A/N: Hello readers! For anyone still checking in on this story, I wanted to let you know that I've finally posted the first chapter for Empty Space. I'm sorry for the delay and thank you so much for your patience!
Hermione spun and saw him leave, heart in her throat. She should call after him, run after him, do something. She moved swiftly, but not swift enough. She collided with the damned wards again. She beat her fists against the invisible barrier then turned away from the flap feeling hollow. What had she achieved? She'd hurt him, yes. Just as he'd hurt her. And he'd done it again. Watching him walk out had struck a chord within her. The echoes of her previous pain came back with sudden force. Was it only his betrayal that had stung so deeply? She had to wonder… because watching him walk away made her feel as if he was leaving her. Again. Why was he always leaving her? She angrily swiped a tear, refusing to let it fall. He'd come back for her. She knew that now. But that wasn't the plan. None of this was in the plan. And she'd had so much time to feel abandoned and betrayed. She couldn't just make those feelings disappear. Even if she wanted to.
She wrapped her arms around herself and glared at the empty locket on the table. Draco was angry now, but he wasn't stupid. He'd have figured out that her actions were useless. Burning her vows didn't do anything. The magic was in their bond, not in those written words. Those had just been for her - something personal, something concrete to mark the occasion. She'd realized it the moment she'd said they were nothing. If their bond had truly broken, then he wouldn't have managed to get past her wards back at her house. Those wards had been to keep out enemies - he wasn't one. Her magic knew that even if her brain debated it. She eyed the flap again now, acknowledging the fact that the wards Draco used to keep her in were probably more powerful. After all, they were put in place to protect a loved one. Did she truly need any other proof of his love for her? He'd been misguided, yes, but perhaps his intentions were sincere.
She wrapped her arms around herself, feeling cold and lonely. It wasn't fair. He'd gone off and there was still so much to say. She felt childish and juvenile - she'd ruined something so important. She'd made him think that their relationship was over. But it wasn't gone. Just broken. But how could they fix anything while they were apart? Could they even fix it at this point?
Hermione wasn't sure there was enough time. Because as hurt as she was that he kept leaving her, this time, she was going to have to leave him.
It felt like hours before Hermione saw the flutter of the tent and the blonde head that ducked inside. Her heart leapt, as did she. His eyes flickered with surprise as she came towards him. Her temper had eased considerably, he could see. She could still see the shadows of pain in his eyes, but not as stark.
She was close to him now - not touching but they easily could be.
"I want to tell you that I wish you'd stop leaving me," she murmured softly. "That hurt the most, I think. Feeling left by you."
He frowned at her confession, knowing better than to rehash all the old arguments. But he'd picked up on her tone. "You want to tell me that. Yet you aren't going to?" He knew what she was going to say and he felt more defeated. How many times was he going to come up against the same barriers?
"How can I?" her voice broke a little. "Seeing you again… knowing that I wasn't wrong. That it wasn't all some lie. That you love me. It's made it all so much harder. It was easier to hate you when I thought you didn't."
"I'll always love you." Draco grasped at her hands, seeing a chance for a reconcilialtion that he'd begun to lose hope for.
"What if it's not enough?" Hermione said softly. "Love is powerful, it makes us stronger. But it's not enough for me to abandon everything I believe in."
He shook his head incredulously. "Don't play that line with me, Hermione. Not that whole, if you love something, set it free nonsense. I can't lose you."
Hermione sighed, torn between affection and frustration. She'd been hesitant to ask, but knew it was time to bring up a question that had been hanging over her since her arrival.
"Draco, where's your mother?" He dropped her hands then. Stepped back slightly, looking at her with guarded and wounded eyes. He didn't answer immediately and Hermione noticed the tick in his jaw signalling his tension. "You did so much to protect her. But she's not here with us. And I know you haven't brought her to the cottage, I've been keeping an eye on it." He looked beyond her – at the table, the chairs, anywhere but her face.
"She wouldn't come." The words broke from him, raw and painful. "She insisted that if one of us was to leave, it had to be me. That her duty was to protect me, so she'd help me escape." He was quaking now and Hermione felt the urge to comfort him. Only the need to hear the rest kept her from going to him.
"There is an old wizard we know – he's dying from Dragon Pox. She's convinced everyone that I've got it too, that I'm in quarentine with him. She's the only one in the family whose had it and survived. The Dark Lord has forbidden anyone to see me."
Hermione wondered if that had to do with his fear of death or the fear of losing too many of his more skillful soldiers.
"I've been wondering…" his voice broke a bit, "if she didn't want to leave in the first place."
Hermione moved to him then, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"She's lying to protect you, putting herself at a great risk. I don't think she'd do that if it was only so that she could stay."
"But she's in danger now," Draco argued. "I wish she'd have come with me. I tried, but she kept saying it wasn't my choice. How her choices, my father's choices, had led them to this."
"Helping you leave was most likely her way of respecting your choices," Hermione said, her voice hitting on just the right words. His eyes narrowed as he caught her meaning.
"Hermione, please don't do this. I couldn't bear it if something-" Hermione covered his mouth gently with her hand and rested her head against his chest. She couldn't hear it again. She knew how he felt.
"Every day, I worry about something happening to someone I love," she shook her head against him. "I truly appreciate the lengths you'd go to in order to protect someone you love. You've done what you had to do. And I understand. I really think I do."
The tension eased from him slightly and he wrapped his arms around her.
"You forgive me?" the words were almost a desperate plea. Hermione was silent for a moment, uncertain.
"I want to. But how can you expect my forgiveness for doing what you felt you needed to do if you won't let me do the same?"
His head shook above hers and he tightened his grip around her waist. Hermione let out a shuddery breath. She knew he was beginning to understand, even if it crushed him. She'd know, because she could feel the same pain. And she could feel that same familiar awareness beginning to build. This was the closest they'd been in ages. She could feel him everywhere. It felt good. Too good. She patted his chest, stroking deliberately feeling him, the drum of his heartbeat, the heat of his skin. What if this was her last chance with him?
She crushed his shrit in her hands – tugging him towards her, pulling him down. He watched her warily, but she saw it. That pull. That flash of desire that he couldn't hide away. Not when they were this close. Never when they were this close.
"Draco,"she murmured, sliding closer, "I don't want to talk anymore." With that she brought her lips to his. Oh gods. She moaned and leaned closer. He had no resistance to her. Arms encircled, bodies pressed. Hard heat all over. She trembled. She'd missed this. She'd missed him. It was the same every time. And despite everything that had happened, this maddening passion hadn't changed. It hadn't disappeared or waned. It was still there, as hot and as overwhelming as the first time.
They were moving – back and back, with no walls to stop them. It was only the dim clattering sound that made Hermione realize that they'd hit the table. It didn't matter. Where they were didn't matter. As long they were together. Now. His hands tangled in her hair, his mouth worshipped her skin. Trailing a path of fire wherever his lips went.
He nipped at her neck and she shivered. "How can you even think it?" he muttered against her neck. "How could you think that I could ever leave you behind?" His teeth grazed up to her ear. "How can you think of leaving me? Leaving this?"
She shook her head, turning her head to kiss him. To bleed all her pain into that moment. It was harsh and hard and she broke away desperate for air.
"Because I have to," she rasped. She kissed down his throat, to the buttons she'd been steadily undoing. "But not this minute." No, this minute was theirs.
They were holding hands. He wondered if they'd ever done anything so conventional before. He brushed his thrumb across her palm as they sat in a silence he was loathe to break. She was leaning against him, her breath slowing to its normal rhythm. And even with everything that could be coming, there was a part of him that felt content. There was no one to possibly catch them. No secretly scurrying back to their dormitories. They could just be.
"Draco," she buried her face in his shoulder, "I just… I want you to know… this wasn't a way for me to convince you. I wasn't trying to use this to manipulate you."
He laughed. A full bodied laugh that had Hermione looking at him in surprise.
"Merlin, I never would have thought that, Hermione." His laughter eased to a chuckle and his heart squeezed as he looked at her. "You're not Slytherin enough for that." She whacked his arm.
"Are you saying you would do such a thing?" she asked indignantly.
"Absolutely." He brushed a kiss atop the bushy head he'd grown to love. "If I thought that it would actually work, if keeping you in a sexually satisfied stupor would keep you with me."
"It would just be a dream," she murmured softly. "Eventually we'd wake up."
They were silent again, but that feeling of contentness was slowing slipping away. Instead, his heart was clawing at his throat as he began to speak.
"Nothing I say is going to change your mind, is it? You're going to leave." You're going to leave me. Perhaps it's what he deserved. Perhaps this was his punishment.
"Yes." She kissed his shoulder. "I could see it, you know. You and I alone together, somewhere far away. All of this left behind. But I could never truly be happy, knowing that I ran when I could have helped."
He moved slightly away from her. "I could try and make you. Keep you with me, keep running, just as I've done so far." He could sense the disappointment in her gaze. "But it wouldn't be any good, because I wouldn't have you as I do now. All I'd do is push you away. Again." He got up and Hermione scrambled to follow.
Without looking at her, he reached out his hand. She blinked as something zoomed from the depths of the tent into his grasp. Wandless magic. Well, she was impressed.
"When did you learn that?" she asked breahtlessly. Oh that was something she needed to achieve. He didn't answer her, just looked at the object in his hand. It was only then that Hermione realized it was a wand. Her wand.
"My wand," she took it from him exhuberantly. She swished and flicked and felt the sort of euphoria that only came with the feel of magic.
It only took a moment for her shoulders to fall. She should be pleased. She had finally gotten through to him. But there was still a price to pay. Someone had to leave. Again.
"You know," she said quietly, "wands are loyal. Yet mine certainly seemed taken with you."
He smirked slightly. "Well, so was its owner."
She smiled. It was nice to see him smirk again, oddly enough.
"I don't know what's going to happen by the end of all this." She gestured absently. "But you've given me something else to fight for. A future. One that, I hope, has us both in it." She moved to him, pressed a hand to his cheek. A hand he held firmly against him for a moment.
"I hope to find my way back to you someday. Stay safe for me, Draco Malfoy." She kissed him. Soft and sweet and sad. Then she was gone, through the flaps of the tent, into the light of day.
Draco remained for countless moments, alone. Waiting in the shadows.
A/N : And that's a wrap! Thank you to everyone who has stayed with this fic through to the end. I hope you all enjoyed it. And I know, it was bittersweet, but I always meant to end it before going into the depths of the war. For those of you who want to imagine them finding their way back to each other, great! And for those of you who think it couldn't work out, well then maybe they didn't. But for those of you who'd like a little something more from me, well I do have another piece in the works that ties in with this fic. I'm calling it a companion piece – not quite a sequel because I definitely think both fics can stand alone. Anyway, it's called Empty Space, so if you're interested, keep an eye out for it (I'm trying to get more of it written before posting). Thanks for reading!