𝒜𝒻𝓉𝑒𝓇𝓂𝒶𝓉𝒽 | 𝒟.𝑀.

61 | ﴾ Now or Never ﴿

The moon was high in the sky and the hour had passed midnight, yet Draco had still not come back to put me in my required magic-retarding cuffs. I had chewed down every last one of my finger nails in an awful response to my rising anxiety. His cat was curled up on my comforter, essentially blending in entirely with the ivory fabric, stretching with her newfound trust and loyalty to me as a secondary family member added to her roster.

I pet Effie to the point where she rolled away from the arguably irritating overattentiveness. I hung my head in my hands over my knees in terror that Theodore had realized the circumstances and done something awful to Draco. Draco was strong and militant, and exceptionally intelligent, but Theodore was unbelievably sneaky and deceitful, and probably equally as smart but lacking in sympathy entirely. He was capable of the unimaginable to get whatever he wanted, and it frequently felt like he was one step ahead.

Finally at one-thirty in the morning I couldn't take it anymore and I tore from my room still wearing Draco's suit like a freak. Narcissa wasn't much for night time wandering however so I pelted down the chilly stone stairs with my bare feet smacking on the treads. My heart was lurching with frustrating and painful impatience.

At his black bedroom door I knocked over and over like a psychotic mailman with a client's dog chewing on their leg. When he didn't answer I tore it open to find a pitch black room waiting for me, devoid of life. I ripped all of the blankets off of his bed to ensure that he wasn't sleeping there. His bathroom was empty, his fireplace cold. 

I spent hours checking all of the rooms as if he was ever known to linger anywhere else save for our two bedrooms. The house was seemingly abandoned; even Narcissa did not respond to my cries at her doors. 

I was forced to go back to my room by three in the morning, with a terrible sense of worry rippling through my body. I laid back on my sheets swimming in his suit, testing all of his pockets for anything he might have been carrying around. Everything smelled like pine and I didn't want to remove a single article of his clothing that was providing very minimal comfort. 

In his left jacket pocket there was indeed a nonsensical scribbling on a piece of yellowed parchment, and I peered at it with dry eyes and a blank mind. 

In the end, who which presented as foe emerges as comrade. Old cohorts reveal themselves to be nothing more than the true adversary. Where once it was believed never to be possible history has repeated. Four enamored eyes would see that shared scars lead to allies, if only one of two is willing to accept reformation.

I dismissed it and passed out for the evening. 

The first two days crept by in his absence, and I was bombarded with dangerous sleep walking in the late hours of the night, leaving me feeling increasingly detached from my body. Ascelin had grown relentless now that I was not being monitored, and Narcissa was nowhere to be seen. It took me until the third night to come to my senses and get help from Nibbles, who spent the entire five minutes I required her assistance to cuff me weeping dramatically at the news of Draco's disappearance.  

By the end of the week I was mentally drained from endlessly crying, barely coping with my uncomfortable morning visitations with the Auror's and losing focus at work. I spent hours after leaving my office searching for Draco all over the Ministry, all over London, calling on all of our friends...but he was gone. Not a word, no warning, and Theodore was also conveniently missing or at the very least avoiding me.

Friday I was glumly making my way through the teeming atrium, pausing at the Auror's elevator when I was approached by Seamus Finnigan. He looked pale and worried, his dark blue eyes digesting my broken appearance, "Oi, Madeleine, where's that husband a' yers? He's not been to work all week."