HI BUBS!!! i cannot even explain the joy i feel being able to continue this story for y'all. i wish i hadn't lost motivation for so long but honestly it was understandable with everything that was going on in my life this past year or so 😭 i think writing is gonna be really good for me rn though so here i am :)) ALSO THIS CHAPTER IS ALMOST 5000 WORDS HELLO??

anyways, enjoy enjoy enjoy!!

I avoid any greeting towards my mother's fiancé, feeling no need to even learn his name. It's not as if he seemed cruel in anyway, I just genuinely could not care less.

My mother seems to be able to read my stiff body language, leading the group into the house rather than trying to push me to do something I don't want to do. Good.

"Here are the rooms me and Thomas have picked out for all of you," She smiles at us, gesturing towards two rooms across from each other.

My gaze quickly moves from the floor to her as I hear the name she has said. I don't feel any particular way about this name, though it feels weird to learn it. Giving him a name makes him feel more real, which essentially makes the whole situation feel more real.

"Cool, thanks." I respond with a monotone voice, pushing my lips into a straight line to imitate some sort of smile before quickly picking up my trunk and walking into one of the rooms.

The group mumbles their gratitude to her before following me into the room.

While all of them begin inspecting the decorations within the room, I sit down on one of the beds, a shaky exhale leaving my lips. My fingers press down against the tip of my eyebrows as I inhale deeply. The stress and anxiety had been coming in waves recently.

I feel the presence of someone near me, though I keep my head relaxed in my hands. After a few moments of this I watch as his shoe slowly slides toward mine, nudging me a few times.

With a confused expression fixed upon my face, I look up at Draco, questioning his actions.

His expression had a hint of concern in it, though rather than the concern feeling like pity it felt like more of a curiosity.

"I'm sure I could figure out a way to get them all out of here if you need a break," He says quietly, searching my eyes as he leans against the edge of the bed, his hands in his pockets.

I glance toward the rest of the group as the three of them inspect one of the many paintings in the room, Pansy nudging Theo as if he has just said something completely idiotic. When my eyes move back to Draco he's still looking at me, clearly ready to help in anyway.

"Suddenly so soft for me, Malfoy?" I cock my head to the side, teasingly narrowing my eyes at him.

He scoffs quietly, breaking our eye contact as he rests his head back on the bed frame, slowly shaking it. "Can never accept any help from me, can you?"

I get up from the bed, gently biting my bottom lip. "Surely you know me better than that." I meet his eyes, giving him a quick up and down look before walking away to join the others.

_ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ -_
- - - - - -

THREE DAYS UNTIL THE WEDDING

Although I would like to spend all day with my friends and ignore what's needed of me for the wedding, as the event becomes closer, my life becomes busier.

One of the things making me busier being rehearsals.

"Do you know who's playing an instrument as you sing?" Pansy questions, taking a sip of her tea.

We were sitting in the lounge while finishing our cups of tea that came along with breakfast. One good thing about staying in this house was the meals that were included in being one of it's guests.

"No, not yet." I respond, moving my position of sitting to prepare to stand. "Though I'd assume it's just some pianist they've hired to play throughout the whole wedding." I shrug, placing my tea down on the small table next to the couch before standing.

"Well, let me know how it goes once you've finished." She gives me a small smile, picking up a magazine from the foot rest.

I mutter a small "will do" as I inhale and begin to walk out of the room.

I wasn't necessarily nervous about what I was doing as I had told myself beforehand that I wouldn't let it stress me out too much. Sure it sounds bad to say I'm putting minimum energy into singing at my own mother's wedding, but with context given I'd say its fitting.

My mother had mentioned at breakfast that the rehearsal would take place on the top floor, which was made up of one room. I believe its similar to an attic in that way, though not used in a way that attics are typically used.

As I walk toward the top floor, I begin hearing two male voices speaking to each other, one sounding more familiar than the other. With my brows furrowed in confusion, I walk up the last bit of stairs.

Immediately my eyes are drawn toward Draco as his gaze finds mine. He's standing next to a man who seems to be in his 30's and is holding two small packets of paper. Their conversation hushes as they both become apparent to my entry.

"Y/n! Oh how lovely it is to finally see you!" The man says excitedly, quickly walking over to me. "My name is Ralph, I'm the wedding planner," He shakes my hand in a quite rushed manner. "Plus I'm your mother's 'Broadway bestie' as they call us." He continues with a giggle.

I try to fake a smile in return, though I'm sure it looks more confused than it does friendly.

"Ohhh," I respond, my teeth gritted in a fake smile as he continues to quickly shake my hand.

"I've heard so much about you." He adds, finally letting go of my hand and patting my shoulder a few times.

"All good things I hope," I fake an overly friendly laugh which earns an even louder laugh from him.

I quickly glance toward Draco, trying to signal for some sort of help, though all I get in return is a small mischievous smile as he tries to not laugh at my reaction to Ralph.

"Anyways, I shall be on my way to let you and this handsome young man begin rehearsing," Ralph says, the giant grin still on his face as he giggles a little while gesturing toward Draco.

"Oh please Ralph, you'll make me blush," Draco jokes back at him charmingly, slowly sliding his hands into his pockets.

This gets another rather obnoxious chuckle out of the man. Why was Draco so good at this?

"Before I leave though, I'd like to give you two these packets of questions that I have created. I really want this song to shake the wedding up and tell a story." He pouts, placing a hand over his heart. "Answering these questions together should hopefully enhance that."

Draco and I each take a packet, glancing down at the papers before Ralph's words distract us again.

"Anywho! I'll be on my way now! I am in fact planning a whole wedding!" He laughs loudly as if his joke earned it, patting Draco and I's shoulders before happily walking down the stairs.

My eyes follow him until he's completely gone and I turn back to the boy in front of me.

"Merlin I think I may need a nap after all that," I inhale deeply, raising my eyebrows.

Draco huffs humorously at my comment. "Likewise," He responds, looking down at his small packet of paper.

I stay silent for a moment, watching his eyes move across the page before a small smile grows on my lips.

"You didn't seem to have much trouble being overly friendly," I say, meeting his eyes as they move from the paper to me.

"Oh," He replies, pausing for a moment before continuing. "There are many purebloods who suck up to my family by acting that way, so I suppose I've just learned to mirror their behavior when it shows up."

I search his eyes, slowly nodding my head. "Makes sense I suppose."

"Yeah.." He mutters, licking his lips before deeply inhaling. "So you're not mad that I'm the pianist?"

Oh.

"Uh, no—I mean..." I pause for a second, trying to choose my words correctly. "We're friends, right?" I fake a small smile.

I watch as his jaw tenses and he chews the inside of his cheek.

There's a moment of silence in which hope fills up inside me. I'm not sure why I actually believe he'd deny my question, but something in me wished so badly that he would. Deny it. Deny it. Deny it.

"Right. Friends." He says without emotion, faking a small smile in return to mine.

As he begins walking toward the piano I stand still and stare at the ground for a moment, the hope inside me fading within seconds.

Once I hear him begin testing a few keys on the piano, I walk toward him, leaning my elbows upon the large instrument. We both stay silent for a few moments as we flip through the pages of the packets.

A small smile appears on my face as I read the extremely dramatic questions Ralph wants us to answer. Questions like 'What does this song mean to you?', 'If you had to pick a moment in your life that described this song, which would it be and why?', 'Imagine you are the soon-to-be-married couple, what emotions do you think you'd be feeling as this song plays?'.

"These are..." I start, staring blankly at the page.

"Fucking awful." Draco finishes my thought, huffing in amusement as his head slowly shakes with disbelief.

I laugh quietly at his wording, flipping so I'm once again at the start of the packet before dropping it onto the piano. "There's no way I'm taking the time and energy to answer these."

Draco looks up at me, an amused smile on his lips. "Think we can just tell Ralph we decided to discuss these together rather than write them down?"

"That's exactly what we did, Malfoy." I smirk, playing along.

"Sounds good to me, love." He responds instantly.

There's a moment of awkward silence afterwards as we both avoid eye contact. It's not as if I hated the name he had called me, it just felt off. Something between us felt off.

I clear my throat quietly, standing up straight rather than leaning against the piano. "We should probably start rehearsing now," I mumble, still avoiding eye contact.

"Yeah.. we should." He responds softly, pulling out the music sheet for the song.

_ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ -_
- - - - - -

TWO DAYS UNTIL THE WEDDING

The rest of Draco and I's rehearsal went well.. when it came to the music at least. The tense feeling between us stayed there and the lack of eye contact the rest of the time was clearly obvious.

Sure there had been some tension between us since deciding to stay as friends, but it felt almost unbearable these last few days.

"I mean the good thing here is that I grew up hearing Malfoy playing the piano and I can sadly confirm that he's quite good at it." Pansy says once I finish telling her about the rehearsal, of course leaving out any mention of tension.

"Huh, interesting." My brows furrow with confusion. "I never knew he could play, honestly."

Pansy nods for a moment, slightly tucking her knees further into her chest as we sit on my bed. "Mhm, I think it started out as his parents forcing him to learn how to play, but instead of resenting the piano because of that, I think he learned to enjoy it instead." She explains, shrugging.

Before I can say anything else, there's a soft knock on our door.

"I'll get it," Pansy reacts quickly, moving off of the bed and toward the door.

I watch her as she walks to the door, the comment she made about Draco still present in the back of my mind.

A spark of confusion flows through me as I see nobody waiting on the other side of the door and instead a rather fancy looking box laying on the ground. Pansy bends down to lift up the box, reading a small note on top of it as she kicks the door closed and walks toward me.

"Says they're delivering all the bridesmaids dresses out and that this one is for 'Miss Y/n'." Pansy says, smirking and winking at me as she says the very fancy way they've chosen to address me.

Once she sets the box on the bed I read the note to see if any other information is given.

"I suppose we'll see it for the first time together then," I say, not really excited nor fearful.

"I vote we just go out and buy a new dress if we don't like this one," Pansy laughs a bit as I begin opening the box.

A quiet laugh leaves me at her comment before I begin moving the tissue paper away from the dress. I don't take much time looking at the fabric before holding it up for us both to look at.

"Oh wow... yeah screw my plan." Pansy stares open-mouthed at the dress. "That's absolutely gorgeous!"

My mouth falls slightly open as well, admiring the pure elegance and beauty of the dress.  The fabric of it was deep red with a velvet texture that went all the way down to my ankles. It got tighter around the waist and hips before becoming more loose-fitted around the mid-thigh level. The neckline was in a sweetheart fashion, two delicate straps holding it up.

"At least they've done one right thing in this wedding." I huff, a smile growing on my lips as we continue staring at the dress.

"I am this close to begging your mum to let me be one of the bridesmaids." Pansy says, holding her fingers closely together as to show me how close.

I laugh at her words, laying the dress out on my bed.

_ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ -_
- - - - - -

The mansion was busy with all the preparations for the wedding, people quickly trying to get where they needed to go to get the things they needed to get.

I had heard word that Draco, Theo, and Blaise went out to the nearest town earlier to get new suits for the wedding. It was a mystery to me why pureblood men always felt the need to buy more suits, though whenever questioned of it they became very adamant that it was completely normal and necessary.

While heading downstairs for dinner, I catch myself thinking about Draco in a nicely fitted suit for much longer than I'd have liked to admit to myself. I can hardly stop the heat from flooding to my cheeks as I arrive in the lounge, immediately catching the eye of the boy who was just in my mind.

"How'd the shopping go?" I question, focusing my attention on the other two boys as I sit down on the opposite side of the couch from Draco.

"Fairly decent," Theo responds, his shoulders rising slightly in a shrugging motion. "Takes much longer for muggles to fit us than we're used to."

"Oh that's right, I almost completely forgot you straight up asked the man why he wasn't using a levitation spell for the measuring tape." Blaise adds, glaring at Theo.

My eyebrows raise in surprise. "How'd that go over?"

"Blaise and I had to essentially imply to the man that Theo wasn't really all there," Draco replies, chuckling quietly.

I glance over at Blaise who circles his finger near his head as to imitate a crazy person.

"And guess what! the man wouldn't even look me in the eye after that and barely paid any attention to if my suit really fit or not." Theo exclaims angrily, crossing his arms over his chest in a manner similar to a small child throwing a tantrum.

Blaise struggles to hold in a laugh as Draco smiles mischievously.

"I mean they had to do something mate," Pansy says, walking into the room, clearly having heard the story.

Theo glares at her while Blaise holds out his arms, gesturing for her to come sit with him.

As Pansy makes her way over to him, my mind gets distracted as my gaze moves to Draco's arm that's splayed out over the edge of the couch, not close enough to touch me yet close enough for me to notice his hand playing with a ring of his. It moves effortlessly through his fingers as he pays no attention to what he's doing.

I stare at the movement for a moment too long, his eyes finding mine. He clearly knows immediately what I was looking at as a small smirk finds its way to his lips.

I curse myself for letting him see me watching him, chewing the inside of my lip and crossing my arms over my chest.

After a few moments of the group continuing to talk, my mother appears at the entrance of the lounge, quickly quieting the conversation.

"Hi guys, I am so sorry, I thought we'd be all cleaned up by now but preparations for the wedding have completely covered the dining room table so I'm afraid you'll either have to eat in here or elsewhere tonight." She announces to the room, seeming very stressed out.

We all glance around at each other for a moment, a few shrugs and nods given from a few of us.

"Oh that's alright Miss, I'm sure we'll easily find a new place to eat." Theo says politely, a warm smile formed on his lips.

"Well alright then," She smiles back, though it seems quite strained. "Once again I'm truly so sorry for this inconvenience."

There are mumbles of "its okay"'s throughout the room, though I keep my eyes focused on the ground and my mouth shut closed.

She gives a small wave goodbye to everyone before leaving the room. There's a moment of silence consisting of everyone looking around, trying to think of places.

"I think we should eat outside, the weather is lovely right now and there's those cute fairy lights hung up out in the garden." Pansy suggests, pointing toward a window near her.

"Aw what a good idea, darling." Blaise responds in a flirty way, giving Pansy's cheek a quick kiss.

"Get a rooooom," Theo rolls his eyes, acting disgusted.

"Is someone lonelyyy?" Pansy replies with a fake pout, babying the boy as she gives his arm a pinch.

He flicks her hand away, narrowing his eyes at her to which she returns with an innocent smile.

For the rest of the night we hang out outside, talking and laughing under the setting sun as we enjoy each other's presence.

_ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ -_
- - - - - -

ONE DAY UNTIL THE WEDDING

None of us do much of anything the next day other than prepare ourselves for the rehearsal dinner of course. Some of the group makes small efforts to help out with the wedding, though I avoid getting myself involved at all. I was here as a goodbye, nothing else.

Right as I'm about to open the door to Pansy and I's room to begin getting ready, I hear the door to the room across from us open.

"Oh hey, Y/l/n," Draco's expression seems surprised yet thankful to see me. "Can we talk?"

Confusion flows through my mind at his request, though I attempt to hide it. "Yeah.. sure," I respond. He opens the door wider, gesturing for me to come in.

As I walk into the room, I feel nerves begin to stir around in my stomach. There was no reason for him to need to talk to me, not that I could think of at least. Us being in a room alone only made me more nervous about this.

"Is everything okay?" I ask, trying to search his eyes for any clues as to what he was going to say.

"Mhm, yeah everything's okay," He answers, nodding in reassurance. "I've just had an idea to make things easier for the both of us,"

I try to ignore the small step he takes toward me as the words leave his lips, though I can't ignore the way my stomach stirs more and my heartbeat slightly quickens. Surely I was reading this situation wrongly... right?

'Easier for the both of us,' his voice echos in my mind. Oh how I'd kill to make things easier between us. How lovely it'd be to give into the tension, to give into the desire. A large part of me wishes he would as his lips part and he begins to speak