Wake Me up When My Story Ends

Breakfast the next morning was incredibly uncomfortable.

Alexa glanced at Lucius’s empty seat for the fourth time, extremely grateful for his absence. He had already returned to work, possibly even assisting her father while he served the Dark Lord. Whatever the reason, Alexa was thankful for his absence. His interrogation from the previous evening’s dinner had been rough and with any luck some time apart would smooth out their creases.

Draco’s knowing looks followed Alexa’s every action. When she picked up her glass of orange juice, his calculating eyes bored into her own. When she gulped, it was deafening over Narcissa’s discreet chewing.

“Well,” Narcissa dabbed at her mouth with a napkin, careful to avoid smudging her lipstick, “I have a few errands to run today, namely in Diagon Alley, so you two can loiter around.”

Narcissa stood, courteously pushing her chair back in. Alexa followed her example, nearly matching her motions exactly. She had finished breakfast long ago, it took Malfoys a particularly long time to eat omelets, and she was humbly waiting for someone else to rise first.

Draco finished his meal just as Alexa had pushed in her own chair. Narcissa glanced at her magical watch, the astrological dial farther than she would have liked.

“I’ll see you tonight Draco… and Alexa,” Her eyes flitted to Alexa at the end of her sentence, hastily remembering to include her as well, “Er, Draco, why don’t you play Quidditch with Alexa or something of the sort.”

Narcissa disappeared into the drawing room, her steps soon disappearing by the twin staircases.

Alexa began unconsciously gnawing on her lower lip, tugging and pushing on it with her incisors. Draco watched her for a moment, vexes at how he wasn’t able to properly relish her anxiety. Last night hadn’t turned out as he had planned.

Muttering something about a Quidditch shed, Draco followed his mother’s footsteps, Alexa hot on his trail. She hadn’t expected him to actually spend time with her during this trip and she wasn’t sure if it was a welcome surprise.

They ascended the stairs and stopped on their floor, the wide hall allowing them to space themselves out accordingly.

Draco strode past Alexa’s door, disappearing into his own by the end of the hall. Eyeing the artic landscape outside a nearby window, Alexa understood that they had to dress warmer for the weather.

Slipping into her room as well, Alexa donned a simple, snug black sweatshirt and pair of white jeans. Soon after throwing on mismatched fuzzy socks, she tucked her pants into her ebony, suede boots. Finally, after pulling on a white knit hat, she inspected herself in the vanity’s mirror.

Yes, Alexa nodded to herself, hastily brushing through her long hair once again, I look the proper, lady-like part.

It was the best she could do anyway. She’d forgotten to bring any proper coats and Narcissa would probably have blatantly laughed at her puffy one.

Satisfied, Alexa latched her dark cloak around her neck and left the room, ruefully noticing Draco waiting for her outside. He didn’t appear too irritated though, at least not when she saw him, so she brushed off her passing guilt.

Draco led the way down the stairs and to the backyard, trying not to glimpse behind him at unconventional Gryffindor. He’d never seen her dress like this; in the winter, he’d only seen her hobble around the castle in her essentially inflated winter coat. Admittedly, Draco was surprised when he saw Alexa walk out of her room looking the way she did. He refused to acknowledge any momentary desire though; she was still a Gryffindor after all. His blind, raging hormones mean nothing.

Nevertheless, Draco still resolved not to look at her for too long so nothing hazardous of the nature should occur.

The frosty air slapped Alexa in the face as they left the shelter of Malfoy Manor. Trudging through the snow, she quickly grew envious of Draco’s sensible attire. It was only going to get worse hundreds of feet up in the air after all.

They trudged through stiff snow, nearly disappearing from the manor’s view before they stopped. A “shed”, the size of their spacious living room, loomed in front of them. Malfoy procured a key out of his coat, promptly unlocking the shed and letting them both in.

Inside, the shed was much more decorated then it had appeared from the outside. Trophies filled showcases, numerous plaques lined the walls, and nearly hundreds of medals hung from sporadically located hooks. Before Alexa had time to admire some more, Draco was already ushering her outside with two brooms and bulky box in hand.

Reentering the frigid environment, Alexa graciously accepted the broom Draco held out to her. For the first time today, he spoke to her, “That’s my old Nimbus 2001. Father bought me a Firebolt for Christmas.”

Draco admired his new broom, his expression alight while he lovingly grazed over its polished finish. Alexa rolled her eyes, trying not to chuckle. She’ll never understand a boy’s infatuation with Quidditch.

He began walking out into the middle of a large field, towing the large box along with him with Alexa following behind closely. She had already become accustomed to the freezing temperature and now she just wanted to play their imbalanced game.

“Have you ever even ridden before?” Draco outwardly doubted, dropping the wooden box on the ground. He was particular not to look up at her as he crouched and unlatched the box, opening it to reveal shaking, restrained balls.

“Er,” Alexa paused, recalling riding George Weasley’s Cleansweep 5 earlier in the fall. It had only been for an hour or so but she had been dodging all of Fred’s soaring bludgers, “A little bit.”

“So do you want me to fly with my eyes closed?” Draco smirked to himself, refusing to make eye contact with Alexa. Usually he liked to witness his mocked victims squirm and even Alexa caught onto the irregularity.

“Please,” Alexa scoffed, sticking her nose up at Draco to see if her action would warrant a reaction. Draco’s eyes flitted towards her fast movement but just as quickly returned to the box beside him.

“Fine, let’s see how quickly you can catch a snitch then… with competition,” said Draco, throwing his own golden snitch up into the air. The snitch quivered in the air as it plummeted a few inches before mechanical wings erupted from either side of it, carrying it away.

In a clean motion, Draco mounted his broom, speeding off after the snitch. Grumbling about her brooms minor disadvantage, Alexa swung her leg above the broom and gracelessly squatted on it, pushing herself off the ground. She zoomed straight forward, ignorant to how fast her broom would fly, and was desperately grabbing for the broom as she flew right off it.

Hurtling at the ground face first one second, Alexa become suddenly buried underneath untouched layers of snow.

Meanwhile, Draco’s greedy eyes were darting all around him, searching for the snitch he had just released. He looked down just in time to see his former broom dropping to the ground, Alexa nowhere to be found. A few yards away from the broom, a large lump of snow trembled.

Diving down, Draco’s wide eyes scrutinized the bump in the even snow and he gasped in horror when a hand jabbed through the snowy mass.

Alexa growled, crawling out of the cavity she had created. Snowflakes dangling on every strand of her hair, she lumbered over to her broom and snatched it up, completely red-faced from the frost. Her whole body was stinging from the cold and she deeply regretted choosing jeans to wear today.

Draco swooped out of his dive, hovering a few feet near Alexa’s head. He couldn’t keep the smirk off his face, openly chuckling at her mindlessly determined expression.

“You damn Gryffindors never know when to give up do you,” Draco commented, eyeing the broom in her hand.

Narrowing her eyes at Draco’s laughing figure, a flit of gold darting behind him caught her attention. Hastily hopping on her broom, Alexa shot up at Draco’s who’s amused expression transformed into a look of terror. He swerved his broom left, brushing against Alexa’s shoulder as she sped past him with her hand outstretched.

Hastily wrapping her numb fingers around the icy snitch, she squeezed it tightly in her hand, making a wide turn to face Draco. His dumbstruck expression spread a wide smile on her face as she hollered, “TEN POINTS FOR GRYFFINDOR!”

Draco snapped out of his daze, glowering at the cheeky female. When she tossed the snitch back in the sky, his eyes glinted in a familiar competitive spirit, soaring up after it alongside Alexa.