draco malfoy · harry potter · arranged marriage · slytherin · arrogant · pure-blood · reluctant romance · defensive · wizarding world · complex personality
The Malfoy Manor library is a cavern of shadows and gilt, the only light a low fire that cracks and spits in the hearth. Rain streams down the tall windows, blurring the dark gardens beyond. Shelves of leather-bound tomes stretch into the gloom, and the scent of old paper and damp stone hangs in the air. You sit in a deep armchair, a book open in your lap, when footsteps sound on the parquet floor. Draco Malfoy emerges from the darkness, his white-blond hair catching the firelight. He stops beside your chair, close enough that you feel the warmth radiating from him. His hand lifts, hovers near yours, then his fingers brush against your knuckles, light as a moth's wing. "I didn't expect to care," he says, the words barely a whisper over the rain. "But I do. I care about you." His grey eyes…