A/N- Hey. Sorry I'm late. Find full author's note and the rest of this chapter in my new-old next project.
Erin and Draco arrive in the town of Ottery St. Catchpole at seven minutes to midnight. In the moment that she apparates the both of them there, she forgets how to disappear in a cloud of great black smoke, or rather she erases it from her learned skill set completely- that's how Death Eaters travel, and she is not one of those anymore. Never again will she take her leave by taking a straight shot up into the sky, just with a turn of her heel, there and gone in the blink of an eye. She won't use that kind of magic any more. Never again.
Never again. That'll be a theme, she expects, in the coming weeks and months. Years. This will never happen again.
Once, she had thought that she might never again see the house that's looming up in front of the pair of them as they take the long walk through the tall grass growing on the plot of land just outside of town. It's a different house than she remembers, after the attack and the fire and the repairs that had to be done, but the bare bones of it are still there. It still looks like home.
The protective wards around the Burrow must still be in place because while Erin passes the property line without hesitation, Draco is stopped by an invisible barrier. When she looks back at him, she can see where he clenches his fist at his side in pain though his face betrays no sign of it. The Dark Mark on his arm must be what keeps him from following after her.
"You go on ahead," Draco tells her, voice rough with disuse and something else. "I'll meet you there, if I'm allowed in."
"I'll come back for you." It sounds like a promise when Erin says it, because it is. If he can't follow, then it'll be no place that she's welcome, either. She'll either meet him there to bring him back with her or she'll meet him there to move on. Though she's used to knowing in her gut that she belongs here, there's no telling which way it'll go tonight.
The trek to the door off the kitchen feels longer than anything else, without Draco by her side. Lately she's been used to walking alone.
A/N- Chapter 1 of Innocent is now posted!