Draco Malfoy could already see the Daily Prophet headlines. Voldemort's Golden Boy Elopes With Gryffindor Princess. Malfoy Heir Gives Up Fortune For Mudblood. He sat with his knees to his chest and his hands in his hair. The reality of the situation was setting in. He could never see his family again. That normally wouldn't bother him too much if it weren't for his mother; the only other Malfoy he truly cared about. Draco had once looked up to his father as well. His father had once been someone to look up to. But ever since fourth year, when the Death Eaters had really begun to resurge and Voldemort once again regained his body, his father had deteriorated into someone Draco didn't want to be around. Someone obsessed with blood status and maintaining Pureblood lineage. While Draco ultimately thought that Purebloods were superior wizards, he wasn't obsessed like his father who spent every living moment trying to eradicate them from the Earth.
Hermione began to stir. Pain still plagued her body, but it was duller, a simple annoyance. She could feel the blankets on top of her and the hard ground beneath her. All of her senses were heightened as if she were waking for the first time. She could feel the cool air, but could tell it got warmer towards her feet. A cave. That's when she remembered. Her eyes shot open and looked towards Draco. He didn't see her at first and Hermione used that to her advantage.
She felt her wand which was miraculously still in her pocket. She drew it quickly and shot a silent Stupefy.
Caught off guard, Draco barely missed her spell, but dodged out of the way just in time for the red jolt of light to disappear into the grey stone behind him.
"What the fuck?!" Draco swore, drawing his wand.
Hermione was now upright. Her hair a tangled mess, a few leaves and twigs had found it way into it. She looked like some sort of wild woman.
"You kidnapped me!" Hermione aimed her wand and sent another silent spell. Draco dodged out of the way, much easier this time.
"I saved you! If it weren't for me you'd be dead!"
"Did you ever think that I had plan? That Harry or Ron had a plan?"
"You really had a plan?" Draco said, mockingly. "In your state? Plus, I doubt Potter and Weasley could've told the door from the window."
"You underestimate them."
"You overestimate them. Bravery's great and all but it can only get you so far. Why do think they held onto you for all those years?"
Hermione just stared at him then. Her hand wrapping her wand angrily. The same motion amused him when Weasley did it, but on Granger, it was terrifying.
"How dare you! Incendio!"
A stream of flames flew from Granger's wand. Draco jumped to the side, attempting to dodge the fire, but instead the flames grew and crashed into his shoulder. He hit the ground clutching his shoulder.
Hermione gasped. She hadn't meant to actually hurt Draco; just intimidate him to get him to take her back to Harry and Ron, or better yet, leave her alone. She rushed over to him and dropped to her knees.
"I'm sorry…" she said.
"What did you think was going to happen?" Draco growled, his voice weak and full of pain. He sat up hesitantly.
"Let me heal it. Take off your shirt," she said, holding her wand at the ready.
Draco smirked. He looked down at her wand and back up at her.
"In most other circumstances, Clearwater, I would be thrilled. But I can't let you heal it. You still have too much healing to do yourself. It would tire you out."
"Oh, but I can duel?"
"I didn't start that. Now, why don't you pocket that and we can talk about this?" Draco pushed the tip of her wand away from him.
Hermione nodded and placed her wand back into her pocket. She couldn't help but see the charred cloth from where the spell had hit him. The way Draco jerkily moved and closed his eyes as he stood up, told her that it was painful.
"Well, at least I know you have your wand.I wasn't sure if the Snatchers had taken it. I guess we can get rid of this one." Draco reached into his the pocket opposite the one he kept his own wand and pulled out a slightly curved and extremely unyielding wand.
Hermione immediately recognized it as the wand which had tortured her. Bellatrix's. She watched helplessly as the witch had pointed the wand and the red light had hit her in the chest. She almost wished that a green light had ended her suffering. How poetic it would be for Hermione Granger, to die with a burst of bright green light.
"I'm sure you would like to do the honors," Draco said, handing her the wand, the tip facing away from her.
Hermione carefully wrapped her hand around the wand. It was rough and fit her hand awkwardly. She stared it at for a few seconds. She grabbed both ends and felt her muscles tense to break the wand, but her arms went limp before she had a chance.
"What's wrong?" Draco asked, looking at her curiously.
"I can't do it. I can't do it, Malfoy."
She ran out of the cave. Draco was tempted to follow her to make sure she didn't disapparate. He realized she was probably too upset and too weak to disapparate without splinching. Draco barely knew the first thing about comforting someone. He'd only comforted a few people in his entire life. His mom, arguably the easiest, as just his presence was required to comfort his mother. Pansy, whom he particularly didn't want to comfort, but it normally just meant insulting Gryffindors together something which came quite easily for him. And finally, himself, who he hadn't really figured out how to comfort yet.
He started a fire and sat with his knees to his chest. Draco watched as the flames danced up from the base of the fire to the top where they broke apart into tiny cinders falling back to the base. Everything ended up back where it started.
Granger's sobs were deafening and he tried not to focus on them. He had taken her away from her friends, from the fight, from everything she cared about. She probably would've prefered to die, because at least her death would mean something. She would be a martyr.
Draco got too close to the fire and felt the burn on his shoulder surge with pain. He backed away and used his wand to lower the fire slightly. Granger's sobs stopped and he looked outside the cave to make sure he could still see her shadow looming just outside the entrance. Instead he saw the sun dipping below the tree line, swirls of pink, orange, and yellow morphing together in the sky.
"You know it's funny, Muggles and Wizards both see the same sunset and it's equally as magical." Granger walked back in the cave. Her eyes red and puffy from the crying, but her skin had more color and her posture was better, as if the crying had somehow helped her body heal.
"You're starting to sound like Lovegood, Clearwater. You hungry?"
Hermione nodded. She couldn't remember the last time she'd eaten, probably before the torture. Once he mentioned it, she realized the sharp pain in her stomach.
"Yeah," she said. "I think there's some stuff in my bag."
Draco handed Hermione her bag. She rifled through it and pulled out a few things. She set it to the side and looked back up at him.
"I have some oatmeal. I thought I had more, but Ron has a bad habit of sneaking things out of my bag. I also have the stuff for s'mores for afterwards."
"Oatmeal's fine."
Hermione transfigured a nearby rock into a pot and cooked the oatmeal quickly over the fire. There were various magical ways to cook it, but Hermione always liked cooking the Muggle way. It was one of the few things she had left of her parents. Both of her parents had loved to cook and passed that onto Hermione. Every Sunday morning they would all wake up early and make breakfast together and promptly go back to bed.
"You're crying," Draco broke her thoughts.
Hermione reached up and felt the slick tears on her cheeks. She hadn't noticed, but it was obviously the thoughts of her parents which had brought on the sudden bout of crying.
"I think my mind's still a little mess up from the Cruciatus. It's nothing."
Draco knew she was lying immediately. He didn't press it though. He wasn't there to be her friend or a shoulder to cry on, he had saved her life, that was it. And that was complicated enough…
Hermione finished the oatmeal. She transfigured two more rocks into bowls and a couple sticks into spoons. She handed one to Draco.
They ate in relative silence. Their spoons scraping their bowls and only the crickets and occasional bird broke the quiet. Both were ravenously hungry. While Draco had sustained himself while Hermione had been unconscious, he was a terrible cook, even cooking spells. He'd never had to use them, so Hermione's oatmeal, while it was bland and a little too thick for his usual tastes, he was thankful for something decent.
"Do you like s'mores?"
Draco nodded.
Hermione transfigured their spoons back into sticks and stuck a marshmallow on the end of each one.
"Wait, what am supposed to do with that?"
"Roast it over the fire."
"Why would I do that? I could just use Incendio."
"It's the Muggle way. You don't have to it if you don't want to. I just like it." She held her stick over the fire, watching the marshmallow get softer and softer, starting to char slightly on the outside.
Draco shrugged and used his wand to instantly roast his marshmallow. He at the s'more gleefully and finished it quickly.
"Malfoy?"
"Yes."
"What are we doing here?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, we can't stay here forever. The Snatchers are surely looking for us, your parents, Harry, and Ron…" Her voice drifted off when she said Ron's name.
"You don't think I know that?! You needed a place to recover. As soon as you're back to full health we'll leave."
"But, where will we go, Malfoy? We can't just pop off to one of the safe houses on either side! Merlin, they probably think I'm dead."
"Clearwater, listen. I was just trying to get you away from Greyback. If I didn't, no one else would've. I'll help you find your precious Potter and Weasel once your better."
Hermione's face softened.
"Thank you, Malfoy. But honestly, I think it's time to stop calling him Weasel…"
"Oh, that's right. You guys have a thing…"
"It's not a thing!"
"Then, what is it?"
Hermione sat defiantly with her chin pointing out slightly.
"I don't feel like it's any of your business."
Draco smirked.
"It's alright, Clearwater. I couldn't care less about you and Weasel." He stood up, brushing off his black trousers. "Get some sleep."
"What's with the Clearwater thing? Why do you keep calling me that?"
Draco smiled and looked down at her.
"You're smart, Clearwater. Figure it out."
Draco waited outside the cave until Hermione was asleep. The night air was cool, almost too cool. The moon was full and bright. He shuddered, thinking about Greyback and all of his werewolf glory.
He walked to the lake and crouched down by the water. He cupped his hands and splashed the water onto his face. The cold water refreshed him, but it didn't solve what was running circles in his mind. Draco took off his shirt, a black button down, and threw it aside. He placed a waterproofing charm on the rest and waded into the water. His pale skin looked translucent in the moonlight.
Draco waded until the burn on his shoulder was fully submerged. He felt instantly relief. He looked down at the injury, it spread from his upper bicep onto his collarbone. It was red and raw and even bleeding in some places, He took out his wand and muttered a quick healing spell. It took much longer than he expected, but through the clear water, he was able to repair himself.
Author's Note: Hello! I was expecting to only have like 1 or 2 followers/favorites on this story, but I certainly have many more than that! Thank you. I thought since there's a handful of you, I would introduce myself. Hello, my name is Alyce McKnight. I'm a university student and I hope to one day make a living writing. I also write on , all of my non-fanfiction is over there and if you are a fellow Figgie or if you're interested come over and see me there! I'm new to , but not new to fanfiction. I've been reading fanfiction for the better part of my life and I've been writing it on and off for about 5 years now. This is, however, my first Draco/Hermione story, in fact, my first in the Harry Potter universe (although I've read my fair share). This story is a lot different from my typical writing style. I mostly write first person, but I love messing around with third person and I'm having a lot of fun with this story, I am a busy person, so I can't promise regular updates, but I can definitely be encouraged with helpful/constructive feedback ;) Thanks for reading! Please introduce yourself if you feel like it. :)
