Hello everyone!
I have only rarely published any of my stories at all because I always think they aren't good enough, but this one is really special to me.
I admit, it's style might need work, but it felt kind of wrong to change it too much.
I am happy about every feedback I receive, so please tell me your thought about this. I would only like to ask you be constructive in your criticism. :)
I hope you'll enjoy!
P.S.: English is not my mothertongue - I gave it my best!
MAIN CHARACTER AND WORLD BELONG TO J.K. ROWLING.
Draco Malfoy was raised a spoiled pureblood only-child. He was told that he was something special practically every day of his life, drowning in the love of his parents.
His magic showed rather early – when he was three years old – and he was also quite intelligent, valuing the perks of reading from the moment he learned how to do it properly and he always wanted to know everything. Early in his life he met his friends – who will also prove to be for life – Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott, for their parents were also always quite friends.
But there was one more person who was a constant in his childhood: since his seventh winter he dreamt of her, a girl a bit younger than he is. She has strawberry-blond curls she mostly wears free and untamed on her head, framing her face with pale freckles and striking green eyes. Night after night he can see her while she plays with an older boy, a pretty woman reading to her or just simply watching the stars from her window. He doesn't know her, not her name or anything about her except what she looks like. Every night he watches her in his dreams, and every morning he wonders who she is and if she is real at all.
When he turned eleven he became a Hogwarts student, being a Slytherin as his parents before him, and establishing his rivalry with the oh-so-famous Harry Potter. He was the second in his year – being bested by a Muggleborn witch, which especially annoys him to no end. And in all the coming years he could not best her even once, no matter how hard he studied (and that he did!) . He hates her for being better than him and showing him that he is not superior in intellect, no matter what his parents have always told him. He grew frustrated exam by exam and he was especially nasty towards her, calling her names in his teen arrogance and treating her not equally even once, even though deep inside he was impressed.
He did not understand that girl, this Hermione, for she was intelligent but extraordinarily reckless with her – in his eyes – stupid bravery.
All his other housemates but Theo and Blaise still treated him as someone superior, always doing everything he asks and never daring to tell him no. His arrogance grows by day, any his thoughts become fouler with every person crawling up his behind.
The dreams of the girl become less and less, and sometimes there are months without a sight of her.
But then, one night in his fifth year he sees her, after months of her absence. And in his dreams she looks at him directly for the very first time, staring into his eyes and – what feels like – right into his soul, scowling.
"Your light fades.", she tells him," If you step more into the dark I will not find you."
"Why would you even need to find me?", he asks, snobby and with his ill-faded arrogance tainting his voice.
"You are of no use to me."
She looks closer at him, and when she sees no jest in his demeanor he detects the hurt in her eyes. It feels wrong when she steps away from him, averting her eyes and leaving him behind. When he tries to reach out to her, his body reacting to an unseen bound, he can't move even one bit. He doesn't understand why he even wants to reach out, to touch her, and why it physically hurts to see her leave.
He wakes up with a start, panting frantically and clutching his hurting chest. He feels restless and it finally dawns on him that he just made a huge mistake. Something inside of him was missing, even though he never knew it was there in the first place. He tries to swallow the bitter feeling, and succeeds partially, but a gnawing feeling still remains in the back of his head as he turns around and tries to get back to sleep.
Over the months the feeling of being incomplete grows more and more, and with the rising darkness he himself becomes lost. The death eaters invading his home, infiltrating his thoughts and threatening his family, making him one of them against his will.
At first he finds some pride in being one in their midst, but that soon fills with dread when he watches the panic in his mothers' eyes and the defeat in his fathers' grow. He understands soon that it is the life of his family against his services. His arrogance subsides quickly in the eyes of death and leaves him with nothing but loneliness and blind fear.
He never sees his girl anymore.
He is successful repairing the Vanishing Cabinet, but fails with the assassination he was required to do. He is forced to spend day by day in the presence of a madwoman and a werewolf, leaving him in the end empty and hopeless.
There was no light left inside of him.
The 2nd may arrived, and they fought for their life, all of them. In the end the Dark Lord was defeated and for the very first time in years he feels hope.
But there were not only the Order and Students and Heroes there, but also foreign forces. Some friends of Durmstrang and Beauxbaton fought at the side of the light, and also some people he has never seen before. In fact, even the bright winners seem to have never seen them before. They introduced themselves after the battle, helping to heal the wounded and feeding the exhausted.
Draco was defeated. Even though there grows a faint spark of hope in him, he is defeated, leaning against the wall of the Great Hall, eyes closed, holding his mothers' hand tight and trying to not burst into a million pieces.
The eyes of the dark haired young man fell on him, squinting slightly, watchful. He saw the emptiness, the darkness in his heart. With sadness he thinks about a certain girl, who seems to have given up long ago.
Draco was heard in trial, freed of all charges. Harry Potter himself defended him, too. He shook the hand of the other man at the end of the day, too exhausted to feel anything bad anymore.
At his side stood Hermione Granger.
"I'm sorry, Granger.", he tells her. Shocked she gapes. "You deserve the title brightest witch of our age. You'll be great."
And without giving her a chance to answer he leaves.
His father sentenced to Azkaban, him and his mother renovate their home, trying to get rid of everything that remembers them of their dark past and the so very dark and misleaded people who infiltrated this place for far too long.
The years went by, Draco becoming someone in the Law Department of the Ministry, but nothing can fill the void he still carries in his soul. Narcissa saw, of course.
As Draco became 20, she tries to arrange a marriage, but none of the girls could stand him for too long. Blaise and Theo still rather close to him throw more names of their relatives into the pool.
When a cousin of Blaise arrived from Germany, Draco has resigned months ago.
The first evening there was a young man with Blaise, a bit older than them. He watches Draco closely, they talk, Draco long having perfected the happy masquerade.
But the dark haired man notices it. Not one smile reaches the eyes of the blonde man, nothing really reaching his core.
"He is dark, sister." He tells her later. "He has forgotten how to laugh, to really feel. He has nothing to give you. It is not the man you would want."
She looks at him quizzically, also masquerading a void in her heart. Her strawberry blond curls framing her grown up face beautifully, her intelligent green eyes guarded.
"Brother dear, how would you know?", she answers him, leaving him speechless.
Blaise accompanies her to the Malfoy Manor three days later. They find Draco sleeping in the Library, a book lying open on his chest.
Before Blaise could say a word and wake the young man, she signs him to wait.
Walking over silently she looks at his face closely. There is nothing of the things that hurt her so many years ago in his face this time.
Carefully she takes the book from his chest, settling herself next to his legs on the big couch where they leave some space to sit. She starts to read aloud softly, waking Draco carefully from his slumber. Her voice fills him with a peace he can't remember to ever have felt, and when he opens his eyes to look at her the whole world shifts into a new gravity.
He can't help but stare at her in awe. And then, when she lifts her eyes from the words, checking on him, she is surprised, downright shocked at what she sees.
His grey eyes show a softness and warmth she did not expect. Uncertain if she should move, she fidgets.
"I'm sorry.", he tells her silently. "For hurting you. I never meant to hurt you."
Angling her head to the side she asks him: "And you mean it?"
"With every fiber of myself, I do. I am sorry."
Silence.
Green eyes locked into grey ones, and then she smiles.
A real smile, one that brightens up the whole room, but even more, his heart too.
A smile that reaches her eyes.
And he smiles back at her too.
They just knew.
They rarely spent time apart after that, physically hurt when they were.
They got to know each other inside and out, and they were wed only months after they met.
"I missed you.", he tells her at the end of the day.
"And I you, but you didn't know then."
She stands on her tiptoes to kiss him, and when they broke apart they looked at each other, smiling.
They loved.
The stars above them watching and sparkling as the two bound souls finally were complete.
Thank you so much for reading!
Please leave a comment how I can improve my writing, if you like!
I hope you'll have a day as glorious as your butt. ;)