Good Enough - Chapter 24

Hermione felt like she was caught between two worlds: reality and dream. Somehow she managed to watch what happened before her through her own eyes, but as a spectator. It was as though she was there, but was not really there; reality from the point of view of a dream.

"D-Drake...Draco..."

Her heart was thumping cruelly against her chest, begging to be released from the confines of her flesh and bones. She knew that only one body hit the ground, no idea as to how that was possible, but she could not bring herself to figure out which one fell.

"Draco..."

Instead she gave into her numbness and rocked her body back and forth while trying to grip the reality of the situation, of what she just saw. She had witnessed Draco Malfoy throw himself at the Dark Lord in order to protect her.

"Draco..."

Her voice cracked that time. A fat tear slid down her face, a prelude to the sobs that were threatening to over wrack her body. Yes, she wanted to give into her grief, the overwhelming feeling that it was Draco who landed in a pile of blond hair and bloody limbs on the ground. She wanted to give into the feelings of helplessness.

The only coherent thought that was rummaging around her jostled mind was that she felt like a complete hypocrite. She knew that if she managed to get up enough strength to look over the shattered shards of glass surrounding the window frame just to see Draco lying dead on the cold ground—then yes, she was going to throw herself over with him. She'd plummet to her death because a life without Draco was no life at all. She finally realized just how true that was.

"D-Draco..."

Sorrow was ready to engulf her, but Hermione was a lioness, the Gryffindor Princess, and she was refusing to go down without a solid fight. She had to know if it was Draco. If not then–well then she really didn't know because how the hell did only one body hit the ground?

Her body was still in a severe amount of pain from the Cruciatus Curse, but she pushed herself up none the less. Her shaking hands gripped her knees as she forced her body up, spasms doing belly flops throughout every inch of her being. A squeak of pain escaped her lips before she could stop it, not like it mattered. When she managed to stand up, a feeling of blood rushed to her head. A part of her wanted to double over, to grip her head in agony as a hurricane of ache swept over, but she could not. The other part told her to suck it up and move to the damn window.

Each step that she took was like a ticking bomb–tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick–and she found herself holding her breath, a gulp of air that she did not even remember taking in. Why did he do that? Why did he have to go and act like a bloody hero?! Why do that?!

She gasped when her feet began to crunch the glass debris from the window. Her heart was in her mouth, her cotton-dry mouth for that matter, pumping so quickly that she thought it was going to pop from rapid beating. Hermione's tremulous hands touched the broken frame, the cool night air spraying her across the face. Her eyes closed for a moment before she leaned forward.

Her eyes wandered to the ground to see a thin line. The distance separating herself and the figure was keeping her from identifying who it was. Both the Dark Lord and Draco had been wearing black cloaks and the height was too much of an interference.

Her teary eyes were fixated on the ground, the figure below, and her focus was with whoever that figure was. Her eyes were watering, mouth dry, and all she wanted to do was scream, lash out at the world for doing all of this to her.

"Hermione..."

The whisper was faint, but none the less, it was the most beautiful sound in the world. Hermione distinctly heard Draco's voice whispering to her, calling for her, in the darkness of the night and vastly close in proximity. "Draco where are you?!"

"Look down..."

Hermione leaned over far beyond the window would regularly allow, broken glass puncturing the delicate skin of her belly, to see Draco. She finally released that breath that she had been holding in which, due to how long she had held it in, had practically turned her face a lovely shade of blueberry indigo.

"Hermione...I'm kind of s-stuck..."

Through her blinding tears she could see that he had uttered those words through clenched teeth and severe pain. Finally she took into account the position that he was in.

"Oh Merlin...No..."

Not only was this man hanging in midair, but he was only hanging by his foot. Draco had fallen, but unlike the Dark Lord who continued to fall until he slammed into the unforgiving ground, Draco found himself caught up in another situation. The castle was surrounded by sharply pointed fences and his foot just happened to land right into one.

"Draco I–"

"Sh! Hermione–" his voice tense, but quiet, "–Behind the window that I'm in front of is bloody Greyback. Look...Even if I were to get off of this fucking thing, I'm in too much fucking pain to walk. Just go on without me. Find a way to get out safe. Please Angel."

Hermione for an instant looked mad enough to kill. How dare he! He just thinks that I'm going to leave his ass to save myself?! Draco Malfoy–you–you prat!

"You're insane–" she scolded quietly, "–I'm not going to bloody leave you. Either we leave together or neither of us does."

"Hermione...ugh this is no time to be this way. Alright my foot is fucking lodged in a spike so...bloody hell this hurts...get your Gryffindor ass out of here," he growled gripping his leg, pain nearly causing him to pass out.

"No," said Hermione firmly and with defiance. Draco's eyes were bloodshot and red, but he looked beyond his pain to give her a death stare.

"Hermione I swear that–"

"I don't care. I'm not leaving without you and that is fucking final. Now I have his bloody wand and I'll find a way to get you off of there. Hang on and bloody well shut up so I can think," she hissed. Hermione could have sworn that she saw his lips turn up ever so slightly to form the markings of that wondrous smile, but it was gone in the next instant replaced by unbearable pain.

Hermione turned around to spot the wand that had been left on the floor rather carelessly given that it was the Dark Lord's wand. She raced over to the piece of wood, gripped it firmly before rising to her feet. She had to figure out how to get him off of there and safely. One had to remember that it was not her wand she was using, not to mention who actually owned the wand, making it sketchy and hard to control. Only people with extensive magical abilities would be able to handle such a wand and, unfortunately, Hermione was not currently one of those people. Once upon a time she had been, but not in the last several years, certainly not in the last several minutes.

In spite of this, Hermione was doing this to save Draco and nobody would be able to tell her that she could not handle the power if it meant saving him.

"Okay Drake–Draco?"

His eyes were starting to drift shut, the pain becoming far too much for his body to handle, but her tense voice opened them up again.

"Draco Malfoy if you close your eyes...I swear to Merlin I'll kill you if you even so much as think about that again. I need you to focus and stay with me, alright?"

"Alright."

"Alright so what I need for you to do is grip the edge of this window when I have levitated you high enough to reach it. I can't very well use wandless magic to lift you up so I'll have to use this one. I'm afraid that I can't stop the pain until you're up here so I need you to hang on until you're up high enough. Do you understand?"

He looked ready to pass out, but nodded none the less. Hermione realized that if she didn't hurry up then he was going to black out from the pain which would completely screw them over. In fact, it was quite amazing that he was not already out cold seeing as he did have a sharp stake wedged in his flesh.

She glanced down and rid the window frame of the broken glass and instead softened the wood to be feathery light, like a pillow. Upon finishing she looked down to see Draco struggling to release his foot again.

"Draco stop, you'll only make it worse. Look I'll lift you off of it fast and quick, but the pain will be horrid. Please stay awake, love. I need you to stay awake." Draco stopped moving and gave in with a nod.

A deep breath left her lips as her mind focused in on what she wanted. The power that it would take for her to lift him off with the use of somebody else's wand, dark wand, was a power that would require concentration and suck out a large portion of her strength.

Do this for Draco, do this for Draco, do this for Draco, do this for Draco, do this for Draco...

"H-Hermione...I n-need some help..."

She was so focused on what she wanted, how she had to get it, and what she needed to do that she had actually done it. Draco was hanging, dangling more like it, from the window frame, holding on with bloody fingers. Her mind snapped and she lunged forward, gripping both of his wrists with her small hands.

"Hermione...I c-cant–"

"Don't you even think about letting go Malfoy. If you fall then I fall and I damn well refuse to die tonight so get your ass in here," she scolded.

Draco bit his tongue, his muscles practically breaking free of the restraints of his skin, but he managed to pull himself up over the frame. Hermione had helped considerably and yanked his body inside once the balance of his weight shifted in their favor. Together they landed into a small pile on the floor, their breathing elevated and faces flushed.

"Th-thanks," he uttered gently.

"Oh it was no bloody problem. By the way–" she stopped herself short and slapped the back of his head. He gave her a look of confusion that asked whether she had gone mad or not.

"What was that for?" he asked irritably.

"That was for acting like a bloody hero. What were you thinking?! You could have died. You should be dead you prat!"

Draco looked away from her gripping his legs tightly as she began using the little strength she had left to heal him. The Dark Lord's wand was burning her knuckles, but she held strong and focused on his foot which, crudely, was starting to turn purple.

"I fell in love with you. You...you're my angel, Hermione, and I was not about t-to let anything happen to y-you." His voice was a mixture of physical agony and emotional pain, grunting out when the pain seemed almost unbearable, but Hermione did not break to comfort him. Instead she continued to heal as he forced words to keep flowing from his mouth; "Cause...a life without you j-just isn't a life at...at all." Hermione finished his leg to the best of her ability right as he finished that statement.

A tear escaped her brown eye that for the first time in a long time...well, she was glad that it fell. That was not a tear of pain, a tear of sorrow, a tear of bitter agony, but a tear of pure joy; tear of bliss. Yes, Draco had told her that he loved her many times, her never having an ounce of doubt whether he was sincere or not; he had done things, idiotic things like risking in his life, in order to save her; Draco had done so much for her, but nothing made her feel the way she did at that moment like the words he just whispered.

Unlike other times where she felt confused about her emotions, citing her unstable mental status and the trauma that her husband had left on her as the cause, Hermione knew the reason for the tear. She finally felt like she was worth something to somebody else.

Obviously she knew that she had the love of the entire Weasley family, but she was a family member to them. She was their other daughter, another sister, the sister one always wanted, but that was family love. Of course Harry loved her and Hermione knew that he would love her like a sister until the day he died, but again it was all in a friendly manner. She had never felt romantic love. Well, unless you count Alan's which was more of a blinding lust as she had begun to call it.

With Draco it had been different. For the longest time she wondered whether he was in love with her. She questioned it on several occasions and rightfully so given the circumstances. Draco was not only the most guarded man she had ever met, but a man who had lost his wife three years prior. Not to mention that only a span of less than two months had passed in their time together. Granted that they had spent nearly every waking moment with one another, but aside from that, two months is hardly a lifetime together. How could a love that strong and real ever have been created in that amount of time? Odds were not in her bloody favor!

All of that had been stacked together like a wall blocking her from the rest of her reality and it had been driving her crazy since she had begun to think about it. Those three words of 'I love you' were not words that she had ever thrown around and it appeared that he never had either, but they were still heavy words. She always thought to a degree that he did love her.

In spite of this, she questioned whether he loved her for her or whether he loved her as the replacement for his wife.

One cannot really blame Hermione considering that it was rather natural. Unlike other people who could hate 'the other woman', she could not. Hermione could not bring herself to hate someone who was so wonderful, so beautiful, so kind, so in love with the same incredible man. She was jealous and had no problem admitting it for Taylor had managed to gain the love of Draco far sooner than her, but she couldn't hate her.

Hermione had initially felt blinded by love herself for Draco and her had come on strong. They had taken their times in breaking down the other's barrier, the need for trust too overpowering, but it had been resolved none the less. Hermione and Draco had given into each other. Hermione had asked herself numerous times whether she herself was in love.

And she was.

It had taken her up until tonight to truly realize it, but she was desperately in love with Draco Malfoy. She had discovered this directly before the realization which had just most recently brought a tear to her eye. She finally knew that Draco loved her for her. He did not love her as a replacement, as his second love, as the girl who came along afterwards, but he loved her for her.

That was the most overwhelming feeling to ever surge through her mind. For the first time in her entire life, she felt truly loved by somebody.

"Hermione?" Draco's hand reached up to grip her cheek where he gently rid the joyful tear from her face. She looked dazed which was precisely why Draco was not surprised when her next comment was a little random;

"I feel good enough for you."

Draco smiled, chuckling to himself lightly, before he said, "Well good because it's about time that you realized it."

Hermione bit her lip, the nervous habit which Draco found entirely irresistible. Had they not been in their current situation and had Draco not been a little hyped up on healing spells, they surely would have spent the entire night soaking in the others' graze.

Nevertheless, they were still on the highest floor of the castle where only moments before Draco had pushed the leader of the darkest wizarding clan to ever exist out of the window.

The chaos had only just begun.

A/N: Okay so I didn't get home until 4 AM considering it is New Years and I still had to finish writing it, but none the less, here it is and I hoped you all liked it.

I need to say that I'm sorry, but I'm not getting any of my emails. I have been attempting to message all of you guys back, but fanfiction is not allowing it and I'm pretty sure it's temporary. I'm sorry about this, but please know that I am thankful for all of your reviews and support.

SweetSacrifice - You know I think you're awesome. Your review was very much appreciated.

Silverlovedragoness - I would love to help you. I just read the other story and thank you for recommending it because it was great. It's now on my favorite stories lists. Anyways, when the private messaging is back on track then I'll be sure to help you.

"Good Enough" is by the band Evanescence. I thought it was kind of the perfect song which was the reason behind me borrowing a line from the song - "I feel good enough for you" - so know that I don't own that line. The song is really about somebody finally feeling so in love, so special, so 'good' that they are giving into that other person. It's a big step and in return, the person pleads that the other feels the same for the love is just too strong to resist. I feel that is exactly how she felt in this chapter.

READ AND REVIEW!! If you can read it, then you can review.

Iris is the work of fanfiction. The characters belong to J.K. Rowling, but the featured story is mine.