Summary: Draco had lost all hope that he would ever make it out of the wizarding war alive. But someone is there to reassure him every day that one should never give up hope.
Author's Note: Everything after Harry tumbled out of Hagrid's arms at the Battle of Hogwarts did not happen. Voldemort retreated once he knew he would not be able to win. Some of his death eaters had already run away. But he did regroup some of them. Lucius Malfoy is now his right hand man, now that Bellatrix is dead. Snape is dead (though I do love his character). Fred is NOT dead (I can't stand him being dead, he should not be). Dobby is dead (Though I love Dobby). Tonks and Lupin are dead. All Voldemort's horcruxes have been destroyed and now all Harry Potter has to do is kill him. Other information will slowly be revealed in the story.
disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters. All characters and settings belong to J.K. Rowling. All hail the queen.
Hermione Granger woke up in a cold sweat. Looking down at herself she realized her legs had become entangled within the sheets on the bed. Her left arm was hanging off the edge of the bed. She shut her eyes and continued to catch her breath. It had been two months since the Battle of Hogwarts. Two months since she had felt peace. Two months since Voldemort escaped from them. Two months since Ron had died. That's what killed her the most: the death of one of her best friends. And as much as she tried, she just could not get it out of her mind, or her dreams.
"Ron! RON!" Ron and her had become separated when Harry Potter had tumbled out of Hagrid's arms and run into the school, while shooting spells out of his wand. She tried to keep an eye out for the flaming red hair that should have stood out to her. But she could not spy that hair anywhere. The silence and shock of Harry being alive erupted into chaos as some Death Eaters apparated away and some stayed behind. The side of the Light could not help but rush forward to take advantage of the Dark side's slight hesitation. But in that chaos, one was bound to be separated.
Suddenly, she saw a flash of red hair to her left and realized that he had most likely fallen. She rushed over, bumping into others and running over a few feet.
"Ron! Are you all right?!" Concern showing in her face.
"Yeah, I'm fine! But bloody hell they sure do move fast! I don't even know how we got separated this far! You would think that everyone had seen a bloody hippogriff tap dancing and wanted to get a picture!" Hermione couldn't help but laugh at that. Only Ron could turn a serious issue into a laughable one.
She looked up to see that the crowd that had surged forward from their side was starting to thin out. "Maybe we should go look for Harry. He might need our help." She said to Ron, while pulling him inside to the Great Hall. Before the doors to Hogwarts they turned and saw that while a lot of Death Eaters had apparated away, there still were quite a few staying to fight. Voldemort had not had a chance to escape yet, as there are no fewer than three people trying to take him on. While that was the case, he was still able to quickly and smoothly deflect all spells that were shooting towards him. No sooner had they thought he had no chance at leaving, he shot a spell that caused all that were around him to be blast back a few feet. All of them landed on their backs or sides and he took this time to apparate away. There was no way to know where he had apparated to. As soon as the Death Eaters realized their Dark Lord was gone, they either surrendered, those that had gotten disarmed, or apparated away, those who still had their wands.
As they entered the school, Neville came running out with the Sword of Gryffindor. "Have you guys seen the snake? I need to kill it! Harry told me to kill it!" He had never looked so determined in his life. Hermione was quick to reply, "I'm not sure, Voldemort got away! I was so sure he would stay to fight with Harry." She took a quick look around. "Where is Harry anyway? I thought I saw him come back into the school?" Neville shrugged and ran off, no doubt to find Nagini.
Ron grabbed her hand. "Let's go inside the Great Hall. I'm sure Harry is fine and that he has a plan to off Voldemort." He meant for what he said to be reassuring, but Hermione felt only a little bit reassured. "Okay. But we shouldn't stay long. We should go find him ourselves. Like I said, he might need our help."
Hermione reopened her eyes, having taken a few breaths to steady her heart. She wished that these nightmares would go away. She thought she had gotten over everything that day at Hogwarts. But she still had night terrors. It had been two months! She should have been okay.
She was pulled out of her thoughts when she heard two voices outside, talking fairly loudly outside her door. Though she knew she should stay in bed, her curiosity got the best of her. She untangled her feet from the sheets and had swung her legs slowly over the side of the bed, when there was soft knocking at her door. "Come in!" Well, at least now she didn't have to get out of bed.
The door opened and Harry poked his head into the room. "Hey Hermione. You awake?"
"Yes. I was just about to get up and open the door. I heard voices outside. Is everything all right?" She answered with a question of her own.
"Yes, everything's fine." His response was short. She looked at him questioningly. "Do you mind if I come in? Something's happened and I need to talk it over with you."
Her mind started reeling through possible things that could have happened. She knew that Harry and a group had gone out last night to get more resources. They were stationed at Grimmauld Place and the only place to retrieve these resources they needed was Hogwarts. She couldn't stop the flood of thoughts that overtook her. Did someone die? Was it someone she was close with? What happened? Or worse, had Death Eaters taken over Hogwarts...
"Hermione, don't worry. It's not what you're thinking. I can hear the gears turning in your head right now." He chuckled. "No one from our group was hurt." But she did catch the way he emphasized the word our.
"Was it someone at Hogwarts then? It's not Professor McGonagall is it?"
"No, no. But we did catch someone. He was going through some things from the resource room. I suppose he needed some stuff as well. We snuck up behind him and he didn't notice." Harry paused and he looked a bit uncomfortable. "We drew our wands on him and Neville might have accidentally prematurely sent a stunning spell at him. When we turned him around, we were pretty shocked to see who it was."
Hermione waited for him to continue the story. When he didn't, she looked at him pointedly. "Is that it Harry? What happened next? Who was it?"
"He looked so different from when we were at Hogwarts. We hadn't heard about him in a long time. His clothes were haggard and his shoes were so worn out. His hair was cut, though very choppily. We believe he's been hiding as well." Another pause. "He didn't look good Hermione. I think it's better if I showed you." At this, he dropped his eyes to the floor. "Unfortunately all the rooms are full except yours and we need to get him in a bed. Your room is large enough to put in another bed." He lifted his eyes to hers. "This is important Hermione, I know it. We have to help him. My first thought was to toss him out in the street for whoever to find. But in his state, I just couldn't. It looked like he had been tortured, repeatedly I might add. Hopefully when he gets better we can move him out of this room. We can set up a curtain for both of your privacies. But we need to have him in this room. There's nowhere else."
Hermione was listening carefully. Though she knew the right thing to do, it would be so difficult for her. She didn't like sleeping with others in the same room. She didn't want to wake up screaming only to stare at people who were looking at her with pity. She hated that. She wasn't a fragile doll. She had hunted for horcruxes beside Harry for Godric's sake! And when Ron temporarily left them, she had still stayed by Harry's side. And when they were attacked at Godric's Hollow, she had been able to get them both to safety, though at the expense of Harry's own wand. It was that her dreams were sometimes so overwhelming.
"Is there no other room, Harry?" She asked quietly.
"No. I'm sorry. If there were any other room, I would have brought them there. I'm sorry to ask this of you Hermione. But maybe he knows stuff. You can be the first to question him when he wakes. But he definitely needs a bed."
She reluctantly gave her answer. "Okay Harry. He can come and stay for as long as he needs to heal."
Harry walked over to her an enveloped her in a big hug. "Thank you Hermione. I still had to ask because- well- you know-"
"Yes, I know Harry. Thank you for asking for permission first. I think I would have been upset if you had just sprung this on me." She gave him a little smile. "Why don't you bring him up. I'll conjure up a separate bed for him."
He smiled and left the room. Shortly after she could hear Harry's footsteps descending the stairs, along with another pair of footsteps.
Presently, she sat at the foot of the bed and looked out the window that faced outwards, onto the street. And she sighed. She wished there would be more natural lighting in this room, but it wasn't possible with this one small window, the only window in this room. She liked natural lighting. The headboard of her bed was against the wall of the window. The foot of the bed jutting into the center of the room. The window to the right side of the headboard. From here she could see outside. Hermione decided to conjure up a bed in the same position, headboard at the wall and foot of the bed at the center of the room, a few feet away to her bed's left. The bedding was the same as hers. White. Always white.
Sometimes everyone in Grimmauld Place would get together and have a fun day. They had some wizarding games and muggle board games as well. Just one day to relax. Most people realized that they needed a day to calm down every month. They would play for a whole day and go back to work the next. This would relieve a bit of their stress, but once everyone returned to bed, the anxiety and stress would return. No one wanted to go to sleep covered in brightly colored bedding. It only brought their hopes up of the war ending soon. Only to realize that they actually were not all that close to winning. Luna was the only one in the house to have non white bedding. She had her bedding in a deep blue. Her House colors and also the color that reminded her of the sea. Luna had loved staying at Shell Cottage when Harry and company had helped her escape from Malfoy Manor. It was nice there and so disconnected from everything. One could almost forget the war that was raging in the wizarding world. But they all wanted to come back. They all wanted to fight. To rid both muggle and wizarding world of this crazy, halfblooded, power-hungry wizard. So Luna slept with her blue bedding and no one teased her.
Hermione heard a bump outside. Harry must be back with the person that was supposed to sleep in her room. She really hoped that they would be a heavy sleeper. One who could sleep through the screams.
"Watch his head!" She could tell this was Harry.
"I didn't do it on purpose!" Ginny.
"Well, you weren't very careful either. I know it's not easy getting two people to levitate a body together, but that was just ridiculous. You made him bump his head into the wall."
"Oh whatever. I bet he couldn't feel it anyway." She could sense the Ginny eye roll.
"Still. That wasn't very nice."
She huffed. "Well, he hasn't been very nice."
Curiosity overcame her then. She wondered who it was. It didn't seem to be someone they normally associated with. Someone probably from a House other than Gryffindor that's for sure. And by Ginny's voice, someone they didn't like very much at Hogwarts. At least it couldn't have been anyone in Slytherin. Harry would not help anyone that had been in Slytherin. They had all gone to the Dark side. Except for Blaise Zabini. He was their sole Slytherin acquaintance. He was currently based at Diagon Alley.
Her current thoughts were interrupted when she saw Ginny's back first come through the door, her wand held up to levitate the body into the room. Hermione saw dark shoes that really were very worn in. The rest of the body came through along with Harry and she could not stop the gasp that came out of her.
She looked up at Harry, wide eyed. "W-What? No I want him out. He can't stay here! He can't! Take him out! I take what I said back! I don't think he can stay Harry!" She tried to stay calm, but she was starting to hyperventilate, speeding up her heart rate and breathing. It felt like her body had tensed up and she could not move, even if she tried.
Harry and Ginny quickly put him on the bed that Hermione had conjured and made their way over to her after they were done.
Ginny took Hermione's hands into her own. They were cold and curled into fists. She tried to get them uncurled. After a few seconds, Hermione could feel that Ginny had succeeded and was currently rubbing circles on the tops of her hands. This seemed to calm her down a bit. But her breaths were coming short and her heart rate was still elevated, though slowing down a bit. Harry looked at her from Ginny's side. He knew it would be difficult for her. Ron nor himself had had to watch her being tortured at Malfoy Manor. Sure, they could hear her terrified screams, but seeing it was different. They would have done anything to stop Bellatrix from torturing her.
Hermione knew that when she was being tortured, the ones who had been there to witness wouldn't have done anything to help her. Obviously. But now, there was another person in her room who had witnessed her being tortured that day. She remembered glancing up and seeing him looking down at her. She had seen his expression and could tell he was very pale in the face and looked about to vomit. While he thought that she was a mudblood, there was no hiding his facial expression. She knew that in that moment, they were both human. But then, in that split second he caught her staring at him, he became expressionless. It didn't look like he even cared. And he looked bored. To Hermione, that was equally as bad as being the torturer themself.
There was no way she would be able to sleep with that inhumane person in the same room. What if he woke up in the middle of the night and started torturing her? She didn't think she could stand it. She was so scared. Even though he was not the one to torture her, she always thought that if Bellatrix or Lucius had told him to torture her, he would. There was no other option for him. She was sure he would. She was terrified.
Harry tried to soothe her with words. "Hermione, it's okay. Nothing will happen. He's hurt, hurt bad. Just look at him. He can't do anything. He won't do anything. We'll be here to protect you. Don't worry."
She looked from her hands to Harry. Her eyes were brimming with soon to be shed tears. One tear escaped from her eyes. Now her breathing was a bit controlled. But when she spoke, her voice shook from being unstable.
"I-I don't care, Harry. I-I-I don't want Draco Malfoy in this room." And she closed her eyes and started to cry softly.
Author's Note: Hello! Welcome to my new story! It's dramione based. Tell me what you think of this chapter. I have the plot in my head. The ending right now is currently changing. This is what I have written so far, but my ideas seem to be flowing, as is the words that are being typed on the computer. Read and review. It would be great if I could know your thoughts. I will be continuing this whether or not there are reviews. But it doesn't hurt to boost my confidence. I've written two other stories, written a while ago. And I would like to think that my writing has definitely changed. If not, brace yourself and take a look at my other story and one shot. I'll put up the second chapter within the next five days.