Poison Ivy || Draco Malfoy

47 - The Grinch

Draco's story about never celebrating Christmas had given me an idea for the final theme of our classes.

"You want me to sit in a bar drinking whisky?"

"Yes," I nodded, "preferably next to a rowdy Christmas party. And I want you to put on your best scowl."

We were in the studio, getting ready for the evening classes. The knowledge that they were soon coming to an end made my stomach knot unpleasantly.

"Well that won't be difficult," Draco grumbled, his face already set in a pissed off frown.

"Leave off," I laughed, "you'll be in a pub nursing your favourite drink, what's to be grumpy about?"

"I don't know," he spat irritably, "maybe it will have something to do with being surrounded by all that fucking merriment?"

"I swear you didn't mind Christmas this much when we were at Hogwarts," I sighed, collecting up all the drawing pads. "I seem to remember you stealing the candy canes off of the trees in the Great Hall the very first year I was there."

Draco looked up at me, startled. "I don't recall that." He rubbed his chin, looking deep in thought. "That would have been my second year..."

"When the Chamber was opened," I prompted, trying not to show my hurt about the harsh reminder of how I was once invisible to him. "You know, Harry was convinced you were the heir of Slytherin back then."

"Bloody Potter," Draco scoffed, throwing himself down on the sofa and driving a hand through his hair, "I swear he had some kind of warped obsession with me. Always following me about under that fucking cloak of his."

I looked at him then, at the way his white-blond hair flopped back down lazily over his furrowed brow, and I remembered how much I had always wanted to touch it; to run my fingers through the strands and feel the soft silkiness of it against my skin.

"Ivy?" he murmured, his silver grey eyes studying me curiously. "What is it?"

"Nothing," I breathed, closing my eyes as I waited for the terrible pain to pass.

But it wasn't nothing; it was everything. And I was soon going to lose it all.

*****

Draco scowled down at his whisky, just like Ivy had asked him of.

It wasn't difficult, what with the mood he was currently in.

He could feel the eyes of the women on him as they started bringing him to life upon their sketchbooks. Behind him, a large office party of witches and wizards were drunkenly singing Jingle Bells; each word causing a muscle to pulse angrily along his jawline.

He wanted to be back home with Ivy, making the most of the time they had left together; not wasting it in a fucking bar having to listen to everyone else taking their happy easy lives for granted whilst a bunch of desperate witches ogled him.

The only eyes he wanted on him now were Ivy's. He swallowed as he recalled the way she had looked at him earlier in the studio.

The longing and sadness in her expression had made him want to take her in his arms and show her just how much he loved her and desired her. He wanted to make her feel safe and give her all the pleasure that she deserved.

But he knew he could never push her into that, that it had to come from her. It made him utterly furious when he thought about how much that bastard had damaged and taken away from Ivy.