Disclaimer: Plot line is mine, but Harry Potter and everything to do with that is all JK's.
AN: Hi! Just a quick note, I wrote this ages ago so it may not be brilliant. Just felt in the mood to put it up. Review and let me know what you think, please :)
Draco Malfoy had been proven not guilty of murdering fourteen year old muggle, Ashley Harding. The reason why everyone was gathered in the courthouse, he had already been put to death by the 'Avada Kedavra'.
Hermione Granger was only twenty-five and already a widow. She had married Draco two years after the War had finished, they were happy. They had bonded after Dumbledore rescued him that day in the Tower. After Draco's death she has fallen apart. She had been a wreck. She had refused to eat, she wouldn't sleep full nights. She was a ghost of the girl everyone used to know.
Today, however, she had woken up and attempted to pull herself together as best she could. She sat in front of the mirror and brushed her long chestnut hair and simply left it to hang loose around her face, so that if need be she could use it to hide her face. Her wild curls were limp and the colour had dulled She pulled on a black Armani skirt suit, the one Draco had bought her, and four inch black high heels. The only makeup she wore was a coral red lipstick because it was the colour that Draco loved the most. She checked her reflection in the mirror, frowned slightly, and left for court. Here she was an hour later being questioned about her husband. She wanted to roll her eyes at the pathetic Ministry protocol.
She wasn't on trial; there was only one lawyer, Mr. Stevenson. He looked at her in the eyes and softly asked his first question "Mrs Malfoy, I want you to know that you only have to answer as many questions are you can. We know it's going to be hard but I need you to tell us: what was the last thing your husband said to you?" She bit back a groan; this had nothing to do with her late husband's innocence. Nosey buggers.
Instead of answering straight away, Hermione raised her eyes to the ceiling and silently prayed to Merlin to give her strength. She took a deep breath and said "He told me we should care and love those who commit bad crimes because it's due to lack of love and attention that these crimes were committed. He said to never give up on him and that he swore his innocence once more"
Mr. Stevenson continued to look at her, "Mrs Malfoy is there anything else you can tell us? If you feel in some way that something was wrong? Everything is useful." She laughed once internally, it was such a silly question. She knew what he had meant; it was just protocol to ask. They needed to know if they had been as humane as possible.
Hermione just looked at him and smiled softly "Something wrong other than my husband being given the death penalty?" Ashamed, Mr. Stevenson looked away, but Hermione's voice wasn't angry, it was more gentle and caring. She sounded as though all the anger had been used up, all the pain had been buried deep inside, all the life in her slowly disappearing.
She was lost in her own world, thinking of the only man she ever really loved "I remember his last moments, and I'll tell you now if you'll listen. We were in the room, watching over the execution room. I was still hoping someone would burst into the room shouting, "Stop! This man is innocent. DON'T KILL HIM!" But all I could do was hope. From the minute he woke up that morning, two years ago, he was already a dead man walking."
Hermione took a deep breath, she could almost picture Draco standing in front of her. For those few precious moments, it was only the two of them, "I started feeling faint and hot, so I closed my eyes wishing that this was all just a bad, bad dream and that when I woke up we'd would be okay and in a picnic where there are smiles and laughter. I opened my eyes and I saw two guards lead him through into the execution cell, He looked scared." Her voice broke as she remembered the excruciating pain on his face, Draco was never scared, Malfoys don't do fear, he used to tell her.
She continued "I wanted to hug him and cry into his shoulder and tell him it was all okay. I wanted to hold his hand. He had chains on his feet. He turned to look out of the glass window; at the other people who were there they were ready to watch him die. I saw him scan the crowd but stop and he locked his eyes on mine. He ran his eyes all over my face like they were taking in every last bit of me. I was doing the same to him."
Mr Stevenson made to move closer to her, to comfort her, but she leaned away from him but turned to looking him in the eye, "I pushed my way through so I was up against the window. I spread my hand out against the glass and mouthed I love you to him. I could feel the hatred radiation out of the majority of the citizens who came to witness his death; they hate him for something someone else did! How is that fair to hate the wrong person? Tears were filling his eyes, but being Draco, he refused to let them fall. You see, all Draco wanted was peace. We'd seen enough death, violence and hatred in our childhood that seeing it happen all again broke his heart"
Taking in another deep breath to steady herself, she continued. "I was dragged back into my seat, it felt like they were physically tearing him away from me, and tearing my heart out as they did so. Without warning the guards pulled him away from me, and shoved him brutally into the wall. I screamed in horror at the way they were treating him; there was no point, it's not like they could hear me anyway. They strapped him down so tight he flinched when they fastened a leather strap around his chest, legs and arms. He had dignity; he wouldn't have tried to escape. He was so, so brave."
The people in the audience began to shift in their seats, the new what part was coming up and they were in fear of the Golden Girl's calmness. She had quickly become famous for her quick, fiery temper. So they would wait with baited breath until it came, in hopes that there could be at least some part of her they could recognise.
"Whilst everyone around him prepared for his execution, he turned his head sideways and gazed at me, for the last time. His eyes smiled falsely at me, just like they did whenever he was trying to hide his pain. His mouth gave him away, he wasn't smiling. I love to see his smile, it's so beautiful. He knew what was coming, I did too. I looked away, breaking the eye contact. First I looked down at the floor, then to the ceiling, anywhere but at him. It was too hard for me to cope with. Seeing the one man I will ever love being murdered before my eyes. I felt him watching me so I forced myself to take one last look at the man I love before he was gone."
Silence took over the courtroom as Hermione paused. She was reliving the memory in her mind, and everyone else was taking in all her pain. No one knew exactly how much she was hurting, no; they could only ever imagine how that would hurt.
"A robed man stepped into the room, and Draco clenched his fists. It would only be seconds now. I cried struggling to break free from the protective hold Harry and Ron had on me. I cried out for him, I didn't want anyone to touch me or look at what was happening to him. I only wanted him. That's when it happened. That infamous green light filled the room. His gaze became glassy like he was looking but seeing nothing. I saw his fist relax."
Hermione stood up, she couldn't sit for anymore, the pain ripped the wounds open again but she refused to let the court see just how broken she was, "I fell to the floor. It like I was in another place and this wasn't my reality it was just a horrible nightmare. I got up and walked out of the room, I continued walking until I was out of the prison entirely. I cried. The tears fell silently but painfully. Then they came even harder and more painfully, I collapsed even before I got to the car, and the tears heaved themselves out of my chest. I threw up with disgust of everything, of myself, of the world but even more of the people who have the guts to execute people like that." Her eyes darted towards the people in the audience.
She recognized several faces of those whom she'd seen the day Draco was executed. She looked down at her hands for she knew that looking at anyone right now would make her cry and she needed to be strong "I'm Hermione Granger, I fought beside Harry in the war. I have seen so many deaths and so much pain, but no matter what crime they're guilty of, that was just sick. Watching that was horrible, and the day that Draco was murdered I died too. Not in the physical sense but in my wedding vows I promised that I'd love him forever until the day I die. My heart will belong to him as long as it beats. A part of me died, because Draco made me who I am. I can't be me without him."
A painful silence drew on the courtroom. No one dared to move. No one dared to speak. Hermione closed her eyes and reached for her handbag. Then, slowly and carefully she stood up. She opened her eyes and found her mother in the audience. "I'm done here. I want to be alone now." Her voice echoed through the silence. Still no one said a word. She walked out the doors and didn't look back. No one made to stop her, no one breathed a word, and they were too stunned to do anything.
She carried on walking down the road, through an alley when she stopped and apparated down onto the beach. It was a secluded area; even more it was Draco and Hermione's area. In all the time she'd been with Draco, it was only ever their beach. It's where all their memories focused around. She stood still for a few seconds, simply remembering him. There, by those rocks, he had told her he loved her. Over there, by that sandy corner, he had proposed. Yet, over there by the small tree, he had comforted her when she had lost their baby.
She took off her shoes and she could feel the hot sand beneath her feet. She breathed out all the anger she had and dropped her purse and walked once more towards the sea. The cold water should have shocked her into realising it was getting deeper, but the pain had filled her mind and she could think of nothing but the pain. A wave hit her with such a force that she was knocked off her feet, yet she stayed strong and continued to wade out. Without thinking she started to swim, further and further out to sea. Then she remembered. She remembered all the fear and the hurt. She remembered his last minutes. Their whole life together flashed before her eyes. They times they had shared, and the life that they didn't manage to have because it was stolen from them. She gasped with pain in the memory. She stopped swimming. Not wanting to fight anymore. The waves dragged her under, crashing on top of her. She screamed but no noise came out. Water was filling her lungs, burning her throat. Her vision was blurring, she knew this was the end. "Draco…" She whispered.
Then everything went black.