AN - This chapter contains some words lifted directly from HP HBP. I didn't create them, I didn't invent them. I think they're the best words for the moment and chose to borrow them. Don't come at me.
Also, I hope you're enjoying. One more chapter and we'll be back at present day.
Hermione and Draco met up every chance they could. Between classes, they would kiss behind a tapestry. In the afternoons, they would meet in an abandoned classroom. Most nights, they would satiate their passion in the room of requirement, experimenting and exploring with each other until late hours, then sneak back to their dorms. So far, no one had noticed. No one had said anything.
The goings on around them seemed to fade into nothingness as Hermione's mind was completely overcome with worries about exams and obsessive thoughts of Draco.
She was head over heels in love with Draco Malfoy, and every time they met, every time they touched, kissed, made love, they declared to each other how much they meant, how much they loved, care for and adored the other.
Hermione couldn't fathom not having him in her life and their plans to develop a communication box was underway for when Hogwarts finished for the year. Some afternoons they'd meet up and Hermione would work on a charm to place on two identical boxes that Malfoy had procured from, she had no idea where, while he took notes and perfected the wand-work. It was taking time, so much more time than she thought. They could pass notes and objects, but they'd arrive in the other box half missing, torn to pieces or completely broken.
One afternoon, Hermione found herself alone, studying in the library, when she heard someone run in. There was whispering, there was shuffling of papers, there was noise and as hard as she tried, she couldn't block it out when she heard the names Harry and Draco thrown around.
Her head perked up and she looked around to the other students who were getting up to leave.
"What happened?" she found herself asking.
"Potter and Malfoy had a duel in the bathroom. Its not good" one of the Hufflepuffs said.
Hermione stood instantly, her chair falling over behind her and took off at a run, out of the library.
She ran through the corridors and pushed past the students who were gathering near the hospital wing. She had no way of knowing who was injured, although she couldn't picture either Harry or Draco hurting the other very seriously.
"It took a while, but at least now we know he's going to make it" she heard madame Pomfrey say to Professor McGonagall.
"Professor, please… what happened?" Hermione called as she pushed her way into the hospital. There was a curtain pulled around a bed and she wasn't sure who she feared for the most.
"Miss Granger, please, you're not needed here" McGonagall said.
"I just want to know who got hurt" she said, trying to hide the desperation in her voice. No matter the answer, it will be devastating.
"Mister Malfoy… He is in a serious condition. Now if you would please leave and encourage the other students to do so as well" the professor said.
At this, Hermione desperately tried to push down the horror that she felt, as she turned and instructed the other students to leave.
"Come on you all have to leave. You can't gather here, now leave" she instructed.
The students were not moving instead, they were trying to look over her head, attempting to get to the doors, to see whatever it was that they thought they may see.
"If you all don't move immediately, I will take 50 points from each of you" she roared, as her frustration built. The students immediately turned and left as McGonagall left the hospital wing, entering the now deserted corridor. Hermione sat on the bench seat; the same one she had occupied with Draco only weeks ago.
"He'll be ok. Professor Snape is working on a counter curse" the old witch said as she sat beside her.
"Good, that's good. Harry obviously didn't mean to… I mean, whatever it was that he did, I'm sure it was an accident" she muttered.
McGonagall sighed as she looked to Hermione. "Dumbledore has a funny way of knowing what goes on in this school" the professor said before looking across to the window.
"So he knew Harry and Dra… Malfoy were duelling?" she asked.
Miss Granger, let's not play this game. The headmaster and I are both aware of your relationship with Mister Malfoy. Quite frankly, we don't understand it, but its clear to me that you two have something" she said, stunning Hermione.
"I… I'm not sure where you get your information from professor…" she began.
"There's no one around, go to him, hold his hand" Professor McGonagall said.
"Please, I barely understand it myself. I beg you, don't say anything" she implored the professor, after she stood and turned to face her.
"Miss Granger, relationships that make people happy can only be good. Others will understand, in the long run. It's certainly an interesting match, but I must say that I can see the connection. Aside from the obvious, you're both very intelligent, interesting individuals and I can imagine you would give each other a run for your money. He's asleep now but he was asking for you. Go to him" she said.
Hermione nodded and ran to the doors, pulling them open just enough to slip through. She tip-toed to the bed with the curtain around it and gasped when she saw him laying there, sickly looking and pale. Not the usual pink flushed cheeks she was used to seeing on him when he slept. Professor Snape was looking over some pieces of parchment and looked up briefly when he saw her enter.
"Come to gloat?" asked the professor looking back down at the parchment. She looked quizzically at him, before pulling up a chair beside Draco, taking his hand in hers and sitting down. Snape just glanced up in disbelief and Hermione thought she saw the briefest smirk before his face resumed its normal sneer and he looked back over the parchments as he walked away.
She sat there until Snape returned and started stripping the sheets back.
"You might not want to see…" he began.
"I'll stay" she said.
"Suit yourself" he muttered, pulling the sheets down to Draco's hips.
Hermine's shock came in the form of gasps and tears that streaked down her face instantly, like hot lava. She wondered how her skin wasn't burning from the heat of it all.
Across Draco's chest and torso sat four deep gashes that stopped just on his sides. She had never heard of a spell that caused that type of damage, had never seen injuries this bad, from a schoolyard duel.
"What happened? What kind of spell…" she began, wiping her tears away.
"Potter seems to enjoy toying with spells he doesn't understand" Snape said.
"Harry couldn't have done this" she said.
"Your faith in Mister Potter is heartening, but I can assure you, I saw the immediate aftermath with my own eyes" Snape said.
Hermione looked to the face of Draco. He was still pale, still looked sickly.
"He needs…" Snape began.
"Blood replenishing potion. And something for the pain. Maybe a nutrient potion too. I don't think he's been eating well" she said.
Snape nodded his head and took a vial of blood replenishing potion and a nutrient potion from the pockets of his robes. She narrowed her eyes as he sat them on the bedside table.
"Do you have any career ideas?" he asked, as he poured a potion down Draco's throat.
"I'll just be glad to get through school and this impending war" she said with an exhale, as Snape attempted to open Draco's mouth to feed him the second potion. "Here let me" she said, taking the potion from the professor. It was the realest conversation she had ever had with him.
"You could study to be a healer" he said, as she stroked her fingers down Draco's cheek.
"Draco, its me. Open up you need to take this potion" she whispered in his ear.
Snape looked on in surprise when Draco's face relaxed and he allowed her to tip the nutrient potion into his mouth.
"Granger?" came Draco's hoarse voice.
"Yeah, its me. I'm here" she said.
"Why are you here?" he asked, looking from Hermione to Snape and around the room.
"It's ok, there's no one else here. Just us. Somehow Dumbledore and McGonagall know about us. And Snape was here" she said, brushing his hair off his forehead.
Draco lifted a hand and beckoned her to him. She obliged, leaning down and kissing him gently on the lips.
"I'll be ok" he said, wincing.
"Potion for the pain, Professor?" Hermione asked, turning to Snape.
"It'll put you to sleep" Snape said quietly. "Miss Granger, you should leave" he added.
"It's my fault. I was… He was goading me, and I raised my wand first" Draco said.
"That doesn't matter, he almost killed you. Take this potion and go to sleep. I'll come back and see you later" she said.
She kissed him on the forehead and turned to leave, nodding once to Snape who nodded back. It seemed as though they had some kind of unspoken agreement to keep this quiet.
She heard them begin to speak and she hesitated just outside the curtain.
"Does she know?" Snape asked.
"Of course she doesn't" Draco said.
"That's more than a crush, that's more than hand holding Draco" Snape said.
"It's a complicated glamour. I'm careful" he said.
"You're going to hurt her" Snape said.
"You don't think I know that? She's the best thing that's happened to me, I can't stop this even if I wanted to" Draco said.
"You need to tell her the truth" he said.
"I can't do that"
"If she loves you, if she really loves you, she will love you no matter what" Snape said.
"Not after what I've done. Not after what I have to do" he said. The statement was followed by silence.
At this Hermione quietly left the hospital room and almost ran into McGonagall.
"He is alive then?"
"He's going to be ok" Hermione said.
"Well, I must thank you for keeping the corridor clear of other students Miss Granger, but you may very well be needed in your common room with your friends" McGonagall said.
"Thank you, professor" she said.
"It can't be easy" the old witch said.
"It's the hardest thing I've ever done" Hermione said, turning to leave.
The Gryffindor common room was bustling with activity when she arrived. Ron was actively trying to get the younger students to stay away, while Harry was staring into the fire.
"Please tell me what in Merlin's name happened" Hermione said as she approached Harry.
"I didn't mean it Hermione; it was the spell from…" he began.
"From that book? Of course it was. Where is the book now?" she asked.
"It's in the room of requirement. Hidden. It's gone" he said.
"You almost killed another student" she exclaimed.
"Where have you been?" Ron asked her.
"McGonagall needed me to keep the other students away from the hospital wing. They were gathering" she said.
"Well, you should have been here. You should have been here for Harry!" Ron spat.
"Oh, I'm sorry… I'm sorry that supporting attempted murder comes before my duty to this school" she yelled.
"Hermione, he cast the killing curse at me. I barely dodged it" Harry said.
She was stunned. There was no way Malfoy, her Malfoy would have used an unforgivable on her best friend. Then again, from what she heard in the hospital wing, he was keeping something from her.
"I don't… I mean, he's been quiet all year, I don't believe that he'd cast an unforgivable" she said.
"I was protecting myself. It was either me or him that was going to be levitated out of there on a stretcher and I'm sure as hell glad it wasn't me" Harry said, getting up and heading to the boy's dormitory.
"Anyone would think you've gone soft on Malfoy" Ron said to Hermione, before he followed Harry out of the room.
Hermione spent the rest of the night between studying and worrying about Malfoy.
It's how she spent the next few days. Between Pansy Parkinson and Draco's thugs, Crabbe and Goyle, who thought they were his friends, but he secretly hated, she couldn't get near the hospital wing without faking some kind of injury herself. Then she'd be at the hands of them, and she wouldn't force Draco to defend her and out himself to his circle.
The more she thought about it, the more she drove herself insane. She refused to believe that he used the killing curse, and she had no idea what to think about the conversation she heard between him and Snape. What was he hiding? What was he glamouring? What had he done that she would not forgive him for? There were a few things that came to mind, Katie Bell's curse from the necklace, Slughorn's poisoned mead that almost killed Ron. Those were worst case scenarios, but she couldn't think of a reason why he would target them like that. And the glamour he mentioned. There was only one possible thing that Draco could be so afraid of that he would need to glamour. It hit her like a tonne of bricks.
That night, she crept out of her bed and headed to the hospital wing. She would find out once and for all whether he was in fact a marked death eater or if she was just letting her imagination run wild. She wanted to trust him, she wanted to believe everything he had ever said to her, but she couldn't help the feeling in the pit of her stomach that was telling her something wasn't right.
She pushed open the door and lit a dim light on the end of her wand. She made her way to his bedside where she was relieved to see him sleeping. Carefully, she pulled the blanket down and revealed his torso, which appeared to be healing, and his right arm, which was clear. She retrieved his left arm and pulled back the bandage that was so conveniently placed there and was horrified when she saw the black ink. She didn't need a light to see that it was exactly what she feared it would be. She dropped his arm and stumbled back, hitting her legs against the chair, scraping it against the stone floor.
She put her hand over her mouth and watched as Draco's eyes flew open. He looked to her face, seeing the horror etched upon it and felt his bare left arm.
"I… It's not… Hermione, please" he said, his voice gruff.
"How could you?" she asked.
"It's not like I planned it. It was before the school year. Before us" he said.
"And you've just been lying to me the whole time? This whole time, you've been a death eater… I should have known. I should have known it was too good to be true" she said through her tears. How could she have been so stupid? Then again, he had warned her. Hadn't he told her to stay away?
"Please, listen to me. Hermione…" he called as she turned to leave. He was sitting up holding onto his chest.
"No, I have listened. I have listened to all of your lies, to your manipulation, to you telling me you loved me. The whole time I was being played for a fool! Good Godric I'm so stupid" she said, backing away towards the door.
"I never lied. Everything I said was the truth" he said.
"I guess I'll never know. Tell me, what else are you hiding Draco? You're a death eater, what else could there be? What have you done? What don't I know?" she yelled.
"Nothing, there's nothing I swear" he cried out, tears of his own falling down his face.
"BULLSHIT DRACO!" she yelled, "I heard you and Snape talking the other day. You're keeping something from me" she continued.
"I… I can't…" he began.
"I can't believe this. You really are a liar. Don't come for me anymore. Just stay away from me" she said quietly before turning and leaving the hospital.
Instead of going back to the dorm, she made her way to the room of requirement, where she created a haven for herself. The room looked somewhat like the one she and Draco had used many many times, which made her feel worse.
She curled up on the bed and closed her eyes, praying for sleep to come.
She woke in the morning, desperate to start over. Draco had been a death eater, which meant he probably did try and use the killing curse on Harry. The revelation floored her and she spent the next few days making up for it. She apologised to Harry for her disbelief and to Ron for, well, hurting his feelings.
The three of them were closer than ever once again, but try as she might, she couldn't get Malfoy out of her head. Especially when he arrived in the great hall one morning for breakfast. She couldn't look in his direction, instead, she swapped sides and sat with her back to him. When fellow Gryffindors mentioned that Malfoy was staring in their direction, they all figured it was Harry, due to Harry having attempted to kill him. Only Hermione knew that he was probably staring at her, drilling into her head, trying to get into her subconscious. It didn't work. One of the great things about her time with him was that he taught her Occlumency, and she grew quite good at it very quickly.
She blocked out her current thoughts, thoughts of horcruxes, anything to do with Harry, and brought forward memories of him, of looking at his clear forearm and feeing relief. Of him telling her he loved her, of him telling her to trust him. She was punishing him.
She knew she had affected him when she heard a commotion at the Slytherin table and his heavy footsteps as he stormed out of the great hall.
"What's his problem?" Ron asked.
"Probably planning his revenge" Harry said.
"Or jealous that you're so happy and he's miserable?" Hermione said, gesturing to Harry and Ginny who had recently gotten together and were sitting so close together they were almost one person.
It had been no surprise to Hermione, who believed it would happen eventually. Ron was furious but once he saw them together, there was no denying that they were made for one another.
Hermione had admitted to herself that she was jealous. She was desperate for what they had. The ability to be free and open about their love made her start to contemplate what she wanted for herself. Ron showed considerably more interest n her as time went on. He nagged her less, he stopped demanding she help with study, instead, asking her politely to check his work and thank her for her time when she agreed. He chatted to her about things she liked, about how she felt about what was going on with Harry. She felt like Ron was changing, turning into someone she could settle for. Be comfortable with. They knew each other better than anyone else, it made perfect sense.
It had been 3 weeks since Hermione ended her romance with Malfoy, and since then, she had fooled everyone into thinking she was happy. She had been questioned about her long late patrols and her many hours spent in the library, but she simply told them that until the duel between Harry and Malfoy, her perspective was all off. Now that she saw the seriousness of it all, she was focusing on her friends and not her school responsibilities.
Late one afternoon while Hermione and Ron were studying and Harry was with Dumbledore, Harry burst into the common room and made a bee line for them.
"We're going to find a you-know-what. Me and Dumbledore. He thinks I'm getting my cloak, which… he waved his wand and wordlessly summoned his invisibility cloak… "I suppose I am" he said hurriedly.
"Harry what's going on?" Hermione asked.
"You all need to take a few drops of this" he handed Hermione the liquid luck after downing half the contents himself.
"Harry…" Ron said.
"There's no time. I think something is going to happen tonight…" he started.
"Wh…" interrupted Hermione.
"I don't know what, I just know that you all need to be prepared. Gather the DA, everyone take a couple of drops and get ready" Harry said.
Hermione was sitting in stunned silence. She had no idea what to do or say. She grabbed her wand and summoned her fake galleon, adjusting the digits on it to alert the DA that they needed to be on alert. One by one, the other members checked in, adding their initials to the underside as they signalled their understanding.
"Be careful" he said, nodding to Ron, hugging Hermione and pulling Ginny into a loving embrace on his way out the door.
Ron gathered the members of the DA around and whispered instructions. Hermine had never seen him react so quickly or so efficiently. He clearly was made for strategizing and for organising. Perhaps all his years at playing chess, at learning to predict moves and counter moves were paying off. He led the group effectively and Hermione fell into line when Ron instructed her to patrol the 7th floor corridor.
She was coming around a corner, having gone the long way to check other corridors when she ran headfirst into Malfoy, then fell on her backside.
She scooted backwards away from him when he offered his hand to help her up.
She stood herself up and brushed the dirt off her clothes, eyeing him close up for the first time since she broke it of with him. He looked ruined. He looked like he hadn't eaten or slept in weeks. She shook her head. None of it was her fault. If he hadn't lied to her, well… Things would be different.
"You need to leave" he said, looking up and down the corridor.
"What's it to you, Malfoy?" she asked.
"Please, Hermione, you can't be here. Go to your common room. Get as far away from here as you can" he said, his eyes pleading with hers.
"What do you know?" she asked, tiling her head to the side.
"I… I can't stop it" he began; however, hurried footsteps came towards them from another direction, and he fled towards the room of requirement.
"Was that Malfoy?" asked Ginny.
"Yeah, he ran into me and then told me to go back to our dorm" she said.
"Like he can tell anyone what to do. He's probably involved in all of… whatever this is" Ginny said.
"Hmm, yeah" Hermione said in a faraway voice.
In fact, her thoughts were far away. Being that close to him again set her heart on fire, made it skip a beat. Clearly his lies and manipulation weren't enough to stoke those flames for good.
"What do you think is going to happen?" Hermione asked Ginny as they hid behind a tapestry on the 7th floor.
"I have no idea. All I know is that Harry's never wrong. And with him and Dumbledore out of the castle, anything could happen" Ginny said with a sigh.
As time ticked by, the silence became deafening. Hermione had run out of things to talk about with Ginny, so they just stood together in silence in the small space.
It felt like they had been there for hours when Hermione heard a familiar sound.
"The door to the room of requirement just opened" Hermione whispered.
"Who do you think…" before Ginny could get her words out, the whole corridor filled with dark black smoke that threatened to choke the very air out of Hermione's lungs. As she and Ginny fell from the space into the dark corridor, they dropped to their knees, coughing through the smoke, trying to suck air into their lungs.
Hermine heard the sound of multiple people's footsteps and thought that she had heard the voice of Bellatrix and other rough sounding adults. It couldn't have been possible, she told herself, because no one could get into the grounds without the headmaster being there. Without the gates letting them in.
"Go to the tower" she heard a voice. Draco's voice. It was so much more commanding than she had ever heard it and it frightened the hell out of her.
She continued to crawl around on the floor, desperate to find a way out of the smoke.
When she heard footsteps coming towards her she froze, fearing it was someone coming for her. A hand wrapped around her forearm, and she grabbed Ginny as she was pulled to her feet.
In the light of the next corridor, she saw the back of the person who had pulled her out of the smoke, retreating towards the next corridor and made chase.
"Where are you going?" Ginny called.
"You heard him? The tower. Its either the astronomy tower, Gryffindor or Ravenclaw" Hermione called behind her.
"I'll go to Gryffindor" Ginny called.
Hermione took out her fake galleon and tapped it once, LL PROTECT RCLAW TOWER she spelt out, hoping Luna would get the message. She ran on, chasing the steps of the person who helped her up, who could only have been Draco. She knew now that he had to have something to do with what was happening. Her thoughts were running wild as she ran around a corner and came face to face with a death eater by the name of Rowle. She stopped and threw up a shield, quickly combatting a yellow glow that Rowle had sent her way. She threw a stunning spell at him twice, the first one missing and the second one hitting him in the shoulder. He fell to the ground and Hermione kept running. She heard yells and screams, but something inside of her told her to keep going. She made it to the base of the astronomy tower and looked up into the stairwell. There were footsteps echoing above and she made her way towards the place she and Draco had shared their first kiss. Nothing about this was chance. For some reason, it all came to this. Fate, Karma? Destiny? She had no idea.
She arrived at the top and pushed open the side trap door. She came face to face with Snape, who whispered for her to stay out of sight and stay quiet.
She heard voices from above and quickly retreated around the other side of the tower when Snape instructed her to, once again.
"You're not alone? There are others? How?" she heard Dumbledores voice, soft and sickly. Something was wrong.
"The vanishing cabinet in the Room of Requirement. I've been mending it" Draco said. His voice was shaking He was clearly terrified. She wanted nothing more than to go to him, to comfort him. But she couldn't. He was no longer hers and her body was frozen, as if she had been stunned.
"Let me guess, it has a sister? A twin?" Dumbledore asked.
"At Borgin and Burke's. They form a passage" Draco said. Hermione couldn't believe her ears. Draco had found a way to let the death eaters into the castle. She had been wrong on this all along, he had been planning this. This was his big secret.
"Don't you understand? I have to do this; I have to kill you! Or he's going to kill me" Draco called out. Hermione's eyes filled instantly with tears. She had heard Draco cry only a couple of times and each one had been like a knife into her heart. This was no different.
She stilled when the form of Bellatrix Lestrange came thundering through the opposite door. She hadn't seen Hermione standing there, thankfully, neither had the rest of the death eaters who had followed her up. Someone might say it had been luck.
She was lost in her own head when she heard Bellatrix's screech.
"No! The Dark Lord was clear. The boy must do it. This is your moment Draco, Go on. Do it, NOW" she yelled.
Hermione then noticed that Snape had seemed to appear from nowhere. He was there when she arrived but hadn't been mentioned till now.
"No" Snape said.
"Severus… Please" Dumbledore said, his voice weak.
"Avada Kedavra!" Snape called, and Hermione heard a twang from what could only have been the railing where she and Draco had looked out just a few months ago.
"Ha! Dumbledore is dead!" Bellatrix exclaimed, running back down and out the door. She was followed by the other death eaters, as well as Draco, then snape.
"Malfoy" she called, getting his attention. His face was pale, and he was shaking.
"You'll pay for this. You'll both pay for this" she said, looking from Draco to Snape and back again.
"I'll make sure of it" came the voice of Harry from behind her. She hadn't known he was there.
He saw Hermione's confusion and thew the cloak to her.
"He stunned me. Dumbledore. He stunned me when I was under the cloak" he said, as he ran off following the trail of destruction.
Hermione ran after them, desperate to catch Draco, to shake him and ask him why. Why could he not have let her help him? They would have come up with something. There would have been a way to hide him. To keep him from having to do this.
She knew now why he wanted to throw himself off the tower that night. She knew why he had kept this from her. If she had known she wouldn't have given him a second of her time. But by the time they were able to talk about their lives, they were both in too deep. She got it now, she understood.
"Draco" she called down a corridor. It was dark, all the lights had been extinguished. She could have sworn he had come this way, but it was quiet beyond belief.
"Mmmm, smells good" came the sadistic voice of who Hermione instantly recognised as Greyback, the werewolf who like to maim and infect people for pleasure.
"Bombarda" she called, but she watched as it hit his shoulder and did nothing.
"You think you r little incy wincy magic is gonna hurt me?" he asked, strolling towards her. She couldn't run, she could turn, she couldn't cast. She was frozen. She damned herself for her body's reaction to stress. Freezing was not productive to a fight at all.
As Greyback stepped closer to her, sniffing the air around her, he moaned in delight. "Smells good. I may keep you" he said, as he reached out to touch her.
Tears escaped her eyes as his dirty finger toyed with a curl of her hair.
"Bombarda Maxima!" a voice shouted from nearby. A voice she recognised.
Instantly, Greyback was launched out the window and onto the grounds below, where he came to, looked up and made a run for it towards the gates of the grounds.
Relief flooded through her veins and her feet were able to move again.
"I don't get it, Draco" she cried.
"I couldn't tell you this. I couldn't tell you any of it. How would you have loved me then?" he asked, tears filling his eyes.
"I do love you though. I can't help it" she said.
He stepped forward and kissed her quickly. It was a goodbye kiss and she knew it. She would probably never see him again.
"Hide. Hide your parents, hide yourself. Hide all the muggleborns and their families. They'll come for you, they'll come for you all and when they do, you won't stand a chance. Please" he begged.
"I will, I promise" she said.
He kissed her again before he turned to run.
"Draco…" she called. He hesitated before he stopped and looked her way.
"Please come back to me. I don't care how, I don't care why. Just come back to me" she begged, tears dropping down from her chin.
"I… I can't" he said, turning and running towards the castle's exit.
At this, she slid down the wall she had backed herself against and cried. She cried hysterically, allowing the sobs to overcome her. Allowing the last few months to wash over her like a wave of happy, sad, pleasure and pain. Despite what she had just seen, despite what she knew had happened, she loved him. She loved him, but she had to let him go. She loved him, but she had to put a stop to it.