In The End

Chapter 5 - The Astronomy Tower

Author's note: OMG you are such a wonderful human! You have no idea how much it means to me that you've read this far. Thank you again for giving my story a chance!

***

The next few days came and went without any contact between Eliza and Draco. Eliza had paid a visit to the vanishing cabinet and put some work into it, but she hadn't made much progress.

One night, Eliza had found herself sitting upright in her bed, covered in a cold sweat. The nightmares were getting worse. She decided to go downstairs to the common room but was surprised to discover Draco, sitting alone on one of the green velvet sofas.

He had heard her enter the room, of course, and looked at her over his shoulder.

"What are you doing here?" he asked softly as he watched her cautiously.

"Had a nightmare. What about you?" Eliza asked.

"Couldn't sleep."

There seemed to be a mutual understanding between the two of them. Their sleepless nights were clearly linked through their similar experiences.

Eliza took a seat on the sofa beside Draco.

"What do you usually do when you can't sleep?" she asked, looking over him with a surprisingly soft expression.

"I usually go and watch the stars from the astronomy tower," he said.

"How come you didn't go there tonight?"

"I'm waiting for midnight," he said as though it were obvious.

"Oh, okay," Eliza looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

There was a long silence between them - the only sound that could be heard was the steady ticking of the ebony grandfather clock.

"It's almost twelve," she stated.

"Yeah."

Draco slowly stood up and walked over to the door leading out into the dungeons.

"You can join me if you'd like," he said, instantly regretting his offer.

Eliza was surprised by the invitation. Draco wasn't one to be this civil, usually. In fact, the entire week he had been acting differently. Instead of saying any of these observations out loud, she simply nodded and stood up to join him.

The walk up to the astronomy tower was silent. Whether it was because they were both deep in thought, or because they thought their chances of not getting caught were better if they didn't make too much noise, Eliza couldn't tell.

When they made it to the top, she immediately walked over to the railing and looked up at the stars. Draco, however, stood silently in the middle of the room. He was used to the view, in fact, he'd memorised all the constellations at this point. But tonight was different... a new view had caught his attention.

He couldn't stop himself from raking his eyes up and down her body, looking at the tight pyjama shorts and the tank top that she had on.

Draco had lots of experience when it came to girls. He had never understood why, but all the girls seemed to love him. He had no complaints, of course, but often felt bored by them, especially when they made themselves so easy for him to use. For Slytherins, they never seemed to be very tactful in their pursuits of him.

He wondered, as he had done many times before, why Eliza never showed the slightest attraction to him. He supposed it was because of the way he always treated her. He wondered if things would have been different if he never called her a mudblood.

He took a few steps forward until he was standing beside her and slowly leaned on the balcony railing. He turned his head and immediately noticed every little feature of her face, illuminated by the soft moonlight.

She was a lot prettier than he cared to admit. She had light greeny-blue eyes that reflected the lights of the stars and dark, long eyelashes that seemed to tickle her cheeks each time she blinked. Her lips were plump and pink and he was suddenly painfully aware of his curious desire to know how it felt to kiss her.

"What game have you been playing, Draco?" she asked cautiously, meeting his gaze.

"What do you mean?" he asked, swallowing hard.

"I mean, you've been treating me differently this past week. You aren't calling me names or laughing at me in the hallway anymore. What's changed?" 

Draco paused, he wasn't used to people being so upfront with him, "I don't know," he shrugged, "like it or not, we're kind of stuck with each other now. I mean, if he trusts you, then you can't be as thick as I thought you were, right?" he pointedly avoided her gaze.

"Was that almost a compliment? Good on you, Malfoy! I didn't think you had it in you!" she teased, bumping his arm with her own.

"Yeah, well don't get used to it, Macnair," he drawled.

Eliza rolled her eyes and let a comfortable silence fall between them as they leaned on the railing. The cold night air began to seep into her bare skin and she was starting to realise that she hadn't prepared herself for being out in the open this way when she had left her dorm. She couldn't suppress a shiver and attempted to keep herself warm by holding herself, rubbing her hands up and down her arms to conserve warmth.

It didn't take much for Draco to notice this.

"Are you seriously cold?"

"Well, I don't know if you've noticed, but my attire isn't exactly built for the cold," she replied sarcastically.

Draco paused thoughtfully, "I can put my arm around you if you want."

"Ha! No thanks. I wouldn't want to dirty you with my mudblood germs," she scoffed stubbornly.

"Fine, freeze then."

There was a long silence, save the persistent sounds of Eliza's shivering.

Eventually, she looked over at him bashfully, "is that offer still standing?"

Draco let out an exasperated sigh.

"You're lucky I'm such a bloody gentleman, Macnair," he grumbled, stiffly putting one arm around her waist and pulling her closer until she was flush against him.

Eliza felt grateful for his warmth but was even more so for the fact that it was too dark for him to see her blushing. She had never imagined she would be held in his arms this way and the sensation of his body pressed against hers was doing nothing for her hormones.

If only she knew that Draco was having similar difficulties. The truth was, he liked the fact that she needed to depend on him for something. Usually, she was so good at doing things for herself, it seemed almost like a privilege to be able to give her something she couldn't get herself. He started to wonder what it would be like for her to depend on him more often. 

The two of them stood there in silence, with Eliza wrapped under Draco's arm until the sun began to rise. They couldn't fathom how long they had been out there for, but they knew they needed to hurry back to the dorms before anyone woke up. 

Thankfully for both of them, nobody had seen them re-enter the common room together. Imagine what sort of gossip would flare up throughout Hogwarts? That would have been a difficult one to explain...