TURN BACK TIME

Draco Malfoy decided he could not continue the life he was living now, and grabbed the first opportunity to turn back time, to turn his dreams involving a certain Muggleborn into a reality. He ventured into the past to save Hermione Granger and change his future once and for all.

CHAPTER I

Draco Malfoy was 28. In fact, he just turned 28 last month. Twenty eight, and unhappily married.

Oh yes, Draco Malfoy was married. It had taken bloody some time before his parents had been able to finally drag him into a marriage, but he was now married nevertheless, and to a perfect pureblood wife at that, a perfect pureblood wife any pureblood parents could ever want for their son: beautiful, obedient, rich, and from an old pureblood family.

Hell, many of his male friends, acquaintances and business colleagues even envied him. He knew, he could see it from their eyes, how they couldn't take those eyes off his wife every time she graced them with her presence.

In short, he was deemed the luckiest wizard alive: pureblood, extremely rich, utterly powerful, not to mention handsome, young, intelligent and … with a perfect pureblood wife at his side.

But, as much as he had been trying to dismiss it, even to kill it, he couldn't help but occasionally feeling that emptiness, that deep void and hollowness in his heart. In fact he often forgot he actually had a heart unless the sometimes overwhelming emptiness reminded him it was there, so overwhelming he felt like crying his heart out, just to get it off his chest, just to ease the hollowness.

But he was a Malfoy, so he couldn't possibly cry, could he? Even if it were with in the confinement of his private study or bedroom, which he refused to share with his wife of three years. Besides, he had cried a lot in the first few years after that tragedy, after life had cruelly taken away the only light in his life. He had refused , at that time, to be reminded that he w as a Malfoy. He had cried and cried until his tears were dried up, until he could no longer shed any, afterward he decided to continue living on as an empty she ll.

But, every once in a while the overwhelming emptiness still attacked him like waves. At those times he would usually climb up his broom and soar, as high and as far as he could, against the wind, through the clouds, toward the Moon and the stars, leaving the Earth, leaving the only life he knew, the one he did not wish to live.

Sometimes he felt sorry for his wife. She had barely done anything that deserved his cold treatment and hatred. Her only fault was that she took the position that he had secretly reserved only for her, for the light of his life; that his wife had agreed on their parents' proposal for an arranged marriage between them.

Draco was in one of his weakest moments when he agreed on that marriage, after rejecting so many prospective wives his parents had arranged for him earlier. And now he couldn't help but regretting it because if anything, his wife only reminded him of what he could have had, of another person he could have been married to, who could have been at his side instead of her.

And even after three years of their marriage and his parents' continuous nagging, he could not fancy himself being a father, thus his casting and not yet lifting off the semi-permanent anti-pregnancy charm on his wife because, well, he still sometimes, though quite rarely, came to her when he couldn't help the 'urges' or was in a very drunken state.

Problem was he couldn't help but keep wondering what if. What if it had been her that had been his wife, that had been the would-be mother of his beautiful unborn children. Hell, he could even see how their children would have looked like. Some would have had his platinum blond hair, some would have had her curly brown one, and some would have had their combined traits. Some would have had his grey eyes, some would have had her honey-colored ones. Whichever, undoubtedly their children would have been beautiful and intelligent, and brave and daring like their mother, a person he regretfully hadn 't been. They would also have been caring and honest, and had thirst for knowledge, just like her. And he knew he would have loved them, and adored them, and protected them, as he had always been loving and adoring their mother, and would have protected and cherished her with all his heart and everything he had, including his life, if she only had still been alive.

Oh yes, if Hermione Granger had still been alive, he would have given her all of those. In fact, he would have traded every single thing in his possession right now if they could only bring her back t o life, give him an opportunity to win her heart and have her and show her how much she meant for him; for all those things in his possession simply felt meaningless without her there.

Yes, Hermione Granger was dead. She died during the Final Battle 10 years ago. In his dreams he saved her. In his dreams she survived and was safe and sound in his arms. And he had been dreaming of those even until recent years. But, it was only in his dreams. In real life she had slipped off of his arms. In real life she had died before his very eyes. Oh, what he would have done to turn back time and change all of those. What he would have done …


Note: For readers of "Matchmaking My Brother", I swear I'm not abandoning the story. It's just my mood swifts from light to gloomy every once in a while, so I need this rather gloomy story as somewhat a release. I promise, though, it will be happy ending (never like sad ones). Hope you enjoy i t. And, it'll be very nice of you if you let me know what you think of this story, so please review...? :)

By the way, if you happen to stumble upon the same story with this on another site (I'm not sure if it's ethical to mention the name here, so I wouldn't), it's ... well, it's mine, although I use different penname there, "Algae". I haven't really checked if they've published the story, though; they don't seem to be quite as diligent sending me notifications through e-mail like this site, and last time I checked the publication was pending.

Anyway, I must say that this story is somewhat inspired by my favorite HP fanfiction "All I Want", written by my favorite author blue movies (pity she seems to be no longer active now), although majorly of course it is inspired by the brilliant JK Rowling! -all the characters are hers anyway.

Oh, well, anyway, hoping to know your opinion on this story. Thanks for reading, for start :)