Hear You Me
By LondonsLegend
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story. That all belongs to J.K. Rowling. I also do not own the song in here. That belongs to Jimmy Eat World. BUT…I do own the plot! Yaysie for me! Also, I want to thank my dearest friend Shel for beta reading my story for me. Thanx, Shel.
Summary: One-shot. Draco/Hermione. Draco greaves for his lost love. He never even got to say good bye? Who will help him overcome his loss? And when you're this far down, how can anything make you feel better? Please read and review!
The summer sun felt hot on Draco Malfoy's face as he stepped outside the vast doors that led into Hogwart's castle. In the years since his last visit, nothing seemed to have changed. The willow tree by the lake was still there, it's heavy branches bending low and giving shade to the warm grass beneath it. Memories of the time he spent sitting under the tree came flooding back; memories of her, when they would ignored the stares people sent their way, their snide comments. Today, however, that willow looked sad, almost like it knew she was gone.
Slowly, he made his way down the stone steps of the castle, out towards the lake, towards that willow tree that they shared so many good times under. As he began to make his way down the gently slopping hill, his black dress robe slightly billowing in the wind, he heard a small high-pitched voice.
"Daddy, wait!"
Draco turned around and saw a little girl with long honey-colored hair and a frilly black dress running after him. Draco smiled sadly at her. The only good thing in his life right now was her, and he felt he needed to share this sad time with her.
"Emma, where's Aunt Ginny?" Draco asked, bending down on one knee so that he could look straight into the eyes of his four-year-old daughter.
"Inside with Uncle Ron and Uncle Harry," the small girl replied. "Where are you going?"
"A walk."
"Can I go with you?"
"Sure," he said, and together, father and daughter began to make their way down to the old willow tree.
Once there, they sat in silence for a few minutes, Draco Malfoy staring out at the lake, watching the silent wind make soft ripples on the water, his back resting against the rough trunk, and Emma Malfoy sitting in her father's lap, resting her head on his chest. After a while, Emma spoke up.
"Daddy?" she asked, turning her head to face him.
"Hmmm?" Draco asked, not taking his eyes off of the lake.
"Will mummy come home soon?"
Draco's eyes filled with sadness as he looked down at the young girl in his arms.
"I told you, mummy's not coming home. She's gone. I explained this to you, remember?"
Emma looked down at her hands, playing with the ruffles on the end of her dress. "Yes, but I just thought, if mummy still loved us, why wouldn't she come home?"
Draco sighed in tribulation. "She left because it was her time to go, but you know what?" Draco took her chin in his hand and lifted it up so he could look in her eyes. "Your mummy loves you, and she'll always be watching you from heaven."
Emma's eyes quickly filled with tears, and she rested her face on her father's chest, heaving heavily and taking in great gulps of air. Draco's eyes began to fill with tears, and pulling Emma into a gentle hug, he cried.
"Draco?" a woman's voice gently reached his ears.
He raised his head to see his wife's best friend standing before him, Ginny Weasley, her flaming-red hair blurred to him by his tears.
"Sorry…" Draco muttered, roughly wiping away his tears with the back of his hand. "I was jus-,"
"Emma?" Ginny said, trying to get the attention of the crying child.
Emma slowly lifted her head to Ginny's voice, eyes red and puffy and cheeks tear-stained.
"Uncle Harry is waiting for you at the top of the hill," Ginny told her softly. "He has a gift for you. Why don't you go see what it is?"
Emma nodded and got off of her dad's lap, and began to run up to the castle doors where Harry Potter stood with a box wrapped in colored papers and ribbons. When Ginny saw that Emma had reached Harry, she turned back to Draco and sat down next to him.
She sighed. "I wanted to come down here with encouraging words, but I'm not really sure if I can say anything that would help make this situation seem better. I'm really sorry for your loss, Draco."
Again, the tears started to come to his eyes, and salty rivers began their descent down his pale cheeks. They sat there together for a few moments, when Draco spoke up.
"She loved Hogwarts. I think it's a perfect place to hold her funeral at. She always loved summer, so I think mid-July is the perfect time to hold her funeral."
"Hermione was an amazing woman, Draco," Ginny said, tears sliding down her face as well. "She was my best friend. She knew what to say at every occasion. She was so intelligent, bold, brave, and even though she wouldn't always let it show, she loved every single person she ever met. Even you, before she saw the real you."
Draco nodded. But all too suddenly, he threw his head back and put his hands up to his face, now crying harder than ever. Ginny, though rather shocked at his sudden movements, placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, but unfortunately, it seemed not to have much of an impact on him.
"Why!" Draco cried, his voice hoarse and unsteady. "Why did it have to be her? Why couldn't it have been myself, or my father, or…" He removed his hands from his face and turned to Ginny, his fists clenched at his sides. "Out of anyone, why did it have to be Hermione? She did nothing wrong."
He put his hands back up to his face and openly cried once more.
"It was fate," Ginny told him, slowly rubbing his shoulder with her hand. "You know how strong Hermione was. I'll bet you, if anyone else tried to do what she did, they would have died in mere seconds. But not Hermione. She killed him, even though it killed her. You know she would have done anything for anyone, and she died knowing that she had saved other's from a future fate at his hands."
"But her life…" Draco moaned. "It was too short."
"But it was happy," Ginny replied. "She had a good life. She accomplished many of her goals, helped to defeat Lord Voldemort, was a good friend, had an amazing daughter, and was an amazing mother. She found the love of her life, Draco. On her 20th birthday, she even got completely and utterly drunk for the first and last time in her life." Draco smiled and took his hands from his face and put them on his knees, and through the tears, he started laughing.
"I remember that," Draco said, staring back out at the lake. He rolled his eyes. "She was drunk out of her mind!" he laughed again, as did Ginny. "R-Remember when she got on the bar counter and started dancing, and she began stripping? She was so angry in the morning when I showed her the pictures I had taken." He sighed.
Ginny smiled. "No matter how bad the bad times were, nothing compares to how amazing the good times were."
Draco sniffed. "Yeah, I know, it's just, I wasn't ready for her to go. Not that I was ever going to be, but I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye."
"Why don't you sing to her?"
"What?" Draco asked, turning to her, confused.
"Play your guitar and sing to her…in front of everyone. I'm sure there's a song you've written for her in the past. I mean, you're really talented on that guitar of yours."
"Many."
"So, sing one."
Draco thought of the song he had written for her after she died, and agreed.
"Thanks, Ginny," Draco said. "I can see why you were her best friend," and for the first time ever, he hugged her.
Ginny nodded. "And I can see why she loved you as she did. You're a good man, Draco." Shortly, they released each other and made their way up to the castle in silence.
When they reached the closed castle doors, Draco paused and turned to Ginny. "I don't have my guitar."
Ginny took his hand and led him through the castle to an empty classroom, where his guitar sat on an empty desk. Slowly, Draco walked over to it and picked it up, feeling the neck of the guitar in his left palm, and the gentle cords under the callused fingers of his right.
"Thank you," he said, and though the words were simple, Ginny knew they meant a lot.
They made their way down the staircase and into the Great Hall, where, on the head table, sat a closed, red oak casket, where Draco knew his beloved Hermione's lifeless body lay. People there to pay their respects were beginning to take their seats. Off to the side in the front of the crowd, Draco spotted Emma playing with a pink teddy bear and sitting in between Harry and Hermione's old friend, Ron. The two quickly moved toward the group as Minerva McGonagall began to make a speech. Draco didn't hear much of it. He was a bit nervous about singing to Hermione in front of a huge crowd. No one was ever around when he sang to her. Only her. And now, he was sharing his secret words with everyone else as well, and she wasn't even really there.
"And now," McGonagall said, taking a handkerchief that lay in her hands and wiping a stray tear from her eye, "Hermione husband, Draco, has something of his own to share with us."
There was silence as Draco stood up and walked over to his daughter, pulling her to her feet as well, and with his guitar in his left hand, and Emma in his right, he walked up the podium.
"I'm not that good at giving speeches, but knowing you all think better of me than you did years ago, I think it makes this all a bit easier. Hermione was the first person to ever see me for who I really was, and she loved me for that, and made me the man I am today I love Hermione with all of my heart, and like everyone in this room, I never got a chance to really say goodbye to this…amazing, astounding, breathtaking, wonderful woman," he paused shortly, "and now, a bit late, this is how I've chosen to do so. With a song I've written for her."
Next to the podium sat a char and an enchanted, floating microphone. He sat down in the chair and laid the guitar in position on his lap. "Our daughter, Emma Ann Malfoy, will be helping me with my song," his voice echoed across the room.
Draco turned to his daughter and whispered, "Remember? 'May angels lead you in'."
Emma nodded.
Silently, he began to play, his acoustic guitar making a beautiful sound underneath his swiftly moving fingers. Then, a strong, smooth voice came from Draco, and he began to sing his song that meant to much to him.
"There's no one in town that I know.
You gave us someplace to go.
I never said thank you for that.
I thought I might have one more chance.
"What would you think of me now?
So lucky, so strong, so proud?
Never said thank you for that.
Now I'll never have a chance.
"May angels lead you in.
Hear you me my friends.
On sleepless roads, the sleepless go.
May angels lead you in.
"So what would you think of me now?
So lucky, so strong, so proud?
I never said thank you for that.
Now I'll never have a chance.
Draco looked up and saw the crowd, most sitting there with tears in their eyes. He turned to his daughter who stood looking at him patiently. He nodded to her for her to begin. At this point in the song, Emma joined in with her father.
"May angels lead you in.
Hear you me my friends.
On sleepless roads, the sleepless go.
My angels lead you in.
Emma: "May angels lead you in."
Draco: "May angels lead you in."
Emma: "May angels lead you in."
Both: "May angels lead you in."
Draco sang the next verse alone.
"And if you were with me tonight,
I'd sing to you just one more time.
A song for a heart so big,
God couldn't let it live.
They both continued to sing.
"May angels lead you in.
Hear you me my friends.
On sleepless roads, the sleepless go.
May angels lead you in.
"May angels lead you in.
Hear you me my friends.
On sleepless roads, the sleepless go.
May angels lead you in.
Draco now continued the end on his own.
"On sleepless roads, the sleepless go.
May angles lead you in."
Slowly, Draco's music came to a velvety end. The crowd was torn. Torn between wondering if they should remain silent out of respect, or clap for the beautiful words in Draco's song. Finally, Ginny, Harry, and Ron stood up and clapped, which soon encouraged the rest of the crowd, and within seconds, Draco and Emma received a standing ovation. Emma and Draco then slowly began to make their way off of the stage.
Draco then picked up Emma in his arms and grabbed his guitar with his only other free hand, and walked back to his seat.
"That was really beautiful," Ginny commented with tears in her eyes, as the crowd themselves sat back down. "I know Hermione heard you."
"I know, me too," Draco said. "And right now," he turned to look at her," though it hurts…and though I'll never stop loving her, or internally weeping for her, somehow…I know that…everything will be alright," and with those words, he kissed the top of his daughters head.
Hermione Granger
&
Draco Malfoy
Forever
The End
A/N: I didn't really want to write this as a one-shot. It was actually part of a huge fanfic I was writing last year, but an ending for it always stuck in head, and even with the writers block, this scene wouldn't go away. Now, it's not EXACTLY how I imagined it, but I think it's pretty close. Actually, I'm not that happy with this at all. Also, I want to thank my dearest friend Shel for beta reading my story for me. Thanx, Shel. But, please review. Thank you for reading.
LondonsLegend