The Curse never leaves
Chapter One
Hermione was wandering in the corridors of what used to be her school. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she contemplated the piles of stones and the wreckage of the battle.
She swallowed hardly.
Her brow furrowed as she kneeled to pick up a tiny wooden branch lying on the floor. What took her attention was a wand.
« Alder wood and drangon heart ... » she wept. She took the wand and rubbed it between her hands.
She began walking around again, rediscovering a place she knew forever. The walls were dislocated at some places and some dark explosion marks were left a bit everywhere, as the witnesses of spells that had been cast.
She kicked a stone. A knot had formed in her stomach, leaving her worse after each minute.
Her home, Hogwarts, her castle, was left as a ruin.
After having visited the Hall, she decided to check the stairs.
She couldn't handle her feeling of desperation and sadness. Outside, they feasted about what they'd won, but no one talked about what they'd lost.
People. Allies. Friends.
Homes.
She came to the stairs. They were okay. Weird me, she thought. They are not people. But she perfectly knew that the castle was as important as people to her.
She has always been very attached to places...
Suddenly, a small noise caught her attention. Like a sobbing. She walked slowly in the direction of it...
On a big pile of stones sat someone. He was crying painfully and curled on himself. His body was sometimes shaked by violent sobs. He choked on his crying, as if he wanted nobody to discover him.
This person was Draco Malfoy.
Hermione felt a shock in her chest. She thought he fled with his parents. But there she found him, weeping in the desert castle.
She stayed hidden behind him. She couldn't see his face, but she knew it was covered in tears and veiled by his sorrow.
She had never seen him cry. Not in that state. He seemed... broken.
Then, he got out a knife. Hermione was petrified. He stretched his arm, and he rolled the sleeve up. There Hermione saw it.
A black skull with a snake going out of his mouth.
Draco's Dark Mark.
He took a long breath. The hand that hold the dagger was trembling.
He ripped a fold of his shirt and tucked it in his mouth. He was as livid as the moon.
Hermione understood what he wanted to do too late. Before she could say 'No', he slowly shoved the knife in his flesh, right where the Mark was. All his muscles violently tensed. She couldn't watch but felt that she had to.
She watched the blood pour on the floor. It was of a dark red tone, and it contrasted with the whitness of Draco.
He seemed extinguished. He reluctantly cut the Mark a second time, and Hermione literally saw the pain leak from him in his tears.
He dropped the blade and fell on his knees, right where his blood had fallen. His bloodstained shirt made him look llike dead. He lied on the floor with pain, then got on his back.
"He doesn't have a wand" thought Hermione. She was right. Draco was maybe going to die there, under her eyes..
As she was going to help him, he muttered: Vulnera Samento. Vulnera Samento. Vulnera Samento.
His cuts slowly closed themselves and the blood stopped dropping. He now had only a scar. But then he screamed : NO! And he curled again on himself.
First of all, Hermione thought she was the only one that didn't always need a wand to cast spells.
Secondly, she decided to get out of the shade and get explainations.
'Draco, she gently said, Draco, are you alright?'
Draco abruptly looked at her. She could read fear in his eyes. Long watery marks had cut his cheeks in half.
'Get away, Granger!' he cried. This got Hermione surprised. He didn't call her Moodblood.
'But Draco, I want to help you! Don't you see how bad you are injured?' she screamed back.
'Get away I said!' he let out a sob. Hermione, though she hate dhim in the past years, couldn't leave him like that.
'Draco...'
'I don't need your pity!'
Hermione took his arm. He tried to pull it away but he had no more strength.
She examined the cut. It looked like the kind of scar people had forever. Then she saw it. Behind the scar. The Dark Mark.
She understood what he wanted.
He wanted to erase it.
'Draco, let me help you. I swear I don't pity you. You just deserve help.'
This word seemed unknowned to Draco.
He looked into Hermione's eyes and held the gaze. She felt the coldness and at the same time the warmness of it. They were ice blue and had long lashes. They had the expression of a wounded animal.
Her fingers slowly slided down to his hand. She took it. She expected Draco to push her hand away, but he clenched her stronger than she did.
And he rested his head on her breast.