Draco held the tiny creature in his cupped trembling hands. His thumbs idly caressed its feathers, velvety smooth and white, ruffling ever so slightly under his touch. The bird lifted its small head, its eyes searching the young man's steel grey gaze for something, anything. The tenderness with which he had previously regarded it was absent this time. In its stead was startling regret and a pain so intense, so foreign, that all the little bird wanted to do was rid him of it, completely and utterly, and restore the gentle quirk of lips that was his breathtaking smile back to his face.

The bird nipped softly against the knuckle of his index finger, cooing and rubbing its head against his thumb, urging him to continue his light strokes.

Draco halted his motions and shook his head, trying desperately to instill some sort of strength back into his bones. He had to do this. It was completely beyond his power. The Dark Lord would kill his mother if he failed… kill him.

"Y-you don't understand," he choked, his voice quivering and becoming overcome with the emotion that was now coursing through his body with a vengeance, tearing down his composure into shreds, leaving him exposed to the beady black stare of the tiny bird in his hands. "I have to do this… I was chosen!"

The bird fixed him with an odd expression and shook its head. It couldn't let anything happen to the boy who held it now with such affection. It cared too much for him to stand in his way and leave him to the devices of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. With a new form of courage, the bird struggled to raise its wings in the boy's grasp and gestured to the tall black cabinet that stood imposingly next to them.

Draco nodded once, swallowing back the lump of tears that had formed in his throat. With hands unsteady, he unlatched the cabinet and placed the creature on a shelf within, but not before gracing the top of its head with a gentle caress of his lips.

Shutting the cabinet closed once again, he placed his hand against the grain of the wood, allowing his forehead to rest against the cabinet.

"Goodbye," Draco breathed into the silence.