How great was The Greatest Showman, amirite? Of course a fanfic was bound to come from it.

Rewrite the Stars

It has been seven months, two weeks and three days since Ron and Harry embarked on the journey to search for Horcruxes. Hermione had initially insisted on coming with them, but not one month later did she realize that she needed to stay back if they wanted any hope of rebuilding after this war.

Hogwarts has turned into a terrible place. The school is being run by Death Eaters. The teaching staff, especially the Carrows, had a penchant for doling out the Cruciatus as punishment for the slightest infractions. Hermione herself had suffered from the Curse multiple times, but her injuries were not too serious.

However, the same cannot be said of the injuries of the younger students. Some of them suffered from deep wounds and lesions, others suffered from insomnia and trauma from the beatings. That's why Neville decided to run an Infirmary out of the Room of Requirement, specifically to treat victims of the Carrows. Doing so was far from easy, but so far they've managed without being caught. They've come to the brink of losing certain ingredients and potions a few times, but there's always a mysterious sponsor who sent them supplies through the Hog's Head Pub. More than once, they make elaborate plans to refill their stocks, but they leave the Room only to find the missing items right outside.

But that wasn't the only odd thing to happen to their movement. More than once, the members of the DA were saved from a bout of torture after one of the Carrows were called. This has happened to Hermione at least five times now.

It was curious, yes, but Hermione had a hunch.

Hermione then spent the next few weeks specifically to catch the attention of someone placed much higher on the ranks than the Carrows. She was extra vile in class. She let herself get caught helping first years multiple times. She loitered the halls beyond curfew. The Carrows scowled at Hermione's confidence in breaking the rules, but as she had predicted, no harm came to her.

"Granger," Alecto Carrow called one morning after breakfast.

"You're being called up to the office," Amycus supplied. Hermione stood up immediately. Ginny and Neville shot her worrying looks but said nothing.

The brother and sister accompanied Hermione to the Headmaster's office. Both were smirking, as if they knew something terrible was about to happen to her. Hermione felt exactly the same way, but not for the same reason as the Carrows. She had a feeling that she wasn't about to meet the Headmaster.

If she was right, Hermione would finally find out who's been manipulating their luck. If she was wrong, then she'll just have to be strong enough to stay conscious and be able to alert the rest.

"Leave us," Draco Malfoy ordered as the duo brought Hermione inside the office. The two of them bowed, and closed the door behind them without a sound.

Hermione suppressed a smirk. She was right.

Draco didn't say anything for a while. "Have you any idea how difficult it's been to stop them from torturing you?"

"Why?" she asked, ignoring his question.

"You already know why," Draco replied. "I'm not keeping it a secret from you. I know that you noticed. Now you have my full attention. Why did you do this?"

"I needed to be sure," Hermione replied. She was being careful not to let her guard down, but finally seeing him, after all that has happened, all he's done, she's finding it harder and harder to stop herself. "But you, you didn't answer my question. Why do you keep doing this, besides the fact that you still believe that there's something between us after what happened last year?"

"Hermione, I never agreed to this," Draco said. "I can't stand seeing those sick Carrows torture children."

"Why didn't you stop it?" Hermione spat. "Your privileged ass couldn't be touched. Those Carrows would probably follow your every order."

"They don't," Draco replied. "If I tell them to stop, it'll be too suspicious. And you're being unfair, I am doing something by making sure you don't get discovered and that your stock doesn't get dangerously low. That's everything I can do."

Hermione didn't reply because he was right.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"It's all right," Draco sighed. "It's been difficult. I understand."

He took her hands in his and squeezed them reassuringly. Hermione felt a flood of familiar emotions rush through her body. It was just like this last year, except they weren't on opposite sides of a war just yet.

"What are we doing?" Hermione cried, letting go of his grasp. "This can't happen again. Not here, not now."

"Why not?" Draco asked. "We can make this work. We can at least try."

Hermione stared at him for a while, hoping that he was right, that it was possible for them to be together at a time like this. Draco caressed her face and she leaned into his familiar touch.

"I'll fight for this, but only if you'll fight with me," he said.

"I don't want you to regret this," she sighed.

"I won't. I promise."

Three months later, Hermione still couldn't fathom how they managed to keep up their trysts without getting caught. The two of them snuck around and met at least once a week, when they'd spend a few hours together in their own bubble of happiness. In the midst of the war, Draco was home.

The moments they had together, regardless of how short and far apart they were, slowly made Hermione believe that they could not only fight the war, but also fight to be together.

"Let's do it," he whispered to her, his arms around her waist as they gazed at the stars. "All I want is this, forever."

"Do what?"

"I love you, Hermione," Draco said. "Let's run away. Leave all of this behind. Live as Muggles. We can do it."

She was about to say yes, when she felt a red hot pain in her pocket.

"There's been an emergency," she sputtered, pulling out her DA coin. "We have to go, quickly."

Draco Apparated the two of them back to The Hog's Head, where they returned to the Room of Requirement via the passageway.

"What's going on?" Hermione asked as soon as she stepped down the entrance. The medics and students made a path for her to pass through and get to the unconscious body immediately.

"First year," Ginny replied. "Cruciatus. The Carrows—"

Hermione looked around and saw everyone draw their wands simultaneously as Draco became visible from the passageway.

"Cru—!"

"NO!" Hermione screamed. "He's with me."

Wands lowered slowly as everyone turned and looked at Hermione in disbelief.

"WHAT ARE YOU ALL BLOODY STARING AT?" Ginny screamed. Everyone started scrambling. The medics handed Ginny the kit. Hermione took out her wand and started saying spells.

"You," Ginny said, pointing to Draco, "wait outside. And you," she said, this time pointing at Hermione, "we will talk after this."

Draco could feel everyone's eyes on him as he walked through the room and left.

Once the child was stable, the medics took over. Ginny dragged Hermione to a corner, where nobody dared follow.

"Right," she began, "explain."

Hermione told her everything. About the sponsor. About the signals. About the meeting. And then she started telling her about them, about him. Once she was finished explaining, she honestly thought Ginny would hit her on the head (as she should). Instead, she sighed.

"I'm not in the position to tell you how to live," she said. "But you are fully aware of how dangerous this is, aren't you?"

"Yes," Hermione replied.

"Good." Ginny walked away.

Hermione left the room to look for Draco and saw him pacing outside an adjacent hall. His eyes lit up when he saw her.

"How is she?" Draco asked.

"Stable," Hermione replied. "Most of her injuries were minor, thank Merlin. We expect that she'll wake up soon. But she needs her rest."

"That's good to hear," Draco said. "You and Weasley make a great team, you know that?" He slipped his hand into hers and squeezed reassuringly.

"Draco," Hermione whispered. "We can't do this anymore. This is really dangerous. Tonight proved that."

"What?" Draco asked in disbelief. "What do you mean? We weren't caught. I'm sure they'll understand once they find out that I've been helping your efforts all this time."

"Draco, it's not that," Hermione replied. "Ginny told me that the first year was caught in the hall outside your office. She was out of bed because she got lost. If you had been there, you could have intervened."

"Things like that are beyond our control—"

"No they aren't, Draco!" Hermione insisted. "Because I was supposed to be patrolling that hall tonight too!"

The pair of them were quiet for a while. Hermione started was choking back tears.

"I wanted to believe you, you know," she said, smiling. "I wanted to believe that we could do it. Run away. Live as Muggles. But this…all of this is bigger than us. And we have to do whatever we can to win this war. Even if it that means being apart."

He took her hands and kissed them. He understood.

"I love you," he said.

"I love you, too," she replied. "You know I want you. It's not a secret I try to hide. But I can't have you. My hands are tied."

She closed her eyes and kissed him, before leaving him all alone in an empty hall.