No Goodbye

Summary: Their love kept them alive. Now he was gone, and she had nothing left.

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize.

A/N: Alrighty so I've written another one-shot! This one's sadder than the stuff I usually write. I have no idea why this is though, I just felt like it…oh well! Enjoy!

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She ran blindly, ignoring the tears streaming down her face. She couldn't breathe, but she kept running. She reached the Head's Common Room and gasped out the password. She ran in, and continued up the stairs to her own room. The beautiful, clear night sky outside her window seemed to be mocking her.

She felt as if the world had shattered around her. There was nothing left, just pain and fear and sadness.

'He's gone. ' They had told her. She didn't believe it. She couldn't believe it. She didn't want to believe that her love had been killed when he had been discovered as a traitor to the Dark Lord.

Not him. She thought. Anyone but him.

In a fit of rage, she grabbed the first thing she found on her desk, a bottle of ink, threw it across the room as hard as she could, and smashed it against the wall. She let out a heart-wrenching sob, which turned into a shriek of anguish. She threw another object, then another, and found she couldn't stop. She wrecked everything she could, ripping books, breaking quills, chucking her cauldron to the ground, and destroying anything else she could get hold of. She sent jinxes and hexes and spells every which way causing as much destruction as she could. Her grief was so great, and it overwhelmed her. With another anguished cry, she threw herself to the floor, among the tattered remains that was once her well-organized bedroom. The words were finally sinking in, and she couldn't bear it. Gone. The word kept repeating itself in her head.

"NO! NO!" she screamed. "NO! DRACO! Draco…" her screams turned to whispers that she could barely get out through her tears. Memories of the time they had shared traveled through her mind, causing her tears to increase. The first time they had met on the train. The hateful words and insults they said. The time she slapped him in Third Year. The first time they conversed without an argument. The time he came to Dumbledore, agreeing to help him in the fight against Lord Voldemort. Their agreeing to be friends. Their first kiss. The happy hours spent in each other's arms. Then one memory in particular swam into her conscience. A memory that had taken place the previous day.

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It was a day near the end of June, and they had gone to the Room of Requirement to spend some time away from everyone else, just together. It was one of their rare moments, so few and far between since the beginning of the war.

"You know Hermione," said Draco pouting. "We came here to spend time together. I didn't think that meant sitting here and watching you read. I'm enjoying the view, don't get me wrong, but I can think of a couple other activities we could be doing right now."

"Just a minute," Hermione muttered, "I'm almost done." She finished the sentence, snapped the book shut, and placed it on the table next to the couch. "Now what were those activities you spoke so fondly about?" she said with a smirk on her face.

Draco chuckled but said nothing, just placed a hand on the side of her face, kissing her gently, then more passionately. Hermione responded with just as much enthusiasm, and soon they were lying on the couch, Hermione on top of Draco.

"Hermione. Stop." Said Draco suddenly and broke the kiss.

"What's this? Draco stopping a kiss first? Well I never thought I'd live to see the day." Said Hermione laughing, until she noticed the serious and almost sad look on Draco's face. "What's wrong?" she asked, also turning serious.

"You know I love you, right?" he started.

"What did you do?" Hermione asked, growing stern.

"Nothing-yet." He responded and sat up.

"What do you mean?" she asked, sitting up too.

"They are growing suspicious. I can't keep this up forever, and soon I'll be found out."

"Who are suspicious, the Death Eaters?" Hermione asked. Draco had been acting as a Death Eater, gaining information for Dumbledore since fifth year, when his father forced him into the ranks.

He nodded. "Some of the smarter ones are beginning to see my unfaithfulness to the Dark Lord. They will figure out sooner of later that my real loyalty lies with Dumbledore. With you. And when they do, it wont be safe anymore." He took her hands in his and looked into her eyes.

"We always knew this would happen. I just want you to know that I love you more than anything else in the world. My life was nothing before you. I always knew I didn't want to be a servant to Voldemort, but I didn't know what I did want until you came."

"Why are you saying this Draco?" said Hermione fearfully, putting a hand on his cheek. It was cold.

"Because-" he hesitated. "Because I don't know if I'll have another chance to."

She had tears in her eyes. "Don't talk like that Draco, you make it sound as if you are expecting to die." She said this as though it was ludicrous, but she knew better in her heart.

He looked at her without saying anything, and more tears rose unbidden to her eyes. She fell into his arms, crying and clinging to him, and he her, one tear rolling down his cheek.

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By this point the memory became too much for her. She punched the ground in rage and grief.

That had been the day before. That night, they had slept in each other's arms, with heavy hearts. She woke up to find him gone, with no sign of where he went. She tried to tell herself that it was alright. He had probably just gone down to breakfast. But as the day wore on, she became more and more frantic when he still didn't appear. It wasn't until later that day that she got the full impact of what had happened.

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She had been down by the lake, searching for any sign of Draco, when she spotted Professor McGonagall walking speedily toward her, looking very grim.

"Please come with me Miss Granger." She said in a strange, strangled voice and proceeded to walk back up to the castle leading the way to Professor Dumbledore's office.

Once inside the office, Hermione spotted Dumbledore by his window, looking out at the clear sunset. When he turned around, she noticed that the usual twinkle in his eyes was gone. This only enhanced her sense of foreboding. She looked around the room, and saw that Rufus Scrimgeour, who was the Minister for Magic, was also present.

"Miss Granger, please have a seat." Dumbledore said.

She sat.

"We have some…news…that you have the right to know, considering your relationship with Mr. Malfoy." He continued.

"Why?" Hermione cried, rising in her seat. "What happened to him?"

"I'm so sorry Ms. Granger. Mr. Malfoy was found dead outside the gates of Hogwarts. He had the word 'traitor' written on his chest in blood. His true loyalties were found out."

Dumbledore had continued talking but Hermione did not hear him. She had frozen, neither seeing, nor hearing Dumbledore. She refused to believe what she had heard. It just couldn't be true. He couldn't be dead; she was just with him last night. It didn't make sense. It just couldn't be.

"I'm sorry Hermione, he's gone." These words penetrated deeper than anything she had ever heard before. She stood up numbly and walked out of the office without a word. Once she reached the hallway, she began to run, only then letting her tears fall.

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She cried and screamed and sobbed until she had nothing left in her. She lay on her back, staring at the ceiling but not really seeing it.

She looked about her room at the mess she created, when she spotted a folded piece of paper on her beside table, which she had not noticed before.

She picked it up and slowly unfolded it with shaking hands. At once she recognized the neat handwriting and her tears started anew.

Dear Hermione,

If you are reading this, it means I am already gone. So this is my last chance.

I have loved you since the first time I saw you. It was at the train station, and we were headed for our first year at Hogwarts. We were just eleven, and even then I knew what I didn't want to be, and that was like my father. But it wasn't until I first saw you that I first began to understand. You were standing there, all alone, having just said Goodbye to your muggle parents. You looked excited, determined, and downright terrified. But it was then I knew my purpose, and then I became a supporter of Dumbledore and his cause. I did nothing at first, hell I didn't do anything for years, because I was too scared to defy my father, Voldemort, and everything that I had been brought up to believe.

But the thought of you helped me. Though you didn't know it at first, it was you that kept me determined to help in the fight against Voldemort. (Even when you slapped me in third year.)

When, at last, you began to show for me the feelings I felt for you, I felt as though I was in heaven. You were so wonderful, and I didn't deserve you, but you still loved me. For that, I thank you. But we knew it couldn't last. This war would come between us, and we may not survive.

Know that that I will always love you. I hope that, after this, you can move on and start a new life. This war has effected us all, in no ways good. Don't forget about me, but don't stop living just because I have.

I love you.

Draco

She felt as if she had lost him all over again. She never even got the chance to say Goodbye.

The End

A/N: So ends another of my stories. And…? What do you think? Good? Bad? You tell me! Review people!