Bella
"I-I." Ella stuttered, her eyes wide. She stood still, obviously shocked at the sight.
"Ella, I can explain-"
"I'm sorry for intruding." She said quickly and rushed out the room. I stood up and grabbed my dressing gown, throwing it over me as I rushed out the door.
"Ella wait!"
She turned around, giving me a small smile before walking back so we were just by the door to our dorm (which was now closed). "I am really sorry for interrupting, I didn't think you had any company." She murmured, looking down at her shoes.
"It's alright." I said awkwardly. What am I meant to say? "Can you..um..can you not tell anyone? This whole thing wasn't meant to happen, and it won't again."
"Really? I thought you liked him?"
"What? No I don't."
"Oh. Well, I obviously won't tell anyone, but you might want to sort out whatever...that...was. Theo is our friend, and I don't want you guys to fall out over it."
"We won't, I swear."
"Okay. Well, I'll leave you to it." She smiled and walked away.
I took a big sigh before opening the door again. Theo was basically fully dressed, his tie loosely around his shoulders, his top had a couple of loose buttons, his shoes untied.
"Where are you going?" I asked, watching as he rushed to get changed.
He looked up at me, tears threatening to spill. "So you did think it was a mistake?" He asked and stopped getting changed.
"What? No-"
"You just told Ella that this was never meant to happen, that it won't happen again."
Oh shit.
"So thanks for answering my question. I get it, you just wanted a shag. Well, I hope it was up to your standards, because it won't happen again." He muttered before rushing out the door.
"Wait, no Theo!" I shouted. "Come back!"
He sped walked down the hallway, and I just watched as he went. There's no point in chasing after him, not when I'm dressed in only a dressing gown.
Fuck!
I sighed and slammed my door shut. Why did I say that?
Why was I so stupid to say that it was a mistake. It wasn't a mistake. I liked it, and I'd do it again any day of the week.
I jumped in the shower, mentally scolding myself for being so stupid. So selfish. He told me he liked me, and I threw it in his face. I do what every girl does to him, what all of them did...except Grace.
Fucking Grace. What a bitch. Why did Theo have to fall for such a perfect girl. She was so stunning, so nice. She was caring, she was funny, lovable and a genuinely good friend. She was there for him when he went through some rough times during summer. How am I meant to compete with that?
So he has a little crush on me? That could just be him trying to forget about Grace, he might not mean it. He could be using me, like everyone else does. I-I don't want him to do that.
I cried by myself in the shower, thinking about my feelings. I liked Theo, but I can't get back into another relationship right now. My mind is fucked, it's always been fucked. I overthink everything, which makes me become scared. And I am, I'm scared to be with someone else, because every relationship I get in just blows up in my face.
I turned off the shower and climbed out. I got changed into some clothes for the day and looked at myself in the mirror. There were clear love bites all over my neck, and down my breasts. I sighed and walked out the door, walking down to the common room to find Anna and Blaise sat on one sofa while Ella and Draco sat on the other.
"Hey." They all smiled.
"Feeling hungover?" Anna asked as I sat next to my twin.
"Just a little."
She laughed a little, then I got told about everything that happened. How me and Theo got kicked out and about how drunk we were. I cringed at the thought of how embarrassing it is.
"Come on let's go for some lunch." Draco announced as he stood up, taking Ella's hand and helping her to her feet.
"Where's Theo?" Blaise asked.
"Dunno."
"Probably too hungover to get out of bed."
We all chuckled at the thought, but a pit formed in my stomach. I need to talk to him.
We all walked to the great hall. It was surprisingly not very busy. Since it's the holidays and we are all going home in two days, many people are waking up late or are out in Hogsmeade.
I sat and played with my food, not in the mood to eat. I didn't know what the group were talking about, I was too busy thinking...thinking about Theo. Thinking about how I need to apologise. Thinking about how much I messed up. How he must feel.
"You alright?" Ella whispered to me. I looked up and nodded my head, forcing a smile.
"Bella Mayler." Snape's voice interrupted. I looked up to see the Professor stood in front of us. His hair looked surprisingly not greasy today. "Might I remind you that you and Mr Nott have detention with me tonight."
"Yeah, I'll make sure he knows."
"No need, I have already spoken to Mr Nott."
"Oh, okay."
"Be at my classroom at 7pm."
*
The day went by slowly, my mind racing with thoughts. I desperately needed to speak with Theo, and the detention was the perfect time.
Once it had turned 7, I went straight to the potions classroom. Theo was already there, sat at a random desk near the front. His eyes fixated on the table. I sat at the one next to him, leaving a little space between desks.
"Now that you're both here, I want you to do some lines for me. So, get out your quill and parchment."
I quickly got it from my bag, placing them on the desk along with some ink. "Now, please write, 'I must not damage school property or insult a professor' 100 times. You may start....now."
I quickly began to write, glancing over at the brown haired boy beside me every once in a while. He was rushing through the work, obviously wanting to get it over and done with. I began to speed up my pace, trying hard to not let my hand cramp. Over and over, the same sentence was written on the paper.
Soon enough, I had finished. Theo finished around the same time as me, both of us standing up to give the Professor our papers. Snape used a spell to make sure it was written 100 times without any magic, he simply nodded his head to insinuate for us to leave.
Theo rushed off, straight out the door. I had to run to catch up.
"Theo!"
"Theo wait!"
"I need to talk to you Theo!"
He continued to ignore me and went away from the classroom, most likely to the great hall to pick up some food. I huffed in annoyance and went back up to my dorm.
The day we left for the Christmas holidays has come. I had packed all of my things very quickly and was now walking down to the Hogsmeade station with my friends. Theo lagged behind, clearly trying to ignore me.
I've still not been able to talk to him, he's been ignoring me for the last couple of days now.
Once we were on the train, we found a compartment to fit us all in and sat in it. I was by the window seat, Anna sat beside me with Blaise and then Theo. Across from us was Ella, Draco, Crabbe and Goyle. It looked like a tight squeeze for us all.
"So, who's going abroad during the holidays?" Crabbe asked to break the ice.
"Me and Bella normally go to France to see our family, but we can't this year. So we're staying at the Malfoy manor."
"Wait, why?" Anna asked.
"Our father is on the run for being involved with some dodgy things." I answered quietly. "They won't look for him at the Malfoy manor."
"I personally think the set up is great." Draco chimed in.
"Well of course you do, you have your girlfriend living at your house." Blaise rolled his eyes, which made us all chuckle. I mean, he's not wrong.
Theo stood up and walked out the carriage, making us all go quiet.
"What's up with him? He's been acting weird ever since Slughorn's stupid party." Draco asked.
"Not sure."
'Bella, what the hell did you say to him?' Ella planted in my head.
'Nothing. Literally nothing, he keeps running away every time I try to speak with him.'
'Then why is he acting weird?'
'I'm not sure, I'll go find him. I need the toilet anyway.'
She nodded her head as I stood up, excusing myself from the carriage and walked to the nearest toilet. It was occupied, so I stood outside waiting patiently.
I wonder where Theo could of gone? Or why he ran away? Why won't he let me just explain what I meant to him! It's so aggravating-
The door opened, revealing Theo. He looked startled at first, but it soon turned to a snarl. He scoffed and began to walk away, but I grabbed his wrist and pulled him back into the toilet and locked it behind us, keeping my body blocking the door so he couldn't leave.
"What the fuck Bella?"
"Please just let me explain myself, I swear it'll make sense."
"Move-"
"No, Theo! You need to listen to me, for once. You've been ignoring me and won't let me explain myself, so please just listen."
"What do you need to explain? You don't like me, you used me and lied to my face! You did what every girl does to me! I would literally pour my heart out to you about how much I hated it when girls used me, that I wanted a girl to like me for me and not my dick. And you did exactly that, when you know I hate it, you even watched me cry over it once. So don't give me the 'let me explain' bullshit, because I know enough."
"No, no Theo it's not like that." I groaned in annoyance, unable to put it into words. "I-I'm just confused. We both have just come out of breakups, my girlfriend fucking cheated on me then broke up with me and lied to me about it. So I have some doubts about relationships and my feelings. What I do know is that I like you, Theo, I really do. And we had a heart to heart the other day, which lead to us having sex. I only said to Ella those things because I'm scared. I'm scared of admitting I like you because I don't want to get hurt again. Every relationship I've been in, it's lead to them cheating on me. I went out with a guy called Ivan when we went to Durmstrang, he cheated on me with my best friend. And now Luna." My eyes began to water, but I tried so hard to not let them fall. "I-I just didn't want to admit that I actually like someone. I don't want to rush into something when I don't feel comfortable being in a relationship. I really do like you, I have for a while but I decided to ignore the butterflies in my stomach to save myself. You would always flirt with me, but I didn't know if you were doing it on purpose or not. You're such a confusing person, you flirt with everyone which makes me even more confused."
"So what are you trying to say?" Theo asked softly, all his anger had subsided.
"I'm saying, if you want to, I think we should give this a go." I said hesitantly. Oh no, he's going to say no and I'll be left so embarrassed.
"Wait, really?"
"Yes. But I need to go slow, I need time to fully understand how I feel and I'm not ready for a full on relationship right now. So please can we just take it slowly."
"O-Of course." He nodded, a smile forming on his face. He came closer to me, his hands wrapping around my waist as mine went around his neck. We both began to lean in, our noses touching, but he pulled away. "Is it okay if I kiss you?"
"Yes." I chuckled and pulled him into a kiss, it was rather passionate, nothing too lustful. But it was nice, he knew what he was doing with his tongue.
When we pulled away, we stayed with our hands wrapped around each other as he looked at one another. "I was thinking that maybe we could start this by going as my date to the death eater Christmas party?"
"You're asking me to be your date?" He asked.
"Yeah, I just figured you'd be going given what you told me the other day. If not, then that's fine-"
"Bella, I would love to go with you."
"Really?"
"Mhm."
A grin grew on my face as we kissed once more. "Oh." I breathed as I pulled away once again. "I don't think we should tell anyone just yet. Our friends would pressure us into putting a label on this and it would just go to shit."
"Yeah, I think we should keep it between us two."
"Okay, good." I nodded in agreement, a cheeky smile grew onto Theo's face before he picked me up and sat me on the sink. His body standing between my legs.
"I could get used to this sight." He whispered before pulling me into a kiss, I giggled and began to play with his hair.
_*_
Ella
The train journey was dragging. I sat staring out the window, Draco's hand intertwined with mine as I let my head rest on his shoulder.
"You alright?" He whispered to me. I looked up and gave him a small nod.
"Are you?"
"Mhm. Just a little nervous." He have me a small smile, his foot has been tapping against the floor for most of the journey.
"Don't worry, she'll be fine. I promise you."
He's been a nervous wreck about going home to see his mother. Apparently, the dark Lord is letting her out of the cell today so she can get the preparations ready for the Christmas party.
"I hope so."
The door to the compartment opened, revealing Bella and Theo. Both of them trying to hide a smile on their faces.
I decided, being the nosey bitch that I am, to tap into Bella's thoughts.
'Keep calm, it's not like anyone knows that we just had sex in the toilets. Stop smiling.'
'WHAT?! YOU AND THEO HAD SEX IN THE TOILETS?'
'For fuck sake Ella! Get out of my head!'
'Answer my question!'
'Yes we did. Please don't tell anyone. We're keeping things slow, not rushing into anything.'
"Aww that's so cute." Oh shit, I just said that out loud.
Everyone turned to look at me, confusion written on their faces.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to say that out loud."
"You're a freak." Draco chuckled. I scoffed and hit his chest.
"Shut up."
The rest of the journey went alright, I mainly just talked to Draco and stroked Milo. He had been in his cage but got bored so I let him out, only into our compartment.
When we had arrived, I put Milo back into his cage then grabbed my bags and walked out onto the platform. It was packed with parents all coming to pick up their children, I looked around and spotted my mother straight away. She waved us over, so we walked up to the beautiful woman stood before us.
She immediately pulled us all into a hug, squeezing us tightly. "It's so good to see you, darlings."
"Hey mum." Bella smiled.
"Hi Mrs Mayler." Draco mumbled.
"Oh please, call me Maria. Or even mum if you want."
My eyes went wide at her words, my head turning to Draco. His cheeks flushed red as he chuckled.
"Come on, we better get going. We're travelling through the floo network."
We all followed as mother took us over to the little fireplace-looking thing in the wall. She stepped through first, immediately being engulfed in green flames. The rest of us followed not long after.
The Malfoy manor looked exactly the same, maybe a few more cobwebs on the paintings. Father came in from the study, along with Bellatrix and Harry.
"Hello children." Harry purred.
We said our hello's which were pretty awkward, then went upstairs to unpack our things. My bedroom was still the one furthest away from Draco's as if my father thinks that's going to stop us.
Once I had unpacked everything and let Milo out of his cage, I went down to Draco's room. He was still unpacking, slowly hanging up his identical suits in his wardrobe.
"Hey." I announced, making him turn to face me, a small smile on his lips.
"Hi, sorry I'm just unpacking. You can come in if you want."
I walked further into the room and began to help my boyfriend unpack his things. Once we were done, he turned to me and wrapped his arms around my waist, slowly going up my back.
"Thank you, Princess." He said while placing a small kiss on my lips. I chuckled as my arms wrapped around his neck, crashing my lips back into his.
There was a small knock on the door, breaking us of the kiss. Mother stood before us, a sympathetic smile on her face. "Draco, your mother was let out this morning. She's in her room recovering."
"Wait, what?" He asked, immediately letting go of me. "Can I see her?"
"She's resting, but yes you can see her. Just make sure you don't wake her, she needs lots of sleep. We had a healer come in and examine her, they say she's going to be fine she just has some cuts and bruises. They also said she has been starved for a long time so she needs to have a healthy balanced diet."
"Okay." He nodded. I felt his hand brush up against mine, he immediately interlocked our hands as we followed my mother to Narcissa's bedroom. There was a house elf inside, taking care of Narcissa, but it apperated away when we walked in.
She looked so ill, her skin pale and she had lost a lot of weight. Draco looked horrified at the sight, he quickly sat down on the edge of the bed, taking his mother's hand in his as he stroked some hair off her face.
I stayed for a while, but left Draco to be with his mother. I went up to my room and decided to read a book in bed. Milo lay beside me, purring at me.
A little later than 12pm, I heard the door open slowly. I looked up from my book to see Draco standing there, dry tears on his face. "Can I stay here?"
"Of course."
I put down the book and moved up a little as Draco changed into just his boxers before climbing into bed. He immediately wrapped his arms around me, letting his face nuzzle into my neck. I began to tickle the back of his neck in a soothing way. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"No, I just want to sleep for now."
"Okay."