IV
Epilogue
We Remember….
Post Tenebra — Lux… or so goes the saying. It's true — it's unnatural for Darkness to rule, so it can never last long. Light will always win over, against all odds.
Without its hero, the Light was weak, but they still managed to find new and determined fighters who were prepared to sacrifice all for freedom…
So they won. The Dark Lord was destroyed, his followers captured, and the Reign of Gloom was ended. As the soldiers broke into the castle, they searched every room, every nook and cranny for the last vestiges of Darkness.
In one big room, at the end of a dimly lit hallway, they found the body of the Dragon General, the man famed for his cruelty, his silence, and his eyes, which would shine with both hatred and pain whenever the name of the Lord was spoken…
He lay in the center of the room, the wooden floor and his velvet robes drenched in blood, which pooled around him in a mirror of crimson… He was once beautiful, like an angel, they used to say… His hair was golden like the sun which he hated and he had fathomless grey eyes, so mysterious and yet so emotional. Now they were empty, staring beyond, open in death…
But, for the first time ever, the soldiers saw a smile upon the dragon's face… A warm smile which softened the harsh lines of his features and it made him glow with an aura of serenity…
In his clenched fist they found a photo — a young girl, with bright red hair, dancing in a field of flowers, happy and carefree… Captured for eternity on a piece of yellowed paper…. They also discovered a parchment tucked into his robes:
"Ginny, darling, beloved… You will never read this, for you are long gone, but may these words redeem me… I don't want to be damned. I know I deserved it, but I had no choice… All these years I've loved you like never before…
I never forgot your lovely face, I never forgot your radiant smile. I love you…. Though your innocent blood stains my hands, know that I would never had killed you if I had a choice… Your forgiveness has kept me alive all these years, but I can not bear being alone any longer… I love you… Please, take me with you into paradise, I want to be with you for eternity… Darling, I love you and I'm sorry…"
They took the dragon's body away and buried him in a field of flowers, far away from the castle which held so many bad memories for all. And they built him a monument, a dragon flying towards the sun and inscribed on to his grave:
Draco Malfoy
Taken by the Dark, redeemed by the Light
Rest in peace, General
And next to him they dug an empty grave which they filled with crimson roses, for no body was left to fill the grave and under a statue of an angel were written the words:
Ginevra Weasley
Know that your love can redeem any sinner…
Forgive him…
And there they stood, two monuments for two doomed lovers who spent so little time together, yet loved one another so much…
There, it's finally done. I don't know if anyone really understood, but the two previous chapters were meant to be like when you're about to die, your life flashes by in a heartbeat and you remember everything you've ever done. But, for Draco there was no life before or after he met and lost Ginny. So, that's all he could remmeber. And, just to clear it up, Draco was under the Imperius when he killed Gin, so he can be redeemed. After all, he murdered in free will...