Even Royalty Falters || Draco Malfoy

Chapter 40 - End of 6th Year

After Dumbledore's funeral, I wandered back to the Room of Hidden Things. Trying to find the Vanishing Cabinet that Draco had spent the year repairing. 

While I was at it, it stumbled across a mirror with clawed feet and a gold frame inscribed with the phrase "Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi."

I recognized the mirror. It was no ordinary reflection staring back at me. The Mirror of Erised showed me my deepest desires, what my heart longed for, what I couldn't ever have. 

I smiled sadly as brought my hand up to the mirror. Staring back at me was my own reflection and Draco. Even though a couple of tears had made their way down my cheek, my reflection grinned happily as the Draco in the mirror embraced me and rocked back and forth, making me giggle with joy.

He stared back at me beaming brightly with the soft smile he reserved especially me. His eyes held all the stats in the sky, bringing back all the memories of the days we spent, heads together, whispering secrets and love words, the nights we spent admiring the sky and thinking about our future. 

A happily ever after we couldn't have. 

I sighed and left the room, having given up on finding the cabinet. On my way to meet up with Harry, Ron and Hermione, I saw Ginny and Harry talking in the next hallway.

"Ginny, listen..." Harry was saying said very quietly. "I can't be involved with you anymore. We've got to stop seeing each other. We can't be together."

With an oddly twisted smile, Ginny said, "It's for some stupid, noble reason, isn't it?"

"I've got things to do alone now." 

She did not cry, she simply looked at him.

"Voldemort uses people his enemies are close to. He used people his own followers are close to if they don't listen to him. He'll know, he'll find out. He'll try and get to me through you."

"What if I don't care?" said Ginny fiercely.

"I care," said Harry. 

"I never really gave up on you," she said, looking out the window.

"I just wish I'd asked you sooner. We could've had ages...months...years maybe..."

"But you've been too busy saving the Wizarding world," said Ginny, half-laughing. "I knew this would happen in the end. I knew you wouldn't be happy unless you were hunting Voldemort. Maybe that's why I like you so much." 

I almost saw Draco and I sitting in their place, talking it out, about what our next year had in stock for us. It sounded like a conversation we probably would've had. In fact, we did sit down every year before the end of the summer and hope. We were so close, next year would've been the last. 

Ginny spotted me and nodded to Harry. She waved at me as she passed and Harry waited for me to catch up as we made our way back up the astronomy tower. The bright sunlight shone down on us, illuminating the room. It greatly contrasted the stormy sky of the might it all went down.

Dumbledore, gone, dead because of Snape, not Draco. Funny, how he was has spent the whole year with that on his mind, how we drifted apart because of it, yet in the end he couldn't do it.

It didn't matter anymore, he was still a Death Eater all the same. He still escaped with them. He still belonged to the other side. If I was feeling heartbroken, I was already too numb to realize I was hurting. But he never said he didn't love me anymore. He cared and he wanted to protect me. I shouldn't be blaming him.

"What about you, Cress? You in?" Hermione's question snapped me back into reality.

"I...I'm not sure my parents will let me. But if I can convince them, I'll definitely come," I told the trio as I joined on the balcony of the astronomy tower. 

Not coming back for for seventh year meant giving up my dreams of becoming an Auror. Then again, what was the point of coming back next year if none of my friends were? Horcrux hunting sounded more appealing than walking the halls alone next year. The Gryffindor Princess without her best friends or him. Draco wasn't going to be back either. I didn't know if I'd ever see him again in the same light, under the same roof. And if I did, he would be standing on the opposite side of the battlefield. Perhaps that was the final goodbye. He told me that I ruled better alone, without him. 

"No, I rule best with I'm with you," the wind carried my voice into the horizon, where the sun met the sea. There was still one last golden day of peace left to enjoy with Harry, Ron and Hermione.