Never • The Lost Daughter | A Draco Malfoy Love Story

Chapter 92 - The Face of Torment

You never know how free you are until you find your own prison.

I wanted to think about how blessed I was that I was looking at the sky again. Hearing something other than my own screams, such as the waves that were wetting the left side of my body and part of my hair.

I liked the place where we had Apparated. It made me forget that I was a minute away from madness.

It reminded me of the pick-nicks we had with my father when my parents were still alive. When I didn't know anything about Draco or Harry or Voldemort or even magic. I could hardly remember anything from these happy days of my younger years anymore but I was pretty sure I could still hear a young girl's laughter. It was my laughter.

I turned my face around to see a girl running and laughing near the waves. And there was a man running behind this girl. It was my father. And the girl was me. Dad ran up to me and lifted me up in the air. He always loved pretending he would throw me to the sea. And I was thrilled every time he tried to scare me.

"Anne! Bill!" I had heard this cheerful voice more times than any other voice. It was my mother's voice. "Anne! Come here!" the voice said.

I saw my mother running up to me. And by me, I mean the real me, not the child.

I could see them clear as day. My father was smiling. I remembered what Voldemort had said. He said my father tried to save my mother because he thought I loved her more. It was true, my mother and I were inseparable when I was a child. But how could he ever think that I didn't love him enough? He had the silliest bad-jokes you'd ever hear. He was the best one at flipping pancakes. He tied my shoes when I wasn't patient enough. What else would a daughter want from her dad?

Then there was my mother. She had the brightest smile in the neighbourhood. She was the best cook and when I was younger I thought she had read all the books in the world. Her hugs were the warmest and tightest. She was spiteful. Whenever she heard that someone was teasing me at school she gave me the worst advice but showed up early to talk to their parents the next morning.

But as my mother was running up to me it was like her face changed. Her features, her hair color, her body and even her high began to change. Soon enough, my mother had turned into Harry.

"Anne!" This time, the voice belonged to someone else and it was more worried.

I could barely understand what had just happened but I just told myself that all these things I had seen, my adoptive parents and my younger self, were just illusions. I still didn't know if I should be happy that I could sort out the illusions. Was it a sign that I wasn't entirely mad yet?

"Anne!" said Harry. "Anne!" he screamed again and kneed next to my body that I could swear it seemed dead.

"Is she all right?" said Hermione.

Harry put his ear to my chest and realised that my heart was still beating.

"She's alive," he said but there was no relief in his voice.

It seemed like I was dead. My eyes were focused in one spot and didn't move. There was no sign of life in my body except for my beating heart.

"She won't move. I don't know what's happening to her!" he said trying to wake me up. "Hermione! I don't know what's happening to her! I don't know what to do!" he repeated, and turned my head in his direction, hoping that my eyes would move as well but that was not to happen. At least not until I pressured myself as much as I needed.

I finally looked at Harry.

"Anne, can you heard me?"

I closed my half-opened mouth as a sign that I could still hear him.