✓ WE NEVER SLEEP, draco malfoy

S I X T E E N

"maybe we exist to bleed / maybe we exist to burn."

— oh, but darling, who can say which? {inkpoet} 

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"Draco...who am I?"

Rowan was having trouble wrapping her head around the fact that she wasn't related to Florence and Marlena Greer in any way, shape or form. That the man who raised her with the help of his sister brought her to this family and he took her in, against Marlena's best wishes. 

Bowen Greer had an affair and Marlena killed him for it, years later, as the strength to finish the job.

But maybe, maybe this was just a way to protect her. Maybe Marlena put on a show for Lucius and for the other Death Eaters, just as they said she did for the funeral. Rowan knew her mother loved her father, so why act like she didn't? Their family had always been close, so it was hard to believe that suddenly, right at the perfect time, Marlena hated her husband and her other daughter.

"Why don't you look more upset?" Draco asked, standing slowly. "Did you not just hear what I did in there? For fucks sake, Ro, the woman said you weren't her daughter!"

"I know! I know!" Rowan shouted, cursing herself for getting loud in the quiet alley. A burst of cold rushed past them and she fought back a shiver as she shook her head, "I know, okay?"

"Then why aren't you angry?" he asked, taking two large strides until he was standing right in front of her. "Why aren't you crying? Rowan, she said your mother was a  fucking Gryffindor, that you weren't her daughter-"

"I think she was lying."

Draco scoffed, shaking his head as he snapped, "Why would she lie? Especially to my father? Our families are close, they've been friends for decades, why would she lie to him?"

She shrugged, biting down on her lip to stop the quiver because he was right, wasn't he? Why would Marlena lie to him, of all people? "To protect me?" she whispered and he scoffed again and she rushed out with, "My mum loves me, okay! I-I know she does, she would protect me, she-she would!"

"You know how ridiculous that sounds, don't you?"

She opened her mouth but clamped it shut, brows pulling together. 

"She wouldn't lie to my father."

"But-"

"Rowan, you know I'm right."

She balled her hands into fists, feeling the emotion creep up her throat like something dreadful. "She loves me, okay?" her voice was broken and her lips began to quiver and she bit down on the inside of her cheek to stop herself from crying. "I-I look like my father, Draco," she said so softly to keep the emotion hidden from her voice. "I look like Bowen." Not her. I don't looked like her.

Draco didn't know what to say to that, because she was right. From the times her family had come to the manor when they were children, he had noticed the similarities in the two. Bowen Greer always had his eyes on his youngest daughter, keeping her close whenever they would arrive.

They had the same eyes, the same smiles, even the same goddamn noses. 

"What if he really had an affair?" Rowan rambled and he could see the spiral coming. "What if he forged all of those documents of my birth? Got fake baby photos? Oh god, Draco-"