It is bad enough to lose a beloved headmaster that one has revered for five years. Bad enough to be mourning with one’s friends over such a profound death. Compound it by the fact that the entirety of wizarding Britain, and much of the rest of the world, felt his loss. This was affecting a girl named Anna, but as she left school and her friends behind, when she was now home and left alone with her thoughts, all she could think of were the rumors.
They said he had been there on the tower. They said he was a Death Eater.
How could she not know that? How could he never tell her he was a Death Eater? She deserved to know something like that about him. Didn’t she? She thought she did. But then again, she thought she knew a lot of things about him, maybe most of it was a lie. Maybe he was the terrible person so many of her peers thought he was.
The raging storm outside served as a sympathetic companion to the turmoil she felt inside. She couldn’t stand to be in the quiet of the house anymore, and the rain would be able to mingle with her tears. Maybe she could forget she was crying for what felt like a sort of betrayal. Not betrayal outright, but it hurt her heart and left her confused.
She felt like a fool. How long had he been a Death Eater without her even knowing? What did that say about her?
Stepping out of the house, Anna let the storm encompass her. The rain pounded upon her skin, numbing her emotions. The wind howled, and it was like a voice tormenting her soul with that familiar sound. Then it grew louder. She turned around, looking, unable to ignore the call of her name. “Anna.”
And then she saw him across the field. He started walking toward her. It was like the entire world melted away. No troubles, no hurt, no death in their past, they were simply together. As he continued to draw closer, she didn’t say anything. The fact that he was there was too unfathomable.
The moment he was close enough, he reached for her, pulling her close and capturing her lips in a desperate kiss. Anna returned it with equal fervor, clutching at the front of his traveling cloak. When finally they broke apart, she was breathless as well as speechless, and she could feel him almost trembling. All she could manage was a whisper of his name across her lips. “Draco.”
He didn’t say anything at first. Holding her, kissing her, hearing his name escape her lips, it was the healing balm he needed, and for a few more moments he simply closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against hers. He soaked in the feeling that was her. She soothed him in a way he couldn’t have imagined, and it rivaled any sort of magic he’d ever studied or experienced. He wondered how she could still kiss him. His actions had been nothing but dastardly, but he clung to her now.
“You have questions,” Draco stated. He gave a sad smile, “I don’t have answers, and if I did, I wouldn’t have time to give them. I’ve only got a few more minutes.”
“Can’t you tell me anything?”
“Anna, you’re the one true thing I know I can believe in. Everything seems to be so grey, but I do know that I love you. Nothing’s going to change that,” he said angrily.
Love is not constrained by space or even by time, and it most certainly is not constrained by circumstance. “I love you, too,” Anna replied immediately, not questioning the sentiment one bit. There was so much to sort through, but it was clear now with him here that she loved him.
“I don’t know when I’ll see you again,” he admitted darkly.
“Where will you go?” Anna asked, tracing a finger along his jaw.
“I don’t know. I may not see you again for months or years.”
Anna could see a touch of fear in his eyes. “How bad is it?”
“I hope I can tell you the whole story one day in the near future. I hope the story has a happy ending.”
She hugged him tightly. “It will,” she whispered in his ear, “I know it will. When we’re together, everything will be good.”
“I’m not good, Anna.”
“You’re not evil,” she countered firmly, pulling back slightly to look into his eyes.
“Because of you. There are a lot of things I need to fix before we’ll be able to see each other again. There’s a war to be fought.”
“The storm will end,” she paused to place a soft, quick kiss on his lips, “and so will this war.”
He kissed her again. It was long and slow. The kiss was full of promises for the future. Then Anna watched him walk away in the rain, still pouring all around her. It no longer felt like he was seventeen and that she was sixteen; too much had happened now. Too much even in those few short minutes.