Disclaimer: I own none of the Harry Potter characters or original plots from J.K. This sick story however is all from my very imaginative mind.
In this time are we loving?
Cause all we seem to do is lose…
She recognized most of them… even in their black robes and white mask. She had learned many things, for instance Terrence Higgs was shorter than Blaise, but taller than Gregory Goyle.
Draco was the easiest to spot.
They all stood behind him like he was some god.
The deatheaters looked at her and looked away as she moved through the sea of black, and slowly she saw the three people that had disappeared that day in Diagon Alley. She knew them. She had eaten her dinners with some of them. They were her old classmates, old friends – and there they were. Scared, alone, violated, hurt.
She saw herself in them.
"Once again, Vane," he drawled through the mask, "Where are they keeping them?"
The brunette snarled, "I won't tell."
An excruciating scream left from the young woman's mouth as a spell was shouted from behind her, "Crucio!"
She knew that voice.
And it destroyed her.
She turned her head to face the white mask, but saw his body flinch.
Blaise stared back at her and could tell in her eyes what she was feeling. He quickly looked to Romilda who was still on the floor withering from the pain as the other two watched from behind her waiting for their own torture, but silently praying that it would never come.
The torture went on, and Hermione continued to feel sick to her stomach, but the moment that sent her off to the edge is when Romilda noticed her.
"You.." she whispered through clinched teeth, "It's you."
The deatheaters turned to face her, all knowing exactly who Romilda was looking at. Hermione continued to back away, occasionally running into one of them. Draco watched cautiously seeing how she was reacting.
"You did this," Romilda whispered, "This is your fault."
"No!" Hermione screamed.
By now there was a commotion and Theodore noticed her in front of him, and before he could reach her, Hermione had fallen to the ground. Her skin had gone white, and her breathing became shallow.
"Get. Her. Out."
They obeyed his command, and Theodore and Vincent carried her out, but another deatheater followed close behind while the rest continued with the three traitors.
A piercing pain from the back of her head woke her up. She had ended up in her room, and when she looked over she noticed Blaise sitting bedside, watching her.
"You've been out for quite some time."
Shocked, Hermione tried to sit up quickly but the pain got worse, "What – what are you doing here?"
"I came up when you fainted, just to make sure you were alright," He stood up and crossed over to sit next to her, but Hermione moved away.
"Oh so you thought I was different, Hermione?"
She looked to the window at his statement. Blaise cupped her chin and forced her to face him, "I am no different than any man down there, and now you know."
He lifted his sleeve to show her the black mark that graced his forearm, "I waited for seventeen years to get this and when I did it was the proudest moment of my life – Voldemort was there, he accepted me as one of his followers, and now Draco is our leader."
Hermione made an effort to move, but Blaise tightened his grip, "What you saw down there was me doing my job Hermione. That's all."
She flipped at that statement and slapped his hand away, "Your job! You make it sound as if it was something as simple as making broomsticks! Blaise, what you did down there was torturing another human being. A person, Blaise, a woman … a woman that I used to be. You're just as bad as he is!"
Blaise grabbed her by the shoulders as she tried to leave the room and forced her up against a wall, "Yes, it's something that is torture to you, but I'm fighting for what I believe in!"
"And what is that exactly?" She hissed.
He could've answered her in some long drawn out rant about his passion and the rest of their passions but instead he did what he felt. Forcefully he closed the gap in between them and kissed her. At first Hermione struggled, hit, kicked – but then she gave in. Not because she had to, but because she wanted to.
Feeling her knees weaken she grasped his cloak and deepened the kiss between them. Blaise's hands became entangled in her hair, and her own hands slipped underneath his shirt. Things quickly heated, but soon Hermione stopped herself when she heard a knock at the door. They both stopped breathing and fixed themselves rather quickly. Hermione moved to the door to find Draco staring back at the both of him.
"Blaise, please escort yourself out and I will see you tonight," His voice was smooth and calm, but Hermione knew better. She moved to part a way for Blaise and as he left she felt a pang knowing that she was now alone to experience Draco's wrath.
But Draco didn't seem to have a wrath.
He was very quiet, and Hermione didn't like it.
She watched curiously as he moved around the room occasionally touching a clock or a jewelry box. She couldn't read his emotions, but she knew that he was angry.
"Please say something." She begged.
He stopped dead in his tracks and looked at her, "Say something? Say what, Hermione? What do you want me to say?"
She felt guilty.
Draco approached her and noticed her try and move away, but before she could he reached out to grab her arm, bringing her close, "So what is it that you think I should do, hmm? Close my eyes and ears as you and Blaise sneak around my house together? Should I kill him? Or shall I turn you back in with Harry, Ron and Ginny?"
She saw that he wasn't angry. The emotion he was trying desperately to hide was hurt.
But Hermione didn't sympathize, "You'd never turn me in or kill Blaise."
"Really," His hissed, "And why is that."
She moved in closer so that she was eye to eye with him.
"You are only afraid of one thing, Draco, and one thing only. And that's losing me."
With that statement she pulled herself away and exited the room to abandon him there.
And all he could think about was how right she was.
Hearing the knock at the door she put last minute lipstick on and grabbed her sequined clutch before running over to open it. But as she did her breath caught in her throat.
"You were quite the actress today, Granger."
When she didn't say anything, he raised a questionable eyebrow, "No hello?" "Get away from here, Malfoy. You know it's over and Harry will be here any minute." "That doesn't and hasn't ever bothered me, Hermione." He pushed past her into her loft. He hadn't been there in months but it was still exactly how he remembered – except for the boxes that lined the wall, "So you've started packing?" She turned to face him, "My wedding is in less than a week. Of course I've started packing."
For a moment they just stared at each other. Different thoughts went through the both of them. About how they ended up here, or what had started everything, or how everything ended. He noticed how delicate she looked tonight; white had always looked best on her. And she noticed how extremely tired he was.
He watched attentively as she placed her purse down and made her way over to him. She cupped her hand gently on his cheek and kissed him briefly before she pulled away, "I beg you to move on. We can't do this anymore and you know it."
Draco pursed his lips together to speak but they were caught by a knock on the door.
"Oh, no." Draco's eyes averted to Hermione who was frantically trying to find some way to cover this up, before he knew it she was pushing him into her room, "Stay, I'll be back tonight." The door slammed and he pressed his ear against it to hear Harry's voice, "You look wonderful." There was a quiet moment where he knew that he had kissed her.
Then the front door slammed.
At that very moment he knew that Hermione would exist fully in his life.
The three walked into the burrow, first Ginny, and Ron and Harry followed close behind while ministry workers stayed close. Ginny was the first to break down.
At the sight of the pictures throughout the house, she held on to the counter and shook her head, "How could she?"
Harry sat down as Ron went over to her to embrace her in a warm hug.
The question went unanswered, but it didn't stop them from thinking. It killed them to be in there. It wasn't the burrow they had left behind. It was dark, and the warmness of Mrs. Weasley popping in and out was no longer there. Fred and George weren't running a muck, and even the sound of Percy and Mr. Weasley fighting was missed.
Harry felt it as a loss of his second family.
He noticed a Daily Prophet sitting on the counter. It was old, months old, and splattered across the front page was The Death of Viktor Krum by Colin Creevy. Harry stopped breathing momentarily.
"Viktor's –" He started.
Ron and Ginny looked to Harry who looked like he had seen a ghost. Ron approached him and looked at the paper, "Oh no."
Ginny watched awaiting them to tell her what had happened, but neither spoke. Instead the opened the paper to read what had happened. It hit both of them like a knife in their heart. The paper dropped out of Harry's hands and he stared at a blank spot on the wall.
"She."
Ginny approached him and Ron, "What happened?" She asked shakily.
"She…" Harry muttered once again.
Ginny was getting more and more afraid, "Harry…?"
Ron punched his fist into the wall, making a rather loud boom, while Harry continued staring blankly.
"Harry?" She asked once more.
"She … She killed him."
Hermione opened her door to find Harry wanting access inside. She turned to face him with a faint smile, "Harry, I'm actually really tired tonight."
She put on a good act. Even though he was disappointed he obeyed her wishes, gave her a kiss on the forehead and grabbed her hand, "I'll see you tomorrow then?"
She nodded.
He left, giving her a glance once more as he approached the stairs down. She waved.
When she entered the house she really didn't expect to find Draco, but there he was, sitting on the couch staring back at her. It didn't shock or scare her... she was actually a tad happy.
"Looks like you had a bloody good time," he drawled as he got up.
It was obvious he had been drinking, but all the proof was on the table; a half-empty bottle of firewhiskey she had got for her birthday sometime ago.
When she looked up Draco was in front of her, "You kill me, Granger." Hermione dropped her purse as he came closer, pushing her up against the wall. She turned her head to face the other way, but he quickly turned her back to face him. They went through this over and over, and it was the reason why she ended it, but now she just couldn't stand it.
"Draco, it's over. We're done."
Not liking the answer he pushed her into the wall even farther making a small noise escape her throat, but Hermione knew better than to give in. "How can I be with you when I'm an auror? When you are the one person we're trying to find and all day I pretend to have these clues to where you are when I know damn well you'll be in my room later that night? How fair is that to me? How fair is it to anyone?"
She was answered by a blank stare.
It was funny how vulnerable they both were to each other, because apart they were powerful. They knew what to do, but when it came to this … they were lost.
We always have a choice…
And she gave in.
She grasped his head in her hands as they both moved in. Feeling his lips on hers first, she had to move her hand to the wall to brace herself. As much as she hated herself for once again giving in her thoughts were scrambled as he continued to push her to her limits.
But she kept trying to pull away.
Harry.
Her wedding.
The baby that she was carrying.
Her thoughts became scrambled once again and he moved his hand to unbutton the back of her dress. She pulled back to stare at him. His pale blonde hair that was silk to the touch. His steely eyes, his pale skin. All a contrast from Harry, everything Harry was not.
Fear can stop you loving; Love can stop your fear…
"I hate you," She mumbled as she stared at him as he put his clothes back on.
He wasn't as intoxicated as he had been, but it was enough to set him off, "You always say that."
"I know."
Hermione rolled over to face the opposite wall, but heard his footsteps making his way over to her. She watched as he kneeled down, "I hate the way you pretend to hate me."
It was a game.
Their whole relationship.
She sat up, wrapping the sheets around herself. Draco noticed the frown upon her lips and leaned forward to kiss her, "I need to go."
She nodded.
And as he apparated away from her flat, all he could think of was the next few days and how everything would piece together. He stayed away – to make her think he had given up, but that was far from it.
Blaise and Draco had been best friends for years and years. They grew up together, they went to school together, and they now lived the same lives – just like their fathers. They were friends, and now Blaise was making them enemies.
Draco sat across from him in the den, and while many were shaken by his icy stare, Blaise had learned to look past it.
"Where do you loyalties lie?" Blaise didn't respond to the question, instead he looked away, "Zabini…?"
He wasn't looking at him, but Blaise could feel Draco's gaze drilling into him. Finally he turned his head and answered as simply as he could, "In you."
"Really?" Draco got up from the chair and started to pace the entirety of the room, "Because lately one would think otherwise."
Blaise continued to stay silent. But Hermione saved him as she came in, all dressed, ready to go. Immediately she realized what was going on though.
"Oh," she muttered.
A/N: Okay there was so much more to this chapter, butttt fanfiction was being not so nice today. But i promise the next chapter will go faster since i have part of it now --- and you'll like it a lot. I hope you all are enjoying the story as much as i am writing it! Thanks for all the support carried over from Sway. Tell me what you think!
