"I hate you, too." - Draco Malfoy Fanfic

Chapter 21

Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if only one remembers to turn on the light.

-Dumbledore

----

Eden had rushed to her room as soon as she'd arrived home and turned on the shower. Her skin had gone from freezing cold to an unbearable burning hot. She turned the blue knob and hopped right in, sighing as the icy water slid over her scorching flesh. 

An unfamiliar, wicked thing had slithered its way deep into her navel--knotting itself up tight enough that Eden couldn't sleep, no matter how long she laid awake in bed. So, in the dead of night, where the darkness shared no secrets--Eden took matters into her own hands to unravel that deliciously corrupt thing inside of her. 

She did not return to the Oakley manor the next day, or the day after that.

----

Three days after the first Summer Solstice ball, Eden found herself before her open pantry, peering into its emptiness for a scrap of something.. anything to rid her of her boredom. Behind her on the bench sat two loaves of Rosemary bread she'd baked that day. Flour, yeast, water and rosemary. It was all she had managed to scavenge for. 

Cursing the world, Eden headed for her bedroom for other sources of entertainment. Books laid scattered all over the room. She'd read them all, even re-read some. Journals sat beside her bed but Eden was sick of journaling, sick of paper. She'd even tried colouring one of those adult-colouring-in-books of a garden that she'd been given for her thirteenth Christmas but couldn't stay engaged long enough to finish it.

She wandered over to her record player and pressed start, not really caring what vinyl had been left in there as she opened every cupboard and every draw. She'd already experimented with makeup yesterday. Hair? No, she'd done that yesterday too. 

"Come home, mama." Eden whined to no one in particular as she left her bedroom and found herself in the living room before the TV. "News, cartoons, no I hate that show, no I hate that show, too, news, jazz music?" She turned the TV off. She'd been trying to convince herself to go to Levi's for two days now, but her body just wouldn't take her to the bus stop. 

A click sounded nearby, and Eden checked the front door for mail. Two for her mother and three for her. She ripped the first one open. 

Dear Eden, 

Sorry, I didn't get a lot of time to write this. I Hope you're enjoying the Solstice, Australia has been fun. If you need to talk, contact me. I miss you heaps :(

Love you,

-Faye 

She smiled a little, then opened the second. 

Eden, you will not believe what happened to me!!

So I'm staying with dad for the first two weeks, as you know, and there's this cute little market place open on Sundays, right? So I went, and I saw this really cute bookstore and I know you like books so I thought, why not get Eden a book? So, I went in, and this REALLY cute boy was in the poetry section so I went to the poetry section and he asked me if I read poetry often. Anyway, I said yes even though I don't, but we did have that one poetry essay in muggle-studies, so..I'm getting sidetracked. He asked me who my favourite poet was so I said Shakespeare because I couldn't think of anyone else--

Eden skimmed quickly over the rest of the letter, knowing Francesca would just tell her the story all over again on the train ride back to Hogwarts. Thought it didn't stop a small laugh escaping her as she read bits and pieces of Frans story.