To Die For
Chapter Six-After the Attack
"Draco! Oh my God!" Hermione screamed with joy, "You're alive!"
"Of course I'm alive, Voldemort can't kill me." Draco croaked.
Hermione stared for a second then threw her arms around him, tears streaming down her face in delight. Her eyes shone bright and she was shaking with glee. Her face had regained most of its color. She looked much better than she had earlier and had had no major afflictions to her, apart from the minor cut on her chin.
"Draco, Draco, Draco, Draco!" Hermione squealed happily. She forgot about the headmaster and felt better than she had in a long time.
Draco smiled sheepishly, trying to untangle himself from Hermione. He looked okay for someone who had just been dueling the darkest wizard of all time. It was actually amazing that he had even survived. Hermione hoped that the gash in his arm wasn't very deep.
"You're going to strangle me if you keep that up 'Mione."
Hermione laughed nervously, and withdrew slowly from Draco, then looked up at Dumbledore who was chuckling good-naturedly. Good thing Dumbledore's so understanding, she thought. Looking around the room he said,
"I'll just take care of Lucius and I fancy you two will be able to take care of yourselves and come down to the hospital wing as soon as you can. I don't think that Voldemort will be coming back anytime soon, and if by any chance he attempts to I'll just use this useful spell to protect the room. As for the rest of the castle I'll have the majority of the staff position themselves around the school and others do some spells for me." With that he swept his wand around, and a light blue film spread across the room, dissolving in seconds.
" Wait," Hermione said with slight confusion in her face, "How was Voldemort able to apparate in the first place? It's impossible! And why would he come here when he knew, well, that you were here, you're supposed to be the only wizard that he's afraid of." Hermione looked at Dumbledore quizzically, her eyebrows drawn together. She wondered why she hadn't thought of that before. A million more questions popped into her head as he talked.
Dumbledore's face dulled, "Well, I would think that Voldemort would be able to get by the boundaries set on the castle, being the wizard he is. Even I have found a few ways around the rules. But the question of how he was able to do such a good job of it will, for now, remain unanswered. As for me, he knows that I'm getting older and weaker, and he didn't know that I would show up." Dumbledore looked at Hermione then over to Draco, his mouth set in a straight line.
Hermione nodded, not exactly sure that she understood, but didn't think that responding at the moment would be quite right.
"The thing is," Dumbledore continued, "is that when word gets out about Voldemort being able to enter Hogwarts, which it will because I plan on telling the students, parents will be sending for their children and the school could be in danger of being shut down. I don't keep secrets like that from my students. At the very least, we will need to take desperate measures to take caution, and as of now, I, myself don't know how we are going to go about that." He finished very slowly.
"Um, Professor, another question?
Dumbledore nodded.
"What was that curse he used, Kilneo, or something like that." Hermione asked, bursting with curiosity.
"That is a very old and powerful curse that not many people know about." Dumbledore explained slowly, "It does not one certain thing, but what the wizard's will for the curse to do is, whether to kill, or hurt, or merely send them out of the room. In a way it is like the Crutius curse but in a much different manner. I, myself, have never seen it used, because there are other spells that people can use to do little things like that, and bigger ones, like the Crutius curse. I wonder what the reason was that Voldemort used it on you, Draco. Did it do anything other than get you out of the way?"
"I think I was just knocked out for a little." Draco said shakily.
"Hmmm"
"Professor how did you know we were in need of help?" Draco asked inquisitively. Hermione looked up quickly; she also wanted to know.
Dumbledore looked at Draco and Hermione sternly. "Alas, that is not a question that can be answered, for not even I know the answer to that. I could tell that there was something very wrong going on."
"Very well, I hope to see you in better condition tomorrow. This room is very safe to be in now, no matter what your doubts are. Madam Pomfry will probably have you stay in the hospital wing for the rest of the night."
Dumbledore finished very surely. Following that, he quickly conjured up ropes which stealthily bound themselves up around Lucius' hands and ankles. Dumbledore held his wand up and Lucius floated eerily up beside him, his head lolling uselessly.
Hermione watched interestedly and noted that Dumbledore used the same spell that she had seen Lupin use on Snape in her 3rd year.
With a curt nod of his head, Dumbledore left the common room leaving Hermione wondering if he knew the passwords to every room in the castle. Sometimes Dumbledore could be pretty peculiar, Voldemort had just shown up, Draco could have been killed, and Dumbledore leaves them alone. Hermione smiled at his ways.
She turned back to Draco with the smile.
"Thanks for saving me from whatever he was trying to do."
"Yeah…"
Draco and Hermione looked at each other uncertainly. Hermione felt a wave of emotion spread over her as she once again stared up at him. She realized she wouldn't rather be with anyone else. His silver-gray eyes pulled her toward him.
"I think we have something to finish Hermione…"
Before Hermione could respond he placed his lips firmly upon hers. Hermione closed her eyes and smiled into his lips, deepening the kiss. Her right hand went up to touch his cheek. She was hardly aware of Draco's arms going around her shoulders and pulling her close, one hand holding the back of her head as he kissed her. Once again she felt complete and her head cleared of all thoughts except Draco.
* * *
A couple minutes later Hermione pulled away from Draco, her face lit up. Draco kissed her one more time softly on the lips and wiped some of the blood of her chin with his finger, from the cut earlier, all the while looking lovingly down at her.
Hermione stumbled for something to say ending up with "We should head up to the hospital wing." She blushed hoping she hadn't sounded like she wanted to get away from him.
"Mmm…that will be the second time today. Well, actually…"Draco looked down at his watch then back up, "It's 2:00 in the morning so I take that back."
Hermione giggled.
They stood up Hermione helping Draco up gingerly, being cautious of his arm. Draco placed his good arm around her waist as they walked toward the door. She felt herself loosen up in Draco's touch.
They slowly walked out of the common room toward the stairs, hoping that they would for once stay in place. The corridors were unusually bright, no doubt Dumbledore was taking action already. A faint blue tinge floated around the windows, although Hermione couldn't think of anything that would come in through a window. Almost every door was open.
They passed Professor McGongall who didn't seem to be able to talk but acknowledged them solemnly. Other teachers were seen, but all of them seemed to know that Draco and Hermione had permission to go to the hospital wing.
As they neared the hospital wing Hagrid exited a classroom, looming large as ever.
"Hermione!" He roared, echoing throughout the hall despite everything that was going on, "Are you all righ'?" He bustled over to Hermione eyeing Draco warily, who withdrew his arm from around Hermione.
"Yea, Hagrid, I'm all right." Hermione smiled up at his towering figure.
"Well, ok," He said uncertainly, "I've got somethin I've gotta do for Dumbledore."
Hurrying off, he fingered his beard and muttered under his breath, "You know 'oo! In Hogwarts! It's unbelievable!" He turned the corner. Hermione bit her lip and looked at Draco.
"C'mon" He said. They entered the hospital wing to find Madam Pomfrey pacing the room.
"Finally!" She pierced as they came in, "Dumbledore letting you two come down here yourselves, it's not safe! Now get into beds, both of you, you're staying here for the rest of the night."
Draco sighed, but both of them got into beds. Madam Pomfrey hurried over to Draco first, as he looked the worst out of the two of them. Madam Pomfrey applied some ointment to the cut on his arm, then applied a wrap.
"That won't take long to heal, just leave it on for twenty-four hours." She said as she grabbed something else out of the cabinet. She walked over to Hermione and took her chin in her hands, looking at it closely. "Minor cut; this won't hurt." And with a flick of her wand and "fixendio!" the cut was gone.
"Now sleep!" She entered a door on the side of the room. Hermione turned to face Draco.
"Night, Hermione."
"Night, Draco."
Hermione found her mind completely on Draco. Her eyes rested on his, preventing her from remembering anything else. She thought of how he had changed and what he had told her. She thought of his kiss and his captivating eyes. She finally fell asleep with Draco's face in her mind, thinking about what a long day it had been.