A/N: I got a writer's block while writing I Fell Under Your Spell, and this idea for a new story just kept running around my head so I gave it a shot and I'm already finishing it. I hope that the first chapter isn't too boring, but it is always hard to start! But I'm feeling really confident about this one, so... give me some feedback about what you think!
April 24, 1998.
Even standing in the middle of the day, there's no sun appearing through the enormous clouds that paint the sky in tones of grey. The pines are covered with small layers of snow, that with the wind fly to the ground and paint it even more white.
Hermione can feel the cold air getting through the window, making the inside of the house chilly and uncomfortable. She had expected that the wooden house that she chose would protect them from all this gelid weather but not even with the fireplace on, the house could get warmer.
The radio is on and Hermione is continuously waiting to hear some news; she hasn't seen Harry and Ron for days, now. Since she arrived to that house, Hermione turned on the radio and listened to it carefully, hoping not to hear Harry or Ron's names on the list of deaths that happens everyday, now.
At night, she couldn't get any sleep. Hermione would rather be at Hogwarts, standing side by side with Harry and Ron waiting for the arrival of Voldermort; fighting to bring peace back. But she was trapped in there with the last person she thought she would ever have to share a house with.
Hermione remembers when she came across him, just four days ago.
Her eyes were opened wide while she tried to gather all the information she just got. In front of her, he kept moaning while he tried to sit against a tree "Stay here!" She demands, even knowing that he couldn't even get himself up. Hermione knows because she tried.
Now, she's running to the last place she had seen Harry and Ron. For Hermione's luck, they are still there and she rushes to get closer to them "I need your help. I found something" Hermione mutters, her throat burning from running.
"What did you find?" Harry asks her, placing a hand on her shoulder trying to calm her down.
"I found Draco Malfoy. Without memory" Hermione blurts out, without even trying to sound calm. She sees the confusing expression on Harry and Ron's faces.
"How do you know that?" Harry asks. Hermione breaths in and out several times before she answers. Then she starts telling that she went for a walk around the forrest, protecting the area so that they could get some rest, when she found Draco Malfoy laying in the middle of brown leaves. When she demands him to get up and to follow her back to their tent, the only thing he does is moan with pain and asking where he was.
Harry and Ron stay in silence for a while, processing what Hermione just told them. You could even hear a leaf fall from a tree and when they hear Malfoy through the forrest, letting out a bloodcurdling scream, they wake up from their thoughts.
"I say he's just pretending." Ron groans and grabs his wand "How much do you want to bet that when you get back to that same place, he's not going to be there? And then we lose a source of information."
"You just heard him scream! Ron, I don't think he's-" Hermione starts saying but Ron cuts her off.
"You're on his side now? Is it something like a contagious disease? You spent a few minutes in the same space as that bastard and you're on his side?" Ron snaps and Hermione narrows her eyes at him.
"What are you saying? Listen to yourself!" Hermione grabs her wand as well "If you are so suspicious about it, why don't you come and see it?"
Ron only narrows his eyes at her when Hermione starts walking towards the same place she came from. It takes only a few seconds to see Malfoy laying between the leaves, blood all over his shirt.
"See? He's still here." Hermione sighs, with relief. She had to admit that when Ron said that, she thought about it; Malfoy could possibly be pretending so that Hermione could let him leave without him getting hurt. But now, that she was back in that place and she sees Malfoy still sitting on the ground, she thinks about it again; Malfoy is much more strong than Hermione and could easily leave the room without even getting a scratch.
"Get up!" Ron yells at him and Malfoy looks at him with his eyebrows narrowed "What? Don't you understand what I'm saying? Get up, you bastard!"
Ron grabs his wand "Alarte Ascendare!" He yells and Draco is shot into the air, only to fall violently, making leaves momentarily fly to the air when he hits the ground. He moans and twitches on the floor, his hand presses against his side.
"Ron, he's hurt!" Hermione yells and gets closer to him. Ron stretches a hand to push Hermione back.
"Get up! Alarte Ascendare!" Ron shouts again. Draco is shot again into the air.
"Aresto Momentum!" Hermione yells and Malfoy slowly lays on the floor. Ron looks at her with his eyes narrowed and takes a few steps to get closer to her.
"What are you doing? I'm trying to do something here!" He yells at her.
"Yes! You are trying to get him killed!" Hermione shouts back and they look at each other with fury in their eyes. Hermione can see from where Ron's anger is coming; she's defending their biggest enemy. The guy who bullied them through all this years; that made their life a living hell. But Hermione is a rational person. She knows that what he's doing it's not right, because they are dealing with someone's life. It doesn't matter who life it is; Malfoy can't protect himself, he's hurt and Ron would get him killed.
"I think Hermione is right." Harry comes closer and places a hand on Hermione's shoulder. Ron opens his mouth in disbelief.
"What's the matter with you two? You have Draco fucking Malfoy right in front of you! You can ask him everything you want about Voldermort's strategy! He's one of them!" Ron shouts.
"I tried to get that kind of information from him! He just doesn't remember!" Hermione says and Ron rolls his eyes.
"Did you? Did you really try? Or did you just asked him gently if he knew something about Voldemort, without even torture him?" Ron says and waves his wand to Draco again "Crucio!"
Hermione takes the wand from Ron's hand and throws it to the another side of where they were standing. While Ron looks at Hermione with his eyes narrowed, they can hear the cry of Draco Malfoy while he twitches in pain on the ground "Stop! Just stop for a minute, Ron, and think about what you are doing!"
"Listen to what the fuck she's saying. I know nothing" Draco hisses and the trio looks, at the same time, to him "Stop." he says and then his eyes close.
"Since you two believe in Malfoy so much, take care of him. I'm done with you." He mutters and, after getting his wand back, he walks towards their tent. Hermione gulps, trying not to cry while she sees Ron leaving them once more.
"He's going to be alright," Harry says "He's just upset with everything that's happening."
After Harry talked to Hermione, and hear her beg to find someone else to take care of Malfoy, they planned everything out. A half an hour later, Hermione had gathered her things and Malfoy and her were disappearing from the forrest.
She hated to be there. She hated the fact that she was feeling so useless; Hermione was taking care of the guy that she hated the most, while her friends were waiting for countless Death Eaters that could attack them at any time, any day. She was stuck in a house with Malfoy, and the only thing that she kept thinking was what if he woke up and suddenly he remembers everything and kill her? Nobody would get there on time, because they were all alone in a place full of mountains.
"Sorry," His hoarse voice came from behind her and Hermione jumped in her place, immediately turning back to look at him, her heart beating out of compass "You need to help me out with this."
"Oh, sure." Hermione said when he pointed to his left side. Malfoy was already shirtless, so it was kind of a relief for Hermione, because it was embarrassing for her to ask him to take off his shirt. Carefully, she took off the bandages that she had put over his wound hours ago, that were now red from the blood that kept coming out of it.
"Vulnera Sanentur" Hermione mutters and the wound closes a little more, but not entirely. She had never seen a wound as deep as that one; it had been four days since she tried her best to make it better, but this wound, even with her saying numerous spells, didn't heal quickly.
After she put a new layer of bandages over his wound, she looked to him for a brief moment "And the one in your head? Does it still hurts?" she asks.
Draco places two fingers above the wound in his forehead and makes a grimace "Not if I don't touch it." Malfoy doesn't remember much about what happened, but still he had the same personality; he was proud, arrogant and cold.
"You can sit there," she points with her chin to the couch, while she puts away her first aid box and walks towards the kitchen "I will prepare you something to eat."
Hermione places her hands on the counter for a while and lowers her head, closing her eyes. It was not like she wanted to see all the horror that was going to happen at the War; she didn't want to see people's lives, people that she had known for years, being sucked out of them. But yet, she wanted to be there, trying to protect everybody. Trying to reduce the number of deaths.
"They could've chosen a warmer house. Or place." She hears Malfoy sitting on the couch and then letting out a sigh.
"Well, the point is that Voldemort doesn't find us," Hermione says as she starts taking all the things she needs to do some food, from her bag "If we were standing in an obvious place, we could be dead by now." She doesn't even tries to hide the rage in her voice, and the way Malfoy shifts in the couch, makes her realize that he noticed it.
Silence settles in the house. Hermione likes it better this way, so she can hear her thoughts, organize them and listen to the radio, hoping to hear good news.
"What are you cooking?" Malfoy asks and Hermione sighs.
"Muggle food," she answers, coldly "Not the type of food that you would like to eat on your regular days, but now you're sick and I'm in charge, so that's what you're going to have to eat."
She hears his footsteps coming towards her and then stopping. Hermione looks to her side and Malfoy is standing by the door "Maybe you should get a hold on that arrogant attitude, since you're in charge." He snaps.
"Oh, I'm sorry. But if I recall, that has been the way you have treated me for seven whole years." Hermione says, looking back to what she is doing "Payback."
"I had my reasons." He hisses and gets back to sitting on the couch. They stay in silence until Hermione finishes cooking their dinner.
"Here," she puts a plate in front of him and a fork "It's macaroni and cheese, hope it isn't too muggle for you." She hisses and then returns to the kitchen to grab her plate.
"Where are you going?" Malfoy asks, when he sees her going to the opposite side of where he is.
"To the library." Hermione says "I like to be on my own."
She enters the library and closes the door slowly. Hermione sighs when she finds herself alone for the first time that day. All day she has been sitting on the couch, reading a book and sometimes looking to Malfoy's wound. That doesn't sound too tiring, but when you have to deal with the arrongant personality of the spoiled brat that Malfoy is, the day can turn tiring in just a second.
One of the things Hermione demanded to have on the house was a library; she didn't know how long they would stay there. Probably until the war ends, and it can take too long and the only way she could feel calm was when she has a book in her hands.
Hermione looked through some shelves and grabbed a book, sitting on her armchair with her plate of macaroni and cheese on her lap. It took her just a second to feel her muscles relax and her body sinking on the armchair. That was something worth to do.
Draco was sitting by the fireplace, his eyes looking to the red and orange flames forming shadows on the floor and walls. The sky outside was now darker, once the night had arrived. Granger was still locked on the library, without making one sound and it was bothering Draco more than he thought it would.
He remembers some stuff. He remembers everything until his fifth year, but his sixth year comes in pieces. Draco remembers a closet and remembers Dumbledore looking into his eyes as his body was thrown from the Astronomy Tower one night. It all comes in pieces, pieces that don't even have sound; so it's like it only happened in a dream. A dream that felt a lot like reality.
And then, everything goes blank and the only thing he remembers after that was waking up and seeing Granger with her wand pointed at him and demanding him to get up.
Everything that could be related to Voldemort, just went away from his mind.
It felt like he had been sent to a completely different Universe, and there's something inside his mind that is missing. And it just makes him angry. He doesn't even know where his father is! And his mother. Draco simply doesn't remember anything.
Barely even remembers the face of Voldemort.
He tries. He tries really hard to gain his memory back, and even Granger always asks him "Do you remember anything?" every morning since they got there, like it would help him getting back his memory.
The feelings are there. He still hates her guts, but he can understand her side. She's trapped in the same house as the boy who have bullied her for years, and not side by side with Scarhead and Weaselbee. It doesn't pleases Draco to be in the same house as a bookworm, either.
Draco stands up and walks towards the library door. He raises his hand, ready to knock on the door but his pride his hurting as hell. But he needs to ask her something; something that has been running in his brain all day.
"Can I come in?" Draco asks when he finally gathers the courage to knock on her door.
"What do you want, Malfoy?" He hears her grumpy voice from the other side of the door and he bites the knuckles of his hand to help him contain an answer that can possibly start a fight between them.
"Can I come in or not?" He hisses. So much for politeness.
Draco hears her unlock the door and then it opens. He still catches a sight of her back when she walks to the armchair strategically placed by the window. He walks into the room and looks around him. Bookworm fits her like a glove. The room is full of shelves that are full of books of all sizes. How much time does she thinks she's spending here?
"Are you going to tell me what you want or are you just going to stand there and stare?" Hermione asks without even taking her eyes from the book. She hears Malfoy groaning and then sighing, taking a pause.
"I need to ask you something" He says between a sigh "Something important." Hermione now takes her eyes from the book and studies the expression on his face. He's serious and his eyes are looking into hers, making her feel like he could look into her soul. She closes the book and gets up. He gives her a questioning look.
"What? We're not going to stay here. This is my spot, I don't even know why I let you in, in the first place." Hermione shakes her hand, ordering him to leave the room. Draco rolls his eyes and goes back to the living room, sitting on the couch again "What is it that you want to ask me?"
Draco takes a moment to chose the right words and when he finally finds them, he doesn't look in her eyes "Why do I keep remembering Dumbledore falling from the Astronomy Tower?"
Hermione gulps. The question is left floating in the air and Hermione feels uncomfortable with it. She sits by the fireplace, and hugs her legs, placing her chin above her knees.
"There's not kind way to say this, you know..." Hermione looks to the flames and the noise of the wood breaking makes her relax "You were on Voldemort's side, you know that. And your job was to kill Dumbledore."
When Hermione looks to Malfoy, she can see the shock in his eyes. That was the first moment that she has ever seen Malfoy shocked about something "And did... Did I kill him?" he asks, and clears his throat when his voice comes out much more hoarse than he would like to. It would explain him why he kept seeing Dumbledore falling from the Astronomy Tower.
It was no surprise that Draco wasn't a big fan of Dumbledore, but killing him was something that he thought he would never be able to do. Killing someone was something that Draco never thought he could do.
Hermione shakes her head slowly, biting her lip and lowering her eyes to the floor "Snape did it." Hermione mutters and this time she doesn't look to Malfoy. His surprise can be felt in the air.
Draco was surprised, and somehow relieved. Carrying the weight of knowing that he killed someone was something that he wouldn't like to feel.
But at the same time, it wasn't such a surprise. Snape always protected him for everything - even though he knew that Draco didn't like it not even a little bit - and he guesses that Snape just didn't want to make Draco take the blame for killing Dumbledore.
"What happened then?" Draco asks.
"I don't know much about your life, Malfoy." She answers, a bit bitterly "You just have to wait for your memory to come back and then you'll remember." Hermione says.
"And if it doesn't come back?" Draco asks and she looks at him with her eyebrows narrowed.
"Why wouldn't it?" He sees Granger biting her lip, and looking to the floor with her eyebrows narrowed, like she's pondering if she should or should not say something "Look, it's not a surprise that I hate you. A lot. But I believe that your memory will come back, eventually. It has to."
Draco didn't know what he could say now. Granger had never been nice to him - and he had never been nice to her. He clears his throat, and swallowing his pride, he says "Thanks."
"You're welcome." Hermione stands up and takes one more look to Malfoy "Good night."
Only when Granger closes her bedroom's door, Draco mutters "Good night."
I hope you guys liked it. I'm sorry if sometimes they are a bit out of character but, as I said, it is a bit hard to start. But I tried my best to keep Hermione a rational and comprehensive person all through this chapter; I also tried to make Draco be less hard on Hermione so that they could have this initial conversation.