A/N This is my first fanfic and I would appreciate it if you could leave some reviews and tell me what you think and how I could improve :)
It was a cold dark day. You could hear the faint sound of wind chimes moving in the distance; the sound of doors closing; and the sound of windows being shut tight. There was no bird song today, but only the howling of the wind to hear. But still he listened.
The leaves rustled in small pirouettes, as if they had life, moving in time with the gentle creaking of the old park swing the strange man sat on. He pulled his coat tighter around him and looked up to the sky. It was only if you looked closely, looked deeply enough that you could see the pain in his eyes. In his heart. But no one ever did.
But the strange man would always have time to listen to others. To listen to their complaints, or maybe a few of their compliments, his ears would always be open, just like they were today; to listen to the tales the howling wind brought him. But he need not listen, for he had heard these stories countless times. In fact, this strange man was a part of these stories himself, but he would never tell that to a living soul.
But none of his listening stopped the tear that silently rolled down his face. The strange man looked down into his open hands, at the crumpled pieces of paper he held, and started to sob. Anyone who passed by would think this man had just lost a child, even if he did seem too young to be a father, but everyone, of course, was behind closed doors, hiding from the dark, deep coldness of this day.
But if anyone were to look even closer, they would not just see the picture of a baby boy, but that of a strange lady with bright pink hair and a beak instead of a nose and mouth, holding hands with a handsome man who looked like he had seen better days. They would also find a tall young fellow with a rather cheeky grin, amongst the photos the peculiar man held in his hand.
But what was most peculiar of all, was the small piece of paper. There was nothing much upon it; just a small amount of black ink which had started to run. But the wind began to howl even harder, blowing the crumpled photos and paper into the trees before him. The man attempted to recollect them but to no success. The wind had blown them beyond the trees and his heart was too heavy to go on.
Instead the man fell to his knees looked to the sky and sobbed. "Why? Why?" he shouted to the wind, "Why didn't you just take me instead? They had a child! A new born child! And Fred? Why him eh? You know he didn't deserve to die!" he yelled on. He looked down to the ground, pausing before whispered in a coarse voice, "I'm so sorry. Really. If there ever was a time to listen, it would be now. Please, just forgive me?"
And it seemed that someone had listened. The wind seemed to die down a little and the sound of the wind chimes could be heard once more. He looked over into the distance and picked himself up.
Sometimes things are hard in life, but if you don't start moving on, you'll never live, and with a similar thought, the strange man left the park and walked away, into the distance, towards the sound of the wind chimes.
But little did this strange man know that there was someone hidden amongst the trees, someone who held his photos now, which also brought tears to their eyes. To her eyes. Hermione's eyes.
It broke her heart to see the strange man crying and she wished she had the courage to go out and comfort him, but instead she just stood, watched and listened. For now that was enough. She didn't want to make things worse but she still looked over at him as he walked into the distance silently. But a small piece of paper distracted her.
It had obviously been trapped in the trees for some time and had only just got free to follow the photos into Hermione's path. She bent down and picked it up. It was crumpled and had black ink on it, but it had started to run. It took her a moment or so before she realised that the ink formed a word. It brought tears to her eyes. It simply read 'Sorry'. This was the first time she had ever seen this man use this word and actually mean it; this man was Draco Malfoy.