Thank you for reading! I don't own any of Harry Potter! Please let me know if you enjoy!

—————————————————————

The Battle of Hogwarts brought joyous victory to some and bitter defeat to others. Though he suffered no deaths in his immediate family, Draco, the handsome, blonde heir to the Malfoy family name and fortune was among those who were greatly impacted by the catastrophic conflict.

Unlike others, Draco had no real grief to wallow in and no victory with which to comfort himself.

Draco Malfoy was a disappointment to everyone.

His parents…….

The military leader he had been forced to obey……

The few people he called "friends"...

And………himself.

That was the thing that bothered Draco the most.

He had failed to be there for her. When she had been tortured, he had managed to do little to intervene. When she had been pursued by a nightmarish beast, she found support in the arms of another man, she had been rescued by someone besides him…….

Draco accepted those facts with a bitter resignation.

Hermione Granger deserved someone other than him.

Someone better than him.

Let Weasley hold her.

Let Longbottom save her.

Draco Malfoy had sullied himself with the Dark Arts. He had become corrupt with greed and pride. Though he was still very young, his misdeeds were already numerous.

Draco was self-aware. He never denied those truths, though he hated facing them every time he looked into the mirror.

Surely someone as pure as Hermione Granger had slipped forever from his grasp……

—————————————————————

Draco became even more melancholy when he learned that Weasley and Longbottom had failed at their tasks.

While Voldemort was in the process of dying, Draco learned that one of his last remaining soldiers had watched Nagini's slaughter and cast a strange, hurried curse.

Perhaps it was the angle or just misfortune, but the curse hit Hermione directly, avoiding Weasley and Longbottom.

Draco blamed himself for not being there.

If he had held her, he could have stopped it.

Somehow…...

He could have protected her.

Several days later, the twisted scowl on Draco's face relaxed when he saw that Hermione had been treated and was apparently well enough to walk around and speak.

She survived at least…….

That was…..

That was incredible.

Simply incredible.

Though they would never be together, could never be together, Draco would have lost the strength to go on if he ever learned that Hermion Granger was no longer in the world of the living.

—————————————————————

Those days immediately after the battle were some of the oddest that Hogwarts had ever experienced. Everyone seemed to drift around in a haze. The castle was slowly repaired while the injured were treated. Severus Snape was among them. Failing to succumb to his wounds as a direct result of Harry Potter's thoughtful kindness in administering a life-saving potion at the last moment, everyone was surprised when the strict headmaster came walking through the rubble a week after the battle.

Ambling aimlessly through the stone corridors that evening, Draco happened to pass by the headmaster's office on his destinationless journey.

The Malfoy heir paused when he heard the low rumble of Snape's voice spill into the hallway, "I don't think that is appropriate, Minerva. It is far better to keep the creature here where it is safe."

"Severus, be reasonable! We aren't even sure what we must do with it yet! Look at it…..it seems quite frightened. Do you think the Granger girl would want it locked into a cage?" Draco heard McGongagall's sharp reply echo from inside the room.

Draco's interest was piqued.

He drew in a sharp breath as he crouched outside the door in the dark hallway.

Granger…...?

What were they talking about?

A creature?!

Too curious to contain himself, Draco straightened his spine and boldly burst into the headmaster's office. He made no attempt at knocking to announce his presence, for fear that Snape and Mcgonagall would hide whatever they were talking about from him.

When Draco barged into the room, both members of the Hogwarts faculty looked up at him in surprise,

"Headmaster! Professor!" Draco exclaimed, "I……..I believe the healers need more bandages for the wounded. May I go to the infirmary and bring some to them?"

It was a silly question to ask, but it was the best Draco could think up as a valid reason to explain his sudden arrival.

"...Certainly, Draco." Snape replied in a low drawl, eyeing his student suspiciously. Draco noticed that Snape was standing on one side of the desk and Mcgonagall on the other.

So where was the creature?

Professor Mcgonagall left the matter up to Snape. With a nod to him and Draco, she left the room.

As soon as Professor Mcgonagall moved away from the desk, that was when Draco saw it……

His grey eyes widened in shock.

Snape was going to try to hide the creature from Draco, but he was too late and he watched the expression on Draco's face change rapidly from one of shock to joy to confusion.

There, on the headmaster's desk, was a tiny little….thing….not more than a few inches tall. The creature had a mess of curly, long, brown hair on the top of its head, and a plain, chubby little body with handless and footless little stumps for arms and legs. The creature had no nose but it blinked at Draco with its huge, adorable brown eyes. It looked right at him and gave a happy smile as it made the most adorable squeak he had ever heard. The creature looked like a little sack doll, but Draco could tell it was clearly alive, at least in some way.

"What is that thing?!" Draco hissed at Snape.

"The curse that Miss Granger was struck by was a complicated one, though it was not fatal." Snape said quickly, "The curse seems to have produced an odd……...accessory. The likes of which, we've never seen. Professor McGongall and I are attempting to sort the matter."

Draco barely heard the headmaster as he walked closer to the desk.

The cute little living sack doll seemed to become happier as Draco drew nearer and nearer towards her. By the time Draco reached the desk and sat down in a nearby chair so he was eye level with the little creature, it was jumping up and down on its minuscule legs, beaming with joy.

Draco seemed amused, in spite of all the turmoil he had been through over the last year. Instinctively, he slowly placed a hand out on the desk and opened his palm.

The little sack doll wasted no time in running over and climbing into Draco's hand. Her fluffy brown hair waved behind her as she quickly cuddled against one of his fingers.

"Is this……...is this a miniature of….her?" Draco asked Snape, looking up at the headmaster.

Snape gazed down at Draco calculatingly while he answered, "No…... How would that be possible, Draco? You've seen Miss Granger up and about. She can't be in two places at once. Professor Mcgonagall and I believe that…...creature…..is just a fragment, a piece of her, if you will…..but for Miss Granger's safety, we're trying to gain a better understanding."

Draco's cold heart melted as he watched in awe while the tiny, sack doll of Hermione laid her nest of brown hair against his finger. With a soft little sigh, she held onto him with the cute little stubs that served as her arms and closed her eyes.

"We mustn't touch what isn't ours, Draco." Snape commented.

Draco knew from the stern look on his face that he was asking him in a roundabout way to place the creature back down on the desk, but Draco wasn't ready.

Draco was tired of mindlessly following orders.

This Hermione, well, this piece of Hermione seemed to like Draco quite a bit. And he was determined to savor that as much as he could……..

"How long will your research take?" Draco asked Snape.

Snape shrugged, "How do you expect me to answer that? It could be days, weeks, months…."

"This thing has emotions." Draco reasoned quickly, trying and failing to hide the desperate plea in his voice, "What if it gets frightened here in your office all alone and escapes?"

Snape scowled at Draco.

"If you'll let me watch over it, then I can assure you it will be kept safe…...I-I'll bring it back here whenever you ask!" Draco added.

Snape drew in a deep breath and sighed silently.

He knew the look on Draco's face well. Snape was no idiot. The shrewd potions master watched all of his students very closely. As a spy who had kept himself alive by reading other people, Snape was certain that Draco hadn't volunteered to care for the creature purely out of the goodness of his heart.

Draco Malfoy was in love with Hermione Granger.

Snape remained quiet for a moment while he thought.

"Please, Headmaster!" Draco begged, "Give me this chance at least! It's my only one!"

Snape sighed again. He saw his own unrequited yearning mirrored in Draco and it moved him to show his favorite student a small mercy.

"Very well." Snape nodded, "When I instruct you to bring it here, you'll do so immediately, understand?"

"Of course!" Draco nodded gratefully, "Of course! Thank you, headmaster! I'm very-"

"-And you will see that no harm comes to it." Snape ordered, "We aren't certain what the creature means or the implications that it could have. Though they may be numerous...I fear that Miss Granger may suffer dire consequences if some terrible peril befell it."

"Absolutely!" Draco nodded, "I'll protect it with my life, sir. You have no cause for worry."

Snape gave Draco a terse nod. Draco took that as his cue to leave, fleeing from Snape's office with Hermione's little miniature firmly in his grasp before the headmaster had a chance to change his mind.

—————————————————————

Later that evening, Hermione, Harry, and Ron all sat by the comforting warmth of the crackling fire in what remained of the Gryffindor common room.

Ron stared into the flames blankly but Hermione looked nervous and she shifted uncomfortably in her seat, wiping her hands across her face again and again.

"What's the matter, Hermione?" Harry asked with concern.

"Nothing, I suppose……." Hermione said absently.

Ron glanced over at her as she added, "It's odd, I just……...I don't feel right. Like I'm missing some part of myself or something."

"You're probably just tired." Ron assessed.

"We've all been through a lot." Harry said reassuringly to his troubled friend.

"Yeah……" Hermione agreed, though her gaze, which was usually sharp and bright, remained distant.

Hermione leaned forward and behind her, Ron and Harry exchanged a worried glance.

—————————————————————

While the golden trio sat in their house's common room, far away from Hogwarts, at Malfoy manor, Draco was without his own friends but he was not lonely.

Tuning out the background noise of his father and mother arguing while Lucius packed hurriedly in an attempt to run from the authorities and avoid a sentence to Azkaban, Draco chose to focus on more pleasant things.

He was lying in his spacious bed, surrounded by embellished green duvets and a mountain of fluffy pillows, clad only in his black pajama pants.

Draco's grey eyes danced with mirth as he laid on his stomach, watching Hermione's little sack doll run in circles on the green velvet pillow in front of him.

The little sack doll giggled and laughed, waving her arms happily at Draco while she played.

Draco reached out a hand and Hermione's miniature froze.

Deftly, Draco lovingly touched the fluffy brown nest of curls on top of the sack doll's head and she watched him with wide eyes, her cute mouth open in a curious "o".

When the little sack doll let out a squeal of happiness, Draco struggled not to do the same.

How wonderful it was to finally have Hermione all to himself, even if it was only a piece of her…...