I do not own anything Harry Potter related. The lovely J.K. Rowling does. I've just borrowed them to release some of my thoughts. Enjoy!
It has been three years. Three years since Voldemort fell at the hands of Harry Potter, and three years since Hermione had set foot outside of the U.S. During the war, Hermione had been the perfect Gryffindor princess. She fought valiantly next to her friends, rarely showing fear, and they had come out on top. As soon as it all ended, it was as if her exterior crumbled and she had to gotten away from everything. Her parents had been killed by Death Eaters leading up to the final battle and she was left alone. The award give to herself, Ron, and Harry had been enough to allow her to never have to work again, but there was no way that was possible.
Hermione had demons that haunted her three years later, with no sign of letting up. She had nightmares every night. It seemed like every time she closed her eyes all she would see was Bellatrix over her carving that vile word in her arm, Nagini coming at her right before Neville had sliced the snake in two, or the sight of Fred, Lupin, Tonks, and so many others laying on the ground where they would never rise again. She couldn't shake those visions and because of it she had ran away from it all.
She had moved to New York and trained to be a healer at one of the wizarding hospitals there. She enjoyed what she did and it allowed her to work long hours to avoid thinking too much.
All of that was about to end. Her best friends, Ron, Harry, and Ginny, had convinced her to take the summer off and come back to England, to spend with them at Harry's and Ginny's summer rental house on the beach. A group of friends would be gathering to catch up and then celebrate Ginny and Harry getting married at the end of August. She could already feel her anxiety level going up as she gathered her suitcase in her hand, closed her eyes, and apparated out of her New York City loft.
Hermione opened her eyes as the world came back into focus. She was standing in the living room of the house and she could hear the sound of voices and the surf hitting the beach from the distance. Sitting her suitcase down she looked around the room. The walls were a seashell white and had some hand painted pictures hanging around. There was a fireplace against one wall and a sitting area with two couches and two chairs with a coffee table in the center of the room.
"Anyone else want a drink?" a male voice startled her out of her thoughts.
She froze in her spot as the world turned into slow motion. She felt her blood run cold as her eyes zeroed in on the person responsible for the voice she had hoped to never hear again. Silver blond hair fell over piercing blue eyes as the person who made appearances in her nightmares came to a halt a few feet away.
"Oh. We didn't hear you arrive." Draco Malfoy's voice was so nonchalant Hermione felt as if she were dreaming.
Before she could even think twice she found herself pressed against the wall behind her with her wand pointing dead at him. Her eyes skimmed over him. He looked almost exactly like she remembered, except a little more lean and muscular. His hands came up in surrender and he took a step back.
"Whoa! It's ok, Granger."
"Draco, we're getting thirsty out here." Harry jogged into the room and came to a skidding halt as he took in the scene in front of him. "Hermione, what are you doing?"
"What… wh… what is he doing here?" Hermione couldn't stop her voice from shaking.
"Hermione, put the wand down for me, okay?" Harry cautiously walked towards her.
Hermione felt her heart beating so hard she felt like she was going to throw up. Harry walked towards her until he was standing directly in front of her wand. Instantly she lowered it down to her side, but didn't let up on the grip she had on it.
"Uh, maybe I should go back outside," Draco said softly.
"No, stay." Harry gestured for Draco to stay still. "Hermione, Draco's good. We're friends. He is not going to hurt you."
Hermione felt like he punched her in the stomach.
"Not going to hurt me?" She ripped her sleeve up and thrust her arm with the scar of the word mudblood in his face. Draco leaned trying to see what it was. "What do you call this? He was there if I recall correctly, which I'm certain I do seems it replays in my head every single day!"
"Hermione, calm down. He's not the same person and you know it. He helped us."
"I'm not staying here. You guys have a blast, but I'm going back to New York." Hermione pushed forward to grab her suitcase, but Harry stopped her.
"Just wait! Look at me!" Hermione pushed her chin up and scowled at him. "I didn't even think how his presence would bother you, but you have to realize that you are one of my best friends… but so is he."
"What!" She shrieked.
"Ever since he helped us after the war and we were able to round up more death eaters than we would have ever done otherwise, we've grown close. Draco is now one of my closest friends. I want you both here. Please… just try." She could see him pleading with her and she felt her resolve crumble a bit.
"I love you Harry Potter, but right now I absolutely hate you." Hermione pushed past him, grabbed her bag, and ran up the stairs with a worried Ginny close behind.
An hour later, Ginny finally excused herself from the room that she had helped Hermione get settled in, leaving the young woman alone. Hermione stripped off her clothes and took a long shower before slipping on a pair of shorts and a tank top and sliding under the covers of her bed. It was only eight, but she'd rather be alone up here tan with him down there. She grabbed a book out of her bag and settled back to read for a few hours, setting her sleep drought on the table so she wouldn't forget to take it. The last thing she needed was to wake up the entire house with her nightmares.
One chapter later the book lay dangling from her hand and her head hanging to the side as sleep took her.
Draco had talked with Harry once Hermione had gone upstairs with Ginny. Harry explained how he had failed to inform Hermione about his presence, which caused Draco to insist on leaving. Harry talked him out of it and assured him that Hermione would come around once she got use to the idea.
"I just feel like it's always something. My past is never going to rest. Just when I get the people around me to stop caring about what I use to be like, another person pops up and reminds me all over again."
"Hermione kind of… broke after the war, Draco. She was so strong for so long that I think her mind just couldn't handle it. She still has nightmares about… your family's manor."
"Oh god. You mean the night you three were brought in?"
Harry nodded without saying anything.
"I'm assuming she has a scar from my aunt Bella?"
Harry nodded again. Draco let his head fall forward as he shook it.
"You can still read the word there on her arm. She's tried everything, but nothing gets rid of it."
"Merlin, what am I going to do?" Draco searched Harry's face for help.
"You be you. You won all of us over. You know Ginny adores you and that girl is impossible. Hermione was just overwhelmed. She'll come around."
Draco could only hope as the extinguished the fire and headed up to bed. Tomorrow would only tell.
Tears dripped from Hermione's eyes as she stared at her arm lying across the ground. Little droplets of blood dripped from the fresh wound on her arm.
"Well Draco, we should probably call the Dark Lord here. He is going to be so proud of us."
Hermione's eyes came up to meet the silver blue of his eyes. They looked pained and his bottom lip quivered. Bellatrix's face cut in front of him and held them blade up as an evil smile spread across her face. She slowly walked towards Hermione and kneeled down in front of her, placing the blade to her arm, jerking it across her skin. Hermione let out a blood curdling scream.
Draco had read for a while in bed before finally jumping in the shower. He had just slipped on a pair of black pajama pants and was pulling back the blanket back to climb in when a scream that sent goosebumps down his entire body had him frozen. It took him a moment to recover before another one ripped through the house. He tore out his bedroom at the same time that Harry, Ginny, Neville, and Ron did the same from their respective rooms. Ron pushed past Draco as he was looking around and watched them throw open the door to the room Hermione was staying in.
It dawned on him what was happening as he slowly made his way over to the door and stopped behind Neville and Ginny. Ginny had her hand over her mouth as they watched Harry and Ron go to either side of Hermione's thrashing body trying to hold her down to avoid injury. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but he could hear them murmuring things in her ear. Finally her body jerked and he saw her eyes open. She took in Harry and Ron before collapsing back on the bed in sobs. Ron scooped her up and cradled her to his chest while Harry gently rubbed her leg.
Ginny turned and motioned for and motioned with her head for the others to follow her. They made their way down the hall and stopped outside of Draco's room.
"It's been a while since I've heard that." Draco wasn't sure Ginny was actually speaking to them or just thinking out loud.
"Every night?" he asked.
"No," Ginny shook her head, "she takes a sleep drought to avoid them. She must have fallen asleep before taking it."
"I don't know what to do… or say. How does one make friends with someone who remembers that every time they look at them."
Ginny reached out and took his hand in hers.
"Draco, it's not you. You are a part of the memories, but mostly she remembers Bellatrix. I've had many discussions about this with her."
"Doesn't make it any easier, but thanks Gin."
"Head on back to bed. It's going to be a while before they get her completely calmed down. One of them will end up staying with her, if not both."
They all nodded and headed back to bed. Draco crawled into his bed and threw his arm over his eyes. What am I going to do? he thought before drifting off to sleep.
Author notes: So I have this idea in my head on how this is going to work out, but I want to know what you all think. Do you want to hear more?