Author's note/ Wow! So i reread the 7th book recently, and started thinking about the possibility that Voldemort could have killed Harry's soul in the forbidden forest. Which i then deduced could perhaps allow the remaining horcrux to take over Harry's body. Then i started thinking about what that version of the story could have looked like from Draco's pov, with Dramione tossed in. I am on the fence about making this a longer series, i have about 16,000 words as of now, thoughts please? I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 1. The beginning of the end

May 2nd 1998

The day of the battle of Hogwarts

Narcissa Malfoy gave only a single pointed look at Hermione when she first approached them. It was a bad time, but on that day every moment had been a bad time. Hermione was next to Draco, growing increasingly more frantic with each second, as he attempted to calm her.

Draco had pulled Hermione into a small alcove where they would not be seen by the people currently dueling. The moment the battle had resumed Draco knew he could not allow Hermione to witness it's conclusion. He couldn't let her see it if Potter were to be killed.

Upon their retreat, the battle continued to rage on all around them, regardless of their absence. Draco felt rather badly that he had lost sight of Ron Weasley in the turmoil, but he hadn't had the time to mull things over. It had been a knee jerk reaction. Remove Hermione, from the potential of danger had been his only thought. Shouts, and the occasional scream were heard bouncing off the walls of their hiding spot. The air was hot, and thick with the perfume of blood.

Neither Draco nor his mother had felt the need to address it when she found them together, the girl in his arms who had been the reason for his obvious defection from the pureblood cause. Narcissa he had known, on the night he left the manor, would have invariably come to her own conclusion about what she saw. His mother was a clever witch. If she had any doubts about Draco's motivations, they were put to rest then. Caught him red handed as the muggles said, with a muggleborn girl. Instead of wasting time expressing something they both knew Draco and Narcissa were fine to reunite, without remark. Although he was sure she was less than thrilled about Hermione, he was very glad his mother had not chosen this moment to reprimand him. There was reckoning coming later, he was sure. Matters of the heart aside he was also very glad to see his mother again, he hadn't expected he ever would.

Draco was happy to hear things had worked out for his parents, once Narcissa did begin to speak to him. She kept her back to Draco and Hermione, as she spoke and she scanned the outside of their alcove for any coming danger. They had not yet called Voldemort the night Draco left the manor with the trio, they wouldn't have been spared otherwise. Bellatrix had made a proper fuss, but his parents had been able to make excuses for his prolonged absence. Draco had the feeling that Bellatrix had not necessarily concealed the truth for Draco's sake, but more so to save her own skin. Non the less Voldemort had never become any wiser to his absence or betrayal. His family had protected him, even though he had betrayed them. He hadn't meant to, it had been a kind of accident when he left the manor. Draco wasn't sorry that it had happened though. He didn't regret one single moment since leaving. Working for the Order Of the Phoenix had been anything but dull.

"I apologize, mother." Draco said referring to many things at once. He grunted at the effort it took to keep Hermione in his vice grip.

Hermione screamed, a piercing sound full of frustration. Draco clamped his hand down over her mouth to silence her.

Narcissa ignored Hermione, and what she considered to be a childish display, as she fought to escape Draco. Narcissa spoke without any regard for the struggling witch, unconcerned with why her son was imprisoning her thus.

"Keep your wits about you Draco. Control the girl before someone hears her."

"Yes, mother, i am trying."

Narcissa had been searching for Draco the entire time she had been on the school grounds. A mother bear, coming to collect her lost cub. Draco had hurt her more terribly than he ever had before, and yet she didn't show him any sort of hostility. He was an awful son to have, a selfish one, he knew that.

Narcissa watched patiently as Draco began to try to console Hermione with his words. He held her as she screamed his hand muffling her cries. She pushed against his chest harshly. Her fingers dug into his forearms like claws, probably drawing blood but he ignored it. He needed Hermione to see reason, or at least distract her long enough until it was done. He couldn't let her go, not yet. Harry Potter was in the middle of a duel with Lord Voldemort in the courtyard. Hermione was entirely fool enough to try to help her friend when she didn't even have a wand, neither of them did. Draco refused to let her risk her life so cavalierly. He owed Hermione Granger his life. But he also loved her. He refused to let go of her until either Potter or Voldemort was truly and finally dead.

Draco whispered sweet nothings in her ear, not entirely sure she could even hear him at first. When she stopped the screaming he relaxed his hand on her mouth, and the grip on her person.

"I love you, Hermione please, just wait." Soothingly. "It's almost over, i promise."

"Let go of ME!" Her back was pressed into the cold stone of the castle, and she arched it in a vain attempt to leverage her weight against him. "Let me go, Draco!"

"I can't. You know i can't. You could die. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. No one can do anything for Potter at this point, not even you." For his sentiment Hermione pulled one hand from his grasp, and slapped him across the face, his cheek stung.

"You bastard. You coward. You don't care if Harry dies, you're just a gutless snake, you always were." She insulted him, then she tried to strike him once more.

Draco caught her hand, then kicked her legs apart, and placed his thigh in between hers. She hadn't tried to kick him yet, but now she wouldn't be able to if she thought of it. He reinforced the hold he had on her earlier. Not allowing her an inch of movement.

Draco was stronger than Hermione physically. He had tried being nice, being patient with her, and now he had no other option than to use force with her. He slammed her with purpose against the wall. Her head bounced off the wall with a thud. She went slack in his hands, as stars danced across her vision. He pressed himself up against her, squishing her between himself and the wall until the only movement she could do was breathing.

Draco had been raised a gentleman, to never raise a hand to a woman. He was ashamed of his actions but he would do them again if he had to. Draco felt like a monster for preventing Hermione from helping her friend. Her best friend. Draco being born a Malfoy had made him used to being painted as a monster, but it only bothered him when Hermione saw him as such. If someone were to find them hidden where they were, to threaten them, Draco had no way of protecting them from being killed. Draco had given his wand to, Harry Potter. That gave him an idea.

"Mother, do you have a wand?" Draco said keeping his eyes set on Hermione's. Her head was lulling back and fourth, her movement making her look drunk.

Hermione blinked as her mind fought to right itself. Draco's forcefulness had come as a shock to her. He had never been so rough with her before. As the question he posed to his mother set in, it sobered her quickly, because Hermione realized Draco had no intention of using a wand against anyone beyond their alcove. Draco hadn't asked about it for any other reason than to threaten Hermione with it.

"You wouldn't dare." Hermione hissed, glaring up at him defiantly.

"I wouldn't?" Draco gripped her face barbarously. "If you think i wouldn't hurt you, to you keep you alive you insufferable witch, you really don't know me at all. Have you forgotten so easily, that i've held a wand to your throat once before?"

Hermione's eyes flicked briefly over Narcissa Malfoy before meeting Draco's reproachful look once more. Hermione was measuring them up. Who posed the greater threat, mother or son?

Under normal circumstances, this kind of brutish display in front of his mother would have mortified him. But the circumstances were nothing but normal. His mother understood the stakes were so high they were deadly, and so she offered advice in lieu of a wand.

"Now, now children." Narcissa came closer to them with her palms out to show she meant Hermione no threat. "I think Miss Granger can be trusted not to do anything stupid, Draco you've told me how very intelligent she is. Release her."

Draco's hands did not relax at his mother's words. He was unconvinced.

"And if she's not as intelligent as you led me to believe, i do have a wand in my pocket."

Hermione's lips pursed disdainfully at his mother.

"You hear that, Granger? If you even think about bolting out of here when i let go of you, you'll be on your ass faster than when Weasley played Keeper."

"We can just apparate, Draco. The three of us, we can leave now. We don't have to be here for whatever comes next." His mother said.

"No." Hermione answered before he could. "We have to stay. In case."

"In case of what? Dear."

"In case," Draco explained, "Potter loses the duel. We have to stick around so we know what to expect next."

"Even more of a reason to leave now, then. Draco there will be a slaughter, of her people. None of them will be spared, your youth makes you stupid and naive if you believe any other possible outcome exists." Narcissa said coldly.

"And what about father, you'll just leave him here?"

"What about him?" Narcissa challenged. "Don't forget who got us into all of this to start."

Draco thought that was a fair enough argument. He still wasn't entirely set on the idea of abandoning his father. The man had raised him, taught him quidditch, at the very least.

"Hermione. Can i trust you to stay still?" Draco looked at her expectantly.

"I'll stay with you." She promised knowing she had no other option.

"We'll stay. Until it's all over. Then the 4 of us father included can leave together." Draco said to both of the women. He relaxed, and all at once released Hermione.

Hermione slid herself down the wall and onto the ground rubbing her self in places she was probably now sore. Places Draco had probably left bruises on her. She curled herself into a ball, and flinched suddenly when the sound of rubble crashing down onto some part of the castle rang out around them. There was smoke, but Draco saw no fire. She pressed her hands to her ears trying to muffle the sounds. Wails of grief ripped through the air, and Draco could distinguish some of the voices. A spell blast had killed people, and others were trying to help.

"Oh god. Harry's going to die, isn't he? And Ron. What happened to Ron?" Hermione began to sob.

Draco was about to bend down to console her, when his mother caught his shirt sleeve. The Malfoy's were pragmatic. Self serving. Cunning. But their best quality was having absolute control over their emotions under duress. Something Draco hoped with time Hermione could master.

Things were happening quickly around them. The dueling was getting more intense. Draco had thought he could send his mother back out to find Lucius, but now she had made her indifference to him known. Draco would have to do it himself.

"Draco. I need to tell you, before." Her eyes looked out of the alcove back at the courtyard suggestively. She expected he would be going to find Lucius now. "What I saw-" his mother frowned. "Well i don't know what i saw exactly, but it's important. Very important." She used the voice that Draco had heard all to often in his childhood. The one she used when his father's 'friends' came round the house for a visit. The one that warned him of danger lying in wait ahead of them.

A battlefield was the last place for teary eyes, and Hermione had already begun to teeter on the edge of hysterics. It wasn't her fault. A person could only take so much, afterall. Hermione had spent the passed year on the run, malnourished, and thinking everyday was her last. She obliviated her own parents. Witnessed violence, and death on a daily basis. People she knew very well had died only hours ago, after being killed or tortured in front of her.

Even Draco expected he would be haunted to some degree by the discovery of the bodies of his cousin and their old DADA professor. Especially after Lupin had just helped them when Hermione was injured by Greyback.

Hermione was in pieces, and Draco felt it was probably a normal reaction. The last bit of hope she had was fading.

For the moment Draco had to ignore Hermione, there were more pressing matters. His mother the most dependable woman on the planet had said it was important.

"I'm listening, mother."

End of chapter