✓ | RECKLESS AND BRAVE | Draco Malfoy

56 | DEFENESTRATE

DEFENESTRATE
(v.) to throw someone or something out of a window

TESSA BARELY FELT THE RAIN WHEN SHE WALKED ACROSS THE FIELD OF GRASS. She allowed the droplets to fall on her face, washing away the tears that had just begun to dry. She approached one of the two men who were out here and had refused to take refuge under the shade and warmth of the house.

     She stood beside Uncle Kasi for long moment of quietness. His eyes were puffy and his face was gaunt, he'd lost so much weight already within the weekend she'd been here.

     "He was my best friend," he whispered to her without taking his eyes off the two tombstones before them. "He's been my best friend for almost twenty-five years since the day we met in Durmstrang."

     Upon hearing the brokenness in his voice, Tessa silently reached over and slipped her hand in his as she rested her head on his shoulder. She said nothing and let him talk — offering not words but comfort.

     "Alex to me was like James to Sirius and Lily to Cathy." Kasimir let out a shaky exhale, his eyes growing wet again with the tears he let fall. "He and Eliza always welcomed me into their home ever since your mother passed away when you were born. Eliza knew about what I was — about how dangerous I would become on the night of the full moon — yet she showed no fear. I never got to thank her for that."

     "I'm sure she knew," Tessa said in a soft voice.

     "My only regret," Kasimir murmured, "is that Philip never got to say goodbye to them one last time. At least I got to see and speak to them earlier this week before they both travelled west." He shut his eyes for a moment as though the pain was too much for him to handle — and then opened them to silently watch the boy who was kneeling between his parents' gravestones.

Tessa's heart split into pieces when she approached Philip and saw the complete and utter desolation on his face. She knelt beside him and gently reached up to brush the black hair that had clung to his wet skin. Wrapping her arms around him, she brought his head down to rest on her shoulder as she embraced him.

She wept once more when she heard the broken cry of anguish leave him. She held him all throughout the next hour Philip refused to leave his parents' sides. She didn't have to whisper words of meaningless hope, because sometimes there was nothing one could say to bring back the past or change the future. But she stayed with her arms around him as he clung to her and sobbed for what he had just lost.

Because if she were to have someone taken away from her, she knew that Philip would do the same.

ϟ ϟ ϟ ϟ

     When Tessa came back to school on Monday morning, people were still talking about the breakout of the ten Death Eaters. She would've thought that Harry's article had been released already, but they told her that it might still be on the upcoming one.

     "Can't wait to see what Umbridge thinks of you going public," Dean said to Harry as they ate dinner that night.

     "It's the right thing to do, Harry," Neville added in a low voice, "It must have been . . . tough . . . talking about it. Was it?"

     "Yeah," Harry mumbled, "but people have got to know what Voldemort's capable of, haven't they?"

     "That's right, and his Death Eaters too . . . People should know."

    Tessa merely played with the food Hermione had tried to piled on her plate to get her to eat as the three of them waited for Ron who was stuck in Quidditch practice. She set her spoon down for a moment to sneeze, the beginnings of a flu getting to her from spending hours underneath the rain with Philip.