Clandestine Whispers

EPILOGUE

The procession ended, and the intricately designed coffin was placed in its spot, lowered down into the ground, where, once buried, it would lie, forever. A man, tall with spiritual supremecy, began to commence speaking, his words full of false comfort and artificial respect. The crowd of black-clothed people, both Muggles and wizards, huddled in a circle, bereft of their ability to speak. Many Muggles wept, although most wizards simply gazed solemnly, unable to vent their sorrow, for it filled them so deeply.

Professor McGonagall took off her glasses, wiping away some tears with a hand. Glancing up at the regal figure of Dumbledore, whose eyes twinkled no more, she sniffed, "She was such a perfect student..."

Nodding gravely, he murmured in reply, "As well as a wonderful person. We will miss her greatly, every one of us." They then stayed silent, letting the priest speak. Although some in the wizarding world had protested, the choice had been in the hands of the Grangers, and they had chosen to have their daughter's funeral done the Muggle way. However, it was not a normal cemetery they were in; it was a wizard one, and each large, unique tombstone had it's own specially reserved personal area of space given to it, unlike most tombstone-crowded Muggle cemeteries.

This, however, did not lift an ounce of grief from anyone's shoulders.

Finally, the priest's words ended, and all went silently forward in a tidy line, wiping away their tears and whispering last words to the dead as they placed their flowers and other gifts of love onto the mahogany coffin. The priest was just about to turn away, when a figure ran out from behind the trees, coughing, as if trying to disguise something, "Wait."

His face haggard and solemn, scarce hair white and wispy, the priest turned to see a dark cloaked figure. This was unexpected; however, he presumed that he knew the person's purpose. "You may have your time alone by the coffin in privacy," he said to the cloaked person, "and I wish you solace eventually. Her soul has not gone to a dark place." Nodding at the priest in gratitude, the black-cloaked figure watched as all currently present, priest and gravediggers, left him alone in peace.

Slowly, he approached the coffin, his steps full of fear and grief all the way. After making doubly sure he was alone, the figure knelt next to the coffin, and pulled back the hood from his head. Piercing blue-grey eyes gazed solemnly at the intricately carved coffin, wishing that the priest's words could give him comfort and courage at this time. But nothing could comfort his lost soul, forsaken of all mercy.

Thin, pale fingers grazed the soft wood of the coffin, as if in an attempt to caress the lifeless person hidden inside. Draco, suddenly overwhelmed, bent down his head, his tears spilling onto the wood, disgracing it with the volume of their fierce emotions of grief, wrath, and intense regret. One hand sliding against the smooth coffin surface, the other tightly clutching his flower, Draco whispered, as if communicating with the spirit of Hermione he thought must linger nearby.

"Hermione..."

The name, simple and singular in its utterance, was packed with thousands of emotions, just simply hearing it against his own ears forcing Draco to clench his eyes to stop more flowing of tears. "I'm sorry I never gave you an answer. The answer was yes. I really did love you, truly did, with all the little heart I had. I may not have known much in the ways of love, but what I felt for you was nothing less than the real thing, pure and true as love could be, given from a heart dark as mine. Forgive me, Hermione, I didn't mean to cause you pain, oh god...please..."

The blue-grey gaze, once hard as steel yet now glimmering tenderly, raised up to the sky in a praying plea, as he half-shouted up to the sky, as if speaking to the heavenly entities, "I didn't mean to cause her pain...didn't mean her last breath to be filled with such agony...Oh god, why did I do it?"

He bent his down again, eyes tightly shut, voice now quieted, covered with layers of grief. "My heart became confused, mulled too many times over achieving power that would stop my pain, I thought about it so much, that I forgot how love made me feel, my heart betrayed me, my mind knows not why, the fate of my soul cast to the wind to meet what ever may come...

"Why did I destroy the one who was the fulfillment of each of my clandestine wishes? Why did I not at least answer her before life left her forever? I loved her, yet also hated her so. I was filled with conflict every day, two sides of dark and light battling inside me. My inability to choose between power--what I foolishly thought would end my pain--and love, this indecision was what fated her to death and fated me to walk upon the earth, alive and alone, to forever grieve the ultimate debauchery that my soul poisoned us with."

Draco then stood up, his eyes not now brimmed with tears. He gently placed, to lay amongst the litter of crimson and other colored flowers, a single white rose, lying right above her heart. His flower stood out among the rest, an unspoken symbol of the love it contained within, magicked to forever remain in bloom, immortal as the pain that Draco felt. His hand reluctantly pulled away from the flower, and he slowly turned away, saying, "Although it is too late and you have passed from the land of the living to abandon the cruelty that was my soul, let this rose be a symbol of my undying love for you, a gift in apology for my horrendous debauchery to you.

"My clandestine wishes fulfilled, I have chosen which side of the Chess board to remain on, which team to faithfully serve amongst. I have chosen, just as pure and fragile as this rose, the side of the white, the glowing side of light and goodness and of heavenly angels. No more am I a dark angel, no more do my wings beat black. I've shed the darkness to aid your side, the side of the righteous, my cruel soul shamed of it's acts of filth. Without you, I am lost, an angel amongst the higher gods, attempting to find my way, filled with regret and sorrow. You helped me make my final decision; I chose the right side to be on, finally. Alas that it is not with you at my side. I know that all my plights are faults of mine own, and now I leave you, encased forever I am, encased in my cage of regret."

The wind whispered in the trees, sending not a single shiver down his pale form, his silvery hair shining in the moonlight. He stilled at the graveyard gates, looking back to give the coffin a piercing look of mixed emotions. Then, the moon compelled him, and as it began to rain, he looked up at it; the moon seemed to tease him cruelly, bearing the face of his love. His face suddenly twisted as, shivering, a sharp pang of emotions went through him, anger at the moon's audacity of imitating her, and sorrow at the pain the illusion spilled forth from him. He quickly turned and walked away. The dark, now hooded figure of Draco Malfoy left the graveyard, leaving behind the love he'd destroyed, now his only accompaniment his pet of pain.

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That is the real ending. I hope you enjoyed it.