Re: Malfoy Manor

[Draco Malfoy]

Draco looked back to see her dismounting and stopped Celer, dropping to the ground. Grabbing the reins he waited for her to catch up and slipped his hand in hers, chuckling at the sight of their horses next to each other. Walking down the paths between all the flowers he kept looking, trying to find all the little sneaky passages they had been through as children. He found the first one and realized that the horses would not be fitting through with them. Turning to the tree next to them he wrapped Celer's reins around it and stepped back so she could do the same.

[Have fun today lol I'll be back at some point.... IDK when]

[Pansy Parkinson-Malfoy]

Pansy smiled as he took her hand, following him through the walk and tugging the massive friesian along behind her. She glanced over her shoulder once, laughing as she realized just how much larger her horse was than his. But Poseidon had that tank-like grace, an oxymoron maybe, but it was the only way she could describe it and if you've seen it, you know, the sort of thunder-god appearance, the one who shakes the ground when he moves but his legs carry him as if he's light as a feather. Meanwhile Celer was dainty but not fragile, thin and quick and agile, sleek. Smooth lines and a bright face, it was like he could read your every thought before you thought it and thought he could outrace the wind if he wanted to. Such different horses, but beautiful in their unique ways. When Draco stopped and tied off Celeritas, Pansy dropped Poseidon's reins where he stood, because I figure if they're as close as they are, this horse is smart enough to know when she means to ground-tie him and he'd stay put for her. "Well, want to see if it's still the same?" She didn't wait for him to answer though, leaning down to peek inside before she'd decide to crawl through or not.

[Draco Malfoy]

Draco hunkered down next to her and looked through the hole. "Looks good," He put a hand on her lower back and nudged her forward, "You first." He turned to double check on the horses, knowing that if Celer got untied he would head off for a run around the grounds and Draco would get hell from his father for letting his horse run wild. Poseidon was never a problem, that had to be the most dog-like horse ever and half the time Draco expected him to run around and fetch a ball. Turning back he nudged Pansy again, "What? Don't you fit anymore? Gotten fat Pans?" He smiled and poked her in the side.

[Pansy Parkinson-Malfoy]

Pansy turned around and glared at him, appalled. "And you wonder why I don't eat?" She turned around and crawled through the hole, coming out in a small circle of rose bushes, fully enclosing a little grassy area. She sat down inside, stretching her legs out and looking up at the sky overhead. You couldn't see anything over the top of the bushes, just a ceiling of blue sky speckled with clouds. She didn't look over as Draco came in, too busy watching a falcon circling overhead.

[Be on for good in a few. Mom still in and out of my room and bothering me XD]

[Draco Malfoy]

Draco chuckled and crawled in after her, whacking his head on a branch halfway through. He saw her sitting there and crawled over, flopping down so his head was in her lap and he was looking at the sky too. The falcon that was circling overhead slowly moved lower but then rose up again, "Did you know that birds of prey don't only circle when they see food but also to catch the wind currents. The guy working at the mews taught me that when father took me over the summer."

[That's fine! Reading fanfics hehe]

[Pansy Parkinson-Malfoy]

Pansy still refused to look at him even when he put his head on her lap. She was still irked by his fat comment, but she forced herself to forget about it. She knew he didn't really mean anything by it and she was just being stupid. "Interesting. So maybe we aren't their dinner targets then." She glanced down at him, smiling a little. "Doesn't seem like much of anything changed. The bushes are taller, but our little grassy spot is still here, same as always."

[Draco Malfoy]

Draco smiled up at her and ran a finger down her cheek then over the little scar under her chin, "Sometimes I think the manor is stuck in some sort of time warp, I don't think anything around here has really changed in generations." He let his arm fall back down next to him and closed his eyes a little as the sun passed overhead from behind a cloud. His fingers played in the grass, ripping up little chunks and scattering the blades around him.

[Pansy Parkinson-Malfoy]

Pansy sighed and looked down at him, her fingertips just barely touching the hair at the top of his head, somehow unable to have him lying there without her fingers in his hair. It was automatic for the two of them, almost as much as breathing. "If you tear up all the grass, I don't think I'm up for lying here in the dirt, you know." Her other hand played with the fabric of his shirt, tracing the seams without really noticing.

[Draco Malfoy]

"I won't rip all of it up, just most." He smiled and picked up some grass, blowing it in her face. Unfortunately that backfired because of a little thing called gravity and the grass fell back on his face. He crinkled his nose and shook his head, trying to get most of it off. "Ugh, remind me never to do something like that again." He let go of the grass and one of his hands found hers where it was playing with his shirt. Taking it, he held it still against his chest.

[Pansy Parkinson-Malfoy]

Pansy shook her head as well, freeing the few pieces that had managed to cling in her hair. "I won't remind you. It won't do any good. You like to learn things the hard way, unfortunately. One of the many things I've figured out about you over the years." Pansy smirked at him, picking a piece of grass out of his hair and brushing her fingers over his cheek. She let him take her hand, relishing in the completely natural feel of it, how normal it felt and how perfectly their fingers fit together as cheesy as that might be. She squeezed his hand lightly, still looking down at him and unable to stop smiling.

[Draco Malfoy]

Draco looked up at her fingers as she pulled out the last of the grass and rolled his eyes at her. "I like to learn things the hard way? I don't think you get to talk Miss It-Works-Until-I-Get-Injured." He squeezed her hand back and smiled back at her. He loved seeing her smile and he loved it even more when it was just them and he knew that she was genuinely happy to be there with him. With his free hand he reached up and tugged a single blade of grass from the tips of her hair, "Look, I got you with one, it wasn't a complete failure after all."

[Pansy Parkinson-Malfoy]

"Hey, I never said I didn't learn that way too. And sure, maybe not a complete fail. But a 99% fail, yes." She laughed and leaned back, lying down on her back to look up at the sky, Draco's head still resting over her thigh. She put her hands behind her head and sighed rather happily, but turned to look pointlessly at the tiny opening to their little rosebush circle as the horses nickered from just outside. They were probably just bored being left there, but it was nice in here so Pansy wouldn't be leaving until Draco wanted to..

[Draco Malfoy]

And Draco never ever wanted to leave here so it was really an unfortunate day to be one of their horses. When she lay back he shifted off her thigh and rolled around a bit to get so that he was lying on his side next to her, now blocking her view of the opening. He noticed that it was interesting that the two of them always ended up in their own little places, all cut off from the world... the tower at the Parkinson's, their new room, this little circle, even the lounge at Hogwarts. They had always been such private people that he thought the idea of such a small space where they could guard themselves had to be intensely appealing.

[Pansy Parkinson-Malfoy]

And after Draco rearranged himself to lay beside her, she moved again to lay her head on his chest, using him as a sort of pillow while she looked up at the sky. Turning her head, she looked over at his face and smiled at him a little. They really did have their little hidden places. It was like they were always trying to run away but they could never get very far. They were confined to their school or their homes, but they'd do what they could to get away even with those restrictions. And yet getting away usually included each other. It was rare that they'd ever go to their secret places without the other or without expecting for the other to show up at some point, as if they knew when the other was there alone. She reached over to his face, tracing her fingertips over his cheek, down his strong jaw, touching his lips lightly.

[Draco Malfoy]

He smiled as she moved to rest on his chest, his arm sliding around her as she shifted closer. This was exactly what he loved about being with her. They could talk for hours on end but they could also just lie in silence together and be perfectly happy. That is what a real friendship is, having someone who knows you so well they know what you're thinking without you saying a word. His smiled widened slightly as her fingers traced over his lips and his hand brushed her hair back off her face, tracing the shell of her ear.

[Pansy Parkinson-Malfoy]

Pansy rolled onto her stomach, crossing her arms on his chest and resting her chin on the backs of her hands. He hadn't mentioned it, but she was curious what he and his father had talked about earlier. She wasn't sure how much he would tell her, but maybe it was a bit different now and he'd tell her about it instead of just saying the same sort of things. Then again, she wasn't sure she wanted to know, as it always served to upset her. "So what did you and your father talk about earlier?" Her fingers played on his chest, tracing little circles or figure eights as she watched his bright eyes.

[Draco Malfoy]

He blinked at her and tucked his hands behind his head, looking at her and occasionally glancing to her fingers as they danced over his chest. He thought for a moment about how much he wanted to tell her but decided that he might as well stop dancing around the issue, "We talked about Christmas and preparations for it. He has a list of lessons in dark arts that I need to research and study before then in order to be ready for whatever the Dark Lord decides is necessary. He also wanted to talk about other courses I should be pursuing within the dark arts, rituals and potions and the like. I have to admit it was all incredibly interesting."

[Pansy Parkinson-Malfoy]

Pansy listened to him relatively neutrally until the last sentence. Incredibly interesting? It was like he'd taken a skewer and poked her heart a bit. "What's at Christmas?" It was all she could ask at the moment, still reeling from the fact that he'd expressed an incredible interest in all these dark arts studies and doing whatever the Dark Lord deemed necessary. She just wanted to hold him and tell him no and suggest running away again, but she knew it wouldn't go over well, and she really didn't want to fight with him. Not again, not at his house in the rose garden.

[Draco Malfoy]

He looked at her as her face slipped into neutrality but for once he couldn't read outright disgust on her face for a change. "Christmas is when my father presents me to the Dark Lord. He told me that your father will be there too, as a witness of sorts. It's a formal ceremony that starts the path to joining his followers." He looked back up as the clouds slipped over the sun again. When they first move over the sun or are about to move off it you can see the perfect circle outline of the sun without burning your eyes, it's an incredible sight.

[Pansy Parkinson-Malfoy]

Her lips parted slightly and she couldn't speak. She could feel her eyes narrowing, the bottoms of them reaching up toward the upper lids as if they were preparing to hold in some unwelcome liquid that thankfully did not come. Her brows had pressed together and she looked at Draco in disbelief. "Joining them... you're really going to join them?" She sat up so that she wasn't touching him anymore. "Even after everything, after all it's caused so far without even being one of them, you're going to go through with it?"

[Draco Malfoy]

Draco felt her move away from him and he looked at her, sitting up himself to face her. He frowned at her, "Yes, there's no way out of it unless I want to entirely split all ties with my family and the general wizarding world. Do I think this is the best plan in the world? No. Do I want to live in a hovel like a Weasley? Hell no. I thought you understood this, that you understood what had to happen." His fingers came up and pinched the bridge of his nose, "I don't want to fight about this time and time again, there's nothing either of us can do about it so you should accept it, I have."

[Pansy Parkinson-Malfoy]

Pansy started to speak, paused, tried again, said nothing. Finally she found her voice, though it was a desperate one. "But Draco, I can't just accept something that so obviously ruins peoples lives. And I'm not talking about those who are the victims of what the Death Eaters do, I'm talking about the Death Eaters themselves and their families. Look at our parents, Draco. Do they ever look happy? Do they even act like they love each other anymore? No. Because everything they had, they've forsaken. Every emotion they used to share, they've forgotten for the sake of their duty to the Dark Lord. And the things that they do, that does some serious shit to you and I don't want you to be like that. You just can't be like that, you can't do those things and be okay. You're not like them, Draco. Please."

[Draco Malfoy]

He watched her struggle for words and then the all flooded out and once. When she stopped he reached for her hand, "Just because they ended up like that doesn't mean I will too. Our parents were never love matches to begin with and one of the greatest bonding factors in their lives was the death eaters. I know that my mother and father rarely have conversation that isn't about some aspect of the dark lord's plans." He took a deep breath, "The things that death eaters do, you don't even know Pans, there's no way you can understand what it is but you'll have to trust me on this one. Trust me to make the right choices and be able to get myself out safe and sound. Can you do that?"

[Pansy Parkinson-Malfoy]

Pansy stared down at their hands as he took hers in his. She didn't meet his eyes until he was finished talking, and she thought for a little while before answering him. "I want to trust you, but I can't trust them. The things they've done. Not one of them has done anything to gain my trust. Not even my own father though I love him dearly. You say you'll get out safe and sound and yet you say there's no way out. I know what they've done, the magic they study and perform with pride, and I can't trust anyone who does that. It's selfish but I don't want you to be a part of that." She'd pulled her hand away from him by the time she'd finished talking and retreated more from him, pulling her legs backward toward her where she sat.

[Draco Malfoy]

He saw her move away and all he wanted to do was move over to her and wrap her in his arms and tell her that it was all a joke and none of this ever had to happen but that wasn't possible. Instead he stayed where he was and drew a deep breath, "Maybe 'get out' was a poor choice of words but what I'm trying to tell you is that this won't change who I am, it's just another label, another layer of the mask. The magic they use is fascinating, I will admit that, but it's not something I want to use on a daily basis or something that I will haphazardly test out of other people. The Death Eaters we see around us are the ones who came to his side willingly, the ones craving the power and the darkness. I am not them Pansy and you know it."

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