The Same Mistake

The hands on Draco’s watch collided on the Roman Numeral twelve. He leapt from bed eagerly, fully dressed. Quietly as possible he slipped from his dormitory, through the Common Room, and out the portrait hole. He crept along the hallways, hiding in the shadows whenever he thought he spied the outline of a teacher.

After some time, he finally reached the South Tower. Ellie was already there, her small body curled up on the window sill overlooking the Forbidden Forest. Snaking his arms around her, Draco propped his chin on the crown of her head. “Ellie.”

“Draco,” she breathed. Turning her head slightly, she angled her mouth upward for him to kiss. Draco obliged her happily, rejoicing in the taste of her kiss, cinnamon mixed with fire.

She slid off the window sill, standing before him in a long white night gown covered by a black robe. The moonlight played off her blue eyes making them appear endless. Her feet were bare, an oddity that caught his attention.

“Where are your shoes?” he asked gesturing toward them.

“I was in a hurry,” she answered simply. Ellie sat down fluidly on the floor, crossing her legs over one another they disappeared beneath the white cloth of her night gown. She patted the hard stone next to her. Draco sat down facing her, his legs stretched out in front of him.

His heart hammered in his chest. They had made a deal. Tonight was all about revealing secrets. A perilous venture. Ellie lifted her arms, they reached toward him as if to accept a marvelous gift, not a dastardly defilement.

Draco extended his left arm to her, he trembled slightly. What would Ellie think? How would she react? Would she still want to be with him? Could he handle it if she didn’t? The questions swirled endless in his mind.

Ellie grasped his arm tenderly, her finger tips unbuttoning his cuff, then slowly rolling his sleeve up. The seconds seemed to stretch into hours, Draco grew sick with anxiety. Finally the base of that tattoo became visible.

Ellie continued to inch the sleeve upward until the entire brand glowed eerily in the moonlight. Draco risked a glance at Ellie’s face; her expression was unreadable. She stared intently at the mark, one hand holding his sleeve up, the other gripping around his wrist.

No words came to him. He waited in silence for her decision.

“You’ll bare this forever,” she whispered. It was neither a condemnation nor exultation.

The question that had burned in him for so long ignited. “And you? Where do your loyalties lie?”

Ellie bent her knees pulling them up to her chest. Deliberately, she lifted the hem of her night gown. At the base of her ankle a two inch phoenix was inked in bright red. She dropped the fabric, hiding the bird from view.

Draco was stunned. Of all the outcomes he had expected, had gone over in his mind, this was most certainly not a possibility he had fathomed. “So, you-you’re one of them?” Disbelief mingled with disgust in his reply.

Ellie showed no outward response to this accusation. “Yes.”

Betrayal fogged Draco’s mind. She was a spy! A dirty manipulating spy for the very people who had been the downfall of his father. The reason he was now almost certainly going to die!

"Aren't you a bit young to be in the Order?" Draco asked snidely, poisonous rage filling his veins.

Ellie did not react to his comment. "Yes, I rather am. That's why I'm not fully in the order. I have one task to complete, I don't know any of the other goings on of the Order. I'm not that different from you."

Ellie could see the truth in his eyes. She crawled forward across the cold stone. Lying both hands on his, she tried to calm him, to tell him the rest. But Draco flinched at her touch; he scuttled backwards until he hit the stone wall behind him. Deep sadness welled in Ellie.

“Please, Draco, it doesn’t need to be like this.” Ellie spoke quietly in the night.

“What have you told them?” the color had drained from his face.

Ellie bit her lip in guilt. “I told them what I suspected. I wanted to help you Draco, not to harm you!”

He laughed sharply the sound echoing off the walls, taunting Ellie’s throbbing heart. “Yes, I’m sure the Order was very keen to help a Death Eater, especially one who plans to –“

“No!” Ellie shouted she clapped her hands over her ears. “Don’t tell me! If you don’t tell me, I can’t tell them. You’ll be safe . . . from us at least.”

Draco surprise was complete. “Surely you’ve already told them –“

“Stop!” this time Ellie slapped her hand over his mouth. Draco recoiled from her, slinking farther along the back wall. “I have only told them what I think, what I suspect, what I fear. I cannot be sure of your mission and as long as I remain unaware, the Order can only go on what I have told them. Currently they want me to help you, to try and persuade you not to follow through with whatever task You-Know-Who set you to.”

Ellie slumped back, her blue eyes distraught. Draco considered her carefully. Here she was alone with him, confiding her allegiance, stopping him from telling her about his true mission.

“What consequence is it to you if I am to die?”

“Surely you must know, Draco. You cannot believe all of this has been a fabrication. I fought against every emotion you stirred in me; I knew from the start getting involved with you would be the most dangerous thing I could do. Still, I am yours. Utterly, truly, completely yours.”

Her confession chaffed at his soul. Ellie was so good, so innocent, and he was so wrong, so corrupted. How could staying with her do any good? He should break it off now before the two of them brought more disaster upon themselves.

“Ellie,” his voice found her in the dark. “This can’t go on. We have to stop.”

“No,” Ellie begged. “Don’t say that. Nothing has changed.”

“Everything! Everything has changed Ellie. I’m a threat to you, I threaten your existence every moment you spend with me. That’s not right.” Draco tugged at his hair in anguish.

Ellie crawled toward him once more. Her smaller hands wrapped around his left arm, lifting it into the moonlight. “If I accept the danger than it is my fault alone if something should befall me.” With measured movements, Ellie lowered her mouth to his arm. Her smooth lips kissed the brand that controlled Draco’s life.

Draco grabbed Ellie’s shoulders, forcing her to the floor. She lay still staring up at him, her eyes not lit with fear but with passion. Capturing her wrists, Draco held her hands high above her head. His lean body towered over her, his hips pressing into hers. “How can I trust you?”

“How can I trust you?” Ellie shot back.

“I would do anything in my power to protect you,” Draco swore.

“Do you think I would do anything less?”

“I don’t want you to protect me, Ellie. I don’t want you in harm’s way because of me. My life is condemned, I refuse to let it ruin yours as well,” Draco said vehemently.

The night gown fell away for Ellie’s leg as she raised it. She draped her leg over his, binding him closer to her. “My life is intertwined with yours. The dangers you face, I will be at your side. Nothing can keep me from you.”

“Ellie,” He pleaded.

“Shh,” her whisper stilled his words. One hand twisted from his grasp coming to trace his jaw line before steadily pulling his face down to hers. Ellie’s lips seared across his sealing the promises between them.

Draco was lost to her touch. With desperate abandon he kissed her lips, his tongue sliding into her mouth to dance with hers. Ellie’s left hand clamped down over his tattoo letting the image imprint in her skin. With her other hand, Ellie ripped the buttons from his shirt allowing her hand to roam freely over his defined chest. Draco shoved both hands beneath her slim body bringing her closer to him, holding her protectively against him.