'Head Auror Glass' was painted on her office door window in bold black letters. Minister Kingsley Shacklebolt tapped lightly on the door and opened it without waiting for a reply. Auror Glass was sitting in her large office, bent over the desk that was located in the far corner beside the enchanted window. When the door swung opened, Zaya's head snapped up and she she slowly placed her quill down.
"Something I can help you with, Minister?" she asked politely.
"No, Ms Glass, just stopped by to introduce you to your new partner. He will be co-head." drawled Kingsley.
"Fantastic." a smile graced her lips and Zaya's eyes sparkled with delight, "I could really use the help."
Kingsley nodded and turned toward the door. When he called in her partner, Zaya's blue eyes widened comically. She brushed her silver hair out of her face and watched with complete disbelief as a tall, blonde, pale bloke with pointed features strode into the room, hands intertwined behind his back.
"Draco Malfoy, Zaya Glass." Kingsley motioned from Draco to Zaya then looked at Zaya and was about to repeat himself, but Zaya spoke before he had a chance; "I know him." she stated. Eyebrows raised, Kingsley left, not another word uttered.
"You know me, do you?" Draco drawled as he glanced toward his desk, then at Zaya, then back at his desk. His desk is right across from Zaya's. Zaya stood up, a questioning look etched onto her features, and walked over to Draco. She beamed when he looked down at her, something weak like recognition, dancing in his grey eyes. Then she reached under her shirt collar, and pulled out the necklace she never once took off in over a decade. The smalle diamond popped out from under her collar and Draco's eyes narrowed in a vain attempt to keep them from widening.
"Zaya?" he asked; she nodded faintly. "How long has it been?" he started to sound delighted, "Ten years?"
"Yeah, around there. How did you not recgonize my name?" she poked him in the ribs.
"In my defense, it sounded familiar, but I hadn't heard it in over ten years." he spat.
"Well," Zaya started, and hugged him, grinning as he hugged her back, "What have you been up to for the past ten years?" she said lightly, backing up and sitting back at her desk. Draco settled down into the one across from her and propped his feet up on top it, legs crossed at the ankles and hands intertwined behind his head.
"Well, I got married." he said, with a crooked grin.
"Really?" replied Zaya, "To whom? And why wasn't I invited?" mock hurt lacing her voice.
"I didn't know where you were or how to get a hold of you. If we were still in contact, you would've been invited. Hell, you would have been one of the brides mates!"
"You're avoiding the question I really want an answer too," mumbled Zaya in a sing-song voice, picking up her quill again.
"Harry Potter." whispered Draco fondly, casting his eyes up to the ceiling.
"Hmm?" Zaya's eyebrows flew to her hairline and she snapped her head up so fast her neck cracked - "You married Harry Potter?"
"He proposed! We were just friends, never even dated, and he walked up to me the day before graduation, grabbed my hand, slipped the ring on and said; 'Nice ring, eh?' to which I replied; 'Yes, whose is it?' and he said, 'Yours, if you agree to marry me.' Pretty Gyffindor of him, is it not?" Draco looked at Zaya and winked.
"You were enaged since Hogwarts?" said Zaya incrediously.
"We got married three years ago."
"That's a long time to be engaged for."
"With training, and work and all that, we decided we didn't care when the wedding was, as long as it happened."
For the rest of the day, Zaya and Draco did nothing but talk. They caught up on everything they missed out on in each others life the past ten years, and made jokes and reminicsed. By the end of the day, it was almost as though there wasn't a ten year gap missing in their friendship.
He knows he won't be able to live with himself. Sure, he did want to be Head Auror, not co-head, but he didn't want to earn it like this. He didn't want to have the title at all if it meant standing in this spot, speaking to the sea of black dresses and pressed suits. He won't be able to do this - he's not ready to talk about her like this yet. He didn't want to ever think that he would be attending this event at such a young age, but here he is, walking away from where he was seated beside Harry and up to the podium that stands beside the ebony box that shines in the dim day light.
"She was the perfect partner." he starts with a nervous laugh.
"Always knowing what to do on missions, always knowing how to write the perfect report, always.. Jsut always being there. But she was more than an Auror partner to me. She was my best friend, my sister, my partner in crime - as people liked to say during Hogwarts everytime we pulled a prank. We were never as good as Fred and George Weasley, oh no. But we were a fine subsitute after they left, I'd like to believe. Mainly because of her. We weren't always close though. We despised each other when we were younger, actually. I'm still never quite sure what changed, or when it did, but it was around her seventh birthday. Our mothers were so delighted to see us getting along.
I remember on her seventh birthday, I got her a necklace. She never took it off. Not once. After Hogwarts, we lost contact. I'll admit, I never thought of her much. We left off on bad terms. But ten years later, and we were assigned as Auror partners. Who knew? I didn't recognize her until I saw that necklace. God, she loved that necklace. It represented.. Everything about us.
We were only partners for a year, before this.
Her last words to me? I just want to go home."
An eerie silence crept up and settled over everyone attending the event. The wind rustled the coloured leaves, and played with the occupants hair. Golden light spilled from behind the clouds and illuminated the tears on the brim of his grey eyes.
"Death is a hard topic to get a grasp on. It's sudden and disgusting. It's unforgiving and unforgettable. I think that at one point, I will be able to talk about Zaya Glass without choking up horribly. I'll be able to think back and smile at my memories of her rather then never wanting to think of them again in fear of breaking down. But that won't happen anytime soon. Not today... Not tomorrow..."
His knuckles were white from gripping the podium; "Because I really don't want this to be it.."
He swallowed thickly; "But it has to be"
And Draco Malfoy took one last look into the open cascate, at the peaceful look on Zaya's cold face, at the necklace lying lazily on her chest, then slid his hands into his pockets and walked away. Just walked.
