The Dragon's Child Bride

A/N: I have a beta! Hooray! I would like to say thank you to her and I\'m asking, should you post a review, for you to thank her too, because as we all know, the beta-ing was seriously needed.

Chapter 8: The Beginning of Something Wonderful

The next few days passed uneventfully. The mediwizard still came by daily, but now Draco refused to let him see her without himself being present to monitor. The mediwizard tried to argue, saying Laylani deserved her privacy. But no, she wanted Draco there. He made her feel safe and he could refuse the mediwizard when he wouldn’t listen to her. Mari came as scheduled and for those sessions, Draco was politely asked to let them be. It wasn’t anything personal, but Laylani had so much that she wasn’t ready for Draco to know just yet.

Their latest session had Laylani practically in tears. Draco was leaving that evening for school. She knew he wouldn’t be gone forever and he had promised to write her as often as he could, but it wouldn’t be the same as having him there with her.

“I guess you think I’m being stupid, clinging to him so much.”

“Not at all,” said Mari, “It’s never stupid to love another.”

“I don’t love him!” said Laylani making a face. Mari gave her a look that clearly meant ‘Sure you don’t.’

Laylani couldn’t help but start laughing at herself for being so childish. She didn‘t think she loved him. Not yet. Maybe it was something that could turn into love. Yes, it had a possibility of becoming love with time. Maybe. It was then Mari decided to bring up the possibility of joining Draco at school in the new semester.

“What if,” she began, “What if you were to attend school? Would you be interested in that?”

“Oh, no. I couldn’t. I’m too old and don’t know nearly enough. I-I couldn’t.” Mari knew there was something Laylani wasn’t telling her. You didn’t get to be in her position without being a little intuitive. She decided to start by calling Lani’s bluff and see where that led.

“I hear you’re quite talented, actually. You’re never too old to start learning.”

Laylani had been caught and she knew it. “I’ve never been to school, I’m afraid I wouldn’t fit in. People like me don‘t belong in a school.” She turned her head away, not wanting to face Mari with such a childish fear.

“What do you mean, ‘people like you’?” Laylani took a deep breath. They had touched on this topic once before and it had made her very uncomfortable.

“People who’ve done the things I’ve done, the-” She couldn’t bring herself to say the actual words so she sidestepped around it. “People like me are street trash. There’s no place for us in schools. The others, they would look at me, and they’d, well they’d know.”

“Oh, rubbish,” said Mari “No one has to know anything about that unless you tell them. You deserve to be there just as much as anyone else.\" She paused briefly. \"Why don’t we start small? We could have you tested for your abilities, and see how you feel from there?”

Laylani thought about that. It would be nice to see other people. And, maybe, just maybe she might still be good at it…

“Alright, I’ll get tested. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to go.”

Together with the Malfoys they scheduled a meeting with Dumbledore, who would test her himself. At her request, they agreed not to tell Draco just yet. She didn’t want him to know if she decided not to go, or worse, they wouldn’t take her.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Draco was waiting for her in her room when she returned. He watched her enter the room and smiled. She was beautiful. Her hair was up in a messy bun with tendrils hanging around her face. She wore a pair of blue jeans and pink sweater that his mother had bought for her. They were a bit snug but showed off her delicate curves. She had begun to fill out more now that she was eating regularly.

She turned around and faced him “Oh, Draco. Hi. What are you doing here?” If she could’ve slapped herself, she would have. ‘What are you thinking? The whole damn house is his.’

“Well,” he said, “I’m leaving tonight, and I was hoping to do something special with you. A bit of a surprise. I mean, if you’re feeling up to it.”

“Um, yeah, sure, absolutely.” ‘Oh, gods,’ she thought ‘Could I seem any more obvious?’ Ever since Mari had mentioned love, Laylani was beginning consider it more and more as a possibility.

He didn’t seem to notice. “Great! Why don’t we get your coat, and we’ll go outside.”

She opened the closet to find six jackets. Six? What could she do with six? She‘d never even had one. She stood there wide-eyed and overwhelmed by jacket options.

Draco saw this and laughed. “Only my mum…” he said as reached past her, grabbed the gray button-up coat and handed it to her. She put it on but had a hard time with the buttons. So much so that Draco had to do them up for her. She inwardly cursed that she had never had any button-up clothes to practice on. She felt like a two year-old. However, Draco took no notice of this. “Are you ready for an adventure?”

‘No,’ she thought to herself, ‘Probably not.’ Although she had gained back a lot of her strength, she still tired much more easily than any normal person would. However, if it were to be an adventure with Draco, she would surely have to try. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

They walked down into the backyard to the tree she had seen from her window, which was deceptively farther away then she\'d thought. By the time she got there, her legs were about to fall out from under her.

He looked at her with a questioning eye. “Are you sure you’re up to this? We could always do this another t-”

“No, no, I’m fine. Just give me a minute.” Although she was beat, she didn’t want him to know. It would be like losing somehow.

“It’s okay, we’re here anyway.” Laylani couldn’t believe it. They had come all this way to see a tree? A damn tree? A damn tree she could see from her bedroom window? He started to climb the tree.

“Draco,” she said, putting her hand on his ankle, “I can’t get up there.”

He smiled down at her. She had never noticed what a great smile he had. “Sure you can. I taught you how to climb this tree myself. You just need to get part of the way up, and I can pull you the rest of the way.” Oh, crap.

Laylani shrugged her shoulders. She was already out there, she might as well try. She put her hands on two branches and began to pull herself up, her feet scraping the side of the trunk. She couldn’t believe it; she was actually climbing under her own power! She got up on the lowest branches, ignoring Draco’s helping hand. She wanted to do it by herself. It took effort, God did it ever, but she did it. She managed to pull herself up next to Draco. It was only about six feet high from where she sat, but she felt like she had conquered a mountain. He stared at her.

“What?” she said, trying to sound nonchalant despite the obvious wheezing from her labors.

He gave her a sheepish grin. “I was actually going to come down and help you up.” She put her hand over his and he curled his fingers around hers. With the other hand he pointed. “See?”

It was the field from her memory, the one with the trellis. “I remember that. You told me once that’s where you and I were going to get married.” she said with a laugh. Oh, the folly of youth.

“It is.” he said staring her straight in the eye.

He wasn’t kidding.

She let go of his hand like it had burned her.

“What?\"

\"Laylani-\"

\"B-b-but we, we’re too young to get married! You, you don’t even know me!”

Draco sighed. His parents had decided to leave it up to him to tell her. A hundred times over he wished he could have told her about her parents instead, and his mother could tell her this. She had already seemed to know about that. Frankly, she had taken the death of her parents a lot better.

“Lani,” he started slowly, “This has been in the making since the day you were born. We’ve been twice bonded by spells; the only one left is the one on our wedding day. We’re already bonded to each other intricately. In the wizarding world we can’t marry any one else now, we either get married to each other or live the rest of our lives alone. That’s a long time. I don’t know about you, but I would rather spend that time with someone.”

She started to climb out of the tree. She couldn’t deal with this.

“Lani,” he called, “Wait! That came out all wrong. Come back.”

She didn’t turn around, didn\'t even hear him. She was exhausted but she couldn’t stop walking. She needed to be alone to think.

Overcoming every urge in her body that told her to sit down and rest, she made it to her room. She shut the door and locked it. Just to be safe she blocked her closet door with a chair. Then she collapsed on her bed, still wearing her coat and shoes and thought, thought about everything.

At first it was only random words repeating. ‘Married’, ‘Draco’, ‘Bound’, ‘Alone.’ ‘Married’, ‘Draco’, ‘Bound,’ ‘Alone.’ It took a while for her to calm herself enough to think clearly.

Married to Draco? She had only started considering a lusting relationship with him this morning, and all of a sudden, they were getting married? It wasn’t very romantic, when she thought about it. ‘Having\' to marry each other to spend her life with ‘someone’. No, he had definitely not set that in a romantic light. Maybe that was just the way things were in the wizarding world. Maybe all the love, romance and the idea of some Prince Charming on his white steed coming to her window to profess his undying love weren\'t for witches and wizards. Lord, there was so much to this place she didn’t understand.

She leaned over the side of her bed and picked up her silver notebook. This was definitely something that needed to be written out.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Draco had watched her staggering walk, leaving him behind in that tree.

‘Damn.’ he thought. ‘Damn, Damn, DAMN!’ In one swift motion he had simultaneously choked on his foot in his mouth and had probably lost the girl he loved. This was nothing like the course of events he had planned out in his head. He was supposed to have been charming and romantic, swept her off her feet. Instead he had come off sounding like the pushy broom salesman of marriages. ‘We either marry each other or spend the rest of our lives alone. I’d rather be with someone.’ What the hell had he been thinking? That wasn’t romantic. In fact, it was a bit degrading.

He had to make it up to her. He had to find a way to show her how much she meant to him, how much he wanted to be with her. This would take some serious strategy, romance, and cunning. There was only one person he knew that had all three of those qualities. One Narcissa Malfoy.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

It took the two of them the bulk of the afternoon but they did it. With his mother’s guidance, Draco had a wonderful plan to at least get Laylani to be open to the idea of marriage. Draco left to put on the finishing touches, and his mother went to ready Laylani. Narcissa found her still on her bed writing in her notebook. Laylani saw her come in, and slammed the notebook shut, shoving it under her pillow.

“We\'re going out for dinner tonight for Draco\'s farewell dinner. It’ll be a posh restaurant where they expect you to dress nicely. I know just the dress you should wear.” Narcissa began to rummage through the closet, and Laylani swallowed hard. Dress? She had never worn one for as far back as she could remember. She’d make a fool of herself.

“I can’t wear a dress.”

“Nonsense,” said Narcissa over her shoulder, “Of course you can.”

“No,” said Laylani with more conviction, “I really can’t.”

Narcissa knew there was something more to what Laylani was saying but couldn’t put her finger on exactly what. This must have registered on her face because Laylani began to explain.

“I’ve never worn a dress. Never had one. They weren’t practical for... for where I was. I wouldn’t know how to do it properly.”

Narcissa smiled in relief. If that was all it was then there would be no problem. “Oh sweetheart, there’s no real art to wearing a dress, you have nothing to worry about.”

“But then I’d have to wear makeup and walk in heels, and I can’t. I’ll just make a fool of myself.”

Narcissa frowned. Laylani was being difficult. “Lani, it isn\'t anything to worry over. It’ll be fine.”

Laylani sighed and gave in. If this woman was so hell-bent on getting her into a dress, then so be it. She resigned herself to being moulded and modeled, hair styled and made-up by Narcissa.

When she finally saw herself in the mirror, it shocked her. She looked... feminine. She stood and spun herself around so that her red, knee-length dress puffed out around her. Maybe a dress wasn’t such a bad thing after all. Narcissa pulled out a pair of red (thankfully low) heels from under the bed. They matched the dress perfectly. Laylani stepped into them with her newly pedicured feet. She stood up and took a step forward. Alright, that wasn’t so bad. Unfortunately she rolled her ankle on the second step and promptly fell over. Narcissa leaned over and helped her stand and steady herself.

“Heel, toe,” she said. “You have to consciously think about stepping heel to toe.” As Narcissa watched Laylani stumble around the room trying to perfect her heel-toe walk, she smiled. She had always wanted a daughter to share her woman’s wisdom with. Layla would have been so proud.

Narcissa’s eye drifted to the clock. It was nearly time. Draco would be there any minute.

“Alright Laylani, I’m going to go get ready myself. Wait here. Draco will be along for you in a few minutes.” With that, she left, shutting the door behind her.

Laylani sat down in front of her mirror and admired herself. Narcissa had done a wonderful job on her makeup, accenting her green eyes. For the first time in a long time, Laylani thought that she looked truly beautiful.

She wasn’t the only one who thought so, either. Draco hovered on his broom outside her window for a few minutes, just admiring her. She was stunning. Of course, Draco thought she always looked beautiful, but in that dress she just seemed to come alive. She practically glowed. Gods, if he thought he could, he would burst through the window and have his way with her then and there.

But since he could not, he decided to move forward with his plan. He tapped on her window. Laylani turned from her mirror and looked at him with surprise. It took her a few seconds to gather herself enough to actually open the window for him. He flew in and gently touched down.

“Are you ready to go?”

“On that?” She looked over the broom with a suspicious eye. It wasn’t that she wasn’t interested in trying, it just didn’t look like something that could support the weight of two, and if she was going to be 100 feet up in the air, that was pretty important.

“Of course on this. Trust me.” Draco managed it so she was sitting in front of him on the broom with one of his arms wrapped securely around her waist. She placed her hand over his and clutched it tightly. “Nervous already?” he asked, “We haven’t even gotten off the ground yet!”

“I, I don’t think I can do this. I’ll fall.”

Draco leaned in so close that she could feel his warm breath on the back of her neck and whispered in her ear. “I would die before I let anything happen to you.”

For some reason, she believed him.

“Alright.”

He gently kicked off the floor and they flew out the window. Laylani’s eyes went wide as she watched the ground fall away from under them. She wasn’t scared. She thought she would petrified but she wasn’t in the least. In fact, this flying felt liberating. She closed her eyes and put her arms out to the side, just feeling. She felt the heat of the slowly setting sun, the cool wind whipping around her, and the warm body of the man sitting behind her. She smiled, and that smile turned into a laugh. She was so happy. For the first time in eleven years, Laylani felt what it was like to really be alive. Draco observed all of this. It was like seeing the Laylani he knew as a child. She turned to look at him and caught him staring. She smiled at him.

“I’ve always wanted to fly. This is amazing. Thank you.”

They landed again by the lake on the Malfoy property. He took the broom in one hand and her hand in the other, and began to walk towards a small clearing. In the clearing, there was a lovely picnic set out complete with red-and-white picnic blanket. It was surrounded by about 20 lit candles suspended in mid-air.

Laylani clapped her hands over her mouth. “Oh, Draco. It’s lovely. You shouldn’t have.”

“Of course I should’ve,” he said sitting himself down on the blanket, “Considering how badly I screwed things up this morning.” He patted the spot next to him. “Come. Sit. Eat.” She joined him on the blanket and he poured her a glass of champagne.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Dinner was wonderful, but they both thought the company even better. When the last of the picnic had been put back in the basket. He turned to her.

“Laylani, I’m going to have to tell you something and no matter what you think of it, you have to let me finish.” She nodded. Draco took a deep breath and began to speak the words his heart had felt for so many years.

“Laylani, when they had told me you were dead a part of me died too. It changed me for the worse in a lot of ways. To be blunt, I’ve been a cold-hearted bastard for the past eleven years. But you came back and now you’ve made my life better than I ever thought possible, in ways I don’t even know how.\"

He put his hand on her arm, struggling to find the right words. “This morning I was that cold-hearted bastard and all the things I wanted to tell you came out wrong.” She opened her mouth to interrupt, but Draco quickly cut her off.

“Please, I need to finish. I told you that you had to marry me, that I wanted to be with someone. What I wanted to say, what I should have said is that I love you.”

Laylani stared at him, wide-eyed.

“Laylani Rissa Stanners, I have loved you all of my life and will continue to love you until the day I die. I don’t want to spend my life with ‘someone,’ I want to spend my life with you. You have been my heart and soul since the day you were born, and I can’t see myself living any kind of meaningful life unless you’re in it. But I can understand that you don’t feel that way right now. And that’s okay. I don’t blame you. I know you’re dealing with so much right now; it wasn’t fair for me to spring such a big revelation on you out of the blue. So for right now, I’m not going to ask you again to marry me. All I ask is that you consider me, consider everything, and at least try to let me love you the best I know how.” He looked up at her. “Okay, that was it. Say whatever you want.”

In one swift motion she put both arms around his neck and kissed him hard.

He was shocked at first, but quickly overcame that and pulled her closer to him, enjoying her soft lips pressed so firmly against his. When she could no longer go without breathing, she broke the kiss and pulled away slightly, looking into his eyes. She was crying.

“You are the most incredible man I have ever met.” She kissed him again lightly. “ I don’t know a lot of things here.\" She kissed him again lightly. \"I don’t know about love (kiss) and I don’t know about marriage (kiss) but I do know that when you find a good thing, you grab hold and you don’t let go. And that is exactly what I am going to do, Draco Malfoy.” She kissed him again, passionately.

She put her entire being into kissing that man. He gently maneuvered her onto her back on the blanket. He pulled back for the briefest of moments, just to look at her. She basked in the glow of the candles and stars with her hair splayed around her head, both crying and smiling up at him at the same time. She looked like an angel. He gently wiped the tears off her face with his hands and then laid kisses where his hands had been. He moved just a little lower, putting butterfly kisses on her earlobes and along her neck.

Oh Merlin, he wanted to make love to Laylani right there in the open field with all the stars as witnesses. But he knew he couldn’t, not then. It was too soon and trying for too much that night would just push her away. For now, he would be satisfied with kissing until she showed she was ready for something more. He moved his lips back to hers and gently urged her lips open with his tongue and they yielded him entry. She tasted like champagne and something else. Something that was uniquely Laylani.

Suddenly, a soft, slow song filled the night air. It was a French song that Draco had first heard on a visit to his grandparents in Paris. The lyrics had always made him think of her.

*Puisqu\'on ne vivra jamais tous les deux*
*Puisqu\'on est fou, puisqu\'on est seul*
*Puisqu\'ils sont si nombreux*
*Même la morale parle pour eux*
*J\'aimerais quand même te dire,*
*Tout ce que j\'ai pu écrire*
*Je l\'ai puisé à l\'encre de tes yeux*

Laylani looked at Draco, confusion evident in her eyes. He gave her a sad smile.

“It’s a charm I put up to remind me of the time. When the song is over, we have to get back to the house so I can leave for Hogwarts.” Laylani frowned sadly to herself. She had gotten so caught up in that evening; she had forgotten he was leaving. He carefully got off her and stood up, offering her his hand.

“But until then, would you like to dance?” Laylani smiled and accepted his hand. Draco held her close as they swayed under the night sky.

*Je n\'avais pas vu que tu portais des chaînes*
*À trop vouloir te regarder j\'en oubliais les miennes*
*On rêvait de Venise et de liberté*
*J\'aimerais quand même te dire,*
*Tout ce que j\'ai pu écrire*
*C\'est ton sourire qui me l\'a dicté.*

*Tu viendras longtemps marcher dans mes rêves*
*Tu viendras toujours du côté où le soleil se lève*
*Et si malgré ça j\'arrive à t\'oublier*
*J\'aimerais quand même te dire,*
*Tout ce que j\'ai pu écrire*
*Aura longtemps le parfum *
*des regrets.*

*Puisqu\'on ne vivra jamais tous les deux*
*Puisqu\'on est fou, puisqu\'on est seul*
*Puisqu\'ils sont si nombreux*
*Même la morale parle pour eux*
*J\'aimerais quand même te dire,*
*Tout ce que j\'ai pu écrire*
*Je l\'ai puisé à l\'encre de tes yeux.*

The song ended and she stepped back from Draco, trying to control the tears that were threatening to fall. But it was no use. They began to roll one by one down her cheeks. Draco noticed this right away.

“Hey, don’t cry. Everything’s going to be fine. I’ll send you letters every day, and soon enough I’ll be home for Christmas holidays and we can make up for the time we have to spend apart.”

She nodded her head. She knew all that, but she still couldn’t stop crying. “I know,” she sobbed softly, “I’ll just miss you, that’s all.”

He put his arms around her and pulled her into a fierce hug. “I know. I’ll miss you too.” They held each other for a moment.

“We should probably go.” Laylani whispered. “You’ll be late.”

He let her go with a sigh. “Yeah, you’re right.” They climbed onto his broomstick and flew back to the house.

He dropped her off at her window. Draco cupped her face in his hand. “This isn’t the end, you know. It’s the beginning of something wonderful.” Draco leaned in for one last kiss.

“Goodbye,” he called, “I love you.” Laylani watched him fly off and closed her window. She lay down on her bed still dressed and stared at the ceiling. She a brought her fingertips to her lips, remembering the feel of his own and smiled.

‘Not exactly Prince Charming on a white steed,’ she thought ‘but this is most definitely something wonderful.’


***

A/N The song is called \'L\'Encre de Tes Yeux\' by Francis Cabrel. For those of you interested in what the song means, please do not, I repeat, DO NOT put it into a translator, because the literal translation of poetic french is so completely unromantic. Seriously. In English the literal translation of the title is \'The Ink of Your Eyes.\' Pretty sexy, huh?

To save you from the horrors of the literal translation, the jist of the song, stanza by stanza, is this:
(1) the singer loves a girl but they can\'t be together because everything in their lives is keeping them a part. But still he wants to tell her everything he writes, he wrote it with the ink (depth) of her eyes.
(2) He never noticed that she wore chains, he was so happy to be with her that he forgot about his own. They had dreamed of freedom and going to Venice. But still her wanted to tell her that everything he wrote, her smile inspired.
(3) She always came to walk in his dreams, she always from the side where the sun would rise. But if in spite of that he forgot her, he still wanted her to know that everything he wrote would be perfumed with regrets.
Stanza 4 is the same as Stanza 1.