The Letter
By Sara Hodgkinson
***
Early morning and a slim, shadowy figure of a girl sat alone at a large table in the kitchen of The Burrow. A small fire crackled in the hearth. Cradling a small goblet of butterbeer, she gazed out of the window at the approaching dawn. The stars were still out and the sun was not yet visible on the horizon. The sky, a deep blue-purple, decorated with dancing wisps of creamy cloud, grew steadily lighter with each passing minute.
Sipping her drink, she watched as birds gathered in nearby trees and began singing their beautiful dawn chorus to her.
After a few minutes of watching them perform, she set down her drink and looked down at the letter sitting on the table before her. It had arrived yesterday, not with the morning post, but in the early evening, with a handsome eagle owl. She had known whom it was from immediately. She had recognised the owl.
She stared at the name on the front: Virginia Weasley. He only ever used her full name when it was something serious. She had guessed straight away what it was.
She reached out and pulled a small piece of parchment from the envelope. She had read and re read it so many times already through night, but still, a small part of her held hope that maybe this time it would say something different.
Her tired eyes scanned the parchment again and her heart sank with sorrow once more. It still said the same thing. Scrawled in midnight blue ink, the note read:
Dearest Ginny,I think you may know what I am about to tell you; I’m in trouble. Big trouble. The Ministry Of Magic has Aurors after me and if I stay here, my days are numbered. I’ve seen what Azkaban did to my father and I can’t go there, I just can’t. Which is why I have to leave.
I’ve got a vague idea of where I’m going, but I’m not exactly sure where I’ll end up. All I know for sure is that you can’t come with me. I love you too much to put you through that.
As long as you stay close to your family and keep your head down when you get back to Hogwarts, you’ll be fine. There’s no reason for them to think that you were involved.
I just want you to know that I’m sorry and I will never stop thinking of you no matter where I go. I’ll always love you Virginia.
Draco
A small tear trickled slowly down her cheek and landed silently on the parchment before her, making the ink run a little on the last line.
She felt a dull ache inside her chest and the pit of her stomach churned as she thought of never seeing him again. The kitchen around her became blurred as her eyes clouded with more tears.
She looked back out of the window. The sky had turned from a blue-purple to a kind of grey-pink and the sun was just starting to appear on the horizon. The birds were still singing in the trees. People would be waking up soon. She couldn’t let them see her like this.
A few more tears escaped from her eyes. She took a few deeps breaths and stood up. Sniffing and wiping her eyes, she picked up the letter and slowly walked over to the fire.
She read the last line again; I’ll always love you Virginia. She whimpered quietly and dropped to her knees beside the fire.
‘I’ll always love you too Draco,’ she whispered as she dropped the letter into the flames.
Knelt beside the warm fire, she watched the letter burn for a minute or two, drying her sore eyes with the sleeve of her night robes. Then, deciding she would go back to bed before the others appeared to avoid being questioned, she got to her feet. Just as she was making her way towards to stairs, she heard the heavy footsteps of someone descending into the kitchen. She looked around desperately for somewhere to hide, but too late.
Ron’s sleepy face appeared at the foot of the stairs. He yawned loudly, rubbing his eyes. When he saw Ginny, he looked momentarily surprised, then said, ‘Oh, morning Ginny.’
‘Morning,’ she mumbled.
‘I didn’t think anyone would be up yet,’ he said, stretching. ‘How long have you been down here?’
‘Oh, not long,’ she lied. She wiped her eyes again quickly, hoping he couldn’t tell that she’d been crying.
Ron got himself a glass of water. ‘Want anything?’ he asked Ginny. Ginny shook her head, edging towards the stairs, desperately hoping that she could slip away with no further questions.
Ron walked over to the table and sat down where Ginny had been sitting all night. ‘Hey...is this from that mysterious letter you got last night?’ he said, and to her horror, Ginny saw he was holding up the envelope that Draco’s letter had arrived in. She’d forgotten to burn it.
‘Um...well...’ she stammered. Would Ron recognise the handwriting? No, no of course not, she reassured herself. Would he want to know who it was from though? None of her family knew about her relationship with Draco and that was the way she wanted to keep it. All of the Malfoys were considered ‘Dark Wizards’ and she doubted very much that her family (especially her trainee Auror brother, Ron) would understand her being in love with one of them. Particularly Draco - he and Ron had been enemies since they first clapped eyes on each other. She was too exhausted and upset to think of a decent lie.
‘Er, yes, it’s from the letter I got last night,’ she said, praying silently that he wouldn’t ask who it was from.
‘So...who was it from then?’
‘Typical,’ she muttered under her breath. ‘No...no one you know,’ was all she managed to say.
‘Was it important?’ Ron asked, examining the envelope. ‘I mean it arrived with such a fancy owl and everything...I’m sure I’ve seen that owl before...’
Ginny’s heart, forgetting its grief for a moment, pounded in her chest, pumping adrenalin through her veins. He’s going to remember, she thought. He’s going to remember seeing it deliver letters to Draco at Hogwarts.
‘So? Are you going to tell me? Who’s it from?’ he asked again. ‘Ginny? I asked you a question.’
Ginny’s grief returned, this time mixed with anger at Ron’s nosiness, swelling in her chest like a balloon about to burst. She did not want to talk about this.
‘WHY CAN’T YOU JUST MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS?’ she shouted before she could stop herself.
Ron looked taken aback by her outburst and his ears went pink. ‘I’m sorry, I-I just...’
‘YOU JUST WHAT?’ yelled Ginny, the pain of the last few hours suddenly too much to bear. ‘You just thought you’d stick your nose into MY business, interrogate me over a stupid little letter someone sent me just because it didn’t come in the morning with the other post! What’s with the third degree? It’s MY letter! MY BUSINESS! KEEP YOUR NOSY LITTLE AUROR NOSE OUT!!’ And she was crying. Not just small, silently stifled sobs, but long, loud wails.
Ron stared in disbelief for a moment and then, seeing her half collapse with crying, hurried over to Ginny and took her by the arm. She tried to fight him off, but he pulled her into a hug and gave in. She leant into him, crying more than she’d ever done in her life.
He held her close until she finally managed to stop sobbing enough to mutter, ‘I’m sorry...I...didn’t mean...to...shout...’
She looked up at Ron. He face had gone quite a lot paler than usual and he was looking at her with great concern.
‘I’m the one who should be sorry Ginny! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pry, you’re right; it’s your business. I never meant to upset you like this...’
‘It’s...not...you...who...upset...me...’ she mumbled, through choked sobs.
‘What is it then?’ asked Ron, but realising he might be prying again, he quickly added, ‘But you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.’
‘If I tell you, you’ll hate me and I don’t need that now, not after...after...’ she collapsed into more loud wails again.
‘Look Ginny, whatever you tell me, I won’t hate you for it, I promise. I just want to help,’ he said, still looking very concerned.
She looked up at him again, through eyes blurred with tears. ‘Promise you won’t hate me?’
He walked back over to the kitchen table and sat down again. Ginny followed.
‘I promise,’ he said firmly.
So she told him. She told him everything about how she and Draco had got together a year ago when Draco was still at Hogwarts, how they had been seeing each other in secret over the summer and how just last week, he had made the foolish mistake of getting into a duel with a popular Ministry worker, accidentally killing him and resulting in the Ministry Of Magic sending out Aurors to capture him and place him in Azkaban prison. And, how just last night, he had sent her a letter to tell her he was leaving.
‘He said he’ll always love me,’ she whispered, her eyes brimming yet again with more tears. ‘And now I’ll never see him again.’
Ron looked thoroughly shocked, his mouth slightly open in disbelief at all he had just heard. When he finally found his voice again, it came out in a sort of forced calm. ‘Ginny...I won’t pretend I like Draco Malfoy, because I don’t. And I won’t pretend that I’m not shocked by all you’ve just told me, because I am. I won’t pretend that I don’t want to throw up at the thought of you and Malfoy together, because I do. I’m feeling very nauseas. But I am sorry about him leaving you broken hearted, though I won’t pretend there’s anything I can do or say to make you feel any better, because there isn’t. All I’m going to do is stay here with my mouth shut tight and hug you until you stop crying. Ok?’
Ginny stared at her older brother, wondering if she’d ever love him more than she did at that very moment. A couple more shining tears slid down her cheeks and she got up, walked around the table and flung her arms around his neck. ‘Thank you,’ she said in his ear.
‘What are big brothers for?’ he said hugging her back.
At that moment, two heavy-footed people came bounding down the stairs and into the kitchen. It was Fred and George.
‘URGH!’ yelled George. ‘What on earth’s going on here? You do realise that the whole point of being brother and sister is to hate each other don’t you?’
‘Yeah,’ piped up Fred, while George made gagging gestures beside him. ‘You’re supposed to make each other’s lives a misery, playing pranks on each other and the like, we’re not supposed to find you hugging at the breakfast table! Do you want me to puke in my cornflakes?’
‘I don’t know,’ said George, shaking his head. ‘You’re a disgrace to siblings everywhere!’ And with that, they made a start on breakfast, tutting loudly to each other as they did so.
Although her heart still ached with sadness and small tears still escaped from the corners of her eyes, as she continued to hug her brother and he continued to hug her back, she couldn’t help feeling a tiny bit better.
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Draco and Ginny belong to JK Rowling, Bloomsbury, Scholastic, Warner Bros and various other corporations. They are being used here without permission and/or affiliation with the above. None of the authors listed here make any profit from these stories.