She tentatively traced the engraved letters on the grey headstone with her delicate fingertips, as if willing herself to believe that the person behind that name wasn't truly gone.

Draco Malfoy.

Nothing else followed the emptiness, save for the distant, echoing sound of silence. Only the dates of his birth and death, none of which mattered anymore. She closed her eyes to keep the tears that threatened to fall in place. 'Please,' she pleaded silently to listening angels, 'Not here, not now.'

The skies heard her prayer, so that the tears she couldn't cry the heavens shed with bitter raindrops.