Let's Remember It All
PROLOGUE
Before I begin, you should know that I never meant any of it to happen. But you should also know that I'll never regret any of it.
Ever.
The rain only began to fall as I began to run. Away from it all, away from the mess that I knew I had made and that I refused to clear up. The water ran down my flushed cheeks, my damp hair was flattened to my face and it took all my concentration not to fall to the floor.
I heard voices calling me back, footsteps pounding after me, but I forced myself to run harder and faster, not bothering to breathe, just letting the cleansing water soak me through, just letting it wash away the trouble and repair the damage I was so afraid to even think about.
"Hermione!" I heard his voice echo from somewhere behind me but I ran on, away from him and away from what he had don to me. "Hermione!" His voice was desperate but it was further away, getting fainter and fainter as I ran.
Before I could think, I had run into one of the people that I adored so very much but wanted to see the least.
My legs crumpled beneath me and I felt my shoulders start to shake as the tears began to flow. His arms caught me and pulled me up, one entwined round my waist and it felt so right… "Come on, up you get."
"No!" I heard my voice say, and I wanted to take it back, for this was where I wanted to be, in the arms of- "Not you, please, anyone but you!"
I backed away from him, still sobbing, and when I looked into his face I flinched. His beautifully stormy grey eyes were changing: the doorways to his soul shuttering once more and his face becoming again the mask I so hated.
"'Not you'? Granger, you make it sound like I wanted you in the first place! You can't pick and choose, you're just and overrated Potter-worshipper with mud running through you where the blood should be!" He spun on his heel and stormed away, holding the arm that had been holding me slightly away from his body, as though it was contaminated.
As I watched him walk away from me, I realised what I had just done. What waking from my permanent dream had cost me. Why I had chosen not to return before.
My reply came far, far too late and far, far too quietly. "Don't do this, Malfoy, you know that's not what I meant."
I stood staring into the darkness that had swallowed my would-be saviour for some time before turning quietly around and walking away.