Under the Willow Tree | Draco Malfoy

chapter 71: the sun was gone

Draco Malfoy | 7th Year

He let out a resounding scream when Lorelei fell limp in his arms. He collapsed under the weight of his grief, hitting the ground below with Lorelei still wrapped up in his embrace. Her eyes were empty, the blue of her eyes that was once so vibrant now dull. Draco swore he felt his soul leave his body when he heard that last puff of air fall from her lips.

How could this happen? How could this happen?

Draco's cries of agony echoed across the largely empty field. Many students heard it, but Theo Nott felt it.

Theo and Blaise both sprinted towards the tree at the same time, but Blaise made it there first. Narcissa was screaming at Lucius, hitting him, trying to get some guilt out of the man she felt so foolish to have married years ago. She was done now. She was through watching Lucius ruin her son's life and cause both her son and herself indescribable misery.

Her son didn't know that she had scars too.

Blaise saw the empty look and cruel smile on Lucius' face, but Blaise didn't understand what was happening until he followed the older man's gaze. Blaise became as still as a statue when he saw Draco crying into Lorelei's hair. She stared lifeless at the sky above, and Blaise's heart constricted with an all-too familiar memory.

Blaise closed his eyes and took a ragged breath. None of this was fair. Lorelei was good, far better than he was. Frankly, she was better than anyone else he had known at Hogwarts. She was kind and gentle, but she was also fierce and protective and intelligent. She didn't deserve to die, not at all.

"You did this?" Blaise demanded of Lucius, who turned to him with a strange smile.

God, and to think Blaise ever envied Draco's relationship with his father. The parallels between Lucius and his mum were too stark.

Blaise thought he was going to be sick.

Without thinking or even caring about the consequences of his actions, Blaise took aim and repeated the curse that had just taken away Hogwarts' sunshine. He felt nothing but overwhelming devastation for Lorelei as he watched Lucius' body crumple to the dirt below. He heard Draco and Narcissa's relieved cries and hoped that meant he had made the right decision.

Blaise had always envied Draco's father, but abusive parents like him didn't deserve anything. They were the worst sort of people in Blaise's eyes, and he internally mourned the years he spent terrorizing Draco over jealousy he shouldn't have had to begin with.

Theo arrived at that moment, but he was sobbing before he'd even made it to the scene. Something in him just knew.

Blaise disappeared into the shadows, feeling the heavy grief of losing Daisy all over again, and he hated the parallels between the two lives. Draco's father killed Draco's love, just like Blaise's mum had killed his. The hatred of the muggle world had ruined lives and destroyed love, and Blaise was consumed in his pain.

Daisy was adventurous and lively, but her life was cut short.

Lorelei was wholesome and good, but the evil in the world was determined to remove her from it.

Blaise couldn't stand it anymore.

As Blaise evaporated into the shadows, Narcissa held her breath and stared down at Lucius emptily, almost expecting him to get up and begin hurting people again. She stared at him for nearly a full minute until she realized that it was over.

"What happened? Please, no," wailed Theo as he fell to his knees at Lorelei's side. He gently caressed her cool cheek and sobbed harder at the lifelessness in her normally sunny stare.

"Lucius — he-he," Draco couldn't even form a sentence through his wracking sobs, but Theo had understood from those few syllables. Lucius had murdered Lorelei Jones in cold blood, and now she was gone forever.

Theo dropped his head and leaned his forehead against her body as he sobbed. Anguish filled him and tore him apart from the inside out, the evidence in the form of his gut-wrenching sobs.

"She can't be gone. She can't be gone. No!" Theo wailed as he lost all of his senses to his grief. He didn't notice Narcissa trying to talk to them. He didn't notice Luna Lovegood collapsing at his side and letting out her own shaky cries at the sight of her best friend gone prematurely. Theo didn't notice when someone cried out in victory, proclaiming the war was over.

Their sun was gone, and nothing else mattered.

//

/AN: Hi... so I'm working on the next chapter now.

Blaise's storyline is officially wrapped up as it relates to this story, and after the next chapter, book 1 of the Willow Tree series will be completed. I hope to work on the sequel soon.

Alright, love you all. Sorry for double sadness updates today.

Lizz/