A/N
Hello! Here I come again! This is for the 'Well this is S t r a n g e challenge' by misswhiteback on the HPFC! This is my entry. I got Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger as the characters and my prompt was Fighting Death Eaters. I hope you enjoy.
Check out these great stories:
Teenage Dream by PhantomStar07
and
Eight Years by ix3youlots
Disclaimer: No loves. I don't own harry potter.
ENJOY!
"Harry! They're coming." She whispered, fear etched on her face. After all, every moment could be the end. They were terrifying and blood thirsty and would stop at nothing until they gained exactly what they desired.
But they were also extreme cowards.
"I know. Just…stay here. We'll be fine. I promise." Harry was just as scared as Hermione was, possibly even more so, but it was strange to see Ron in such a state. He seemed numb…unfeeling.
"Are you alright?" Hermione asked him urgently, hurried yet hushed all the same.
Ron simply nodded one curt nod and Hermione sat back, unnerved. There was something in his eyes that said he knew. He knew something was going to happen. It was almost as if he could see it. She didn't know how he knew…but he knew.
Fear. It was nearly palpable, and the taste of it was indescribable. It was bitterness in the mouth and the trio couldn't help but wish for water, for this fear was like dehydration and it left their lips crackling with the distastefulness of dust and fire. Yet, it was all the worse for they could not use magic, it would be too conspicuous and would lead the Death Eaters straight for them.
It was inevitable that they were coming for them. The trio could sense it, but seconds were more important than every breath, and every breath could be the last and the last would be coming all too quickly.
Hermione, through multiple periods of their 'stakeout', found herself holding the precious breath that quite possibly was numbered, waiting for them and thinking about him who would probably be there as well. She dreaded the bitter-sweet reunion with he who crushed her heart in sixth year.
"Hold my hand. Please." She sounded pathetic as she asked Harry and that same fear that held them all down gripped her heart tighter. Harry, being the man that he was, held on tight to her seemingly fragile hand and squeezed it once to assure her that somehow things would be okay.
Still, Ron was in a vegetable state. It was as if he couldn't hear Hermione and Harry, or did not even know they were there…and it upset Hermione immensely.
This infinite waiting was weighing down on them hard. When would they come? Why weren't they there yet? Would they be prepared when the Death Eaters did come? She did not have the answers, nor did she really want them too terribly. The future was a barren land full of pain and hopelessness, or so she felt. There were three of them and she feared that would not be enough against the dozen Death Eaters they were soon to face.
Hermione wanted to kick something. Hurt someone. But she simply couldn't find the strength or hope to even get up. Would it be so hopeless as she thought? Would they die as quickly as she just knew they would? No answer replied to her rhetoricals.
Suddenly, everything grew quiet around them. There was neither the wind whooshing through the trees, nor a single owl hooting like they were so before. This sound—or no sound—created a uncomfortable sense of a haunted daunting around the three. They each new something was up and it dispirited them all.
They sat in the silence for a complete minute, their eyes wide with vexation, and then they heard it.
The wind picked up more suddenly; thunderous in volume and whirling briskly so that it was almost visible to their not-so-keen eyes. And then it was visible as if black smoke. The smoke that had no scent but the smell of anxiety weaved throughout it was blinding. It engulfed the three and Hermione and Harry stood up from their uncomfortable sitting positions on the hard concrete, but Ron stayed slouched, tranquil and muted.
"I think it must be them." Hermione squeaked. Harry nodded in agreement. It was them. It had to be. Who else would have smoke so black and daunting?
Their suspicions were confirmed when the smoke began to solidify into human bodies. And just as they had thought, there were thirteen of them exactly, an unfair advantage on their part.
And exactly as Hermione had thought, he was with them. Her heart immediately wrenched and she had to turn her head away for a lump formed in her throat as she struggled to choke back tears. She had hoped her seeing him would not be this much of a blow. He was with them and he was exactly like them. If only she had seen it before.
When she finally had the strength and courage to look back, he was staring at her, burning circles into her face, and his eyes almost looked pleading, like he was begging her to forgive him. It was like he was begging her to forget all he had done and he was finally saying sorry. But he wasn't. And his eyes were probably just being the deceiving eyes as they had always been.
"Well, looky what we have here!" said Bellatrix Lestrange. With one evil hand, she signaled for the others to attack, but ordered them not to kill Harry, to only kill 'the others'—meaning Ron and Hermione.
So the battle began. They took out Ron so quickly for he would not fight back. Hermione had trouble regaining composure as she constantly looked to his face yet only saw dead eyes staring back at her.
Her most recent love was dead. Dead. And it had happened so easily. Hermione wanted to scream. She wanted to destroy Dolohov for destroying him.
If you have never seen the eyes of someone you love dead, then you have never known true horror. Witnessing the lights leave the eyes of anyone can be terrifying, but it means so much more when it is someone you have known and cared for.
Ron stared back every time she looked at him. He wasn't smiling. He didn't die happy, he died dead.
If Hermione had looked back on this excruciating battle, she would have had to admit to herself that Ronald had been dead for a long time, though he was still breathing. Ever since Ginny had been killed, his soul had passed on with her. He himself would not have admitted, but they had always been very close, especially at Hogwart's, but it was not something either of them liked to show. So his attachment to her led to his own demise.
As more and more of the curses surfaced and struck, it was harder to block and even more difficult to look away from Malfoy, and in the same way, he could not keep his eyes off of her with that same pleading look.
Disgusted, Hermione began to fight more urgently, sending attack after attack.
"Petrificus Totalus!" cried she at Dolohov, he fell and one of his fellow Death Eater's killing curse went astray and hit him in the back. Revenge had been taken.
"AVADA KADAVRA!" was heard every other second from various people, but was never heard from the purring voice of Draco Malfoy.
After a total of ten minutes, the odds had been lightened. Seven of the Death Eaters were fallen, and the two-thirds of the trio still remained. Of the Death eaters, Draco, Bellatrix, Goyle, Crabbe, Fenrir, and Yaxley were left to fight, but unfortunately, these seemed to be the worst.
Bellatrix—every so often—would scream at Draco to kill Hermione. But he could not. It seemed as though Lestrange would have liked to physically hurt him a couple of times, but had no time to for she was working on killing the mudblood.
It would have been nice to have had the time to disapparate, but even trying to would surely get them killed.
Hermione glanced once more at Malfoy and saw him slowly blink, bringing her back to their sixth year at Hogwarts.
He blinked and re-opened his eyes to look at the beauty that was called Hermione. It had been surprising that she would have actually shown herself to him, even more surprising that she would have let him touch her.
It had all started out as nothing more than a pleasure to him, but slowly he had grown close to Hermione. He could not explain it for he knew that it was not right for him to be in love with a mudblood, but like it or not, he was.
"You're beautiful." He gasped out loud, though he meant to only think it.
A beautiful blush graced Hermione's cheeks as she looked down at her feet. When she had regained a bit more courage she looked back up at him to now see him as well.
"So are you." She whispered back. He stepped towards her and touched his lips gently to hers at first, but they each became hungrier as it went along and thirsted for one another.
"Love me Draco." She groaned pleasantly,
"I love you." He whispered into her delicate ear as he lay her down on the desk in the abandoned classroom they were in.
"I love you too." She cried as he plunged into her depths. This—she was sure of it—was what true love felt like.
He had been her first and only. But he broke her heart at the end of sixth year, telling her that he could never have truly loved her. That it was only a farce.
Hermione didn't think it would end this way. She figured that night that she let him touch her was a signal of their love for each other.
"You didn't actually think I loved you did you?" he scoffed, but there was something else she couldn't quite place that rusted in his eyes.
"I thought—you told me—I—" Hermione stuttered back. His words stung and she hated the feeling that bubbled deep down in her heart.
"You thought that when I told you I loved you, I meant it. Foolish mistake for a foolish girl." There was so much bitterness and spite in his words, it sunk into her like venom.
"Oh. I suppose I should have realized it." So now she felt dirtied. Dirtied by him.
He gave her one curt nod and turned away, leaving her in the snow by 'their' tree. But I suppose it wasn't 'their' tree anymore.
Once again, she was brought back to reality as a stray 'Sectumsempra' nicked her ear. Hermione felt the sticky warmth of blood trickle down her neck, but she shrugged it off. It could have been worse.
Harry shot Crabbe down and Hermione hit Goyle. Things nearly started looking up, until Bellatrix started getting nasty. It was almost as if she had been going easy before, but not anymore. Curse after curse after curse flew their way and it was a struggle to keep up, but they managed.
Malfoy just stood there and watched, until he did something crazy. He sent a curse at Bellatrix and she fell. She was not dead, but simply petrified.
Draco glanced up to look at Hermione with shocked eyes as she stared back, equally—if not more so—flabbergasted.
With more courage, he shot another at Yaxley, and another at Fenrir, each not fighting back for they had no idea what the boy was doing. Harry only stood in awe.
When Draco had finished, he looked again at Hermione and her questioning look.
"I was done with their shit." It was so nonchalantly put that Hermione burst out laughing. It was crazy laughter and Harry looked at her, perplexed.
"You bastard!" she shrieked and darted towards him. Draco thought she was going to hurt him, but she flung herself in his direction and kissed his lips. She also punched him…but that was besides the point.
Draco stared at her, and then snapped to his senses.
"You'd better get out of here before they wake up." Urgency returned to his manner and he became rough. "Get out of here Potter and take the girl with you. Hurry."
And so they left.
In the future, Hermione would see how much she had missed out not being with him and how much he had given up for betraying his fellow Death Eaters.
Hermione moved on to marry George, but would always remember Ronald and Draco Malfoy. Her first loves.
I am kinda not too sure of this story. I think I moved it too fast and I doubt it's very believable. I probably won't win, but to hell with it. I mean, what can it hurt for turning it in? Tell me what you think please. I just couldn't come up with anything else.
READ AND REVIEW!
Happy writings
Caroline
