Disclaimer: not mine.

Draco placed the letter down with the flowers on the earth before him. The soil made him want to burst into tears, but he couldn't. Not with his son beside him and his wife drawing closer. But he placed the letter there, even while he knew that that letter would never cross the intended reader's eyes. Never make the reader laugh, or cry. But Draco could never fully accept the fact that the intended reader was gone. He couldn't. Or he just didn't want to try.

He still wanted to believe that letter would be read. Wanted to believe… something. Anything. He just wanted to feel like he did then. Whole. Protected.

Loved.

The word sounded foreign now. It was hard to believe such a thing existed. Not when the only person to penetrate his cold heart was in front of his feet. Not now that the last remnants of their existence was a few scrolled words on a cold slab.

No. Love was a fairy tale. He had never been loved, never would be. Only his daughter would love him, and Simi would do that blindly, simply because he had helped bring her into this world.

And in one moment of weakness he had broken the armour he had built around himself, the barriers he had made were crumbled. And Draco's heart once again could feel the pain that he had tried so hard to get rid of.

The pain of the death of the only person in the world who had ever treated him like a human. Treated him as something more than the heir. Than a Malfoy. And it tore him to pieces. He turned his back on the grave, and some hidden part of him died. What he had pretended for years now had taken hold of him. He was numb. Unfeeling, uncaring. Numb.

And finally, the last remains were scattered to leave only the words scrawled on stone, a letter, and a single pure white rose.

He took his daughter by the hand and led her away. He walked to his wife, and looked back to the grave. His soul died inside him and killed any part of him that was able to feel. He was no longer humane. No longer human.

He was finally guilty of all the accusations.

He was a monster.

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He watched as Draco turned his back, and waited till he and the little girl had joined with another woman and left. He crouched as Draco suddenly turned to lay one last look at the grave. Draco turned and walked out of the gates with his family.

Stealing out of the bushes he made his way to the grave.

On it was placed a pure white rose and a letter.

He picked up the letter and read it.

Hello again.

I haven't visited at all, because I couldn't accept the truth. I still can't, but I was here for my mother's funeral so I came. I don't know why I wrote this, it was a moment of weakness and I felt so lost that I couldn't have talked to anyone but you. It's going to kill me to come to your grave to deliver this, but I couldn't give a damn anymore. My daughter is condemned to die as a sacrifice, just as my other three daughters have been. And my wife will soon run out of little girls to give. But she won't kill Evan. She'll keep him and turn him into a Death Eater. They've reformed, you know. Voldemort is gone so they've taken Dumbledore as their leader and are set to kill again. Tomorrow I am going to fulfil my own prophecy. I will kill the new Dark Lord, and have my wife and her comrades executed in the bloody battle that will follow. So I'll be left with a 1-year-old baby boy and a four-year-old girl to raise. Guess I've really bypassed all the rumours, huh?

I just wrote this cause you're the only person who would ever listen to me. I won't let your death have been in vain, my friend.

You'll always be my best friend. Even though you're gone. I'm writing this and it feels like the old days, before the war. It almost feels like I'm writing to you from the common room. Which, by the way, I am now Head of House for. I'm also the Potions professor.

Hope your happy, mate.

Draco.

The writing changed abruptly to a child's untidy scrawl.

My daddy told me you were his friend. I want you to know that daddy is upset with you. And since the Simi lives her daddy I want you to say sorry, cos when my daddy is upset I'm upset. And I don't like to be upset.

Bye-bye

Simi.

He laughed darkly. The person in question would never say 'sorry' to Draco.

Looking at the grave, Harry shuddered.

Harry Potter – The Boy Who Lived