19: The Reveal

"I don't know if we could." He said weakly.

It was time.

Draco's words made you pull back from his neck and finally seriously look at him into his eyes for the first time tonight.

In the midst of his eyes, you saw a lot of emotions. There was fear, pain and guilt. But most of all was doubt.

"Why?" You finally asked the question you've been pondering yourself for months.

Draco opened his mouth to tell you, but then closed it halfway. Draco hesitated to tell you again, afraid what would be your reaction when he does tell you, again. He finally decided to tell you everything and yet he pulls back at the last second.

You saw that Draco hesitated. You moved your hands to his arms, making his arms to be under yours.

"You can tell me, Draco. I won't change my mind about this." You said, assuring him, hoping that you would be able to pull him back.

Thankfully, you did.

Draco sighed again.

"Alright..." He paused for a minute.

Then, he laced his fingers with yours and just started pulling you along with him into the castle.

"Come on." He said as he pulled you.

And you just let him bring you wherever he wants to.

"Where are we going?" You asked with a soft voice.

Draco took a few seconds to answer you as both of walked into the quiet corridor.

"I need to show you something." He said and the both of you started walking up the stairs.

The both of you were in complete silence when Draco finally brought you up to the seventh floor.

Draco stopped at the empty corridor, you immediately knew, where he brought you.

You wanted to ask him why but you held back.

You followed him inside the Room of Requirements, hands still tangled with each others.

He led you inside, and then you were in front of a giant cabinet.

You were about to ask him when he answered your unspoken question but kept his eyes away from you.

"This is a Vanishing Cabinet." He said.

Draco took a deep breath, preparing for the worst.

Before he could even tell, he felt a touch at his arms. He finally turned around to meet your eyes, to find your other hand on his arm that was holding your other hand.

To him, it was like you were telling him it's alright to tell you.

As a response, he lifted his free hand and place it on top of your hand that was holding his arm. Squeezing it and locking it in place for a long time like it was going to be the last time.

"I've been fixing it..." Draco paused again.

You waited patiently for Draco to continue.

"It has a twin, it can let people travel to the place where its twin is at, or the other way around. But this one was broken, so I've been fixing it day and night since the start of the term to get it working again." He answered the question of why he looks so exhausted for months.

He expected you to ask him why, but instead...

"That's why you always looked so tired..." Your words came out soft and almost with a whisper. You squeezed his hand lightly.

Draco was moved, you didn't ask him why. Instead, you were sad for him.

"I'm almost done fixing it. And soon, I'll have to use it." Draco stopped.

Draco was quiet as if he was waiting for you to ask why. And so, you did.

"You'll use it for what?" You finally asked.

Draco didn't say anything for a while. He took your hand that he was pressing against his arm to his lips. Draco's lip lingered there, trying to savour this moment.

Draco gathered the last of his courage and let your hands go.

You quickly missed the warmth of Draco's hand when he let them go. You watched as he pulled his sleeves up.

Within your heart, you already know what you were going to see. Before the mark even revealed itself underneath Draco's sleeves, you already know what he was going to show you.

But you still had a slight bit of hope...

That it wasn't what you were thinking of.

Then, you saw it, the dark mark.

You couldn't help but stare at it, the mark that ruined Draco's life. You couldn't help but that mark that was forcefully placed on his wrists.

You knew that Draco never wanted this, his own opinion was never acknowledged. Because to Voldemort, Draco was just a pawn in his game to punish Lucius Malfoy.

"I'll have to use it to let the other death eaters in and I'll have to kill Dumbledore." At the mention of his task, you shot your head up to look at him.

You finally saw it in his eyes; how much Draco was actually suffering.

It wasn't just exhaustion that Draco felt for all those months but also fear, frustration and guilt.

Immediately, guilt crashed onto you.

Since the start of the term, you already knew that Draco was in a bad shape, and yet you just shrugged and thought it would be fine.

You could've done something to help him. You could have done something to ease his pain. You roughly already had an idea what was bothering him, and still, you ignored it like it was nothing.

You clearly already know what was coming, and yet, you denied it for months.

Your tears that stopped when you were climbing up the stairs, came running again.

How could you, let Draco suffer this alone?

How could you deny the reality and allow Draco to go through this alone?

You could have been by his side, let him have a shoulder to lean on.

However, you were selfish to make yourself feel better by denying the reality that caused Draco so much pain.

"I'm sorry..." Draco shot his head up to face you, tears streaming down your face

Draco expected you to react very different rather than crying.

Almost immediately when he realized that you were crying, his pair of hands reached your cheeks, wiping your tears.

But most importantly, what are you apologising for?

"You have nothing to be sorry for, Lia." He said, couldn't bear seeing you cry.

"But I have! I knew something was bothering you. I knew something was wrong with you and I didn't do anything." You grabbed Draco's hand from your cheeks and held onto his arms with yours on his desperately, eyes glued on the floor with tears dropping on the ground.

Draco was stunned, you've done nothing wrong and didn't have to do anything to help him. And yet, you're here, apologizing to him for not doing anything.

Draco could tell by the look on your face that you were feeling extremely guilty and desperate for redemption.

But you have done nothing wrong to need to feel guilt or the need to redeem anything.

"You've done nothing wrong, Lia. I should be the one apologizing to you for avoiding you. You were already going through so much and I decided to do something to make it worse." Draco leaned his forehead against yours, making you look up at him.

"A war is coming, Lia. I don't want to drag you into it because of me, you could get hurt or lose your life. I don't want that; I just want you to be safe. That's why I thought staying away from you was a good idea." Draco couldn't bear the thought of losing you, tears started gathering in his eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Lia. I thought by getting you to stay away, you would be safer. I thought by doing so would keep you out of this mess. But the truth was... I was only hurting you." Draco apologized, holding back tears from falling.

"I love you, Lia." Draco suddenly blurted out.

Your eyes were wide as a circle, there was a gap between your lips when you realised what he said.

Draco suddenly enveloped you with his arms again. And instinctively, you hugged him back.

"I can't lose you, Lia. It was a good idea for me at the time to stay away from you. But I know now that it was actually very wrong for me to do that. I didn't mean to hurt you, I just wanted to keep you out of danger." He tightens his arms around you, pulling you closer.

You were thankful that Draco finally told you what has been bugging you for months. But you weren't fazed by it at all. In fact, you already made up your mind before you even knew it was a reality.

"I don't care about that, Draco. I can protect myself." You rubbed his back gently like you were trying not to scare him away.

"I know, but I didn't want to take any risks. So when you went back to see your brother, I decided you didn't need me anymore and the timing was right. I'm so sorry, Lia, for doing such a stupid thing." He said, still not letting go, but backed away to lean his forehead with yours.

Draco kept his eyes closes, reviewing everything he did, feeling guilty.

Draco felt your hands on his cheeks, making open his eyes to look into yours.

"it's alright, Draco. I forgive you."

"But I hurt you." His tears started to stream down, you wiped them before they could hit his jaw. Draco hated himself after realising that what he did was actually hurting you.

"You did it for me. And I'm happy you did." You said, softly stroking his cheeks.

Draco shot his head back up and looked at you as if you were crazy.

"How could you still forgive me? After all I've done? I was the one who cursed Katie Bell, Lia! I was the one who poisoned Weasley." He desperately confessed, not wanting to lie to you anymore. He didn't want you staying with him without knowing the whole truth.

You were surprised by the new information about Ron. But, it still didn't change your mind.

"Because I love you too, Draco." You had to tell him now. It wasn't the best time to tell him but...

Draco needs to hear this.

He stared back at you with a shocked expression.

Draco didn't respond for the first few seconds.

"I love you, Draco. You're not evil, I know you didn't want to do all those things. No matter what you do, I know you're not as evil as you seem. I know you were never bad at heart from the start, Draco. You just never showed your kinder side to others. I saw that side of you, you're much kinder and loyal than you think. I meant what I said last time, I won't leave you even if you were a death eater." You comforted him, staring at him lovingly.

Draco finally processed what you said and finally spoke out.

"You... love me?" Draco said it as if he was questioning your life choices.

Draco couldn't believe his ears, he always thought that you only treated him as a friend. Since the first day he saw you down by the lake playing the violin, he was drawn to you. When he approached you that day, you weren't even fazed by his presence.

You were always tolerating his attitude since the start of your friendship. You were so patient with Draco to wait for him to change little by little. When both of you got closer, you never showed any signs of wanting to change anything. So, Draco decided that you don't feel the same as him.

Then, his neck was surrounded by your arms again.

"I do, Draco. I always have. I'm sorry it took me so long to realise that." You said.

Draco could only smile and wrapped his own arms around your waist.

"I love you too. I'm sorry for not telling you sooner. I'm sorry for everything I did." He said leaning his head on your shoulder.

"I'm sorry too, for not helping you through this sooner. I'll stay with you through this from now on. I'll always stick with you." You swore to him.

"Till the end?" He asked you.

"Till the end."

Both of you were quiet after that, not saying anything to disrupt this peacefulness. The two of you swayed from left to right as you both cling to the other for a long time, not letting go of each other.

You tightened your arms when Draco wanted to pull back. You weren't going to let him go that easily when you just got him back. You're not taking any chances of losing him again.

Draco chuckled at your reaction.

"Are you going to hold me like this for the rest of the night?" Draco asked, chuckled while also pressing you closer to his chest.

"Yeah..." Your voice was so small when you answered. Draco immediately sensed something was wrong.

"I almost lost you today, Draco. I'm not letting you go that easily." You softly continued, hiding your face at his neck.

Then, Draco felt wetness at his neck, signalling him that you're crying again.

You snuggled against his neck, trying to hide your tears flowing.

"I... can't lose you too, Draco. Please... don't leave me too..." You begged, managing to make your words out from your sobs. You were shaking just by remembering what happened.

Your plead almost crushed Draco, what happened that afternoon almost scarred you for life. You were trembling so much just by the thought of him dying. If he hadn't lash out on Harry, things would probably have gone way better than it turned out to be. You wouldn't have to go through that if only he had been calmer.

Draco swore to himself that he would never let you experience something like that anymore.

"I'm right here, Lia. I'm not going anywhere." He rubbed your back gently, with his other hand stroking your hair gently.

"I'm never leaving you ever again. I don't think I could even if I tried." He added, kissing your forehead.

You cling to Draco for a long time, you don't know how long you cling to him. But you know that you only let him go when you finally could calm down.

"You okay?" He asked you.

"Yeah..." You answered as Draco rubbed your tear stains from your cheeks with his thumbs.

"Sorry for that." You said.

For some reason, Draco chuckled at your apology.

"What?" You asked, smiling at him.

"I feel like we've been apologizing to each other the whole night." He said tucking a strand of your hair to the back of your right ear.

This time, you laughed too.

"We did, didn't we?" You smiled.

Draco stared at you with adoration in his eyes.

"Come on." He took your hands in his, you let your fingers tangle with his.

"We should probably head back. You still have classes tomorrow." At the mention of classes, you frowned.

"But what about you?" You wanted to stay by his side. He just got hurt and you had to leave him for classes.

"I'll be fine, Lia. Don't worry." He said, unfazed.

You sighed, you thought to spend more time with him now that both of you finally reconciled.

Draco watched as you frowned. It was as if Draco read your mind, he thought of an idea to comfort you.

"I'll tell you what, meet me at the Black Lake tomorrow after class. I'll show you the way to enter the Room of Requirements." He said.

"Really?" You asked with wide eyes.

"And I'll tell you the time I'll be in there, that way, you can come and see me." He said, nodding to your question.

You had the brightest smile on your face as you held his hand tighter.

For a minute, Draco doesn't regret his decision.