Hey everyone. In this update, I'd like to thank Captain CV for the recent review, and I want to take a quick second to talk about Draco. I suppose that rather than keeping it to the expectation or already established view of Draco, I wanted to bring out a character that is more human, relatable and personal. Part of his character already comes from myself, and I also see how I would feel if I were in his position. As this story progresses, we will definitely see a Draco unique to this world who may even surprise me through the actions and choices he will make. As always, the song that helped inspire this chapter is, "Sail on," by Thomas Csorba.

Chapter 4

The date progressed so amazing that I just couldn't help being sad when it was over. It was already late, reaching nearly 3 AM. As I took another sip of my green tea I saw her yawning through the glass cup. It made me feel bad for taking up her time like this. It made me realize how selfish I was, only caring about what I want and not even taking her situation into consideration. With the raising sense of guilt building in my stomach, I causally tell her,

"It looks like we ended up talking for so long that the sun might be rising soon."

"Huh? Oh! Is it that late already?!" she replies while quickly checking her watch, "I really need to get going, I have an early shift coming up pretty soon," she grudgingly says as she begins to look into her bag.

"How much do I owe you," she asks.

"Oh no, don't worry. It was my treat anyways," I tell her while motioning for a waiter.

"I come here so often that they always give me a discount," I say as I pass over my credit card.

"Is it ok? I mean, I'll pay you back, you don't have to treat me," she says determinedly into my eyes.

"No, really, I can't ask a lady to pay for me," I reply.

"Excuse me. I don't need a man to pay for me, I can do that myself. I don't need special treatment," she says somewhat angrily at me.

"Oh! No, no, I don't mean it that way," I quickly tell her, "I've just been raised to always be a gentleman, and that when a man takes a woman out, it's his responsibility to pay for the meal," I explain.

"Oh. Sounds like your parents really raised you to be an upstanding person," she says while giving me another one of her perfect smiles.

However, as she says that, I can't seem to smile back. My mind flashes image of my parents. Although it was always tough at home, they always did love me and tried their best to help encourage and instill good values in me. Now that they're gone, her words seem to only tug at the old wounds of my heart and I start to feel a painful pressure in my eyes and on my heart. Before I shed a tear, I quickly pulled a handkerchief out.

"Are you alright," she asks with concern.

"Don't worry about, I just got some dust in my eyes," as I try to look confident and happy.

She looks at me, not entirely believing my words. She gives a look that makes me yearn to only be held by her, to let go of the secrets and burden that hold down my heart. Over the years, I've been trying to keep myself from breaking as the world seems to fall apart all around me. With the end of the war…

…

my parents were taken to Azkaban. Their sentence was indefinite with no chance of ever leaving.

…

I can't visit them. I can't see their faces again. I can't feel the warn hugs of my mother and father ever again. I can't even hear their voices.

All this just seems to make my heart break more as the anger seems to grow. I feel it, like a monster waiting to break out, smashing at my will and driving me insane. It curses at me, telling me to take out my wand and just start destroying everything, and what makes it all worse is that it works together with the emptiness that seems to be all that's left of me; breaking whatever is left of my sanity.

…

All of a sudden I feel something touch my hand. It's cool, soft, warm and full of love. I look up and I see eyes of green. The deepest serpent green I've ever laid my eyes on before. It looks into my eyes and I can feel the worry, the confusion and most of all the kindness.

"Are you ok?" she asks me softly and slowly.

"Oh…I…I'm fine," I say as quickly take my hand away. I didn't want to ever let go, but I needed to compose myself.

"Umm…ok" she says timidly, as she slowly takes her hand back.

"I..I just had a minor headache," I say as I try to smile.

But as I pass of the fake smile, she just looks at me as if I was a different person. She looks at me as if I were a plastic doll rather than a human being, an object rather than something alive.

…

And it hurt me inside.

"It's gotten late, we really should be leaving," I say as I quickly get up when the waiter walks back.

"Oh….um…alright," she says somewhat confused.

When we reach outside of the restaurant, I look at her and she looks me back and we just stare into each other's eyes. I don't know how long we did that, but it wasn't until I heard the sound of the door shut that I woke. And as I woke, she did as well.

"It..It was a really nice time, I hope we get to meet again soon," she says somewhat nervously while never letting go of my gaze.

"We..we should. Umm… maybe we can meet again this Saturday?" I ask, equally nervous as her.

"That sounds great, I would love that. Where should we meetup?" She asks.

"Ummm, how does Central Park sound?" I ask.

"That sounds great, let me give you my number" she replies while writing down her number on the back of small post-it.

As she hands it to me, we just hold each other's gazes for one more second before she says, "I'll see you on Saturday then. Have a nice night," she says as she smiles. Then she turns away and begins to walk away.

I don't know how long I stood there, I just looked at her back growing smaller and smaller as she disappears into the distance. When she was finally gone I just looked down at the piece of paper in my hand and I felt a smile begin to grow on my face. The last thing I did was look one last time in her direction before getting my wand out and apparating back to my apartment. I am really looking forward to this Saturday.