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𝑵𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒐𝒓'𝒔 𝒑𝒐𝒗
Crack.
Lucius had apparated with the others, leaving the poor girl alone.
Her screams were so heartbreaking people began to tear up as they watched from the great hall's shattered, open windows.
"No, no, no,"
"May? May, what happened?" Theo sprinted out to the main corridor, George right on his feet as she crumbled to the ground, collapsing onto the floor beneath her.
"What did I do to d-deserve this?" She sobbed, "have-have I not h-helped people this entire war? Have I not-not watched everyone, everyone I love get torn away from me?" Her hands grasped at the rubble, shards of glass and concrete and imprinting themselves into her palms, making them bleed.
"What happened?" Theo attempted asking her again, but was only met by a sharp wail.
"He promised-he-he promised he wouldn't leave me, he promised," she sobbed, clawing at his feet, "I DON'T HAVE ANYONE ELSE," she screamed, shaking in exasperation.
"He-he promised, Theo, he promised, he-he said-"
"May, I need you to breathe,"
"YOU SOUND EXACTLY LIKE HIM," she screamed at Theodore, drowning in a puddle of her own tears.
The ocean wave had captured her.
Theo gave up, sitting down next to the girl as she climbed into his lap, sobbing into his jacket.
"He c-called me a mudblood," she wailed, gasping for breath as her nails left a tear in his jacket.
"May, I don't understand," Theo said softly, wrapping his arms around the shaking girl.
If only he could read her mind, he would know Draco had upheld his promise, that Friday night in sixth year. He hadn't called her a mudblood in nearly two years.
"They left without me," she wailed, "Lucius, he-" she broke into another fit of tears.
"May, please breathe, you're going to have a bloody heart attack," Theo hugged her to his chest, allowing her tears to soak his jacket.
"He's the o-only one who-who can calm me down," she blubbered, "I-I can't-" she whimpered out, curling up in a ball, bloodied hands wrapped around her scraped knees.
Theodore's heart broke as he put her broken words together, into one large puzzle with multiple missing pieces.
"Lucius... did he obliviate Draco..?"
His fear was confirmed as another shrilling scream cut through the otherwise silent air. Multiple sobs followed afterwards, choking on her own spit as she doubled over, throwing up into the rubble.
The last thing she remembered was Mulciber forcing a sleeping draught down her throat.
............
She woke up to familiarity.
A familiar room.
A familiar scent.
Familiar bedsheets.
For a moment she thought she'd been dreaming.
Then the harsh reality of her lover's absence hit her in the gut.
Her throat was raw, painful to even breathe from. Her chapped lips tasted of blood as she licked them clean, a bandage wrapped around the burnt flesh on her bicep where she'd been burned from the flames. The burn paste was still healing.
Tears filled her eyes once more as she stared at the tattered, slightly burnt, war-ridden paper crane now sitting, watching over her from his nightstand.
She pictured how she'd last seen him; staring up at him from his lap as he stroked the strands of hair from her face with his soft, soot covered fingertips. He was battle-ridden, but wore blood so gently for such a seemingly dark being.
The white dress shirt under his black suit had been torn down the middle, revealing his chiseled figure, three claw marks from some sort of beast engraved into his abs as they bled from open layers of flesh, calming his ragged breathing so much as to allow her to rest in his arms.
That was the last time he'd looked down at her angelically.
His loss had left bullet holes in her lungs, stab wounds in her heart.
She stood shakily from his dormitory bed, slipping his rings onto her fingers, spraying his cologne so heavily throughout the room anyone who may have entered would've heaved from the overwhelming fragrance.
She doused herself in his mint scented lotion, curled up in one of his blankets before casting a patronus charm, the dragon returning to her in a much less fierce form; almost gentle, loving.
A soft blue, how Draco's eyes had been.
It slowly wrapped it's wing around her body, coddling her like a small child, back to sleep.
Before she slept, she'd noticed a small note etched into the crane's wing which she hadn't noticed before.
'If I die, and don't find you again in this lifetime, I will find you again in the next.'
............
When she felt well enough, Theodore walked her up to the great hall. Despite her other friend's absences, Professor McGonagall had allowed the two of them to stay due to Theo's help with the Weasley family and Maybelle's help to The Order during the battle.
"You haven't eaten in three days, and they're giving out biscuits and tea. Can you just try to eat a little bit? Please?" Theodore practically begged, sitting her down at one of the great hall's tables next to Ginny, George and Neville.
Luna had gone back to the Parkinson Residence with Pansy and her mother. After Pansy's father had died during the battle she figured it good cause for Pansy to bring her "best friend" home with her. They would tell her the truth, eventually.
Including the truth about their matching hip tattoos.
"I'm not hungry."
"You're bloody starving yourself," Theo grumbled, sitting down next to George as their hands intertwined.
"No fucking PDA, I don't want to fucking see it," she slammed her fist down on the table. "Sorry, it's not you," she mumbled, a tear leaking down her cheek.
"We know, it's alright. Everyone's grieving over someone," George said lightly, handing me an extra piece of dark chocolate.
"Thank you, George," she said quietly, slightly embarrassed at her sudden outburst of anger.
Ginny wrapped a hand in hers as she took a half-assed bite from the biscuit. May didn't want any remorse, but it was a nice gesture.
"Thanks for the company but I think I'll be going now," she stood from her chair, letting go of Ginny's hand.
"Want me to come with you-"
"I'm alright, Theo," she smiled, turning from the great hall, running into the closest bathroom, vomiting into a toilet, tears streaming down her cheeks.
She held open her palm as the crane fluttered into her hand, walking through the ins and outs of the castle. Despite it's clinginess, she had grown to enjoy it's company.
After making her way through winding hallways, unsure how long she'd been gone for, she came across a mirror. It had been shattered at the bottom left corner, shards of glass on the floor as she stepped closer, the frame covered in grime from it's years of abandonment.
She broke down in tears.
She would return there and sit for seven days and seven nights with the crane, speaking to herself as the projected image of Draco sat next to her in the mirror, laying his head on her shoulder, playing with his rings on her fingers.
He would place soft kisses she couldn't feel on her forehead while she tried to figure out the mirror's purpose; it's meaning. Maybe it showed lost loved ones, or mocked her for the lost affection she would never receive again.
Maybe it was meant to make her feel as awful as it did.
But she returned every night until the Minister barged into the castle, taking her and Theo away to court.
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