When in Darkness there is Hope Still

This chapter concludes the first part of the story the next part well you will just have to wait and see...I know I am evil like that. I apologize again for the slower updates, I hope you enjoy this chapter and as usual, I am NOT The esteemed Ms. Rowling I do NOT own Harry Potter or any of the characters in the Potter universe I just like playing with them and I make zero profit off of this. Now on Jeeves!

-HPDM-

October 1998

"Mr. Potter! What an honor it is sir, please have a seat anywhere you would like."

Harry and Draco settled into a table close to the back of the room, both choosing to sit with their backs to the wall. This lesson having been drilled into Harry's head during Auror training and Draco just did not want to be hexed without knowing it.

"You as well I see, I never feel comfortable not seeing who is around me anymore. All those months living isolated in a tent did not help it either."

Draco merely nodded and reached to pick up the menu from the table. A hand snatched the sticky parchment from his grasp before he could get a good grip and he realized a wand was pointed at his head. Slowly as not to alarm the other person Draco lifted his head to stare into the very angry, very red face of Ron Weasley.

"Give me one bloody good reason ferret why I should not haul you in for placing Harry under the Imperius Curse" Ron spat digging his wand deeper into the side of Draco's head.

"Ron! Put your wand down this instant or I will bloody well haul you in for causing a public riot."

"Harry, why the hell are you sitting here eating with Draco fucking Malfoy!"

"Because I can Ron! Because I invited him to lunch and he agreed to have lunch with me. Since when have you become the only person I am allowed to eat with?"

Ron's face went from red to purple, sparks flying out of the end of his wand and singeing the side of Draco's eyebrow. Draco jumped up, his chair falling and backed away from Ron before he set his entire head ablaze.

"What the bloody hell! You almost set me on fire Weasel!" Draco said angrily.

"You deserve that and much worse you fucking ferret!"

"ENOUGH!" Harry shouted standing up from the table and walking around to stand in between Ron and Draco.

"Ron, this is above and beyond insane, you will leave us alone right now and I will come by later and explain to you or I will hex you after the next word that comes out of your mouth. I would choose wisely because after the morning I have had they may find your bits in Liverpool and the rest of you in Scotland."

"Fine, I expect an explanation today, Harry Potter."

"Yes, yes sometime this evening I promise I will tell you everything." Harry sighed, Ron was still livid but after a moment marched across the pub and out of the door.

Harry could feel every eye in the pub on him and rubbed his hand across his eyes trying to stem the sudden blinding headache, he did not want to deal with Ron today, or anyone else for that matter. Harry felt a hand on his forearm give a little squeeze, without even glancing up he knew it was Draco by his touch. Would it ever be simple for him? Would life always have to interfere where the rest of his heart fought to keep his sanity intact? He knew, yes God he knew he was going to have to make some very hard choices very soon, especially regarding his friends and the reactions they would all have about this soul bonding spell.

"Harry"

Harry pulled his hands away from his eyes and looked at the smoldering expression on Draco's face, pride and lust radiated off of him in drowning waves. Harry gave a half smile and tried to turn back towards the table, Draco seemed to have other plans and spun him back towards him and into his arms. Draco stared at the Green-eyed savior of the wizarding world for a second before leaning into him

"That was so hot, Potter," he breathed into Harry's ear; Draco's arms were wrapped tightly around Harry's arms effectively trapping him against his chest. "So bloody hot it makes me want to ravish you on this table in front of everyone in this pub."

Harry shook with barely controlled lust at Draco's words, Merlin did he want that but every eye was still watching. He could hear the murmurs beginning to rise around him and knew he had to get them both out before a mob began.

"Why on a hard table when I have a house that has 10 bedrooms waiting?" Harry whispered back, Draco growled in response, he let go with one hand and fished a handful of galleons out of his robes to throw on the table and promptly threw his arm back around Harry as quickly as he could.

"Then, by all means, lead the way, Lord Potter, I daresay we can have at least 5 rooms debauched before midnight and the other 5 before breakfast if we hurry."

"Is that a challenge, Lord Malfoy?" Harry smirked, enjoying the devil may care smile on Draco's lips.

"Hmm, I suppose that depends on how good your stamina is and if you can keep up" Harry threw back his head and laughed at that ridiculous statement. Silence, the entire pub went silent at the sound of Harry Potter laughing, Draco's smile only got bigger and Harry laughed harder. The stunned silence from the patrons at the Leaky Cauldron was nothing to the radiant smile on Draco's face as he leaned down and gently kissed Harry on the lips in front of the entire pub; Harry's face bloomed red but he did not jerk away from him, he simply smiled and kissed Draco back.

Hogsmeade:

Hermione was silent, the phrase silent as the grave came to mind while she slowly made her way back to her friends in Hogsmeade. How could she have been so stupid? How! Angry tears were cascading down her face, pooling into the already messed up cascade of unruly chestnut curls whipping in the wind around her. She slept with him. No, she let him fuck her to someone else's memory. The memory of a woman who had been dead for damn near two decades, the mother of her best friend whom she loved with all her heart.

How can you hate a dead person, someone you have never even met, someone who gave you the best friend you never knew you even needed or wanted?

She did though, at that very moment she hated Lily Evans Potter more than she hated Voldemort himself. Lily...beautiful, perfect and very much dead Lily Potter; with her long straight red hair and emerald green eyes, her personality that had made everyone who had known her mourn her for decades, who held Hermione's happiness and love captive, even in death.

Hermione stopped outside of The Three Broomsticks and took a deep breath, her resolve slipping and she almost turned around to head back to the castle when Luna walked out of the door and came to stand directly in front of Hermione. Luna did not say a word, she did not have too, she simply wrapped her arms around her distraught friend and let the girl cry.

"Have I ever told you the story of Esmeralda Lovegood and Tobias Black? Esmeralda was an extremely gifted witch, although she had a serious problem with trying to solve other people's problems instead of focusing on her own, of course. She fancied herself in love with a man named Cyril, who happened to be her brothers best friend. Cyril Nott was in love with another witch by the name of Rosamund; her last name I can not recall although I do know she was a great beauty or so legend has it."

Luna was rubbing circles along Hermione's back.

"Rosemund did not love Cyril, however, and spurned his advances at every turn. The problem was Esmeralda was very much in love with Cyril but never told him for fear of losing the friendship that she so deeply coveted. Cyril, of course, had no clue the gifted young witch harbored any such affection for him. Cyril counted her as a friend and sister to his own best friend Marcus. Years went by and Esmeralda grew into a great beauty as well but Cyril was so blinded by his infatuation with Rosemund that he never even noticed the growing beauty right before his eyes. One day a man by the name of Tobias Black, bid her father for her hand in marriage and her father accepted. Tobias was rumored to be a mean man, much older than Esmeralda and she loathed him.

Desperate Esmeralda performed a ritual to bind her to her soulmate so that her father could not make her marry Tobias. Esmeralda waited until midnight on the night of the full moon, dressed in pure white she performed the ritual on the tallest peak of her family's castle, she always assumed Cyril would be her souls match, after all, she was completely devoted to him. However, when she dropped her blood into the vial that held the potion for her souls match it was not Cyril she saw in the white light it was in fact, Tobias."

Luna hugged her tighter.

"Stricken with grief at having lost her heart to Cyril, she jumped from the tallest peak of the castle in order to end her own life but, she did not die. Having seen the beautiful Esmeralda climb to the tallest peak of the castle, Tobias followed her curious to see what she was doing and when she performed the ritual, immediately Tobias knew she was bound to him and he could feel her despair at having lost Cyril forever. As she jumped from the highest peak, Tobias used all of his strength to save her life with magic. Esmeralda was so enraged that Tobias had saved her and left her with such despair, she vowed she would never marry him, nor would she ever love him and cursed him to stay away from her.

Several months passed and Esmeralda began to fade away, her life force forever tied to Tobias whom she had sent away. She could feel his sadness just as he could feel hers, she knew how much he loved her and yet she was so blinded by her own grief she tried to keep her connection to Cyril even though the ritual broke what little affection he had for her irrevocably.

You see, that particular ritual while strengthening your affection for your soul mate, broke any affection that may have happened if it had never been performed. Cyril withdrew from Esmerelda, repulsed by her only because the ritual compelled him to do so.

Five years passed and Tobias was sent by the king to fight in a war along with Marcus and Cyril, the war was long and bloody and by the end of it, the only one who came back was Tobias. Esmeralda so stricken with grief mourned Cyril greatly but finally agreed to marry Tobias because Cyril had forever been lost to her.

Esmeralda and Marcus married seven years after the ritual was performed but much to Tobias grief she went into her wedding night still mourning Cyril and in the throes of passion called out his name.

Tobias enraged and saddened by her delusions and he left her to mourn Cyril forever alone. Fate though had other plans, you see when Esmerelda and Tobias completed the ritual a golden light surrounded them, blessed by the Gods in what is known as a golden soul bond, a very rare and very powerful connection that only occurs once every thousand years.

Every millennium there is one couple meant for the golden soul bond, the couple is usually completely unaware of each other until it is necessary for this ritual to be performed. They must go through great tragedies, hardships and love lost completely, wars or famines and both must be powerful before the connection is made but once the connection is made, the golden soul bound couple always go on the become great leaders, brilliant and blessed in every way. They love harder and are more bound than any other couple alive. Their very existence blesses our world with great fortune for hundreds of years.

Esmeralda knew the moment her heart and soul connected with Tobias and she knew she messed up greatly over her superficial connection to Cyril, she knew she had to find a way to beg Tobias's forgiveness over her own blind ignorance. Tobias, however, had apperated away to another of their homes that same night vowing to never lay eyes on his beautiful bride again, but Esmeralda having known how much she hurt him vowed she would never give up.

She wrote him letters, which he returned unread, she sent him gifts which he also returned unopened. Finally, after several weeks and several letters, tears, and pain, with her heart on her sleeve and her soul in pieces.Esmeralda summoned all the courage she could muster and apperated to where he was.

Tobias was not alone, however, when she went to find him, he was, in fact, entertaining Rosemund. In a fit of fury, Esmeralda marched up to him and with all the strength she had left struck him across the face, angry tears streaming down her face she told him she loved him, she poured out her heart to him. Tobias so caught up in her righteous fury kissed her passionately and told her he had always loved her. Both Tobias and Esmeralda lived to be well over three hundred and they were blessed with seven extremely powerful children." Luna finished her story and was still holding her friend, having noticed she had stopped crying she gave her a gentle squeeze and released her.

Hermione looked at the brilliant Ravenclaw with too much insight for her own good and beamed brightly at her. There was no reason to pour her heart out, there was no reason to say anything at all because in true Luna fashion she had said exactly what needed to be said already.

"I am not saying however that you should not make him grovel, after all, what better way to invoke those kinds of emotions if there aren't a few boulders thrown in to make it worthwhile." Luna finished brightly and all Hermione could do was burst out laughing. Boulders indeed, he would be damned lucky if he even got the chance to grovel, yet the story had given her hope; hope that perhaps he knew how greatly he had hurt her, hope that one day he may love her as much as she loved him. Hope, at least there was always hope.