Little Memories

After Lucius, Narcissa, and Snape left, it was only Charlotte, Draco, and Gregory in the large mansion and the emptiness slowly began to set in. There was a gaping hole left in the building with the realization that Mr. and Mrs. Goyle were now at the bottom of the sea, their decaying flesh being torn at by the deep sea currents and under feeders of the cold ocean. At the center of it all there were two children, Charlotte and Gregory, who had been robbed of more time with their parents and were crying out inside for any possible way for them to return to them. Their thoughts and hopes were futile, they knew, but the children that still lived in them wanted nothing more for the wishes to come true.

Eventually, Gregory had grown weary of the absolute silence in the room and left Charlotte and Draco to linger in the quiet. He wanted some time up in his room, to just be alone and think things through. He was the man of the house now and with that title he felt an overwhelming amount of responsibilities placed upon his shoulders and need to protect his baby sister, who was now considered a woman in the Wizarding world.

Charlotte and Draco were looking anywhere at each other, finding their previous actions a bit awkward, but barely regrettable. Charlotte’s pill box hat had been removed from her head and rested on her lap, her golden soft curls cascading over one of her shoulders. Her hands were clasped nervously in her lap and she stared down at a certain recess in the stony floor. Draco’s tie had been loosened a bit, his thick winter jacket draped carelessly over at chair in the room. He cradled his chin in his palm, his elbow resting tiredly on the arm of the chair. The fire in the room had warmed it up considerably and the darkened windows let them know that night had fallen.

Charlotte’s bright blue eyes wandered over to Draco, noticing how his grey-blue stare was watching the flames lick the back of the fireplace and eat away at the logs lying within. She wanted to say so much to him, to tell him that he didn’t need to worry about her, to tell him that she still loved him but didn’t want to get hurt again. But she couldn’t bring herself to form the words she needed to say. Her pride was far too strong to be the first to admit that she was wrong and that she was terribly sorry for the way things had happened between the two of them. Instead, she chose to stare at him, those bright, darling blue eyes of hers tracing every perfection and imperfection of his worried features.

Draco felt eyes on him as he stared into the fire, half of him wanting to just pitch himself into the flames and letting them consume him. A dreadful feeling had settled in his chest and it weighed heavily upon him, made him think things that were so unlike him. He just couldn’t bring himself to look at the bright, glorious girl in the room. He didn’t want to see the pain of losing her parents prematurely in her eyes nor did he want to see the guilt from what they had done twisting at her beautiful features. Finally, his curiosity got the best of him, and those steely blue eyes of his slipped over to hers and locked. For that moment, the pain within him left as he saw a bit of a smile in her eyes. He knew then that she was strong, stronger than he had ever imagined her to be, and that she was going to persevere through this.

“You’re so unbelievable, Charlie,” he said softly, causing a small smile to curl her lips at his words. She slowly shook her head, looking away from him, slightly bashful from his compliment, or that was she was taking it as.

“I’m not so different from you, Draco,” she replied, biting her full bottom lip and slowly looking up at him through her blonde, nearly transparent eyelashes. She had forgone makeup, knowing she’d just cry it all off. His brow wrinkled a bit in confusion, not understanding what she meant by that. She let out a heavy sigh and faced him once more. “You’ll find that in situations such as the one I’m in, it’s unreasonably easy to cope with death. That’s what we are, right? ‘Death Eaters’?” She offered in a soft voice. Draco swallowed hard, figuring that she had seen her fair share of death in her time as a Death Eater, the youngest one known.

“They were your parents, Charlotte,” he murmured, shaking his head a bit at her. Charlotte winced a bit at the his tone, knowing she seemed as emotionless as she had to be most of the time.

“I know, Draco. But they knew what they were doing in running away,” she said softly, tears gleaming in her eyes once more. “I will miss them terribly…but their deaths were nothing but a result of their blatant disobedience. Until he is dead, Draco, I will continue to serve him for fear of my own untimely death.” Draco fell quiet as he felt he couldn’t blame her for that. He would be the same way, as were his parents. He was a bit relieved that he didn’t have to be at his own home, since the presence of the Dark Lord disturbed him greatly.

Charlotte merely sighed at his silently, twirling a ringlet around her finger as she turned her eyes back to the same nick in the rocky floor. Draco, however, kept his eyes directly on her and watched as those emotions she kept locked so tightly flickered behind her eyes. The ring on her left hand was glimmering in the waxing and waning light cast by the flames, teasing Draco in one of the worst ways. Despite telling himself he wouldn’t, he stood and slowly began to walk over to her. Charlotte’s eyes remained glue to the spot on the floor, but her body visibly tensed. The blonde haired man knelt before the girl he loved, his blue-grey eyes roaming over her features. Without warning, he closed the distance between their faces and pressed his lips to her motionless ones. He felt the cool intake of air from her small, surprised gasp against his lips, and goosebumps immediately rose on every inch of his body.

“Draco,” she breathed, pulling back slightly to look over his face with wide, questioning eyes, “what are you doing?” He set his eyes on hers, taking her hands gently into his.

“Tell me you don’t love me,” he said quietly, with a certain amount of force in his tone. Charlotte’s eyes darted frantically between his, her mouth parting ever-so-slightly as she drew in a small breath of air. Her heart was thumping wildly in her chest, as a combination from their unexpected kiss, their proximity, and his words.

“I don’t love you,” she repeated, but there was no conviction in her eyes nor in her words. Draco’s upper lip curled a bit as he gripped her hands a bit tighter, shaking his head a bit.

“Such lies, Charlotte,” he hissed. Charlotte flinched a bit at his grip and his sudden temper with her. She swallowed hard, staring fearlessly into his eyes, and replying in a tiny, whispering voice,

“I was only doing what you told me to do, Draco.” She paused, her lips trembling and her nostrils flaring briefly. “It doesn’t mean that I believed in what I was saying.” The disgust and anger he had felt at her lying quickly slipped away as the heartbreaking honestly filled her words. He drew in a deep breath of air and stared hard into her eyes, shaking his head a bit.

“Break it off with Theodore then,” he said in that same forceful tone of voice he had taken with her before. Charlotte cut her eyes at him a bit and slowly shook her head a bit.

“Not until you ditch Daphne and get my bracelet back,” she said softly, staring hard into his eyes as she gave his hands a gentle squeeze. Draco smiled to her and nodded a bit, feeling the happiest he had in the longest amount of time.

“I think we’ve got ourselves a deal, Charlie,” he said softly, a wide grin curling his lips at the thought of being free of Daphne and Charlotte being single once more.

New Years passed quietly at the Goyle Castle. There was no partying or any sort of guests over besides Draco. And then the three were being sent back to Hogwarts, except the train ride was unlike anything they’d experience before in the six or seven, in Draco and Gregory’s case. The students were separated by house on the platform, but that was nothing out of the usual, since no one sat amongst other houses anyway. However, once they got on the train itself, they were placed in compartments according to year and in alphabetical order.

Charlotte was forced into a compartment with three other Slytherin’s that she’d never care to get to know and watched as her brother and Draco were forced away. Gregory was forced into the same compartment as Daphne Greengrass and she kept asking him questions about Draco and what happened between him and Charlotte at the party. He merely ignored her, his hand inching ever closer to his wand whenever her screechy, bird-like tone would fill the too small compartment. He kept his calm, despite the fact he knew he’d be excused for the action, being the Death Eater that he was.

He saw the Carrow’s occasionally patrolling the corridors of the train cars, along the a few other “Aurors” and his nose wrinkled a bit. Never before had he seen any sort of display like this on his way to Hogwarts and he wondered exactly what it would be like when he finally got to Hogwarts. He could only hope that the new procedure and “protection” that now surrounded the students was not a precursor of things to come.