after dusk - draco malfoy

xi. | eleven

THE NIGHT OF THE YULE BALL had finally arrived but I couldn't help but feel so upset. As much as I loved Fred as a person, I wanted to spend the night with Draco. It took Poppy and Stella around forty-five minutes to get me to move from my bed and start getting ready. I hadn't spoken to or seen much of Draco since we had the argument in the library so I decided I might as well enjoy myself for the night.

I had finally finished getting ready, with the help from Stella and Poppy, and made our way down into the Common Room. We met with our dates and headed to the Great Hall for the dance. "You look beautiful, tonight, Tasmin," Fred told me as we made our way down to the Great Hall.

I smiled at him in return as I took his arm to steady myself when walking down the stairs in heels. "Thank you, Fred, you scrubbed up pretty nice yourself," I replied, beaming up at his tall frame.

It wasn't long before we reached the Great Hall and the night began. I was having such a good night and I had completely forgotten about the argument with Draco. That was until I had spotted him with his date. Dominique. I felt sick to my stomach and my knees almost buckled beneath me, causing me to stumble.

Fred caught me and stopped me from falling. "Woah," he called out, letting a soft laugh escape his lips before he turned serious. "You alright?" He questioned me, still holding my arm. "Do you need some air?"

I shook my head, steadying myself. "No, I'm okay," I told him, not entirely sure I knew how I was feeling. "I need to speak to Draco real quick, I'll be back," I explained to Fred, to which he nodded his head. "If I'm not back in ten minutes, please come and save me."

He let out another laugh and left me to do whatever I needed to do. I made my way over to Draco, my heart pounding in my chest. There was no denying that Dominique was extremely beautiful. Much more beautiful than I ever was. I reached the pair and Dominique's smiled dropped from her face as soon as she saw me, morphing into a look of disgust. "Draco, can we go outside for a moment, I think we need to talk," I asked him, politely, despite the rage and hurt filling in my chest.

He thought for a moment, clearly still upset from a few days before but eventually nodded his head. He didn't say anything to Dominique as we left. We sat outside on a bench, listening to the blurred sound of the ball from the inside. "What do you want to talk about?" Draco questioned but there was still a cold tone in his voice.

I felt my eyes burning and I couldn't do anything to stop it, I just burst into tears right before him. "How could you?" I cried out, not able to look him in the eyes. "After all those time I had cried to you about how much they had all hurt me, you decided to bring the worst one of the three to the ball. How could you?" I repeated, trying to stop myself from crying but it was too late.

I was already consumed in every part of Draco. I wanted him to feel about me the same way I felt about him but I thought he would never. I thought I caught feelings for people way too easily and that's what was happening. I was wrong.

Draco never said a word, his eyes fixated on his hands which were sitting in his lap. "Out of everyone you could've asked, you brought her," I snapped, the anger quickly overpowering the hurt.

He turned his head in my direction and scoffed at me. "You brought Fred Weasley with you," he defended himself, the worst part of him starting to come out. "You brought him with you so you have no place to tell me who I can and can't bring. We were meant to come here together."

I let out one loud sob and shook my head into my hands. "I didn't know that!" I yelled back at him, my heart beating quicker than it ever has before. "I don't even know what we are! I'm so happy but so confused and you keep giving me mixed signals!" I accused him, which I believed to be the right thing to do at the time. Obviously, I wasn't in the right frame of mind.

"What do you mean you're confused?" Draco shouted at me, getting angry himself. "What is there to be confused about?! Everyone knows that we're a thing now, so what does it matter?"

I started to laugh at how he brushed over the facts so lightly and I shook my head at him. "That's exactly why!" I practically screamed at him, tears rolling down my face. "You think that this is so simple for you when it's a lot more complex for me!" I elaborated, gaining a confused look on his face. "You say that everyone knows we're a thing. I don't. We've never spoken about that. We've never made things official, that's why I presumed you were going to ask me to the dance."

Things then became a lot clearer for both of us at that moment but we were both too stubborn to back down. "When you didn't ask me, I started to think maybe you didn't want to go with me, or maybe you were uninterested," I continued. "There's a lot of things that went across my mind." Draco still kept quiet, almost processing everything that had been said. "Why would you bring Dominique, out of everyone?"

Draco paused for a few moments, almost in reluctance. He opened his mouth to speak but closed it again. I shook my head and laughed at him when he didn't respond, which clearly aggravated him more. "Because I wanted to hurt you!" He finally snapped out.

Everything in my world started crashing down at that moment. He wanted to hurt me. "I wanted you to feel what I had felt when you told me you were going with someone else," he continued, making my chest tight - like my heart had been ripped in two.

I shook my head and blinked back tears, beginning to regret it. Beginning to regret everything. They were right about him. My friends were right. "Mission accomplished," I said in almost a whisper. He, immediately, realised what we had done and told me to wait, grabbing my wrist to stop me. "You ruin everything!" I screamed in his face before pulling my wrist from his grasp.

I rushed away, trying to hide the tears. I had pushed past Fred on my way in, who had come to look for me. I heard my name being called by multiple different voices but my loud and pain-filled sobs had masked their identity.

I couldn't count how many times I had stumbled when making my way back to the Common Room. I reached the portrait but at that point, I was just exhausted. I couldn't move. I couldn't speak. I struggled to breathe.

I could hear footsteps coming up the stairs ahead of me but I didn't care for who it could possibly be. I had felt too hopeless at that point. When the footsteps came into sight, I recognised the first two faces as the last I thought I'd see. Antoinette and Estelle, followed by Poppy, Tommy, Seamus, and Stella.

I couldn't control my sobs until Estelle and Antoinette pulled me close to them. I could hear the calming French language entering my ears and I started to slow down my breathing at just that alone. "Tout va bien se passer," Estelle spoke in my ear, making me remember all the times I had nightmares in my first year and she would cradle me back to sleep.

Antoinette stood up, helping me up with her. She wiped the tears from my face, cupping her hands around my face. "Ne pleure pas, magnifique," she told me, bringing a smile on my face to hear the language again. "Essuyez ces larmes."

We all sat in the Common Room for a few more hours, Antoinette and Estelle included, and I felt a lot better being surrounded by friends. I didn't want to see Draco the following day. I didn't want my Christmas ruining anymore than he already had.

I thought my Christmas had been ruined completely but Draco had ruined his own for himself. He spent the rest of the night kicking himself for what he had done. All I thought was that he would be dancing with Dominique, without a care in the world. I was wrong.