All Our Broken Pieces

Chapter 35

I was told the next meeting would be in over two weeks time and so I returned to Hogwarts for a while, I guess over the years it had really become my safe place.

Sometimes I missed my days at Hogwarts, playing cards in the common room, sneaking to the kitchen with Draco late at night, the parties where Pansy and I would tease the boys. Long talks in the astronomy tower, cigarette smoke floating above us all.

What I would do to relive it all.

Although I came back because I missed it, it had also occurred to me that I never told Enzo my plan, and fortunately for me he didn't attend many meetings, if any at all.

I hoped and prayed Draco didn't tell him, it could ruin everything.

It was odd walking through those hallways once again, although  I was still a student I couldn't help but feel an ache of nostalgia. Being so aware of the war that was beginning made it hard to think less like a soldier and more like what I actually was; a sixteen year old girl.

It didn't take me long to be met with the familiar emerald hue of the Slytherin common room and I was suddenly home again.

Carefully I made my way through, taking in every detail that I had taken advantage of when I was here everyday.

With the exception of a few fifth years, the common room was bare, no sign of Pansy, Enzo or even Theo.

After two sharp knocks, I pushed his door open.

"Enzo?" I whispered, scared to disturb him only to find his room empty.

oh.

Since everybody seemed to have disappeared for the moment, I decided to take a walk around the grounds.

Down by the lake I could see a dark figure getting closer to me, it stopped for a moment before beginning to move faster.

"Nora?!"

Enzo.

My stomach did a somersault as we moved closer together.

He sprinted up to me, his large figure towering above me and he engulfed me in a hug.

I'd missed him.

I tried to say something but no words came and in that moment right there, he and I simply existed together.

He released me too fast but I found his hands softly holding my face.

"Where have you been?"

He seemed panicked, sad, excited and worried all at once. Again I tried to say something, tried to explain but the air had been stripped from my lungs and all I could do was stand there like an idiot, mouth dry and beginning to cry.

"Where have you been?" he repeated.

Pulling my back into him, I felt his chest vibrate softly each time he asked me again where I went, his soft heartbeat comforting me in more ways than I could imagine.

Once again I was released from his warmth, as he looked me in the eyes, this time expecting an answer.

"Malfoy Manor." I looked to my feet.

"Oh."

Oh...

The tension around us was broken by the soft sounds of the lake, but still neither of us said anything for a while.

"Are you...?"

A deatheater?

"No no no, I don't think so."

"Oh, good."

Is it good?

"Do you want to be...?"

A deatheater.

"I don't know."

"Oh. Right."

We fell silent again, this time it was deafening.

"I missed you." He said, finally meeting my eye.

My heart fluttered.

"I missed you too."

He smiled, how I missed that smile.

That smile was home.

"I think you have some things you need to fill me in on mrs."

"I think do too."

He draped his arm around my shoulders, guiding me away from the spot we had been frozen in.

"Come on then you."