Disclaimer: Well there is a reason that this is called fanfiction.

Warning: Character Death.

A/N: Well hello everyone and welcome to my little humble corner of the world ^_^ hehe. Um just so everyone knows, the italics are memories.

Today on the 10th Anniversary of You-Know-Who's defeat, we remember the lives lost, the loved ones we no longer see, the family members gone. Remus Lupin... Nymphadora Tonks... Hermione Granger...

That name, that one name that sent my life crashing down. As I walked up to the memorial statue I placed the Orchid with the other roses. It wasn't like the others; she liked Orchids best. As I walked back I could remember everything that happened that day. 10 years may have passed but you don't forget something like that. It sticks with you until the end.

'HERMIONE! ANSWER ME! HERMIONE!' I cried out panting. There was so much smoke and debris that I could hardly see. 'MIONE PLEASE!' I begged tripping over something. Hogwarts was under attack and half the bloody castle was on fire. I hadn't been back for 3 years but I still knew the castle well. I needed to find her!

I can still feel the heat of the flames on my skin, the smoke stuck in my chest and the terror, the gut twisting terror. It's not something you can just will away. When people ask you if you're ok, you simply put up a mask, one that can block every emotion from showing so people think you're fine, when really you're crumbling to pieces on the inside and slowly descending into madness.

SMASH! The ground shook as part of the Great Hall caved in. I couldn't give a damn, to be frank. I felt my heart in my throat and the sweat running down my back, but I wasn't going to give up. I was going to find her even of it killed me. 'PLEASE, GRANGER, I NEED YOU TO ANSWER ME!' I think I'd rubbed my throat raw from the screaming.

Life gives you many treasures but what they say is true. You don't know what you've got until it's gone. I took her for granted. I bullied her and teased her relentlessly and now I would give anything just to see her once more; to hear a witty remark, snide comment or just to have her in my arms. Walking through Diagon Alley I could see people staring at me, or more specifically, at my tears. I don't care anymore. I don't care if I'm a Malfoy. If I wanted to cry, then no one can stop me, Merlin be damned. To them today was just a day to remember what we lost and what we gained. For me today and every day was a constant reminded that I had lost her.

I vaguely heard the shouts and screams of people near me but I paid them no attention. There was only one voice I needed to hear and then everything would be all right. 'DRACO HELP ME!' That was it, the voice I was so desperate to hear. It was like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. "I'M COMING! I'M COMING GRANGER!' I was running towards her, tears streaming down my face, when suddenly, something grabbed my stomach and pulled me back.

I sat down in my apartment ready to pull my hair out. I was so close. So God damn close and then I was just ripped away. She was taken away from me. Not only did I feel like it was my fault, I knew it was. If I had only been a little faster I could have gotten to her and then we'd both be here. She would be here with me, to grow old with me and to celebrate life. Instead, she was buried 6 feet under and it was my fault. It felt like a knife wrenched into my gut and no matter how hard I tried to remove it, it only got deeper.

'I have to get back in there! She's still in there. HERMIONE!' I yelled 'HERMIONE!' Fight as I may, whoever was holding me had a firm grip and refused to let me go. 'Sorry Draco but I can't let you go in there. It's about to collapse.' It was Blaise. I didn't care if he was my best mate, I would hex him to Pluto and back just to get her. Suddenly as if in slow motion I saw the building I had once called home collapse before me.. And I swear on my death-bed, just before I blacked out I heard a very familiar feminine voice yell out 'Draco...'

I jerked awake screaming and drenched in sweat. That dream was the worst one. It destroyed everything in me; my faith, hope and more than anything my resolve to live.I should have never let her go that day but I caved in as usual. I had watched her being crushed when I could have saved her. I watched my wife die before my eyes. My wife and our unborn child...

-We are only as strong as we are united, weak as we are divided. ~A.P.W.B.D