DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter! All those wonderful characters are rightfully, JKR's!
Happy Valentine's day! I thought I'll write a small one shot for Dramione. I'm warning you...ANGST ANGST ANGST!
Malfoy Manor.
Every bone, every muscle, every inch of her skin hurt. The deep gash under her throat throbbed painfully, fresh blood still oozing ans trickling down her neck like a thick, dark liquid. Almost looking like black oil in the darkness. Her breathing was labored and she had no energy left in her. She was alive, but only just. Apart from the physical pain and injuries, there was the emotional burden that was thrust upon her heart, squeezing painfully. The worry, the fear... What she would have given to get a glimpse of a familiar friendly face...at least it would lessen the pain. If only temporarily.
She was in enemy territory. It was terrifying, to say the least...
...xxx...
He had never felt guilt. He had never felt hurt. He had never felt the need to do something for someone else. Until her. Seeing Bellatrix torture someone was something he was used to. He either felt nothing, or a small glimmer of pity...
But when he saw her, writhing on the floor, her screams rooting him to the spot, an unfamiliar weight had descended on his chest. His gut seemed to be peeling off, layer by layer, as she uttered scream after blood-curdling scream. Was this what guilt was? When one would just stand and watch and do nothing? Out of fear for one's own life?
He should have done something... He should have stopped Bellatrix...but he didn't. But why did he want to stop her in the first place? Why did he feel this horrible guilty feeling in his stomach, because he didn't rescue her? Why did her face, tear streaked and bruised, keep cropping up in his mind...not allowing him to eat, sleep or talk?
But most of all, why did he walk down to the dungeons of the Manor at night, to watch her...curled up, fragile and vulnerable? She was a no-one for him. Yet he felt responsible for her. But that was absurd...
Why did she haunt him? Why did he itch to do something for her? Why didn't he want to see her blood spilled, which looked remarkably like his own...a human's? Not a mud-blood's?
...xxx...
She sensed him every night. Every night she could feel his presence outside of the cold walls of her cell. She wondered dimly why he came here every night. Was it to laugh at her? To scorn at her? To feel a vengeful satisfaction in seeing her in this state?
It didn't seem to be that way...She sensed his discomfort...his hesitation...but, she never sought to see him. She could fell his gaze, but she never looked up because somehow, she felt like he wouldn't come back if their eyes met. That shouldn't matter though. Why did it matter, whether he came or not? Why did she want him to keep coming back every night? Was she too afraid to be alone in the darkness? But he didn't bring comfort with him...In fact he got nothing at all. Just his...presence. He was there, with her, when nobody else was.
At this point, for her, just the breathing of a fellow human let her know that she was anchored to the mortal world. That her heart too, was beating still...
...xxx...
"Do we kill the mudblood?" Bellatrix asked casually over dinner, one night. Whatever small bits of the meal he could swallow, were churning unpleasantly in his stomach as he heard his parents and Bellatrix talk.
"I suppose so.." his father said. "Its not like there's any use for her."
"I'm surprised the bait didn't work though." His mother said. Bellatrix snorted. "Such cowherds. Its been two months and they didn't show up. It's settled. They aren't coming for her. So much for all the talk about Gryffindor bravery!" She cackled like a maniac, her laughter echoing around the hollow, empty walls.
He excused himself, not wanting to be in their presence any longer. Why was he feeling so sick? His stomach flipped unpleasantly, and there was burning sensation in his throat. Bile rose, and he was retching soon. His throat was too dry. No amount of water could quench it. Why? The weight on his chest seemed to have intensified.
He didn't go that night. He didn't think he could stand watching her take her last breath. He didn't think he could see her, knowing that she had just one more day to live...
...xxx...
Why didn't he come? She was shivering in the cold air of her prison cell. Her heart seemed to be beating faster than usual. Not sensing his presence that night, kept her on the edge. She couldn't shake the feeling that something was about to happen...To her.
Bellatrix came into her cell the next day, a malicious smile on her face.
"Enjoy the few hours you have with you, little girl." Bellatrix cooed. "Any last wishes?"
She had one wish. She really did. But of course, she couldn't ask Bellatrix to do that. She wanted to sense him again. One last time. The fear this time was different. She wasn't afraid of dying. She was afraid that she might not be able to be in his presence again, before her soul left her body...
But she needn't have worried. He came. He didn't just stand outside her cell, he came in. She couldn't see his face completely. He was wearing a green and silver mask, that covered up to his nose.
But she saw the mop of blonde hair on his head, shining dully in the lamp light... she recognized those grey orbs that were now mesmerizing her.
He knelt down beside her, his face very close to hers. Her lips were parted in surprise and wonder and...relief. Relief that she got to see him before she died.
"I'm sorry." he whispered. His voice. So familiar, yet...
...xxx...
"WHERE DID SHE GO?!" Bellatrix screamed. "SHE WAS RIGHT HERE JUST A FEW HOURS AGO! SEARCH THE MANOR!"
He stood with his parents, who looked extremely tense, and watched as Bellatrix screamed and slashed her wand, killing almost all the guards in the manor.
Sweat beaded on his forehead and above his lips. He could feel the blood pounding in his ears, painfully. Yet the heavy weight on his chest had disappeared. There was no guilt. Not anymore.
"SHE KNEW ALL OUR PLANS, THAT FILTHY MUD BLOOD!" Bellatrix flayed her arms in the air. "AND ITS TOO LATE TO CHANGE EVERYTHING! RODOLFUS IS CARRYING OUT HIS TASK AS WE SPEAK! OH, WHAT WILL THE DARK LORD SAY?!"
He smiled internally. There was something exhilarating when you knew you were the one behind the failure of the plan...The risk was too much, the stakes too high, but there was still the feeling of victory flowing in your veins. And that was how he felt right now.
It felt good to be disobedient for once.
It felt good to cross the line for once.
It felt good to break all the rules that he'd been bought up with. It felt wonderful.
...xxx...
King's cross station was crowded like usual. Hermione held her daughter Rose's hand, and led her through the barrier onto platform 9¾ . The scarlet steam engine stood, surrounded by the usual crowd of parents and children. Families stood talking to one side and friends embraced after the long break of holidays.
Ron came in after her with Hugo and Victorie, pushing the trolleys in front of him. Ron and Hermione stood and watched their children talk excitedly, waiting for the Potters to come soon...
And come they did. Harry and Ginny in the front, James, Albus and Lilly tittering around them. Hermione's heart felt light and happy- filled with love. Love for all of them. She smiled as their little group laughed and talked, lost in their own happy world...
"So that's little Scorpius." Ron was saying. "Looks just like his daddy, doesn't he?" Hermione looked over. Draco stood there, with his wife Astoria and his son Scorpius whose blonde hair was whipping in the wind just like his father's.
Draco turned. His grey eyes scrutinized them, and he nodded curtly, until his eyes fell on Hermione.
She gazed at him. And him, at her. Their hearts were accelerating. In the spontaneous and ever changing world around them, they had become stationary, unmoving. Silver gazed into brown...and somewhere in the depths...there it was...A connection. Something that pulled they two together, yet kept them apart. The strings that held then together were too thin, too fragile yet they were there. Present forever.
"Make sure you beat him in every exam, Rose." Ron said. "Thank god you inherited your mother's brains." With that the connection was broken. They looked away at the same time. It was too intense, too deep, but their hearts still beat a little faster...
"Ron!" Hermione said reproachfully. "Don't turn them against each other even before they start school!"
...xxx...
Years later, even after Hermione and Draco were no longer in the world, their connection still lived on... Rose and Scorpius fell in love, married and had children. It was within the blood of these children, that the connection flowed, however distantly related with Draco and Hermione.
The strings, the connection, was stronger now. Hidden from the world, buried deep, but still there, all the same. Ever present...ever growing.
Rose and Scorpius became what Draco and Hermione could not...
...xxx...
Howdy!
Did you like it? I know it's small, but the idea just wouldn't leave me! I always felt that if Draco and Hermione didn't get together, someday their kids would! And a hint of that reached all of us in the 'Cursed Child' where, in the end, Scorpius asks Rose out, but she rejects him. Well, she rejects him that time, but we're forgetting he's a Malfoy. He has Draco's blood in him. He won't give up so easily. But Rose won't be so easy to persuade. She's stubborn just like her mother, Hermione. What d'ya think?
Keep reading,
La icepopsickle xD
Also check out my other fan fictions- Redemption. (Mature content.)
- The Yule Ball. (a cute one shot.)