AN: This past week marked the 9th anniversary of my Mom passing. I lost her to a glioblastoma brain tumor. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of her and my Dad and wish they were still with me. My Mom was my biggest fan. She loved reading everything I wrote. I know she would have loved this story as well.

As always, thanks for reading and I own nothing but my plot bunny.

Lost Souls of Nott Castle

Chapter 16 - Heroes

Days passed by as they often do. Draco went to work during the day, then spent the evenings in the library studying with the rest of the residents of Nott Castle. Hermione also went to work, though she was still working part time and didn't have to be at the bookstore as much as Draco was at the apothecary. She spent the extra time searching for the book she needed in order to set an unplottable charm on the castle, though she had no luck in either the castle library or the bookstore stacks.

The timing for their NEWT tests was getting closer with each day, so she found herself prioritizing studying over searching. Each day that passed without incident only diminished the imminent threat vibe they had all felt when she had first received the owl from Harry.

Occasionally the guys would take breaks from studying to go flying. During that time, Hermione would be quite content to sit on the balcony or on the roof watching them.

It was during one of these times that Draco pulled his broom up beside the railing.

"Tell me, how is it that the brightest witch of our age can't fly on a broomstick?" He asked with a smirk on his face.

"First of all, don't call me that. It's ridiculous. Second, I can fly, thank you very much. I choose not to do so." She smiled at him. She hoped he wouldn't push the matter, but she was sure he would want to know why sooner or later.

He appraised her for a moment. She might think she was being nonchalant, but he knew her well enough by then to know better. The very thought of flying terrified her. Someday he would ask her why, but not today. Instead, he leaned in and kissed her.

"Of course you can," he told her. "Is there anything the Great Hermione Granger can't do?"

She laughed at him and he winked at her. Then he was plummeting towards the ground, only to pull up and do it all over again. She watched him in amazement, hardly able to reconcile him with the scowling boy that tormented her in school.

Not for the first time, she marveled at how far they had come. Instead of arguing and hexing each other, they were kissing each other every chance they had. Instead of sneering at her, he was winking at her. And her heart fluttered. Every. Single. Time.

Hermione had never considered herself to be a fanciful person. She relied on data, information, and facts rather than emotions. Normally. Logic had nothing to do with matters of the heart, though.

Later that evening, the four of them were sitting around the fire on the roof, watching the moon rise and the stars shine. Hermione sat in front of Draco, leaning back against his chest. He was content just to have her in his arms.

"Alright, Granger." Blaise said. "Tell us why you won't fly with us? Don't you trust us by now?"

Draco tensed, as did Hermione.

"You don't have to answer that," he told her while glaring at Blaise.

She sighed and stared into the fire.

"It's not that I don't trust any of you." She cleared her throat and took a deep breath. "It's just, I don't like that feeling."

"What feeling?" Blaise asked. He was oblivious to the way her body was now shaking, but Draco felt it. His arms tightened around her protectively, instinctively.

She was silent for so long that he figured she wasn't going to answer at all. Then she took a shaky breath and her eyes lifted from the fire to lock onto Blaise'.

"That feeling of being completely vulnerable. Nowhere to hide. No way to defend yourself from every possible angle of attack." Her eyes and her voice had taken on a far-away quality that sent chills down his spine. "No way of knowing if each breath might be your last."

Blaise' eyes widened. He had been joking around with her. He didn't expect anything so grim as an answer. He had no idea how to respond to her words. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat until finally she looked away from him.

"The last time I was on a broomstick was in sixth year. I was on a mission for the Order. It was supposed to be a simple task." She wiped away a few tears that were leaking from her eyes. "We were ambushed. The Auror that was with me... He never even had a chance to defend himself."

It suddenly occurred to Draco, and the others, that they had never really talked about the war. They each had their own experiences, their own horrors that they had lived through. And they each kept it bottled up inside of them.

He rubbed her arms gently. The silence around them had grown thick. No one knew what to say. Finally, Theo cleared his throat.

"How did you get away?" He asked. They were all thinking it. He had just put it into words, that's all.

Draco put his arms around her again. She let him hold her for a moment, then she shrugged him off and stood. At first, he thought she would leave rather than answer. Instead she started pacing back and forth, back and forth. She stopped at the fourth, unused chair and stood behind it with her hands gripping the back rail and her eyes focused on the fire.

"Luck. Pure and simple. It wasn't skill. It wasn't intelligence. It wasn't strategy." She sighed. "It was just pure, dumb luck."

She sat down in the chair and put her head in her hands.

"If I had been flying to his left instead of the other way around, it would have been me. For some reason, I was on the right. When they attacked, I saw the flash of green out of the corner of my eye, then he was falling. There were three of them. They surrounded me. I was never great at flying anyway. I didn't have any hope of out maneuvering them. I held them off as best I could. I was getting tired, weak. I couldn't fight all three of them much longer. I saw another flash of green. I almost didn't get my shield up in time. It hit close. So close that I could feel the heat off of the spell through the shield. I didn't even think, I just let the force of the spell knock me off the broom."

She paused, but no one said a word. They were hanging on everything she said, waiting to hear what happened next.

"I just let myself fall." She said finally. "I didn't dare try to stop myself. In the dark, they would have seen any spell I cast and know that I was still alive."

"How high up were you?" Draco asked into the night.

She shook her head.

"I don't know. I seemed to fall forever. Again, pure luck had me landing in water instead of on land." She shrugged her shoulder. "Still, I broke several bones when I hit. My leg, a couple of ribs, my wrist. Thank Merlin it wasn't my neck."

Draco couldn't take his eyes off of her. During this one account of what she had been through, she had defied death three times. She could have so easily been lost forever, and he never would have realized what he had lost.

"You're kind of amazing, Granger. You know that, right?" Blaise caught her eye.

She just shook her head.

"No. I just did what I had to do to survive." She looked at each of them, her eyes landing on Draco last. "Just like we all did."

She moved back to the chair he was sitting in and sat down in front of him, leaning back against his chest like she had earlier. His arms automatically circled her, holding her a little tighter than before.

"Deny it all you want, but you really are amazing. Everyone can see it but you." He told her.

"Come on, Granger." Theo chimed in. "At, what? Sixteen? Seventeen? You took on three Death Eaters on your own, and survived! That isn't dumb luck. You are a badass. You might as well own it. I'm actually quite impressed. You faked your own death to survive. It was a very Slytherin thing to do."

"Stop it, Theo." She laughed and rolled her eyes. "What about you? I've heard that you're pretty badass yourself."

Theo shook his head, obviously confused by her statement.

"Whatever this bloke told you about me, it's probably not true."

She hesitated. Draco could tell that she was debating whether or not to say what she was thinking. Then she took a deep breath and once again, shocked all of them.

"So it was a different Theo Nott that protected the younger Slytherins last year by provoking the Carrows and taking the cruciatas curse himself when they were in the mood to dole out punishment?"

Theo's eyes widened, then he glared at Draco. Draco was just as surprised as he was, though.

"It wasn't Draco that told me," she said, obviously seeing that look. "It was a third year named Robyn. She's quite taken with you, actually."

"She may have over exaggerated just a little." He lowered his head and stared at his clasped hands. In his mind, he hadn't done near enough.

"Theo, no she didn't. To that girl, to all of those kids, you are a hero. You did what you could to protect them, putting yourself in danger to do so. It was a very Gryffindor thing to do." She winked at him and smiled.

He groaned.

Blaise barked out a laugh at the way she had turned Theo's words against him.

Hermione turned her focus towards him.

"I suppose you aren't the same Blaise Zabini that smuggled food and supplies to Neville Longbottom in the Room of Requirement last year? Do you know what they would have done to you if you had gotten caught?"

Blaise ducked his head in embarrassment, but didn't deny it.

"And Draco, well," she turned in the chair so she was facing him. "You saved my life. More than once."

She leaned in and kissed him. He savored the feeling, but he didn't feel like he deserved her praise.

"I should have done more." His hand drifted down her arm, to the raised scar that still remained there.

"You did what you could. Anything else would have gotten us all killed. You know that."

He held her gaze for several long moments. He knew that she was right. The day she had been tortured by his aunt had replayed in his mind every day since. He had relived his actions and tried to think of every possible outcome if he had done anything else to try to help them. Had he tried, he knew in his heart that it would have ended badly.

She cleared her throat and turned back to the others.

"So you see, we are all badasses." She took a long drink from her bottle of butter beer.

"I guess we are," Blaise sat back with a laugh. "Maybe they should call us the Golden Quartet."

Theo rolled his eyes. Draco groaned. Hermione shook her head no.

After that, the topic was changed to less serious subject matter and Hermione relaxed against Draco once more. After a little while she drifted off to sleep in his arms. Carefully, he laid her back on the chair and stood up. Pacing away from the group, he moved to the railing and stared out over the darkened grounds.

"So, Draco," Theo asked after several minutes of silence. "The two of you are getting pretty serious."

He turned around to see that Theo and Blaise had followed him to the railing. Glancing over at the witch that was still on the chair by the fire, he could see the gentle rise and fall of her chest, indicating that she was still asleep.

"I would say so." He answered, although serious didn't seem to cover it.

"Are you worried what your father will say?" Blaise asked. "When he finds out?"

Draco swallowed thickly. He supposed it was time to tell his best friends the truth. They deserved to know.

"Not even a little bit," he told them as he ran his hands through his hair. "There is something I need to tell you both."

He took a deep breath while they watched him expectantly.

"Before he went to Azkaban, Lucius labeled me as a blood traitor." The words didn't hurt him as much as he thought they would. In fact, he found that he didn't even care.

"What?" Blaise asked incredulously.

Theo mumbled a few choice curse words.

"He disinherited me. He blocked me from the wards at the Manor. As far as I know, he burned me off the family tree."

"That bastard." Theo swore, suddenly realizing why his friend had sought refuge in his house, why he had gotten a job, and why he was dating a muggle born without even batting an eye.

"It wouldn't matter, Theo." He looked down at the witch still sleeping on the chair. "He thought he was punishing me. He was wrong. It wasn't a punishment. It was the best thing the man ever did for me."

And in that moment, he knew it was true. If anything, he should be thanking his father. Unknowingly, the man had given him the chance to find his happiness. A chance that he never would have had if he was still the Malfoy heir.

A chance that he intended to take.