MARA WILLIAMS

  The whisper of light drifted beyond the tree line and into the black abyss beyond, and I trailed desperately after like a lost puppy.

  My first footfall had just surpassed the threshold of leaves, breaking the muted silence with an audible crunch, when strong arms wrapped around me from behind, pulling me back into a solid chest and snatching my wand from my hand.

  My screams were muffled by a callused hand that was thick with the smell of smoke and firewood. I dug my nails into the relentless palm but the pressure only increased as I was forced back.

I thrashed, kicking and struggling every wretched step of the way, the foreign male let out a low and audible grunt. Finally finding enough purchase, I bit down as hard as I could on one of his fingers.

"Fuck." He moaned. The pressure released entirely and I span around, ready to strike. A shiver ran down my spine at his curse and my skin prickled with red hot rage.
Eyes grey as a blade glared back at me as he clutched his injured finger, "You bit me!"

"What are you doing here, Malfoy." I hissed, careful to keep my voice down for fear of alerting others.
The boy rolled his shoulders and dropped his hand, instead crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned back against a tree. "I could ask you the same thing."

I flickered between his pale eyes, each just as relentlessly cold as the other. He shook his head slowly with a tut, "What would McGonagall say if she knew you were out of bed at this time?"

"She... She said I could." I lied, but my voice wasn't quite as strong as I hoped it would be, wavering slightly on the last notes.
And maybe it was my deep ingrained stubbornness but I refused to tear me eyes from his. I refused to be the first to look away.
—Though everything within me screamed to, I would not cower away from him.

He laughed. A rich, fluid sound that rolled off the forest and dripped in decedents from the leaves, costing my senses in the thick gold resonance.
"Did she now?" He said with a the shadow of a smirk as he toyed with my wand between his narrow fingers.

"Yes..." Tilting my chin upwards I replied sternly. "Give me my wand."

"So..." He drawled slowly, blanching back as I made a move to snatch my wand from him. "Let me get this straight... McGonagall gave you, permission to not only be out past curfew, but also enter the Forbidden Forest... All by yourself? Makes perfect sense."

"—The Forbidden Forest?" My eyes widened.
Maybe it was a good thing Malfoy stopped me. My mind instantly went to Percy, cold and alone, stranded in the middle of the Forbidden Forest.

"You're looking for something..." He stated sharply. "What is it?"

"None of your business." I growled, but he only chuckled, "It is if you want your wand back."
Causing me to press a hand to my aching forehead, "Percy. He ran off... Fuck."

The air around us crackled with tension, ready to ignite at the slightest spark as he said darkly,
"—A boy..."

"—Well have you ever met a girl called Percy?" I snapped without thinking. "—Have you seen him?"

Malfoy became the embodiment of hostile, his once relaxed demeanour hardening into a tense, cold countenance as he pushed off the tree, practically chucking my wand at me. "No."

If looks could kill I would've been six feet under. His footfalls were muffled below the creaking of the forest, and somewhere off in the distance an animal cried out with a haunting shriek. A sudden reminder of the dangers that lay just beyond the tree line.
"—Wait. Where are you going?"

"To bed." He tossed over his shoulder, not even bothering to look back at me as he began towards the dimly lit castle.

"Don't leave me!" I shouted, moving to trail behind him but he froze instantly in his tracks as a new sound rustled behind us, staying deadly still for a long moment, before slowly turning around to face me.

"Malfoy?" I frowned, and he began back towards me at a frightening pace, I even stepped back a few anxious feet. "What is it?"

"Shut up." His hand flew over my mouth and I was shoved back into a tree, rough bark cutting through my robe. "—Shut the fuck up."

I was frozen, as he pressed himself tightly against me, focused entirely on something off beyond the tree line. He muttered a curse beneath his breath, the sinful words fanning the side of my neck with his warm breath.
My face burned with unguarded heat as heavy footsteps echoed in the distance, and off into the forest on our right.

Our bodies were moulded as one, an irrefutably perfect fit. I tried to listen, to focus on the sound, but I couldn't tear my focus away from his firm hand that was rested on my waist, pinning me to the bark.

I didn't mean to, but it was all I could do not to stare at him, though he was still staring off into the forest, anxiously watching whatever was making the rustling.
A a few strands of hair, that looked more silver than blonde in the light, hair fell over his face. My fingers ached to reach up and touch the moon kissed strands, were they are soft as they looked?

Every angle of his face was violent as his intentions, I had thought just as much the first time I'd seen him, only now I knew it to be true. His grip on my hip tightened and I subdued a muffled cry into his palm.

The harsh line of his jaw tilted off into the distance, cold eyes burning into the abyss of wilderness beyond.
—Whether he was heaven or hell I couldn't tell, but either way the most primal parts of me cried out for him. A dull throb ached in the pit of my stomach.

The sound disappeared and his eyes were back on me. We were frozen, transfixed.

My mother always told me not to play with fire.
  His eyes were the colour of smoke and his hands felt like fire. As soon as he looked at me I knew, he was hell... The only thoughts in our minds sinful as the devil himself.
—Definitely hell... But why did that only make me want him more?

He released his hand from my mouth, instead resting it on my cheek, a shuddering breath escaped me, and I noticed his gaze flicker between my eyes and lightly parted lips. He drew closer. Less than six inches between us now.
For a brief moment we were the only two in the world, nothing around us mattered, everything else fading into the blackness of the fragile stars.

His thumb swiped across the apex of my cheekbone, and he leaned in to close what little distance remained between us, his soft lips lightly brushing the corner mine as he whispered, "Oh Mara..." Before he pulled away, dropping me entirely. "...Stupid, little Mara."

My body felt desolate without his warmth, and I became aware of just how cold it really was, drawing my arms over my chest with a frigid shiver.

He cocked his head, a jovial smirk toying on his tongue, "Did you seriously think I was going to kiss you?"

My throat tightened and my voice came out as a hoarse shadow of what I hoped it to me. "What?"
Hermione was right. They were all right. Malfoy was just as cruel as harsh lines of his face foretold, just as dangerous as the flames my mother warned me about... But none the less I still stepped headfirst into the fire, full-well knowing that trying to fighting Draco Malfoy was a losing game.

Draco shook his head, "It's quite pathetic really..."
He raised his hand and instinctively I flinched back, but rather than strike me he tucked a single strand of raven hair behind my ear. I wished he had struck me, there was a kind of finality in violence.
A definite answer, a definite way to feel. Angry.

—But this, these torturous mind games that he liked to play, left me feeling a strange sense of melancholic emptiness and I was never sure exactly how to respond. What could I say? Deep down I knew he was right.

"Why are you doing this to me?" I couldn't even bring myself to be angry at this point, instead a horrid feeling coiling within me, like a snake wrapping around my chest. Constructing the fragile organ until it was left broken and marred by the bitterness of the Slytherin boy's words. "Why do you keep doing this if you hate me so much?"

"Did you ever think that maybe it's because I just don't like you?" A foreign emotion began to seep through his facade, something horrid and vile and sickly green. "—Because you're infuriating? Because you make my skin crawl just looking at you?"

He caught himself quickly, hiding that acrid feeling beneath a cocky countenance as he said sarcastically. "Or maybe you're right.. maybe it's because I'm completely and utterly obsessed with you."

***
Sorry it's been a fat while since the last update, my boyfriend dumped me completely out of the blue a few days ago so that was fun.
Doesn't matter anyways because I used to make that boy cum twice in a row and he never made me cum once✨🥰
Also I've attached some important info below!
Don't forget to vote and comment!
-TFOA
🌤IMPORTANT🌤
-Whilst this story is based in the Harry Potter world, there are some slight differences:
-This story takes place in the 5th year (Order of the Phoenix) however I feel uncomfortable writing a *spicy* love story about 15 year olds so let just pretend they're 18;)
-This takes place the year after The Goblet of Fire (it's important I promise)
-Cedric Diggery is alive and well
-And last but not least, in this story whilst the  Triwizard tornament still takes place every 5 years, the Yule ball is an annual thing! (Happens every year)