"No," she chuckled unhappily, "no, you don't get it. I meant my family. My honest-to-god, blood-is-thicker-than-water family. That's what I do in all my time here. I go visit the only muggles at St. Mungo's. 'Liam and Topher, my brothers."

Oh, god, what do I say to that? A baffled Draco wondered. "Oh." Apparently that was the answer.

"Uh, sorry. I really didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. Sorry... I just... I don't even know why I said that. I really shouldn't have... I-"

"Stop. No, I'm glad you told me. I want you to tell me everything, eventually. I just never really thought about the possibility that they... Well, that they-"

"Were still alive?" She asked almost impishly.

"Er, yeah. Maybe... Uhm, maybe sometime... We could go see them? Together?"

She sat up slowly and wondered, "Are you sure? Do you really want to go there?"

No. No I'm not sure. "Yes. Of course. I'd go anywhere with you."

She smirked and responded with a simple, "Tomorrow, then." And with that she curled back up into a ball and said, "Let's go back to sleep." With a small smile. With a huge grin of his own, he snuggled up to her and the two of them fell asleep with their limbs and hearts entwined.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Roanoke awoke from her satisfying slumber, she was disappointed to find herself alone. Perhaps Draco had chickened out about the whole St. Mungo's thing, not that she blamed him, but he could've left a note or something!

It was at that exact moment that Roanoke looked down at her hand and saw a note jotted there, straight on the skin of her palm.

It read:

R-

Went to room to make breakfast, join when you wake up.

Password – Annelise Chancellor Razi

L,

DM

She found it quite adorable that he refused to write the word 'love'. What a silly boy he was. It was quite a sad thing, too. He'd never really felt love, from anyone. Sure, his mother wasn't half as bad as the boy's father, but she wasn't exactly a saint, either. The unlucky result was that every single day, Roanoke knew that he would doubt her love, no matter how much she showed it. Not that she was sure that she loved him, of course, but at least she had known love in the past.

And so she dressed in a blue-grey tank top which she had had forever, meaning that she'd never realized what magical things it did to her already stunning eyes – making them sparkling orbs of grey and blue crystal. Then she put on some generic denim jeans, brushed her fiery hair and pearly teeth and walked out of her rooms and down towards the Slytherin dungeon. Despite only having been there once, Roanoke knew exactly how to find his room, and after doing so recited the password to a rather excitable little wizard who did not seem nearly dignified enough for the Malfoys. Whatevs.

Walking in, she smelled wonderful things – they were things she couldn't identify, but wonderful things nevertheless. Roanoke toed off her shoes and stepped carefully inside.

"But Drakie!"

"No. Get out. Now. Blaise, help me here?"

"What do you want me to do about it?"

"I don't care! Just get out! Both of you! She's-Ohmygoshhi," said an obviously flustered Draco to Roanoke as he tried to push his two classmates out his door.

Blaise circled Roanoke like a vulture circles a corpse in the desert and said, "So, Draco... This is your girl? I can see why you chose-"

He was cut off by Roanoke's angry reply, "I am not his, or anyone else's. I am my own. Got it?" The passion with which she hissed this into Blaise's face surprised not only Blaise, but also Pansy and Draco, it would seem, according to their wide-eyed expressions and open mouths. While Pansy was merely astonished at the force of this statement, Draco was rather hurt by it too. She was his, wasn't she?

Pansy, for the first time in her life got some sense in her head and said, loudly, "Well, Blaise, we've got to be going, haven't we, mister?"

Blaise blinked a few times before nodding and stuttering, "Uh, uhm, yeah... Gotta go..." and rushing out the door.

Once they were gone, Roanoke wobbled tiredly over to the couch and sat down heavily with her head in her hands and her elbows resting on her knees. With a flick of his wand, Draco put whatever it'd been that he was cooking on a plate and took it to the couch with a glass of chocolate milk like a peace offering.

"So..." He said softly, "You want to tell me what all that was about?"

"Would you accept a no?"

"No."

"It was nothing, just forget it happened."

"Sure. But I can guarantee that Blaise and Pansy won't."

She finally looked up at him with tear-filled eyes and pleaded, "Can we please not talk about this?"

"Fine," he permitted, and rested her head on his chest, "but only for now. Later... Later we'll have to talk." When she didn't respond he craned his neck to look at her face. "Okay?" He asked.

"Mhm."

"Eat something."

"Not hungry."

"Eat anyways." With this request, she picked up his peace offering milk and took a sip before daintily picking up the fork beside the plate and commencing to eat.