Eclipse ; Draco Malfoy

Chapter Forty-three

narrator

The pastry shop of delicious delicacies with toppings of different kinds has that delectable ambience of friendly chatter. The air swirls with aromatic dreams; the place where Aurora kills her time by writing short stories and poems as she sell her bread and pastries.

The shop opened a week ago; not so long, yet there are people who consistently stop by to buy her products. The shop was once cloistered and close but she decided to fill it with more tables.

Now, the shop is open air with tables a respectful distance apart, wrapped with tablecloth respectively with freshly picked wildflowers from the backyard of their house.

Every day, for the past couple of days since her shop opened, she constantly picks and gathers the wildflowers for her to decorate in every vase in the middle of the table.

She thought it would be nice for her to pick those instead of buying expensive ones.

On the other side was George who loved her so much that he couldn't bear to look at her, struggling. Nevertheless, he agreed to open her shop not because he wanted to but because he was screwed. Half of the materials and rent came from Harry's savings while the other half was from George's.

The shop was located near the Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes where they can easily go to Aurora if ever she needs something. George was complacent of her being guarded by Ron.

George and Ron takes turn on running the joke shop. George would be there every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday while Ron would be managing the joke shop every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

He couldn't take the risk of her being exposed to Malfoy once more or even to other witches and wizards that she once spent her moments with.

Although Ron's looking after her, he decided to ask Angelina Johnson to chaperone her in return for a salary and she did agree. However, she said she can't always be there to chaperone her due to hectic schedules of Quidditch trainings.

Today, Aurora was alone. She was sitting at the high stool by the counter while drawing squiggly lines and undefined figures on her parchment, trying to remember her back story.

From a mile away was Draco Malfoy who is being interrogated at the Ministry of Magic, trying to correct all of his mistakes by confessing everything he knew about the Death Eaters.

The group of people who was once part of Voldemort's pack that now makes him sick to his stomach. He swore to Aurora that he would help Harry Potter with all his might and he did.

He gave him his wand the moment Harry needed it. He did that not only because of Aurora's requests but because all he ever wanted was to be friends with him; with the trio. He wanted to prove them he's different.

He was the boy who was once curious to meet another Hogwarts student at Madam Malkin's or even at Diagon Alley at such random days he was there. He was once the boy who wanted to be Harry Potter's friend regardless of his affiliations.

He was once the boy who was really terrified of entering the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid. He was once the baby boy of his parents; spoiled rotten.

He was once the boy who torments Harry first; the boy who got punched by Hermione; the boy who tirelessly wrote 'Weasley is Our King'. But one thing never changed and would never change.

He will always be the boy who had no choice.

In the broad daylight, he would try to drown himself in the sea.

He tried but he failed.

Aurora's angelic voice keeps on whispering inside his head. "Never think of killing yourself again, alright?" and he nodded like a crazy idiot as if he was at the moment.