this for a reason. It was fate’s hand that had me ask to be separated from you. You knew there is that saying: absence makes the heart grow fonder. Maybe you didn’t know you were in love with me until after I had taken myself out of your life. That does happen you know.”

“That might be true, but I wasn’t saying that I would change anything. I was just wondering would’ve been haven’t you ever done it?” he squeezed my fingers in a teasing way. “Besides, I love you. I wouldn’t want to change that or you.”

I smiled at him before sitting on the soft ground. Yes, it was chilly, but I didn’t want to go inside for dinner. I wanted to watch the sunset with my fiancé. Oh, that was weird to think, but it felt so right. Draco was my fiancé. My Draco. He was all mine, but I had to share him because of his arranged marriage. I looked up at him.

“Draco,” I asked to get his attention, “how could you ask me to marry you when you have to marry someone else here shortly? How can you promise yourself to me after you’ve already been promised to what’s-her-face?”

“Her name is Astoria,” he informed me.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Gee, Draco, I didn’t know you cared about her that much.”

“I don’t, Court. It’s just that she’s not a bitch like I know you’re thinking she is. She’s actually pretty awesome. Right now, she’s trying to get them to push our wedding back because she too is in love with someone else. Besides, she’s too old for me. She morally can’t do it.”

“Too old for you?” I asked, a little confused.

He nodded. “She’s nineteen. She’s also not a deatheater, but her parents are that’s why she’s in this mess. She had been minding her own business traveling over the European countryside with her boyfriend. Next thing she knows, her parents forbid her to be with him and arrange her to marry me. It was a bit of a shock for her too.”

“Wow,” I didn’t know what else to say.

“Yes, it rather is heartbreaking, but not as heartbreaking as our story is going to end up,” he says as he draws a heart in the soft dirt and writes our names together inside of it.

I gulped. “How do you know our story is going to end so badly?”

“How can it when I’ve made so many bad decisions in my life?”

“Don’t do that,” I told him harshly.

He blinked at me. “Don’t do what?”

“Don’t make this out to be all your fault. It’s not your fault.”

“What are you talking about, Courtney? I clearly had a choice in this,” he looked as if he had almost stopped breathing. “I’m the boy who made too many wrong choices and turns. Nothing can end happily for me.”

I shook my head and turned to him. “You’re not the boy who made the wrong choices,” I grabbed his cheeks in my hands so I knew that he was listening. “You’re the boy who didn’t have a choice.”

He then kissed me in the most passionate way that he had ever kissed me. “That’s why I love you. You know just how to make me feel better, even if it isn’t the truth.”

“I only speak the truth, Draco,” I smirked at him. “Now, your bed or mine?”

We ended up going to his dorm. He said that it was a private room with only one bed, but it was decent sized. I had a dorm with two beds and a weird psycho path who probably wouldn’t have left and watched us as we slept. The second time was just as magical, but sadly I had to get up in the morning because we did have classes the next day. I didn’t get to wake up with him. I was pretty sure that I would eventually get what I wanted. I opened the door and closed it behind me, trying to be as quiet as I could be. As soon as I had the door shut, I knew I was in deep shit.

“I knew Draco had a dirty little secret,” Pansy said in triumph.