Chapter One

Bolt From the Blue

Hermione Granger entered the dark room with no small amount of caution. She of all people, of course, would know that the grim halls she strode bore nothing but pain and fear. Her thoughts briefly paused on a face. A face she had not seen in, Merlin, had it really been two years? Brilliant blue eyes had caught the attention of her wayward thoughts, their frosty gaze beckoning her for a second glance. She waved away the blonde with an irritated inward huff.

She supposed it was all too right she should have thought of him then. After all, he was once a part of the family who called the foreboding manor a home. Hermione shook her thoughts clear of Draco Malfoy. It irked her that he chose now to haunt her. Only because her filthy blood was trekking its way through his ancestral home. And though she had never cared for the boy, or the cowardly man he had grown to be, his loss still nagged at her. Tickling the back of her mind when things slowed down, when she wasn't urgently keeping herself busy.

Because that was all she was doing these past few months. Keeping busy to the point of exhaustion. She had always been the thoughtful one, the smart one, the brain teeming with ideas. But lately, there had been too many ideas. Too many thoughts. Too many memories. Which, in truth, she guessed that was precisely why she found herself creeping room to room in Malfoy Manor.

The estate had fallen into immediate disrepair following the final battle. With no occupants to tend to its magical upkeep, the once glorious mansion had suffered. Hermione felt no sense of tragedy over the admittedly beautiful building. It reminded her of unbearable agony, but at least that narrowed her mind down. Less thoughts that way.

The manor had been vacant, not a living thing having crossed its threshold in nearly a year. The Ministry for Magic had seized the Malfoy's holdings upon Lucius Malfoy's life sentence to Azkaban, including the manor. Narcissa Malfoy had fled shortly after Voldemort had taken up residence with her family, rumored to have escaped to France with distant relatives. And as for their son? Well, Hermione preferred not to think about it.

Hermione, like the three other witches and wizards warily exploring the house, was searching. Unlike the other witches and wizards, she was not an Auror. She was supposed to be, technically, in order to be on such an assignment. But she had been asked to accompany them at the behest of her long time best friend, Harry Potter.

The task was the recovery of all magical artifacts within the manor. When she had initially questioned the Boy-Who-Lived about its sudden importance, he had given her a look she had accepted readily. For two years the house had lain dormant, not even a whisper of magic.

And then, like a bolt from the blue, a brief but fierce burst of magic had triggered alarms set on the manor. Since that event, just two days before, a barely detectable pulse of magic radiated throughout the building. Harry knew Hermione wouldn't turn the mystery down.

And it was no secret that Hermione Granger had become incredibly familiar with strange occurrences of magic. In the year following the battle, the Gryffindor had stayed with Bill and Fleur Weasley in France, happily absorbing the knowledge of the quiet but talented curse breaker. She had no interest in pursuing a career in the field, but the ever inquisitive bookworm that lingered in her was easily intrigued. Especially when it kept her mind busy.

Hermione's thoughts blessedly stopped altogether when she felt a faint but consistent buzz in her front left pocket. Lowering her wand to grab the small crystal orb from her jeans, she let out an excited gasp at the brilliant blue that flashed with each buzz.

There was magic in the room.

It wasn't anything special. Perhaps it had once been a guest room for the lesser guest. Small but inviting. Or as inviting as medieval wizardry décor could be. A heavy layer of grime coated what once was a lavishly decorated room. A small, sturdy four poster bed resided in the back left corner, emerald curtains broken and ripped, half hanging, half dragging the floor. There had once been a wall of mirrors on the opposite side of the room, but the glass was now strewn about the floor, mixed with the leaves that had drifted in through the blown out windows.

Glass crunched ominously under her boot clad feet as she made her way further into the room. The crystal in her hand pulsed stronger, the blue growing more luminescent with each step. She raised her wand and whispered a "Lumos."

She didn't know why she felt the need to whisper. For such a smart witch, surely she knew there was no one to disturb. But perhaps that was exactly why she had lowered her voice. For though it looked like the room had blown apart, it still somehow seemed too undisturbed. Too still.

Hermione approached a rather plain looking chest with ragged breaths. She couldn't fathom why her rational mind was letting her body behave in such an undignified way. She was alone. It was only a chest. No danger. No need for fear.

But her fingers had closed around the small crystal ball, its flashing light suddenly too blinding to bear uncovered. The blue light leaked through her fingers almost urgently, seemingly dyeing her pale digits a glowing azure. She frowned at it distrustfully at first, but then, upon closing her eyes, she realized something startling.

She could feel it.

She could feel the magic. The orb fell to the floor with a dull clatter. Suddenly, her heart dropped to her stomach. It was faint. And thank Merlin for that. Because the agony and sadness that seemed to radiate from the magic was bone chilling enough. Too strong and it very well might have swallowed her whole. She could feel it like a hand grasping for help, desperate fingers just out of reach.

Allowing her rational brain to let her body react in such an undignified way, Hermione's puffing breaths fell to a halt as she whispered another spell. And with her sickening suspicion burning a hole through her chest, the seemingly plain trunk revealed its contents with a complicated whirring of locks and gears. She let out the breath she had been holding as its lid fell back with a harsh thud. Bracing herself, Hermione peered over, déjà vu welcoming her like a long lost friend.

For what met Hermione's fearful gaze was a flash of brilliant blue.

Hermione Granger, the girl who had survived alongside the Chosen One on all of his ill planned schemes, survived the torture of the mad Bellatrix Lestrange, escaped Gringotts on the back of a dragon, was at a loss. She had never been so utterly frozen in her life. Her head, always teeming with too many thoughts, too many memories, too many words, was, for a blissful moment, completely and entirely white canvas blank.

But still not quite as blank as the eyes staring up at her from the dark abyss of the trunk in the corner of the room.

"Impossible," she found herself whispering into the stillness.

The eyes stared up at her, searching but not seeing. Then, a faint, broken, "Please…"

The pitiful whimper finally spurred the shell shocked girl into action. "Merlin!" Then, deciding wizarding words weren't enough for her to express herself, Hermione looked to the blue eyes, raised her wand and cried, "Jesus bloody Christ."

Finally having heard the commotion Hermione was making, the Aurors she had accompanied burst into the room.

Aurors Hale, Rose, and Scott entered in time to witness Hermione's top half submerged in a plain trunk across the room. As they ran to her, they heard her say, "Don't worry, I'll get you out. I promise."

Auror Andy Hale gently pulled the younger witch away from the chest, only to gasp at who her words were directed at. "That's not…"

"It can't be," Auror Lucy Scott breathed in disbelief.

Dylan Rose, Hermione's personal favorite Auror to work with for his like-minded approach to such situations, simply nodded in grim acceptance and set to work.

Not five minutes later, five long, bony fingers weakly grasped those of Hermione Granger. Then, another set of five grabbed her other hand. And without warning, Hermione suddenly found herself supporting the barely existent weight of the body they belonged to.

Hermione was vaguely aware of Auror Scott calling in immediate medical assistance. She didn't see Auror Rose or Hale scouring the room and trunk for any lingering curses.

No. All she could focus on was the man in her arms. Or rather, the skeleton with alabaster skin. Alabaster skin and blue eyes like the sky on a summer's day. Eyes that had been haunting her just moments before.

Eyes she had seen the life snuffed out of before her very own two years before at the unimaginably cruel hands of Voldemort.

Yes, Hermione Granger, and the rest of those who had lived to survive the final battle, had seen it. The brutal murder of Draco Malfoy was not something the wizarding world was likely to soon forget. She certainly had not. She still woke up in fits and starts about it some nights. Unlike her peers, she had recognized the parallels between Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy. Both boys pushed into an ugly fate they did not want, choices made for them, unable to resist. And for his life to have ended the way it did…

And though she was loathe to bring those memories to mind at will when she so often exhausted herself battling to keep them at bay, she felt she had to. To be sure. Because she had to be sure. She had seen it. His murder. She couldn't unsee it. It had plagued her memories for years. And it was that unwavering certainty that she had to cling to. Because otherwise her view of the world no longer made sense.

Because her rational mind was telling her that Draco Malfoy was killed by Voldemort's hands two years before.

But her body was screaming at her that her arms were wrapped around none other than Draco Lucius Malfoy.

A/N: New story! Woohoo! There's only one chapter left of the Truth Down Under, and I've been working on this in the meantime. I'm excited for this story. I just wanted to get this out here before I finished TDU so you'd know I wasn't going to disappear once it's over. So, this chapter is the shortest by far, but don't worry, the rest are about the same length as TDU. This first chapter is sort of a prolouge/first chapter. Anyway, I've got about six chapters written so far, so I'm going to try to keep the updates for this one a little less sporadic.

Let me know what you guys think, you know I love to hear from you all =)