Here I am left in silence
You gave up the fight
You left me behind
All that's done is forgiven
~Forgiven by Within TemptationChapter 24
"What?" Hermione asked, hoping that she'd heard him wrong. But the look in his eyes told her everything.
He was trying to hide the pain, trying to hide behind his usual expressionless look, but Hermione knew him to well now. He was trying so desperately hard. But she could see that he was broken up inside. She could see that his usually cool gray eyes were silver with unshed tears and that they were shattered.
"Draco, what happened?" she said. He turned away from her with a stubborn, defiant set to his jaw and motioned to the paper in her hands.
Hermione read it and felt her insides chill until they were frozen. He really had been a traitor. And the Death Eaters had found out.
"Draco-"
"Don't." He said, getting up and walking to the window. She sighed. Why did all of the guys in her life have to be so stubborn?
"It may help," she tried. She saw his shoulders tense.
"I said don't," he snapped.
"Talk to me, Draco," she pleaded. "Please?"
He took in a deep, shuddering breath.
"I didn't believe him," he said, rounding on her with a maniacal glint in his eyes brought on by the pain from the loss. "I could have saved him, but I didn't believe him."
"It wasn't your fault," she said gently, taking a step towards him. He glared at her.
"If it wasn't for me getting locked up, he wouldn't have turned traitor. If I had believed him, he may have been brought to a safe house," he argued. "It was absolutely my fault."
"First of all, you don't know if he wouldn't have turned traitor sooner or later," she reasoned. "The Death Eaters don't exactly respect him."
He shook his head. "It doesn't matter. I was still the catalyst."
"Draco-"
"I'm going to kill them," he said, his eyes lighting up. Hermione was getting worried and a bit scared. Draco was driving himself mad.
As he pulled out his wand, Hermione snatched it out of his hand. He rounded on her with a glare. If looks could kill, she'd be a pile of ashes right now. But she had to stand her ground. She wasn't going to let him go kill himself.
"You'll do no such thing," she said sternly. He watched her in betrayal.
"You don't understand-"
"Believe me, Draco Malfoy," she said. "I understand more than you may think. And going after them will only get you killed. I won't let that happen."
They both remembered floo powder at the same time. Draco spun and dashed for the door, Hermione right on his heels. Draco hit the floor at the bottom of the stairs, and before he could turn to get to the fireplace, Hermione threw caution to the wind and leaped on him, throwing all of her weight into the tackle. They fell to the ground together.
They grappled around, rolling around. Hermione was relieved that Draco didn't seem upset enough to raise a fist, because then she would be no match for him.
"I'm so, so sorry," she whispered. Then she stupefied him. "Incarcerous."
As she was climbing off of him, Harry walked in. He raised an eyebrow.
"What happened here?" He asked.
"He wants to go kill the Death Eaters alone," Hermione stated flatly. "I wasn't about to sit there and let him get himself killed."
Harry looked down at the blonde man who was bound and unconscious at her feet.
"I didn't think he'd react like this," Harry said quietly. Hermione pursed her lips and looked down on him. Draco was going to hate her when he wakes up.
"He's a slytherin mind with the heart of a gryffindor," she said quietly. Harry gave her a strange look before walking away. Hermione sighed and sat down beside him.
"Reenervate," she muttered, half-heartedly flicking her wand in his direction. She heard him stir as he woke up, though she refused to look at him.
"What is this?" He practically snarled at her. Hermione winced.
"I had to stop you," she said. "And now you have to talk to me so you don't go all crazy and suicidal again."
Draco was stubbornly silent for a few minutes, but then he must have realized how much he meant to her because he sighed, relenting.
"He wasn't the best, but he was still my father, Hermione. He taught me everything. And even though I started thinking 'maybe he isn't so great' towards the end, and maybe even started hating him a little bit, I still didn't want to lose him," he said.
"No one ever wants to lose their parents," Hermione said. He glared at her.
"I very well know that! I just feel awful about the way I acted at the very end. I could have saved him if I'd done things differently," he said. Hermione smiled sadly and laid a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"Draco-"
"And I ended up as this huge disappointment. I never lived up to his expectations. And now, I-I just don't know," he said. With every part of the explanation, he was getting more and more hysterical. Right before he turned his head away, not wanting her to see him week, Hermione caught sight of a few tears falling from his eyes. She moved over and as close as she could to him, letting him know that he had her support and that she was there for him. She released the ropes binding him and he pulled her to him, burying his face in the crook of her neck, his body shaking with sobs that he was trying to hold back.
"It's alright," she soothed, rubbing his back comfortingly with one hand and running her fingers through his hair with the other. "Let it out, Draco. Don't hold it back."
"I-I have to tell mother," he said, trying not to cry. Why was he so stubborn? He would feel so much better if he just listened to her.
"Shh," she said. "Not now. Wait until it sinks in." He shook his head.
"She needs to know."
"Telling her while you're in this state will do nothing," she reasoned. "Wait until you've calmed down a little. You're going to need to be stronger than her, because she's going to break down. It's okay to cry when you tell her, but you can't be like this."
He nodded, starting to pull back. She wouldn't let him.
"You need to let it out," she said. "Honestly, you'll feel better."
So they sat there like that for around forty-five minutes. Then he went to tell his mother, leaving Hermione alone, her heart bleeding for him. He's been through so much. He shouldn't have to go through any more pain and suffering. She wandered into the sitting room like a zombie, waiting for him to come back. The others shot her pitying looks behind her back. She didn't even notice.