Someone Worth Dying For
A Harry Potter Fanfiction by Anuket
Disclaimer: Miss J.K. Rowling owns everything you recognize from the Harry Potter series. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
A/N: This is the last chapter of the first story I've ever published on the Net. *sniff* Thanks are at the end, folks, and please don't forget to review!
Chapter Nine
When they went back to the Great Hall, they discovered that all the Death Eaters were gone. Hermione was so happy to see Ron alive and well that she flung herself on him, and Draco was hard-pressed not to punch him in the face from sheer jealousy.
"Dean Thomas found me and, luckily, he knew the countercuse," Ron said when he was questioned about how he had managed to recover from the Body-Bind. "And then I decided to, you know, fight with the others. It was the most amazing thing, really, because just when we thought we were dead meat, the Death Eaters suddenly started screaming and then they just burst into flames and, I dunno, disappeared. I didn't see You-Know-Who, though. Reckon he's escaped."
"Life Bind," muttered Draco.
Hermione and Ron stared at him. "What?" they said at the same time.
"This summer, the Death Eaters underwent a ceremony called the Life Binding Ritual," he explained. "They bound their existence into the Dark Lord. This made him very powerful, but once he died, so would they." He wasn't sorry at all about the death of his father. At least his mother would be spared the pain of further beatings.
"Hang on a minute--- died? So You-Know-Who's dead already?" Ron couldn't believe it. "What, Harry came back or something? Where is he?" He searched the Hall frantically, as if expecting to see his best friend appear any second.
"Ron, Harry didn't kill him," Hermione said. "Draco did."
The redhead blinked. "Draco? Who's he?"
"Malfoy, you dolt!"
"DRACO MALFOY KILLED YOU-KNOW-WHO?" Ron yelled. The entire Hall went silent and Hermione felt all eyes on the three of them.
Draco sneered. "It's kind of unbelievable, isn't it? Imagine, someone other than famous, fantastic Harry Potter saves the day! Who would have ever thought that could actually happen?"
Ron gaped at him.
Whispers and exclamations broke out like little hissing fires. Before long, the Great Hall was buzzing. "You-Know-Who's dead!" "Malfoy killed him!" "The Draco Malfoy?"
Hermione glanced at the small cluster of Slytherins. They looked utterly shocked. Some were glaring at Draco as if they wanted to strangle him.
Ron cleared his throat. "Ahem, I guess we all owe you one, Malfoy," he said, obviously uncomfortable. He put out his hand. "So… truce? I mean, not that I'm saying we become the best of friends or anything," he added in a rush, "but… well, since you got rid of You-Know-Who, I guess you aren't such a slimy git after all."
Draco looked down at the offered hand, his expression completely indecipherable. Hermione had a sinking feeling he was going to spit on it, but then--- wonder of all wonders--- he clasped Ron's hand and shook it.
And so ended a war that had gone on for years, starting from their very first year at Hogwarts.
It was a Saturday morning. Rose petals rained down from the ceiling, on the students and teachers assembled inside the Great Hall. The air was sweet with the scent of flowers, and a band of wizards clad solemnly in black played a poignant, haunting melody that brought tears to nearly everyone's eyes.
They were having a memorial service for those who had died in the attack.
Hermione stood between Harry and Ron, their arms linked to each other's. Harry had come back only last night, after spending two days at the Burrow. He and Draco had made their peace, but were not really friends. It was, after all, hard to forget six years of hostility and competition.
Where is Draco, anyway? Hermione wondered, looking around. She spotted him leaning against a wall, away from the rest of the crowd. He looked so cool and unaffected, with his hands in his pockets. She was debating whether to go to him or not, when the music stopped. Professor McGonagall, the new Headmistress of Hogwarts, stood up.
"Last Christmas, and the days that followed it, was a particularly trying time for all of us." McGonagall actually sounded a little teary. "Not only did we have to work extra hard to repair the damage caused to our school, but we also lost some of our dear friends and our beloved Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore." There were a few audible sniffs from the relatively quiet throng.
"And now," her voice shook but she managed to continue, "now I will read to you the names of those who died, so that we may remember them always." Professor Flitwick handed her what seemed like a very long scroll of parchment. The music started again, but this time much softer, so that everyone could hear clearly the names being read off the scroll.
"From Hufflepuff House… Susan Bones, Ernie Macmillan, and Justin Finch-Fletchley…" Most of the Hufflepuffs broke down into sobs and hugged each other. Harry blinked back the tears that were forming in his emerald green eyes. He, Justin, and Ernie had become quite good friends ever since second year.
"Ravenclaw… Terry Boot and Mandy Brocklehurst…" More sobs, as the Ravenclaws pulled out handkerchiefs and tried unsuccessfully to muffle their cries.
"Slytherin… Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle…" There were no tears from the Slytherins. After all, each of them only cared about him or herself. Hermione glanced back at Draco and was astonished to see that he looked stricken. She had always assumed he didn't give a damn about his two goons. But then again, you assumed a lot of things about him, and you turned out to be wrong, she told herself.
"Gryffindor…" It was here that McGonagall paused the longest. She looked like she was about to cry, and had difficulty dragging the words out due to her shaky breaths. "Lavender Brown… Parvati Patil… Seamus Finnigan… Neville Longbottom…"
Tears streamed down Hermione's face. Lavender and Parvati, her two closest girl friends, and Seamus… jolly Seamus… She instantly regretted the times she'd refused to help him do his homework because she told him he needed to learn how to do it himself… and Neville! Ginny had told her about how he had tried to stop two Death Eaters from hurting Parvati. Hermione's shoulders shook from the force of her sobs. She, Harry, and Ron embraced each other tightly, mourning the loss of their friends, of Dumbledore, of the days when life had been so simple, innocent, and carefree, before being overshadowed by death.
Draco was in a rather subdued mood when he walked back to his common room. Pansy had told him how Crabbe and Goyle died… how they had gotten caught in a crossfire between the Death Eaters and Hogwarts teachers.
Bloody stupid idiots, can't do anything right without me, he thought, feeling an unfamiliar wetness in his eyes. Damn it, he was not going to cry! And especially not for those two buffoons.
"Know-it-All Ferret," he muttered, stopping in front of the tapestry on the wall. It slid open and he entered the common room.
Hermione was sitting on the couch, staring into the flickering fire. His breath caught in his throat as he realized, for the thousandth time, how lovely she was.
"Hey," he said softly, sitting down beside her.
She looked at him and gave him a teary smile. "Hey. How are you holding up?"
He shrugged. "As well as can be expected. You?"
"Not so good," she admitted. "Lavender and Parvati… Seamus and Neville…" She started crying again. He figured he ought to let her cry, even though it was disconcerting him, and awkwardly placed his arm around her shoulders.
"I'm so--- sorry," she sniffed after a while. "I've been doing an awful lot of crying lately. It's not like me at all… I just can't help it…"
"Well, it's not every year you share a common room with your worst enemy and your friends get killed by the most evil wizard who ever lived," he said in a lame attempt to sound humorous. "If I was a girl, I'd cry, too."
She glared at him through her tears. "How can you even try to joke at a time like this? And what do you mean by, if you were a girl…?"
"I'm just saying that boys don't cry."
Harry and Ron and nearly every boy was crying awhile ago!"
"Well, I meant boys who were really boys, if you get what I mean." Devil take it, Malfoy, why the bloody hell are you doing this? Why are you provoking her?
"You git," she whispered, a soft whisper that escalated into a shout. "You cold-blooded, arrogant, heartless git!" She got up and was about to leave the room when he suddenly grabbed her hand and pulled her back. She resisted. It was a furious tug of war, but in the end, he managed to pin her down on the couch. Her brown eyes glared daggers at him.
Draco absentmindedly ran his finger along the smooth, graceful curve of her jawline. "Is git all you can ever call me?" he teased her.
Hermione wanted to slap him, but she couldn't, so she comforted herself by screaming an unholy blasphemy in his face. Draco chuckled. "Very good. It sounds nicer than git, don't you think?"
"And infinitely more suitable for you," she hissed.
He didn't bother to give a scathing retort. Instead, he leaned down and kissed her. Her gasp of surprised outrage turned into a blissful sigh as she closed her eyes and slipped her arms around his neck. His hands encircled her waist, and pure pleasure flooded through her veins. Henry VIII and Victoria looked at one another, nodded in mutual agreement, and discreetly left their frames to give the two some privacy.
This is what it should be like, Hermione thought to herself as Draco deepened the kiss. Nothing had ever been so right, so absolutely perfect, than being in his arms. He kissed her, not with mad desire or passion, but with an exquisite gentleness, a sweet longing, that felt almost like…
"I love you, Draco," she whispered against his lips.
Draco stopped and placed his head on her shoulder. His heart was beating madly. Her ardent declaration had startled him.
All he wanted was to hold her and never let her go. Whenever he was near her, his head started spinning and his heart pounded madly, although he tried hard not to show it. She had caused him to question everything he'd believed in, caused him to struggle against the lessons and morals his father had hammered into him while he was growing up. He thought she was beautiful; he admired her spirit, her courage, her compassion, and her wit. The slow heat of a strange emotion consumed his heart and soul, rendering him totally speechless.
Somewhere along the way he'd fallen for Hermione Granger. He'd never been in love before, never had time for such nonsense… but now that he was finally experiencing it, he wasn't sure he liked it very much. His mind was in turmoil and his senses and feelings were waging war against each other. Ugh. And people actually write books and poems about how wonderful this thing is? They must be nuts.
"Do you?" she asked softly.
"Do I what?"
She hesitated for a moment, and then said, "Do you love me too?"
He was silent for a while, sensing the vulnerability and fear of rejection in her voice. Every fiber of his being screamed at him to just say yes and get it over with, but he couldn't bring himself to do so.
Draco looked into her warm brown eyes. She smiled at him and he sucked in his breath.
Suddenly, falling in love didn't seem like such a bad idea, after all.
He leaned down and kissed her again. It was a sweet, heart-melting kiss, one that said Yes, I love you too without words. What he felt for her was just too beautiful, too precious, to be sullied by common, ordinary words.
And for Hermione, it was a good enough answer.
The End
Yes, everyone, "Someone Worth Dying For" is finally finished. I'd like to thank all those who reviewed the previous chapter, namely Dreaming One, Twitch, sakura angel90, Pashmina Fan, DuckyQuackers, SlytherinChiq13, Slone, Nill, CurlyGurly, Rym Poe, trillium, AznGurl, Jen, gamegirl, Casiana, Mione-n-Draco4ever, luvs2party, embattledcurve, Katieshaz, Forge and Gred r hott, ibebe-x33, Camryndale, Erriy, Aindel, RiTaFeLToNo4o5, RedHot911, hobbit shortness, Lil' Fairy, Alethia, arianna, sweetangel6749, Len, 'div, Kate, b0ing, Mrin, and DiOsA4u.
This fic is dedicated to all my friends, especially Kyra (who inspired me to write my own Harry Potter stories), J-me and Alexie (who reviewed!), the other members of T Basse, Jenny, and Macy (who thinks Draco's head looks like a hard-boiled egg, but… I love you anyway! ^_~)
All those who have read my story, even if you didn't leave a review--- thank you so much and I hope you liked it! All those who have reviewed--- I never would've finished posting this story if it weren't for your encouraging comments,and I never would have improved if it weren't for your constructive criticism. Words are not enough to express my gratitude to all of you.
Well, that's it, then! It's been great… hope you've all enjoyed the ride…
Love,
Anuket
Note to Aindel: I liked Spy Kids 2 also! Gary Giggles was cute, wasn't he? *wink wink*
