Chapter 10: True Love Never Dies
Disclaimer: don't own any of the characters except Morgan, Max and Mildred.
Morgan brushed her wavy black hair slowly, taking pleasure in it. The strands of her hair curled around her white neck like little snakes, and she smiled to her reflection in the mirror. Candle light made her look still more beautiful than usually, unleashing what she really was; a creature of the night, bathing in shadows and the twilight of those who can't decide between good and evil.
She fastened a ruby necklace around her neck and she smoothened the silky fabric of her jet-black dress while she got up and took a look at her long legs which seemed still longer because of her lovely high-heeled sandals.
She saw Mildred Prebble's reflection next to hers, and grinned again as she noticed she was torturing a strand of pale blonde hair and swinging her legs nervously. There were people who simply couldn't stay poised. But Morgan was one of those who could. She never lost her self-control, or almost never. She was always calm, cold.
"Give me my hair clip, Mildred." Morgan ordered.
It was a complicate jewel made of interlaced threads of jet and decorated with little rubies, a gift from her husband that she had got the day of their marriage. One of the numerous presents he had spoiled her with.
Draco would have put the world to her feet if it hadn't already been within her reach. He was rich, and he was glad he had got the woman he had wanted. As long as Morgan could remember it, the young Malfoy had courted her, with his usual malice and elegance. During parties, he would always invite her to dance, he would tell the guests how beautiful she was, how admirable. The entire underworld had expected them to marry one day. The expectations had been satisfied this sunny day of November, when the cold had vanished to let place to agreeable warmth, as if the weather itself would feast with the young couple that embodied the future of the underworld. Two wonderfully skilled wizards, united forever.
It had been a lovely dream.
But dreams didn't survive in the reality.
Maybe Morgan had always known Draco would betray her, one day or the other. He was like a child who cried for a toy and broke it when he had it. He had wanted her, he had got her, and then he had grown tired of her. It was this easy. And now she wanted revenge, never mind what she had said. And she knew how to get the vengeance she desired so eagerly.
A voice in her back sent chills down her neck, and someone passed rugged hands over her bare shoulders.
"So where is he?" came the voice.
Morgan smiled in the candle light.
"In the Two-Headed Dragon."
***
Afterwards, Hermione never knew who had made the first move. All that she remembered was that they were undressing each other, almost tearing their clothes away, and she was in his arms and there was a wild, untamed rush in their lovemaking, and after that, a measured and effortless melting, with soft, loving kisses that replaced the passionate, burning ones. It was the most wonderful feeling Hermione had ever experienced. They were together during hours, and it was magical. Draco was insatiable, giving and demanding at the same time. And he went on forever, once, and again, and again, and again...
He was an animal. And Hermione thought: Oh, Merlin, I am one too.
Draco must have fallen asleep, because when he opened his eyes, he was lying next to Hermione. A sheet was chastely put over her naked body, and he took the time of admiring her naïve, simple beauty, comparing her to his wife. While Morgan was intoxicating, provocative and bewitching, Hermione had the sweet and childish charm of those who have never tasted the bitterness of hate and life. They were so completely different…
But he loved her.
Hermione?
Yes, he loved Hermione, he had to. He had had sex so many times before, but this had been love. He had not only had sex, he had made love.
With a mudblood, he thought with a smirk. But somehow, it doesn't matter any more.
Because when they had made love, there had been no mudblood or pureblood, no good or evil, no enemies. There had just been Hermione and Draco, neither Potter nor Malfoy.
But Draco knew their pasts would catch up with them, if Voldemort didn't do it before. He had to leave quickly, or he'd be discovered. And what if Potter came into the room and saw him? Draco wasn't afraid of him, but Hermione was. And he didn't want to hurt her. It was strange, but he really didn't want her to.
He got up, and started putting on his clothes again. Once he was completely dressed, he gazed at Hermione again, and saw that her dark eyes were wide open, staring at him. He couldn't look away.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
"Away."
"So this meant nothing? You just wanted to entertain yourself one more night?"
A part of Draco's mind urged him to say yes, and I've had a lot of fun, thank you, but the other cried no! With no further explanation.
Hermione grabbed her light pink nightdress and put it on, as if there was still a part of her body she could hide from Draco. Why did it hurt her to realize the night hadn't meant anything to him? She hated him; he had taken her with force, hadn't he? She hadn't wanted to have sex with him.
"How did you get in, anyway?" she asked.
"Good wizards aren't stopped by stupid magic cards." He laughed.
She looked at him for a long time, and then tore her eyes away to stare out of the window.
"Why don't you go?"
"I should."
She nodded, and turned away from him. She waited a couple of minutes, but he was still there, so she walked towards the small balcony, and stepped out into the chill of the night, looking at the city under her feet. Suddenly she felt cold lips on her neck, and she shivered.
"Get away from me." She muttered, but she was too weak, and Draco was so strong. He kissed her neck again and again, as if he couldn't get enough of the taste of her skin.
"I hope you're having fun, Malfoy." She hissed.
He didn't lose time answering, and only kissed her lips fervently, forgetting the differences between their two worlds once more.
"Malfoy, go away!" she repeated.
"Maybe I will." he answered this time, and imprisoned her lips in a kiss once more. "But my name is Draco."
And then they made love again.
As they lay exhausted on Hermione's bed, she whispered:
"Why?"
And he couldn't answer, although she repeated her question obsessively. They stayed silent for a while, and Hermione began thinking about Harry. Now it was more than just a kiss that felt heavy on her conscience. This was adultery. If he ever found out… she noticed she was shivering, and covered herself with a sheet. He'd hate her forever, but, most of all, he'd be hurt. And everybody would soon know that Hermione Potter had betrayed the man which half of the witches would sell their grandmothers to sleep with. She'd be thrown out of the society. There was so much she could lose, only by not throwing Draco Malfoy out of her room, and why was she doing this?
"Because I love you."
Hermione's eyes stared at the darkness. What?
He squeezed her in his strong arms, and kissed her forehead. She felt happy for a brief moment, and then the hell broke out.
The ceiling collapsed over their heads, and Draco just had enough time to build a magic bubble around them. The pieces of the ceiling rebounded on the bubble, the dust stayed stuck on it. There was an infernal uproar, it seemed to Hermione that the whole world was breaking over her head, and she closed her eyes. Draco held her close, his gray eyes staring at the growing disaster. And then it stopped suddenly. The entire ceiling had fallen down; the room was drowned in debris. With a wave of his wand, Draco pushed the rubbish over their bubble away, and then let it burst, helping Hermione to stand over the wreckage.
"What was this?" she whispered terrified.
Voldemort, Draco thought, but he didn't utter a word. A green smoke began materializing in front of them, and panic gripped his heart. He shoved her back, protected her with his own body.
"Go away…" he whispered.
"What?"
"Go away!" the smoke was taking form, Draco could clearly distingue Morgan's, Mildred's and Max's shape, and there was the strange, snake-like form that characterized Voldemort behind them…
"Quickly!" he screamed to Hermione.
"Who is it? Oh, Draco! It's… it's…"
"Yes, it's Voldemort, and now go!"
"What will he do to you?"
"I don't know, but for heaven's sakes, do what I say!"
Hermione was terrified, she was afraid of dying. But she suddenly answered with disarming calmness:
"No, I won't leave you here alone."
Draco stared at her disbelievingly.
"What?"
"I'll stay with you."
He shook his head, giving furtive glances to the outlines in the smoke that were becoming sharper and sharper.
"No!" he shouted to her. "You can't, he'll kill you!"
Hermione seemed to hesitate, and then she started:
"But I have to help you…"
"Without your wand? Don't be stupid."
And then he pointed his' on her, and muttered a spell. He only had enough time to hear her scream, and then she vanished, letting him alone with Voldemort, his wife and the two worms.
Hermione reappeared in Harry's room, most to her surprise. Draco had sent her to the place he believed she'd be the safest, and she couldn't help feeling a wave of tenderness as she thought that he had wanted to protect her.
Harry was sleeping, which first dumbfounded Hermione, but then she remembered the rooms were magically made silent during the night; the neighbors could make as much row as they wanted, Harry would never hear it. She shook him brutally, though she didn't know exactly what he could do to help the man who had always been his worst enemy after Voldemort.
"What… Mimi?" Harry said rubbing his eyes.
"Get up, Harry, quick!"
"What is it? Why do you wake me up in the middle of the night?"
"Voldemort wants to kill Draco."
Harry's perfect black eyebrows arched, and then he smirked.
"Great."
Hermione stared at him, and only then remembered that she would have reacted like this only a few days before.
"No, it's not great!" she yelled. "You can't let Draco die."
"Why?"
"Because… because…"
Because I love him, she thought, but she didn't say it. It would make Harry lose only more time, and she had to save Draco, she had to.
"Because he's become good." She said instead. "And he knows all of Voldemort's secrets, and this is why he wants to slay him now."
Harry stayed speechless and astonished for a while, but then he said slowly:
"Are you sure?"
She nodded quickly.
"This can't be." He affirmed.
"Please, go and see yourself," she urged and pulled him out of his room.
"Oh, Merlin."
Harry Potter only had enough time to stare at the disaster before he noticed Morgan, Mildred, Voldemort and someone else he didn't know were surrounding Draco, who just looked up proudly, holding his chin high.
Voldemort's snake head tilted, and his thin lips arched in a smirk.
"The famous Harry Potter." He hissed. "This will be… a funny…. night."
"Stay behind, Mimi." Harry said, and he drew his wound to cast a protection spell around them.
Morgan stared at the two of them before smiling as well.
"Why don't you go home and think the world is beautiful, Potters? These are no matters of yours."
"You just want to take revenge, don't you, Morgan?" Draco said. "Why don't you have the courage of killing me yourself, then?"
Her black eyes narrowed, and she didn't answer.
"At any rate" Voldemort said. "We'll both…have… our revenge… Morgan."
And then he pronounced the Avada Kedavra on Draco. Harry yelled a protective spell, but his magic barrier broke, and Draco was struck by a green lightning. As he realized it was a mortal spell, his heart missed a beat, but it missed also the next, and the next…
Hermione screamed, tried to run towards him, but the protection spell that Harry had cast before prevented her from doing any further step. She smacked her fists against, and cried, and fell to her knees, but through her tears, she saw Draco's body slowly falling on the gray stones of the ceiling, and she could only yell:
"I love you too." And then she fainted.
***
Ron and Lavender stared at each other, and then at the rest of the group of prisoners. It was still unbelievable that Malfoy had freed them, and they couldn't understand why he had done it.
"I've always said he was too gorgeous to be evil." Ginny said, but everybody ignored her.
"There has to be a reason." Fred insisted. "Maybe it's another trap."
"Yeah, well, anyhow, we should look for Harry and Mimi." Lavender said. "They might be in danger, if our kidnapping was organized to weaken them, as we think."
For once in his life, Fred thought Lavender had had a smart thought, and he immediately decided to obey.
"But how will we search without our wands?" George asked. "Malfoy's just thrown us out; I don't even know where we are."
"But I do" Dean said, looking around. "This is the Two-Headed Dragon."
They looked at one another, and then began asking questions all at the same time.
"Just shut up, right?" Ron yelled. "There's no point in discussing about it now. He's got to have a reason for sending us here."
"Yeah, maybe it's to catch us again and then say to Harry the typical ultimatum like: if you don't give up, I'll kill your friends." Parvati proposed.
"And why has he freed us for it? He could have kept us prisoners and it wouldn't have changed anything." Seamus said wearily. "No, there's got to be something behind it."
"He's become good." Ginny said.
"Yeah, and pigs have learned how to fly." Fred mocked. "There's a smart plan behind it."
"Well, we won't find out if we stay here" Dean affirmed. "We ought to go in."
Strangely, this simple proposal made them all be quiet, and they nodded quickly.
Inside, the pretty receptionist looked at them with an inkling of surprise. She might be used to all kind of queer wizards who passed the night at the hotel, but these were definitely queerer than the average.
"How may I help you?" she asked.
"Have Mr. and Mrs. Potter a room here?" Padma said.
"Yes." The receptionist replied after a quick look at her magic crystal balls. "Two rooms, as a matter of fact. But you can't go in."
"We're their friends." George said.
"Do you have any proof for it?"
"Listen" Ron said. "Don't you recognize us? My name is Ron Weasley, and this is my sister Ginny, my brothers Fred and George, and these are Padma and Parvati Patil, Lavender Brown…"
The receptionist's face lit up with a smile when she said excitedly:
"Oh, I know you. You're Aurors."
Ginny clasped her hands.
"Great" Fred mocked. "Finally."
"Now let us meet Mr. and Mrs. Potter." Dean ordered.
***
Harry could only watch Draco die, but he didn't manage to feel sorry. If it was true that he had become good… well. He had been evil for so many years, he'd probably never really be good again. At any rate, if Hermione had believed him, then maybe he had been worth being saved, but… there had been nothing to do. And now Voldemort was on him again.
He raises his wand; Harry mutters a spell and jumps aside. The wall behind him explodes, makes him cough because of the dust. A stone falls on his knee, Harry cries out in pain. It's probably broken. Harry tries to ignore the hurt and points his own wand at the enemy, his tears blinding him. The time seems to stop; sparkles come out of their wands. An explosion of light signalizes the meeting of the two spells, and they vanish. Harry thinks of a charm with which he could defeat Voldemort, and then, the simplest one occurs to him.
"Expelliarmus!"
But it isn't him who says it.
His wand flies out of his hand, lands five meters beside him. Voldemort grins, prepares to attack again, and this time, Harry is helpless. He closes his eyes, while he tries to crawl towards his wand, but he knows there is no escape. This time, it's done. He'll die. And all this because he had wanted to save this Malfoy…
He vaguely hears the Avada Kedavra spell Voldemort wants to cast at him, and tries to hold his chin high, like Draco did before he was slain. At least, he should die dignifiedly, like his parents. He gives his wife a last look, she is so beautiful and so vulnerable…
And then he hears a noise, and he thinks it's all over.
Harry looked up, blinking because of the dust in the air. He stared at Voldemort's body, lying on the ground, and then saw nine little shapes crushing his face on the ground and boxing his back. Morgan, Max and Mildred raised their wands, but two tall and muscled shapes stood up and kicked Max and Mildred as if it was the easiest thing in the world. Two women started dragging Morgan's hair, but she was strong, she pushed them away and started lifting the others from Voldemort's body with spells. Then Harry became conscious of what was happening again, and he crawled towards his wand, though every move was awfully painful. When he finally squeezed it in his hands, he shouted another charm. Morgan was thrown against a wall, and then she looked at Harry. Then she vanished, and Voldemort cried out in pain as Ron – because it was him – started hitting him with a piece of the ceiling.
"Guys!" Harry yelled, and he limped towards them. He had never been so happy to see them before.
Seamus told him to go away, and all the others did too. The strong young man lifted up an enormous stone, and threw it with all his power on Voldemort's head. The body stopped moving, and Harry profited of the enemy's unconsciousness to pronounce the Avada Kedavra spell, thinking how often it had been used this night. A bolt struck Voldemort, and he went up in smoke. And this it was.
When Hermione woke up, everything was finished. Dean, Ron and Seamus had gone away with Voldemort's body; Harry was letting his broken leg be healed by a couple of nurses, Fred and George were congratulating themselves, and Parvati, Lavender, Padma and Ginny were weeping of happiness.
Hermione blinked, and shot up. Immediately, all the present witches and wizards wanted to hug her, but she pushed them away.
"Where is Draco?" she asked faintly.
They looked at one another.
"Well…"
"Where?"
"His body has been carried away, darling." Parvati said patting her shoulder.
"What?"
"He's probably being buried by now. He tried to be good, in the last moment, you know." Lavender continued.
Hermione felt dazed. What had happened? He's probably being buried by now. It meant he was… dead. But he couldn't be, he was strong and smart, no one could kill him, not even Voldemort…
"Is he dead?" she whispered.
The girls nodded eagerly, not knowing how much it hurt Hermione.
"But Harry's safe!" Ginny said.
But Hermione didn't care about Harry, she wanted Draco, she loved him, and now he was dead, before they had had the occasion of enjoying each other. Why was life always so unfair? She collapsed on the ground and felt a sudden urge of crying and never stopping, but the tears wouldn't come, so she just bumped her head against the rests of the wall and then hit it with her little clenched fists.
"It's not fair! It's not fair!" she repeated on and on, but no one understood why she was so desperate about the death of a man who had always been her enemy before.
***
Even in the later time, Harry never told anyone about the last words Draco had ever heard; a desperate declaration of love. Harry and Hermione didn't divorce. Hermione didn't ask it, and Harry didn't propose it. Maybe he knew she needed him to survive, now that Draco was dead. Maybe he still loved her. However, he never talked about him. But she never talked about anything else either. It was as if she had suddenly become unable to speak.
She had really loved someone during one night, only one night in her life, and true love was never replaced. When Draco had died, a part of her had followed him into the grave, never to get out of it.
***
TEN YEARS LATER
Every night in my dreams
I see you, I feel you,
That is how I know you go on
Hermione woke up in the middle of the night. She looked at her watch. It was time. It was exactly half past eleven, the time when she had opened her eyes ten years ago and had distinguished Draco's silver eyes, shining in the darkness. She woke up every night at the same time, since his death.
Far across the distance
And spaces between us
You have come to show you go on
She looked around, scanning her little room for his presence. She and Harry no longer shared the same room. Her husband had been nice, he had understood her. He wasn't that bad, after all. He was a loving, caring man, and she admired and liked him. But she couldn't love him. She couldn't love anyone like she had loved Draco.
Near, far, wherever you are
I believe that the heart does go on
Once more you open the door
And you're here in my heart
And my heart will go on and on
She got up, extending her arms to touch his skin, waiting for him to meet her. She could almost feel him, close to her. She could almost sense his hot breath on her neck.
Love can touch us one time
And last for a lifetime
And never let go till we're one
Love was when I loved you
One true time I hold to
In my life we'll always go on
Hermione walked towards her window. She had demanded a room that was perfectly alike to the one she had had in the Two-Headed Dragon, so that she could relive the magic moments of her first and last night with Draco. Every night, it was the same. She always did exactly the same movement, experienced the same sensation of happiness and sorrow at the same time. At half past eleven in the night, it was as if Draco Malfoy came back to life, as if he was there in her room with her again.
Near, far, wherever you are
I believe that the heart does go on
Once more you open the door
And you're here in my heart
And my heart will go on and on
There is some love that will not go away
In the darkness of the night, it was as if Hermione could see his shape, could caress his golden hair, could kiss his smooth and cold skin, as if he was there with her, telling her he loved her, repeating her name on and on. He was dead, but he was alive in her memory.
You're here, there's
nothing I fear,
And I know that my heart will go on
We'll stay forever this way
You are safe in my heart
And my heart will go on and on
THE END
So this is it. I hope you've all liked it. Please don't flame me, I really had to finish it like this. If people had reviewed, then maybe I would have written a happy end J. I apologize for the errors, same thing as always. PLEASE READ AND REVIEW.
~Alba
