Draco

            Eve and I had gone home for Christmas break, but only because Lucius had told us to. I hadn't wanted to be anywhere near my family—especially because of how terribly things were going at school—but we didn't have a choice. Spending Christmas with my parents was the last thing I wanted to be doing.

            Christmas wasn't for another two days, but Lucius got right down to why he'd needed us to come to the manor instead of staying at Hogwarts to work on the cabinet. Eve and I came down that Saturday morning for breakfast when Lucius stopped us on the way to the kitchen, telling us we needed to come to the parlor.

            "What for?" I asked a little exasperatedly, Eve only slightly behind me. It was too early in the morning for this.

            "It's about the task," Lucius said evenly, already starting for the door. "Your mother and I have something to tell you both."

            I rolled my eyes but reluctantly followed him, knowing it was better to just go along with it. Eve was close behind me, and her arms were crossed over her t-shirt a bit self-consciously. Neither of us had been expecting to be interrogated by my parents when we'd rolled out of bed this morning, and I was sure I probably looked terrible.

            My mother was waiting in the parlor, her arms crossed tightly in front of her as Lucius came to stand beside her. Eve stood close beside me, her hand brushing against mine slightly—because we both knew this probably wasn't going to be good.

            "Severus told us about what happened with the necklace," Lucius stated immediately, looking down at me and not even caring enough to glance at Eve. "He told us the girl nearly died."

            Trying not to let the anger seep through my voice already, I replied calmly, "I know. But she didn't die, and she doesn't remember any of it."

            "What were you thinking?" he snapped. "You weren't even following the Dark Lord's orders. He specifically told you to repair the cabinet and then—"

            "Yeah, well, it's taking a lot longer than we thought it would," I interrupted coldly. "It was my idea to use the necklace. I thought it would be better to do it this way instead of bringing all the Death Eaters into the castle."

            "It doesn't matter what you think, Draco," Lucius spat. I could see how furious he was as he glared heatedly down at me—I hadn't had a clue how furious he was about what had happened at school. I'd known they would both be upset, but definitely not this badly. "You do what the Dark Lord tells you. Fix the cabinet, bring the others into the castle, and kill the headmaster. That's it."

            My mother flinched when he mentioned killing Dumbledore, but Lucius ignored it. I was fuming by now, but I didn't even get a chance to open my mouth again; Eve spoke up for the first time all morning, saying a bit sharply, "Draco was just trying to make things easier. It was a good idea."

            Lucius turned to her coldly, and my blood boiled at the way he looked down at her—like she was scum underneath his shoe. His voice was sneering as he asked her, "And where were you when it was happening? Standing around nearby and drawing more attention to Draco?"

            "Don't start on her," I interrupted angrily, but Eve drew herself up to her full height and didn't shrink away from him.

            "I made sure no one was looking when he left the bathroom, actually," she said icily. "It doesn't matter. Katie's okay, and no one thinks we were involved."

            Lucius was opening his mouth to probably say something even worse to Eve—and I was seconds away from losing it—but my mother quickly cut him off. Her voice was quiet but rushed as she told us, "We just want you to do what the Dark Lord says, and nothing else. If he finds out about what happened, it won't be good."

            "He isn't going to find out," I said coldly, feeling Eve's hand brush against my arm as she moved closer to me. I wanted nothing more than to get out of the house and away from my parents. "It won't happen again, trust me. We're working on the cabinet, alright? Get off my back."

            "Don't talk to me that way," Lucius hissed, taking a step closer. "The two of you need to do this right. If one of you screws this up—" he glanced at Eve as he spoke, making my blood boil, "—then we're finished. Fix the cabinet and stick to the plan. Are we clear?"

            I was furious, but all I could do was glare up at Lucius and hate him with everything I had. My voice was tight as I snapped, "Yeah. Yeah, we're clear. Anything else?"

            But as he hesitated and turned his hard gaze to Eve, I found that I couldn't stay here any longer. Eve took my arm and started to turn with me towards the door, following me as I bit out over my shoulder, "We're leaving."

            "Where are you going?" my mother asked worriedly, but I was already leading Eve down the hallway towards the front door. "Please, don't leave—"

            "Get back here," Lucius snapped furiously, storming after us. "You can't leave. Stop, Draco—"

            I paused by the door and ripped one of my jackets off the wall, helping Eve into it as she stuffed on her sneakers. It was probably freezing outside, but I couldn't stand to be here anymore. I helped her zip it up and reached for the door handle with one arm loosely around her shoulders, leading her out the doorway.

            "Draco, do not leave this house. Get back here—"

            Lucius had nearly reached us, but Eve and I had stumbled outside into the lightly falling snow. I gripped her hand tight and ignored my parents, storming away from the house.

            I wasn't quite sure where I was going, but anywhere was better than here.

~*~

Eve

            Draco Apparated us to the outside of a tiny coffee shop in Hogsmeade, and he automatically led us inside without a word. I was almost scared to say anything to him, because the anger was literally radiating off of him and I didn't want to make it worse. So I followed him inside silently, my cheeks turning pink as the warm air of the building hit me.

            The coffee shop was small and cramped with tables, but Draco weaved his way through to an empty spot near the back. I stood to the side as he pulled out the chair for me a bit forcefully, sitting and watching him carefully as he sat down next to me at the tiny table.

            Fiddling with the sleeves of Draco's jacket on my lap, I looked over at him and watched as he leaned against the edge of the table, his lips still pressed tightly together in anger. I told him quietly, "I'm sorry."

            Draco turned his head to look at me, his eyebrows coming together as he asked, "What? Why are youapologizing? You've got nothing to be sorry for."

            "I'm just—I'm sorry about what happened with Katie." I stumbled over my words, not really knowing why I was apologizing; I just felt like I needed to say something to him. "And that your parents are upset. It just...it sucks."

            He exhaled heavily, looking over at me and seeming to relax a little. He looked exhausted as he sighed, "Yeah, it does. But don't be sorry. I'm the one who should be apologizing; he was being an asshole to you, and you didn't deserve it."

            I shrugged, because it honestly didn't matter to me. I'd only gotten angry because of what Lucius had been saying to Draco, but I decided not to say so out loud. I stayed quiet as I sat there, the sleeves of the jacket swallowing up my hands. I felt strangely nervous around him, as though anything I said was going to make him angry again.

            "Do you want anything?" Draco asked suddenly, digging through his pockets for change. "Sorry we didn't get to eat anything this morning, I just had to get out of there."

            "Me too," I agreed. "Tea's okay. Will you have some, too?"

            "Yeah," he told me after a moment, and I knew he was only saying that so I would get it. Draco stood from the table with crumpled bills in his hand, saying, "I'll be right back, okay?"

            "Okay," I said quietly as he went to get the tea, looking around the rest of the coffee shop and leaning back against the chair. The afternoon sunlight gave off a hazy glow inside the small shop, and the only noise was quiet chatter in the background from the few people here. I was glad Draco had brought us here instead of just going back upstairs at the Manor—being this far away from Lucius was probably a good thing for the both of us.

            Draco came back with the two cups of tea, setting mine in front of me as he sat back down and scooted his chair slightly closer to me. I pushed up the long sleeves of his jacket and held the warm mug between my hands, looking over at him carefully through the thin steam.

            "What?" he asked after a moment of me staring, one side of his mouth turning up slightly. "Why are you staring?"

            "Are you okay?" I asked cautiously. "I mean, are you still mad?"

            I hadn't been expecting him to laugh, but he snorted quietly and grinned at me. Draco leaned across the table and kissed me through the steam from the two tea cups, pulling away after a second and telling me softly, "I love you. Yeah, I'm okay now." And if he was okay, I was okay too.

            We stayed in that coffee shop all day.

            Maybe it was weird to stay there for so long, and maybe the owner would have gotten annoyed if he'd been able to see us better at the back, but we did it anyway. Neither of us had any more money so there wasn't much else for us to do, and neither of us wanted to go back to the Manor. But eventually the shop emptied out as it grew darker outside, so we had no choice but to leave.

            "Is it alright if we go back?" Draco asked and me as we stood outside of the closing coffee shop, the streetlights glowing down the busy pathways of Hogsmeade. He stood close to me looked down at me seriously in the semi-darkness, sighing, "I don't want to, but we don't have any more money. Is that okay with you?"

            "Yeah," I told him, my breath coming out in cold puffs of moisture. "It's alright. Do you think your parents will still be pissed?"

            "Of course they will be." He rolled his eyes, taking my hand tight in his. "Just let me do the talking and they'll leave you alone. Ready?"

            I nodded and he spun to the right, our feet leaving the snowy ground with a loud crack. I felt my body twist and spin nauseatingly until my feet were slamming back into solid ground again, only stumbling slightly. When I looked up, we were just outside the gate to the Manor.

            Draco opened the gate and followed me in, shutting it behind us and still holding my hand as we walked through the darkness back to the front door. "Who knows," he said half-heartedly, "maybe they're sleeping."

            They weren't. It became clear Lucius and Narcissa had been waiting a very long time for us, as we didn't even make it to the front steps before the door burst open and Lucius came striding out with Draco's mother not far behind him.

            "Where the hell have you been?" Lucius spat, hurrying down the steps and leaving the front door standing wide open behind them. Draco tried to lead me past him quickly, but Lucius blocked our path easily. Even in the night lighting, I could see that Lucius was absolutely livid. "Your mother and I have been waiting all day for you to come back. What were you thinking—?"

            "It doesn't matter where we went," Draco interrupted coldly, his large hand warm against mine. "Why would you care if we left? It's never mattered to you before."

            "We were worried sick," Narcissa said in a thin voice, her arms crossed tightly in front of her because of the cold winter air. "You can't just storm out like that."

            "And why would you stay out for the entire day?" Lucius snapped, towering over Draco. "Where could you possibly—"

"Can we go inside?" Draco asked in annoyance. "It's freezing, in case you haven't noticed."

            Lucius snapped, shoving Draco hard and seething, "Is this a joke to you? If you think you can talk to me like that and get away with it—you're a disgrace—"

            "Stop," I interrupted angrily when he went to push Draco again, lunging forward and trying to put myself between them. I didn't get a chance to say another word, because Lucius turned to me and whipped his arm upwards so quickly that I didn't have time to react—his palm struck against the side of my cheek in a slap that sent me reeling to the left.

            I was holding my burning cheek with my mind spinning when I realized Draco had shoved Lucius to the ground and was doing everything he could to hit him hard.

            "What the fuck is wrong with you, you hit her—I'm going to kill you—"

            There was blood dotting the snow from Lucius's nose by the time I reacted, rushing forward to pull Draco off of him without even realizing Narcissa was trying to do the same. I was panicking, shouting for Draco to stop but his yells drowning out my own; I managed to half-drag him off of Lucius, my feet slipping in the snow as I tried to pull him away. Narcissa was helping Lucius to his feet as Draco struggled to stand, still shouting insults at his father and trying to wrestle himself from my grip.

            "Draco—stop, stop—let's just go, let's get out of here—" I was still trying to hold him back, the throbbing from the right side of my lip barely noticeable. Lucius was spitting terrible things to the both of us as Narcissa kept him from rushing at Draco, and I wanted nothing more than to just leave this behind. "Please, Draco—"

            And then it was like he could finally hear me again, and Draco turned to me in his rage, grabbing my shoulders gently. His expression was livid as he breathed furiously, "Okay, okay, we're going—"

            He wrapped his arms around me tight and twisted to the side without another word, Lucius's yells suddenly fading to nothing in the background. We Disapparated almost as quickly as we had come, leaving his parents behind in the snow outside of the Manor—but this time, neither of us planned on coming back for a long time.