Well, here's something to pass the time by while I try to combat that annoying little thing people like to call writer's block. Anyways, this is a small piece. Probably only two chapters, maybe three. I didn't want to it be a one-shot. So as always, please read and review!
Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. They are all owned by J. K. Rowling but I do own those characters that you do not recognize.
Draco Malfoy was sitting stretched out on a chair, doing something that resembled tanning. His eyes were half closed and a small smirk was settled upon his face. The sun shone upon him brillinatly, causing his skin to look even whiter than it normally was.
His chair was on a blacony that overlooked a magnificent forest that seemed to stretch for miles. There was only green everywhere. Not another building or person could be seen anywhere. There was no noise except for the occassional chirping of birds and the wind, frolicking through the leaves of the trees.
The war was over finally. He had done many things he was ashamned of. He admitted that but the worst thing for him was when he had turned himself into the Order. That had been the most humiliating thing he had ever done in his life. At least no one had been laughing at him. Potter and Weasley had almost killed him and had to be put under stunning spells to be subdued. No, no one laughed when he showed up.
He fought valiently along with the rest of the order. His prejudices had slowly slipped away as well. All the beliefs that he had grown up around were still there in him but not to the extreme that they had been when he was younger.
After the war though, everything was different. He was a hero to the people but it wasn't what he wanted. He wanted a life of quiet and solitude where he could do what he wanted, when he wanted without anyone there to bother him.
Draco sighed and looked at the sky. This place that he was in was heaven. No one would be able to find him. The forest had been enchanted when he had arrived so it had been a perfect place to live in. No one could apparate in and no one could apparate out.
He was jolted out of his thoughts by the opening of a door. He turned to see a sweaty Hermione Granger walking towards him. His eyes roamed up her legs as he saw that she was wearing rather short shorts. He could tell that she had been jogging. There was nothing else to do around here so while he spent all day doing nothing, she jogged and took nature hikes. His eyes narrowed as he saw that she had something in her hand.
"Back from your jog so soon? It's only bee what? A day?"
She looked at him and plopped down on the ground next to his chair. "Well, I have a reason."
Draco turned so that he faced her and asked, "What would that be?"
Hermione stared out at the forest and began, "Yesterday evening, I set out in the course of the falls, you know the ones with the tree frogs all around. And I was about to turn back when I noticed that something was not quite right."
"Ever the observant one," he muttered dryly.
"Shut up." She brushed her hair out of her face and said, "The falls don't have any wards on them."
"What?" he asked in alarm. "I thought this whole place was warded. We both checked at least five times when we came."
She shrugged nochalantly and said, "Well, you know what they say about this forest."
Draco muttered something under his breath and closed his eyes. "Continue."
"Well, don't get terribly annoyed at me." She gazed out at the sea of green trees in front of them and said, "That's not what I wanted to tell you anyways."
Draco watched her and murmured quietly, "You went back, didn't you?" When she nodded and looked down, he slowly took her hand. "You made a choice, Granger," he said quietly. "You made the choice to come and live with me out here when I asked you. We both made the choice to live in complete solitude away from the rest of the world."
"At least I still care for the outside world," she hissed pulling away from him. She turned away and said, "How many people do you think lost everything when we left? We were the last two great heros of the war and we just...disappeared."
"I don't know? Let me think..." Draco pretended to think very hard and replied, "For me, zero, you, about five."
"What exactly are you insinuating?"
"Oh come off it. With Potter and Weasley dead, who else do you really have?" He looked up at her slightly miffled that her back was to him.
She sighed and replied, "No one but you I suppose."
"Exactly."
Hermione turned around and looked down at him. She could help but let her eyes wander over his taut upper body. She was still human no matter how godly and heroic the other people of the world thought of her. She was only a girl.
"I got something from out there." When he didn't respond to her, she scowled and slapped it down on his stomach, grinning when it made a bright red mark.
"Bloody hell! What was that?"
"That would be the latest issue of the Daily Prophet."
He picked up the newspaper from his now red stomach and said, "What do I want this for?"
"Read the cover story."
Draco rolled his eyes at her and looked at the front page. His eyes widened slightly and after a few seconds, he started roaring with laughter. He really couldn't help it.
"It's funny isn't it?" asked Hermione quietly.
Draco wiped the few tears that had leaked out of his eyes and nodded. "Yeah. Where do they get pictures like these?"
On the front cover of the Daily Prophet was a picture of two people who looked like Hermione and Draco, but really were not, holding hands and goggling at each other. The article said someting about the two of them running off together to elope but committing suicide when they realized that no one would accept their epic love. The article even had an eye witness who saw the two of them kill themselves. Unfortunately, this eye witness was unable to tell the authorities where the bodies were. The last part of the article was a two page thank you letter to the two of them for contributing so much to the war. It ended with "May your spirits rest in piece".
Hermione looked at him with an unreadable expression and asked, "Are you going to read the whole paper?"
"No, why? Are you going to read it?" he asked rudely. When he saw her looking at him with a rather serious expression on her face, he became slightly alarmed. "What's wrong now?"
Her brown eyes met his silver ones for an instant but she drew them away and said, "It's just, stories like the one on the front cover..."
He looked at her slightly concerned. "Don't worry about it Granger. It's not true. Besides, it's not as though you have a reputation to worry about. We're dead."
"That's just it!" She swivelled around to face him. "We're dead. We can never leave this forest!" She began twisting a strand of her hair around her finger and said, "We can't bring anyone in either. It's just you and me for the rest of our lives and people like us tend to live longer than normal."
"I'll pretend that your remark didn't hurt me in any sort of way."'
She dropped to her knees and looked at him with a melancholy expression. "It's not that. I mean, I don't mind being out here with only you for company. Really, I don't. In fact I like it."
"But?"
She glanced at the newspaper and said in a voice so quiet that he almost couldn't hear her, "I want a chance to be in love like that...I mean not that I want to commit suicide or anything but..."
Draco looked at her with a mixed expression on his face. That was not what he had been expecting to hear. He thought she would tell him that she was homesick. She didn't really have a home to go to but she might have wanted to stay in the wizarding world and continue to be the hero that she was not. He looked up at her only to see that she was staring right at him.
"You think I'm crazy, don't you?" She laughed and shook her head. "Then what again, what do you know about love? People have been falling at your feet your whole life. You've never had to work to get the person you wanted."
"That's not true!" he responded. When she looked at him with an expression of disbelief, he looked at her guiltily. "Well, it might be but what could I do about it?"
She looked at him with a pitiful expression on her face and said, "Nothing, you know what? Just forget I ever mentioned it."
As she turned to go, he called, "Don't go. You obviously have some issues that you need to sort out. Merlin forbid that it turns into some sort of underlying hate towards me causing you to murder me in my sleep."
Hermione's eyes grew wide with surprise. She marched up to him and gave him a half hearted sneer. "Are you lecturing me on having issues? I think you're the one with issues. Here you are laying in the sun at what...ten in the morning tanning in the middle of a forest. You say that I have issues?"
Draco cracked a slight smile as he saw that she was almost shaking. "I'm on a permanent vacation. I can do whatever I want."
She ran a hand through her hair and murmured, "Well, what happens when there's nothing else to do? Where do we go from there?"
Draco rolled his eyes and sat up on his chair. He grabbed her hand and pulled her down so that she was sitting next to him. He looked her square in the eye and asked, "What do you want to do?"
"I don't know what I want to do..."
"Then why are we having this conversation?"
"Look, Malfoy, what I really want is something that you can't understand." Hermione bit her lip and continued, "My parents were madly in love and they were happy together. I've always dreamed of being like that. And now..."
"You think that I don't understand what it means to love?" mused Draco. He chuckled and put an arm around her. "How about this, Granger. I'll love you."
She pushed his arm off of her and muttered, "Ever the good samaritan."
"No, I'm serious. You want someone to love, I can give that to you. I may not be the best at it and hell, you may not want it from me but I'll give it to you."
"Why would you do that for me?" she asked, her brown eyes quivering ever so slightly.
"Well, for one, you're rather emotional this morning and I've been around you long enough to know never to refuse you anything when you're like this." He paused for a moment to duck the slap that came his way. He laughed and caught her hand and said, "Secondly, I'd give you the world if I could. You gave me my world."
"I did not give you anything, Draco Malfoy."
"Oh but you did. By giving me company and coming out here with me, you gave me everything I ever wanted. I'm free."
Hermione looked at him with an incredulous look on her face. "Do you realize how incredibly cliched that sounded?"
He rolled his eyes at her and said, 'That's besides the point. You want a lover and I-"
"You make it sound so scandalous," she muttered.
Draco stared at her and drew a hand through his hair. "What is your problem? Everything was fine until you just had to go back."
She gave a defeated sigh and and said, "I want a family, Malfoy. I've always wanted one."
"I'm your family now." When he saw that she was staring down at her lap, he laughed heartlessly and took her hand. "How about this, Granger. You and I, we can have a couple of Malfoy-Granger babies. How about fourteen of them? That's more than the Weasleys."
Hermione scowled at him and said, "I don't want fourteen children."
"Eight then. It's still one more than the Weasleys." Draco grey eyes sparkled with mirth. "Then after that, all our children will grow up looking devilously handsome and beautiful. They'll be geniuses as well. Would you like that?"
Hermione cracked a smile and nodded slightly. Draco smirked at her. "You know what's the best part? After we're dead, they'll all still be in here and they'll never know how to get out. Then, they'll begin inbreeding and have their own little children...a new legacy of crazy purebloods. Wouldn't that be nice?"
She shoved him hard as he began howling with laughter. Hermione stood up and placed her hands on her hips. "This isn't funny, Malfoy."
As he continued laughing, he replied, "Silly girl, it's just you and me now. We've only got each other." He leaned back and closing his eyes murmured, "And peace, quiet, and solitude."
"Damn you and your solitude."
"Swearing now are we? I never thought I'd see the day..." He yawned and chanced a glance at her. "Why don't you take a shower or something. You smell awful."
Hermione snorted and stood over him. "Oh, and I suppose you smell perfectly? Sitting here in the sun you might start sweating a lot and let's see who smells after that." She turned away from him and said, "And when you get sunburned don't come crying to me."
"I don't burn!" he hollered to her retreating back. He smirked to himself. "I'm just plain hot."