She needed to be comforted. The part-Veela picked the sobbing girl up in his arms bridal-style, and brought her over to her own bed. Draco sat on her bed with his back against the wall that the bed shared with a table. Roanoke curled herself up in his lap and cried.

An hour or so later of deep conversation, Draco felt worse than he thought he'd ever felt before. He had been angry at the beautiful girl he loved for no real reason other than the prejudices he had forced on him by his tyrannical father. Now, after hearing the terrors that were Roanoke's life, he couldn't even consider being the least bit upset with her for something she could not change, something that wasn't necessarily bad.

She was finally asleep from having expended so much emotional energy, and he was glad that she was. He wasn't pleased about her resting state because it took effort to comfort her, but because the sentimental strength she was expending to tell him everything she needed to know was beginning to take a toll on her. Even asleep she looked worn, like a refugee sent from their war-torn home.

Thinking more in this metaphor, he supposed she was a bit of a refugee, sent from her dwelling to a new and unfamiliar place where she didn't and probably would never fit in. He sighed. It was no wonder that Roanoke seemed so strong and wise, as she had gone through so much in her relatively short life. If he had gone through what she had, he doubted he would have survived, much less have been able to be as happy as Roanoke appeared to be.

He patted her hair adoringly and thought back to her confessions.

)(FLASHBACK)(

"Please, Roanoke.." He begged, "Stop crying." She continued to sob, but was obviously trying to calm herself down. It was true that he was upset with the understanding that she was a muggle, much less a pureblood. He had been raised to hate anyone with muggle heritage. He'd never even thought about muggles with anything but distain, nor had he even imagined that one might be his mate.

Finally, she was composed enough to talk. "I'm sorry. I should've told you. Or maybe I shouldn't have. I didn't mean for it to happen this way, really I didn't."

"Roanoke, listen.."

"Don't worry about it. I understand that you don't like muggles," she spat the word as if it were poison on her tongue, "so I suppose you'll just have to go through life without a mate. I'm sorry. I didn't mean for it to happen this way, I swear.."

Draco was simply astonished by these words. Go on through life without a mate? Never have love when he knew it was right in front of him? How shallow did she really think he was? She continued to apologize, trying to make plans that would fix the situation so that he wouldn't have to love her, and finally, knowing that it might be the only thing to reassure her, he kissed her.

Fireworks exploded behind his eyes as his lips touched her tear-soaked ones. It was the most beautiful thing he'd ever felt. At that very moment, he realized that no matter who or what she was, no matter how many times she wronged him in the future, they were soul mates. They were simply meant to be together, plain and simple. There were no ifs, ands or buts about it.

Pulling away from the kiss, he looked into her flabbergasted, beautiful, grey eyes which held so dear, and said, for the first time in his life, "I love you."

Again she started to weep, and told him about her entire life - her parents, Voldemort, her brothers. The LaMer family was the only muggle family in all of England to know anything about the existence of magic, and she was the only sane one.

Her father was a high government official, very close to the Prime Minister. When large issues came up in the wizarding world, sometimes the effects crept into non-magic life. That's where Paul LaMer came into the picture. He and the Prime Minister dealt with anything magical in the muggle world. They were the only ones permitted to know the truth for safety's sake. Mr. LaMer trusted his wife and family with every single trouble in his mostly happy life. The husband and wife had been high school sweet-hearts, and best friends since they were seven, and told each other everything. Thus, the LaMers became the only muggle family with connections or knowledge about the wizarding world. Tragically, Voldemort found out who the muggles were who knew about him and were helping to catch him and to keep the non-magic world safe from him.

On Roanoke and her twin brother Lyndsey's eighth birthday, the two of them got into their first ever fight. About what, it is not important. What is important, however, is that Roanoke left, hid in the woods for a few hours, fuming, crying and forgetting her anger at her twin brother and best friend. Soon it was dark and her anger was completely dead, as was half of her family she would soon find. When she got in view of her small home, she saw a skull with a serpent protruding from the mouth hanging over the ruins. Terror-stricken, the young girl ran inside and found her parents and her oldest twin brothers dead, and Topher and 'Liam completely insane. Voldemort and his followers had done exactly what he'd done to Neville Longbottom's parents to Roanoke's ten and eleven year old brothers – not to get information, but for the sheer delight he took in their pain. He had put them under the Cruciatus curse so many times for such and extended period of time that their minds simply couldn't take it and they went insane.

Lyndsey, though, was nowhere to be found. Whether that was a good or bad thing, Roanoke wasn't sure. Later, after checking all of his hiding spots, and once help had come, everyone became suddenly convinced that Lyndsey must have been taken by the Dark Lord himself.

As he thought of this, his heart burst with sorrow for the girl sleeping in his arms. Regrettably, Draco knew that this would not be the end of Roanoke LaMer's trouble.