Two Doors Down

By the time my brother’s wedding had rolled around, I had not seen Blaise or Draco. I had spent just about every single day hanging around my house or helping Piper with the homework she had to complete before we went back to class. However, I was currently fixing my hair with a simple charm when Draco slid unannounced into my bedroom. He must have been among the first to arrive for the wedding.

“We need to talk.” He said to me with a serious expression etched onto his face, making me turn and look at him in confusion.

“Are you breaking up with me?” I joked, making him roll his eyes before he chuckled a bit and pressed a rough kiss to my lips.

“Don’t be silly,” he mumbled to me once he pulled away from the heated kiss, “I wanted to talk to you about the promising ceremony in a few days.”

“Draco,” I began to say to him with a loud groan, “Can’t we talk about something more pleasant? Like smallpox or the plague?”

“I’m trying to be serious, Hanna.” He said with another sigh.

My eyes ran over his body and for the first time I noticed how different he looked from when I last saw him. He had dark circles around his sunken eyes, his skin was pale, and he seemed to have lost some of the muscle that attracted me to him. The Dark Lord’s mission for him was taking a lot more out of him than it should have.

“There’s nothing to talk about.” I said to him quietly, barely believing the words that were coming out of my mouth, “I can’t get out of this. You know that.”

“But what if you told your parents the truth?” he offered with a small whine as he leaned against the desk where I had been styling my long, dark hair.

“You mean, what if I casually told my parents that I’ve been fucking you behind my boyfriend’s back for most of our relationship?” I said to him with a small scoff.

“Well, I’d definitely word it a bit better.” He grumbled as he looked down at the floor in front of him.

I stood up from the chair and walked over towards my wardrobe, dropping my robe before slipping on the pastel bridesmaid dress. Being comfortable around Draco meant that I barely cared if he saw me changing. After all, it wasn’t anything he hadn’t seen before. Now that I was dressed, I turned back to the blonde across the room.

“You have to go find your seat and I have to find Lane.” I reminded in a desperate attempt to change the subject.

He nodded and walked towards me. Before I knew what was happening, he wrapped his arms around me and kissed me gently. His lips were sweet against mine. By the time that he pulled away from me, his hands were on either side of my face and I was smiling. He pecked my lips one more time.

“Will I see you after the ceremony?” he whispered to me, making me nod eagerly in response since now I wanted more of him.

“I’ll meet you in the guest house when everyone’s leaving.” I offered while looking up at him and making him nod in response.

“Alright, baby.”

I watched him pull away from me. Even though I was well aware that this affected him as much as it affected me, I hadn’t really thought about his role in this before this moment. I suppose I was selfish. Still, I sighed and looked down as I slid my small feet into the tall heels that every bridesmaid was required to wear. I heard a small ‘psst’ and I looked towards the door to see Draco leaning against the frame.

“You look beautiful.” He told me suddenly, blowing me a kiss and making me blush bright red while I looked over at him.

“Thank you, Draco.” I replied with a small giggle before he nodded and walked away again, the blush still spread over my cheeks.

Just those three words were enough to set a herd of butterflies through the pit of my stomach. I walked over from my bedroom to the room on the other end of the house where Lane was finishing up on getting ready. She had on an expensive, white, designer dress and just looking at her made me more nervous. I knew that my parents expected me to be in her shoes within a few years. Hell, Blaise would soon be expected to give me the promise ring that Draco had helped him pick out.

“Hanna, darling, come here for a moment.” My mother said as she easily pulled me away from my thoughts.

“Is everything alright?” I asked her once I was standing in front of her, not even receiving an answer.

She grabbed a hold of my wrist and pulled me into the next room so that we could be alone. It must have been pretty important if she didn’t want anyone to accidentally hear us talking. I looked up at her and knew that I wouldn’t be happy with whatever she had to say. Her dark eyes focused in on mine.

“I saw you and Draco in your bedroom.” She said suddenly, surprising me and making my eyes widen since I didn’t have any idea that my bedroom door was cracked open.

“Wha-” I began to question only for my mother to cut me off.

“-I have never been more disappointed in you in your life. You could have ruined everything for everyone! Especially yourself! Not to mention the reputation of your family.” She began to ramble and I stayed quiet so that she could finish, “And poor Blaise! He loves you so much and his mother will never forgive me if word about this gets out!”

“Mom, it’s not what it looks like. I swear.” I said quickly as my mother scoffed in response.

“Oh, so Draco Malfoy’s tongue wasn’t down your throat five minutes ago?” my mother questioned, making me bite my lip.

“Well, maybe it’s what it looks like…” I sighed a little bit before I started to try and lie my way out of this, “But I do love Blaise. This just kinda happened. It won’t happen again anyway. Draco and I have ended it.”

“I am going to ask you this once and if you are not honest with me, I will force you to be,” she began to say quietly as she stepped closer towards me, “At this point, are you sleeping with both of them?”

I bit down on my bottom lip and thought about it. Normally I would have lied about all of the times where I had been sneaking into the dungeons with Draco or slipping out of Blaise’s guest room to be with him. Now, however, I was well aware that my mother would find out the truth eventually. Luckily, my silence was enough to answer her question.

“Hanna, I can’t believe you.” She groaned dramatically, “You weren’t even supposed to sleep with Blaise until your wedding night. I don’t even want to think about what I have to plan in order to punish you for this.”

“Wait,” I began to say to my mother with a small laugh, “You’re going to punish me for cheating on my boyfriend?”

“You’re never going to see that Malfoy boy again. I won’t tell your father, but I don’t want that boy within 100 feet of you until the day that you get married to Blaise. Do you understand me?”

“But, I-I don’t even know if I want to get married to Blaise. What if I want to be with Draco?” I offered.

“That’s not how this works and you know that.” She said simply before clearing her throat. “After the wedding, you will go straight to your bedroom and you will go alone. Do you understand me?”

She was obviously upset and I knew there wasn’t anything that I could say that would help diffuse her anger or help the situation. I sniffled a little bit but nodded since I couldn’t think of anything else to do. She stormed out of the room, slamming the door and walking back into the room where Lane had just finished getting dressed. I stood in the same position, motionless for quite some time before I finally mustered up enough energy to walk over to the room as well. My mother didn’t make eye contact with me at all through the day.