Winds of Abomination

Prologue

  Five-year-old Arabella Malfoy opens her gray eyes as the sound of yelling reaches her ears from the hallway. She covers up her shoulders with her fluffy white comforter as she gets a cold chill after realizing it is just the sound of her parents fighting since her mummy just returned home.

She wishes they would stop because she has Primary School in the morning. Why must they be so loud?

Wanting to make sure her parents are okay as she is growing more and more worried, little Ara slips her tiny toes on the cold hardwood floor and walks slowly to her bedroom door to get a better listen.

"Mummy? Daddy?" She calls out into the darkness, no answer follows.

"You are NEVER home with me! Ara and I are here by ourselves all of the time!" Her father yells at her mother, who must have just walked in from work as Ara sees her mum setting down her overfilled brown briefcase.

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"Draco, I have been working to provide for our family since you decided to go part-time at the Ministry last year. Can you not give me any credit? I am Head of my Department!" Hermione Malfoy begs of her husband as her brunette wavy hair, identical to her daughter's, bounce to her shoulders as she takes out the hair pin holding it all together. The both of them walk into the sitting room and sit down on one of their sofas.

The fighting couple then falls silent when tiny footsteps are heard dashing across the sitting room's floor. Their fighting woke up little Arabella. This causes the both of them to not say another word for they do not wish their daughter to know the struggles they have been going through lately.

"Ara baby, what woke you up?" Hermione's soft voice asks her daughter, a spitting image of herself besides the fact her daughter inherited her father's gray eyes.

Unfortunately, Arabella is used to the fighting waking her so she feels it is better to lie so her parents don't feel upset. "I just wanted to come say goodnight to you since you just got home from work, mummy. That's all. I've missed you."

Hermione frowns as she picks up her daughter into her slender arms. She pulls her daughter's small head into her shoulders and cuddles her small, delicate body. "Oh how I've missed you too today, Arabella."

"I made a hundred on my spelling test at Primary School, mum. Did daddy tell you?" Ara asks Hermione, her gray eyes wide with innocent excitement.

"No, but it is best to hear that from you. I am proud of you, little one. It is late, it's best you go back to bed now," Hermione tells the tiny girl, still cuddling her to her chest.

"Can you tuck me in mum?" Ara asks of her mother hopefully, holding her small arms around Hermione's neck deeper as they leave Draco alone in the sitting room and walk toward her bedroom again.

"Of course," promises Hermione with a smile.

Hermione lays Ara into her bed and kisses her forehead. The small girl watches her mum as she makes sure to tuck in every corner of the blankets under her body. "Snug as a bug in a rug," says Hermione, as she does every time she tucks Arabella into bed. It is an old Muggle saying Hermione's mum used to say to her as a child.

Hermione kisses her daughter on the head a second time. "Goodnight, little one. Sleep well."

"Goodnight mummy." The five-year-old says dreamily, already half asleep again.

Hermione walks slowly back to the sitting room where her husband is sitting silently as he stares out the large multi-story windows, watching the silent black night outside.

"Let's just go to bed, Draco," beckons Hermione as she passes him completely and walks up the stairs towards their large master bedroom.

"Fine, more words left unsaid as usual," mumbles Draco as he stands up in defeat. He wants to tell Hermione that he is unhappy, that he wants his wife back and doesn't want to give up on the loving relationship they once had. But these are words he can say until he is blue in the face because Hermione's career is the number one priority in her life right now and Draco knows this.

The two of them lay silently in bed and face opposite sides of the room, making sure neither makes any contact in any way. Sadly, this is how they have been going to bed quite often lately, mad at one another.

"Can we talk about us?" Asks Draco, facing his wife's back now.

"No, I have to get up early and go to work. Maybe after I get off," mutters Hermione. "Now let me sleep!" But the truth is, she wants to tell him how much she wants him back too, but she can't find the words. 

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A/N: After four years, I am attempting again to write the sequel of Winds of Desire. Please let me know what you think of the prologue! And tell me what you would like to see in book 2 of Winds of Desire. Thank you for reading, loves.

-L.B.