Hermione walked up the staircase that led to Draco's attic, hoping to find something of interest. After being cooped up in this house for well over a month, she had decided to explore. The house was certainly large enough.
Maybe she would even stumble across something of Draco's past. Since he was the only person that she was able to talk to, she thought that it would be nice to know more about him, like the small memories that most people took for granted.
She climbed up the last step and took a sweeping glance around the room, which was filled with many various boxes. Much to her surprise, her eyes came across a box that was labeled 'Hermione.' Her curiosity piqued, she went to it.
Inside, she found a packet of letters, delicately bound in white ribbon, a leather-bound book that she remembered to be her diary among other things. Deciding that the box was worth taking a look at, she picked it up and carried it to her room.
She pushed the door open with her foot-her hands were full-and went to her secretary desk. She opened the top of it and took a seat, taking the packet of letters out of the box, which she had placed on her bed. She gingerly unbound the letters and began to read them.
The letters, which were all to 'the lioness' from 'the serpent,' did not make much sense to her. She quickly decided that the letters were all from Draco. 'The Serpent' just sounded like a nickname that he would've picked for himself in his Hogwarts years. She concluded that she would have to ask Draco about them at dinner.
First, however, she would read her diary. She opened the pages and read, expecting to find the entire thing full gibberish about how much she loved Ron. However, she found that after the first few entries, she had started to write about Draco more than anything else. The letters became clear to her when she read the entry of Sept. 18th. It stated that she had enlisted the help of Draco in order to make Ron jealous and ask her out.
The letters, she realized, were back and fourth between her and Draco. They suggested different times and places to enrage Ron in the hopes that he would finally ask her out. After Ron had finally asked her out though, she wrote about how unsure she was of her feelings. She had even questioned why she had bothered at all. She no longer wished so strongly to be Ron's girlfriend. Hermione now knew that she didn't love Ron on her 7th year at Hogwarts. Not then, and not years later.
She realized that all that she was doing was trying to convince herself of a non-existent love for Ron, and it had worked for a while. But why would she have put Ron through everything like that? Why would she wait until the last minute to break off the engagement? When she finished the last entry, she had more questions than answers. She did know how she had become friends with Draco though, and that counted for something.
Hermione's thoughts were interrupted by Draco calling her down for dinner. She gently placed the diary on the desk and went to Draco, who was waiting for her in order to begin dinner.
"You'll be surprised to know that I've cooked this entire meal all by myself," he proudly proclaimed when he saw her.
"I'm afraid to eat it."
"That hurts Mione. If there's one thing that I can cook, its pasta."
"I stand corrected. Please, let me know when you cook the chicken." Draco laughed at her joke and they continued to make sad attempts at humor. His smile, though it seemed a bit forced, remained on his lips throughout dinner until Hermione told him about what she had found.
"Where did you find those again?" he questioned, his smile gone,
"The attic," came her reply.
"But how?" he asked to himself, clearly confused.
"What do you mean? You didn't out it there? There was a whole box of my stuff up there."
"No, I had no idea that it was there. Which means that someone else put it in the attic."
"Why does it matter who put it there?" asked Hermione. Draco gazed at her as though she had grown an extra head. Didn't she remember about Harry's firebolt?
He realized with a sense of stupidity that she didn't remember. How could she? But still, she had to have some sense of danger.
"It matters because if someone who isn't an ally put it there, we're in big trouble. Hermione, realizing where this was going shook her head.
"No Draco," she said desperately. "Please, no. They're all I have left. They wont stand up to countless curse tests."
"Hermione, they could be dangerous."
"I don't care," replied Hermione stubbornly. Draco, however, would not admit defeat either.
"You may not care," he said, "but I do."
"Draco please, not this. Take away anything but this."
"What exactly did you find?" he asked with a sigh of defeat. If they were familiar items, what was the need of curse tests? Hermione quickly complied in answering his question and she went into great detail of all the items that she had found in the box.
"And the two things I thought were most interesting were my diary and the letters you wrote me about how to make Ron jealous." She opened the door to her room and led Draco to the box. He held out his hand.
"Let me see them," he said. Hermione, knowing that he no longer intended to test them, grabbed the diary and letters off of her desk and handed them to him.
"Are you telling me to let you read my diary Mr. Malfoy?" A grin played at her lips as she jested with him.
"Precisely," came his short reply. He started with the letters, taking the same, if not more, care with them that Hermione did. When he had finished reading those, recalling all the while when he had written them, he took the diary.
"Well, I definitely wrote those," he said, handing the diary to Hermione. "Here, you open this."
"What if it's cursed?"
"Oh, I don't think its cursed," he said lightly. "I do think that it's jinxed though. Knowing you, you jinxed that lovely little book to do something harmful should anyone but you open it." Hermione shrugged and complied. She couldn't argue that fact, thinking that it sounded like something she would do.
"Besides, even if it were cursed, you would already be cursed anyways."
Hermione rolled her eyes and left the room, not wanting to be in the same room as Draco as he read about how she didn't love her boyfriend and future fiancée.
Hermione stepped back into her room silently and closed the door behind her with a soft click. She wasn't surprised to see Draco still sitting in the same chair that she had left him in.
"When you first asked me to be part if your plan, I thought you were off your rocker," he finally said. "But I decided to help, just to bring him pain. By the time he had asked you out, I had already fallen in love with you. I had no idea that you didn't love Ron. If I knew, I would've asked you to stay with me."
"The Halloween Ball?"
"That is one of my most cherished memories," he answered, a brief smile playing at his lips as he remembers the night. "It was the first time that I didn't remind myself that you were in love with another man."
"Draco," said Hermione as she stepped closer to him. "I think that-" she paused. "I think that even though I didn't love you then, I do now."
Draco's heart skipped a beat as he heard the words. They were the words that he had longed to hear her say to him, the words he never thought he'd hear from her.
"Hermione, your memories-" he said hesitantly.
"Memories be damned," she declared. "I love you Draco Malfoy! I don't care anymore, as long as its you that I'm with." Draco closed the gap between them in three long strides. "Just promise me one thing Draco."
"Anything," he replied instantly.
"Just don't leave me. Okay?"
"Never," he vowed, taking her in his arms. He gazed into her pretty chocolate eyes and leaned in, brushing his lips gently against hers. Hermione smiled against his lips and pulled away.
"Tsk, tsk," she reprimanded softly. "I've only just met you." Draco smiled and embraced her more firmly.
Suddenly, Hermione winced in pain. The pain became more intense and she whimpered, bringing her hand to her head in an effort to stop the pain. Draco instantly grew more concerned and he stepped away from her just enough to view her clearly, close enough to come to her aid should the need arise.
"Hermione," he asked frantically, "are
you alright?" Hermione looked at him through blurred vision as
another surge of pain took her senses, her knees buckling. Draco
caught her the instant that she fell and brought her to the bed.
By
the time she had reached the bed, darkness had taken her senses
