Under the Willow Tree | Draco Malfoy

chapter 72: the more you fight it, the more painful it becomes

Lorelei Jones

Her eyes fluttered open, and she lifted a hand to shield her from the bright, white light that seemed to crash down on her from all sides.

Lorelei carefully lifted herself to her feet from the ground, and she looked around. She wasn't sure where she was, but it all looked so familiar to her somehow. It was bright and clean. It was like living in pure sunshine.

Footsteps sounded behind Lorelei, and she whipped around nervously. She gasped when she saw Draco standing a few meters away, but he looked hazy and out of focus. Her willow tree at Hogwarts was behind him, towering tall and proud in the pure sunshine of her surroundings.

"Draco, thank god you're here. Where are we? What happened? Why don't I remember anything before this?" Lorelei questioned. She fidgeted with her hands, but Draco said nothing. His face twisted in anguish, and his mouth opened in a silent scream.

Chills erupted over Lorelei's body to see him in pain like that. Why was he in pain like that?

"Draco? What's wrong? Please, tell me what's wrong. You're scaring me, I-"

"He can't hear you," a familiar voice said from behind Lorelei.

She whipped around and stared in horror to find Dumbledore calmly walking towards her. This didn't make any sense to her. Dumbledore was dead.

Her stomach dropped out.

"No, this can't be happening," Lorelei panicked. She fisted her fingers in her hair and hyperventilated. She couldn't be dead. No, this couldn't be real. "No, no, no, no."

No amount of denying it or shaking her head with eyes squeezed shut changed anything about her circumstances. Silent tears dripped over the apples of her cheeks, only to catch on her chin a second later.

"Professor, please. Tell me this is just a dream. Please," Lorelei cried, but her old headmaster just sadly shook his head and pointed to a place to her right.

Lorelei spun in the direction of his pointed finger, and her breath caught. There was her old childhood home, the place where she lived before her dad died. Before her mum ran off to avoid everything. Before Gran and her made their own happy little life in London.

She wept as she took the house in. Her eyes found her old bedroom window, where she had kept action figures of magical people standing atop piles of books.

Her balcony jutted out from beside this window, and Lorelei's eyes gently closed in memory. It was the place Lorelei and her dad had spent so many nights staring at the stars.

The light in the dining room was on. Just like it was at dinner in the evenings when the three of them ate together. When her parents tried to not fight in front of her while Lorelei did everything she could think of to make them whole again.

Lastly, she found the small willow tree in their backyard. It was small and often barren of leaves, but her dad adored that tree when she was young. They were climb it together, leaving Lorelei to feel unstoppable and on top of the universe from up so high. Because of this connection to her father, willow trees used to be a symbol of peace for Lorelei.

But now, they were a symbol of grief.

As Lorelei uselessly wiped at her tears, the door to the house somehow opened. She gasped and leaned forward to see better, and her heart stopped when she realized who was there.

"Dad!" Lorelei screamed.

His bright blue eyes that he gave to her shone with bushes tears at the sight of his now grown daughter. He started to come down the steps of the porch, and he called her name.