Painkiller - A Drarry Fanfiction

Epilogue

"Sign it, please."

"Is this how you pay back the only family you have after they kept you under their wing for seventeen years?"

"I'm not here to fight you, Vernon. We all know it's better if you let me go."

"You're ungrateful and naive, just like your freak parents were."

"...What did my parents ever do to you? What could they have possibly done for their child to deserve this? Why do you have such a problem with me leaving you after having a problem with me being under your roof all this time?"

"We could've left you on the streets to die. We could've handed you off to the wizards who killed your parents. We could've sent you off to some stranger who would've considered you sick and dangerous. None of those things would've affected our family, but we chose to save you, and yet, here you are—kicking away any gracious attempt at fixing your unfixable self with your own feet."

"I never needed you to save me! I still don't, and I won't ever—not from people who consider it a price they need to have paid back. Just let me go, Vernon, and end your suffering."

"This is unbelievable—"

"Vernon, stop it. He's paid the price he owed. His own, his parent's—all of it. We don't need him."

"...Thank you, Petunia."

"I loved your mother, but she loved your father more than she did me. Get lost, boy. Never come back."

/////

I wake from the closest thing to a nightmare I've had in the past few months. Perhaps the anxiety of waiting for the results of my first ever job application is getting to me. Or maybe I'm finally coming down with the stress of the colossal amount of things I've had to figure out to become a proper wizard. Either way, nightmares barely get on my nerves by now. I've always thought of nightmares as a life-long partner anyway.

But, as I take my morning shower, the image of Vernon and Petunia sitting at the dining table still lingers in my mind. It leaves a trail behind, not an uncomfortable one particularly, but something more like... curiosity.

Hedwig chirps in her cage as I walk into my office.

"Good morning," I say, sitting at my desk. "Give me a few minutes, I've got a letter to send."

She chirps again, her little head crooked.

"I haven't eaten myself, Hedwig. I'll get you something in a bit, okay?" And I spread out a roll of parchment.

/////

Dear Dursleys,

It was summer, only a few months ago, when I left your home. For me, time has passed too quickly to feel real since. I've been busy, and I've been happy.

This is about the point I ask how you have been. I won't, though, because, from the bottom of my heart, I do not care. In the same regard, I assume you care as little about me as I do about you. I know full well, and I don't hope you do, either. I don't mind if this letter ends up unopened and chucked in the bin.

So why do I waste good parchment and ink to write a letter you won't even read? I haven't come up with a reasonable excuse to be honest, but the truth is, I simply want to brag. Life has been good to me in ways you couldn't have even imagined, and I feel that I deserve to do this.

Since you signed me away, I've spent a lot of time with Draco. Draco, if you don't recall, is a man I somehow managed to hate more than you, but a man I grew to treasure more than anything in the world. The first few weeks, he generously offered me a temporary stay at his home, during which he also helped me find my way through settling into the wizarding world. I expected all the paperwork and interviews to be hellish to navigate, but he made it feel easy.