Hello everyone out in the Fan Fiction universe. This is my first fanfic. I saved my Fan Fiction virginity for a story between Mr Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger, the splendid couple that i like to pretend actually ended up together in the books. I hope i have posted everything correctly, and that you enjoy the story. I'm writing this story mainly for myself, but, i hope that everyone will enjoy it as much as i do. I have an outline for this story so i hope to upload a chapter each week. I checked by grammer twice and am sorry for any mistakes.

Disclaimer: Oh how rich i would be if i owned the characters that J.K Rowling owns, but, Alas, i do not. However, I do own the story line, of which i am very proud.

Summary: Hermione has been a slow downward spiral since the end of the war, and has developed an obsession with solving the mystery of death. For more than a few reasons. After saving each other's lives, Draco Malfoy, Newly appointed ministry official, takes it upon himself to watch over the frail Mudblood. However, when Hermione takes her obsession to new heights and is put on house arrest, it is malfoy that decides he must rehabilitate her, in the only way the dominating Slytherin knows how. Sparks will fly as Hermione works towards her goal and Malfoy tries to drag her back from her own personal hell. Dark, sad, and romantic. Some love scenes to come but nothing to graphic for this website. If you want all the lemony goodness, as i know most of you do, head over to my other account on and search for this tile.

Chapter One

It was the same thing every day.

Day in, day out.

Hermione would wake up and go to work, and she would stay there until the day was gone. Every day, exactly the same.

Not that she minded it. In fact, one could say that she was obsessed with her job.

After the war, she had developed an interest in the unknown aspects of wizardry and had applied for a position in the department of mysteries. This is where she would head every day; Down those dark corridors in the deepest parts of the ministry of magic. Here, in her office, she would spend her day; eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner while wasting away the hours between her office and labs.

She was the only ministry official working in these specific labs. It was lonely sometimes, but there was always Harry and Ron who would come and talk with her sometimes.

These were her days, working, completely obsessed with her objective.

Day in, day out.

The war had changed her. When she wasn't bending her mind with the mysteries of the wizarding world, she was out doing the craziest things she could think of. She was a frequent skydiver and bungee-jumper. Her fear of heights just made her jumps all the better.

Her sleepless nights were spent racing highways on her Ducati. She hardly slept.

Dreams of death haunted her whenever she did.

Work was all she had. Her time with harry and Ron, the only thing keeping her remotely sane.

"What did you do to your arm, mione," Harry would whisper, his voice filled with concern.

"I fell, rock-climbing. It's nothing serious."

"You need to be more careful, mione," Ron would say, "Why do you do this to yourself?"

That was the question, wasn't it? Why does she do it? Why work so hard? Why the nightmares and the death wish adrenaline stunts?

"I do it to stay sane, Ron. To feel alive."

"But, why?"

Why? They would always ask why, everyday.

"It's just a scratch Ron. No big deal."

"We're worried about you, mione," and she would almost feel Harry putting a hand on her shoulder.

It would tear her apart everyday when they would come and visit her in her work, in her obsession. Others she could deal with, but they always got to her.

"You know we will always be here for you, we would never leave you, "Ron would whisper an inch from her ear.

"But, you did, "she would whisper back.

That was the answer to the question. Why did she do it? Because they had left. They had left here alone.

"We couldn't let you follow us, Hermione," Harry would reaffirm almost every day. "We could save you, and we did. Don't throw that away by trying to kill yourself."

"I'm not trying to kill myself," she would shout.

"Then what are you doing," Ron would ask. So calm. They were always so calm.

"I'm trying to bring you back."

"We can't come back, mione."

"Yes, you can, and I'll be the one to do it."

And it was here that their conversations would always end as Hermione let the resurrection stone fall out of her hand.

The lab would fall quiet once more and she would return to her work.

Day in, day out.

Slowly driving herself insane.

Five years Previous

They were in the middle of the greatest battle of their age. Hogwarts was a warzone; the place of the final battle between good and evil. The ground, littered with bodies from both sides. Harry stood in the middle of the Great Hall facing Voldemort. The sparks flying from their wands at speeds almost too fast to see .A very terrifying dance to watch. The Horcruxes were gone, Harry had died and come back, and the final deciding moments were pressing close. And while people fought around her, Hermione was working on the final step of the plan her, Harry, and Ron had worked on.

"As soon as I attack Voldemort, Hermione, try and get as many people out as possible. I'm sure if I start to win, He'll attempt a last ditch effort to kill everyone with him."

So there she was, dodging curses and dragging people out of the castle. She managed to get most of their fallen out and even some of theirs as well.

Narcissa Malfoy was one such person. She had a deep gash in her side and kept screaming for Draco. It was obvious she was never there to fight, but to look for her son amidst the battle. Hermione went to leave her in the grass, but she grabbed her sleeve. Tears staining her face she begged Hermione to find Draco and save him.

Unable to deny her, she promised to find him and dove once more into the pit of death and flying curses.

Hermione found Draco fighting in the back corner with an unknown death eater.

"I'm on your side you twit!" Draco kept yelling, but the death eater wasn't listening. He was attacking blindly, drunk on bloodlust, and he was gaining the upper hand.

Draco was knocked down by a curse the split open his leg and almost received the death curse, if not for Hermione who jumped in at that exact moment.

Draco was attempting to stop the bleeding on his leg, unsuccessfully. Hermione dropped down at his side and reached to help, but Draco pulled away.

"Don't touch me, mud blood," he snarled, and then had to duck as they both dogged an ill aimed curse.

"I wouldn't except I promised your mother I would get you out."

"You know where my mother is?" His voice changed immediately, concern filling his eyes as he let her help him to his feet.

"Yes, I apparated her out of the castle, now, let's go ferret, I'm not going to stay here and die with you of all people."

Hermione was about to apparate when a large, ear shattering bang rang through the hall and everyone stopped and turned towards Harry and Voldemort. Ron had moved behind Voldemort, and held him without magic, preventing him from moving as Harry aimed and held a curse at Voldemort's Chest. However, the curse was reacting strangely with the Dark Lord, as if he was absorbing the energy and building it up.

At once, Hermione realized that this was what Harry had been talking about. Voldemort's last attempt to kill Harry. She also realized what Harry and Ron were doing. They were going to sacrifice themselves to kill him. To hold him in place till the curse finishes its deadly mission.

Harry yelled for everyone to run and people began to apparate away until only draco, who couldn't walk and couldn't leave Hermione, because after all she knew where his mother was ( and the small fact that she had saved his life), and Hermione were left to witness the sad seen before them.

Hermione knew her friends; they had been planning this without her. Well, like hell they were going to do this alone, and she started to head towards her best friends. She would go with them. It was only right.

"Hermione, get out of here!" Harry yelled.

"No, I'm staying."

Voldemort's screams of pain grew and a metaphysically wind whipped around to Great Hall. The magic was building to a crescendo and would soon be too much for any of them to control.

Knowing it was pointless yelling sense at Hermione, Harry looked past her to Draco.

"Malfoy, if get her out of here."

Draco stared stunned at the person he had hated for so long.

"Malfoy, if you have ever done any good in this world, please, get Hermione out of here."

Snapping out of his daze, he didn't even think as he obeyed the final wish of The-Boy-Who-Lived. He grabbed Hermione by the waist as she yelled to be let go.

"No, let me go! Harry! Ron! No! I love…" but, it was too late, she was out of the castle in the forest just in time to turn and see the Great Hall explode in a grand, green outburst.

Hermione just stared at the place her friends had once been. Where only moments ago they had stood, fighting and living and where now they ceased to be.

The shock slowly gave way to denial, which gave way to outright screaming. She screamed at the top of the lungs and fell to her knees. She lost all reason and time.

She kept yelling for what seemed like hours, until her voice was gone and her knuckles were bleeding from striking the ground.

Reason slowly came back to her and she realized for the first time that someone was rubbing slow circles on her back. She turned her tear streaked face to see Draco sitting with her. His eyes were staring emptily at the burning castle. After while, he realized Hermione was no longer making any noise and turned to see her watching his actions which he immediately stopped. He backed away from her and uttered a quick thank you before he apparated away.

Hermione sat in a daze, staring at the castle; the place where she, Ron, and Harry had lived for years together. The place the all had called home. Their home was now just and empty burning shell. Almost like herself.

This brought fresh hurt to her heart and she grabbed the ground and tore at the dirt and grass, just wanting to destroy something. However, she grabbed something that was not quite a rock and was smooth to the touch. She held it up to the light and recognized what it was from the shape.

The resurrection stone.

This must have been where Harry threw it before facing Voldemort for the first time. She held it and turned it over in her hands observing its color. It was beautiful and had a strange way of making her forget her hurt. Then a voice broke through the trance of the stone and froze her in place.

"Hermione, please don't cry."

She turned, and there stood Harry and Ron, whole and alive, and yet not alive at the same time.

And that was how her Hell began.