Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any characters contained within this story, J. K. Rowling does, and she kicks ass, so I wouldn't steal her stuff from her…
A/N: Sorry, I don't know what the hell is going on with the commas and quotation marks in the last update… I changed it to html format and it uploaded alright now, but its formatted weird and I don't particularly like it, but at least you can read it now…. Enjoy!
Chapter 11: Choices
A faint cooing noise cut through the silence of the dark room. Stirring slightly, Draco rolled over and shoved his face into his pillow. The noise continued. Growling slightly he opened his eyes and they adjusted to the darkness, finding the source of the sound that disturbed his slumber.
He noticed an owl sitting on one of his bedposts, cooing softly to wake the sleeping young man. "Bloody owl," he said yawning widely and signaling the snow white owl to deliver its message.
Untying the note, he grabbed his wand and absentmindedly pointed it at the candle next to his bed and muttered a spell that filled the bed with a soft light. The owl pecked softly at his hand and Draco threw it a treat as he opened his letter with interest.
As the owl flew from his room, he began to intently read the feminine scrawl that took up only a few lines of the parchment:
Draco,
My son, we must discuss the important issue at hand since your father's death. I am sorry that we did not part on good terms after our last meeting, but I pray this one will go more favorably. Please meet me out in the gardens after breakfast in the morning.
Sincerely,
Your Mother
Draco sighed and rolled over, smothering his face in the pillow once again. The clock in his room read 6am and he dreaded the meeting that was to happen in only a few hours. He had tried to block out his duty to his mother and the Dark Lord that he was supposed to serve. He loved Hermione, plain and simple and he didn't want to jeopardize anything dealing with her. And as odd as it sounded as the thought ran through his head, he enjoyed Hogwarts, its professors, and to his shock, Dumbledore. More than ever he knew that this was the world he belonged in, no matter how much brainwashing his parents had imparted upon him in his childhood. He would fight and die for the wizarding world full of mudbloods and Harry Potter and Weasleys.
Telling his mother was the catch. He knew that she had the power to dispose of him at his first sign of weakness. Look at what she had done to Lucius; he was a Death Eater second to none and she killed him without a sign of remorse. The only thing Draco had going for him was that he was born from Narcissa. That had to count for something, didn't it?
He looked at the clock again, 8am. Groaning and rubbing his eyes in frustration his climbed out of the bed and got dressed for breakfast. Since he couldn't sleep he figured he'd get it over with. His only regret was that Hermione wouldn't be up when he went to the Great Hall; he couldn't say his last goodbye and tell her he loved her. He knew he would lose her if he did join his mother, or he would die. There wasn't really a good choice.
As he finished up what he suspected would be his last meal he exited the Great Hall, running into Harry and Ron. "Potter, Weasley," he said glumly.
"Morning Malfoy," Harry said absentmindedly. He looked at Draco's face, dark circles pronounced under his eyes and his hair wasn't as perfect as it normally looked. "Is there something the matter?"
Draco straightened up a little. "No, no," he coughed. "I just need the two of you to do me a favor." Ron and Harry just looked at him. "Tell Hermione I love her," he continued. "Please."
Ron half smiled. "Sure thing," he said slapping Draco on the shoulder. "We'll tell her when she gets down for breakfast."
He smiled in thanks and exited the castle through the main doors.
"There's something funny going on," Harry said to Ron. He looked puzzled and pondered the situation for a moment.
Ron shrugged. "Wanna follow him?" he said nonchalantly.
Harry looked at him and they ran quietly after Malfoy.
Draco alternated his pace as he walked out to the Hogwarts gardens. As he would get a burst of adrenaline and finally hold his resolve he would almost jog, but the moment would be fleeting and he would slow to a crawl as he dreaded the meeting with his mother.
Over the top of a hedge he saw a mane of white hair and for a brief moment he almost expected his father to turn around and call out to him. But it was his mother's insincere face that turned to greet him.
"Draco, my darling," her voice dripped as he approached her. She enveloped him in a tight hug and placed her cheek to his in a fake kiss that was entirely devoid of any emotion. "How have you been?"
Rolling his eyes slightly he answered, "I've been better." Narcissa just smiled her fake smile at him; he assumed trying to win him over one last time. "What do you want, Mother?" he asked shortly. "I do have final exams coming up that I need to study for."
Narcissa's smile vanished so quickly Draco thought that it never existed. "I will thank you to be a bit more polite to your mother, especially your commander." She straightened herself, turning her nose up just a little more, a feat Draco thought impossible. "I need to discuss carrying out our plan, and soon."
"Mother," Draco started, turning his head away from her and playing with his fingers.
"Don't start this bleeding heart routine again," she sighed, exasperated. "I'm sick and tired of this, Draco. Do you have no backbone? I thought you were my child." She stared at Draco, who would not meet her eye.
Draco said nothing.
Smiling in satisfaction, Narcissa continued. "Now, the Death Eaters are prepared to move in when we finally make our move, which should be very soon. She trusts you; I saw it in her eyes when she came to the house with you. All you need to do is kill her and then we attack Hogwarts and the Ministry." Narcissa's eyes began to sparkle as she spoke. "You'll kill her in a blaze of glory, Draco, for all to see. And that annoyance will come for you in a rage, but we'll all be ready for him, we will bring him to our Dark Lord to dispose of once and for all."
Draco, who was staring at the ground during his mother's tirade, began to clench his fists. Biting down hard he whispered, "No."
"Excuse me?" Narcissa said, drawing back slightly and looking at her son.
"You heard me," he said looking up into her eyes. "No." The rage and frustration began to boil inside of his heart, mixed with the love he felt towards the pawn in her evil game, giving him the fuel he needed to stand up. "I will not murder her. I love Hermione and she is not a pawn in your game, or Lord Voldemort's. You are not to contact me ever again and you are to abandon this ridiculous plan. It would never work anyway; do you really think killing her in front of everyone would make them vulnerable? You are more deluded than Father ever was, and you will pay for murdering him."
He looked her up and down with cold eyes. Her indignant and offended eyes caught his. "Draco, you don't know what you have just done, but I hope you are prepared to deal with the fatal consequences. Mark my words, no one will come out of this alive, and the mudblood will be the first to go."
Her eyes flashed at him and she drew out her wand. Draco flinched in terror, expecting the Avada Kedavra to kill him at any moment. But nothing happened. He slowly opened his eyes and she was gone.
"You're one lucky bastard," Ron said from behind the hedge.
Draco jumped and clutched his heart. Ron and Harry stood up on the other side of the hedge and just looked at Draco in disbelief. "What in the bloody hell do you two think you're doing here?" he cried.
Ron picked a twig out of his hair. "Well, I was about to pop your bitch of a mother," he said matter-of-factly. "But Harry wouldn't let me."
Harry shot Ron a look. Turning back to Draco he began to speak, "I can't believe what I just heard. And frankly I don't really know if I'm supposed to believe you or your mother. But you stood up to her pretty well."
Unable to say anything, Draco wordlessly opened and closed his mouth. He nodded at Harry and Ron who in turn nodded back in acknowledgement. "I guess this means we have to stick together on this one, for real," Ron said.
Harry extended his hand to Draco. "We fight together," he said as Draco took his hand. "All three of us." Ron took their hands as well and an agreement was formed, binding the three eighteen-year-olds.
"We need to tell Hermione and Dumbledore, and now," Ron said. He turned to go back to the castle and warn them.
Draco's eyes widened. "NO!" he practically yelled. "We can't tell them. If they're prepared my mother will know, and she'll come after all of us individually. She killed my father; you don't understand how dangerous she is."
Harry looked over his glasses and directly into Draco's eyes. "You've stood up to her, now you have to go the distance and stop her."
He opened his mouth to protest, but he knew Harry was right. How could he say that Potter was right? What was the world coming to? Ron and Harry began to head back up to the castle and Draco quickly followed. "Hermione needs to know first. I need to tell her. You need to let me talk to her, to explain, on my own before Dumbledore or anyone else knows. I can't let her hear any other way."
Ron and Harry nodded in understanding as they made their way to the Gryffindor common room. "Wait here," Harry told him as they went in through the portrait hole. Ron and Harry nervously approached Hermione's room. "I wonder what's going to happen, Ron," Harry said softly.
"I don't know, Harry," Ron said stopping at Hermione's door. "I really don't know. He reached out and knocked loudly.
Inside, Hermione jumped and dropped the test Ginny was handing her. "I…I'm sorry," she said nervously as she went to answer the door. Ginny bent down to pick up the test and continued to look and the frightened Hermione.
Hermione opened the door to see Ron and Harry standing there. "I'm really busy right now guys," she said impatiently with a hint of panic in her voice. She began to close the door when Harry grabbed it.
"Draco really needs to talk to you," Harry said desperately.
"I've got more important issues to deal with here," she said shortly rolling her eyes.
Ron cleared his throat. "I really think you want to go to him, Hermione," he said solemnly.
Her eyes looking at the pair quizzically she called back to Ginny, "I'll be back in a minute, Gin."
"But Hermione!" Ginny called as Hermione closed the door behind her.
As Hermione climbed through the portrait hole Draco met her and Harry and Ron disappeared. "Mione," Draco choked. "There's something I need to tell you." Hermione just looked at him impatiently. He gently took hold of her shoulders and crouched down slightly so he was looking intensely into her eyes. "Hermione, I began being nice to you two years ago on my mother's orders. She works for Lord Voldemort, unofficially, and she recruited me to help her pull of an invasion of Hogwarts and the Ministry that would catch everyone's attention and put her at Voldemort's right hand."
Hermione looked disgusted and pulled back. "What are you talking about?" she stuttered.
"Let me finish," he said, reaching out for her. She pulled back, but he continued his story. "Anyway, she wanted me to befriend you and make you trust me and fall in love with me. Then I was supposed to publicly murder you…" Hermione gasped and her hand flew to her mouth. "That was supposed to leave everyone vulnerable to attack and the Death Eaters were supposed to come in and take control." He stopped and looked at the horror and betrayal in her eyes. Wincing slightly he proceeded, "But in all of the lies and plotting I realized that I really do love you, Hermione. My proposal was me, not my mother; it was what I wanted for us. I never really wanted to be part of the plan, but I had family obligations. My mother was actually the one who killed Lucius; she's power-crazy and murderous. I stood up to her this morning and swore my loyalty to you and Harry and Ron and Dumbledore. I love you Hermione, and I want to protect you.'
She didn't say anything for a few minutes. All she could do was stare at the Draco that she thought she had known, the Draco who was a fake and a liar. "How can I trust you now? You've double-dealed your way through two years of your life, how am I supposed to trust the fact that you're telling the truth now?" She was close to tears, but willed them to hold back.
"Please, you just have to trust me," he pleaded. "The Draco you knew at all those meetings and through our talks, that's the real me. Please Hermione."
Turning her back on him and walking to the portrait hole she whispered, "I'm going to have to think about this Draco. Please don't contact me until I talk to you." She said the password and walked through the portrait hole, closing it softly behind her.
"Ok," he whispered to no one.
"Hermione, what the hell was that?" Ginny said when Hermione re-entered her room. Her face was vacant and hollow. "Are you ok? Is it the test?" Ginny's eyes widened.
She had forgotten all about the test. "Gin, I'm so sorry," she said shaking Draco's words off temporarily. "About that test."