Puzzle Pieces

Slow. Time goes so slow for me.

I'm drifting away in life. What more is there to live for? I'm broken. Nothing could ever bring me back together. Except for her. But, where is she?

I'm lost. I need her. But she's not here and will never be.

Why is there such a thing as family honor?

I've no family. For now, there is only me.

Alone. In the darkness. I'm blind without my light. But she'll never be my light as she is another's. I say her name over and over again but I know she'll never come. No, not ever.

What if I turned around instead of walking away? Would she have been mine? What if? What if? There's no use for that now. I'm alone, I'm lonely. I need her.

But she's happy. I can't take her away from her happiness. Would she be as happy if he had been me?

Her happiness. I only care for her. I breathe her... I live for her. A desire to see her once again. If only for one last time. It's been so long... too long.

Youth has left me but, I can't say I'm old. I'm tired. I'm weary. I've become a vagabond. Going from place to place. Searching. But what am I searching for? Her. I left her there, along with my heart, my soul... my being.

Hermione.

I breathe her sweet name. She is my salvation, my light, and my heart. A name once I loathed. But I was seeing through my father's eyes. There was such a thing as family honor as I was young.

But, the blindfold has lifted.

That hardly matters now. I only carry the name as an obligation. Nothing more.

I see her in my dreams. As radiant as she was on her wedding day. I see her with a man beside her. The messy flop of black hair slowly disappears, in its place, platinum-blonde. The eyes, they were never green, but burning gray.

A dream. It'll remain forever only as a dream. I wake everyday to the harshness of reality. The reality of who I am and who I'll never be.

I reach out. There's nothing but air. She's never there. I need her. I need to breathe her.

I'm falling. Falling into the darkness. No more. I can't help it. No, I must search for her. I need to find her. I need to hold her. To make her feel my love for her.

I need her to know. I love you, Hermione.

Darkness. It's closing in on me. I can't fight it. No.

For her, one last time.

"Hermione..." one last time.

*_*_*_*_*_*

Two years have passed since the death of Draco Malfoy. Seems like I'll never get my answer. Never.

Two years. It seems so long ago. And he died so young, only thirty-two. He could've been more. I actually believed in him ever since he changed my life. Sixteen years ago it was and the last time I saw him was some eight years ago. On my wedding day. That time feels so far away. A distant memory.

"Mummy!" my second son, two-year old Tommy. My miracle baby. He almost died when I gave birth to him.

I look up, he's with Harry. They're running towards me. And Jimmy, he's running, too. The men in my life. My happiness, my life.

Tommy, he's running faster now in an effort to outrun his father and his brother. In sunlight, his hair looks lighter. A shade of blonde.

I spread my arms to catch him. Closer, closer... there.

He's laughing, eyes closed. Triumphant. Harry and Jimmy are laughing, too. I smile.

Completeness. My life has gone full circle. Wait, a circle never ends.

"Mummy..." Tommy calls out to me. He looks at me. His green eyes are boring into mine.

Green. They were supposed to be green. I froze. This cannot be. No, no, no... can't be.

With shaking hands, I hold his face, looking intently at his eyes.

Harry has stopped laughing.

"Hermione, love, what's wrong?" I hear him say.

"Tommy... Tommy, honey, look at me." And he did. No...

I can't contain it anymore. "B-but your eyes. T-they're gray."

Tommy's lips curved into the smallest of smiles and whispered. "Found you..."

I could've died.