Disclaimer: I own only the plot.
He could see her, hanging onto Ron Weasley's arm. Pretending that he wasn't there. Saying that she had a few months when she wasn't herself, that she hadn't known what had come over her.
Like she had ever since she found himself and Pansy Parkinson in a compromising position. He had tried to explain it wasn't his fault and that he had been set up, but she had ignored him. The last thing that she had said to him was "I hate you, Draco Malfoy!" before running from the room.
Hermione Granger was the source of all his problems lately.
He sighed, slumping.
His heart was not really into anything anymore. He had been happy before, when he was with her himself, last year, in their fourth year. Fifth year was so very different.
Pansy Parkinson tugged on his arm, fluttering her fake eyelashes so hard he wondered why they didn't come off.
He allowed himself to be dragged out of the Great Hall, but watched Hermione on the way out.
Her eyes glanced up at him. For a split-second, silvery-gray and chocolate brown connected.
He could see something in them. Was it sorrow? Hurt?
Her eyes were in his mind all day long.
*~*~*
In sixth year the Costume Ball came, and he went alone. As the Phantom of the Opera, as he figured was well appropriate. Dark and without love.
And he could see her dancing with him. Matching costumes, of course. The former far outshined the latter in Greek era style clothing.
For the entire dance he stood in the shadows. With a mask on, Pansy had no idea where or who he was, and with his dark cloak he merged with the dark well.
He simply watched her.
He couldn't stand it. Watching Hermione with him. He should have been in his place, dancing with her.
It was getting late. He went to go get drinks, but Hermione stayed out on the dance floor, laughing with her friends.
What he would give to make her laugh like that, make her smile.
The last slow song of the night came on. Acting on a daring yet compulsive impulse, he walks into the light for the first time that night, onto the dance floor.
He took her in his arms, and simply holds her. She fits there as if she had been molded to fit his arms exactly.
- My fall will be for you -
My fall will be for you
My love will be in you
If you be the one to cut me
I`ll bleed forever
After the dance he melted back into the shadows, leaving a stunned bushy-haired girl on the dance floor.
*~*~*
At their graduation he sees her receive her diploma. He watches her give her speech as valedictorian, and be congratulated by her family and friends. There is no one there to congratulate him. No one to hug him and ruffle his hair affectionately.
He fixes her forever in his mind- there is no telling when they will meet again, if he will ever catch a glimpse of her again.
*~*~*
He marries another, but only out of duty. He fathers a child with the wife he barely knows, for what the woman he truly wants, the one he pictures, has bushy brown hair and blue eyes.
He is distant from everyone and everything. His family learns to live with it. They are used to him being silent, wandering around the house, staying at home. He is used to being alone.
Every day he goes over a different memory in his mind, until every curl, every detail is complete. Until he can remember the sound of her laugh and the brightness of her smile.
It is really the only thing keeping him going, keeping him alive.
*~*~*
The day comes when his son goes off to school. The son his wife raised alone, the son untouched by a father's influence, the son who looks exactly like him. The son whose name he barely remembers.
They are all surprised when he appears to come to see him off on the train. However, they say nothing. They know the slightest thing will make him retreat back into the shell of a man he has become.
On the way to the station, he says nothing.
He silently helps him load her luggage onto the train, but is unfocused. He is looking for her, but no one notices.
His wife believes it to be a miracle he is even out of the house at all.
His son is stunned; he doesn't know this man at all. He doesn't know why he is suddenly behaving like this.
Backing off of the train, he sees her. She is standing with him. With her are two bushy haired children; the girl seems to be saying a tearful goodbye.
He knows he is staring, but he knows he can't and won't stop. In his mind, she hasn't changed at all.
The redheaded man straightens up after hugging his little daughter who looks as much like her mother as his son does himself.
He sees the empty man staring at his wife, and mutters something in her ear. She looks up from hugging her daughter, turning away as if to leave.
Chocolate and silver collide once more.
His wife tugs on his arm, he does not respond.
He only memorizes the woman he loves, no longer bushy haired and awkward, now a beautiful woman.
She tugs again, more forcefully. He tears his gaze away to smile absentmindedly at his wife.
His wife is taken-aback, he has not smiled since the first time he saw their son.
She smiles encouragingly back at him.
The train begins to move and his head jerks up.
He walks along the train, watching his son. He does not notice the "Chosen One" mimicking his movements.
The train is about to disappear. He whispers, knowing the wind will carry his message, "I love you, Scorpious Malfoy."
A certain gray eyed boy sitting alone on a train hears a whisper of his father's voice.
The door opens and a shy looking bushy haired girl asks if she can sit with him, for all the other compartments are full.
He jumps up at her arrival and invites her to sit down. After the first moments of timid silence, they are talking as only old friends can talk, and he thinks that she is the most beautiful thing he has ever seen.
There is a certain familiarity between them.
Back at the platform, gray and brown lock gazes for the last time.
Still holding her gaze, he pulls out a gun, though a muggle tool it is useful to him in this moment.
She cries out in realization of what he is about to do, but it is too late.
He pulls the trigger, and in the last seconds of his life, sees her and falls onto the tracks.
- My fall will be for you -
My fall will be for you
My love will be in you
You were the one to cut me
So I`ll bleed forever
She is the first to reach the tracks, and cries over him, cries over the blood he shed for her.
She cries because she loved him without fail and was only too proud.
They give her space, all leaving the station, her husband kissing her goodbye, expecting her return later.
She shakily pulls out her wand and points it at the train rails.
A message is carved into the metal as memorial.
She stifles a final sob for him, and then points her wand at herself and is with him at last.
It reads, Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy: Lived for hidden love and died for true love.