Keep On Living
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Hermione ran her fingers through her bushy brown hair, silently cursing everything. She had failed the night before. She had failed to die.
It was what everyone would have wanted. She was sure of it. She had climbed up the stairs to the Griffindor tower with one thing in mind, dying that night.
She had walked into her dormitory and pulled out a quill and some parchment to write her final goodbyes. The note had been short, but it would have sufficed.
'Dear Whoever finds me,
Congratulations, you are the first person to see me dead. Happy? I should have known you would have. Now you won't have to put up with me, the ugly know-it-all. I only wish you would have seen me before all this, before no one cared. Too bad.
-Hermione Granger'
The knife had been so sharp, and she had been so sure it would have killed her, but it didn't. She woke up the next morning, alive, and wet with blood from her slit wrists.
Ever since 5th year when Harry and Ron had started to ignore her, she had been ready to die. Then her parents disappeared without a trace. She had had no one to run to. For the past year she had been musing her death, still wondering if anyone would even look for her, but they hadn't.
Hermione looked at her watch as the students around her began to race to their classes. She had Potions first thing. This was going to be horrible.
Draco Malfoy stirred the potion in his cauldron angrily. The last time he had been in front of a cauldron was supposed to have been the last. He had been brewing a potion that would have easily killed him. The Draft of the Living Dead. Only much, much stronger.
He had gone into the Slytherin common room and pulled the small, clear potion from the lining of his black robes. He walked into his own dorm, and slowly uncapped the bottle.
"Goodbye." He had whispered, and then slowly poured the potion down his throat. It had burned as t went down, making him groan and curl into himself from the agony.
But he must have made the draft wrong, because even though it took forever to wake him the next morning, he had awoken, to see a new day, and a day closer to the day he was to become a Death Eater.
The potion bubbled. Draco glared down at it for disrupting his train of thought, and through some newt's eyes in.
If the poison didn't work, perhaps he should try the bridge in Hogsmead. It was over a rushing river that fed into the Hogwarts "lake." The river was extremely rocky, so he could die really fast. The thought began to sound better and better to him. Little did he know someone else was thinking the same thing.
The day seemed to creep on unnaturally slow for the two students. When dinner came, they couldn't seem to wait to get it all over with. Hermione was playing with her food, her stomach churning. This was to be her last meal, and she'd be glad.
Draco ate quickly, he needed to go prepare for the night. He was going to write a quick letter to Professor Snape, just so he'd understand. The Slytherin head had always been understanding, to Slytherins. As he gulped down the rest of his pumpkin juice, he saw Professor McGonagall leave the Great Hall, and knew dinner was done.
Draco went upstairs into his dormitory, and quickly wrote the note.
'Dear Professor Snape,
I'm truly sorry I have gone and destroyed all the trust you have put into me, but I just can't become a Death Eater. Please, don't be upset, this was for the best.
-Draco Malfoy'
Around 11:00 Draco snuck out of the common room, and turned to have one more look. He was going to miss this dungeon. It had been his home for the past five years.
He dodged his way out of the castle, and was soon jogging down the path to Hogsmead. When the village had just came insight, he sharply turned out into the brush onto a hidden trail and walked on down towards the bridge. As he neared it he saw someone coming down the path from the village.
"You!" He snapped as the figure got closer, revealing itself to be Hermione. "What are you doing here?"
Hermione gave him a skeptical look. "Well look, it it isn't the cauldron calling the kettle black?" She snapped.
"What I'm doing out here isn't any of your concern, Mudblood." Draco hissed.
"And neither is what I am."
"Look, I have business to attend to tonight, Granger."
Hermione snorted. She was just going to throw herself off bridge, it wouldn't take that long.
While the two were arguing they both missed a strange tabby cat appearing on the bridge. A tabby cat with square markings around it's eyes.
Hermione had had enough. Roughly shoving Draco out of her way she approached the bridge. When she stood at the highest point, she peeped nervously over the edge.
The rocks beneath the currents with large and jagged, ripped apart by the swift waters. The river would become gentle downstream from here, and the rocks would be smooth. Stepping up on one of the rails, she lifted herself onto the to railing. As she swung her feet over, she felt a presence at her side.
"It looks as though you've come here for the same reasons I have." Draco murmured.
Hermione looked at him sadly, and then nodded. He lifted himself up next to her.
"Why?" She asked. "Why must I be here? What was my purpose? To die? That seems like a pretty sad purpose."
"I guess that we'll never find out what our purpose was, if this works the way it's supposed to, I'll be dead before midnight." Hermione nodded.
"It's a dreary occasion, that's for sure." She said, and then turned to him. "Well, since you are the last person who'll ever see me, be glad, you are about to witness the end of know-it-all Granger." With that, she leaned foreword, and slipped from her place on the railing...
Only to be caught in the arms of a very angry Professor McGonagall.
"Miss Granger, Mister Malfoy, come with me."
When Hermione was put onto her feet, she began to cry. She hadn't cried in quite a while, and the tears just wouldn't stop. Luckily, Professor McGonagall was somewhat forgiving towards the girl and wrapped a supportive arm around her. As they walked up the path towards the castle, Draco began to wonder why the Transfigurations teacher was at the bridge anyway.
As they neared the castle the doors were thrown open by a relieved looking Snape.
"Draco! Thank goodness you're alright!" Snape instantly began to look Draco over.
Hermione looked up from McGonagall's shoulder to see Albus Dumbledore and Madame Pomfery come out the school doors. Madame Pomfery looked absolutely furious with the two students, and Dumbledore looked a bit disappointed.
"Quiet!" Dumbledore said, and the three adults quieted down from the check-ups and light scolding. "Miss Granger, Mister Malfoy, the two of you have given us quite a scare today. You must be wondering how we found out about your suicide attempts so quickly. I will tell you.
"Professor McGonagall noticed that one of the Griffindor robes had bloodstains on each of the arms, and began to worry. So she searched the dormitories, and found in your trunk, Miss Granger, a bloodstained knife and a note telling someone that you had tried to kill yourself. Around eleven o'clock tonight she went to make sure you were in bed, and alive just in case. When she saw you gone she went to find you, thinking you had gone to the Astronomy Tower. You hadn't. She could see you leaving the school grounds and heading towards Hogsmead, and so she came and informed me of you latest troubles before going to tail you.
"Around this same time Professor Snape discovered a vial that had evidently contained a strong draft in it, and the letter on Mister Malfoy's bed, which was still quite fresh. He did pretty much the same thing as Professor McGonagall, only he went to all the towers to search for you. When he didn't find you, he came to me, and I told him that he should check the lake for you, and then the bridge. But as you can see, you were both found before we had the chance.
"If I were you I would consider yourself lucky. You could have made the worst mistake of your lives tonight, if not for the fact that your professors were so concerned with your behavior recently. You will find yourselves under their eyes most of the time now, they will be watching carefully, as will I, for any change in behavior. But for now, I would go to bed, you will both still be in classes tomorrow, but I have pardoned you from any homework for the next week, because you will be in counseling classes every afternoon. I know you aren't thrilled, but in the end it will all work out." Dumbledore smiled at them, "Come, you've had quite a night, and are undoubtable tired."
As the two professors walked their students toward their dormitories in silence, the two students had quite a lot to think about. The next morning would show what the future could bring.
Hermione walked down the stairs of her dormitory the next morning, to see Ron and Harry waiting at the bottom. 'Probably for their girlfriends.' She thought wryly. As she got to the last step, she noticed a piece of paper clenched in Harry's hand. Just as she was about to head for the portrait to leave for breakfast, she felt two sets of arms wrap around her.
"I'm sorry Hermione," Harry whispered.
"Why? Why did you attempt suicide?" Ron murmured.
Hermione was silent for a few seconds after they let go and were just looking at her.
"I don't know, Ron. I just felt so alone." Hermione felt a few tears in her eyes as she said this.
"Oh, Hermione." Harry said, and began to rub her back.
Hermione began to cry softly. As she spilled the whole story, she could feel their support. She knew she was safe.
A week after the Draco and Hermione had tried to kill themselves during breakfast, the two both just happened to look up at the same time. Their eyes met and they smiled as a solitary thought crossed their minds,
"How good it is just to keep on living."
THE END