The Greatest Mistake Chapter 11: A Curse Between Us, a harry potter fanfic

"What Have You Done?" (feat. Keith Caputo) by Within Temptation

Would you mind if I hurt you / understand that I need to / wish that I had other choices / than to harm the one I love / what have you done now

I know I'd better stop trying / you know that there's no denying / I won't show mercy on you now /
I know, should stop believing / I know, there's no retrieving / it's over now / what have you done / what have you done now

I, I've been waiting for someone like you / but now you are slipping away / oh, why / why does fate make us suffer /
there's a curse between us / between me and you /
what have you done / what have you done / what have you done / what have you done / what have you done now /
what have you done / what have you done / what have you done / what have you done / what have you done now

Would you mind if I killed you / would you mind if I tried to / 'cause you have turned into my worst enemy /
you carry hate that I don't feel / it's over now / what have you done / what have you done now

I will not fall / won't let it go / we will be free / when it ends

I, I've been waiting for someone like you / but now you are slipping away / oh, why / why does fate make us suffer /
there's a curse between us / between me and you

For the first time ever, Draco cringed as Hermione pulled her sweater off. After shoving it aside, she looked back at him, almost emotionlessly. They both knew that the day's events would wear on them. Neither was particularly willing to speak to their own experience.

Draco ran his finger along her collarbone, trying to detach himself from the view of the scars, from the memory of their geneses. The memories of his aunt, of his uncle Rodolphus, of Dolohov, wielding their weapons, making their attempts at driving Hermione into submission.

The memory of the exact moment that his aunt turned to him. You know this girl, this filthy mudblood, don't you, Draco? Why don't you and Greyback deal with this one? We'll come get you in a few hours, darling...

The memory of the exact moment he stepped forward. Hermione would have ordered nothing less; that's what they meant by no-strings-attached. Outside of their sleeping together, there was nothing to suggest they would be anything but enemies, save for their tutor-student interactions, most of which coincided with their sleeping together and thus barely counted as separate. They'd both hurt each other - in fights, battles, and other events - but something told him this time was different. Something in his gut.

The compulsion to kiss her as usual, knowing that to kiss even one of her new scars would be to ask for some level of forgiveness. The desperate desire for the forgiveness which he knew better than to expect her to give him.

As right as it had always felt to sleep with her, it felt wrong to do so after going so far. Granted, he'd given her other scars; granted, a couple of them were from knives; but all of them had been during sex - and naturally there was nothing of the sort involved whilst surrounded by other Death Eaters.

"Are you okay?" she sighed angrily, crossing her arms over her bare chest.

"Yeah, yeah," he responded, snapping back into the moment and becoming completely aware of his own hands roughly jerking at his pants.

"Draco Lucius Malfoy, you are a terrible liar," Hermione reprimanded.

"And you're perfectly all right?" he barked.

"I never said that I was," she sneered, sharply pulling him into a kiss.

"Hermione-"

"We're not talking about this, Draco," she commanded pleadingly. Draco could tell from her shaky voice that he wasn't going to get anywhere by trying to get her to be honest with him. She was, literally, sleeping with the enemy, especially now that he had acted as her enemy. Not just Potter's enemy, or the Weasleys'... he'd hurt her directly. She needed to act like it never happened. She, who was the one doing the right-

How can she still be so beautiful? No- sexy. Remember, you're using words related to sex- not romance. Definitely not romance. You don't like her. Don't let yourself think you like her, because you don't. You definitely don't. She's gorgeous, she's a good chase and a great fuck. You don't like her. You definitely don't like her, and you're definitely okay with torturing her. She's a worthless mudblood, why wouldn't you be, Draco?

Draco made sure to Disapparate out of the muggle hotel as soon as they both finished, careful to remind himself not to take to heart the crying he could hear below the sound of the bath Hermione immediately had started.

Hermione nervously glanced at the clock in the kitchen, worried to find that without being woken up, Ron and Harry managed to sleep until noon.

"So - sleeping with Harry - bad idea - his stupid bloody nightmares-" Ron groaned as he wrapped his hand around the cup of tea Hermione handed him.

"I can't control them, you know that!" Harry cried apologetically.

"That's the worst part!"

"Okay, okay, calm down, both of you! Just sit down and have some tea and some food and maybe you'll sleep separately tonight. Ron, maybe you can just move into my room, so we all stay together, and that way you two won't worry about me so much."

"Why is Ron the one to move into your room?"

"I- I figured you'd want to be in Sirius' room, Harry...I thought that's why you chose it to begin with," Hermione stammered.

"Oh, okay. I thought maybe you just-"

"You two need to get over this whole 'who-Hermione-likes-better' foolishness. You've got your own girls - granted, neither of them are here, but nonetheless - we're all best friends, all three of us. And for the record, you're both complete arses!"

Ron and Harry looked at each other and sighed playfully.

"But...no Quidditch, no Hermione, what ever will we compete over?" Ron feigned lament. Hermione reached to the pile of encyclopedias she had brought with them, and shoved a couple of them towards the pair of hastily-dressed young men.

"How about...who can find information that we need? That sounds spectacular to me!"

They looked at each other and sighed again, sitting down to the table and beginning to simultaneously eat and page through the massive books. Hermione grinned smugly as she bit off the edge of a piece of toast.

"Draco! Draco, come downstairs, please!" Bellatrix' shrill voice penetrated the walls of Draco's bedroom. He groaned, frustratedly shoving a bookmark into his novel and pushing himself off his bed. He stumbled over to his mirror, straightened his hair and his tie, and extinguished the lantern by his bed. As Draco jerked his door open he was greeted with a chorus of screams, shrieks, and cackles, seemingly not all his aunt's, which confused him.

I could have sworn Aunt Bella was the only crazy woman we had around here...

"Yes?" he asked brusquely as he catapulted himself off the bottom step of the staircase, silver eyes pointed towards his parents and uncle. His mother caught him by the arm, looking at him just as gently.

"We caught one of Potter's friends on her way home from school. She won't say anything, though. We're not sure if she knows anything important. Do you know her?" Narcissa explained quietly, pointing to the girl being violently shoved to the floor. Draco looked over to see a flash of long hair as blonde as his cascade onto the brown wood.

"Lovegood?" he asked, though he knew there was no other contender. His mother nodded.

"I mean, I know her...don't know if she'd know much of anything, though...always was closer to Granger and the Weaslette than to Potter himself," Draco said.

"Have you taken anything of mine?" Bellatrix screamed for the third time.

"I told you, I don't know anything! The nargles probably took whatever's missing!" Luna exclaimed. "They do that a lot. They take my things all the time."

Draco registered that Luna's voice seemed even dreamier than usual.

"You have a very pretty ceiling, by the way, Bella," Luna murmured.

"What did you call me?" Bellatrix snapped.

"Isn't that your name? Bella? Pardon me - I thought that was your name," Luna said. Bellatrix, with a frightened look on her face, moved away from the girl, and Luna sat up. Her movements resembled those of a doll, Draco observed. Bellatrix rushed over to her sister.

"Severus said that the girl was crazy, Draco," she began. "We thought-"

"He was kidding?" Draco interrupted jeeringly, earning himself a few scowls. "Her classmates don't call her 'Loony Lovegood' for nothing."

Draco restrained himself from grimacing as his uncle stormed over to the blonde girl and began torturing her himself. Her screams were piercing, but all of her answers to their questions continued to be vague, irrelevant, and unsatisfactory. After a little over an hour, Rodolphus decided to give up.

"Draco," he sighed angrily, shoving Luna back down to the floor as he stood up as regally as he was able. "Take the girl to the cellar."

"Yes, Uncle."

Draco slid away from his parents and aunt, trading places with his uncle so that he stood over Luna. He reached his hand down, grabbing her harshly by the arm and pulling her up from the floor, then heading towards the cellar. She followed willingly, looking at him confusedly when he closed the entrance after himself.

"Blame the nargles, why don't you?" he sneered, and she giggled.

"It's always the nargles' fault, didn't you know?" she retorted, looking him briefly in the eyes with an expression that answered his question precisely before turning away and calling out for Griphook and Ollivander. Draco laughed.

"I'll make sure they remember to feed you, too," he said, and wheeled himself out of the cellar and back up the stairs.