Posted: Nov. 5, 2004

Chapter Five: Tears of Rain

Draco was relaxing in a little study upstairs, in a room he usually kept locked. He was laying on the couch with one of his favorite books, though he would never admit to anyone that it was. It was a tale of a little boy who was lost in a forest. While lost, he found a fairy who had been caught in a spider's web. He rescued the fairy and because of this, the fairy said she would grant him one wish. Being lost you would think the boy would wish his way home, but because the boy had never known any type of kindness from his parents, he wished for something he had never known before; he wished for love.

The fairy granted the boy his wish. She gave him an exotic forest flower and told him that the person he gave it to would love him for the rest of his life. She also warned him that he should make his choice wisely, because life meant life, and there was no way to undo the spell of the flower.

The little boy had grown up to be a respectable young man who had fallen for a young lady he went to school with. Heeding the fairy's warning he wanted to make sure that this was the right girl for him, so he became friends with her and they remained friends for many years. After those many years, the young man realized he could not live without her and presented her with the exotic forest flower as he proposed to her. The young lady, of course, accepted.

Many more years passed and the young man soon found that he was an old man, who had lived a happy life with his wife, and raised many children. But something plagued his mind and it would not escape him. So he traveled back to the forest that he had found himself lost in as a little boy, looking for the fairy who had gave him the forest flower.

When he found the fairy, he told her that he was sad, because his wife only loved him because of the fairy's help. The fairy only smiled as she explained to the boy, that he never needed the flower to find love, and that the love that his wife held for him had been nothing but genuine from the start.

Draco frowned as something distracted him from his book. It was Angelina's owl passing by the window. Getting up slowly as he held his side, he put his book back on the self along with the others, wondering why he always liked that one so much.

Hewalked out the room and down the hall towards the stairs. As he was going down, he could have sworn he heard crying from the first floor. "Tulip?" he called as he reached the bottom, and walked into the living room.

Angelina was in the spot Draco usually found her in, staring out the patio window, looking at the estate. He noticed the partially balled up piece of parchment in her hand. "You shouldn't be walking around so much," she said with her back to him.

"I'm fine." He dropped his hand from his side, determined to prove, even to her now, that he was not weak. "What have you got there?" he said, referring to the letter in her hand. She said nothing as she finished balling it up and sticking it into her pocket. She obviously didn't want to talk about it. "Look at me, Tulip," he demanded.

Angelina turned her head towards him as she crossed her arms. Her face showed no signs that she had been crying and Draco wondered what it was he had heard before. "What do you need?" she asked plainly, with a flat expression on her face. Draco shook his head and Angelina turned back to the window. "I'm going out today. I'll be back sometime tonight."

"I'll have the House Elves keep your dinner warm," Draco told her, as she was about to walk pass him out the living room door.

She stopped and looked at him. "Are we in any type of danger?"

"What makes you think that?"

"Everyone knows that your father denied being knowledgeable of his actions when You-Know-"

"Our Dark Lord," he corrected her.

"When he tried coming into power the first time." She looked at him sternly. "Has he fully forgiven your father's actions after his disappearance?"

Draco had never thought about that before, but he had always figured it was the Dark Lord who had a hand in getting his father out of prison. "We're not in danger," he confirmed. "I fought for our Dark Lord's cause. He would not punish my father through me." Mostly because my father couldn't care less. Just as long as I don't tarnish the Malfoy name, he doesn't give a damn what I do, just as long as I pass on our name before I die, Draco thought.

"Then put down the wards."

"That's not a good idea."

"Why?" she asked. "What are you afraid of?"

"I'm not afraid of anything," he said defensively. He didn't like where this conversation was heading.

"Sure." She nodded her head, completely not convinced. "Because fear isn't the reason why you wake up screaming in the middle of the night. Fear isn't why you keep yourself locked up in that room upstairs. Fear isn't-"

"Shut up!" Draco yelled as he grabbed her arm, and said angrily, "Don't you ever talk to me like that again! Because you don't know what I've seen or what I've been through!" Without realizing, he had been squeezing her arm.

Angelina looked down at where Draco had taken a hold of her. "Let go of me, Draco." Her voice was threatening.

He let go of her arm, slightly pushing her away. "Why don't you get going?" His voice was low.

Angelina walked over to the front door and before stepping out said towards Draco. "Don't wait up."

Draco walked up to one of the end tables and picked up the vase sitting on it. He examined it in his hands for a moment before growling at it and throwing it up against the wall. As soon as all the pieces of it landed on the floor, they reassembled themselves and flew back to the table and rested there as if it were never broken. Draco picked it up again and looked as though he was going to heave it towards the wall for a second time, but stopped. "Control, Draco," he spoke to himself, as he put the vase back down on the table. "Never lose control."

OoOoO

It was a sunny and bright day as the white clouds swept across the blue skies. Angelina stood outside the cemetery gate; she had been standing there for at least ten minutes. She was afraid to step inside, she was afraid of what she knew she would find there.

After taking a deep breath, she finally gathered her nerves and stepped inside. Her eyes scanned the area for a plot of fresh dirt, but to her dismay, she found many. She began to walk around the cemetery to find the grave she was looking for. As she walked, she did not notice as the clouds began to block the sun, and how those clouds slowly began to turn gray.

She heard the thunder roar as she found the grave she was looking for. She stared at it for a moment, as if, if she stood there long enough it would go way. But she knew it wouldn't and her bottom lip quivered and the lightening clashed. She fell to her knees and landed on the soft dirt that lay in front of the tombstone. She rested her hands in her lap and lowered her head as her shoulders began to shake and she desperately tried to hold back her tears. But it was pointless, and as the first batch of tears escaped her eyes, the heavens opened up and the rain began to fall masking her tears, but not her pain. She began to sob loudly and the thunder once again roared, making Angelina sound death to her own ears.

Angelina was soaked to the bone as she sat in front of the grave. "You said you would always be there. You said I could always count on you," she said in a tiny voice. "You were all I had left, George. You were all I had." And she was overtaken by another batch of tears.

The rain continued to fall, but strangely no more rain landed on Angelina. She looked up and first saw a large umbrella and then the person who held it. "Hello, Fred," she said timidly, but Fred didn't acknowledge her. Angelina stood up. "I know you probably don't want me here, but I don't care what you want." Angelina signed, there was no way Fred was going to make her feel bad for wanting to give George a proper good bye. But she realized that maybe her tone had been a bit to harsh and he did not need that now. "I'm sorry about George," she said sincerely.

They stood side-by-side for a long time underneath the umbrella. Angelina kept her head down as her eyes were fixed on the grave before her. She then heard soft crying come from Fred. He mumbled something, but Angelina couldn't hear him. She lifted her head and looked at his face, his eyes were red and he had become quite pale. "Ginny. . ." he said after a moment. "Ginny and Ron are gone too." His chin lowered onto his chest and he began to cry out loud. He then dropped his umbrella, allowing the warm rain to hit him as he covered his face with his hands.

"Oh, Fred." Angelina pulled one of his hands away for his face.

Fred eyes soon rested upon her. "My Angel." He cried softly as he took her hands and pulled them around his neck and wrapped his own arms around her waist.

Fred realized that trying to believe that Angelina was dead was no use, not when apart of his family was actually gone and Angelina stood before him. He had missed her over the last six months, and losing half of his siblings made Fred see that life was precious and short. And right now he needed someone who understood him, someone who loved him. He needed his angel, he needed Angelina.

OoOoO

Soon Fred and Angelina found themselves entering the apartment that Fred used to share with George. "Are you going somewhere?" Angelina asked, as she noticed the boxes everywhere in the half-emptied apartment.

"Yeah." He nodded as he moved a box out of his way. "Me and the rest of my family are umm. . . we're leaving England."

"Oh," she said softly. "I understand."

Fred scoffed. "Yeah, right." He walked out of the room.

Angelina followed him, a tad confused. "What's that suppose to mean?"

"It means, you'll never understand." He turned to her. "You're an only child. You don't know what it's like to lose a sibling, nevertheless, three of them."

Angelina crossed her arms over her chest. "You're right; I don't know what it's like to lose a sibling." She tried not to sound upset. "But I do know what it's like to lose a friend, so you don't get to act like you're the only one hurting."

Fred, without warning, sunk to the fall and sat there. "They're not done yet, Angelina." He looked up at her.

"What do you mean?" she asked, as she sat down in front of him.

Fred's eyes grew distant. "When You-Know-Who defeated Harry, me and by brothers and sister were able to escape. We went our separate ways, not realizing that You-Know-Who was going to come after everyone that stood against him. He went after Ron first, because he was the closest to Harry. It was Hermione who found him dead; she went to our parents to tell them what was going on and to warn us, but soon afterwards they got her too."

Fred paused. "They got George and Ginny on the same day." His eyes finally looked into Angelina's. "We couldn't even find Ginny's body," he said slowly. "They're coming after my whole family." He then all of a sudden started laughing and Angelina thought he had finally cracked, but then as suddenly as he had started he stopped and seriously looked at Angelina. "Guess you missed out on that one, huh?" He wiped away the tears he finally noticed were falling down his face and stood up. "It's not safe here, you know, with me," he said, as he started packing a box.

"Where are you headed?" she asked as she helped him pack the box.

He shrugged his shoulders. "Don't know yet. Just away, and just long enough so we can regroup. Just because Harry is gone, doesn't mean there is no way to bring down You-Know-Who."

"Fred, I need you to be careful," Angelina told him after she closed the box they had been packing.

"I will be," he told her. "Come here." Fred put his hands on either side of her face and rested his forehead against hers. "We're going to have our happy ending. Just you wait and see." He promised her.

OoOoO

"Betray us on this and it will be the last thing you ever do!" Angelina heard an unknown voice echo throughout the Manor as she walked through the door.

"Don't threaten me. I know what I'm doing. I'll get the information we need, but I'm telling you it won't be easy. I may have burned one or two to many bridges on the way." That was a voice Angelina, unfortunately, knew well.

"Montague," she whispered as she walked towards the voices, which seemed to be coming from the dinning area.

"Do what you can, when you can," came the calm voice of Draco. "We're going to have to keep this quiet for as long as possible. So try to keep it minimized to people we can trust."

"That's a strong word, 'Trust', even for you, Malfoy," Montague commented. "Johnson," he said, a bit surprised as she entered the room.

"Alright let's call this a night." Draco stood up and the others followed suit. "Goyle, don't forget about that thing I mentioned earlier."

"Of course," Goyle replied, and Angelina realized that was the voice she heard when she came through the door. "Evening." Goyle nodded towards Angelina as he passed. Crabbe also nodded, but said nothing.

"Good night," she said politely.

As Montague passed he slammed his shoulder into Angelina's. "Sweet dreams."

Angelina growled softly as she heard the door open and close behind her. "I thought we were on the same page about him?" She asked Draco.

"Things came up. Things that couldn't be ignored."

"I'm guessing I shouldn't ask?"

"Your guess would be right." He leaned on the dinning room chair. "Look, I know you don't like Montague, I don't either, but he can be trusted."

"No, that doesn't sound right." She shook her head. "So let me guess, he has something on you and you have something on him and the two of you have agreed on silence for silence."

"Exactly," Draco said with narrowed eyes, not sure if he should be impressed or weary about how quickly she deducted that.

To Be Continued. . .

Preview Of Next Chapter:

"I don't know what you're talking about." She looked over at the door.

"That's what I mean." He stood up and pointed at her. "Right there. How long are you going to run in the opposite direction? How long are you going to deny this thing between us?"

A/N: Alright I'll admit it, this is not one of my favorite chapters. No matter how I wrote and rewrote it, it still felt choppy and a little rushed to me. Putting that aside, I hope I was able to do what I wanted to do in this chapter, which was start to get you into the psyche of Draco.