Lonely

Chapter Two

Leo awoke to muffled voices coming from downstairs. She sat up quickly, rubbing her puffy eyes and looking at the clock that sat on her desk, it read as half-past one in the morning. She jumped out of bed and rushed to her door, there was no need to get dressed as she was still wearing her clothes from the day before. Leo worried that something may have happened and cursed at herself for falling asleep.

She hurried down the stairs, her socked feet slipping as she rushed to the sound of the voices. Bursting into the dimly lit kitchen, she saw her mum and dad sitting at the kitchen table, accompanied by Dora and Lupin. She rushed to her sister and leaned to give her a hug. "I'm so glad you're alright." Dora pulled her close. Leo turned and gave Lupin a hug as well, which he returned. "You too Remus."

Leo sat down in the empty chair at the table next to her father, smoothing her wavy locks as she realized what a tangled mess her hair must be. "What happened? Did everyone make it to the Burrow?" She asked. Her sister shot a look at Remus and Leo's heart began to beat quickly. "Did, did something happen? Did Harry's portkey make it or, or..." She stammered and then trailed off, unsure of whether or not she wanted to hear the answer.

"Harry's fine Leo, and the majority of everyone else with a few injuries here and there." Lupin said, adding "Alastor didn't make it though." Leo felt a chill down her spine. She hadn't known Mad-Eye Moody well, in fact, the Mad-Eye she had spent the most time with as her professor had turned out to not even be the real Moody anyway, but she knew from her sister's stories that Alastor Moody was a very powerful wizard. If he had been bested by You-Know-Who and his followers, Leo worried about what that meant for the rest of them.

Dora leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table. "Thankfully everyone else is alright though, and we've got Harry settled at the Burrow." Leo nodded, but couldn't help noticing the worry lines that creased Lupin's forehead. He'd had a constant expression of worry recently, occasionally broken by a rare smile. Her father stood and walked to the counter, waving his wand to summon five glasses and filling them from the open bottle of firewhiskey Leo assumed her mother had poured a drink from for Hagrid earlier in the evening. Her dad levitated the drinks to the table, with Leo surprised to find one of the glasses coming to a rest in front of her. She wouldn't be seventeen until the first of September, but she figured her father must have thought witnessing a near-death experience earned an adult drink.

"To Alastor." Ted Tonks said, raising his glass into the air. The rest around the table echoed her father's toast before drinking from the glasses he had served. The firewhiskey burned Leo's throat, but she felt her spirits bolstered almost immediately. Remus and Dora stood, and after saying their farewells, exited out the kitchen door.

Her mother sighed, clearing the cups away to the sink. "Well, I think that's been enough of all that for the whole year don't you two?" Leo pulled her mother into a hug. Her father smiled at them both, saying, "Oh, it'll all be alright Andromada, it always works out in the end doesn't it?" Leo's parent's kissed her goodnight, although she supposed it was now technically the early morning, and headed down the hallway that led to their bedroom.

Leo went to follow them down the hallway to the stairs that led to her bedroom but stopped after a few steps. She wasn't particularly tired, so she turned and headed for the sitting room instead. The fire her father had lit earlier was still glowing, although it was now mainly reduced to embers with a rare flame here and there. Leo sat on the couch, burrowing into the cushions and tucking her feet under her. She looked to the end table at the side of the couch where two letters lay open. Leo had almost forgotten about them due to the excitement of the day and picked them up to read over them. The first was from her best friend Hannah Abbott. Hannah's mother had been murdered, presumably by Death Eaters, just following the end of the spring term. Leo had gotten into a huge row with her mother, who had not wanted Lao to leave the house to go and visit her, but in the end, had been persuaded by her father to allow her to go as long as Dora had accompanied her. Leo re-read the letter from her friend.

Dear Leo,

Thank you for your letter, and again, thank you for coming to be with me after the news about my mum. To answer your questions about the others, Susan has been able to visit a few times, and Ernie and Justin both wrote. I think Justin is worried about school. He doesn't know if he'll be able to go back- even though his parents are both muggles he says they've been worried about how things are going in our world and have been talking about not letting him go.

To be honest, I don't want to go back. Especially now not after mum.

Maybe we should all just run away together. My dad would never go for that though, and I doubt your mum would either. Maybe your dad could take us all.

Have the death eaters been putting any pressure on your dad? Not to worry you or anything, it's just, with all these targeted attacks and things linking back to blood status... I'm just so worried about everything.

At least we know we'll have each other at Hogwarts.

See you soon.

Your friend,

Hannah

Leo didn't feel any better about the letter the second time through. She knew exactly what Hannah meant, the worry about her dad was a constant thought in her head and she wished more than anything that they could run away as Hannah had said. She folded the letter and tucked it back into the envelope, turning her attention to the second note she had received. Leo had felt simultaneous relief and anger as soon as she had seen the familiar scrawl.

Leo,

I'm sorry.

I wanted to let you know that I'm ok. I'm not sure if you care or not to be honest. I don't deserve you caring about me.

But I need you to. You may be the only one who does care.

I messed up, I did more than mess up. I don't know if this owl will be intercepted, but I had to write to you. Hopefully, it won't be, I don't think they screen our own owls.

I'll see you at Hogwarts yeah? Don't do anything stupid like following Potter. Even helping him. I'll explain more at school, that is if you don't hate me too much to talk to me.

Your cousin,

Draco

When Leo had first read the note, she had worried about what Draco had meant about helping Harry. After the events of that night, she wondered if Draco had known that the Death Eaters would be attacking the Order as they moved Harry. Leo laughed at herself, of course, he knew. He was a Death Eater just like the rest of them.

But still. He said he messed up. She couldn't stop the tiny seed of hope planted in her heart, that maybe he was changing. She thought about what he had said, about her being the only one that cared. Leo wondered what her aunt and uncle's reaction had been to Draco's perceived failure to terminate Dumbledore.

Leo sighed. She knew she couldn't write to Draco, the letter would most likely never make it to him, so she would have until September to sort out where she stood in regard to her feelings about him and whether or not she would forgive him. She gathered his letter and Hannah's and headed up to her bedroom, where, after several hours of tossing and turning, she was able to fall asleep.