THE FURIES ▸ Draco Malfoy

Chapter Thirty-One: ACHLYS

"And what of your vow to me?" she interrupted, choking on her words as she stepped forward. "Your vow to your daughter? She will be sixteen tomorrow. Only a year before she is meant to walk into the world as an adult, and we've hidden half of her life away from her! Are we easier to abandon than your Dark Lord, Alastiare?"

His jaw tightened, and his worn eyes reflected the pain. "You know this family has always come first to me. I have kept my vows with him so that you and Andromeda will be protected, so that you will be alive and so that Andromeda may find love―"

"She loves you. Why does she need to find love when you are meant to show her that as her father?" Celicia interjected sharply. "How can you expect life to have any meaning for me if you are just a remnant existing within it? He is going to be the death of you, and what would you have us do then? Grieve? Mourn? Or celebrate our lives and continue loving when the one who is meant to love us most is gone?"

A longer silence drawled through the air after Celicia finished sobbing through her last sentence, her pale complexion flushed from frustration and tears. Alastiare sat on her words, having felt the physical blow to them, and leaned back in his seat. His hand found its way to his left arm, and hidden underneath the long, black sleeve was the biggest regret he had faced in his life. The instinct to trace the cause of his family's misery was instinctual, and he found his fingers falling on the Dark Mark of his Lord more often than suspicions should allow.

"I would hope that you would raise our daughter to believe in the memory of me, so that she should never be filled with regret like I am. Let her learn from my mistakes, Cece, whether that be through these letters or through your wisdom..." Alastiare could feel a terrible pain ceasing his ability to speak, and he swallowed it down to say his last few words "...perhaps there would have been a different path for me―for us―had I known from the beginning that I had another choice. Always remind her that she has more than one...and if there does ever come a time where we must say goodbye to one another, remember that there was a time when someone else made a vow to this family, as well."

Alastiare's words did not need to be spoken in direct reference for her to understand that he meant the promise Sirius and Alastiare made to one another only weeks after Andromeda was born. Sixteen years later, and Celicia could still feel the weight of it. She knew it must be the weight of a thousand worlds on her husband's shoulders.

"I will not give up on you," she promised, uncompromising, as she took another forceful step nearer. "This is not a discussion of acceptance, Alastiare, and I will not lose you to this wretched pain when I have already fought it and won once before. He will not take you from me again."

He glanced down at the letter, his heart suddenly hollow. "Perhaps you should. This time, we are not fighting for one another, Cece. We're fighting for her."

"Are we? If you were truly fighting for her, you would stop writing those blasted letters as a way to forgive yourself for giving up on us..." Celicia stopped when she saw her husband's face fall, and she looked away to wipe the tears that had fallen down her face. When she looked back, he now shared her expression of grief "...write her another then, but I can't promise you that she will be kind enough to open any of them."

Before Alastiare could say any more, she turned on her heel and started back to the door she came through. She ignored the books pulled out haphazardly in stacks on the ground as she went. He had always been too invested in literature. Just as her fingers started to grip the handle of the door knob, she stopped. With her back still turned to him, paying close attention to the cracks in the wood of their ancient manor, she kept in what was left of her tears.