The Wish of Love

The Hope For Love

By: Lilie Blaze

Dear Father Christmas,
I truly do not believe you actually exist and, therefore, you will never read this letter, but it´s worth a try. Why don´t I believe, you ask? Why should I? My parents taught me to believe in the logical things in life. Don´t get me wrong, they did teach me right from wrong just not in the way most loving parents would. My mother taught that it is wrong to fail a test by telling me I was worthless, while my father taught that it is unacceptable to talk back to adults by beating me unconscious. My brother, on the other hand, taught that only very naughty girls say `no´ to boys by raping me.

So tell me, should I really believe in your existence? Should I really believe that there is someone out there who actually gives a damn? No, there is no reason to believe, but there is hope. The hope I hold deep within my heart; the hope of never going back there. The hope to marry the boy I love and leave the Muggle world forever, because it is only in this world that I am truly happy.

So, for Christmas all I really want is to start over. I want to love and be loved by the only man in my life that truly understands me: Draco Malfoy.

Now, I realize that´s quite a lot to ask from a figure of one´s imagination, but you´re all I´ve got left...

Love,
Hermione Granger

~*~*~*~

Dear Father Christmas,
I´ve sent you a letter every year, and every year my wishes are fulfilled, so I´m hoping this one will be as well. I know you are used to seeing at least a five-parchment list from the likes of a Malfoy, but not this year. This year, I only want one thing; my one true love: Hermione Granger. I love her with all my heart and wish to marry her someday, but she is not a pureblood. For most people this isn´t a consideration when choosing their life partner, but most people are not heirs to Lucius Malfoy.

What does it matter, you ask? To my father, it matters more than life itself. He wants me to marry Pansy Parkinson. Pansy is a beautiful girl but I am not in love with her. Love? Hmm... what exactly is love? My father does not believe love exists, but then again, he does not believe you exist, either, so I guess that is saying something. I believe in love. I believe it because I have experienced it. I feel its warmth when she looks at me. I feel it in my heart when she smiles at me. I feel it in my veins when she kisses me. I feel it all around me when we make love. I know it exists.

So what exactly do I want for Christmas? I want a new life with Hermione; a life in which we can marry and be happy forever. I beg of you to grant me this one wish, for you are my last hope for happiness.

Yours,
Draco Malfoy

~*~*~*~

Setting the two heartfelt letters down on the mahogany desk before him, the old man sighed with grief for the pair. He knew their pain, yet at the same time he knew that no one could help these star-crossed lovers. Their pain was hidden deep within and covered by fake smiles and forced laughter. The cuts and bruises covered by veils of magic only seemed to exist at rare times in their eyes. They were well trained, knew exactly how act and react to situations without letting on to anything they kept hidden. They knew how to hide it all deep within their bruised hearts and tattered souls. They knew pain, sorrow, fear, love and survival at the tender age of seventeen. They knew it all...except what mattered most.

What they did not know was how to escape their lives, which could loosely be described as living hell. They did not know how the other half lived; how they were loved, nurtured and encouraged by their parents. They did not know that siblings loved and cared about one another. They did not know that parents pushed for love in a marriage. They did not know mothers were there to talk to about boys and friends while picking out something to wear on an important date. Meanwhile, fathers lectured about the importance of manners on a first date and interrogated the young men about to take their daughter out for the night. They did not know that fathers walked their daughter down the aisle and gave their hands in marriage to the men they loved, while mothers sat in front rows crying because they were losing their babies. They knew none of that, and no one could teach them but each other.

Shaking his head softly, Albus Dumbledore knew that Hogwarts´ most outstanding students in almost two decades had hit rock bottom, and he watched as their lives shattered like glass into tiny pieces all around them. Now all that was left was the hope that they had enough strength left to pick up those pieces, which remained and face life once again.

The hope that they would face it all together and find what they both yearned for and needed most: Love.

THE END