Wild child

At the age of 18, the smell of lavender and violets was brought by the smoky wind on a summer night. After the catastrophe more than two months ago, Hogsmeade became deserted and dilapidated, with broken walls and ruins everywhere, and nearly half of the houses were not lit. The lights are on, and there are more bouquets of flowers praying for unowned souls on the roadside than there are few pedestrians on the road.

This is why Draco can go straight all the way to the destination. Ever since the big photo of their father and son being interrogated was put on the newspaper, he has never been out of the house without being stumbled by the reporters swarming up, and even at home, he has to close the doors and windows Guard against the poking heads of those hungry wolves.The Ministry of Magic forbade any expulsion or defensive spells around the manor. The obvious reason was to prevent them. In fact, everyone knew that it would embarrass them.Now he can maintain a calm face to deal with these, but no matter what, no one will like them.

Draco paced and waited on an uneven path near the Pig's Head Bar, and as the appointed time approached, anxiety was inevitably revealed in his footsteps.She might not want to see him, she might have even thrown the gold coin into the river so long ago that she didn't even notice his message.He wouldn't be optimistic enough to think that she carried that gold coin with her like him, and would take it out and stare at it in a daze in her spare time.

In fact, Draco hesitated for a long time to reactivate it.He needed to see her, he was sure of that.Even if he no longer has any extravagant fantasies, he still needs to believe that she does exist in this world as vividly as he remembers.

And, she said, wait for her.Draco never lied to her, even if she couldn't hear the promise or thought it was over.

Draco couldn't do anything about the last guess, so he started wondering what she might say.

Maybe she'd yell at him—no, that wasn't her style, and on the rare occasions when she was really angry, she was like a frozen volcano on the verge of erupting.More likely she would have told him in that characteristic icy tone that there was nothing more to talk about, because he was a despicable Death Eater and a coward, and walk away with no room for change.

It would destroy the castle he had built in his mind, terrible, but at least he could start over from the ruins.If she really wanted to punish him, the best way would be to not be found, and to let Draco guard the crumbling building for the rest of the time until it was full of cobwebs and weeds, and he didn't believe he could do it. it destroys.

She won't, Draco reassured himself with a wry smile.She doesn't punish anyone, she doesn't hesitate when she needs to hurt others to protect herself, but she never wastes a bit of her life holding grudges.He suppressed the panic and confusion by constantly looking at the time, and Draco had persuaded himself to run in the opposite direction when he heard her footsteps.

But it was too late, and there was nothing he could do but stare.Still stepping on the time point to appear, her eyes and body are full of deep fatigue, but still, words cannot describe her beauty.

There were three Fields on the dead list, her only remaining blood relatives; Fallen in the last battle.This was all Draco knew.

No one is not lost, no one can give comfort.

Crabbe's dull face suddenly flashed, and he slammed into Draco's chest hard.He'd lost his friend of seven years—although he'd never called him that before he was consumed by fire—and Crabbe was just a big, stupid guy, a loyal henchman who couldn't cheat, an accomplice too dull to back down.The guy died for his recklessness in trying to capture Potter for credit.

She kept walking, until they were entwined by the corners of their robes rolled up by the night wind.

The destruction was so real and so imminent.

What happened next came without warning.

It was nearly noon, and Draco woke up in a simple but tidy room in a small hotel - well, it must have been pretty tidy before they arrived, he couldn't remember anyway.Even though the scattered clothes and the people still sleeping next to him reminded him of what happened last night, he was still crazy, shocked, and disbelieving.

After taking a few moments to calm his breathing and heartbeat, he felt a strange jump in his limbs.Even when she was sleeping, she didn't look petite and obedient. Her supple skin scattered with light-colored scars and slightly trembling eyelids was like a scabbard. Draco happened to know how tough the person wrapped under it was as tough as a nail. How hard and targeted the attack had been—and now that she was by his side, it all belonged to him.

She opened her eyes and met his gaze, which was similar to the scene in the Room of Requirement, only the roles had changed, and they were both wearing clothes that time.

"Uh, good morning?" Covering her body with the sheets, she got up and glanced at the chaos around her. She seemed to be thinking about how to smooth things over.

"marry me."

She looked at him with all the exclamation sentences and adjectives that can represent astonishment in human language.

Draco took a deep breath, realizing what he had said, and equally struck by his honesty.

"Marry..."

"Good," she said.

The reaction to the news of their engagement was not insignificant.

At least half of the credit should go to Skeeter for returning to the old style, and as usual no one knows who and how the news got out, which doesn't really matter.Heroes and Death Eaters, commoners and fallen lords, Gryffindors and Slytherins, the combination can attract a frightening number of eyeballs.

For a whole month, Malfoy's mansion looked like a luxurious owl shack from a distance, and the sound of birds' flapping wings kept coming and going.Most of the letters came from her readers, ordinary ones who could be swept into the furnace and turned into fuel, screaming out anger and loss, but really annoying.But he wasn't surprised to find her poised and well adjusted.

"Skeeter is digging deep into the connection between 'hidden romance' and your choice of position. You really made a good friend." In a rare short silence, Draco burned another stack of papers, as if Ridicule nonchalantly.

"But let her find a chance." She curled up and leaned on his shoulder to read a big book, turning a page lazily while speaking. "Better to be hung on the tip of You-Know-Who's staff than on the tip of Skeeter's pen. I've been worried about this day for a long time."

"Well, I'm sure you have a lot to worry about." He stretched out his hand and gently stroked her flank with his fingertips.The thorny wound finally gradually healed after these days of careful conditioning, and it became a small scarlet mark.

She smiled lightly and raised her face to kiss his chin, then the book was thrown aside and quickly forgotten.

Narcissa didn't raise any objections to the uninvited guests who came in, which surprised Draco a little.He had no time to think about it. When the three of them dined at the same table, they behaved normally, and they continued to be busy with things that should be busy at ordinary times, but when it was time to be alone, the two of them didn't waste any more time.

The plight had not yet passed, the father was in prison, and the official ceremony had not yet been held, which should not have been done.Draco thought, kissing her harder.

Without romantic foreshadowing and affectionate dialogue, they are like two wounded beasts, leaving only the most primitive pursuit of each other, which is endless.

One dark winter day with snow falling, Lucius was released from prison.

Even without the dementors, a prison isn't a place that usually turns people around for the better.When he found out that a non-pure-blood girl had lived in the mansion for a year and a half and had already entered into a marriage contract with her son, he knocked over all the cups and plates on the table and walked away, which was roughly equivalent to the degree of his reaction. The insanity of normal people.

Draco guessed that she would regret not being able to witness this scene, and she avoided it for a while at his repeated pleas that night.Those fears returned to his mind in just a few hours, and after clearing the dinner table, Draco lost his appetite and waited anxiously, sitting where he could see the door, glancing there every few minutes.He hardly noticed that his mother put tea and refreshments near him.

Just after 9 o'clock, thank goodness, she returned.But Draco immediately realized how thin and lonely she looked, and the sound of the door opening upstairs made his heart skip a beat.

"This is my family, dirty blood is not welcome." Lucius said coldly.

"Father!" Draco subconsciously stepped forward to block between her and Lucius' eyes, only worried that she would turn around and leave immediately.

"This is not only your home. I didn't come for you, and I won't leave because of your existence." She said behind him in the same cold tone.

Walking up the stairs back to the room at a leisurely pace, she didn't even bother to be polite or friendly as she walked around Lucius.

The atmosphere couldn't get any more tense.

Later, lying in his arms, she told him that she had come home for dinner for the first time in over a year.She didn't say hello to anyone when she made the decision. Presumably, many of her acquaintances learned the news from the newspapers. Rhys Black shared a great deal of unhappiness.

Draco didn't try to pretend he was ashamed of it, and even knowing their reactions were perfectly reasonable, he was still angry that her so-called friends and companions hadn't given her anything but questioning, accusations, and finger-pointing during the toughest of times.He remembered the howling letter from George Weasley, and how she'd been shivering with her head in his arms as that stupid loud voice echoed through the house.

The atmosphere at her table that night was definitely not going to be happy, but Draco doubted that the disapproval was the reason she looked so lonely.But since she didn't mention it, he couldn't ask about it.

He didn't know until now, when he turned the page, that Blake had asked her a vital question that night.

"Do you really realize what it means to be married to Malfoy?"

Obtaining his father's approval was actually far from the most difficult part. To be able to maintain such a glorious posture for hundreds of years, the most deeply rooted characteristic of the Malfoy surname is not blood theory, but shrewd pursuit of profit and survival first.Lucius' attitude towards his son had already softened during the years of torment, and on the most important point, the two had already proved their abilities.

In a year and a half, the family business that Draco took over has seen a lot of improvement, and she has quickly completed the transformation from a combat hero to an excellent businessman, and the herbal medicine business she runs has begun to take shape.

She took the account book and knocked on the door of Lucius' study time and time again, showing him everything she could do—not only a record of increasing amounts of income and expenditure, but also a clear-headed, well-founded, rigorous and A young woman who does not lose her courage, who is about to enter his family.

"At this point, all I want is for my son to live a good life."

It was Lucius' acquiescence.He didn't even comment when Draco put on a Muggle suit and went out to meet her family, just sat at the breakfast table and seemed suddenly interested in the news in the newspapers that the savior was engaged to Ginny Weasley .And like her, Draco can be very likable if he wants to.

The wedding would take place on June 6, her birthday, the brightest day of summer that Narcissa had commissioned some venerable seer to calculate.

When telling him the news, Draco noticed that his mother looked strange, and seemed to have a lot to say.Since she didn't speak, Draco attributed his mother's abnormal behavior to his son's peculiar psychology before marriage-in fact, since Fanny moved into the mansion, her behavior has been very abnormal.

Besides, he had more important things on his mind, yes, he was going to be a husband.The whole family is busy with this, and the identities of the two are enough to make this ceremony a grand scale.

Marriage, the word has a completely different meaning from cohabitation, love, lingering, etc. It is similar to commitment but not exactly the same.Draco thought, wondering how this would change them.

20 years old, their wedding, the eve of the fairy tale ending.

"where are you going?"

"Find a new book."

"where are you going?"

"Receive the letter, I just saw Miriam flying over with another order."

"where are you going?"

"..." She looked at him with an incomprehensible expression and paused. "bathroom."

Draco was sure the pause wasn't out of embarrassment.

He knew it was stupid, but he just couldn't resist the urge to ask where she was every time she tried to lose sight.As the wedding day approached, this impulse became stronger and stronger.When Draco suggested that she wouldn't have to check it out herself now that business had stabilized, they both knew it was to keep her tied up before the ceremony.

A neurotic fool fiancé.Teasing himself so much, Draco tried to smile, but failed.

When the two of them were not entangled, she showed that lonely expression more and more often.The unspeakable sense of panic that even nightly indulgences couldn't erase, and Draco didn't know how to tell her that even in front of his eyes, he felt that she was going to disappear.Only the closest bond could give him a certain sense of security: she was here, there was no reason why she should disappear.

But that little consolation soon dissipated when, at the dinner table on a sweltering June night, Narcissa offered to let her stay in the guest room until the ceremony.

Draco's first reaction was to protest, which was ridiculous - he couldn't imagine a night without her by his side.

But she reacted faster: "I have no objection."

"I don't see what you have to worry about, Draco." Lucius mocked with a half-smile.

Draco had nothing to say.

The period from sunset to sunrise has become extremely long, and the time after the lights are turned off is always spent in tossing and sleeplessness.He actually felt as if he was back in the days of the sixth grade, powerless, he could only watch things develop in the worst direction little by little.

When she put the locket and the gold coin on the desk in front of him three days later, Draco couldn't tell whether he felt a stone fall to the ground or a stone hit his heart.She was unmatched at making him contradictory.

Blood roared in her ears, and whatever she said meant only one fact—she was leaving, again.

He knew this day would come sooner or later.

"I will not marry you, never." She closed her eyes and opened them again, those dark eyes were like a bottomless vortex, which always made him feel fatally attracted.

Inside the box was the ring he gave her. Under the early summer sun, it quietly reflected the delicate rays of light on the cheeks and fronts of the two people at the table, without bringing any warmth.

"I'm sorry, Draco. This won't happen again."

Compared with every parting before, this time it was very peaceful.He made no further attempts to persuade or retain, not even angry.Then she walked out of the room, out of Malfoy's mansion, out of his world.

That ended his part of her story.

Letting go is just a moment, but letting go is not a simple multiple-choice question anytime.

Get drunk every day, smoke crazily, and indulge in sensuality.

— sounds like a good choice.

Even if he hadn't been knocked on the head since he was a child, "Malfoy doesn't cry", the messy incident not too long ago has effectively imprinted a lesson in his mind: life will not decide to bypass you Before waiting for you to grow up.

One night after madly buried in all kinds of dizzying accounts for a month, Narcissa walked into his room as usual.

Putting the milk and some of his favorite snacks on a corner of the desk that would not interfere with the movement, Narcissa spoke.It's still the same old saying, don't wait, don't spoil yourself, it's time to look forward.Draco really didn't know why she was doing this, hadn't this nonsense been proven useless except to test his sanity?

"I think I know all this well, mother. If you have nothing else to do, please go out, you are a little distracting."

He hadn't been this rude to his mother in a long time, but she wasn't offended at all.Narcissa watched him silently for a while, and then dealt a heavy blow to his already strained rationality.

"There will be a reception at Greengrass' house this weekend, and I've already promised it for you."

It sounds normal. In order to maintain the connection between the families, it is quite common for the pure-bloods to hold various parties under various pretexts. Draco has been familiar with dealing with those scenes full of red tape and false politeness since he was a child.Those ties have faded a bit since the blow two years ago, but they've also become more necessary - especially if you want to maintain a bloodline that's considered honorable.

What mother meant was clear to Draco in an instant, or at least he thought it was.The reaction directly caused by this thought was that he stood up abruptly: "Who told you to make your own decisions?!"

Like a dike breaking, Draco flew into a rage, yelling at Narcissa and gesticulating violently, the difference in height between the two of them was enough to allow him to look down oppressively while doing so, knowing that he His eyes must have been bloodshot with a frightful frenzy.And his mother looked at him, without the slightest sign of retreating and losing control.

Since she could lie to the Dark Lord as if nothing had happened, what was his threat?After the first bout of venting, Draco's rationality finally emerged to remind him of this, and it brought unbearable chagrin and frustration.Narcissa was the only one who had never hurt him from beginning to end, yet was treated so roughly by him.

"After all of this, Draco, I'm not going to stop anything that's really good for you." Narcissa looked at her son, who was still panting and shaking, "but that girl doesn't belong to you, you can't wait .”

This seemed to be the final judgment for Draco. Scenes flashed through his mind, and his voice was a little hoarse: "You——have expected it?"

Narcissa shook her head.

"I don't know her, all I care about is you. I knew it when you showed up that morning, and she can make you whole again. Maybe you didn't realize it, Draco, but it's been two years since you started laughing again And pissed off, started picking on the chef again, started making jokes about the coffee I made. You were a kid when you got caught up in all that, Dark Lord... took something from you that I can't make up for, but She can. Whatever she did, I guess I should thank her for bringing you back."

Narcissa's voice trembled slightly under her strong control, and she had to take a deep breath to calm herself before continuing.

"But you're the one who knows her, Draco. Do you think she'll come back?"

The answer is beyond doubt.

Draco finally put on his formal clothes and headed to the Greengrass mansion that weekend.It was hard for him to say he fully understood the words, but the look on his mother's face when she said it broke his heart.In any case, he shouldn't bring harm to his loved ones anymore.

If there is anything more unpredictable than her, it is life.In the beginning, he just went with the mentality of fulfillment, Draco would not have expected what kind of compensation fate gave to the huge hole in his heart.

That day, he didn't pay any attention to the hostess of the Greengrass family's decent and considerate reception, but after the dance started, he saw Aspen sitting at the table sipping red wine, who seemed to have nothing to do with the brisk music and the twirling skirt. Tolia.

Although they are not familiar with each other, they are not unfamiliar, except for the occasional rebellious meeting at the fourth grade prom, he also met her a few times in various receptions, but at that time he had a contempt for blood traitors .Whether for protection or punishment, Astoria was locked up in the basement of the Greengrass home for months after the war.After regaining her freedom, she once left the family, but had to return because of Mrs. Greengrass' last wish.Ironically, his father and elder brother are still in Azkaban, his mother has passed away, his sister Daphne got married a year ago, and the current head of the Greengrass family is a former traitor.

For some unknown reason, he walked over.

"Can I sit here?"

Astoria turned her head, her light blue eyes were clear and peaceful, and they looked into each other's souls at that moment that seemed to last forever.After a short pause, she almost looked away in a panic, a few strands of elegantly falling hair at the sideburns covered the expression on her face.

"Of course, please."

Draco didn't know he had the ability to love again, it seemed to come back with something.It seems incredible that this happened so soon after that.

Two years later, Hyperion Greengrass was released from prison and took over as head of the house.

Astoria put on a white gauze and put his surname on it.