Cessation ⌁ Draco Malfoy [3/4] ✔

16

He continued to replay the conversation in the back of his mind as he walked three times past the wall for the second time. The whole Dark Lord and Harry Potter situation was contrary, it always was, but it wasn't just Potter anymore. If Draco was being frank with himself, he did not want to be seen with this girl; he had to take precautions and if someone figured out that he was lying he'd lose more than everything he loved.

The familiar sound of crumbling echoed quietly along the seventh-floor corridor as the door appeared. Emma had insisted that he stay there with her for a while, and he decided to ask for a room where they could just sit for a while. Before making such a suggestion, she caught Draco off guard by leaning into him and wrapping her arms around him as a way of saying thanks. Draco didn't like it. All it did was torment him with memories that he was certain would never repeat themselves. It felt habitual to lean down and press his face against her hair.

"You're not going to die," Draco promised her as they walked into the room, staring as Emma looked up at him with the eyes that didn't belong to her. 

He was foolish for making such promises; he knew he wouldn't be able to do anything if one day somebody had pieced everything together and Emma was captured. His family was his priority now. Not some girl he had chased after when he was fifteen. He meant it when he said that he loved her but he wouldn't do anything that might put his family in danger. Especially not his mother, who he believed had suffered enough. When his father was in Azkaban his mother was alone in a manor crawling with Death Eaters, though she hardly dared to leave her room. He had no choice but to put Emma second. 

The room looked as it had before, with armchairs as a difference. 

"You can't promise anything," she said quietly, Draco feared for a moment that she had read his thoughts but it disappeared when Emma sat in one of the armchairs and forced a smile, looking rather tired as she did so. He couldn't tell if she was sleepy or just dead set tired. 

He couldn't speak, only nodded. All he did was feel more annoyed as he stared into dark blue eyes that were unknown to him, and he carefully seated himself in the remaining armchair. 

"Wait," Emma said in an uneasy voice, and he looked at her questioningly. She reluctantly went on. "Never mind. I'm sure Daphne won't mind that I've ditched her."

Draco raised an eyebrow. "Girls like her don't take it too lightly when they aren't picked first. How do you think she'll react when she realises that you've abandoned her for an ex?"

"All I'll have to do is bring up what happened in fifth-year with her stupid jumper," Emma mumbled, pinching the leather of the armchair she was on. 

It was strange being alone with her again. For the first time Draco didn't know what to say to her. It seemed he was so caught up on having her with him when he was fifteen that he'd just wasted all his words then and didn't have anything to say now. He wanted to find out what had really happened to her the Halloween that her parents were killed, find out if she had lied about that night to Sabrina, but he didn't want to upset her. Emma would probably become suspicious of something. But Draco was dying of thirst to know. But what if she didn't know either? What if she had no idea? Her entire life had already been a lie, he didn't want to add anymore to it.

"Do you remember all our stupid little fights in fifth-year?" Draco chuckled dryly. Emma smiled with distant eyes. He started to recall all those times he had thought Emma and Harry had a thing for each other - now it was making him feel stupid. He hoped she wasn't thinking about it. He remembered the night he called her disgusting for being interested in someone like Harry Potter, who, at the time, he did not know was her twin brother. He brought up all the times he purposely pestered Emma, though at the time he did not hope for it to upset her, he simply sought a reaction. "I was so stupid."