E I G H T

Draco looked down to his right where his arm was looped through Eclaire's and then back at her face which was set in an angry pout, her eyebrows knitted and nose scrunched. Her legs tried to speed-walk as far as possible from the Weasley Wizard Wheezes, tried being the word, the silver haired wizard had no difficulty keeping up with her shorter than average strides.

Now that he thought about it, she looked like an angry Guineapig.

"Are you okay?" He asked after they neared the end of Diagon Alley.

Eclaire looked up to him in confusion.

"I should be asking you that!" She replied finally letting go of his arm and immediately missing the warmth that being attached to his body provided.

"It's nothing I haven't already heard, Claire." Draco said, his heart feeling warm despite the icy weather.

"That isn't how it works!" Eclaire replied, frustrated at his nonchalance. "No matter how many times that's been said to you doesn't make it any less hurtful!" Eclaire said putting her hands on her hips. "It doesn't make it okay!" She huffed out angrily blowing a piece of her hair that dared to fall in front of her eyes.

"Have you ever stopped to think that maybe whatever he said is right?" Draco said halting his steps.

"What?" Eclaire stopped to look at him, his blue eyes unfeeling and icy. Eclaire did not like seeing him so closed off...unattached.

"I'm not a saint, Claire. Get out of your fucking happy bubble and look around you," he said dropping her hand and gesturing around them. People were staring at him, whispering, eyes prying—questioning, blaming.

"Draco..." Eclaire whispered looking up at him, knowing the direction of Draco's train of thoughts. He's self blaming again. She thought to herself.

"I'm not this fucking hero you think I am! I'm the goddamn villain and it's best you accept that! You've been assigned to me because I'm a suspect— A criminal! You tag along with me because that's your bloody job not because we're friends so stop fucking acting like you care. It's fucking annoying." Draco knew he'd made a huge blunder as soon as the words left his mouth but seeing tears glistening in Eclaire's eyes consolidated that fact.

So he reacted the only way he knew, he turned around and disapparated.

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It had been a week since his word vomit and Draco was fine. He was exceptionally well, ofcourse. Why would Eclaire not talking to him affect him at all? It didn't, not one bit.

Infact, he was brilliant. Less noise to my ears anyway. He thought but his eyes betrayed his facade as they longingly stared at the door of his office, where he could hear the enchanting laugh of the petite witch from right outside the door. She refused to come in.

"I'm just here to keep an eye on you, isn't it? Then I can do that from outside. There's no way you can apparate in or out of Hogwarts and this is the only door so I'll be right outside." She had said as she slammed the door on her way out, refusing to look at the silver-haired wizard.

He huffed and picked up his book to move to his next class with the third years. His shoes clicked on the tiled floor as he walked and with a flick of his wand, the door slammed open making Eclaire jump up in fright causing her pink drink to spill all over the floor.

Draco held back a snort at the look of complete shock on the midget's face as if she never would have expected anyone to walk through the door.

The silver haired wizard muttered a quick enchantment under his breath making the mop next to his door start sweeping. He turned around and walked forward soon hearing her footsteps following him.

They fell into a quite rhythm, their footsteps the only sound being heard as a thick silence stretched between them. It would usually be filled with chatter as Eclaire would constantly fill him in about random information.

Draco felt suffocated. He risked a glance at the short haired witch's face finding her eyes downcast.

He knew he'd said too much on that day, specially after she'd defended him in front of everyone. He knew the witch walking beside him had the purest hearts he'd ever come across and she had meant it when she said she considered him her friend. He knew it, but he also knew he didn't deserve her friendship or her kindness. He didn't deserve one bit of it. He had done terrible, terrible things, things Eclaire couldn't even begin to fathom. He couldn't taint her innocence, he wouldn't.

But the damned witch wouldn't leave his mind. It was as if she'd enchanted the entirety of his thoughts and Draco knew if he hadn't put the distance between them that day, he wouldn't have ever been able to. The last shred of conscience that was left in him wouldn't allow his darkness to taint her.

He was already a villain in everybody's eyes, he didn't mind being one in hers too if it meant she would be safe. Safe from him. As much as the thought upset him, he knew it was for the best.

With a grim face, he entered the class as the chatter immediately died down. He saw Eclaire move to the back of the class and sit down in an empty bench. She fit right in with the students with her stature and youthful face, which only reminded him another reason for him to stay away—she was young, too young for him.

Her eyes landed on him, brown orbs clashing with icy blues. He was almost certain that the entire class could feel the tension between the pair, which was reason enough for him to break the eye contact.

With a mental slap, the silver haired wizard began his class.

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Black boots crunched in the crisp snow as the silver haired wizard made his way into Hogsmeade. He could hear the simultaneous crunch of Eclaire's boots a foot behind him. And he did mean it, the damned witch was quite literally walking a foot behind him.

He shook his head as he walked back towards Hogwarts, his hands filled with quills, parchments and ink bottles. I swear to Merlin I didn't write this much even when I was a student. He thought thinking back to the number of papers he still had left to grade.

He spared a glance back at the short haired witch to see her glaring daggers at him. On catching his gaze, she abruptly turned her face to her right with a loud 'Hmmph', her cheeks puffed.

Draco had never felt so helpless and amused at the same time.

"You can walk beside me, you know?" Draco said not being able to help himself.

The short haired witch scoffed dramatically crossing her arms and halting in her steps. "I thought I was 'effing annoying'."

She saw the cerulean eyed wizard exhale as he turned around to face her. "I shouldn't have said that."

"No chips, Sherlock!" Eclaire glared at him.

The pureblooded wizard stood confused, not getting the muggle reference.

Suddenly, the realisation dawned on her as she laughed waving her hands in front of her. "It means something along the lines of 'Way to state the obvious'. Sherlock is a muggle detective— well not literally since he is a fictional character but he solves cases and finds the bad guys and the actual expression is 'No shit, Sherlock' but I don't like swearing so I improvised and—" Eclaire stopped midway through her animated description catching herself when she found the blonde wizard watching her with amusement.

"And?" He prodded.

"A-and that's it." She said dropping her smile and facing to her right again, her arms crossed and eyebrows furrowed.

"I'm sorry."

Eclaire swivelled her head to face the icy-eyed wizard in front of her. The snow around them made him look all the more ethereal, his hair a silvery hue making the snow look bleak in comparison to it's luscious shine, his eyes—cold and unassuming on first glance but Eclaire knew the vast oceans of emotions they held that if one didn't know how to read would go unnoticed, and his skin, pale with a pink hue signifying the drop in temperature, unblemished and smooth capable of making Adonis himself jealous.

The short haired witch's eyes softened, her defensive stance lowering as she glanced at the wizard in question, knowing how uncomfortable he was, standing in front of her, apologising.

"For what?" Eclaire prodded.

"I'm sorry for being rude that day and for calling you annoying, I didn't mean it." Draco said looking at Eclaire. "You're not annoying, far from it—fuck," Draco said exasperatedly, "I don't think I've met anyone as enchanting as you."

Eclaire's heart fluttered in her chest.

"But I'm not sorry for saying we aren't friends, Eclaire." He said his gaze steeling again. Eclaire furrowed her brows at the use of her full name, she had gotten used to him calling her Claire.

Her heart broke. Does he not consider me good enough to be his friend? She thought.

"You should not involve yourself with me—no listen to me," He said stopping her at the look of protest in her eyes, "You saw what happened that day, what the public sees me as! You being around me, defending me only got you labelled as my confidant, an accomplice—a death-eater's accomplice, Eclaire..I don't ever want you to be labelled that, not when I know how far away from the truth that is." He stopped, taking a deep breath.

"Is this what this was about?" Eclaire asked calmly.

"How can you be so calm about this—"

"When will you understand that I do not care what people say?" Eclaire whispered taking slow steps towards him, staring up at the silver haired wizard in front of her.

"You should Goddammit!" Draco exclaimed exasperated.

"People will always have something to say, Draco, you could be a saint and they would still find a way to criticise you, belittle you.." She said stopping in front of him.

"You don't know the things I've done, Eclaire." Draco whispered defeated.

"What? Three lousy half-hearted attempts at killing Professor Dumbledore?" Eclaire asker raising her brow.

"Katie almost died—"

"But she didn't. And you knew she wouldn't as well. You knew nobody would die from your attempts, not at Hogwarts atleast, where everyone was under the best magical supervision there is." Draco averted his gaze from Eclaire's pressing ones. She reached out her hand to his cheek, albeit with great difficulty due to her height, and turned his face to meet her eyes.

"I brought in the death-eaters into Hogwarts! I-I was the reason Dumbledore died on that tower.." Eclaire's heart hurt on seeing the broken boy in front of her, full if guilt and grief.

"Do you really think Dumbledore, the only wizard Voldemort was scared of, couldn't have prevented his death if he really wanted to? That he would have let a teenager cause his death?" Draco flinched on hearing the dark-wizard's name.

"You wouldn't be here defending me if you knew the thing I've said about your kind—"

"Then why haven't you said anything to me yet? Why haven't I heard a single derogatory word from your mouth since I've known you?"

They were both whispering by this point, gazing into each others eyes. Draco remained silent, the words refusing to leave his lips as he stared at the woman in front of him.

"Because that is not who you are, Draco." Eclaire said. Draco went to argue when she put a finger to his lips.

"I've said this before and I'll say it again. You're not evil, you never were to begin with. Yes, you were a bully in school but that's not reason enough to hate someone if they resent their actions." Eclaire said removing her finger. She reached out for his hand and pulled the sleeve of his black turtleneck up, revealing the dark mark.

"This mark is nothing but a proof of how brave you are. This mark that you think taints you, is nothing but a proof of what you've endured to be the man you are today and when I see you today, I don't see a death-eater. I see a man who learnt through his mistakes, learnt to teach himself right from wrong despite his upbringing. You don't know how easy it would've been for you to stick to the dark side till the very end but you didn't, because you didn't have it in you, Draco. You had what the other death-eaters didn't— A conscience. The conscience that didn't let you choose the Dark side even though that was what you had been taught since birth."

Draco stayed silent gazing into the soft brown orbs that looked up at him with so much sincerity shining through them. She really believes that I'm worth redemption...she believes in me..He thought to himself.

"And besides, what does that Weasley think of himself? Not Fred, he and his twin are sweethearts, but that—that—Ron! Being a self-righteous know-it-all just because he's Harry's best friend! Thinking he's above the magical law that decided that you were innocent! Who does he think he—" Eclaire stopped mid-rant as she felt two arms wrapping around her. She registered the distant sound of the quills and parchments colliding with the snow on the floor as the scent of Chocolate And Spice engulfed her being.

Is Draco Malfoy hugging me? By his own will? She thought to herself, shellshocked.

Draco felt her small arms wrap around his torso as she rubbed his back in soothing circles as if to say I'm here and the silver haired wizard felt what he hadn't felt in years—he felt at peace.

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I could probably rival Professor Slughorn with my disappearing acts xD

I hope you enjoyed reading xx