I whirled round, “looking at this,” I grabbed the first thing on the mantle-piece which came to hand. A little stone statue of a fox, with glittering rubies for eyes.
“Do you like it?” he asked, taking it from me and examining it.
“Yeah, it’s cute, very lifelike.” And actually it was, it was a beautiful thing now I looked at it properly. He set it back down on the mantle-piece, leaning over me to do so.
He didn’t move away. He stayed close to me and put his fingers under my chin, tilting my head up. He brushed my hair back and leant in, “I’ve wanted to do this for longer than you can imagine.” He bent his head down to me and kissed me. It was very soft and gentle and I found myself kissing him back. What am I doing? I pushed him away. “No.”
He stepped back from me, “don’t you like me?”
“Even if I did, which I don’t, you’re keeping me prisoner here, I don’t trust you and I’m sure not going to play along with you.”
He glared at me, “you could be a lot worse off here Eska, why don’t you give me a chance?”
“I’ll give you a chance at being your friend but don’t assume that I want anything more from you!”
“Then why did you kiss me back?”
I lost my temper, “fine! Don’t even come near me then if you’re going to be like that!”
He grabbed me by the wrists and I cried out at the pain, wondering what he was going to do, he threw me against the wall, turned and swept from the room. I sank down onto the sofa, rubbing my wrists and my back where it had hot the fireplace. My thoughts were racing, I didn’t know what to think or feel, he’s good looking and I’d always kind of fancied him but he’s such a jerk… He was nice to me last night when I was scared… That doesn’t undo six years of being horrible! I didn’t really want to make him angry as he was right, I could have it so much worse here than I did. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to be his toy.
I was exhausted, after last night and getting stressed over going to see Lucius Malfoy, I was worn out… I fell asleep on the sofa. When I woke up it was 4pm and Draco was still gone. There was food on the table, a house elf had obviously been in while I was asleep. The sandwiches were wilting and the lemonade was flat but I didn’t care, I was so hungry and thirsty. I ate it all and went and sat in the window seat, staring outside. As dusk was falling, in the garden I could see three figures approaching, my heart sank as I recognized one of them as Bellatrix Lestrange. Oh no... On the lawn near them another figure apparated, Snape. Must be some kind of meeting.
The door clicked open behind me. Draco walked into the room. The shadows of dusk were gathering and I couldn’t see his face well, couldn’t judge if he was still angry. I sat still not saying anything, I didn’t really want to provoke him.
“Eska, I’m sorry about earlier. I lost my temper and I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry too Draco,” I said softly, “I shouldn’t have shouted at you.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No, I’m fine.”
“Good,” he smiled, “The house elves are bringing up dinner, I’m going to eat with you tonight.”
“Ok,” I said, wary but at least he was being nice again. Might as well try and get on with him. “I’m cold though,” I said, shivering in my little crop top, “I’m just going to get a jumper.”
He nodded and turned to sit on the sofa as I walked to the closet. I found a perfect jumper, cream coloured and smart but casual enough not to let him think I was dressing up for him. I walked back out and saw that he was sat on the sofa, staring at the fire he’d lit. The room was lit by the uplighters, so it won’t be as dark as last night I thought cynically. He looked round at me and I went and sat down, a careful distance from him.
“Eska, I want to ask you to give me a chance.” Before I could open my mouth to protest, he went on, “I know I’ve been a jerk towards you in school but you were a Gryffindor, it was expected.”
“Clearly I didn’t mean that much if you weren’t prepared to cross the house-divide.”
He shrugged, “maybe I was just smart enough to wait to ask you after school, not to completely humiliate myself when you turned me down, as I knew you would. Anyway, I’m not going to argue with you, I want you to get to know me. I think you’ll get to like me.”
“Maybe.”
“I wanted you to know I was sorry for being rough with you earlier. I’ve brought you a present. Here”
He held out a long flat box to me, I took it and opened it. Lying inside was a beautiful gold necklace, set with rubies in little clusters of three along the front of the neck. It was gorgeous.
“Thank you so much but…”
“I saw that you liked the fox so I thought rubies would be good, let me put it on you.”
I turned my back to him and lifted my hair. He clasped the necklace on and pulled me round by the shoulders to look at me. “It looks lovely on you.”
“Thank you Draco.” I smiled. “It’s beautiful.”
Behind us the house elves were filling the table, I saw Dobby but didn’t dare to talk to him in front of Draco. He saw me looking and flashed me a smile before scuttling off towards the door with the other elves. At the click of the door, Draco looked over towards the table. “Come on” he said getting up and holding out his hand to help me up.
We started out in silence but by the end of the meal we were chatting and gossiping about old classmates, carefully not talking about Harry and the others. Guess he’s trying not to offend me. When we’d eaten the strawberry sorbet we went and sat back on the sofa with cups of coffee and carried on talking into the night.
Somewhere in the house a clock chimed midnight and I jumped, I had no idea we’d been talking for so long, I said as much.
“Clearly we get on better than you thought we would.” Draco teased me.
“Every time you’ve talked to me at school its to be horrible to me, so why would I think otherwise?”
“It wasn’t you, more your friends, saint Potter for example.”
I giggled, “that’s your nickname for Harry?”
“One of the more polite ones.” He grinned back. “I’d better go now, I have to get up early and go out, I’ll be away for most of the day but I’ll come see you when I get back.”
He stood up and I did too. “Thanks for a lovely evening Draco, I mean it, its been nice.” I smiled.
He turned away from me as if to walk to the door and then turned back again and stepped up to me. “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight Draco.” He hesitated a moment but then leant into me again and this time I didn’t push him away. We kissed and it was wonderful. It felt right this time though, he’d been so nice, I think I was getting to like him. He pulled away and smiled at me. “See you tomorrow,” then he left.
I sat down on my bed and grinned. I’d only been there two days but it felt a lot longer. I couldn’t believe how well I was getting on with Draco, I’d hated him at school. Not as much as Parkinson though, I wondered what she’d do if she found out about me kissing him?
I got ready for bed but stayed awake reading for hours, I’d slept in the afternoon so it wasn’t a surprise. I eventually fell asleep around four in the morning.
I was having an awful dream, in it I was being pinned to the floor. I slowly woke up and as I did realised the crushing sensation on my chest was from something on the covers… My eyes shot open to see another white, gleaming pair staring back at me and a hand reaching out to stop me screaming…
Write a Review Inside Information, a Draco Malfoy story: A gift
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