The Secret We Share In Dark || Draco x Reader ||

Previously:

"He's not what people think, Molly. He's not evil. He's not some twisted product of his family. He's just... a boy. A boy who grew up on the wrong side of a legacy he never asked for. And he tried he really tried to be more than what the world told him he had to be."

My chest felt tight, like my heart was folding in on itself.

.........

Molly didn't say a word.

She just reached for me gentle, instinctive and wrapped her arms around me in a hug that felt like home. No conditions. No questions. Just warmth and presence, as if she knew words would only get in the way.

That was all it took.

The breath hitched in my chest, and everything I'd buried began to rise. My composure, so carefully stitched together over the past few months, began to unravel thread by thread. The tears came slowly at first silent, stubborn things but once they started, they refused to stop.

I folded into her, shoulders trembling, forehead pressed against the soft fabric of her sweater. Grief poured out of me in quiet sobs, choked by months of pretending to be fine. All the pain I'd locked away, the guilt over Sirius, the silence from Draco, the exhaustion of keeping everything hidden it spilled out, raw and unfiltered.

It was excruciating to be seen like this. To be unguarded.

I'd spent so long teaching myself how to carry things alone, how to smile through ache and speak around sorrow. Vulnerability had never come easily to me. Only a few people had ever seen the cracks in my armor and even they had only glimpsed them once or twice, in rare moments I barely remembered allowing.

But now, in Molly's arms, I didn't have the strength to keep it all in. And for once, I didn't try.

She held me tighter, never asking me to explain, never telling me to stop. Just letting me cry. Letting me feel. Letting me fall apart in the safety of someone who cared without needing to understand every detail. And in that silence in that embrace. I allowed myself to be a person again, not just a shell trying to stay upright.

After a while, the storm inside me began to fade, leaving behind the hollow quiet that always came after a good cry. My breathing slowed. The weight in my chest loosened, just enough to let air in. Molly stayed by my side the whole time silent, steady until the shaking in my hands eased.

She reached for a handkerchief and gently wiped the tears from my face, her touch soft and deliberate. Then, at last, she spoke.

"Love makes us do wild, foolish, beautiful things, Y/N," she said, her voice low and full of understanding. "But listen to me Sirius didn't die because of you. He died because he chose to. He made that choice with a full heart, because he loved you."

She paused, her eyes searching mine. "He saw something in you worth saving. Don't ever doubt that. Don't let guilt rewrite his last act of love into something ugly. He knew what he was doing, and I truly believe he was at peace with it."

Her words struck something deep in me, tugging at the memory I had fought so hard to bury Sirius turning to me, offering that soft, familiar smile in the second before the spell hit. No fear. No hesitation. Just quiet certainty.

Molly gave my hand a gentle squeeze, grounding me again.

"And as for the boy," she added with a faint smile, "if he's anything like you say he is if there's even a bit of good in him then trust that he'll find his way back. People don't forget the ones who saw them clearly and chose to stay."

Her words didn't chase the grief away. They didn't magically fix anything. But they settled in my chest like something solid. Something warm. And for the first time in a long time, I didn't feel like I had to carry it all alone.