Disclaimer: Everything that can be found in the official Harry Potter books and "Ashes of Time" belongs to their creators. One line in Chapter One is borrowed from Cassandra Claire with her consent. The rest belongs to me.
A/N: This story is written after "The Goblet of Fire" (the fourth book) and before the release of "The Order of the Phoenix" (the fifth book). I've tried to have this series carefully planned. You'll enjoy it more if you think, make guesses & try to solve the mysteries as you're reading before they are uncovered. When reading Chapters 1 & 2, please be patient and don't skip the details because they help you in the process. Otherwise, there'll be a lot you won't understand in the following chapters.
- CHAPTER ONE -
PROMISE AND TRUTH
It had seemed that I was destined to be overshadowed ever since I was born. I had been envious of my elder brothers' success and the fame of my best friend, Harry, who hadn't really done anything to find it.
It had been ten years after Hogwarts. I had been in Romania for nearly eight years, working for C.A.V.E. - Coalition Against Voldemort's Expansion - headed by Dumbledore, as an informant. My job was to locate Death Eaters around Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary and provide information to Aurors who had joined C.A.V.E. so they could capture targets more easily. It might not sound as challenging as that of Aurors'. However, without people like me, Aurors would be in a disadvantageous position because of ignorance of the geographical features or dangerous magical creatures and plants that darks wizards might use against them. Even if there weren't Death Eaters, the region I was in charge of was no good for common wizards and witches. There are lots of swamps, Devil's Snare and Horntails, and Vampires and Veela seemed to have sided with Voldemort.
Because of my job nature, I didn't like friends and family visiting or owling me because that would put them in danger. Even when Ginny owled me the previous year, I did not respond. I still had the note with me.
15 August, 2007
Ron,
I know you don't like us owling you but something's just happened here. I can't tell if it's urgent or not but it may very well be related to you. Please come home, if possible, because I don't know if I'm handling it in the best way. By the way, everyone is okay here.
Take care,
Ginny
As the matter might not be urgent and Ginny could still handle it, though probably not in the best way, I ignored it. Besides, there was someone in England I didn't want to see.
Every year around July, Draco Malfoy visited me. We were no longer enemies since some Slytherins like Adrian Pucey, Terence Higgs and he had left the dark side in my seventh year. Nevertheless, they never helped us with the fight against Voldemort. Perhaps they were caught in between righteousness and their family who were mostly Death Eaters. Voldemort's supporters considered them traitors, so most of them were compelled to live a wandering life.
Draco was a strange fellow. He called on me for no reason. Anyway, it was good to have someone to talk with once every year when I was alone most of the time. He had been seeing me for quite a number of years. That year, he brought me a gift.
*
"A friend of mine gave me a bottle of Alienodolor recently. She said it's unlike the Forgetfulness Potion we learnt to brew in our first year. Instead of erasing everything, it slowly takes away the painful memory. I don't think Snape taught us how to make it in our schooldays, did he? Anyway, my friend said a good memory gives man trouble," said Draco, sitting on a window sill, leaning against the frame. He put a hand through his silvery blond hair and gazed out of the window. "How wonderful it'd be if man could forget the past. Everyday would be a new beginning. Isn't that great? Perhaps I have to get a bottle for myself too." I wasn't sure if he was speaking to me or to himself, but then he turned and looked at me. "Well, the potion was meant for you as a gift. Now, can you treat me to a beer?"
The potion sounded too weird. I couldn't bring myself to drink it but I let Draco have as many cans of Butterbeer as he liked. He did drink a lot that night, and then fell asleep on a sofa.
Draco would usually stay at my place for a week but, strangely, he had already left before I got up the next morning. I could see that he had been upset about something the previous night, but I didn't know what it was.
*
The following night, I had an unexpected visitor. I was sitting on the sofa reading a map when a woman Apparated to my living room. She stood in front of the coffee table facing me.
"Where's Draco?" demanded the woman.
I looked up from my map. "Who are you? And what do you want with him?" The woman looked somehow familiar.
"Pansy Parkinson. Ronald Weasley, I know Draco is here."
Though I had hated Draco in my schooldays, I couldn't have denied that he looked cool and handsome. With those silver grey eyes, blond silky hair, chiselled features and a well-built body, he could have had a bunch of Hogwarts girls after him back then, if it hadn't been for Malfoys' strong ties with Voldemort. After leaving the dark side, Draco won the admiration and affection of many witches but none of them could compare with Pansy Parkinson for her longstanding devotion to Draco.
I simply said, "He's gone."
"Gone? Gone again!" She fell to her knees and started crying uncontrollably.
I jumped up and didn't know what to do. To calm her down, I tried giving her a few drinks, but that couldn't stop her from weeping and mumbling to herself. I just stood there looking at her.
Suddenly, I caught one of the many things she was saying. "If he loved me, why did he leave me alone?"
"Sometimes a man doesn't realise how deeply he's in love with someone until he's separated from her. Maybe that's the case with Draco." I couldn't help saying.
Pansy looked up and shouted, "No!"
I was shocked by her reaction. There was an uncomfortable moment of silence. She seemed to be lost in her thought. I asked her cautiously, "Why are you so sure?"
Lifelessly, she said, "He said he's in love with another woman." She buried her head in her arms which were crossed on the coffee table and wept again.
I didn't know what to say but she slowly fell asleep.
Though she was a Slytherin, I pitied her. A heartbroken person shouldn't be left sleeping on the floor. I was carrying her to the sofa when she struggled feebly and said defensively.
"Who are you?"
"Don't you recognize me?"
She half-opened her eyes. In the darkness, she looked like someone.
"Of course I know you. You promised to marry me!" she said.
"Did I?" I lowered her onto the sofa but she clung her hand to mine tightly. My attempt to detached myself from her failed. I was left standing next to her lying form.
"One year, I went all the way to Hogsmeade to find you. We drank together at Three Broomsticks. You said to me that you'd marry me if I'd change. I knew what you meant. You wanted me to leave the dark side like you."
She had taken me as someone else, probably due to the effect of alcohol.
"A man can't be serious when he's drunk," I said
She sobbed, still clinging to my hand. "Because of your promise, I've defied my parents and disgraced my family. Last time I saw you, I asked you to take me along but you refused. You said you couldn't love two persons at the same time. You loved me. Then why have you fallen in love with another woman?"
She let go of my hand and turned away from me. "Do you know I've gone to look for that woman? Pucey told me she's the one you love most. I'd wanted to kill her but I didn't in the end because I didn't want to prove that she is!" she paused. "Sometimes I wondered if you've truly loved me, but I don't want to know the answer anymore."
After a while, she suddenly stood up and flung her arms round my neck. "If I ever ask you the question, please don't tell me the truth. No matter how unwilling you are, please tell me you love me!" She cried on my shoulder and my robe was soaked with her tears. Slowly, she sobbed herself to sleep.
I let her sleep on the sofa and sat in an armchair opposite to her. Time passed second by second that night.
"Tell me. Do you love me?" It seemed that she was having a dream.
"Yes, I love you," I answered, as she had wanted. Her lips curled into a smile.
Someone had once asked me the same question. I didn't answer it. Acting as Draco, however, I found it wasn't so hard to utter those three words.
That night, I felt someone touch me in my sleep. I knew very well I wasn't the one she wanted to touch. She was still taking me as someone else. It was the same for me. Her hands were very warm, just like ...
- Flashback -
"He doesn't know how to take care of himself," whispered a girl. She pulled a blanket over a red-haired boy who had fallen asleep on a couch in the Gryffindor common room. She sat down next to him, looking at him adoringly.
The boy felt someone stroke his hair and his face tenderly with a soft, warm palm. That someone planted a kiss on the side of his mouth, and her hair brushed his cheek like butterfly wings. He inhaled the scent of her and knew instantly she was the one who had always been in his dreams.
He fought the urge to hold her in his arms and pretended to be still asleep. He had decided to join C.A.V.E. after the graduation ceremony. An embrace then would snap his will to enlist himself in the coalition the following day. Why did she have to make it so difficult for him?
He lay still and heard her walk back to the girls' dormitory. He thought, at such a critical period in the wizarding world and a time when he was starting a career, he couldn't and shouldn't give her any promise. He stood up, causing the blanket to fall onto the floor, and looked at her through the door of her dormitory in agony.
**
A/N:
Questions for Your Thought:
- Whom didn't Ron want to see?
- Why did Draco visit Ron every year?
- Why did Draco give Alienodolor to Ron?
- Why did Draco look so upset?
- Would Pansy be able to find Draco?
- Whom did Draco truly love?
- Who was the girl in the Gryffindor common room?
Thank you for reading Chapter 1. Please comment. I wish there would be at least 5 reviews before Chapter 2 is up.