The Heirs of Dreams

Chapter Six

It wasn't until Zora looked out of the living room window that reality returned to her.

"I think I need some air," she smiled to everyone around her.

"I'll walk you out," Fred smiled, "I need to head back to the store anyway."

Without the heart to turn him down, Zora nodded her head with a smile and walked out the door. She would just have to keep his view away from the trees in the garden and away from the fair haired boy who was staring through the window.

"Thank you for the bracelet," Zora smiled once the door had closed behind them. She quickly glanced over to the garden and watched as Draco disappeared behind a tree. He wasn't completely stupid after all.

"I thought you would like it," Fred said as he returned her smile.

Zora played with the silver clasp of the bracelet on her wrist as she tried to think of the next thing to say. She always got so nervous when she was alone with Fred nowadays. She racked her brain and reminded herself not to say anything stupid...when he kissed her. It was over immediately, but it made Zora dizzy all the same.

"I'm sorry," said as he pulled away and took a step back, "I didn't mean to...it won't happen again, I promise."

"Oh...well, no need to promise that," she said desperately as she covered his step away by taking one forward of her own. The words poured out before she could even think of them So much for not saying anything stupid, Zora she thought to herself.

"What's that?" Fred inquired, his eyes on her neck.

Zora looked down and saw that she was fiddling with the silver chain around her neck. She wondered how long she had been playing with it, she couldn't remember raising her hand to it or feeling the metal in her fingers.

"Oh, this? It's nothing," she replied nervously as she tried her best to tuck it in her clothing.

"It looks expensive," he commented, "let me see."

His fingers were at her collarbone, feeling for the fine chain. She took in a sharp breath when he touched her and was grateful he was too distracted by the chain to notice her embarrassing reactions.

The charm fell out with the long chain and hung just over her heart. The diamonds gleamed brightly in the fading sunlight, tiny reflections glittering across his pale freckled face. Fred just stared.

"Where did you get it?" he asked not taking his eyes from the sparkling snake.

Zora thought hard for an excuse. He wouldn't believe Harry had given it to her and he wouldn't buy that she had bought it herself. She could claim Dumbledore, but he wouldn't believe that or that Severus had given it to her just before he left. There was no explanation other than the truth. In her heart, she didn't really want to lie to Fred anyway.

"It's from Draco," she replied with a painful sigh.

His eyes shot up from the charm to meet her own. His eyes seemed to be filled with some sort of pain and hurt she had never seen in him before.

"Why would Malfoy give this to you?" he asked as she noticed that parts of his cheeks were turning red again.

"I...I honestly don't know," she lied, forgetting that she wanted to tell him the truth. She decided to protect him instead and continued the lie, "he was my tutor in the year. I'm surprised he even remembered it was my birthday. I'm sure he had ample money lying around and just wanted to show it off...it means nothing to me. I only wore it so I could tell him honestly I had worn it once so that he wouldn't be angry."

"It's awfully gaudy," he commented with a smile as the scorching color receded from his face. "It's blinding me, put it away," he added with a laugh.

"I know...awful isn't it?" she smiled as she tucked the charm back into her clothes.

"Well, I'd really better get going, need to close up the shop. Maybe...I could come by and see you tomorrow?"

"Maybe," she teased.

"I'll see you then," he returned her smile.

He took a step back to go, but stopped himself. He returned to her and gently pecked her cheek before turning to leave.

She had a wonderfully lightheaded feeling before she felt the weight of the charm around her neck bring her back to earth. She turned and stormed to the garden.

"What are you doing here?" Zora asked, completely outraged by Draco's arrogance. "It's still daylight! Mrs. Weasley can see you...you have to leave!"

"I don't care if the old bat sees me or not," Draco replied, his lip curling in a distasteful way.

"Well, I care," Zora replied, placing her hands on her hips. "And don't you dare call her an 'old bat' again or-."

"Or what? You'll have a row with me?" Draco asked with sickening sarcasm. "Let me remind you, dear, that you'd lose a battle to a toddler...what could you possibly do to me?"

"And you wonder why I'm not with you," Zora replied, trying her best to conceal her heartbreak. His words were harsh, as if she were Harry or a Weasley to him. This harshness was not common from Draco towards her. What was going on?

"It's because you're a coward," Draco went on, "you're afraid of what Snape and the others will think if we're together."

"No...I don't care what anyone thinks, I care what I think: I think it's a bad idea. And we can't be having this conversation yet again, we've had it a million times before!"

"Actually, this is only the fifth," he corrected her.

"Do I care? No! If we get together, Draco...if we get married, then...then everything turns to crap, and I do mean everything. I can't do that...and I can't let you do that either," Zora added as her voice calmed. She hated how she could be yelling and completely enraged one moment and then find herself calm and relaxed the next with Draco. She wished she could stay consistent until he left, and then she could hate him without interruption or sympathy.

"So then tell me...look me in the eye and say you don't love me," Draco said after a pause.

Zora took a step closer to Draco and looked into his gray eyes. They were cloudy, as if a storm were brewing inside his mind. She took in a deep sigh and realized how much she wanted those eyes to be brown, the eye color she was becoming to love more and more each day. She glanced up to his hair, the delicate white blonde slicked carefully back as it always was and wished that would change to the fiery red that made her heart jump nearly each time she recognized it.

"Say you don't love me," his voice sounded in her ears, "and I'll leave you alone."

She trailed back to his cold stone eyes and said, "I'm not in love with you."

"How can you just say that?" he whined like a toddler not getting his way.

"Because it's true," she replied softly.

"Is this...is this really what you want?" he asked after a long painful pause.

"Yes...I want to end this, it's the only way," she replied, a knot developing in her throat.

"If it'll make you happy...really happy...then I will stay away," he replied as his eyes drifted to the ground.

It was so rare to see the great Draco Malfoy hurt and pained. The sight nearly made Zora's eyes boil over with her tears, but she knew it was for the best. She would go to sleep knowing he would not be at her window and she would awaken guilt free for not speaking with him. She knew that this was exactly what she wanted...but that didn't mean it still didn't hurt her.

"I'm sorry," she whispered so low that she wasn't even sure he'd heard. "I will miss you...but until an antidote or spell retractor is found...this is how it has to be."

He nodded, not taking his eyes from the green grass beneath his expensive black boots.

"May I ask for a proper farewell?" he said, raising his eyes finally to hers for a moment.

"Of course," she smiled at his formalness.

She opened her arms wide and allowed him to hold her tightly for as long as he wanted, it was after all the last time he would do this. His arms tightened around her waist and his head rested next to hers. He pressed his palms against her back, trying to get her as close to him as possible, so hard that she was sure there would be bruises the next morning. After what seemed like hours, she finally felt his arms ease from around her a little. Seeing this as a sign he was ready to leave, she began to pull away. He caught her immediately before she could step away from him and pressed his lips against hers. A paralyzing shock ran through her body and she felt her knees become weak, just as she had experienced on Halloween night the year before, just as she was programmed to feel each time he kissed her. This thought of her destiny and programming came all too late, for she was kissing him back as soon as his lips touched hers.

The tears were spilling down her cheeks now and her arms were around his neck. No thought of consequence or of wrong doing had entered her mind; all she could think of was how right it felt to kiss Draco.

"What the bloody hell?" a loud voice broke into Zora's mind.

She regained herself and quickly pulled away from Draco's mouth and turned her head to see who was speaking. Ron was standing a few yards away, but Zora could see clearly that his neck, face, and ears were all turning a scorching shade of bright red. Her heart began to pound as guilt and regret caught up with her.

"You...and...Malfoy? You're dating my brother, you tart!" he exclaimed wildly.

Fred's face flashed over Zora's eyes and the weight of regret was suddenly becoming more and more and more as she struggled to remain standing. She damned herself with the increasing weight as tears began to fill her eyes again.

"Ron, please!" she said with escaping tears as she finally released herself from Draco's arms. She made an attempt at walking towards him, trying to think of an excuse or a logical reason to explain herself, but none came to mind. Before she took a third step, Ron had turned and was running towards the house, nothing but a completely red flash as he went.

Zora's breathing was heavy with the emotional weights dragging at her entire body. She summoned her strength and turned to Draco...she had to release some of her emotion before she completely collapsed.

"What...why did you do that?" she asked as she walked towards him and brushed cruelly at her damp cheeks.

He folded his arms and just looked at her coldly.

"You knew he was there...you knew he would see!" she went on hysterically. "Why must you try to ruin everything? What part of that conniving Slytherin head of yours could ever think that I would be happy with you? You made me miserable even when I thought I loved you and now it's even worse! You could never make me happy, Draco! Never! I hate you and no, I'm not being an emotional teenage girl...I mean I REALLY hate you, almost as much as I hate Voldemort, almost. If you come near me ever again, I will kill you...I swear it."

"You wouldn't kill me," he replied with a small shake of his head.

"Only one way to find out...do you really want to risk it?" Zora said as harshly as she could. "Stay away from me," she added as the anger only intensified inside of her.

Zora turned quickly and walked back to the house, her head pounding with anger as she walked. She had wished that she could keep one emotion towards Draco; it was possible she would succeed this time.

**

Her head rested on the pillow but her eyes were far from closing. She stared at the blank wall next to her bed, thinking of a way to get herself out of this mess. She silently swore against her mother for taking the spell, against Voldemort for her entire life, against her professors for taking her away and teaching her all she knew, against Severus especially for not leaving her alone in the Infirmary. She swore against every person she had met and wished she could go back one year to the day and take it all back.

But she couldn't. She was lying in this bed, looking at this wall, and still wondering if she could have done anything to prevent this from happening. She was not crying anymore only because it was not possible; she was too weak to continue her tears. Her heart had calmed down and her body was relaxed merely because it was too exhausted from throwing her clothes all over her room for a few hours to do anything but lie in bed.

She heard the window open slowly behind her, but did not move to see who it was. His smell filled the room immediately and her stomach turned at the stench she had once loved so much. The mattress squeaked beneath her as he sat on the bed. She still did not move, perhaps if she pretended to be asleep he would leave her alone? She rolled her eyes momentarily at herself for thinking this as he eased down and lied next to her.

He did not touch her, although she knew he wanted to. They lied in silence for nearly ten minutes before he finally spoke.

"Not going to even try to kill me?" he asked.
"I'm too damned tired," she replied shortly, hoping he would just leave her.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, his quiet voice sounding ten times its actual intensity.

She rolled smoothly on her side to face him. His eyes were the same color gray, but filled with honest sorrow and regret, much like she imagined her own blue eyes were appearing. Her sorrow was from the action itself, his were from the repercussions she was experiencing.

"I know," she whispered back.

There was a feeling deep in her stomach as she looked into his eyes. A feeling so well hidden she had convinced herself it had left her body. A feeling she had not acknowledged for him in so many months. A feeling not even death could kill inside of her.

"Has Ron told Fred?" he asked after a hard swallow.

"He sent Pig a few hours ago, he hasn't flown back yet...but Pig was heading towards Diagon Alley."

"I didn't mean for you to get hurt," he replied. All pride and shame had left his face, he was sincere and weak. She knew he would regret this meeting later.

"I know you didn't...shit happens," she added with an attempt to make him smile. He didn't...he never smiled when he was happy anyway. "Part of me...part of me wishes it was like it was before, that we could be married, that we could have the life we're supposed to have, that we could be happy together. But it's a very small part...and I have to listen to the rest of me. It would never work...there's too much going against it for it to be right."

"I know...I know," Draco replied.

"No...you don't," she replied with a smile. "You won't know till it breaks how wrong it really is."

"What if it never breaks?" Draco asked mournfully.

"Then be thankful you never have to be this damned confused about it," Zora replied.

He nodded although she knew he couldn't understand yet, he was still blind to reality. She was thankful he was at least attempting to be understanding. He let out an exhale so deep that it ruffled the loose black hair in her face back behind her head.

"You should probably take this too," Zora said with a sigh as she withdrew the sparkling jewel from her nightgown.

"No...you keep it," Draco replied as he shook his head.

"I know about the charms on it," Zora replied, "take it off, I know you're the only one who can."

Draco's eyes went to the rocking chair in the corner of the room, trying his best to avoid her gaze. With a defeated sigh he sat up in the bed, the mattress squeaking beneath him as he moved. She pushed her self up from the mattress and turned herself towards the wall. She gathered her hair above her neck and waited for him to unlatch it. He whispered some Latin spell under his breathe and took the clasp in his hand. She concentrated on the picture of Fred's face in her mind as his fingers grazed her skin. She breathed deeply, waiting for his touch to leave her skin.

The two ends of the chain collapsed and she caught the diamond snake in her hand. It shone brightly even in the dark room and she wondered if he had charmed it to do that as well or if the jewel was simply that expensive. She wouldn't have been surprised either way. She tucked the chain in her hand and turned to face Draco. She took his hand and placed it in his palm and closed his fingers around it.

"I do love you...and I'm really going to leave you," he said as he gazed at the jewel in his hand.

"Thank you," she replied quietly.

He bent his head and kissed her cheek lightly. He lingered next to her face for a moment before withdrawing himself and sliding out of the bed. He did not take his eyes from hers until he was at the window. He turned back as if he were going to say something, but stopped himself. He gave her one last sorrowful look before slipping out of the window and disappearing into the night.

Zora laid her back on the bed and turned away from the window and finally shut her eyes tightly, willing once again for everything to simply disappear. She was stunned to find that when she opened them again, she saw nothing but complete black. Panic rose in her heart as she quickly fell into a deep sleep, the sounds of men's voices fading into the back of her head.

**