DRACO MALFOY

"Why do you do this to me?" She said softly, eyes firmly focused on the flames that danced within the confines of the hearth. Blaise had gone, sick of the sight of me he'd stormed up to his dorm swearing to the God's that one day I would know how it feels, that one day Lady Karma would come for me and I would suffer all the pain I'd ever caused.

Little did he know that I was already living agonies that weren't even my burden to bear. A family name, one to be proud of was worth more than the sanity of a son.

"You know exactly how I feel about you Draco," She struggled to sheath a sob, but it was too late, tears already tracked solitary paths down her cheeks like rivers through a forest, "... And yet you use it against me..."

"You say you love me..." The words sounded empty, hollow, as if they were not my own. Truth be told I hardly felt like myself anymore. I didn't eat, I didn't sleep. I was nothing more than an empty shell of what I once was.

"I do, you know I do." She turned to me, tears shining with the reflection of the firelight as the flames roared before us.

"Liar." I snarled, and there it was, that quickness to anger that Mara always hated. Not that it mattered anymore, nothing mattered anymore. A life without her was not a life worth living. "...How could you ever love a monster like me?"

No one could.

She shook her head, the edges of her lips tugging upwards in a smile that was wracked with grief, "You're not a monster draco, you never were, not to me..."

She was a liar. They all were. I didn't know who to trust anymore, I didn't know how to feel. I had no one and nothing, no one was coming to save me now, and for a long while we were silent. There was nothing left to be said, for no words could bind the rift, so what was the point in trying.

I stared into the flames, and I couldn't help but resent her. Every little thing reminded me of her. I couldn't go a day without seeing her raven hair in every night sky, hearing her laugh in every joyous shout that echoed through the snow. Even the stars were no solace, for they were the worst of all. I saw her emerald eyes in the flames, I felt her touch in it's warmth.

There was life before Mara, but there was no life after. We would never be the same again.

"...You love her, don't you..."

I was taken back to a moment, the one in which I feared for my life the most. The moment that The Dark Lord himself held his wand to my head, and yet all I could think about was her.
He had cursed me for my sins, for speaking up against him, for protecting her. The Cruciatus Curse was the closest I've ever been to the hell I deserved.
Even while, despite the agony, I was not afraid for my life, I never had been, I had only ever feared losing her.

-And yet I had. Not by death or some force beyond control, my own cowardice had been the thing to drive us apart. Because I couldn't say it, I couldn't bring myself to.

Eight letters, three words. That was all it took to tear us apart.

"No."

Pansy shook her head with a sad smile, "We both know that's a lie."

It was the greatest lie I had ever told.

She placed her hand over mine, warm and comforting and sure as the tide. "You could learn to love me too..." She said softly, and I reached over to wipe the lone tear that crawled down her cheek with the pad of my thumb. "...If you just gave me a chance." She pressed her palm to the back of my hand, holding it to her cheek as she leaned into my touch her eyes flickering across my face. "Just tell me you feel something... Anything."

And with that she kissed me.

I was unresponsive for a moment, emotions failed me, rendering me numb. I just felt empty. Only this all consuming nothingness that coursed thick through my veins like a disease that no matter how hard I tried I could never wake from.

She was gentle, almost as if frightened that I'd break, like a fragile glass that would shatter into a thousand pieces at the slightest wrong touch.

If I closed my eyes, I could almost pretend she was her, and in that brief moment I came alive under her touch, my hands wound their way around her neck to gather in her hair. But Pansy was not Mara, she never would be and I pulled away. My skin crawled wherever she had touched, I felt dirty.

"Nothing..." I whispered, staring into the emerald flames, filled with the regret of the life I would never live. "...I felt nothing."

• • •

MARA WILLIAMS

There was an unspoken weight that hung over us all at breakfast the next morning. What with Umbridge's infiltration of the D.A., Dumbledore had since vanished and was now on the run from the ministry, everything seemed to by falling apart around us. Nobody remained unscathed.

The arrival of the mail lifted people's spirits somewhat, especially when one of the Slytherins, Theodore Knott received a howler from his grandmother. The shrieks echoed off of every wall in the great hall, and turned the high ceiling to storm.

The screams were so loud I hardly noticed when a surly looking barn owl dropped two letters and a package into the empty plate in front of me.

"Who are those from?" Parvati asked, her words garbled through her mouthful of cornflakes as she flicked thorough her letters and Hermione thumbed her copy of The Daily Prophet besides her.

"Umm, I think these are from my great aunt," I said placing one of the letters and the paper-bound package to one side, evidently hers by the sickly sweet stench that practically rolled off of them in waves. "-And as for this..." I picked up the remaining letter, examining the seal, a black wax stamped into the shape of a small sun. "...I'm not too sure."

"Oh for fucks sake!" Ron hissed as he tore open his package of dress robes, "She's only gone and bloody done it again!"

Harry sniggered, "I mean, at least they're not as bad as last years..."

"I wouldn't be so sure..." Hermione hid her laughter behind her newspaper as Ron held the dress robes up to their full length.

With that I tore open my own package without reading the note, pulling from it a sight far worse than Ron's. The table fell silent for a brief moment, as everyone stared in awe at the pale yellow wedding dress, before Seamus Finnegan erupted with a road of laughter, and all the others soon followed.

"Oh my God..." I stood up and held the dress to my body, it was the same colour as the butter on the table before us. "... That's it I'm not going!"

"It's umm... It's lovely Mara." Parvati forced a smile, but I could see the disgust glinting behind her dark eyes.
"Liar!" I drawled, staring at the abundance of pale pink flowers sewn into the neckline, "It's hideous!"

"At least you and Ron match, you two should go together!" Grinned George as he shoved yet another hash brown into his ginormous gob.

"What does the letter say?" Parvati said leaning over my shoulder as I pulled the paper from the envelope.

To my darling Mara,

I hope you are just as thrilled with your dress as I am, it has come all the way from the mountains of Italy. I hope you don't mind but I took the cost of renovating the dress out of the money your late mother left you in her will, all in the name of fashion!
Just think with this dress and Viktor on your arm, no doubt you'll make the Dailey prophet (and for a good reason this time!) Make us proud and pull the family name from the gutter you've put us in!

- Great Aunt Mathilde

"What a bitch!" Grumbled Parvati as she sat back in her seat with a frown, "-And you're seriously related to her?"

I nodded as I pulled open the seal to the second letter, "Sadly."

The parchment was crisp and fine, with an heir of expensive taste, the corners decorated in fine black calligraphy as I unfolded it and began to read the words that made my stomach drop.

I'll be with you soon, Solnyshko.
-V.K.

***
QOTD- Do you simp for Tom Riddle too? Are you enjoying this book so far? Because if so you're in luck, I have a Tom Riddle fic (THE AGONY OF LOVING YOU) that is being published the moment HDLS is completed!
-TFOA