Alright, here's chapter 10!
F.Y.I. this is not the epilogue. that's going to be a separate chapter.
Hermione looked around. The last time she'd been in this room, she was being tortured by Bellatrix Lestrange. She shuddered, remembering the pain and fear she was feeling that night. Draco noticed her disturbed expression.
"I'm so sorry, Hermione." He said apologetically
"What?" she asked
"That night, Bella was torturing you, and I did nothing. I stood there and watched you suffer."
"Draco, you couldn't have done anything. Come on, let's just hurry up so we can get out of here."
"Alright, we should start in my parents' bedroom."
Draco led Hermione upstairs to the master bedroom.
"Whoa." She said when he'd opened the doors
The room was decked out in expensive looking curtains and exquisite furniture, and a huge, king sized bed, neatly made and dressed, sat in the middle of the room.
"Personally," Draco said, "I think it's a bit much."
"Just a little," Hermione replied sarcastically
They went through every drawer and cabinet in the room with no luck whatsoever.
"I don't think we're going to find anything here." Draco said with a sigh, "Let's go check the study."
Hermione followed him to the door, but then stopped and back tracked few paces.
"What are you doing?" he asked
She jumped a little and the floor creaked. A triumphant smile crossed her face. She bent down quickly and pressed on the floor; it creaked again. Draco kneeled down beside her, a curious look on his face. Hermione felt around on the floor until she found what she was looking for; a loose floorboard. She pulled it up and started rifling through the many objects inside. Everything looked useless, until she came upon a book, written completely in ancient runes.
"Hmm…." She said thoughtfully, "this looks interesting." She handed it to Draco
"This rune here means 16th "he said pointing at the title, "and this one means century."
"Right," Hermione said, looking at the cover again, "and this means curses" she said pointing at the last rune in the title.
"So, 16th Century Curses? That sounds promising."
"Yeah, but we only have 4 months to find a cure. We can't translate this whole book in 4 months!"
"Well, we can translate the Table of contents and then just translate the part about the Kronos Curse."
"If there is a part about the Kronos Curse," Hermione said
"What have we got to loose? We've looked everywhere else. This book is our last hope!"
Hermione tucked the book into her pocket and stood up.
"Well, let's get going then. We've got a whole lot of translating to do." She said
They left the room and headed for the fireplace. Once back in the common room, Hermione immediately sat down and began working on the table of contents. Draco followed and sat down beside her. They worked for hours. This was taking a lot longer than Hermione had expected. Finally, after they were almost to the end of the Table of Contents, Hermione translated, "The Kronos Curse".
"Yes! We found it! Draco, we found it!" She said ecstatically.
"Well hurry! Turn to that page!" Draco replied
Hermione flipped through the book quickly, until she got to the correct page. She frowned immediately.
"What's wrong?" Draco asked
"This is thirteen pages long. Draco, that will take months! It took three hours just to do one page! We'll never finish in time!"
"Hermione, we cannot give up! We can do this!"
They continued working for another two hours and didn't even get through three quarters of a page. Finally, they decided to call it a night.
Over the next few weeks, all Hermione and Draco thought about was the translation; between classes, during classes, during meals. They were getting closer, but the book still hadn't said anything about a cure.
One afternoon, after potions, Hermione and Draco were in their common room translating once again.
"We've only got two pages left!" Draco said enthusiastically
"I know. Let's just hope the cure is in here. We've had this book for two months now."
They were getting faster and faster at working out the translations. One page now only took them about an hour to complete. Soon enough, they'd finished the second to last page with still no sign of a cure.
"Dammit," Draco said, "I've got Quidditch practice. I have to go."
"That's alright. I'll finish this. I'll come down if I find anything."
He left for practice while Hermione worked vigorously to finish. Not long after Draco had left, Hermione got to the last paragraph. She translated:
"There are few known cures to this wretched curse"
Her heart sped up as she worked on:
"There are three most commonly used cures"
Her brain working rapidly to get through the last few sentences:
"The first way is for the original caster to perform the counter curse with the same wand they used to cast the curse with in the first place. But, it must be the original caster with the same wand."
No chance of that happening, she thought:
"The second way to cure this curse is for one of the victims to kill the other."
Definitely not:
"And the third way is love. If both victims are truly in love with each other, one could perform the counter curse with the incantation; 'Carpe Kronororous Amare' and the curse will be broken. But it must be pure love. This curse will not be fooled by a love potion."
Hermione set her quill down, her hand shaking. Did she love him? Did he love her? There was only one way to find out. Calmly, she headed toward the Quidditch pitch. When she arrived, Draco flew to the ground immediately.
"Did you find it?" he asked anxiously
She nodded, not able to speak.
"Well come on, what is it?"
She cleared her throat and then handed him the translation.
"Oh- um- wow. That's not as complicated as I thought, but- um- let's try it, I guess" he said after he'd read through it.
Alright," Hermione said, finding her voice. She raised her wand and said, "Carpe Kronororous Amare." She lowered her wand. Why didn't she feel any different? She'd expected to feel something.
Draco reached out his hand toward hers, anticipating the pain, but it never came. Their hands met. They stared down at their interlocked fingers and burst out in hysterical fits of laughter.
"We did it!" Hermione said, still laughing uncontrollably, "We actually did it!"
Draco pulled her close and kissed her deeply, enclosing her in a tight embrace. He lifted her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist, kissing him back aggressively. Finally he put her down and broke away from her mouth.
"I love you, Draco." Hermione said quietly
"I love you too, Hermione." He replied, "Hey practice is cancelled!" he called over his shoulder to his team, who all were looking slightly speechless. Hermione and Draco left the field hand in hand. They decided that a little time in the broom cupboard in the entrance hall was greatly deserved after all their hard work.
The last month and a half of term went by fast. Draco and Hermione were practically joined at the hip. They were completely in love and barely ever left each other's side. Harry and Ginny were beginning to accept this, even if it meant having to hang around Malfoy. As for Ron, well he and Hermione had some serious talking to do. But right now, she just wanted to be with Draco- forever.
"So," Draco said the night before they were to leave on the Hogwarts Express, "Am I going to see you over the summer?"
"Of course you will. What do you plan on doing all summer, anyway?"
"I thought I'd just stay at the manor until I can get a job somewhere."
"How about you come with me? To Australia. I'm going to find my parents."
"You- you really want me to come?"
"Yes, I really do."
"Alright then, I guess I'm going to Australia."
"Draco…"
"What?"
"I love you," she said quietly
"I love you too, Granger" he replied as he bent down to kiss her.
Like it? Hate it? Suggestions for improvements?
I really would like to know what you guys want to see in the epilogue so if you have any ideas please private message me! (if no one has any suggestions I'll probably just go with what's in my head, but I'd really like to know what you all want)
Thanks for reading :) expect the epilogue in a week or so
-harrypotterfreak53