"A little more damage makes people more interesting, right?" –Catherine Hapka

*

     Rain patters outside, eradicating Draco's view of his backyard. Draco paces his room nervously. It's five past midnight; Darcy hasn't shown up yet. What if the Snatchers found her again and brought her immediately to the Dark Lord? He thinks this unlikely, but he's anxious, so irrational thoughts gain reason.

Just as he's preparing to search for her, he hears the familiar sound of an Apparition. Turning, Darcy is suddenly in his arms, hugging him tightly. He embraces her back just as tightly. It's been too long.

  "I missed you so much," he says. "I've been so worried."

  "You've been worried?" she questions as she pulls away. "You're in the same room with You-Know-Who almost every day with the potential to die just for speaking out of turn. Worry about yourself for once."

Draco shakes his head at her. "It's always me first, isn't it?"

Darcy simply smirks, raising her toes to reach his lips. It's quick because they have much to talk about. Draco casts several muffliato spells so they're not overheard.

  "My first question was how did you get caught?" Draco starts, sitting on his bed and pulling her with him.

  "Well, I was going to my apartment from Gringotts and Scabior found me," she says. "He started talking to me, and I didn't know he was a Snatcher, so, I don't know, I let him get to close to me and the next thing I knew I was here. It's not like he outran me or something."

Draco smiles. "That's why I asked. I knew it was impossible. Next, the spells, how didn't they effect you?"

  "This one's longer," she warns him. "So, while I was in the Room of Requirement, I found some materials that I needed to conduct some experiments. You saw me the one day and yelled at me for almost catching the Vanishing Cabinet on fire." Draco nods, recalling the day. "What I was doing was looking at the structure of magic. I found a container that it would stay inside and ran a few tests."

Draco has never heard of anyone attempting to understand magic. "What'd you find?"

  "I found that in every spell designed to inflict pain or damage, there's the same amount of fire in them," she continues. "So, for example, expelliarmus contains about sixty percent flame. The rest is magic."

"That seems like a lot more fire than magic."

  "Magic is the most complicated substance I've ever seen though," she says. "It's been found that one picogram of magic contains enough power to break through pure vibranium, which is supposedly the strongest metal in the world."

  "Then how does every spell not demolish us?" Draco is thinking way too much about magic on the quantum level right now.

  "Because we're wizards and witches," she says simply. "That's what makes us magical creatures so to speak. We have the power to wield magic as well as withstand an impressive amount of it. But this is something that we could talk about forever, so let's get back to your question. Since I found this out, I made a potion that makes a person fire resistant."

"Isn't there a spell for that?"

"Yes, but that's only external. When you drink the potion, spells don't have as much of an effect because you're entirely fireproof inside and out. That's why Bellatrix's torture plans for me were foiled. I took it before I went in there, when Scabior was asking if he could interrupt. Even if You-Know-Who had tried to kill me with the Killing Curse, I'd probably only have collapsed. It wears off of course; that's why I had to get out of there."

Draco finds himself smiling in disbelief. "You're absolutely brilliant. You'd put Hermione Granger in second place if you went to Hogwarts."

Darcy rolls her eyes. "Does that answer your question?"

  "Yeah. Can I have some of that stuff, though?"

"I have to make more, but when I do, of course. Use it. Don't tell anyone what it is, where you got it, who made it, or what it's for."

Draco nods. "Okay next. Apparating without touching the ground?"

"Oh, that's easy. Really all you have to do is try it. Just make sure you turn or move somehow in the air. Don't just jump straight down, spin or something."

Draco shrugs. "Seems dangerous, but I'll go for it. Next, did you fall in the foyer?"

Darcy laughs; Draco realizes he hasn't heard it in a long time and feels his heart flutter. "Um, yeah. Scabior Apparated with me as his passenger, so I wasn't ready and when we landed, I was tilted forward. I lost my balance and hit my mouth, which is fine, I fixed it."

Draco laughs with her. "I heart a thud, and it really bothered me for some reason. Okay, lastly, have you met Scabior before?"

Darcy's good mood dims. "Yeah...about two years ago we ran into each other. I guess he thought I was pretty. That's all I'm gonna say about it."

Draco nods solemnly, understanding without an explanation. He also feels anger well up, rage. "I punched him in the mouth yesterday." And he'd like to do it a million times more.

Darcy perks up. "Did you really?"

Draco nods. "He was being rude about you, so I let him have it and wiped his memory so he wouldn't go crying to You-Know-Who."

Darcy grins. "I love you." She leans forward to kiss him; he meets her halfway there, reaching up to caress her cheek. He only breaks them apart to return the phrase.

*

  "Can I see it?" Darcy asks later as they lay in Draco's bed. She's playing with his sleeve, so he takes that as a sign that she's curious about his Dark Mark. Rolling his sleeve up, he extends his arm so she can look. "Does it hurt?"

  "Only when he calls us," Draco says, cringing because he said us. "Promise me that you'll never join. It's the worst thing that's ever happened to me, and I'll probably be imprisoned for it when this is all over."

"I wouldn't join," she assures him. "That'd be the ultimate sentence. And if you go to Azkaban, I'll find a way in, too."

  "You'll do no such thing."

She meets his gaze. "Then I'll break you out."

He smirks. "I'm counting on that."

Darcy moves her head to his shoulder. "Try to get some sleep, okay? You don't look like you get much."

"I don't." Draco wraps an arm around her waist to bring her closer and closes his eyes, trying to fulfill her desires. Somehow, he manages to drift off.