Never • The Lost Daughter | A Draco Malfoy Love Story

Chapter 86 - Choices

"Draco..." I muttered.

I kept staring at him for what seemed more than ages, with the most lost and at the same time surprised look on my face.

He couldn't be here. He couldn't be Draco. He might as well be a ghost instead of anything alive or breathing.

It couldn't be Draco. He was dead. Voldemort had killed him about five months ago. I knew it. It was in the papers and then Blaise told me, too. He said he was there right before he died and he said that he supposed he suffered. And then there was this letter that he wrote right before he died, the last letter that I would ever receive from him.

"You told me to come here, if I changed my mind..."  he said, even though he understood that I still didn't believe he was real. "I have been waiting for a long time. I knew that you would eventually show up!"

I stood up, not caring if my feet were in pain. I silently walked to him being half sure that he was nothing but a ghost that haunted me in death. I felt my hands trembling as I closed up.

"Anne!" said Hermione with terrified voice. "Harry stop her!" she said making a step but no more. Harry was silent as he watched me walking to Draco. If he was Draco. If he was anything at all. Harry's mouth was half-opened.

I reached him after a few seconds. And I stood in front of him, not being able to believe that I was looking at him again. I felt this urge to touch him. My hand didn't pass through him as I expected.

He was real. He was really Draco.

I kept touching his soft face and saw all the differences between the last time I saw him and now. He couldn't be in a worse shape. He was as pale and white as the snow around us. His white-blond hair were messy. I could see the grey shadows around his red and crying eyes. I touched his face. I could feel the bones. I could feel his skeleton beneath his clothes.

"You're alive..." I muttered.

"I'm alive, yes," he said and smiled widely.

I stared but also made the corners of my eyes rise.

"You're not dead," I said a bit louder.

"Yes, I think that is the definition," he said and laughed.

Only my Draco would say that. I smiled widely too, with the light of gratefulness shining in my eyes.

"And you're here. You're really here..." I said and you could hear the smile in my voice.

"I told you I would never leave you. Never," he answered.

If there was a doubt in my mind that was hadn't died out in his touch, it had now disappeared in the sound of one single word.

I couldn't hold myself back any more. I lost myself in his arms, feeling my heart beating faster than ever, knowing that I was holding the person I loved for all these years and thought that was dead. I had once doubted that I would ever know where he was buried. I had come to terms that maybe I would never have the chance to cry over his grave. Yet, now, in a graveyard indeed, I had gotten him back. He was returned to be from the dead.

"My Annie..." he whispered. 

"I thought-" I started but the tears were blocking my voice. "I thought you were-" I tried again but didn't manage much. "I thought Voldemort had killed you, Draco! Five months ago! We read it in the papers! Blaise gave me your letter; he told me he was there before Voldemort killed you! What happened?"

"I thought that Voldemort would kill me, as well. That's why I gave Blaise the letter. Voldemort was about to do it; he tortured me for hours, but then he spared me. But it didn't make a difference, anyway. I was a disgrace to my family so they punished me. They locked me up and acted as if I wasn't even there. I was dead to them. But I ran away. They reported an accident to cover my disappearance," he said.