Intemptesta Nox (The Dead Of Night)

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Draco wrapped a towel around his waist and walked back into his bedroom. The shower hadn’t been as relaxing as usual for some reason and he knew he wasn’t going to get to sleep that night. He had just pulled on a pair of warm wool trousers when there was a knock at the door. He reld thd the wards on the door and pulled it open. Thera’s foot blocked the way before he couldm itm it shut again.

‘What do you want?’ he snarled. ‘Shouldn’t you be off breaking curfew with your little Griffinbore friends?’

Thera elbowed him aside and walked into the room. She sat down cross-legged on one corner of the bed and motioned for him to join her. He stayed where he was, motioning for her to go out through the door he still held open. In retaliation she pulled out her wand and shut it with a bang then set a fairly complex incantation it that he’d never heard before. He froze at the sight of her twirling the simple piece of wood between her fingers until obeying when she motioned, this time more persistently, for him to sit again.

‘Look, I came to apologise about today, and explain why I was behaving weirdly. Although obviously I’m not the only one who needs to apologise for something.’ She crossed her arms and stared at him adamantly.

‘OK, I’m sorry you didn’t tell me straight away that you were going out with Scarhead.’ He spat the words at her, getting up and pacing the room. He couldn’t sit still, not the way he was feelinnighnight, not with her so close to him. Her eyes flashed copper for a second and she rose, gripping him hard by the shoulders and paralyzing him mid-step.

‘Why, so you could have been rude to me all day instead of just the afternoon? I’m not dating Harry, I’m just going to the dance with him. Doesn’t mean I’m going to have his bloody children, we’re just going as friends. And I am sorry for this.’ She prodded him in the deep purple bruise that covered a fair part of his upper arm. His pale skin made it look worse then it really was, but he still yelped and swatted her hand away.

‘Damnit woman, you’re a fucking sadist.’

She snatched his hand and pressed a gentle kiss to the abused flesh.

‘Like I said, I came to explain. Now sit down, please.’

Reluctantly he settled back onto the bed and watched her as she wrung her hands and shifted around.

‘When I was at Durmstrang, there were a group of boys who didn’t, shall we say, value my presence there. First it was just simple stuff- taunting, practical jokes, framing me for relative misdeeds. But after awhile they got bored and came up with increasingly dangerous and hurtful ideas, such as turning the soles of my shoes to broken glass while I was giving an oral presentatioevereveral times they drugged my meals, even after I started preparing them myself, so that I’d have hallucinations or wake up in strange places. Once they left me in the middle of a forest somewhere in winter without clothes or food. I’d tried to complain several times to the Headmaster and different teachers but they didn’t care until that particular time, and only then because I told my parents. I quite easily could have died, and when I did make it back, I found that they had also slaughtered my familiar and left him on my bed in small pieces.’ Tears were running freely down her cheeks now.

‘My parents spoke to the school board and Headmaster but they were all useless. In the end they removed me from the school, sent me a Portkey to a town near the coast somewhere where they could apparate to meet me. I was meant to come straight to Hogwarts then to finish out the year, but my parents were late arriving. I was looking in a clothing store that I could see the arranged meeting spot from, and someone grabbed me. It turns out that my parents had threatened the boys’ parents with disciplinary action and they hadn’t liked that at all.’ She laughed humorlessly.

‘They had decided if I went away, so would the problem, and therefore I’d be a perfect guest for one of their revels. It was pure luck that I was found before anything more serious then a beating happened. They’d only just started when the place was raided by Muggle police, one of them was a Squib and he’d seen past the confusion charms and knew what was going on. I spent the rest of the school year first in hospital and then home schooling and undergoing different forms of therapy. Every bone in my right foot had been broken and although it was healed less then a day later it still aches in the cold. They stripped me and tied me down and cut me all over, even with healing potions the deeper ones left scars. When they first grabbed me I was cracked on the head pretty hard too and had to undergo speech therapy for a time.

When you picked me up today it was unexpected and I freaked out, it brought back all sorts of unpleasant memories of that day, as well as the times of just being grabbed and shoved into alcoves or locked in closets that lead up to it. I thought I was dealing with it fine, until we ended up at the robes shop. I’ve done all my shopping by owl until now, I guess I wasn’t as ready as I thought.’ She rubbed at a spot where the drying tears had started to irritate her cheek.

Draco reached out towards her very slowly, like one would to a wounded animal. Which wasn’t a bad approximation when he thought about it. Carefully he touched her shoulder, stroking his thumb along her collarbone through the black silk shirt she was still wearing from the day. Very carefully he pulled her close, resting her head on his shoulder and stroking her glossy hair that had been let out of its multitude of plaits, holding her against his chest and wrapping his strong arms around her.

They sat like that for what felt like hours before Thera straightened up, stretching stiff muscled and scrubbing at her eyes. Draco shivered as the damp air hit his bare chest and she hastily unbuttoned the shirt.

‘I believe this is yours.’ She handed it to him with a small smile, looking a lot more like her usual self. He shrugged it on, relishing the feel of the warm silk against his skin.

‘And these are yours.’ He removed the cufflinks and handed them to her, and she put them on the bedside table. She grinned at his confused look.

‘No pockets.’

He grinned back at her, then laughed out loud when she wiggled the tip of her nose at him. He soon sobered however and gave her a serious look.

‘I know nothing I can say will make the pain go away or turn bacme, me, no matter how much I wish it could. But if you ever need to, you know, talk or anything, you can come to me.’ He wasn’t too good at being sensitive, no practice. But Thera seemed to understand the sentiment behind the uncooperative words and hugged him again

‘This doesn’t mean I’m happy about you going with Potty to the Ball.’ He muttered into her hair. She smiled and looked up at him through long lashes, the closest he had ever seen her to looking shy.

‘Just friends remember. I like him, he make me feel safe. And so do you.’ Her lips came up to meet his and he was lost in sensation. Her lips tasted even sweeter then they looked, soft and warm. One arm was propping him up on thd, bd, but the other came up to caress her cheek as their tos das danced. Her fingers crept inside his open shirt, tickling gently until her palm stilled on the bottom of his rib cage. He kept pace with her, not wanting to push but dreading the moment it would end. His fingertips stroked the line on her throat before curling around the back of her neck, cradling her head and tangling in the silky of of her hair. He had never been so restrained with a woman before. Or felt so sated with a simple kiss. Ever since he could remember there had always been a hunger gnawing at his soul. But now it was quiet, and a strangely blissful lethargy stole over him. Slowly they lay back on the pillows, side by side facing each other. The kiss eventually broke and they lay there, silver eyes gazing deep into violet. The last thing he heard was Thera’s breathy whisper of ‘Nox’ before he drifted into the best sleep he had had in years.


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