Angel Child

#34 Angel

Angel Child

Word Count: 804

Draco Malfoy didn't remember much of the outside world anymore. He couldn't remember his age as he felt he had lived an eternity in Azkaban prison. He couldn't remember most of what he learned in his six years at Hogwarts. He couldn't remember most of the Dark Arts spells that his father had taught him. He couldn't remember the Dark Lord's face or Dumbledore's or Severus'.

He couldn't remember why he was in Azkaban to begin with.

He believed it had something to do with the war. What was it that Potter had told him, that the Minister Scrimgoat - or some other nonsense Draco couldn't remember either - locked him away after the final battle?

Potter was supposed to have visited yesterday - or was that today? - to come and deliver his customary news of the outside world. He would also bring her, Draco daughter.

Most people would think it a shame that the man couldn't remember his own daughter's name, but for Draco it was simply a way of life. His daughter didn't seem to care. She was a smart girl, like her mother.

Draco couldn't remember her name either. It was Shakespearean - something from literature, he was sure. He called his daughter's mother - was she his wife? - Persephone. He thought it sounded familiar to what her real name was.

And his daughter he just called Angel. He knew it wasn't her name but the child didn't seem to care much.

Draco straightened up as he heard voices coming from farther down the corridor. He gritted his teeth, hoping that it wasn't his guard coming to give him his weekly beating. He didn't want his daughter to see that under any circumstances.

"Daddy!"

Draco breathed a sigh of relief at his child's excited voice. He crawled to his bars and put his face against them, watching as she ran up the corridor to him. She was smiling as she ran with her grey eyes gleaming, pleated skirt swishing around her knobby knees and her frizzy brown curls bouncing merrily. She hurried forward to greet him with a customary kiss on his dirty forehead.

The condemned man allowed himself a small smile for her, his only light in a dark world.

"Hello, Angel." His voice cracked and he swallowed hoping for a bit of water for his parched throat.

"Hi, Daddy, Uncle Harry said I couldn't stay long this time. He has business to do so he can't talk to you today." Her plump pink lips grew in a pout and tears lined her eyes a bit before she looked up at him with a smile. "After Uncle Harry takes me back home, Aunt Ginny is going to take me to visit Mummy!"

Shadows lurked in Draco's grey eyes as he surveyed his daughter as she chattered away about the roses she had saved up with her own money to put on her mother's grave. No child should have to visit their parent's grave or - he fought down his self-disgust - visit a parent in prison. But yet, his tiny angel took it in stride.

"Come on, Anna, we need to go."

Draco didn't even spare Potter a glance as he mouthed his daughter's name, knowing that he would forget it again before her next visit. Her pout came back and she looked through the bars at her father. She leaned her skinny hand in past the iron to hand Draco a piece of paper that he hadn't noticed at first. With a puzzled look he took it, and she leaned forward to give him another kiss.

"Bye, Daddy, I love you..."

"I love you too... Anna..."

He stretched out his fingers and she touched them with her own only to jump back when Potter called for her again. With a sad smile, she turned and ran back down the corridor to her guardian, Draco watching her until she was out of sight.

With a trembling hand he looked down at what his daughter had handed him.

It was a photograph of him and a woman with bushy brown hair and bright golden eyes. He watched as he gripped the woman tightly in the picture and she waved at him from her frame. He traced the woman's face with a dirty fingernail and tears he wouldn't shed burned his eyes.

His brow furrowed when he felt the slight indentation on the back and turned it over. Childish, but neat, scrawl greeted him and his hungry eyes almost seemed to drink in the words.

Hi Daddy, Aunt Ginny helped me find this picture of you and Mummy. I thought you might like to have it. I love you. - Anna

PS - Her name was Hermione.

Draco smiled brightly, pride for his daughter welling within him and also relief at the fact that he would never again forget their names.