silver | d.m.

36.lacuna

July 2005 | H E R

Two months and eleven days.

It's been two months and eleven days since he left.

And she can hardly cope.

Tiana knocked on his door the very next day because she couldn't sleep the whole night, couldn't think straight. She had no plan on what to say once she saw him, all she knew was, she needed to see him or else uncertainty would kill her.

He didn't open.

No one did.

She took the sign with a heavy heart and showed up at the Auror's office the very next day.

It was a three week trip. That is what Robald told her. Three weeks in Bulgaria.

But when he didn't come back after four, Tiana asked Robald again. Turns out Draco prolonged his stay at the training academy for unknown time.

He didn't want to come back, is what she gathered. Draco doesn't want to come back to London. To her. Wherever they may stand right now.

That is a different type of pain than she has ever felt. It's stings brutally bad. Sometimes, the simple act of breathing becomes a feat. Sometimes, more often than not, she would sit idly at the foot of her bed or on the bathroom floor, waiting.

And then Tiana realised. You can become homesick for people too.

She knocks on the open door. "You called, Crawford."

Her boss looks up from his glasses, folding his hands ontop of paperwork on his desk.

He smiles slightly, not too much. His hair has greyed more, she notices. "Yes, please do come in, Silver."

"Am I in trouble?" she asks once she takes a seat across from his desk. She never gets called to her boss in this way.

"That is a question only you can answer, Tiana."

Oh, shit. First name.

"Are you okay?"

"Hm?" she plays dumb, a voice in her head refusing to answer. A photo of him, his wife and two children sit to his left—a picture that would normally make her smile, but instead evokes a certain type of emptiness in her chest.

"You work has been slacking enthusiasm, I regretfully noticed. You only take up desk work and gave up training our newlys to your collegues."

His tone is not accusing, yet still, she asks. "Is this you firing me?"

He smiles, the skin around his eyes creasing. "No, I would be fool to do that. I have seen you work your way up and face any struggle with endurance one could only wish for."

She nods at the praise, somewhat confused, playing with her fingers in her lap.

"I choose to build a safe work environment. I care for my employees and surely that means for you too," her eyes meet his brown ones, finding earnest. "I may be wrong for saying this, and my apologies if I'm overstepping here, but I would consider us to have a slightly closer bond. You are by far my favourite and I have to admit, I not only care, but worry. Lately."

She's silent as if that would stop this from leading where she thinks it's leading.

"I... seem to have noticed, that..." he scratches the side of his neck in discomfort. "Well, let me put it like this—things travel fast around here—and you appear..." he sighs deeply, worry lining his forehead. "Are you okay, Tiana?"

It takes everything in her not to break down right here, right now, she bites the inside of her cheek.

"Okay," his palms raise in instant surrender and regret. "My apologies. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."