Book 1: Of Thorns & Roses

33: Goodbyes

A/N: I know that the past couple of chapters have been filled with a lot of info, but I promise that it will all make sense by the end of this book!

Darkness was beginning to inch its nasty hands through the threshold of Hogwarts, and everyone felt it. That brewing evil, which strode through The Grand Staircase, onto the quidditch field, and around the Great Hall, leaving everyone on edge.

It was happening soon. Too soon.

Draco was carrying a heavy burden that would change the wizarding world forever. A war would start, and there would be death on both sides.

My scar ached through every inch of my body, like it was spreading into everything. Infesting me with that brewing darkness.

He laid restless at my side as we held each other, not wanting reality to demolish the fantasy of happiness that we concocted in our heads.

But we still had each other.

My head laid heavy on his chest. His heart beating underneath me, leaving waves of anxiousness in my soul.

"You'll be okay, Draco," I murmured in the early hours of the morning as he laid asleep.

The sun was just beginning to cast its golden light into the thick curtains that shielded the windows as if to block out the hope that festered in my heart for Dumbledore. There was nothing to be done as his words echoed throughout my head: So never cease to amaze me Grier Langston.

After telling Draco about my visit with Dumbledore, he was just as blindsided of the legacy of my mother as I was. He hadn't heard a lick of the memory that was now burned into me. Every second of the day, I thought of the Death Eater my mother once was.

I couldn't help but feel deceived and troubled by the reality of it.

Rolling over on my side, my body relaxed as I watched the sun slowly grace Hogwarts with its springtime warmth.

Dozing off, my body awoke with his lips grazing my bare shoulder. "We should go into Hogsmeade today," he whispered, grogginess lacing his tone.

"Why?" I mumbled right back.

"I want to take you on a date, love." He kissed my shoulder once more before rolling to the side to hover over me. He kissed down my sensitive neck and followed the curving edges of my scar.

He never ceased to do anything less than awaken my body. Even at 6 in the morning.

Soft whispers of a moan escaped my lips as his lips lightly grazed my own before intensifying with every second. His tongue swirled with my own as we set off into oblivion. Each touch a promise to relish in the now because tomorrow could hold the dark unknown.

Glimmers of hope serenaded each sense as we explored each other in a vulnerable display of hunger. Could this be the last time?

Before long, he was pumping into me with a yearning that I had never savored before. That bond between us became a lifeline and a safe haven.

Whimpers and quickened breath fled into the open space as we climaxed together, a tumble of desperation and love. We lay together once more as he quickly fell into a deep sleep.

I listened to the sound of his light snores, like waves crashing along a beach shoreline. I imagined us there. The salty air sticking to my skin and hair. The clear water that swirled in cascades of blues. Something so peaceful and beautiful yet deadly all the same. I imagined the warmth of the blazing sun mirroring the fiery heart that beat just beneath my skin.

One day.

No one knew what the Dark Lord truly had in mind, but the inevitability of it was suffocating.