"Phew! It's hot today isn't it?" Hermione asked fanning herself with her hand.
"It's always hot when you're around." Draco smirked, also fanning her. She smiled back and kissed him tenderly on the lips.
"Ew! Not in public guys." Harry said from beside them.
"You're just jealous." Draco said, earning himself a playful punch on the arm from Harry.
"Seriously guys, how can you not be boiling?" Hermione stated. "Sweat's just running off me."
"Hm, yummy. Brings back memories." Draco ran a hand up her bare leg towards her school skirt.
"Again: ew! Keep that kind of stuff to yourselves. Please."
Laughing at Harry they stopped their intimacies. Hermione lay down with her head in Draco's lap.
"Do I want to know?" Ron asked, joining them on the grass in the sun soaked grounds of Hogwarts, a jug of iced pumpkin juice and three goblets in his hands. He poured them out and handed one to Draco and Harry, Hermione immediately drank some of Draco's and seemed to cool down a little.
"You really don't." Harry looked away pointedly as Draco pulled Hermione's head up to be kissed again, this time with more passion. Draco made a comment about how she tasted of pumpkin juice, causing Harry to mime puking. Ron laughed at Harry.
"Hey everything we do is legal. We're overage and hello!" Hermione wiggled her left hand happily, where the huge emerald and diamond engagement ring was rather prominent.
Draco took her hand and kissed it. Laying his left arm over her chest she stroked his arm gently.
"That reminds me we should start planning the wedding." She said lazily.
"But baby I thought we agreed to get married after the war."
"What if neither of us survives the war? You want the world to see the reformed you, don't you?"
"Yes my darling I do, but we agreed to wait until after it was all over."
"Hopefully it won't last too long, if just for you guys." Harry put in.
"I don't think it's too far in the future now. I've got that feeling that you get when you know something terrible's going to happen." Hermione smiled up at Draco and kissed the palm of his hand, letting him know without words that they'd come through and the wedding could wait.
Then something caught her eye on his arm beneath his white shirtsleeve. Sitting up abruptly she grabbed the hand and shoved the sleeve up above the elbow.
The Dark Mark was burned into his skin.
Her eyes met his in horror, pain, disbelief and anger. He looked anxious.
Harry and Ron had got to their feet but they had yet to pull Hermione to hers.
Then the look in Hermione's eyes changed and he hated to see it. It was pure loathing. It was also full of pain, as tears threatened to fall.
Now she got to her feet and as she did she aged a few years and the scene changed and darkened. Now it was night, and the battlefield was a graveyard.
Twenty-one year old Hermione held her wand as steady as she could as she faced off in her duel with Draco. All around them the other duels had been called to a halt by Voldemort as this one was guaranteed to be a good show.
She was almost in tears as she faced her fiancé. It was almost the same look she had worn when she found the Mark. He looked like he didn't want to fight her and with something like remorse in his eyes. The engagement ring glinted in the firelight and his eye was drawn to it. For a moment something like hope flickered in his face.
But she wouldn't allow that and cast the first spell at him, which he ducked and it hit the grave marker behind him, shattering the stone. A fragment of stone struck him above the eye, forming a short gash and starting to bleed. Now he was angry, but he was still Draco. "Don't make me." he mouthed at her. She glared back determinedly, raising her left hand defiantly. His spell struck her on the side of the neck, slashing a long deep cut.
Hermione awoke crying his name and sat up straight into Harry's arms. A few lamps clicked on. Her hand went to her neck, and felt the long scar.
Harry took her hand away from her neck. "Sh, it's alright. It's just another dream. I'm here. Ron's here too. The past can't hurt you anymore." Harry soothed, rubbing her back as she sobbed into his shoulder.
"It's the same dream isn't it?" Ron asked gently, sitting on the other side of the bed. "The one about…him?"
"Yes." Hermione sobbed. "I can't get rid of the memory, even after all these years."
Ron reached over and stroked her hair tenderly. "Seven years since the last battle. It's not that long ago, and none of us lost as much as you did."
"How can we help you? Mione we want to know how to help get you over this. You'll make yourself ill again."
"You can rewrite the past. Make that day go away. That should do the trick." Hermione managed a small tearful laugh.
Her best friends chuckled sympathetically. "Will you be alright on your own for a little bit? I'm just going to fetch that sleeping draught and Ron will get you a snack. You can't take the potion on an empty stomach." Harry mothered, settling Hermione back against her pillows.
Their eyes fell on the diagonal scar on the side of her neck; a relic from the duel with Draco. It ran from the space under her right ear down to the dip between her collarbones. It was still red, and refused to turn white. It still bothered her, throbbing constantly. But they knew it didn't hurt nearly as much as his treachery. That invisible scar ran far deeper and would never heal. It made her heart bleed, killing her slowly.
Harry and Ron left and Hermione traced the red scar a few times. It had been a blow from him that almost felt like a kiss, her tenderest pleasure spot having been under where it was. She could still feel his lips on her skin, both burning and freezing her at the same time. No one could excite her like he did.
She reached over to her bedside cabinet and opened the drawer, pulling out a green velvet ring box. Gently she opened it, revealing the engagement ring, still as sparkly and as beautiful as the day he'd given it to her. She'd only just turned seventeen and they both knew they were too young but it didn't matter. He was her soulmate, her other half. With him she could be exactly herself; she could be free. He was her equal and no one understood her like he did. He was her world, her everything.
But it hadn't been enough. Not for him.
Ron and Harry paused outside her open bedroom door, unseen by her. Ron gave Harry a pointed look.
"Don't say it again." Harry warned.
"Closure. She needs it."
Harry just glared.
"You know it's true." Ron pointed out.
"Ugh, fine. But let the record show that I'm against it."
Ron grinned at finally having won their ongoing quarrel. "I'm borrowing Hedwig."
"He knows Hedwig. They used to use her all the time. Just use Pig."
"It's too far for him."
Harry sighed. "Fine, take her. The letter'll tell him who we are anyway."
"I love it when I win." Ron said leading the way into Hermione's bedroom to administer the sleeping drought and snack.