The first thing Draco felt when he opened his eyes was panic. Sheer and utter panic.

"Where are they?" He spat at Pomfrey, who was stood over him with her wand in hand.

It felt like only a fraction of a second ago when he was looking into Astrid's fearful eyes as Snape had uttered the words: I didn't want to have to do it this way.

But he fucking did anyway.

"If you are referring to Professor Snape and the girl," Pomfrey said in a stern voice, lowering her wand, trying to usher him back down on the bed as he desperately attempted to scramble out of it, his scars screaming in protest, "then I'm afraid you have missed them by two hours. Now lie back down, Mr Malfoy - you still have a lot of healing to do!"

"Two hours?!" He bellowed, feeling his face heat with rage.

He couldn't believe this was happening, he simply refused to believe it.

Pushing Pomfrey aside, he managed to jump up from the bed, trying desperately to steady the dizziness that had immediately overcome him.

"Mr Malfoy!" Pomfrey yelled, "I implore you to lie back down before you do yourself further harm!"

But Draco wasn't listening. He grabbed some clothes from his trunk that someone had obviously sent to the hospital wing, and hastily threw them on.

His thoughts were only on Astrid. The idea that she was gone was too horrific for him to contemplate. Nothing mattered but her.

Ignoring Pomfrey's cries of protest, he stormed out of the hospital wing and down the corridor. He practically ran all the way down to the dungeons, pushing startled students angrily out of the way who dared slowed him down.

"Snape!" He bellowed, banging furiously on the professor's office door. "Open up you coward!"

His fist connected with nothing as the door flew open. The greasy haired professor before him grabbed the front of his shirt, pulling him violently inside.

"You need to keep calm!" Snape hissed at him as he slammed the door shut behind them.

"Where is she?" Draco roared, his heart pounding furiously in his chest, "tell me!"

"She is safe! That is all you need to know!"

Draco found - to his horror - big fat tears falling down his face, "you took her from me!" he sobbed, "she was your niece and you just let her go!"

"NO!" Snape bellowed, fury emanating from his black eyes, "Draco, you need to focus on the task in hand! This is not a time to let your heart rule your head! There is too much at stake!"

"I can't do this without her," Draco choked, sinking down in the chair in front of Snape's desk, covering his face in his hands as he shook uncontrollably with grief, "I just can't."

"You must!" Snape hissed, "she walked freely away to keep you safe and now you must do the same for her!"

Draco couldn't bear it. The thought that she was out there without him to protect her - it made him sick.

"Pull yourself together!" He heard Snape hiss impatiently from above him. "If I could do it, so can you!"

Draco lowered his hands from his wet face, wondering what on earth Snape was saying.

"I know," Snape spoke sadly, "I do know what it's like - and I had to let her go, too."

Nothing, Draco thought furiously, nothing would make him want to give Astrid up. What the fuck did Snape know about love?

"I know more than you realise," Snape sighed, looking into his eyes.

...

Draco felt as though his world had come crashing down upon him.

He had no Astrid. He was all alone.

His heart was shattered. He couldn't bear to look up at mealtimes - when he bothered turning up, that was - because the empty seat next to Susan Bones over on the Hufflepuff table broke his heart even further.

He tried to concentrate his efforts on the cabinet, but every time he entered the Room of Requirement, he felt sick. He kept expecting her to be there. But she never was.

He felt lost, drained, alone without her.

It was the not knowing that killed him, not knowing where she was and if she was safe. He couldn't take Snape's word for it. He needed to see for himself. But he knew, the second he left Hogwarts to go and find her, Voldemort would be after him.

So he tried - with everything he had inside of his being - he tried to convince himself she was okay, and worked fruitlessly night and day on the cabinet.

June passed in a gut wrenching blur. He barely registered his birthday and looked up in surprise when his owl had landed him birthday gifts from his mother at breakfast one morning.

So, he was of age now. It should have been a glorious occasion, but what did being of age matter to him anymore? It made no difference - he was still a Death Eater with an impossible mission, and he was still a heart broken mess without the one person who had made him whole.

And then, one day towards the end of June, a note appeared in the Vanishing Cabinet. A note that made Draco's heart stop and his insides turn to liquid.

As he looked down shakily at the scribbled scrawl of Lord Voldemort, Draco thought he was going to throw up. In just two days time he was going to have to kill someone. In two days time it will all be over.

He crawled into the makeshift bed that he had shared with Astrid every night over the past six months up until her departure, and he curled up into a ball and cried.

The Vanishing Cabinet was fixed.

But his heart was fucking broken.