Prologue

"Draco, I'm sorry."

"This is unnecessary. Why are you doing this to me?" Draco's voice dripped with anger and confusion, uncharacteristically shaking ever so slightly.

"I can't say. I'm sorry," the small, slight woman before him began to back away, her voice thick with tears as she tried to turn away. Draco's hands reached out and gripped her slender upper arms, his long fingers wrapping completely around and overlapping. She could feel his hands shaking. She could see the anguish in his eyes.

"Leah. Please. Don't leave me," he whispered, his voice cracking. He could see the indecision in her eyes as she appraised his pathetic pleading, and he hoped that she loved him as much as she had said, that all her words hadn't been errant lies. He hoped that this love would be enough for him to keep her with him, living in Malfoy Manor together as they had been for the past year. He wondered though, if perhaps they were too young for that sort of commitment; they were only nineteen.

"I must. I'm so sorry," Leah murmured, her lower lip trembling. She hated how she was hurting him, how she could see every one of her words slicing him like a dagger. She hated herself for doing this to him, she hated him for causing it. No, that was a lie. She didn't hate him. Leah Wickett loved Draco Malfoy more than her own life, and she wished with all her heart that she hadn't thoroughly convinced herself that this was necessary.

She began to pull away from Draco, but he was stronger. With his grip on her arms, he pulled her into a tight embrace. She leaned her head back and looked up into his eyes before gently pressing her lips to his one last time. Then she gently disentangled herself from his arms and backed up, swiftly spinning around, her light brown hair flying like her dark teal robes, before she disapparated, disappearing with a loud pop.

Draco was left alone, his entire body shaking, slowing folding in on himself and seeming to shrink. He was not the tall, proud man that most people usually saw. Right then, he was small, he was broken. He fell to his knees, his hands gripping the grass beneath them, ripping the small green growths out by their roots. A ripping sob escaped from his chest, shocking even himself and scaring the pure white peacocks nearby. Tears dripped from his eyelashes, rolling down his cheeks to fall onto the ground and soak into the earth. He looked up at the darkening sky before forcing himself to his feet and shuffling up the walk and through the vast doors of Malfoy Manor.

Leah appeared in a shadowy corner on a cobblestone alley. Shops, ranging from elaborately lit to pathetically dingy, lined the crooked street for quite a ways. Diagon Alley, which once would never have failed to enthrall her, was unnoticed as she leaned her head against the wall beside her and sobbed. Passerby stared curiously at the well-dressed woman crying loudly in the shadows, wonder what on earth could have happened to the poor girl. Greedier, more evil souls watched her hopefully, waiting for the moment when there would be no more passerby, when they could strike on the helpless victim.

After almost an hour, Leah's tears ran dry. She found herself curled in a ball, her robes dirty from being spread upon the ground and her eyes aching and swollen. She shakily stood up and brushed the dirt from her clothing, taking deep breaths to calm herself. She sighed sadly and began the walk to the other end of Diagon Alley, where her destination lay. After several minutes, she came upon a small, neat shop with a sign over the door that read, Langfield's Wizarding Housing and Realtors, which she entered.

A small, portly man stood at the desk in the back of the shop, and he smiled tiredly as she headed towards him. "Good evening madam. How can I help you?" he said kindly, noticing her still-red eyes and forlorn demeanor.

"I need to find a house... Not even a house... An apartment perhaps. Simply somewhere to live. And I need it as soon as possible." Her voice was quiet and rough from all the crying, and it still held just a hint of tremor.

"Ah, well I believe I can help you there, madam." He waved his wand and a display of many different houses and apartments slid out from the ceiling. Leah selected the one she liked best, then pulled an enormous bag of galleons from the depths of her robes.

"Will this be enough, sir?"

"Oh... Oh yes of course it will, madam," the small man said, his eyes wide as he pulled the extremely heavy bag towards him. He lifted it from the desk and immediately dropped it on his foot. "Thank... you... madam. Here's your... key." he mumbled, his eyes watering. "It's a portkey right now. It'll take you straight to your door."

She smiled wanly at the man as she took the key. "Thank you." she murmured, feeling the key grow warm in her hand. With a glowing blue light and a tug behind her gut, she was yanked out of existence with the sensation of flying. Just as quickly, she found herself standing on a slightly shabby porch, looking up at a quaint yellow house. She sighed softly before lifting the key and entering the house, gently resting a hand on her slightly rounded belly, the child growing inside being the source of all these troubles.