𝒜𝒻𝓉𝑒𝓇𝓂𝒶𝓉𝒽 | 𝒟.𝑀.

30 | ﴾ Catch Me If You Can ﴿

The first portion of the week, the weekend included, had been heartbreaking for Draco. Madeleine had run from dinner Saturday night and ensured to avoid him like the plague henceforth. He was extremely nervous that Theodore Nott had dug his talons into his princess somehow, and now she was acting avoidant and stubborn. She was in serious trouble if she didn't alter the course that she was on with Nott, yet there was nothing that he could do to help her if she wouldn't listen.

He'd found himself watching hundreds of memories and getting to know the girl that he'd fallen in love with. She was passionate about plants, and he'd evidently made the right choice by bringing her home the mysteriously valuable rose. She was a sensational ballerina and every second that she danced with her floating hair was like a thousand years of bliss. She was silly and goofy, usually laughing at things that were serious, and it seemed to have brightened his approach to life. They had both been excellent Quidditch players, so good in fact that she had been scouted almost immediately after joining the team. They had been in love, time and time again, after each of them had been terribly obliviated. He couldn't think of a better sign of destiny.

The way they had met at Hogwarts was humorous and innocent, but then it quickly bled into abusive and painful experiences that only worsened with time during the war. He'd been unbelievably inhumane to her just to keep her in line with his family's agenda, and it was no wonder that she had a severe degree of bitterness towards the notion of being controlled by him.

Ergo, on Monday morning when he saw her speaking with Theodore in the Ministry atrium, he did his best to dart his eyes down to the ground and not react. If she needed him to prove that he wasn't controlling, then he would give it his best shot for at least the week. Any longer, and he was worried that if she got too caught up with Nott that something horrible would occur and he would have to intervene before then.

He spent his evenings shifting his restless focus from decoding the watch now that it was finished, to building cars in the cathedral. He let the memories on the watch run parallel to the vehicles on the cold stone floor where he laid below his supercars and twisted tools around in endless modifications, watching his prior life through his peripherals with a burning heart. 

Each night he tried again with her, writing short letters and shoving them under her locked door in the hopes that she would consider seeing him. He missed her in a way that he could not possibly describe; she had become everything to him. He never wanted to let her go. Every single day without her was torture.

Wednesday morning he briskly walked to his elevator with newspapers over his face so he wouldn't witness an interaction that would surely drive him to commit a murder. In the debriefing room he walked in like a storm of extravagant clothing and miserable energy, and stood next to Seamus with a pronounced frown on his pretty face.

"Yah alright there, Malfoy?" Seamus inquired with concern. He had a tilly hat on and that only heightened his goofy appearance.

"Just fucking dandy," Draco snarled back with his shoulders tight and his hands deep in his suit pockets. He was not alright; his chest was aching, pain spilling from between his ribs like a split barrel of wine.

He acted dismissive, and Seamus didn't argue for further attention. McGonagall went about her usual routine of assignments and role call, and Draco didn't even register that his team was not called upon until Seamus blurted out, "Misses, I believe yah missed our team there eh? Malfoy and I?"

She looked him up and down from behind her spectacles, "Quite correct, Mr. Finnigan. We will discuss your assignment at the docks."

When the rest of the students had wandered away at Hogwarts, Ginny making sure to spit at Draco's shoes with revulsion without needing a reason, McGonagall straightened her pointy hat and turned to face them both, tucking the clipboard beneath her arm. She clasped her hands with a serious expression, "Regardless of your oddities, you two have proven to be quite an efficient team. You've tackled some major tasks in short periods of time, so I must applaud you both for this. However, we need you to up the ante even more, as they say. Please follow me to the courtyard for an exercise."