familiar ; draco malfoy

CHAPTER NINETEEN

The waking moment is one Ramona cherished beyond any point of her day;  the slip between consciousness and sleep in which nothing yet existed, a frail awareness of her breath and her bones and the blood pumping through her veins. As she rose from a heavy slumber, she was first aware of the coolness of the air and it's loamy fragrance. Still in the clutches of the night's glue, the room was engulfed in a pale green hue- sunlight just barely sinking its rays deep enough for the lake to illuminate her room.

In moments like those she'd barely even recognize her own mother if the woman were to stand before her; she'd give herself a moment to shed the sleep from her brain, to allow the visions of the night to give way to the day.  They'd come and go in waves, mimicking the moving of the lake against the window, though her blissful, gentle waking roused a sickness in her stomach once those visions took shape before her eyes, more fixed and real, and no longer doused with the quill of sleep.

Looming on the horizon of the morning of her birthday, the most dreadful and exhausting day of the year, was the memory that always burned painfully in the crevices of her mind.  It was the day she dreaded all year long and one that coincided with the very celebration of evil and spook; Halloween.

There was very little on such a night that could spook or vex her, for she'd experienced her fair share of evil on her special day long before she knew what kind of evils crawled in the darkness. Her personal monster didn't hide in the shadows.

But another thing she'd noted upon waking with bile rising in her throat at the thought of that day was the ache of her body from the one before. The depth and seriousness of what had happened only just dawned on her as she took her first conscious breaths so painfully, as if she'd been in agony that entire night. The effects of the curse Pansy had so wickedly performed on her did not leave her body just as sleep left her eyes.

A cold hand pressed against her forehead, cooling her body- so engulfed in her own thoughts she barely realized how hot she felt and how there was another presence occupying her bed. Finally, Ramona fully awoke, aware that she wasn't alone.

Draco Malfoy glanced at his bed-mate who had woken just seconds after he did, entangled in dark green sheets and an expression so sad and mournful on her face once she opened her eyes, he swore she'd dreamed of dreadful things.

"You feeling alright?" he inquired, voice thick with sleep.

"Sore. Warm. Too warm," she responded, half-awake, and sat up to tear the warm sweatshirt off herself. She threw it on the floor alongside her sheets, laying down on her back and rubbing sleep out of her eyes.

His question wasn't only meant to inquire how she felt physically, but rather what had caused the mournful gaze that glazed over her eyes once they opened. Yet he could not insist upon such a question as it didn't seem right to pull it out of her, even though a certain kind of peril plagued her, he could hear it in her breathing.

He opened his mouth to say something, but when he looked at her- Merlin, when he looked her all thoughts he had were gone. She laid on her back, eyes closed and mouth parted; droplets of sweat barely adorning her forehead and neck as her chest rose and fell. Dark skin appeared even darker under the green hue coming from the window, rendering her a goddess like creature- Draco would swear she was one. His eyes trailed down to her neck and- her chest.

Her breasts, clad in nothing but a Slytherin-crest tank top- Draco felt his pants getting even tighter as he observed the curve of her breast and the valley between them; and oh, her nipples, hard under the fabric, poking out. Draco couldn't think straight, breathing becoming faster, chest tightening.