Dread and Drunk | Draco Malfoy
pairing:: deatheater!draco x f!reader no use of y/n!
summary:: after leaving a party in the slytherin commons, the room of requirement allows you in.
warnings:: consumption of alcohol; drunk actions/talking
You’d never been able to hold firewhiskey well, usually stumbling through the hidden entrance embedded in the dungeon walls to the slytherin common room at the end of the night. Keeping focus on the way your feet rise and fall, you keep a hand firmly planted along the wall. Lord forbid you repeat what happened last term and embarrass yourself again.
The memory of you being woken up by Cedric, having passed out from intoxication barely twenty feet from the door, instilled more motivation within yourself to keep it together. While you tried your hardest it was clear you shouldn't have taken those last two shots before leaving.
The first few minutes passed by you in a blur, having gone up a set of stairs you don't remember. You came to a halt in the middle of the corridor, swiveling your head, not knowing exactly where you were. It wasn't a hall that you recognized. Typically you didn't wander around the castle without a known destination in mind, having heard stories of classmates getting lost.
A door slowly appeared, catching your attention. You watched as it formed from a tiny hole, barely big enough for a mouse, into a door three times your size. Your mouth dropped open, head tilting, you pressed a shaky hand into it.
When it creaked open and fell away from your hand, you stumbled. Taking the smallest peek inside, not wanting to enter a room you weren't sure you were allowed in, you remembered the tales Hermione had told you in the library.
The room of requirement. Of course! Gods, I'm a dumbass.
Without even second guessing after your realization, you droopily walked in. The room was filled with stale air and an unbelievable amount of dust. Surely the castle didn't think you needed a respiratory infection.
Your fingers glossed across countless piles of books, the covers having traces of the glide imprinted from sweeping the dust off. You wiped the pads off onto your jeans, not even caring about them appearing dirty as you’d be taking them off as soon as you’d make it to your dorm.
My dorm. I'm going to my dorm.
With a huff and a single pound in your head you decided to turn back around with the intention of leaving to make your way back to your inviting bed.
Just before you stepped over the threshold there was a faint knock, almost like something being closed. It was enough to have you jump slightly, being caught off guard and somewhat alarmed.
In your drunken state you didn't think there was any danger, maybe it had just been from the breeze of the door being open since it seemed like it hadn't been in a while.
“Hello?” The word came out slightly unsure and slurred.
When you didn't get an answer, not that you’d expected one, you huffed.
You retreated again, this time truly stepping out and letting the door slowly come to a shut behind you. Before it fully did, a voice rang out, gruff and annoyed.
“The fuck did you call me?”
Your heart leaped to the bottom of your throat and settled there. Draco malfoy had emerged from the back of the room, barely being visible as his hand caught the door. He was irritated, suffering from a lack of sleep and a heavy heart.
“I-” you stuttered, “I- uh-” again, “I was actually referring to myself.”
He could smell the firewhiskey seeping off your breath, saw the way your eyes were being dragged down, how your feet were restless.
“Oh, you're pissed.” His brows rose, eyes glittering across the gryffindor pride t shirt you were wearing. The maroon of it was just slightly darker than your cheeks, he found it amusing.
“Mm” you hummed, swaying. When you nodded your head along your feet lost their balance, sending you stumbling to the side.
Before you could attempt to regain your footing from your delayed reflexes, one of his pale hands came down and out, grabbing ahold of your own hand. He steadied you back on your feet while suppressing his smile. You were shocked at his hand on yours, staring at it in a daze until your eyes climbed up his forearm where you could see the faintest outline of the dark mark peeking through his white button up.
“Gryffindor commons are quite a ways from here. I assume you were at the Slytherin party?”
You hummed again, not meeting his eyes or attempting to hold a real conversation. You were so tired, maybe sleeping in the hall again wasn't such a bad idea. You’d only need an hour or two before you'd be able to find your way back again.
He kept his head at an angle. He’d been angry at first, ready to throw insults and hexes at whoever was attempting to flee from interrupting his task. But with every sway and every sleepy flutter of your eyes he couldn't help the smile that tugged at how cute you were in that moment.
“Well,” he bent down, looking past the hair that was draped over your eyes to meet them, “I have one more thing to do in here, then I can escort you to your commons.” His hand was still engulfing yours in an attempt to help with your jitter, admittedly not doing much. He pulled on it gently, bidding you to follow him back into the room of requirement.
If you were even the smallest bit sober you yank your hand out of his, crush his foot with yours and bolt in the other direction. But the gentle hold, the minty fan of his breath and the sweet voice he was putting on only made you more willing. He was being nice, which was not unusual to you; to others of course, but not you. He’d bullied Harry and the Weasleys, called Hermione a Mudblood more times than you could count, but had never directed any insults at you. There was speculation against the trio as to why, having caught on fairly quickly in second year. The consensus was that his mother and yours, were friends, god forbid Draco ever upset his dear mother.
“Thank you, Malfoy.” You smiled at his back.
He didn't drop your hand until you were in front of a couch and laying back into it. The soft black velvet felt abnormally good under your fingertips as you pet at it.
Draco let out a laugh, almost being jealous of the inanimate object that got to feel your caress. You see, Draco had always craved it. None of his friends knew, not Blaise or Pansy or even Crabbe or Goyle. The only one who had caught on was his mother. Narcissa had watched him, watch you, at an annual Malfoy ball. She’d rubbed on his shoulder and told him to go for it. Encouraged him to seek you out, say you looked pretty, ask you to dance.
Draco was never one for romantics though, not at that time.
“Should be just a minute” He stood in front of you, smiling down as he swiped a strand of hair that had gotten stuck between your eyelashes.
As he went to finish packing up the vanishing cabinet you let words slip past your lips, meaning to promise it to yourself in your head.
“I won't tell anyone, Draco.”
He froze with his back to you, straightening out and holding his breath. He had seen you look; he just hoped you were too drunk to notice it.
“I know you won't, mon amour.”