Disclaimer: I do not own the characters they belong to the wonderful J.K.
Rowling without whose books I would have spent many boring days.
Take Me Away
Screams reverberated off the walls, striking chords of fear in every one's heart. Children were crying, their shrill cries scattered as they ran in confusion away from the figures cloaked in black.
They had come in the dark, taking the sleeping school by surprise when they melted from the shadows. Boys in pajamas traded curses with grown men robed in black. Teachers in dressing gowns tried to herd the children to safety, telling the girls in nightgowns to take them away from the school the battleground.
"Hermione, go!" an emerald eyed youth with messy ebony hair ordered between hexes. The fairy-like girl he had ordered only petrified a man terrorizing a first year. She whirled on him, her uncontrollably curly hair bouncing gently with every move she made.
"'Mione go with McGonagall!" a lanky red head grabbed the girl by the arm and tried to propel her out the door and away from danger.
"No, Ron, I won't run! I can help!" she pulled away and petrified another man.
"Don't fight with us, 'Mione!" the slightly shorter boy had made his way over to them. "Go!" his voice was full of authority of someone so young.
"No, Harry! I'm not leaving, I'm fighting! I don't want to regret running away, especially since I know that I can help!" she argued passionately.
"Now is not the time! The real fight is yet to come. Go so you live to help us another day!" Harry seethed at her, his emerald eyes glinting angrily.
"If today is not the real fight then you should be the one running, Harry! You're the important one! We're only here to get you to the end. Let me stay if only so that I can watch your backs!"
"Hermione..." Ron sighed.
"No! I'm not going to fight with you anymore! You're not my enemy! They are!" She stalked off, her spine rigid, and she kicked a fallen Deatheater as she passed. A hand grabbed her ankle and she fell to the floor. Seamus fell behind her with a startled cry.
Hermione looked down at her ankle and the large pale hand still clasping it. She followed the arm up to where the sleeve of a black sweater was pushed up to his elbow and then to where it met the body. Her gaze met a pair of laughing steel colored eyes: Draco Malfoy. Incoherently she scrambled for her wand. When she had it pointed at his face he released her. He pointed at Seamus. "Keep that bushy head down, Granger." he warned her as he stood cautiously favoring one side, the one that she had kicked, and walked off gingerly, his cloak swishing genteelly as he went. Hermione sat confused amid all the destruction.
A strangled sob from Lavender at the door as she set out to run from the premises with a group of about twenty kids brought Hermione back from her stupor. She shook herself visibly before crawling cautiously over to Seamus and finding that he as still alive, although unconscious.
"What happened?" Ron appeared next to her. He crouched down to examine Seamus for himself and placed his hand on her shoulder.
"I don't know. I was on the floor." Hermione's voice was wry. Ron only glanced her way once and didn't question it. "I think whatever it was was meant for me but Mal... I..I tripped and it hit Seamus, he was standing behind me." Ron shot her a questioning look and again did not question her. They moved Seamus to the side of the room where hopefully he wouldn't be trampled on.
Ron stunned another Deatheater advancing on Hermione's back. "'Mione, I'd really feel better if you went with Lavender, Parvati, Susan, Ginny, and the other girls."
Hermione stood on her tip toes and kissed his cheek. "I know you would, but I wouldn't, Ron. Thank you for caring so much." The red head blushed to the roots of his hair and raised his hand to touch the spot where her lips had touched his skin. Hermione would have giggled at the fact that Ron still hadn't gotten over his school boy crush on her as she went back into the fray but she remembered the grim reality that she was immersed in a war.
Dumbledore and Voldemort were dueling in the middle of all the commotion. In the dim light Dumbledore looked older and Voldemort looked as sinister as ever. Harry was dueling with a cloaked Deatheater in the corner as other Deatheaters picked off the few brave boys from the school. Neville was bravely holding his own, thanks to the DA meetings fifth year.
Something stuck into Hermione's foot and she looked down belatedly realizing that she had come downstairs to a battle in her pink satin nightgown, her sheer white summer wrapper, and no shoes or slippers. Grumbling slightly she picked out the annoyance, it was a tooth. Her honeyed brown eyes blinked a few times in confusion before she cast her gaze around the room to finally fall on Crabbe and Goyle beating up Ernie MacMillian and Colin Creevey physically because the dunderheads knew that they were outmatched in wit and spell recall. It looked as thought Colin was the one that had lost the tooth, his face was all bloody and bruised. Ernie was doing his best to dodge, only getting the hits in his stomach and arms, but he was quickly growing closer and closer to the wall and would soon run out of room in which to maneuver.
The petite brunette charged over taking Crabbe by surprise when she hexed him. As soon as Crabbe fell Goyle turned on her, his fists swinging wildly. Hermione managed to remove her face from range but got hit pretty hard in the abdomen and one shoulder. She dropped her wand with a slight gasp of pain, her pause setting her up. Goyle's fist was heading straight towards her nose. Her eyes closed and her body tensed in anticipation of the blow but it never came. She opened her eyes to the shock of her life.
Goyle was on the ground, little tentacles sprouting from his face, and Draco Malfoy stood before her his wand pointed at the spot where Goyle had stood just moments previous. The look in those grey eyes was cold and angry as he looked down on his friend. Her jaw dropped slightly, Malfoy had hexed one of his body guards! Shale met honey as their eyes met. He nodded to her curtly and he twirled his wand through his fingers like one of those cowboys from Spaghetti Westerns twirled his guns. She almost smiled at the mental picture she drew of him wearing a ten gallon hat, a black shirt, black chaps, sitting on a black horse blowing the smoke from the barrel of his gun, but she realized with a jolt that she could see him in the role of the dark mysterious hero. Once again he strode away leaving her confused.
"Did he just?" Ernie approached her, shock plainly written on his face. Hermione nodded mutely. "Woah... Never thought I'd live to see the day that Malfoy defended you. No offense or anything, but you guys were always at odds and never seemed to like each other. I thought it'd be a cold day in hell if ever he did that."
Goose bumps erupted on her bare arms remembering the look in his eyes when he had looked at Goyle. He had seemed so much bigger and he was no longer the little boy who had called her a Mudblood. It was frightening to see, it was strangely reminiscent of Dumbledore when he got angry. Her world was turning upside down. Voldemort was not supposed to attack the school. Malfoy was supposed to be fighting against her trying to kill her, not be hexing his friends so that they wouldn=t give the little Mudblood a black eye or broken nose.
She crouched down to pick up her discarded wand and felt the wooden tip of another wand pressed to the back of her head.
"I love your nightgown girly."
"Thanks," Hermione clasped her wand loosely in her hand, hidden from view. "I'd like to keep it on, if you don't mind."
"Why you little bitch!" the man pulled her up by her hair and whirled her around. Under his hood he was not a handsome man. His eyes were small and places closely together, his nose was flat and misshapen as if it had been broken a few times and never fixed properly, his lips were wide and thin and since he was leering at her she could see his crooked yellow teeth. Instinctively she recoiled from the sight. The man growled and crushed her to him, his slimy tongue trying to gain access to her mouth. Little did he know that he was being glared at by three pairs of eyes and had three wands pointed at him. Hermione brought her hands up cupped them and slammed them over his ears, dropping her wand in the process. The Deatheater released a roar of pain and staggered back releasing a very angry witch.
She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand with a look of utmost disgust. She reached for her wand as he took his hands from his ears and stared at the blood.
"Petrificus Totalus" Hermione's voice was low, cool, and controlled as the man reached for her. He fell with a thump as she wiped her mouth again and spit on the floor at his feet.
"What did you do?" Ron gaped at the fallen man as he jogged over to her side, leaving his opponent twitching on the floor behind him.
"I was just trying to box his ears," Ron winced, "I think I did it to hard... I may have really hurt him." Now that the adrenaline was draining from her system she was shocked that she had actually, probably, hit someone hard enough to deafen them. She felt a twinge of guilt and felt sorry for him, but not too sorry because he was, after all, trying to force himself on her.
"Remind me not to piss you off within arm's reach," Ron joked glad that she was okay.
Both turned when they heard Harry cry out. Time seemed to slow as they watched the thin boy's body slide down the wall to sit slumped awkwardly on the floor, his head lolling on his shoulders. Ron began to run to his fallen friend and Hermione's gaze latched on to the perpetrator.
Lucius Malfoy had shoved Harry aside after seeing his son surreptitiously hex Avery, who was running towards Hermione's back after she had felled the other Deatheater. But it wasn't only that, after hexing Avery his son had turned around and stunned Jugson while the latter was dueling with Neville Longbottom. He began to stalk his son's back, his wand raising to point at the heart.
"Malfoy!" Hermione's scream rent the air. The tall blonde boy turned to her, his face a carefully constructed mask of indifference. "Get down! Move!" The look he gave her asked 'Are you insane' and he turned back to what he was doing. Hermione ran. She ran as if her life depended on it, in desperation, knowing that she had to save him.
"Ava-" Lucius started the curse that would end his son's life. Hermione hurtled head first into Draco sending both of them sprawling on the stone floor, Hermione letting out a small cry as her hip connected solidly with the ground. MacNair fell behind them with a surprised look on his face. Lucius Malfoy advanced on them, his face covered in thunder clouds.
"What did you think-" Draco sat up looking at Hermione incredulously breaking off when he noticed her frantically searching for a wand. She grabbed the first one she saw. "Hey that's mine!" Malfoy made to grab it from her as she turned and shouted.
"Stupefy!" Lucius fell, his head hitting the ground with a sickening crack.
Malfoy snatched his wand back from her. "What in God's name do you think you are doing?" he angrily turned her to face him.
"You're angry!" Hermione was indignant.
"Yes, I'm angry, Granger! You tackle me and then you use my wand to stun my father! Why wouldn't be angry?"
"I just saved your life you arrogant misogynist prick!" Tears sparkled in her eyes drawn from her outrage at his lack of gratitude for helping him.
"Misogynist?" Malfoy's mouth fell open in gaping astonishment.
"Yes! Misogynist and arrogant and stubborn and angry and violent!"
"Violent? Me? As I recall you're the one that smacked me third year and just tackled me!"
"Because YOUR Father was trying to KILL YOU, you bloody stupid GIT!"
Malfoy closed his eyes for a moment. "What?"
"Your. Father. Was. Trying. To. Kill. You." Hermione spoke each word slowly with a space between each one.
"I'm not a bloody moron, you don't need to say it that way." Malfoy pouted for a second and then, "Why?"
Her honeyed brown eyes blinked. "Why what? I don't know why your father was trying to kill you; you'd have to ask him for that answer." She was still rigid from barely suppressed anger.
"No why did you... What possessed you to... Me?" The power of speech left him creating that helpless query.
Hermione looked down at her hands. "I... I don't know. Maybe for the same reason you knocked me down and hexed Goyle."
"That's not possible." Malfoy spit the words out, looked away, and pinched the bridge of his nose, a gesture that Hermione had made many times herself when she had a headache.
"Why not? Why did you?" Malfoy slammed his hand down on the ground with a loud smack making her jump.
"I'm NOT explaining it to YOU! You wouldn't understand!" He stood up, brushing himself off. He turned to say something else, but the nasty words died in his throat as he looked down on her. She was staring at the floor as if it were fascinating, her tiny hands were fisted in the white and pink fabric that clung to her curves so closely, she looked small and fragile and he felt sorry for his venomous words.
He held out his hand to her and she gazed up at him curiously before placing her tiny hand in his bigger one. Her eyes widened slightly in surprise at the jolt of energy that shot through her from his mere touch. He pulled her to her feet and they stood only inches from each other staring into the other's eyes. Malfoy stepped back first only breaking the eye contact to bend down and pick up her wand. He curled her fingers about it and then turned and walked away leaving Hermione more confused than ever.
She watched his black cloak sway with his graceful gate before a scream next to her catapulted her back into the war. She had forgotten that people were fighting and dying all around her. She blushed slightly as she realized that Malfoy had made the rest of the word melt away during their argument, and that it seemed if they were the only people standing there as they gazed into each other's eyes. 'If Harry saw me now' she thought with a small smirk. "Oh God, Harry!" she gasped and whirled around. She ran to Harry's side. He still hadn't woken up.
"I don't know what's wrong with him 'Mione." Ron's voice was panicked as he knelt with Harry's head in his lap.
"He's still breathing and his pulse is strong," Hermione muttered to herself her hands running over Harry's face and neck. "He's got a nice bump on his head though, he'll probably be out for a while. Ron, can you carry him?"
"Of course I can." Ron started to pick Harry up but stopped and turned to the brunette suspiciously. "Why?"
"He's going to be unconscious for a while Ron, he can't stay here he'll be a stationary target and that will get him killed. We have to take him and go."
"You go with him! I'll stay and fight!" The red head hissed angrily.
"I can't carry him you great oaf!" the retort came back effortlessly and quickly, verbal arguments with Ron were never hard and never lasted long.
"Oh..." the light bulb went on in Ron's head and Hermione shook hers in exasperation.
Ron needed both of his hands to hold Harry and maneuver him out the door so Hermione stuck close to them all of her senses searching for any sign of attack. The boys edged out the door awkwardly but when she went to slip out the door and follow them she froze.
The room had gone quiet, too quiet. Her heart plummeted to her toes as she slowly turned. The meaning of Deadly Silence suddenly hit her. Dumbledore had fallen; everyone was staring with disbelieving eyes, even Voldemort.
There were more student casualties than Deatheater because the Deatheaters killed without a second thought or a backward glance. They delighted in causing pain. The students, mere children, could not bring themselves to extinguish a life.
Those children, smart enough to not be murders, were also smart enough to take advantage of the Dark Lord and his follower's astonishment and slip away.
Hermione couldn't move or breathe, her knees were threatening to collapse.
McGonagall was the first adult to move. "Albus!" she cried as she streaked across the hall towards the fallen body of the headmaster. Hermione slid slowly to the floor, unnoticed except by two pairs of grey eyes that saw all of her movements, as her favorite teacher's body joined her beloved headmaster's after being hit by a flash of sickening green light
High cold laughter filled the room as Voldemort's victory finally penetrated his thick skull. "Severus," he crowed beckoning to the dark haired and eyed teacher that was standing off to the side with clenched teeth. Quickly he made his face indifferent and made his way to his master.
"Look, Severus, look well. Dumbledore is dead at last! Do you know what this means?"
"No, master," Snape looked mildly interested.
"It means that I don't need you anymore, Severus."
"Why not, my master?"
"You are a spy," Snape's demeanor didn't change, he stayed stoic. "You were useful letting me know what Dumbledore was up to and for teaching the future generation of my followers. Dumbledore is dead, the school is dead your usefulness is done. Can you deny it Snape?"
"I won't."
"Going Gryffindor on us, Snape, with those word games?" one of the Deatheaters leered at him.
"No. If you would just open your eyes you'd see that Slytherins and Gryffindors are not that different. Both are noble and brave. Slytherins just work in secret while Gryffindors act in the open but both do. It's people like you, Voldemort sorry Tom, that give Slytherins bad names. The students say that there isn't a wizard in Slytherin that hasn't gone bad because the only well known Slytherins are the pure evil ones like you!"
The Deatheaters hissed at Severus's softly spoken declaration.
"Better to use force to get power and be known than be righteous and dead. It is better to be feared than loved."
"Only according to people that have never been loved!"
The Dark Lord seethed in anger. "I think it is time to say good-bye, Snape."
"I have no regrets and will meet my maker with my soul clear."
Voldemort sneered, "Give them my regards in Hades. Avada Kedava."
Snape's thin body fell, the look on his face not surprised or fearful; it was probably the closest look to peaceful that could cross the Potion Professor's face.
Hermione was hauled into the air, her arms trapped at her sides by strong arms. Her mouth was covered by a large hand so she couldn't scream.
"My Lord," Lucius Malfoy's voice filtered into her ears from behind her.
"Ahh, the little mudblood that is the brains behind Harry Potter. Good work catching her, Lucius." Voldemort turned to her with a small smile. "Shall we see how good little Potter does without her?" He raised his wand, placing it right under her chin. "Or should we have a little fun with her first?"
Dread filled her body as Voldemort surveyed all of her, from the top of her untamed hair to her pink painted toe nails.
"NO!" Neville came running back into the hall with a few other boys. They let loose a barage of curses that sent the Deatheaters scrambling. Lucius Malfoy dropped her with a grunt, she hit the ground hard twisting her ankle trying to land on her feet. She cried out softly as she tried to stand, to escape.
The younger platinum haired wizard came hurtling at her. "Come on!" he whispered urgently to her, wrapping his arm about her waist and pulling her up against him. Immediately she wound her arms about his neck as he continued to run from the school. The smell of smoke reached her nostrils as they ran through the doors and down the steps.
"What's going on?" she asked him when he finally stopped in the Forbidden Forest. "Why do I smell smoke?"
"Voldemort set fire to Dumbledore and Hogwarts," his voice was tight as he turned so that they both could see the light from the flames that were engulfing the castle. He let her legs go and they slid down, she didn't let go of his neck because her feet didn't reach the ground and her ankle was throbbing. "You can let go now." he commented dryly.
She let go and fell to the ground, her ankle giving out beneath her, with a small gasp.
"Why didn't you tell me that you were hurt?" he demanded, fire in his eyes as he picked her back up again.
"I didn't know that I couldn't stand on my own." her voice was colored with embarrassment as she hugged his neck again. She peered up into his eyes, darkened by shadows. "Why are you doing this?"
He looked away, hearing voices in the woods and not wanting to look at her. "Don't ask me that, please."
Her honeyed brown eyes surveyed his profile; his high forehead, deeply set eyes, sweeping brows, and aristocratic nose made him look quite mature and she was jolted by the realization. She turned to look in the opposite direction hearing Ron calling her name, one of her arms sliding down and her hand resting against his stomach. Vaguely she heard people calling for Malfoy too.
"I'm going to leave you here, Weasley should be able to find you soon." his voice was devoid of any feeling.
"You're going back to them?" His silence gave her the answer. She turned him to look at her. "You can't go! Your father tried to kill you! Someone was bound to see you saving me! If you go back they'll torture you as a traitor!"
"If I don't go they'll know I am." he lowered his forehead to rest against hers.
"You... You are?" her hand unconsciously fisted in his cloak at his shoulder.
"I never wanted this life. The Dark Arts fascinated me but I never wanted to kill people or hurt them, it was more that I was hungry for the knowledge. My father made me take a place in the Dark Lord's circle, I don't want to be there. I know I'm not the nicest person but I never went out of my way to deliberately hurt anyone."
"Yes you have." Goose bumps rose on her arms as he shot her a questioning look. "Second year when you called me a Mudblood you meant to hurt me."
"Yes, yes I did mean to hurt you then but only because you hurt me."
Hermione was struck dumb at his words. Malfoy let out a cold laugh.
"They might let me off, I they know that I..." he mused to the wind.
"That you... what?"
"Has anyone ever told you that you're nosy?" He grinned at her, the first true grin she had ever seen him make.
"Me?" she squeaked indignantly causing him to chuckle.
"Promise me not to do something so stupid again."
"Stupid?" her voice was shrill.
"Yes hanging around when your precious Potter and your little Weasel aren't there can get you killed. Voldemort knows that you're more of a threat to him than Weasel."
"How is that?"
"You're the brains behind them, Granger. Don't leave yourself open like that again."
"I won't if you don't go back to them."
"I have to go back."
"But they already suspect you!"
"And I said that I could get out of it!"
"What if you can't?"
"Then I'll die knowing that I saved you." there was something in his voice that caused her heart to pang.
"I don't want that!"
Malfoy blinked a few times, "What are you saying?"
"I... I don't know. I don't want anyone to die for me, especially not you. You're different somehow..."
"So you don't think that I'm evil?" his voice was dry.
"I never thought you were evil, every time Harry and Ron suspected you I doubted it."
His eyes regarded her suspiciously. "Why not?"
"I don't know!" Hermione all but wailed in his ear. "I just couldn't believe it of you ever!"
Shale grey eyes narrowed in amusement and darkened from something else as Malfoy the younger watched the brunette witch work herself up over something so inconsequential but that had meant the world to him.
He grabbed her arm and pulled her flush against him. She barely had time to gasp and register what he had done before his mouth swooped down to plunder hers.
She'd never felt anything like it before. Emotions and pleasure flooded her. It felt like she had been struck by lightning there was so much energy coursing through her at the mere meeting of their lips. She had heard it said that people described this feeling as if they were flying or that they had seen fireworks with their eyes closed. She now knew that they had spoken the truth.
He hadn't meant to kiss her and it scared him. He felt the world shift beneath his feet and knew that he had changed his existence forever. It confused him how he had planned to shake some sense into her and ended up trying to incorporate her into himself.
He pulled away and Hermione felt a sharp, surprising, sense of loss and cold as he moved away.
She puffed up like an indignant hen. "What did you think yo-?" he cut her off with a finger pressed softly to her lips.
"Again." his voice was husky as he lifted her up in his arms to ravish her once again.
Her hands found their way into his hair and she found it surprisingly thick and soft. She gave into his plunder with a soft sigh, disarmed by his lack of the urgency that had been there the last time. The first kiss had been all flash and fire and had taken her by surprise; she had been burned by it. The second kiss was slow and sweet and she felt herself melting into him, again caught off guard but this time it was by his uncharacteristic tenderness as he held her and the way he kissed her as if they had a hundred years to stay that way.
Little did she know that Malfoy was as staggered as she. He was taken aback when she had returned his kiss with a mix of seductress and innocence. What confused him more was the sudden thought that they belonged that way forever.
He slowly let her body slide down his and took two steps away after depositing her safely on the ground. Her honeyed eyes were clouded and her lips were pink and full, bruised by his kisses. He felt a flash of pride that he was the one that had brought that dazed and dreamy look to her face.
He traced her lips with his thumb, a strange feeling rising up in him as she leaned toward it. He pulled her full lower lip down as he ran his thumb down towards her chin. "I guess I'll have to come back." he smirked at the blank look on her face and disappeared into the forest, the shadows engulfing him.
I.was waiting all my life to know you
(all about you)
And now..I'm staring in your eyes in shea flour
(all about you)
And in our minds, it comes so easily
But theres a feeling comin over me
I want to show you,
But theres nowhere we can really be free
Everybody's watchin'
Wouldn't it be good if we could be together
~Fin~
AN: I'm going to be killed for that ending huh? I may be persuaded to write a sequel though. *hint, hint* I just have to decide if people like this enough to bother posting it and if I'll start it after Voldemort has been defeated or not. The song at the end is Take Me Away by Fefe Dobson, and no it is not a song fic I only realized later that the song fit the story. I got the idea for this from a drawing on the Contra Veritas website by Dominique it is the gallery page picture, I absolutely fell in love with it.
Take Me Away
Screams reverberated off the walls, striking chords of fear in every one's heart. Children were crying, their shrill cries scattered as they ran in confusion away from the figures cloaked in black.
They had come in the dark, taking the sleeping school by surprise when they melted from the shadows. Boys in pajamas traded curses with grown men robed in black. Teachers in dressing gowns tried to herd the children to safety, telling the girls in nightgowns to take them away from the school the battleground.
"Hermione, go!" an emerald eyed youth with messy ebony hair ordered between hexes. The fairy-like girl he had ordered only petrified a man terrorizing a first year. She whirled on him, her uncontrollably curly hair bouncing gently with every move she made.
"'Mione go with McGonagall!" a lanky red head grabbed the girl by the arm and tried to propel her out the door and away from danger.
"No, Ron, I won't run! I can help!" she pulled away and petrified another man.
"Don't fight with us, 'Mione!" the slightly shorter boy had made his way over to them. "Go!" his voice was full of authority of someone so young.
"No, Harry! I'm not leaving, I'm fighting! I don't want to regret running away, especially since I know that I can help!" she argued passionately.
"Now is not the time! The real fight is yet to come. Go so you live to help us another day!" Harry seethed at her, his emerald eyes glinting angrily.
"If today is not the real fight then you should be the one running, Harry! You're the important one! We're only here to get you to the end. Let me stay if only so that I can watch your backs!"
"Hermione..." Ron sighed.
"No! I'm not going to fight with you anymore! You're not my enemy! They are!" She stalked off, her spine rigid, and she kicked a fallen Deatheater as she passed. A hand grabbed her ankle and she fell to the floor. Seamus fell behind her with a startled cry.
Hermione looked down at her ankle and the large pale hand still clasping it. She followed the arm up to where the sleeve of a black sweater was pushed up to his elbow and then to where it met the body. Her gaze met a pair of laughing steel colored eyes: Draco Malfoy. Incoherently she scrambled for her wand. When she had it pointed at his face he released her. He pointed at Seamus. "Keep that bushy head down, Granger." he warned her as he stood cautiously favoring one side, the one that she had kicked, and walked off gingerly, his cloak swishing genteelly as he went. Hermione sat confused amid all the destruction.
A strangled sob from Lavender at the door as she set out to run from the premises with a group of about twenty kids brought Hermione back from her stupor. She shook herself visibly before crawling cautiously over to Seamus and finding that he as still alive, although unconscious.
"What happened?" Ron appeared next to her. He crouched down to examine Seamus for himself and placed his hand on her shoulder.
"I don't know. I was on the floor." Hermione's voice was wry. Ron only glanced her way once and didn't question it. "I think whatever it was was meant for me but Mal... I..I tripped and it hit Seamus, he was standing behind me." Ron shot her a questioning look and again did not question her. They moved Seamus to the side of the room where hopefully he wouldn't be trampled on.
Ron stunned another Deatheater advancing on Hermione's back. "'Mione, I'd really feel better if you went with Lavender, Parvati, Susan, Ginny, and the other girls."
Hermione stood on her tip toes and kissed his cheek. "I know you would, but I wouldn't, Ron. Thank you for caring so much." The red head blushed to the roots of his hair and raised his hand to touch the spot where her lips had touched his skin. Hermione would have giggled at the fact that Ron still hadn't gotten over his school boy crush on her as she went back into the fray but she remembered the grim reality that she was immersed in a war.
Dumbledore and Voldemort were dueling in the middle of all the commotion. In the dim light Dumbledore looked older and Voldemort looked as sinister as ever. Harry was dueling with a cloaked Deatheater in the corner as other Deatheaters picked off the few brave boys from the school. Neville was bravely holding his own, thanks to the DA meetings fifth year.
Something stuck into Hermione's foot and she looked down belatedly realizing that she had come downstairs to a battle in her pink satin nightgown, her sheer white summer wrapper, and no shoes or slippers. Grumbling slightly she picked out the annoyance, it was a tooth. Her honeyed brown eyes blinked a few times in confusion before she cast her gaze around the room to finally fall on Crabbe and Goyle beating up Ernie MacMillian and Colin Creevey physically because the dunderheads knew that they were outmatched in wit and spell recall. It looked as thought Colin was the one that had lost the tooth, his face was all bloody and bruised. Ernie was doing his best to dodge, only getting the hits in his stomach and arms, but he was quickly growing closer and closer to the wall and would soon run out of room in which to maneuver.
The petite brunette charged over taking Crabbe by surprise when she hexed him. As soon as Crabbe fell Goyle turned on her, his fists swinging wildly. Hermione managed to remove her face from range but got hit pretty hard in the abdomen and one shoulder. She dropped her wand with a slight gasp of pain, her pause setting her up. Goyle's fist was heading straight towards her nose. Her eyes closed and her body tensed in anticipation of the blow but it never came. She opened her eyes to the shock of her life.
Goyle was on the ground, little tentacles sprouting from his face, and Draco Malfoy stood before her his wand pointed at the spot where Goyle had stood just moments previous. The look in those grey eyes was cold and angry as he looked down on his friend. Her jaw dropped slightly, Malfoy had hexed one of his body guards! Shale met honey as their eyes met. He nodded to her curtly and he twirled his wand through his fingers like one of those cowboys from Spaghetti Westerns twirled his guns. She almost smiled at the mental picture she drew of him wearing a ten gallon hat, a black shirt, black chaps, sitting on a black horse blowing the smoke from the barrel of his gun, but she realized with a jolt that she could see him in the role of the dark mysterious hero. Once again he strode away leaving her confused.
"Did he just?" Ernie approached her, shock plainly written on his face. Hermione nodded mutely. "Woah... Never thought I'd live to see the day that Malfoy defended you. No offense or anything, but you guys were always at odds and never seemed to like each other. I thought it'd be a cold day in hell if ever he did that."
Goose bumps erupted on her bare arms remembering the look in his eyes when he had looked at Goyle. He had seemed so much bigger and he was no longer the little boy who had called her a Mudblood. It was frightening to see, it was strangely reminiscent of Dumbledore when he got angry. Her world was turning upside down. Voldemort was not supposed to attack the school. Malfoy was supposed to be fighting against her trying to kill her, not be hexing his friends so that they wouldn=t give the little Mudblood a black eye or broken nose.
She crouched down to pick up her discarded wand and felt the wooden tip of another wand pressed to the back of her head.
"I love your nightgown girly."
"Thanks," Hermione clasped her wand loosely in her hand, hidden from view. "I'd like to keep it on, if you don't mind."
"Why you little bitch!" the man pulled her up by her hair and whirled her around. Under his hood he was not a handsome man. His eyes were small and places closely together, his nose was flat and misshapen as if it had been broken a few times and never fixed properly, his lips were wide and thin and since he was leering at her she could see his crooked yellow teeth. Instinctively she recoiled from the sight. The man growled and crushed her to him, his slimy tongue trying to gain access to her mouth. Little did he know that he was being glared at by three pairs of eyes and had three wands pointed at him. Hermione brought her hands up cupped them and slammed them over his ears, dropping her wand in the process. The Deatheater released a roar of pain and staggered back releasing a very angry witch.
She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand with a look of utmost disgust. She reached for her wand as he took his hands from his ears and stared at the blood.
"Petrificus Totalus" Hermione's voice was low, cool, and controlled as the man reached for her. He fell with a thump as she wiped her mouth again and spit on the floor at his feet.
"What did you do?" Ron gaped at the fallen man as he jogged over to her side, leaving his opponent twitching on the floor behind him.
"I was just trying to box his ears," Ron winced, "I think I did it to hard... I may have really hurt him." Now that the adrenaline was draining from her system she was shocked that she had actually, probably, hit someone hard enough to deafen them. She felt a twinge of guilt and felt sorry for him, but not too sorry because he was, after all, trying to force himself on her.
"Remind me not to piss you off within arm's reach," Ron joked glad that she was okay.
Both turned when they heard Harry cry out. Time seemed to slow as they watched the thin boy's body slide down the wall to sit slumped awkwardly on the floor, his head lolling on his shoulders. Ron began to run to his fallen friend and Hermione's gaze latched on to the perpetrator.
Lucius Malfoy had shoved Harry aside after seeing his son surreptitiously hex Avery, who was running towards Hermione's back after she had felled the other Deatheater. But it wasn't only that, after hexing Avery his son had turned around and stunned Jugson while the latter was dueling with Neville Longbottom. He began to stalk his son's back, his wand raising to point at the heart.
"Malfoy!" Hermione's scream rent the air. The tall blonde boy turned to her, his face a carefully constructed mask of indifference. "Get down! Move!" The look he gave her asked 'Are you insane' and he turned back to what he was doing. Hermione ran. She ran as if her life depended on it, in desperation, knowing that she had to save him.
"Ava-" Lucius started the curse that would end his son's life. Hermione hurtled head first into Draco sending both of them sprawling on the stone floor, Hermione letting out a small cry as her hip connected solidly with the ground. MacNair fell behind them with a surprised look on his face. Lucius Malfoy advanced on them, his face covered in thunder clouds.
"What did you think-" Draco sat up looking at Hermione incredulously breaking off when he noticed her frantically searching for a wand. She grabbed the first one she saw. "Hey that's mine!" Malfoy made to grab it from her as she turned and shouted.
"Stupefy!" Lucius fell, his head hitting the ground with a sickening crack.
Malfoy snatched his wand back from her. "What in God's name do you think you are doing?" he angrily turned her to face him.
"You're angry!" Hermione was indignant.
"Yes, I'm angry, Granger! You tackle me and then you use my wand to stun my father! Why wouldn't be angry?"
"I just saved your life you arrogant misogynist prick!" Tears sparkled in her eyes drawn from her outrage at his lack of gratitude for helping him.
"Misogynist?" Malfoy's mouth fell open in gaping astonishment.
"Yes! Misogynist and arrogant and stubborn and angry and violent!"
"Violent? Me? As I recall you're the one that smacked me third year and just tackled me!"
"Because YOUR Father was trying to KILL YOU, you bloody stupid GIT!"
Malfoy closed his eyes for a moment. "What?"
"Your. Father. Was. Trying. To. Kill. You." Hermione spoke each word slowly with a space between each one.
"I'm not a bloody moron, you don't need to say it that way." Malfoy pouted for a second and then, "Why?"
Her honeyed brown eyes blinked. "Why what? I don't know why your father was trying to kill you; you'd have to ask him for that answer." She was still rigid from barely suppressed anger.
"No why did you... What possessed you to... Me?" The power of speech left him creating that helpless query.
Hermione looked down at her hands. "I... I don't know. Maybe for the same reason you knocked me down and hexed Goyle."
"That's not possible." Malfoy spit the words out, looked away, and pinched the bridge of his nose, a gesture that Hermione had made many times herself when she had a headache.
"Why not? Why did you?" Malfoy slammed his hand down on the ground with a loud smack making her jump.
"I'm NOT explaining it to YOU! You wouldn't understand!" He stood up, brushing himself off. He turned to say something else, but the nasty words died in his throat as he looked down on her. She was staring at the floor as if it were fascinating, her tiny hands were fisted in the white and pink fabric that clung to her curves so closely, she looked small and fragile and he felt sorry for his venomous words.
He held out his hand to her and she gazed up at him curiously before placing her tiny hand in his bigger one. Her eyes widened slightly in surprise at the jolt of energy that shot through her from his mere touch. He pulled her to her feet and they stood only inches from each other staring into the other's eyes. Malfoy stepped back first only breaking the eye contact to bend down and pick up her wand. He curled her fingers about it and then turned and walked away leaving Hermione more confused than ever.
She watched his black cloak sway with his graceful gate before a scream next to her catapulted her back into the war. She had forgotten that people were fighting and dying all around her. She blushed slightly as she realized that Malfoy had made the rest of the word melt away during their argument, and that it seemed if they were the only people standing there as they gazed into each other's eyes. 'If Harry saw me now' she thought with a small smirk. "Oh God, Harry!" she gasped and whirled around. She ran to Harry's side. He still hadn't woken up.
"I don't know what's wrong with him 'Mione." Ron's voice was panicked as he knelt with Harry's head in his lap.
"He's still breathing and his pulse is strong," Hermione muttered to herself her hands running over Harry's face and neck. "He's got a nice bump on his head though, he'll probably be out for a while. Ron, can you carry him?"
"Of course I can." Ron started to pick Harry up but stopped and turned to the brunette suspiciously. "Why?"
"He's going to be unconscious for a while Ron, he can't stay here he'll be a stationary target and that will get him killed. We have to take him and go."
"You go with him! I'll stay and fight!" The red head hissed angrily.
"I can't carry him you great oaf!" the retort came back effortlessly and quickly, verbal arguments with Ron were never hard and never lasted long.
"Oh..." the light bulb went on in Ron's head and Hermione shook hers in exasperation.
Ron needed both of his hands to hold Harry and maneuver him out the door so Hermione stuck close to them all of her senses searching for any sign of attack. The boys edged out the door awkwardly but when she went to slip out the door and follow them she froze.
The room had gone quiet, too quiet. Her heart plummeted to her toes as she slowly turned. The meaning of Deadly Silence suddenly hit her. Dumbledore had fallen; everyone was staring with disbelieving eyes, even Voldemort.
There were more student casualties than Deatheater because the Deatheaters killed without a second thought or a backward glance. They delighted in causing pain. The students, mere children, could not bring themselves to extinguish a life.
Those children, smart enough to not be murders, were also smart enough to take advantage of the Dark Lord and his follower's astonishment and slip away.
Hermione couldn't move or breathe, her knees were threatening to collapse.
McGonagall was the first adult to move. "Albus!" she cried as she streaked across the hall towards the fallen body of the headmaster. Hermione slid slowly to the floor, unnoticed except by two pairs of grey eyes that saw all of her movements, as her favorite teacher's body joined her beloved headmaster's after being hit by a flash of sickening green light
High cold laughter filled the room as Voldemort's victory finally penetrated his thick skull. "Severus," he crowed beckoning to the dark haired and eyed teacher that was standing off to the side with clenched teeth. Quickly he made his face indifferent and made his way to his master.
"Look, Severus, look well. Dumbledore is dead at last! Do you know what this means?"
"No, master," Snape looked mildly interested.
"It means that I don't need you anymore, Severus."
"Why not, my master?"
"You are a spy," Snape's demeanor didn't change, he stayed stoic. "You were useful letting me know what Dumbledore was up to and for teaching the future generation of my followers. Dumbledore is dead, the school is dead your usefulness is done. Can you deny it Snape?"
"I won't."
"Going Gryffindor on us, Snape, with those word games?" one of the Deatheaters leered at him.
"No. If you would just open your eyes you'd see that Slytherins and Gryffindors are not that different. Both are noble and brave. Slytherins just work in secret while Gryffindors act in the open but both do. It's people like you, Voldemort sorry Tom, that give Slytherins bad names. The students say that there isn't a wizard in Slytherin that hasn't gone bad because the only well known Slytherins are the pure evil ones like you!"
The Deatheaters hissed at Severus's softly spoken declaration.
"Better to use force to get power and be known than be righteous and dead. It is better to be feared than loved."
"Only according to people that have never been loved!"
The Dark Lord seethed in anger. "I think it is time to say good-bye, Snape."
"I have no regrets and will meet my maker with my soul clear."
Voldemort sneered, "Give them my regards in Hades. Avada Kedava."
Snape's thin body fell, the look on his face not surprised or fearful; it was probably the closest look to peaceful that could cross the Potion Professor's face.
Hermione was hauled into the air, her arms trapped at her sides by strong arms. Her mouth was covered by a large hand so she couldn't scream.
"My Lord," Lucius Malfoy's voice filtered into her ears from behind her.
"Ahh, the little mudblood that is the brains behind Harry Potter. Good work catching her, Lucius." Voldemort turned to her with a small smile. "Shall we see how good little Potter does without her?" He raised his wand, placing it right under her chin. "Or should we have a little fun with her first?"
Dread filled her body as Voldemort surveyed all of her, from the top of her untamed hair to her pink painted toe nails.
"NO!" Neville came running back into the hall with a few other boys. They let loose a barage of curses that sent the Deatheaters scrambling. Lucius Malfoy dropped her with a grunt, she hit the ground hard twisting her ankle trying to land on her feet. She cried out softly as she tried to stand, to escape.
The younger platinum haired wizard came hurtling at her. "Come on!" he whispered urgently to her, wrapping his arm about her waist and pulling her up against him. Immediately she wound her arms about his neck as he continued to run from the school. The smell of smoke reached her nostrils as they ran through the doors and down the steps.
"What's going on?" she asked him when he finally stopped in the Forbidden Forest. "Why do I smell smoke?"
"Voldemort set fire to Dumbledore and Hogwarts," his voice was tight as he turned so that they both could see the light from the flames that were engulfing the castle. He let her legs go and they slid down, she didn't let go of his neck because her feet didn't reach the ground and her ankle was throbbing. "You can let go now." he commented dryly.
She let go and fell to the ground, her ankle giving out beneath her, with a small gasp.
"Why didn't you tell me that you were hurt?" he demanded, fire in his eyes as he picked her back up again.
"I didn't know that I couldn't stand on my own." her voice was colored with embarrassment as she hugged his neck again. She peered up into his eyes, darkened by shadows. "Why are you doing this?"
He looked away, hearing voices in the woods and not wanting to look at her. "Don't ask me that, please."
Her honeyed brown eyes surveyed his profile; his high forehead, deeply set eyes, sweeping brows, and aristocratic nose made him look quite mature and she was jolted by the realization. She turned to look in the opposite direction hearing Ron calling her name, one of her arms sliding down and her hand resting against his stomach. Vaguely she heard people calling for Malfoy too.
"I'm going to leave you here, Weasley should be able to find you soon." his voice was devoid of any feeling.
"You're going back to them?" His silence gave her the answer. She turned him to look at her. "You can't go! Your father tried to kill you! Someone was bound to see you saving me! If you go back they'll torture you as a traitor!"
"If I don't go they'll know I am." he lowered his forehead to rest against hers.
"You... You are?" her hand unconsciously fisted in his cloak at his shoulder.
"I never wanted this life. The Dark Arts fascinated me but I never wanted to kill people or hurt them, it was more that I was hungry for the knowledge. My father made me take a place in the Dark Lord's circle, I don't want to be there. I know I'm not the nicest person but I never went out of my way to deliberately hurt anyone."
"Yes you have." Goose bumps rose on her arms as he shot her a questioning look. "Second year when you called me a Mudblood you meant to hurt me."
"Yes, yes I did mean to hurt you then but only because you hurt me."
Hermione was struck dumb at his words. Malfoy let out a cold laugh.
"They might let me off, I they know that I..." he mused to the wind.
"That you... what?"
"Has anyone ever told you that you're nosy?" He grinned at her, the first true grin she had ever seen him make.
"Me?" she squeaked indignantly causing him to chuckle.
"Promise me not to do something so stupid again."
"Stupid?" her voice was shrill.
"Yes hanging around when your precious Potter and your little Weasel aren't there can get you killed. Voldemort knows that you're more of a threat to him than Weasel."
"How is that?"
"You're the brains behind them, Granger. Don't leave yourself open like that again."
"I won't if you don't go back to them."
"I have to go back."
"But they already suspect you!"
"And I said that I could get out of it!"
"What if you can't?"
"Then I'll die knowing that I saved you." there was something in his voice that caused her heart to pang.
"I don't want that!"
Malfoy blinked a few times, "What are you saying?"
"I... I don't know. I don't want anyone to die for me, especially not you. You're different somehow..."
"So you don't think that I'm evil?" his voice was dry.
"I never thought you were evil, every time Harry and Ron suspected you I doubted it."
His eyes regarded her suspiciously. "Why not?"
"I don't know!" Hermione all but wailed in his ear. "I just couldn't believe it of you ever!"
Shale grey eyes narrowed in amusement and darkened from something else as Malfoy the younger watched the brunette witch work herself up over something so inconsequential but that had meant the world to him.
He grabbed her arm and pulled her flush against him. She barely had time to gasp and register what he had done before his mouth swooped down to plunder hers.
She'd never felt anything like it before. Emotions and pleasure flooded her. It felt like she had been struck by lightning there was so much energy coursing through her at the mere meeting of their lips. She had heard it said that people described this feeling as if they were flying or that they had seen fireworks with their eyes closed. She now knew that they had spoken the truth.
He hadn't meant to kiss her and it scared him. He felt the world shift beneath his feet and knew that he had changed his existence forever. It confused him how he had planned to shake some sense into her and ended up trying to incorporate her into himself.
He pulled away and Hermione felt a sharp, surprising, sense of loss and cold as he moved away.
She puffed up like an indignant hen. "What did you think yo-?" he cut her off with a finger pressed softly to her lips.
"Again." his voice was husky as he lifted her up in his arms to ravish her once again.
Her hands found their way into his hair and she found it surprisingly thick and soft. She gave into his plunder with a soft sigh, disarmed by his lack of the urgency that had been there the last time. The first kiss had been all flash and fire and had taken her by surprise; she had been burned by it. The second kiss was slow and sweet and she felt herself melting into him, again caught off guard but this time it was by his uncharacteristic tenderness as he held her and the way he kissed her as if they had a hundred years to stay that way.
Little did she know that Malfoy was as staggered as she. He was taken aback when she had returned his kiss with a mix of seductress and innocence. What confused him more was the sudden thought that they belonged that way forever.
He slowly let her body slide down his and took two steps away after depositing her safely on the ground. Her honeyed eyes were clouded and her lips were pink and full, bruised by his kisses. He felt a flash of pride that he was the one that had brought that dazed and dreamy look to her face.
He traced her lips with his thumb, a strange feeling rising up in him as she leaned toward it. He pulled her full lower lip down as he ran his thumb down towards her chin. "I guess I'll have to come back." he smirked at the blank look on her face and disappeared into the forest, the shadows engulfing him.
I.was waiting all my life to know you
(all about you)
And now..I'm staring in your eyes in shea flour
(all about you)
And in our minds, it comes so easily
But theres a feeling comin over me
I want to show you,
But theres nowhere we can really be free
Everybody's watchin'
Wouldn't it be good if we could be together
~Fin~
AN: I'm going to be killed for that ending huh? I may be persuaded to write a sequel though. *hint, hint* I just have to decide if people like this enough to bother posting it and if I'll start it after Voldemort has been defeated or not. The song at the end is Take Me Away by Fefe Dobson, and no it is not a song fic I only realized later that the song fit the story. I got the idea for this from a drawing on the Contra Veritas website by Dominique it is the gallery page picture, I absolutely fell in love with it.