Author's note/ part 2. If you want spice in this chapter find me on ao3. enjoy!
It was several months before Draco finally laid eyes on Hermione Granger again. Snape had killed Dumbledore at the end of term, and Draco had spent most of his 7th year trapped inside his own home like a prisoner as punishment.
Hermione, Potter, and Weasley had been through a great deal. Draco could tell by their tattered clothes and thin frames. When his aunt had called him to the drawing room he had not expected to see Hermione. Hermione would not look up to meet his eye. She was not even struggling against Fenrir Greyback. She was to terrified. She trembled as Draco's footsteps grew nearer to her.
"What's going on?" Draco asked looking to his mother instinctively.
"Darling we need you to tell us, is this Harry Potter?" Narcissa Malfoy said. A blob of flesh stood on two legs and was pushed right into Draco's face. Draco would have known that head of hair anywhere.
"I'm not sure. His face it-"
"Yes. We know." Bellatrix sneered at him. "Just stick our guests in the dungeon, and bring them back up when the spell has worn off on his face." She seemed to think for a moment then added. "Leave the mudblood though, i have some questions for her." Bellatrix was toying with her wand in a manner that told Draco she was in a fairly nasty mood.
Draco couldn't leave Hermione in a room with his aunt. He was sure of that. She would be killed.
"I can help you with this aunt Bella. Let me prove myself to you, to the dark lord, show him our family is united in his cause. Tell me what you want to know. I'll get it out of the Mudblood." Draco told Bellatrix without an ounce of emotion in his voice. Draco had been schooled by Bellatrix this past year. In the art of torture mostly. He had at Bellatrix's instruction taken care of other 'guests' of theirs in this manner.
Ron, and Harry both roared in protest struggling against their captors. They greatly disliked the thought of him being alone in a room with their friend. They were anything but thrilled by Draco's offer, they knew he had insinuated torturing her for information. Good. Draco thought that their reactions could sell it to his aunt better, and they did.
"My, my Draco. Not been making many friends at school i see." She giggled like they had some inside joke.
"Only the right friends, the pure friends, Aunt Bellatrix."
"Hmmm. Very well. I want to know where they've been, who's helped them, and where they intended to go?"
"Consider it done." Draco responded.
As he walked passed Potter he could hear him mutter a threat under his breath. "I'll kill you for this." Potter meant it to. Draco paid him no mind, and instead focused on Hermione.
Draco patted down her pockets, her wand had been taken already. She flinched each time he touched her. Fenrir thought it was funny, and told Draco so. It made Draco want to be sick on his shoes.
"Oh and Draco," his insane aunt called to him, as Fenrir pulled a struggling, and kicking Hermione behind them to the door. "Have fun."
Ron Weasley could be heard screaming all the way to Draco's room, at the other end of the manor. "Take me!" Ron screamed.
Draco found new respect for Ron, he was a good friend for Hermione to have. Draco intended to 'interrogate' her alone in an empty room, like he had with the others. Fenrir shoved Hermione through the door with to much force, and her head bounced off the floor when she fell. Her lip had busted open, but Draco did not bend down to help her sit up until he was sure Fenrir was gone.
Then he set silencing wards, and charms to prevent the door being opened by anyone other than himself.
Hermione had crawled into the corner as far away from his as possible. Like his other victims had.
Draco believed he was irredeemable by that point. Nothing could absolve him of the things he had done. He was a monster of the worst kind. He had tortured people. For information, or sometimes just because he aunt wanted to be entertained. He had hurt people like Hermione. Muggleborns. He saw the ghosts of them in Hermione's eyes as she cowered away from him.
Draco had sold his soul to Voldemort for the price of his parent's safety. His tipping point was the safety of Hermione Granger. He could not continue to follow Voldemort's orders. He saw now that all though he had kept his parents alive, he was slowly killing Hermione. What kind of world would she live in, if Voldemort won the impending war? She wouldn't he thought because she would eventually be killed. Draco had humored himself. Gaslit himself into believing Hermione could just go on the run, that she could hide away from the war, and Voldemort. Now as she sat half starved in front of him, he could not lie to himself any longer. He would have to take action, if he wanted Hermione to live.
Of course Hermione was afraid of Draco now. After what had happened to Dumbledore, after finding out he was a death eater. After what he had said to her the last time they spoke. Of course she didn't want him anywhere near her.
Sobs were racking her chest as she stared him down. She didn't have a wand on her, and that knowledge made her less brave than she usually was in the face of danger. Draco took his mother's borrowed wand, and rolled it to her on the hard wood.
"Are you trying to trick me?" Her eyes bounced back and forth from him and the wand.
"It's not a trick." Draco knelt down on the floor, watching her watch him. "Hermione tell me, are you okay? Does anything hurt? I can heal you, if need be."
"I don't, what, why-" she shook her head and retreated further back. Hermione did not trust him anymore, like he had wanted back then. "You said i was a plaything, a Mudblood. You said it was disgusting when i kissed you. You torture people, muggleborns, i've heard the stories." She accused him.
Draco leaned closer, and there was no where else for her to go. He held her jaw in place, and kissed her. He poured everything he was into that kiss. He poured every ounce of the love he had for her into it. It was deep, passionate, but he ended it when he realized she had not kissed him back. Her lips were cold, and unmoving against his. Draco let his head fall and rest on hers. He hated himself, he hated this world, he hated every force that worked to keep him apart from her.
"I'm sorry. I am so fucking sorry Mione. I lied to you, i never meant any of it. I just wanted to scare you away. I thought you would be safer, i thought you could escape it. I thought you could hide." There was dried blood in her hair, on her face. Her nails had dirt under them. "Take the wand, it's yours. I'll send you through the floo. You can hate me, but please just let me, get you out of here."
"Ron, and Harry?" She asked in shock, ignoring his confession of love entirely. He could see the turbines of her mind moving, she was thinking hard. She was trying to decide if she believed him. Of course she would not want to leave without those two. Her loyalty might not have been as reverent a quality as Draco thought, he could see her loyalty to Harry Potter might end up killing her.
"There's not time. Hermione." Draco implored her to see reason, it was to risky. "I'm sorry for that to."
"We will make time, then. I won't leave without them. I'll die first." It was as Draco feared, she was willing to die for her friends. Hermione Granger was impossible to move once she made her mind up.
Draco found himself growing exceedingly jealous that she had made no mention of concern for Draco himself thus far. Only for Ron, and Harry. Draco had scared her off properly then, he had stopped figuring into Hermione's life that night in the library. Hermione probably hadn't even thought of him since.
"Please just let me-" Draco tried to pull her into him, to embrace her. She plucked his wand off the floor, and pointed it at him.
"We will make time, Malfoy." Hermione said in a voice that would have been much more intimidating, if she were healthy. She stood unsteadily.
Draco did not move or flinch. He had never been afraid of Hermione, and he wouldn't be now. If she killed him, so be it as long as she made it out of here alive. She got closer, and pressed the tip of his wand into his throat.
"You are a liar Draco Malfoy, i don't believe anything you said, you don't care about me. You never have. You just want to mess with my head, to confuse me. It's some kind of tactic you are trying to use on me. You will help the 3 of us get out of here. Or else."
Draco put his hands up. He thought maybe there was one thing that could prove his sincerity to her. He wanted Hermione to trust him, again. He wished he could take it all back. He never imagined things would go this way. Draco should have tried his luck with the order of the Phoenix.
"In my shirt pocket, love." He met her eyes.
Hermione dug the wand tip in his neck, just a bit more. It was hot, and it burnt slightly whether she meant to or not. She used her free hand to unbutton his shirt pocket. Then hesitantly he felt her rifle inside. Her fingers found what she was looking for, and pulled it out.
Hermione didn't recognize it at first, even though it had been hers a short time ago. It was tattered and worn. The letters mostly faded to gray now. Draco had held it so often it had begun to break down. It had been the only token he had been able to keep from their time together in the library, and it had comforted him to hold it. Hermione's bookmark was no longer bright and vivid like it had been before Draco took it. The orange butterfly could still be made out in the middle. The quote around it had originally read "Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly." Now it only read "Just the caterpillar." Draco thought that was properly fitting. He had the opportunity long ago to change to go through a metamorphosis of sorts. He had chosen wrong, and now he was alone just like the caterpillar in the quote.
Hermione's eyes became glassy. She struggled to find words. He could see the gentle shift in her eyes as she began to believe his earlier confession. Then she said in a small voice, that reminded Draco of the girl she was when he first met her, "You can come with us." It wasn't a question, it was a statement. Hermione was logical, but she had blinders on when it came to Draco's family. To her his mother, and father were of no consequence. Hermione would not care if they died here, tonight.
Draco was happy to know she had not entirely dismissed him from her life, she cared enough to offer him a place amongst her friends. Then it made him feel guilty. If he were killed during the war, it would be better for Hermione not to feel anything for him at all. Draco realized he was far to selfish. He had tried to push her out, keep her away from him to keep her safe. He could no longer bring himself to want Hermione to feel nothing for him. He wanted her to love him in return.
"I cannot." Hermione lowered his mother's wand. She nodded, and then put the bookmark back in his shirt pocket. With a light pat at his chest, she told him she understood. He had decided, and his decision would keep them apart. Whatever they might have been, would not be. They were being pulled in opposite directions. "No matter what happens, don't separate from Potter, and Weasley." Draco did not like them much but Hermione would be safer in their company. "You and i will go to the dungeon. Free them, and then all of you get out of there together."
"I should curse you." Hermione said. They would need it to look good. Like Draco had been overpowered by her. That could spare his life, if his aunt felt so inclined Hermione theorized.
"Sectumsempra should do it." Draco laughed without humor. "Give the wand to Potter." Harry certainly would not pass up an the opportunity to curse his school bully.
Their hands found each other. They entwined for just a few moments. There was an ache in Draco's chest. Would this be the last time he ever touched Hermione, he wondered? Draco pulled her closer and let his head rest against the top of her head. Breathing her wonderful scent in. Memorizing the lines in her hands with his own.
"Don't die tonight." Hermione commanded him. "You can come back to me. Somehow. Someday, but you have to live. Promise?" She was offering him a future. A future he desperately wanted with her.
Draco had no way to promise her anything. Living through the night was a big ask. In all likely hood they might both be dead before the morning sun rose for the next day. Hermione knew that, but she was seeking comfort even if it was in the form of a lie.
"Always. I will always come back to you, Hermione. I won't die." He kissed her again because he was that selfish, and he hoped Hermione Granger would remember him for the rest of her life.
After he had helped them escape the manor with sheer dumb luck, Draco had been tortured by his aunt Bellatrix. It had been a painful few days after that. Bellatrix's cruciatus further irritated his wounds from the sectumsempra, Potter had given him. The extroadinary thing about the relationship Hermione shared with Harry Potter was the implicit trust between them. When Hermione had told Potter to curse Draco with sectumsempra, Potter had not hesitated. Not for a single moment, he trusted that Hermione was instructing him with good reason.
Bellatrix had tortured Draco not because of his betrayal, because she did not suspect his betrayal, but for his failure. For allowing a mudblood to unarm him, and escape. Thankfully they had not alerted the dark lord, and he had not known about their almost capture of Harry Potter.
Draco had begun to eavesdrop on the death eater meetings as they made plans in the drawing room at the manor. Voldemort was going to attack Hogwarts. Somehow he knew Harry Potter was in the castle. Wherever Harry was, Hermione would be.
Draco had allowed his parents, and the other death eaters to depart before setting to his own plan. He gathered everything he would need from his father's office. A portkey that could only transport one person, specially designed to only work once. Draco took his father's invisibility cloak, it did not work nearly as well as the one Potter owned but it would do. He pulled a new wand out of the lock box with the combination his father did not know, that Draco knew. Hermione had left with his mother's wand, and he would need one for today. For the battle.
Once Draco was at the castle he stayed under the invisibility cloak. He needed to be able to avoid confrontation or duels of any kind. He could find Hermione quicker that way. Draco was searching for Hermione or Potter or even Weasley. He knew the three of them would stick together. Several times Draco came across a few individuals with vivid red hair that made his heart skip a beat, only for it be another of Ron's brothers.
Then finally when he was rounding the corner of a corridor he saw her. Hermione was dueling a masked death eater that Draco did not recognize. Potter, and Weasley had to be somewhere close by.
Hermione's pink jumper was in shreds. She might have been bleeding from somewhere because Draco could make out brown streaks all over her. Her hair had come mostly undone from her braid. A jet of green light wizzed past her ear.
"Immobulus." Draco said. He watched as the death eater froze completely, Hermione's final spell hit him and flung him soaring backwards.
Hermione looked around trying to determine the source of the spell that had stunned the death eater.
Draco pulled his cloak off, revealing himself to her. He let it fall on the ground, and left it there, he would not need it after this. He needed to be seen in the battle, wanted to be seen by both sides of the war. He needed everyone who lived today, to live, knowing that Draco had deserted Voldemort's cause. Then if Draco died here, someday, Hermione would know he had chosen to be brave. Perhaps it would be Potter to tell her. Draco hoped she would understand. Draco would fight for her side, but he first wanted to ensure Hermione lived on from this day. He was taking away her choice to participate in the battle as he knew she wished, but he would be of no use if he was worried about her.
Draco thought he would probably be considered a martyr if he died. He would be remembered as the boy who loved a muggleborn girl so fiercely, he rejected every horrendous teaching his family had inflicted upon him. He hoped that future generations might hear his story, and it would change everything so drastically there would never again be a Dark wizard with the beliefs of Voldemort.
Draco was unsure of how exactly he might die. The moment the death eaters realized he was against them though he would be swarmed. Draco was confident he could duel well. But even the most powerful wizard would lose in a duel that was 1 versus 50. Death eaters would descend upon him like flies until there was nothing left of him.
All he needed was an opening, one chance, something he could use to turn the tides of the battle. At his current estimate Harry Potter's side was losing.
"I always come back to you. I'll always come back for you won't i Granger?" Draco asked her resolute in his decision. He knew what needed to be done here. He would risk his life to end this battle.
Hermione had his mother's wand still. Potter was probably wandless somewhere in the castle, Draco noted.
"Yes. You came back to me." She blinked through tears. Hermione looked happy to see him, to see that he had survived the night of her escape at the manor.
Draco crossed the small expanse of the ground separating them. Rocks crunched under his feet. He hugged her close, and intimately. Draco kissed the top of her head, and inhaled mint from her, for what he now knew would be the last time.
"I'll love you forever, Hermione Granger." It was as painful as the other times he had to say goodbye to her, except this time there would be no coming back to her.
Draco pushed Hermione back suddenly and forcefully, she tumbled onto the ground. He took the portkey from his pocket and tossed it out at her. Hermione threw her hands up to block it from hitting her, and in the process activated it. With a great whoosh Hermione Granger disappeared from the spot she had just been. The final look she had given Draco had been one of betrayal. It would take her all of one minute to realize the portkey was a one way trip. Hermione could not use it to return to Hogwarts or to Draco. She was safe.
Draco turned heading off into the castle to find Harry Potter, to help him in whatever way he possibly could. He ignored the pain in his chest. There was no time to dwell on losing Hermione, on losing everything they could have been.
Draco would help Harry Potter put Tom Riddle in his grave if it was the last thing he did. Draco thought it a fair trade. Hermione might lose him, but in return she would gain so much more. A life that didn't have to be lived in the secrets or the shadows. A life that did not require her to be on the run. Perhaps she would marry someday and have children. That thought did not make Draco jealous because the brightest witch of his age had been his, even if it had only been for a little while. Hermione would remember him the rest of her life, he was sure of that.
Those final thoughts of Hermione's future were what allowed Draco to die with no regrets.