Disclaimer - Looks at Harry Potter books. Nope, still not mine.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. It amazed me at how many there were, I was seriously astounded. I've never received that many for one chapter before. Gracias.
Sadly, this is the last chapter. You can mourn with me if you want, I'm really sad.
-=-=-=-
The sun's rays shone in through the windows of the infirmary and Hermione blinked as they woke her up, the light being a great contrast in the dark room. She watched the blonde boy sleep soundly on his cot and smiled to herself. He looked so much more peaceful when he was sleeping, so carefree.
The castle was completely still this early in the morning. She could hear the wind blowing through the trees outside and the birds beginning to chirp as they roused themselves from a long nights rest.
Draco mumbled something in his sleep and turned over, falling off the bed. Hermione laughed and shook her head at him before going to his side to help him back into the bed, he was still very weak.
"You're hopeless." She said as he crawled back into bed and rubbed his sore arm he had fallen on. He sent her a dirty look but the minute his head touched the pillow his eyes fell shut and he was asleep once again.
Hermione crept from the hospital and made her way up to Gryffindor Tower. The common room and all the dorms were empty; she was the only one from her house that had stayed for the holidays. She opened the door to her room and went inside to change her clothing. She had been wearing the same thing since four days ago when she had flown to the manor.
She slipped on a pair of blue jeans and her favorite white sweater. She ran a brush through her thick, curly tresses and pulled it back into a braid at the nape of her neck. Several of her curls hung loose and framed her face. Once she was satisfied with her appearance she grabbed her wand from the vanity and made her way to the kitchen for breakfast.
-=-=-=-
Draco heard the retreating footsteps of Hermione as she left the infirmary. He slowly opened his eyes and gazed at the place she had been sitting, she had taken everything with her, leaving no evidence that she had ever been there.
'Oh well, it was too good to last I guess.' He thought and closed his eyes once more. 'We could never be friends. Just think of who we are. We're just too different and we always will be.'
As he went over this in his head he felt a pain in his heart, something he had never felt before. The feeling confused him. He had been raised to feel as little emotion as possible, to be made of stone. It was unfeasible not to feel any at all; he was, after all, still human. And yet suddenly he was submerged in a new pool of feelings that he had never experienced before. It scared him.
He ignored the sensation, thinking it was just a delayed reaction to his injury and forced himself to drink another helping of his pain-killing potion. No matter how many times he drank it, the potion always burned on the way down. He closed his eyes and waited for the scorching feeling to die down.
He lay his head back down on the bed and gazed up at the pure whiteness around him. The room was devoid of any color. It was almost unnerving, being the only thing that held color in the room, even someone as pale as he stood out. He turned his head slightly and stared out the window to his right. A thick blanket of snow covered the ground and gave the illusion that Hogwarts was some sort of a Winter Wonderland, and in a way it was.
Madam Pomfrey scurried about the room, changing the sheets on the beds and refilling her medicine cabinet. She came to Draco's bedside and removed the empty vials on his table.
"Good morning Mister Malfoy." She said and restocked his supply of medication. "Feeling any better this morning?"
"A bit." He answered; his head still turned the opposite direction marveling at the glistening snow. "Do you know when I'll be able to leave?"
She reached over and took his temperature.
"Well your fever has finally left you but I want to keep you one or two more days to make sure you don't have any other complications." He sighed at the thought of spending any more time bedridden. "If you would like I can get your friend to bring you something to read."
"She's not my friend." He said, although it pained him to admit. He secretly wished it were true, that they were, in fact, friends.
"Well she sure was worried about you when she brought you in. Nearly swept me off my feet dragging me to your side. She does seem to care about what happens to you. But I guess that's not a friend." She smiled knowingly and left him to ponder what she had said.
He was on the verge of falling asleep when Hermione came back into the room. He looked up at her through half lidded eyes and smirked.
"Thought you'd left me." He mumbled sleepily.
"Of course not. I can't leave you until I'm sure you'll live." She sat on the edge of his bed and popped the rest of a roll into her mouth.
"I'll live." He assured her quietly and studied her face. Why had he never noticed the way her eyes lit up when she laughed? Or how beautiful her smile was? She grew uneasy under his intense gaze and turned slightly pink before looking away. He noticed how uncomfortable she was and snapped back to reality. "She says I have to stay for another day or two."
"Is that all? I would think she would keep you longer. You were in such terrible shape when you got here." She turned to look at him, remembering the terror that day had held.
"Why did you do it?" He asked and propped himself up a bit more on the mattress. "Why did you save me? I did nothing to deserve it."
"Because it was the right thing to do." She said, a look of sadness and concern filled her eyes. "I am a Gryffindor after all, what did you expect?"
They both laughed a little, shaking off the tense atmosphere of the moment for a while. Madam Pomfrey saw that Hermione returned and gave Draco a wink and a smile from the other side of the infirmary.
-=-=-=-
"I'm free!" Draco shouted as he lept from his bed the next day. The nurse had just told him that he was allowed to leave the hospital. He grabbed Hermione's arms and pulled her along with him as he danced in circles around the bed.
She laughed and let herself be turned around and around. He finally stopped and they both caught their breath.
"Excited are you?" She said sarcastically and grinned broadly.
"I'm free." He replied simply. He began to gather what possessions he had with him and getting ready to return to his own room.
"I guess I'd be happy to if I had been forced to spend a week lying in a bed, doing absolutely nothing. It'd get rather dull." He mumbled something to the effect of, 'you have no idea,' and finished getting his supplies in order.
They sat side by side on the bed for several minutes, not saying anything. Knowing that this could quite possibly be the last time they would ever speak kindly to one another, smile at each other, or even spend time together.
"Well that's all of it then.' He said and picked up his belongings. "I guess I'll see you around."
"Yeah," she said and began walking towards the door, "around."
With every step she took a little bit of the warmth and happiness she had felt over the past week with Draco vanished. She longed to turn back and talk one more time, make him laugh again. But she didn't. She continued walking until she stood in front of the portrait of the fat woman in the pink dress.
"Caritas." She said sadly and entered the common room. This morning she hadn't noticed the vast emptiness of it but now it overcame her. She was alone.
-=-=-=-
Hermione stood in the middle on the Quidditch Pitch, her cobalt cloak hugged tightly to her for warmth, staring up at the angry gray sky. Large snowflakes fell and danced in the wind all around her, stinging her cheeks when they made contact.
There was something else in the sky though. Invading the gray was a small green creature. Her eyes fixed on the green object as it swirled through the air. It battled with the wind before rapidly heading for the ground. Her eyes widened in terror but she found herself unable to move as the creature flew strait towards her.
It made contact and knocked her off her feet before flying away again. Not able to find the strength to get up, Hermione lay in the snow, still looking at the falling crystals. She closed her eyes and let them daintily land on her cheeks and lips. When she reopened her eyes she found herself staring face to face with a large black animal.
Energy coursed back through her veins and she hurried away from it, only to find herself completely surrounded. They were closing in all around her, forming a tight circle of black in the pure whiteness of the snow. There was no escape.
It was the Duisternis, a creature they had been studying with Hagrid. They must have broken out of their pen, and they could be very fierce and aggressive in groups.
Hermione frantically glanced around for anything she could use for protection but found nothing. She one again looked to the sky. There was her green creature once again. It was hurling towards the earth quickly, right at her once more. This time she did not feel afraid. She embraced the impact of the creature with open arms and closed eyes.
She felt herself being lifted from the ground, up into the frigid air. One of the black animals gripped her arm in an attempt to hold her back, cutting into her flesh, but it was too late. She was beyond their reach now.
She felt herself soaring higher and higher as the green creature carried her away, to safety. Only when she felt her feet on the ground did she open her eyes. Her white sweater was stained crimson from the cut on her arm. She tried her best to hold the wound shut but it was to no avail, it kept bleeding.
"Here," the green creature said. They picked up a handful of snow and placed it on the injury, applying pressure as it did so. The colorless snow was turned a deep red from her blood and melted away from its' warmth. Hermione looked upon her green creature for the first time, and found herself staring into Draco Malfoy's stormy gray eyes.
"Thank you." She said quietly and traced his profile with her free hand. He smiled and helped her to her feet. They both stood and looked around at the snow.
"You know, some people say I'm made of ice." He said, more to himself than to her, taking the hand that she still had against his cheek into his. "I guess this is almost like a second home to me. That means you're standing on my property. You're standing on my soul." He directed her hand to his lips, and he brushed the fingers against them.
He looked at her, his eyes penetrating what defenses she had left. She felt strangely vulnerable, standing so close to him, and found it hard to breathe.
"Do you think I'm cold Hermione?" He asked quietly.
"No." She whispered. She could see his warm breath in the chilly night. She saw the red flush in his cheeks that had been a result of flying into the wind. In one moment she memorized his entire body, his stature, his persona. He smiled and brought his face down to hers, their lips meeting for the first time.
The feeling of his lips on hers was electric and sent Hermione into a daze. She stood motionless as his soft lips caressed her own in a gentleness she never expected from him.
She timidly brought her hands up and put them around his neck, pulling him closer to her. One hand played with the soft hair at the base of his neck while the other held him close. His own hands joined at her waist.
Hermione began to move her lips against his. The friction elicited a gasp of pleasure from each of them. While her mouth was open, Draco took the liberty of tenderly sliding his tongue inside, deepening the kiss.
Hermione moaned as it made contact with her own and gingerly explored his mouth with her tongue. She felt foolish doing it as it was her first time to go this far in a kiss but he seemed to enjoy it as he pulled her even closer to him and smiled against her lips.
Hermione finally pulled away so they both could catch their breath. They stood forehead to forehead, looking into each other's eyes, lips swollen and red from the tedious exercise. Draco absentmindedly ran his fingers up and down Hermione's spine, causing her to shiver at the touch and smile up at him.
"I'm going to have a lot to explain to Harry and Ron when they get back." She joked.
"Hush, you're going to ruin the moment talking about those two." He said and tilted her chin up with his fingers. He lowered his head and claimed her lips with his own once more.
-=-=-=-
And that's it; it's all over. I'm crying. It's very sad for me. I've spent nearly three months of my life on this story and now it's done. Oh well, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it.
Unfortunately, there will be no sequel so please don't ask for one. If I did end up writing a sequel it would turn out all fluffy and such and that's not what I like to write so, no sequel. Kapeesh?
Please review and tell me what you thought. I strive on reviews. They keep me going sometimes. Plus, the button is conveniently located at the bottom of the screen where you end up after reading this anyway. Imagine that.
REVIEW!
Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. It amazed me at how many there were, I was seriously astounded. I've never received that many for one chapter before. Gracias.
Sadly, this is the last chapter. You can mourn with me if you want, I'm really sad.
-=-=-=-
The sun's rays shone in through the windows of the infirmary and Hermione blinked as they woke her up, the light being a great contrast in the dark room. She watched the blonde boy sleep soundly on his cot and smiled to herself. He looked so much more peaceful when he was sleeping, so carefree.
The castle was completely still this early in the morning. She could hear the wind blowing through the trees outside and the birds beginning to chirp as they roused themselves from a long nights rest.
Draco mumbled something in his sleep and turned over, falling off the bed. Hermione laughed and shook her head at him before going to his side to help him back into the bed, he was still very weak.
"You're hopeless." She said as he crawled back into bed and rubbed his sore arm he had fallen on. He sent her a dirty look but the minute his head touched the pillow his eyes fell shut and he was asleep once again.
Hermione crept from the hospital and made her way up to Gryffindor Tower. The common room and all the dorms were empty; she was the only one from her house that had stayed for the holidays. She opened the door to her room and went inside to change her clothing. She had been wearing the same thing since four days ago when she had flown to the manor.
She slipped on a pair of blue jeans and her favorite white sweater. She ran a brush through her thick, curly tresses and pulled it back into a braid at the nape of her neck. Several of her curls hung loose and framed her face. Once she was satisfied with her appearance she grabbed her wand from the vanity and made her way to the kitchen for breakfast.
-=-=-=-
Draco heard the retreating footsteps of Hermione as she left the infirmary. He slowly opened his eyes and gazed at the place she had been sitting, she had taken everything with her, leaving no evidence that she had ever been there.
'Oh well, it was too good to last I guess.' He thought and closed his eyes once more. 'We could never be friends. Just think of who we are. We're just too different and we always will be.'
As he went over this in his head he felt a pain in his heart, something he had never felt before. The feeling confused him. He had been raised to feel as little emotion as possible, to be made of stone. It was unfeasible not to feel any at all; he was, after all, still human. And yet suddenly he was submerged in a new pool of feelings that he had never experienced before. It scared him.
He ignored the sensation, thinking it was just a delayed reaction to his injury and forced himself to drink another helping of his pain-killing potion. No matter how many times he drank it, the potion always burned on the way down. He closed his eyes and waited for the scorching feeling to die down.
He lay his head back down on the bed and gazed up at the pure whiteness around him. The room was devoid of any color. It was almost unnerving, being the only thing that held color in the room, even someone as pale as he stood out. He turned his head slightly and stared out the window to his right. A thick blanket of snow covered the ground and gave the illusion that Hogwarts was some sort of a Winter Wonderland, and in a way it was.
Madam Pomfrey scurried about the room, changing the sheets on the beds and refilling her medicine cabinet. She came to Draco's bedside and removed the empty vials on his table.
"Good morning Mister Malfoy." She said and restocked his supply of medication. "Feeling any better this morning?"
"A bit." He answered; his head still turned the opposite direction marveling at the glistening snow. "Do you know when I'll be able to leave?"
She reached over and took his temperature.
"Well your fever has finally left you but I want to keep you one or two more days to make sure you don't have any other complications." He sighed at the thought of spending any more time bedridden. "If you would like I can get your friend to bring you something to read."
"She's not my friend." He said, although it pained him to admit. He secretly wished it were true, that they were, in fact, friends.
"Well she sure was worried about you when she brought you in. Nearly swept me off my feet dragging me to your side. She does seem to care about what happens to you. But I guess that's not a friend." She smiled knowingly and left him to ponder what she had said.
He was on the verge of falling asleep when Hermione came back into the room. He looked up at her through half lidded eyes and smirked.
"Thought you'd left me." He mumbled sleepily.
"Of course not. I can't leave you until I'm sure you'll live." She sat on the edge of his bed and popped the rest of a roll into her mouth.
"I'll live." He assured her quietly and studied her face. Why had he never noticed the way her eyes lit up when she laughed? Or how beautiful her smile was? She grew uneasy under his intense gaze and turned slightly pink before looking away. He noticed how uncomfortable she was and snapped back to reality. "She says I have to stay for another day or two."
"Is that all? I would think she would keep you longer. You were in such terrible shape when you got here." She turned to look at him, remembering the terror that day had held.
"Why did you do it?" He asked and propped himself up a bit more on the mattress. "Why did you save me? I did nothing to deserve it."
"Because it was the right thing to do." She said, a look of sadness and concern filled her eyes. "I am a Gryffindor after all, what did you expect?"
They both laughed a little, shaking off the tense atmosphere of the moment for a while. Madam Pomfrey saw that Hermione returned and gave Draco a wink and a smile from the other side of the infirmary.
-=-=-=-
"I'm free!" Draco shouted as he lept from his bed the next day. The nurse had just told him that he was allowed to leave the hospital. He grabbed Hermione's arms and pulled her along with him as he danced in circles around the bed.
She laughed and let herself be turned around and around. He finally stopped and they both caught their breath.
"Excited are you?" She said sarcastically and grinned broadly.
"I'm free." He replied simply. He began to gather what possessions he had with him and getting ready to return to his own room.
"I guess I'd be happy to if I had been forced to spend a week lying in a bed, doing absolutely nothing. It'd get rather dull." He mumbled something to the effect of, 'you have no idea,' and finished getting his supplies in order.
They sat side by side on the bed for several minutes, not saying anything. Knowing that this could quite possibly be the last time they would ever speak kindly to one another, smile at each other, or even spend time together.
"Well that's all of it then.' He said and picked up his belongings. "I guess I'll see you around."
"Yeah," she said and began walking towards the door, "around."
With every step she took a little bit of the warmth and happiness she had felt over the past week with Draco vanished. She longed to turn back and talk one more time, make him laugh again. But she didn't. She continued walking until she stood in front of the portrait of the fat woman in the pink dress.
"Caritas." She said sadly and entered the common room. This morning she hadn't noticed the vast emptiness of it but now it overcame her. She was alone.
-=-=-=-
Hermione stood in the middle on the Quidditch Pitch, her cobalt cloak hugged tightly to her for warmth, staring up at the angry gray sky. Large snowflakes fell and danced in the wind all around her, stinging her cheeks when they made contact.
There was something else in the sky though. Invading the gray was a small green creature. Her eyes fixed on the green object as it swirled through the air. It battled with the wind before rapidly heading for the ground. Her eyes widened in terror but she found herself unable to move as the creature flew strait towards her.
It made contact and knocked her off her feet before flying away again. Not able to find the strength to get up, Hermione lay in the snow, still looking at the falling crystals. She closed her eyes and let them daintily land on her cheeks and lips. When she reopened her eyes she found herself staring face to face with a large black animal.
Energy coursed back through her veins and she hurried away from it, only to find herself completely surrounded. They were closing in all around her, forming a tight circle of black in the pure whiteness of the snow. There was no escape.
It was the Duisternis, a creature they had been studying with Hagrid. They must have broken out of their pen, and they could be very fierce and aggressive in groups.
Hermione frantically glanced around for anything she could use for protection but found nothing. She one again looked to the sky. There was her green creature once again. It was hurling towards the earth quickly, right at her once more. This time she did not feel afraid. She embraced the impact of the creature with open arms and closed eyes.
She felt herself being lifted from the ground, up into the frigid air. One of the black animals gripped her arm in an attempt to hold her back, cutting into her flesh, but it was too late. She was beyond their reach now.
She felt herself soaring higher and higher as the green creature carried her away, to safety. Only when she felt her feet on the ground did she open her eyes. Her white sweater was stained crimson from the cut on her arm. She tried her best to hold the wound shut but it was to no avail, it kept bleeding.
"Here," the green creature said. They picked up a handful of snow and placed it on the injury, applying pressure as it did so. The colorless snow was turned a deep red from her blood and melted away from its' warmth. Hermione looked upon her green creature for the first time, and found herself staring into Draco Malfoy's stormy gray eyes.
"Thank you." She said quietly and traced his profile with her free hand. He smiled and helped her to her feet. They both stood and looked around at the snow.
"You know, some people say I'm made of ice." He said, more to himself than to her, taking the hand that she still had against his cheek into his. "I guess this is almost like a second home to me. That means you're standing on my property. You're standing on my soul." He directed her hand to his lips, and he brushed the fingers against them.
He looked at her, his eyes penetrating what defenses she had left. She felt strangely vulnerable, standing so close to him, and found it hard to breathe.
"Do you think I'm cold Hermione?" He asked quietly.
"No." She whispered. She could see his warm breath in the chilly night. She saw the red flush in his cheeks that had been a result of flying into the wind. In one moment she memorized his entire body, his stature, his persona. He smiled and brought his face down to hers, their lips meeting for the first time.
The feeling of his lips on hers was electric and sent Hermione into a daze. She stood motionless as his soft lips caressed her own in a gentleness she never expected from him.
She timidly brought her hands up and put them around his neck, pulling him closer to her. One hand played with the soft hair at the base of his neck while the other held him close. His own hands joined at her waist.
Hermione began to move her lips against his. The friction elicited a gasp of pleasure from each of them. While her mouth was open, Draco took the liberty of tenderly sliding his tongue inside, deepening the kiss.
Hermione moaned as it made contact with her own and gingerly explored his mouth with her tongue. She felt foolish doing it as it was her first time to go this far in a kiss but he seemed to enjoy it as he pulled her even closer to him and smiled against her lips.
Hermione finally pulled away so they both could catch their breath. They stood forehead to forehead, looking into each other's eyes, lips swollen and red from the tedious exercise. Draco absentmindedly ran his fingers up and down Hermione's spine, causing her to shiver at the touch and smile up at him.
"I'm going to have a lot to explain to Harry and Ron when they get back." She joked.
"Hush, you're going to ruin the moment talking about those two." He said and tilted her chin up with his fingers. He lowered his head and claimed her lips with his own once more.
-=-=-=-
And that's it; it's all over. I'm crying. It's very sad for me. I've spent nearly three months of my life on this story and now it's done. Oh well, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it.
Unfortunately, there will be no sequel so please don't ask for one. If I did end up writing a sequel it would turn out all fluffy and such and that's not what I like to write so, no sequel. Kapeesh?
Please review and tell me what you thought. I strive on reviews. They keep me going sometimes. Plus, the button is conveniently located at the bottom of the screen where you end up after reading this anyway. Imagine that.
REVIEW!