A/N: Okay, this is just a little project of mine. It has a bit of a different story line than most other fanfics, but I've grown quite attached to this premises. Just review and tell me if you like it or not, cause I'm debating on whether really going full steam with this story or not. Your feedback will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Chapter One: Remembrance

Draco sat in his study, rubbing his forehead in frustration and pure fatigue. He hadn't slept well lately. Hell, he hadn't slept well in five years, and he didn't know how much longer he could last being like this. Already all of his finely tailored robes were hanging off of his drastically decreased body and he just hadn't had the energy or drive to buy new ones. He didn't sleep and he didn't eat and he was slowly wasting away- just like all of his hopes and dreams. In fact, the only thing, or things, that kept him going were…

"Daddy!" Draco's thoughts were interrupted by a bundle of soft golden hair and green silk that rampaged through his study, narrowly missing crashing into a crystal vase. Draco's tired face broke out into a warm smile as he caught his tiny daughter in his arms. He looked down at her smiling golden eyes and bright smile and felt a common sensation of love and misery.

"Active this morning aren't we, Danica?" Draco asked, one eyebrow raised and a slight smile touching his lips.

"What are we going to do today, daddy?" Danica asked, her large eyes shining in excitement.

"Well, you go wake your brother up and then we'll decide" Draco said, getting up and putting his little daughter down. She ran out if the room and Draco felt an empty tugging at his heart. Danica and Daniel, his little eight year old twins, were his two beacons of light. He loved the two and tried to be good father to them- but it wasn't as easy as it looked. He was a novelist and many times tended to ignore everything around him for long periods of time. He had hired a whole army of live in nannies, cooks, caretakers and anybody else he thought his children would need- but he knew that no matter how many people he hired, they couldn't take the place of parents. He had just finished his newest novel that morning and was planning on spending the day with his children, like proper fathers should.

But as hard as it was for Draco to be a good dad, it was even harder for him to be a good husband. He tried the hardest he could to maintain his composure, but the more he saw his wife the sadder and more regretful he felt. But she had been his angel and he knew he would never, ever let her go no matter what happened.

Slowly, cautiously, with the gait of a man who had suffered many hardships, Draco walked down the long hallway from his study to his wife's room. He had just bought this grand house in southern Italy. His last novel had done exceptionally well and he decided that the family needed a change of scenery. Their old London manor was too stuffy and filled with too many memories. And besides, Draco decided the warm Italian weather would do all of them quite well.

His bare feet moved lightly along the slightly cool marble as he made his way through the hallway, not paying attention to the sunny and bright weather that was peaking through the wall length windows that graced the artful hallway. He doubted that any amount of sun could warm the ice around him. He made his way to his wife's room just as a familiar redheaded man came out of it. Draco looked into the face of one of his childhood enemies and smiled sadly.

'How's she doing?" Draco asked. Dr. Ronal Weasley looked up at the gray shadow that the great Draco Malfoy had become and put on a matching sad smile.

'Just the same as the day before, and the day before that" Ron said. "By her expression I'd say she's happily sleeping" he added, just for the sake of Draco's sanity.

Draco nodded serenely and made his way past Ron to the door.

"Draco, stop acting like this. If you deprive yourself of sleep and food from any longer then you'll waste away to nothing. You have the twins to think of, they look up to you" Ron said, putting a hand on Draco's shoulder. "And I'm saying this not only as a doctor, but as a friend. I can't stand to see you do this to yourself." He added, his brown eyes sad.

'Don't worry about me, Ron. I'll be fine. Say hi to everybody for me" Draco said as he slipped into the room. Ron just shook his head and walked away, his retreating figure becoming smaller and smaller.

Draco entered the room and closed his eyes. When he opened them he saw that the room was dark. Ron had forgotten to draw the curtains.

"Look at how forgetful our little doctor can be. I pay him a fortune and he can't even remember to open your curtains" Draco said to his wife as he went over and opened them himself, letting light fill in the large, beautifully decorated room.

"I guess he doesn't know how much you love the sunlight, does he love?" Draco continued as he made his way to his wife's bed. "I remember how much you used to love taking trips outdoors just so that you could be in the sunlight. You used to drag us out camping all the time and then make me get up early with you to watch the sun rise. I never told you this before- but I always thought that the sunrise was magical" Draco said as he took his usual seat next to the bed. He tuned around the slight woman that was in it and ran a hand through the soft brown hair that fell across her pale, thin, but incredibly beautiful face.

'You've lost weight, love. Haven't you been eating well?" Draco asked her, lines of worry appearing across his forehead. It looked like Draco wasn't the only one with problems.

It had been five years now since his beloved had been in a coma, a coma caused by an injury she had sustained while saving him and their children, and the guilt still riddled him to this day. He had loved her, and she had loved him. She had given up her physical and mental actions so that he could live and now he wanted to give her life as well, or at least the best of lives she could have in her condition. He slowly got up from his chair and moved to the door next to her bed. He slowly opened it, revealing a small but cramped room. This was the place where he had stowed away everything that would remind him of her. In fact, the only things in the rest of the house that gave away the fact that he even had a wife was a large family picture that hung over the fireplace in the common room and the wedding band that Draco so lovingly wore. He stepped inside the room, the remembrance room as he called it, and shut the door behind him. He slowly eased himself into a fancy plush chair, her chair, and looked about him. Hanging on the walls were pictures of her, hundreds, each in a fancy frame of its own. There was the wedding picture, and the picture of her beaming while holding her newborn twins. Her beautiful face with her golden brown eyes and soft brown hair surrounded him and he closed his eyes, willing the tears not to spill out. But he didn't have to worry; the tears had already spilled long ago.

He reached into his robe pockets and pulled out a small golden locket hanging off a thin golden chain. He opened it and saw the familiar pictures inside. On one side it was a tiny picture of him and on the other a tiny picture of the twins at two years old. It had been her locket. 'This way I can keep my three most cherished people with me always' she had told him. Now seeing this locket made Draco even more miserable. He would never hear her talk again, never see her smile, never see her angry, or never have her try to make him smile again. Ron and all the other doctors had told him that there was slim chance that she would ever get out of her coma, but Draco refused to let her go- always holding on to the small hope that she would get up and everything would be right again.

"Draco, why do you look so sad?"

Draco stiffened as he felt a presence besides him. He opened his eyes and found his wife looking at him, her golden brown eyes sparkling the way they always had. He closed his eyes again. He had been seeing visions of her more often lately. It had happened ever since she had gone into a coma, but now if was happening with more frequency. He had gone to a doctor to take care of it, but even his medications didn't help him very much. All the doctors had told him the same thing- he longed to see his wife so badly that his mind was making him see her.

Draco opened his eyes and saw that she was still standing in front of him. He knew that she wasn't real; his real wife was lying in a coma in the bed next door, but she looked so real, and so alive that he let himself succumb to her once more.

"Hermione, love, you've come back to me" Draco said, his voice barely a whisper. The vision Hermione laughed slightly.

"Have I been gone?" she asked, her eyebrows raised. Draco shook his head morosely as the vision looked around the room.

'Really Draco, by looking around here I'd say you were a bit obsessed with me" she said, smiling her usual, heartwarming smile.

"I am" he said, without a moment's hesitation. Hermione just shook her head and touched his cheek, and Draco could swear that he actually felt her soft, featherlike touch.

"You look ill" she said, her voice laced with worry.

"Then come back and take care of me" Draco said softly, reaching to touch her hand, but all he felt was cold air. Hermione shook her head.

"I am here Draco, you know that" she said, but Draco just shook his head.

"We all need you, love. The children, me- come back" he said, his voice barely a whisper. Hermione smiled, but he could see her start to disappear.

"Don't leave me, love, don't leave me again!" Draco cried in a pained voice as the vision of his beloved wife started to disappear.

"I won't, my love" she said before she was completely gone. Draco clutched the air in front of him, looking like a little boy who was reaching to hold his favorite teddy bear. He needed her there; he needed her to root him, to make him sane again. He closed his eyes and sat by himself in complete miserable solitude for long moments before he got up and walked out of the room into Hermione's room again. He looked down at his wife, peaceful on her lush bed.

"I finished my book today. I dedicated it to you" he said achingly before he turned and walked out of the room. He couldn't stand to be in there for another second. He had thought losing his parents would hurt more than having his wife slip into a coma, but he was horribly wrong. Losing Hermione had been like losing himself. Even though she was technically still alive, it felt as though he would never see her again, and that hurt more than anything else.

Composing himself, Draco walked towards the kitchen to eat with his children when Andre, his perfectly dressed, perfectly proper butler stepped in front if him.

"Master Malfoy, you have a guest waiting for you. Someone by the name of Ginny Weasley" Andre said.

A/N: Okay, so what do you think? Please review and tell me.