Title: Bound
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 501
Notes/Warning: Written for Day 1 of the Dramione Easter Angst Challenge. Prompt: Death is not the greatest of evils; it is worse to want to die, and not be able to. – Sophocles

When he had stopped eating, they had taken away his wand, brought him to a Muggle hospital, and hooked him up to a machine that fed him nutrients through a tube in his arm. Undoubtedly, it had been his son's wife's idea. She was just as big of a know-it-all, busy-body as her mother had been.

Scorpius sat beside the bed, resting his chin in his hand.

"Son, I want to go home."

The younger man shook his head. "You can't. You're not well yet."

"I don't want to get well. I want to join her beyond the veil."

Scorpius shook his head, but before he could reply Rose bustled into the room, a vase of fresh flower in her arms. She placed a hand on her husband's shoulder and smiled at Draco. "How are you feeling today?"

"That is none of your business." He wanted to sneer at her, but felt too weak to do more than glare and frown.

"Well, that is where you are wrong. It became my business the day you married my mum and it became doubly my business after I married your son. So I'll ask again, how are you feeling?"

"He wants to go home." Scorpius told her, when his father refused to reply.

"Impossible. He is just now starting to get his strength back."

"Rose, death is not this great evil you are making it out to be," Draco told her sadly.

"It is when there is nothing physically wrong with you! Ever since Mum passed, you've been letting yourself waste away. It is so unnecessary and so unlike you. You never just give up!" Draco saw her lips tremble. "I lost my Dad when I was thirteen, I lost Mum last year, and I refuse to lose you, too."

"Rose," Draco sighed. He patted the bed and she came and sat next to him. Placeing the vase of flowers on his side table, she took his hand in hers. "The best times of my life have been these last years. Being part of a family with you, Scorpius, Hugo, and Hermione has been more than I ever deserved. But now that Hermione is gone, all I want to do is rejoin her. I'm a selfish bastard, I know, but this life is no longer enough for me. I can't be happy without her."

Rose shook her head, as tears slipped down her cheeks. "You are just depressed. Things will get better. Once you are healthy again, life won't seem so bleak. You'll see. It's all going to be fine."

Draco closed his eyes and blocked the sound of Rose's voice by imagining his beautiful wife waiting for him next to a stream. He could see her long hair whipping about her face in the breeze, her smile welcoming him, and her arms embracing him. He would join her soon. He'd told Rose the truth, dying wasn't a great evil. It was much worse to want to die, and not be able to.