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"I’m afraid I put you in danger", he finally replied and that was also true in the most horrible way.
"Because I’m a Death Eater", his voice trembled as he said it. It was the first time he admitted in out loud.
Astoria lifted her face from the palms of her hand and stared at him but didn’t respond to his words. It hurt to hear it and to know it and what it meant. Their relationship was always walking on toes around the other while trying to kiss.
"What does Voldemort want from you?" 
"I better not tell you".
"You act bolder around me, in front of others mostly. It feels forced and I think there is a interior motive behind it. Is there?", she said directly, and it stunned him with surprise for a second.
"Yes", Draco admitted helplessly honest, "I wish you were just mine. I hate the time you spend with Potter and the distance you always keep from me. But being involved with you gives me an alibi why I sneak out the boy’s dorm at night".
There was no need to explain further. He spied for Voldemort, Astoria figured that out. A suspicion she knew to be true long before, but to hear it from him – that was a new level of pain and betrayal.
"Harry is my friend".
"And what am i?", Draco said bitterly.
"You’re my lover", Astoria hesitated as in her heart she knew he wasn’t just that. There was just no other term for it as there were feelings she wouldn’t admit to herself.
"Yet you seem to care for him more than for me", Draco said bitterly. This wasn’t how the night was supposed to go.
"I don’t. He holds me back and I return to him out of habit. Harry is my friend, my best friend, but we’re from different worlds. I know that now. I know we are not alike, I – , I think I’ve always known it".
And she meant it. There was always a significant difference between them. She now had a name to put on it – Elroy, but it never really needed an explanation. The feeling was there and it was true – always. In comparison her relationship with Draco never felt forced. He knocked on her door and she had let him in without hesitation. It felt so right to kiss him and it wasn’t just because he was handsome.
But he was changing in front of her eyes. Astoria saw him hurt and she realized it was because of her. How could she say it so he’d known what it really felt like for her? How could she make him understand her relationship with Harry? And that she didn’t meet him at night just for the sex? 
She stepped forward to touch him. Her hands rested on his shoulders. Draco never seemed to her like that – insecure in the way he was now. He seemed deeply hurt.
He finally responded to her touch as his hands rested on hers but he didn’t look at her instead kept his gaze low towards the ground. A warmth between them settled in that was calming for both in the cold night that hid them.
"I love you", Astoria whispered so quietly as if she was afraid he would hear her but he did and he faced to look at her.
"That’s dangerous", Draco said.
It was the wrong thing to say, he knew, but it was true and half of him was tied to a different world that was going to hurt her. It scared him the most, having to face her. Not only because she was powerful but because he knew he didn’t have it in him.
"It doesn’t matter to me. I would destroy worlds for this", she said as her lips tried to reach his.
"I’m afraid we don’t have such power".
He turned away. Cold in his manner. Astoria shivered. Did he not love her? Was it stupid of her to say that?
He touched her face to look in her eyes.
"I never expected it. You were – are, honestly an inconvenience. If I hadn’t danced with you and seen you smile, I would’ve never gone that far with you", he admitted more to himself than to her.
"I’ve always wondered what you saw in me. I never expected it".
"You’re fishing for compliments", Draco said coldly.
"I am, I like it when you spoil me", she said as a quite laugh left her lips. He smiled to.
"You were always beautiful, but I never got close to seeing the light inside of you. That night, you were glowing and it was like seeing stars. I wanted to touch you and to watch you blush just so I’d keep it going".
Draco finally met her eyes. There was no need to respond. Astoria rested on his shoulder. He was taller than her and she couldn’t reach him, but that made her feel safe with him. He held her and they stayed like that as time passed.
"I never saw you smile before that night. You always seemed angry and arrogant".
"That’s because I am".
"Not with you", he repeated softly.
Their lips finally met in a slow kiss. Astoria always drowned in his kisses while melting from his touch. It was him who started the fire inside of her.
"Let me enjoy you this night", he said in her ear as he was losing himself in her hair, drugged with the scent of her.
"Only mine", he hissed as his hand held her by the waist.
"Can we do it again?", Astoria suddenly asked, "Dance?".
Draco laughed as he took her in his arms and led the way. He spined her and she smiled and laughed for a time which felt like forever. There was a smile on his face as well. Dancing was his thing as he seemed a lot better than her. He moved her with ease and then pulled her back to him, caressing her face, touching her skin, playing with her hair and kissing her. That was his favorite, he couldn’t get enough. Each kiss felt like his last breath.
They were going to kill me anyway, the thought jumped in his mind, but he pushed it away. He wondered why he hadn’t danced with her before. All those wasted years. He did think of it once, out of malice – to try and seduce her. This was after he grew bored with Pansy. That’s when he noticed her beauty for the first time. Astoria also seemed close with Harry and that only made him wish her more, to claim her away from him. He did, eventually, but not out of jealousy. It was pure and he was grateful he managed to give her at least one true thing that remained uncorrupted – his heart.
"You never watch your steps", he said, leading her with his hand.
"You keep distracting me, being so handsome. That’s all I could think about that night. Also, what a arse you are", she laughed and it was a sweet and naïve laugh only a girl in love could give.
"You didn’t seem repulsed by me when you were pulling me closer to you. To me it just seemed like you wanted me"
"I did", she admitted as her eyes moved to his lips.
That night he felt as if he was the king of the world. Better than being the chosen one, better than having the adoration from his peers. It made him lose control. It crossed his mind to kiss her, maybe at the end of the night when he walked her to Slytherin’s common room to part ways. Out of politeness, out of respect for the good night. Astoria proved to be different, she caught him off guard or rather brought out something in him and it made him betray himself, his control was gone that night.
"Do you want me now?", he said as his lips brushed next to hers. She gasped with lust in her breath.
He kissed her again. Hungrier. Wanting as his hands held her jaw and pushed her face into his. There was no parting from the kiss until he had enough of her and he was greedy and selfish – more than he wanted her to know.
"It felt so good seeing them look at you bend under my touch", he said between her lips.
"They call me a whore because of it", Astoria said as her insecurities took over.
"I’d kill them for that", he hissed as he pulled her back to himself. "I’d kill them all for you".
"Could you make me forget?", she said as her hands held his face, caressing him.
"About the pain in my body, about Dumbledore and about Voldemort, about Harry and all of his stupid friends. I want it to be just us, a boy and a girl under the moon – and nothing more."
"I wish nothing more than that", Draco kissed her with those words on his mouth.
Warmth filled her body as she felt his touch. He was always quick and precise, knowing when to touch and when to pull, how to do it good.
"How do you aways know?", Astoria caught herself slip as this wasn’t a question she felt she had the right to ask.
"Are you jealous that I’ve had other lovers before you?"
"I guess I am – a bit at least", she said and her face covered in redness she hoped didn’t show under the mood.
Draco pulled her next to him, closer so her body could sit on top of his, as he leaned back under the showing roots of the three that sheltered them. She fell in his arm and rested on his chest as he felt his shirt twist in her fingers. He pushed her chin so Astoria would face him and held her face up.
"Then you should know how jealous I can be when I see you walking in the corridor and he is running behind you", his voice deepened with anger. Then he let her go and grabbed her hand, pulling it toward him so she’d feel his rising need between his legs for her.
"And I want you to know the excitement I indulge in, knowing how he remains helpless to reach you while your body bends in pleasure underneath me".
Astoria gasped as she couldn’t believe how bold he was sometimes with her as if he felt no shame. Or maybe it was just her who always held back by the fear of being judged, all along while judging herself. It was time to let go.
Her hand grabbed his hair as she pushed him back to reveal his neck. Then she kissed and licked and bit him as her hands explored his body. It felt like two waves crashing, both struggling to devour the other.
First, she whispered his name like he liked it but words got lost in moans as she felt helpless in his arms. It made her impatient as she found her fingers struggling to release his belt.
"Tonight you’re especially impatient", Draco said as he smirked.
"It’s like that since I got a taste of you".
"Tell me,", Draco’s voice sounded desperate almost sad, "why am I so attached to you?"
"It’s not "I love you", but it’s still something, Astoria thought to herself bitterly yet it was still a victory to hear it from him. His hands guided her body as he filled her from the inside.
"I want you to know you’re mine", he whispered. It was always like that. He grew more possessive and angrier with each time as if he feared it would be the last. And she remained clueless, losing herself in pleasure and forgetting everything else.
Nothing mattered in such moments. It was just them and they were both young and hungry for each other. There were obstacles – Umbridge, other people finding them, Dumbledore and all the rest of the professors but that only made it exciting. Forcing them to be creative and secretive. Everyone knew, of course, and Draco seemingly preferred it like that.
Astoria’s arms were over his shoulders. It always surprised her how strong he was physically, especially now. It worried her, but thoughts easily slipped away from her mind in moments like this.
They remained in each other’s arms for a while. Both struggling to calm their breath. Her body still shivered from the sensation. It was becoming harder to resist him as her body gave in completely to him. Draco could make her do anything and she felt terrified because he knew this and sometimes abused it just to watch her blush and struggle with it.
"Let’s stay here a bit more", he said quietly. That was unusual as he was the first to snach his clothes. Astoria fixed herself and sat next to him on the ground.
"I wish we could stay here forever", she whispered. He didn’t say anything back but caressed her skin slowly with a fixation on it.
"You need to leave Hogwarts", the words finally escaped him and it felt as if he took his first breath again.
Astoria gave him a blank stare. It was time he told her. There was no point in fighting it, avoiding it and pretending it won’t come to this.
"Your father is growing impatient. I try to tell them you are hard to pull away as Dumbledore and Potter watch over you constantly, but they are beginning to not trust me", he said as his voice returned to his ice cold tone.
Draco could feel her body tremble as her eyes stared at him. There was a mixture of emotions in them. Better she hate him now than later.
"They want you to deliver me to them. That’s for what they use you", she realized with horror.
"Not exactly. But they do expect that of me as well", he confessed.
Everything flashed in front of her eyes. His tiredness, the sleepless nights that were not just because of her. The scars on his body, the knots inside from torture. It all made sense now.
"They hurt you because of me", she said as her voice gave her fear away, "Oh, god!"
"It doesn’t matter. Even if they decide to kill me, they will still try to reach you. I can try to delay it as much as possible but it’s inevitable, and you family –", he stopped himself.
Astoria was different to him. She was good and there was something so pure inside of her. He couldn’t tell her what he had seen, what he knew and the way wizards flinched as they heard her family name. It was a bloodline traced with horror. The things he knew from his father were unhuman in any magical standard and the worst part was that the Elroys were cruelest to one another.
"Dumbledore is training me and I am stronger now. Don’t you think I can make it?"
"No", he said sadly, "I think your father is one of the most fearsome killers I have ever seen. Voldemort finds him very valuable. And I can’t tell what he wants with you, I just know he is determined to find you and take you back".
Astoria got up. Detaching from sadness was one thing, but fear was an invading emotion and it was always hard for her to fight against it. Draco tried to grab her hands, but she pushed away as she started walking in a half-circle, going back and forth.
"There is no place for me to go. Hogwarts is my home, Dumbledore has kept me safe for so long, I think – ", she stopped as it was pointless to lie, especially to herself.
"Can’t Potter hide you somewhere? I’m sure they have some sort of resistance, let them hide you".
"Forget about me".
"You know I can’t".
"I’ll make it".
A long silence took over them. Astoria stared in his eyes and she couldn’t turn away. His beautiful, blue eyes. A caretaker once told her such beautiful eyes could hex a person with just a look. That seemed absurd to her, she had never before looked into something so clear.
"How much time can you give me?"
"I could lie and get you at least a week".
"Tell them to come next Wednesday for me. In the forest, there is an open field in it, you must know it", she stopped to meet his approval. "I’ll talk with Harry. We could try to ambush them".
"It’s not just your father", he said but stopped and hesitated, "It’s my aunt, Bellatrix Lestrange. She is very powerful and she is tasked to bring you back with her".
"Your aunt, Bellatrix Lestrange", the realization sank inside of her, "she is the one who hurst you".
"Potter will be useless. I don’t know if he could help you".
"Not Harry, there are others", she said but stopped herself as she looked at him with guilt. He didn’t say anything, he understood.
I love you, the words came to Draco instead he kissed her goodbye.
No matter what she did, the past would always catch up to her. In a clear night Astoria went to bed but did not sleep that night. She chased the dreams away and illuminated her consciousness, searching for clues. Certain moments became clearer. She went back to relive some again  and other studies for missed clues. It was unbearable to find out in how much pain Draco was. It was worse to trace the hints, pointing at his betrayal from the very start.