That was when they started. The footsteps. Hermione could hear them as loudly as though they were directly behind her. They brought goose bumps to her skin.

“He’s coming,” Nathaniel said.

A vision of bright lights and swirling capes flashed before her eyes. The courtroom dissolved into nothingness, and all she could see was his face. Those gray eyes were fixed upon her, and she could feel his desperation. A lone tear streaked down her face as she watched him silently reaching out for her.

“Miss Granger?” the man pursued, raising a hand up to his chin.

The familiar ripping began again, the unbearable tearing of her heart. She couldn’t handle this anymore. She had to go to Azkaban. Somehow, she had to justify a trip to the wizard prison, if only just to see him again. Without him, she didn’t feel right.

“You’re awake,” he said. His voice was detached, different. It tore at Hermione’s heart, knowing that Draco was not the same, that Azkaban had changed him, and that he may never be the same again.

“How long have you been here?” Hermione asked, straining to see his face in the dark.

When Parker moved, took a firm step backwards, Hermione’s eyes narrowed in on his face. All else faded into nonexistence; she was aware of the pain flooding into Parker’s eyes, and nothing else.

“You… love him?” he murmured, panicking. “After all this time, you love him?! No…”

He shot her a glance over his shoulder, lips quivering. A shadow passed across his face as he replied, “Someone died.”

“What?” Hermione asked, heart fluttering unnaturally.

“I don’t know what’s worse,” Parker finally said, still staring at the opposite wall. “That you’ve been keeping secrets from me, or that you trust Harry more than you trust me, the man you’re supposed to be in love with.”

Here was Narcissa Malfoy, mistress of the manor, looking ghostly pale and emaciated. She was lying helplessly atop an exquisitely divine canopy bed, wearing a vacant stare. Her gaunt hand hung limply over the mattress, clinging weakly to a lace handkerchief smeared with blood.