the boy who had no choice [d.m]

𝖊𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙

ELARA WISHED she'd just slept.

Her eyelids were already drooping and it was so cold in the castle that night. She just wanted to be wrapped up in her blanket back in the common room.

But instead, she was waiting for Draco Malfoy to emerge from the Slytherin common room - if he ever did. For all she knew, he could be lying fast asleep in his bed while she froze to death in the corner of the hallway.

Half of her wished she'd never gotten involved with Draco last year - it certainly would have spared her a lot of trouble this year.

But the other half knew that although she'd never told him, he'd become her saving grace last year.

She'd liked how he didn't ask questions, even if it was out of lack of interest. She could be crying and he wouldn't even venture to ask if she was okay. He didn't ask because he didn't care and to Elara, whose life seemed to be constantly invaded by her family, she'd cherished his uninterested attitude.

But somehow, he'd understood that what she needed was a distraction and he'd given it to her - solely for his own benefit, of course, but then again, he could have picked any other girl.

Elara rubbed her arms, cursing herself for not wearing something warmer.

She glanced at the clock nearby - it was ten past twelve. She'd been here for nearly four hours. If she was caught, she was sure she'd get more of a dressing down than she'd gotten from McGonagall when she had been late.

Sighing, quietly, Elara began to move but froze in her tracks when she heard the sound of the wall shielding the Slytherin common room sliding up. Someone would be coming up the staircase any second now.

She shrank back into the shadows, peering through the darkness to try and see who it was.

Draco's hair caught the light before she saw his face but as soon as he appeared at the top of the staircase, she could make out his tall frame and broad shoulders.

She pressed herself against the wall as he glanced around and then began to head down the corridor.

He kept to the shadows like her and Elara pulled the hood of her cloak over her head just in case he spotted her. That way, there would still be a chance he wouldn't be able to recognise her before she got away.

She followed him down, corridor after corridor, only stopping to hide from Peeves who seemed to be giggling to himself but then Elara turned the corner of a corridor Draco had just gone around and came to a halt.

He was gone.

That was impossible. There was no other place he could go and the corridor was so long there was no way he crossed that distance in the five seconds it took her to come after him.

Stealthily, Elara scoured the corridor, peeking into alcoves but Draco was nowhere to be seen.

Did he have an Invisibility Cloak?