The Era of Aria Snape

96

Chapter Ninety-Six

ARIA HAD GRADUATED from Hogwarts and had since been living and working with the twins in their new shop.

Of course, as long as she'd known them they'd always talked about opening a shop together and as she walked through each aisle every day, it was hard to imagine how she had ever doubted them.

She would get owls from her father every so often and from Draco as well — those, she would swiftly set alight before she or George got the chance to read them.

Despite how happy Aria was, a sense of emptiness still hung over her. This wasn't her dream, to own a joke shop in the increasingly dodgy part of Diagon Alley and make fun of the customers forevermore. No, she wanted more, but she didn't know what more was. And she tried not to think about her increasing unhappiness that came from no fault of George.

Being an Auror was off the table, she had no interest in that, besides the headlines would have been outrageous. She could imagine them saying something like "Death Eather studying to fight the Dark Arts!" No, Aria would much rather lay low for the time being.

Harry had barely been in contact with her, although she assumed that he had barely been in contact with anyone. He had just suffered the loss of his godfather, Sirius Black and while Aria hated to see Harry upset, she was more furious than sympathetic.

The only reason the whole bloody Order had been in the ministry that night was because Harry had had some stupid vision. Not to mention how everybody had just let Harry and his bunch of fifth-year friends walk straight into the danger.

She would have had a word with Lucius if not for his imprisonment in Azkaban. Aria couldn't say she was too pleased with that either, after all, it must have been affecting Draco terribly.

Speaking of which, a very familiar owl flew into her line of sight and dropped a letter right into Aria's hands. Of course, it was from Draco and her first instinct was to toss it out, but she couldn't bring herself to ignore him for much longer.

She opened the letter and what she read shook her to her core. She had to see Draco immediately, he had told her to come by the Manor.

She apparated there immediately and made sure to be quick. George couldn't know. That would cause extreme trouble in their relationship.

She hurried to Draco's room — the rest of the Manor was empty — Narcissa was nowhere to be seen.

"Draco?" She tapped on his door softly and let herself in.

He looked terrible, pale and his hair had grown longer. He looked more mature than when she had last seen him, but sad now.

She went to sit next to him. "I read your letter."

He nodded. "I've been writing to you for weeks."

"I know. I'm sorry." She felt guilty for ignoring every single owl he had sent especially now that she knew why he had been sending them.

"Don't be. I just thought I should tell you, you'd know what to do in a situation like this."

Aria sighed. "I don't. Who could know what to do when asked to murder someone?" She reached for his hand and squeezed it.

Draco released a sob at the reminder and Aria felt her heart crack at the sight of him crying. All the years that she had known him, he'd hardly ever shown this side of himself before. Something within her shifted as a tear slipped down his face. She couldn't bear it, her first instinct was to hurt whoever had made him sad. But that was out of her reach, for now.

She pulled him into her and let him cry on her shoulder. Aria ran her hand along his back, hugging him closer to her, unable to bear each sob.

Every second she held him broke her a little more.

She had to do something, she would do anything to stop him from feeling this way. What could she do, though? It was the Dark Lord's wishes. Aria didn't know why he expected Draco of all people to be capable of something like this.

"I'll help you." She whispered. "I'll do anything that I can."

An idea sparked in Aria's head, one that made perfect sense. She couldn't believe that she hadn't thought of it sooner. "I'll go back to Hogwarts for you. I'll become a Professor." She mumbled. It was perfect, she could be there for Draco that way and on top of that would be doing something that she was good at.

Draco looked up at her, eyes watery.

"I'm going to be here for you every step of the way, okay?"

A small smile appeared on his lips. Draco rested his head on her shoulder again, his breath was fanning her neck and his arm was around her, hugging her. "Every time I see you I fall more and more in love with you, Aria."

She hadn't come here to hear this, she had come because he had told her something terrible. Although, the same was true for her. Her feelings for him grew whenever she saw him as well, even now she felt more in love with him than she did with her actual boyfriend.

Aria left shortly after that, but she would see him soon. She only had to speak to her father about helping her get a job at Hogwarts and then everything else would fall into place.

She was determined not to let Draco go through this alone, even if it meant taking on the assignment herself when the time came. Whatever he needed, she would be there for, no matter what it was.