Leaves of Light and Dark ~ Drabble; D/Hr, G
Title: Leaves of Light and Dark
Rating: G
Prompt: Must be set in the Fall. Excludes Halloween.
Warnings: none.
Word Count: 400
It had rained the night before and despite the eerie chill of the impending winter, the Maple trees burned with a brilliancy of reds, oranges and yellows. The black bark was a stark contrast of the wondrous fire bursting from its limbs that twisted heavenward in a desperation that Draco felt in the stoicism of his despair.
It was the bleakness of the grey tombstone that reminded him why he loathed autumn and its radiant pretentiousness. The season in which his mother had grown too weary of the world and decided to lay down for a reprieve, only to never awaken again. He had buried her on a blustery day only three years prior and he had never returned to her grave. Instead he had fallen into a stygian melancholia that destroyed his consciousness with the aid of liquor and debauchery. His grief had been frightening and just when he had thought his depression was endless, he had hit the bottom where he found the glowing compassion of a sympathetic hand.
The dainty hand that was now clutched desperately within his. Warm, supportive and soft. His mouth thinned as the lump settled in his throat, he could feel the sting of saline. It wasn’t grief pulling at his chest, but gratitude that he wasn’t alone anymore. He was grateful to this hand for staying his frustration, for soothing his pain, for leading him back into the brightness and showing him that life did go on. That even without his mother, he could still smile at life’s pleasures, laugh at its absurdities until his sides ached, and love with every molecule of his being. That lovely alabaster hand had shown him how to live again. And he cherished every day since it had touched his heart.
“Do you think she would have liked me?” A sweet voice rose from beside him.
Draco turned to acknowledge it and there in the grimness of the cemetery, on that crisp autumn afternoon, Hermione Granger stood with faithful curiousness that brightened her brown eyes and a sincere hopefulness that pinked her cheeks. As the sunshine broke from the dreary clouds and the red, orange, and yellow Maple leaves kicked up around them, he thought that perhaps autumn wasn’t so terrible after all.
As he pulled a rogue leaf from her curls, a smile softened the line of his mouth. “She would have adored you. Immensely.”