on the surface, the two couldn't have been more different.
he was cruel, arrogant, and cold; she was quiet, mellow, and kind.
however, the two students would soon be made aware of how they wore matching scars on their skin and in their souls.
//
"...
"If you have the connection to my son that I think you do, please do not tell me about it until we are all in a safer place."
"Oh... So, you wouldn't like to know my name?" Lorelei asked carefully. She began to nervously play with the seam of her shirt, but she still maintained that sweet smile from before.
Narcissa swallowed and stared hard at the younger girl. She was scanning her, analyzing her, in hopes that it would tell her something useful. Was this girl her son's soulmate? She couldn't be certain, but it seemed likely.
"A name is fine," Narcissa said finally.
Lorelei softly grinned. "I'm Lorelei."
Narcissa gave a stiff nod and a startled smile, but the flames roared a vibrant green again, and Lorelei was distracted. She whirled towards the fire and watched hopefully as a dark-haired Theo materialized amongst the flames.
"Theo!" she called happily.
He turned and found her in the crowded room immediately. He rushed out of the fireplace, completely forgetting to dust himself off or attend to his rumpled appearance. He met Lorelei by the couch and threw his arms around her waist. He lifted the short girl off her feet and held her close to his chest.
Part of him had feared something had happened to her after he saw the death eaters that shouldn't have been there. Seeing her whole and unharmed comforted him more than anything else had before. He squeezed her even tighter against his chest.
Lorelei reacted to his enthusiastic greeting in kind. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held on tightly. He smelled like vanilla and something darker. Like a bonfire or the gentle smoky smell of logs burning in a fireplace.
When the flames roared and turned green once more, Lorelei scrambled out of Theo's arms. She hoped the person stepping through would be Draco rather than an intruding death eater, but she knew that either were possibilities now. If a death eater found Draco before he made it through the floo, he would be in grave danger, and all of them at Lorelei's home would be too.
The flames roared in that vibrant green color that reminded Lorelei of bright leaves during the early summer months. She held her wand in a shaking hand, just in case, but then a head of blond hair materialized, and Lorelei dropped her wand and charged forward. Draco stepped out of the fireplace, and Lorelei practically tackled him back into the flames from the force of her hug.
Draco's stiff shoulders immediately uncoiled when he looked down and found the blonde wrapped around his middle. She was squeezing him tightly, and her eyes were snapped shut to keep out the tears threatening to spill from her eyes. The wait had caused her more anxiety than she ever thought possible, but her worry was eased with him standing before her.
Draco wrapped his arms around her shoulders to pull her closer. He rested his chin on her head and took deep breaths. Lorelei was okay. He was okay. His mum was okay. Everyone was okay.
Theo cleared his throat. "We can't stay here. It's not safe."
Lorelei pulled back from Draco, and everyone turned to Theo. He was right of course. Their travel between Gran's house and Malfoy Manor practiced painted a giant red X on Gran's house or casted up the dark mark for all to see above it. The home Lorelei had begun to know could be her home no longer, and a sense of heavy sadness surrounded her.
"Where do we go?" she asked.
Hearing the heartache in her question, Draco carefully gathered her into his arms. It was his reminder that he was there for her through all of this. She had rescued him today, and he would do everything in his power to rescue her too.
"I have an old...friend. He's already in hiding and told me to contact him if I ever needed a place to stay," Theo said.
"Will your friend have room for all six of us?" Luna piped in after watching the activity in the room silently for several minutes.
"I don't know. I have a way to owl him, so I'll do that while Lorelei and Gran pack up their belongings."
Lorelei looked around her home then with a pang in her chest. She would leave here with only what she could carry with the knowledge that she may never be able to return. Gran was already running through the house, yelling instructions to Lorelei in French and grabbing everything she thought they might need, and everyone else stared at Lorelei cautiously.
She stepped across the room and silently began to pull the framed photos of her family from the walls. Photos of her and father from her childhood. Photos of her mom with them when their family was still whole. Black and white photos of Gran and Grandpa from their time in France. All of the most important memories of their lives.
Draco and Luna came over and silently began to help her taking them down. Luna took a duffle bag from Gran and began to carefully load each one inside the bag, insulating them with Lorelei's clothes once the three of them moved to her bedroom. Draco packed Lorelei's old books into a bag and added all of her things from the bathroom.
Once they had filled three bags worth of her things, Lorelei looked around her now slightly emptier room, and she wept.
She wept for the loss of a place so special to her.
She wept for the looming war.
She wept for the lives already lost and the ones to come.
But, at the heart of her weeping, she knew she was just grateful that she and her friends were still alive. Somehow, she knew that with them by her side, she would be safe, and they could truly win this thing.
//
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/AN: hey guys. many of you probably read my announcement to understand my sudden absence, but if not, something tragic happened, and I was grieving and struggling to write. As you can see from this update, I'm feeling better with writing again, and I'm hoping to finish up this story very very soon! thank you all so much for your patience on this story as so many personal crises have occurred in the last months that have made writing challenging.
to explain the gif, someone asked a few chapters back for me to include a gif that reminds me of Lorelei, and Saoirse Ronan kind of reminds me of her! it's not perfect, but I found that this gif and especially gifs of Saoirse when she was younger remind me of Lorelei. let me know what you guys think!
(update: I think the above gif is not working, but I have other gifs of Saoirse to use in later chapters.)
I hope you all, and hope you had a very happy Christmas.
