Chapter 26: when Anger Gave way to tears

I felt him before I saw him. A shift in the air. A wrongness. That familiar pull that Dark Melody pretended she no longer believed in. “Melody.” I kept walking. My boots struck the stone in steady, unforgiving beats as I moved down the corridor near the Charms classroom. I had perfected the art of not reacting. Not turning. Not letting my chest tighten when his voice cracked around my name. “Please,” Draco said, louder now. “Just listen.” I stopped. I hated that I did. I hated that one word still had the power to slow me down. I turned slowly, my face calm, my expression carved from something cold and sharp. “You have one minute,” I said. “Use it wisely.” His shoulders sagged in relief like I had thrown him a rope instead of a blade. He looked awful. Not dramatic awful. Real awful. Shadows under his eyes. Hair undone. His confidence stripped raw. “It wasn’t what you think,” he said quickly, the words tumbling over each other. “Pansy lied. She set it up. She told you I kissed her but I didn’t. I swear on everything I am, Melody, I didn’t kiss her back.” I laughed once. Short. Bitter. “That’s your defense?” “No,” he said, stepping closer. “It’s the truth. She cornered me. She kissed me and I froze. I pushed her away. I told her it meant nothing. Then she saw you and she smiled and I knew. I knew she’d planned it.” I should have scoffed. I should have turned away. Dark Melody knew how to do that. But my chest betrayed me. “I would never choose her,” Draco said, his voice breaking fully now. “Never. I was stupid and proud and I thought you’d talk to me. I thought you’d give me the chance to explain.” My vision blurred before I could stop it. “You didn’t come after me,” I whispered, the anger cracking at last. “You let me walk away thinking I was disposable.” “I was wrong,” he said hoarsely. “I thought giving you space was the right thing. I didn’t realize it was killing you.” That was it. The armor split. The scream I’d swallowed for days rose up and collapsed into something smaller and far more dangerous. Tears. Hot and uncontrollable. I pressed my hand over my mouth, but the sound still escaped me, broken and raw. “I tried to hate you,” I cried. “I tried so hard. I turned myself into someone colder because it hurt less than missing you.” Draco closed the distance between us, stopping just short of touching me like he was afraid I’d shatter. “I never stopped wanting you,” he said. “Every time I saw you walk past me like I was nothing, it destroyed me.” I looked up at him then, really looked. The boy I loved was still there. Fractured. Regretful. Real. “I don’t know how to go back,” I sobbed. “I don’t know how to be soft again.” “You don’t have to,” he said quietly. “Just don’t shut me out.” My hands curled into his robes without permission, gripping tight like I was afraid he’d vanish if I let go. I cried into his chest, the sobs shaking through me, grief and longing tangled so tightly I couldn’t tell them apart. I missed him. Merlin, I missed him. Dark Melody didn’t disappear that day. She didn’t dissolve or fade into nothing. But for the first time, she loosened her grip. And as Draco held me while I broke apart, I realized something terrifying and true. I still wanted him. And wanting him hurt. But losing him had hurt more.