The following weeks were dedicated to Dumbledore's funeral, to packing up, to leaving the castle and to going on the run. She had agreed with Ron without hesitation when he suggested they go with Harry when the time came. With Dumbledore gone, there was no safe place to Hogwarts anymore, especially for Muggleborns like Hermione. It was agreed that as soon as the opportunity arose, they would leave wherever they were and dedicate as much time as necessary to hunt Horcruxes and find a way to destroy them.
After leaving Hogwarts, Hermione travelled briefly to her childhood home, where she spent a few days quality time with her parents, before modifying their memories and sending them away to Australia. If Draco was right, Death Eaters would come for them, and she was desperate to keep them safe. She had no ide whether she'd ever see them again and she had no way of knowing that, if she ever did see them, would they know who she was?
The vibe at The Burrow was tense and turbulent. In the midst of an impending war, Harry, who had recently broken it off with Ginny, but could be seen kissing her around every dark corner, turned 17 and Bill and Fleur got married. Ron made several attempts to grow closer to Hermione, who was still coming to terms with the relationship whose wounds were still fresh.
Death Eaters had swarmed the wedding in search of Harry, who they had labelled Undesirable Number 1. It was bizarre to say the least. Harry had been implicated in Dumbledores murder, while Snape was appointed headmaster at Hogwarts.
The world as they new it was turned upside down.
Throughout the commotion, they had fled to Grimmauld Place, where the secret keeper had shifted to anyone who had knowledge about the place. It reduced the safety significantly, but it was their only choice.
As time wore on, Hemione rarely had time to think of Draco. She kept herself busy with potions, with study, and with learning new things that could help them win this war. She used Occlumency to store away the memories from her time with Malfoy, and it made life bearable. She was no longer plagued with dreams, nightmares or sometimes one that turned into the other.
The last thing she had expected was to be attacked while getting the Creevy family to safety. The parents had arrived safely in Australia and Hermione was returning to their house to retrieve some personal belongings for the boys, who were now staying at Grimmauld Place with them.
What she didn't know is that Death Eaters had been watching her, watching the family for weeks. They let her take them to safety, knowing that she would be a better catch than the Creevy's. More valuable and more easily traded.
She was hit by a curse to her upper thigh, which sent her wand flying and rendered her unable to walk. She rolled and crawled out of the path of several spells and stunners, before retrieving her wand and firing back. She was hit in the side with something that sent pain coursing through her whole body. Just before she passed out, she thought she saw Draco's face. She thought he had come for her, but she couldn't be certain whether it was good or bad.
She thought she had heard his voice tell her to get up, she thought she heard him tell her to leave. To disapparate. There was a large part of her that refused to leave. She wanted to stay there, to see hm, to feel his comfort and his warmth, but when she saw more death eaters enclosing upon her, she closed her eyes and disapparated to the foyer of Grimmauld Place.
The feeling of being sucked through time and space made her physically ill and she screamed as she vomited on the floor.
As her eyes began to close, she saw Ron run in her direction from the basement and fell into his arms before she passed out.
After that, things were a blur. Somehow, she had begun a relationship with Ron and somehow, she was now seen as the weak one.
Once she healed, she settled quickly into the role that was assigned to her by Harry and Ron. She had no choice. She was broken both physically and mentally. All her old fears about rejection and being left out, were back in full swing, dampening her once high self esteem. She mostly kept to herself, preferring it that way. Preferring not to infect people with her sadness and loneliness. She had, at times, thought it was hilarious, being so lonely, but not wanting to interact with anyone. The more time she spent with the occupant of the house, the more she wanted to withdraw into her shell, to hide in her room, in the library, in the potions room. Eventually, people stopped talking to her.
Her relationship with Ron was, she felt, one of convenience. There was no way of knowing if or when this would all be over, so she entertained the idea of loving Ron, and soon, fell into a comfortable kind of love. She had always known there was something between them, their tumultuous friendship had been one of those cliché signs of two people who clearly have a thing for each other but refuse to admit it for years. Although, somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew that what she had with Ron came no where near what she had with Draco. There was no fire, there was no spark. She didn't melt when he touched her or breakout in goosebumps when he whispered in her ear. She missed that aspect of her time with Malfoy, but Ron loved her. She knew this much to be true and she allowed herself to love him back.
When Draco was taken as their prisoner, she avoided him at all costs. She couldn't look at him, couldn't speak to him. She kept him silenced to avoid hearing his voice. More often than not, she levitated his food to him from the bottom step and retreated upstairs to her room to cry.
It was all she could do to stop herself falling apart.
Her occlumency walls had threatened to break, but she solidified them, night after night, strengthening her resolve to keep the status quo.
That is, until Harry and Ron went missing and her entire world fell apart, occlumency brick, by occlumency brick.
AN - Sorry, a short chapter to finish up the flashback scenes. The next chapter will return to present day.