Unplanned Liars • Draco Malfoy

67. Family reunion

"Aurora, it's unbelievable how much you have grown up! You're a woman now!" was the first thing I heard from my aunt when I greeted her and the other family members on the next day. My parents seemed to have invited half of the entire family, including aunts and uncles I may have seen only twice during my seventeen years on this planet.

After I greeted everyone with my best fake smile, we - and that is around twenty people - sat down by the magically lengthened table, while a few house-elves (it looked like almost everyone brought theirs) were bringing different dishes and setting them on it.

Unfortunately, I landed opposite and next to probably the most curious family members - my closest aunt and her husband, my grandma and my another uncle. All of them haven't seen me for a very long time and I knew there would be a lot of questions. They began as soon as we sat down.

"I still can't get over the fact you're an adult, Aurora," my aunt said, shaking her head in disbelief while examining me from across the table. "It seems only yesterday when you recieved your Hogwarts letter, and now? A fully-grown witch!"

"A beautiful girl you are, darling," my grandma said and my aunt nodded in agreement.

"I bet many boys fight for you, right?" my uncle asked immediately.

Oh, no. Not this. Merlin, please.

"Exactly! You surely have a lot of admirers, haven't you? Do you have a boyfriend?" my aunt fired me and I swallowed hard. Don't remind me, I beg...

"No," I replied quietly.

"Oh, I used to think that you'd end up with that son of the Malfoys," here my heart skipped a beat, "what was his name again? Drake?" my aunt asked, frowning and thinking hard.

"Dracon, Lydia, Dracon," my uncle corrected her. "And I really doubt Aurora would after we found out Malfoys were all about Dark Arts and You-Know-Who, remember?"

I looked down at my empty plate without a word. Why was he literally the only boy my age that they knew?

"Oh, they've known each other since childhood anyways, they were more like siblings, yes, Aurora?" my grandma added herself to the conversation.

Why does he have to haunt me everywhere I go? I wanted to go home to forget, to calm down, and what do I get?

"Excuse me, I have to go the bathroom," I said quickly and stood up, then literally ran to the corridor. I opened the bathroom's door, then went inside and locked it.

"Don't cry, don't cry," I told myself in a whisper and bit my lip as I felt tears rushing to my eyes. I walked up to the mirror and looked at myself. My face has already turned a bit red.

As I was standing like this, eye to eye just with myself, a sudden idea struck me.

If my Memory Charm was so good my parents didn't remember a thing about the Malfoys, would it work if I cast it on myself?

I wouldn't even remember that I did it...

I felt for my wand in my pocket.

Was it just that? One word - Obliviate - could solve everything?

I took the wand out and put it to my head.

One word. One word would change everything.

One part of me was telling me to do it, to stop torturing myself with all those thoughts.

The other part was screaming to prevent me from doing this.

I looked at myself again and sighed heavily.

"Obli-"

I dropped the wand and it fell into the sink with a loud clatter. I couldn't do it. I didn't want to do it. It was high time I composed myself.

I threw the wand back into the pocket, splashed some cold water on my face and, with a feeble smile to decieve my relatives, I came back to the dining room.

"So, Aurora, who are you planning to be?" my uncle asked as I settled myself by the table again and I was pleased with the change of the subject.

"I want to be an Obliviator," I replied with a smile. "I'm good at it."

And the meeting went by quite quickly, and nobody - fortunately - brought up the subject of a "boyfriend" again.

Days passed slowly, lazily. Most of the time I was home alone, my parents "busy" at work under Voldemort's reign. I can't understand why they were still there when they knew he was controlling things, but I didn't think about it much. I spent most of my time reading and learning useful spells I would have learnt at school if I had stayed. My main goal was the Patronus Charm - I have never managed to create a corporeal one and nowadays, when Dementors were literally everywhere, it would be very useful to know how to do it.

I barely left the house for the entire month, only sometimes I went out for walks in the centre of Muggle London to get some fresh air. Not that they lasted long - as November was drawing nearer, the weather was getting worse and worse and it was raining almost all the time.

About him? I didn't hear or know anything. And I didn't move on at all. Tears still gathered in my eyes just at the thought. I missed everything we had and regretted half the words I said, because the fact that Snape knew about it, as I found out on my last day at school, made things different... He might have been forced... I had so many questions that would probably remain unanswered...

But there was no sign from him. No letters, no words from Cepheus, nothing. But he was at school, wasn't here? I wondered what Pansy did..She was probably literally haunting him.

Or maybe my Mother was just right. First love is hard to let go, that's why I still hurt, that's why I believe in his good intentions so much.

On one particulary rainy day at the beginning of November I was looking for one of my spare ink bottles. My first thought was my drawer where there was literally everything. I opened it and something captured my attention - it was the fake Galleon I had tossed there, which I haven't seen since I left school. It was very well visible to me among all those different things since - strangely - its size was changed. I picked it up and turned it, then covered my mouth in shock as I realised it bore a message.

I love you.