Never Say Never
Chapter 19 - Reminiscence
Disclaimer: No suing the poor girl who just wants to write a story. Alright, I don't own anything except for the plot and various characters. Fine. Just Annika then. =)
A/N - I don't usually do this but I have to say something before the story starts. PLEASE SOMEONE TELL ME HOW TO DO ITALICS AND BOLD! Its really annoying me now..grrr.. ah well, on with the story!
Draco's POV
I glanced at Hermione, she was sitting in the armchair with her head in her hands, muttering obscenities under her breath. Personally I knew what she was going through, the choice between good and evil, Darkness and Light, ah I was having trouble deciding too.
She was biting those lips of hers and I felt that funny feeling in my heart again, pretty cliched eh? Here we are, stuck in the common room that brought us together, having to make the biggest decisions of our lives and I'm still thinking about my feelings for her.
We could either pledge our loyalty to the Dark Lord or to die at his hands. Well, of course there was no guarantee that he would triumph, but who can deny that he is extremely powerful...
"Draco?" whispered Hermione, still looking lost.
"Yeah?"
"What are you thinking?"
"About..?"
"You know, Voldemort and ...Darkness, Light...gee, what else could we be thinking about at the moment?!" she exclaimed a bit hysterically.
"Oh..right!" I said playfully, and for that I received a slap on my arm. I grinned cheekily at her and she blushed, sheepishly taking her hand away from my arm.
"Well?" she said softly.
"I...honestly don't know what to be thinking." Her eyes dulled at this and her shoulders sagged, "But, I'm working on it!" I added hastily and she managed a small smile.
"I thought that you might have some idea on what to do, I mean with your family and -" she said before I cut her off.
"This isn't about family, Hermione. Its about us, its our decision and its our lives that were putting on the line. Our family has nothing to do with it, we're Voldemort's heirs, not them." I said seriously making her look at me in surprise.
"Sorry." She mumbled.
I looked at my watch and realized that we only had an hour or so to decide...I tried to gather all my thoughts together but with every passing moment it was becoming harder to decide. Good or evil?
I tried to imagine the consequences of joining the Dark side. Well, at least my family would be with me...not that that was a comfort. Hogwarts would fall, the wizarding world would be filled with Darkness..Voldemort would become too strong to defeat. It would become the death of Light. The very world I lived in would change, He would be at the centre of it and I would have to listen to His orders.
Then I looked at Hermione and she was clearly thinking hard too. What would she choose? I knew that deep in my heart she would choose Light, she was brought up in a Muggle family, she was friends with Potter and Weasley and she was the epitome of pureness. What was stopping her from choosing it though?
Her eyes met mine and in that second I knew that I wouldn't be able to bear it if she chose a different side to mine. I wouldn't be able to take it if I was fighting against her. I wouldn't be able to go through with being her enemy again. And then another thought raced through my head.
She was holding back because of me.
I thought back to what had happened leading up to now, the things that I had been through with her. What had brought us together anyway? I smiled as I realized that a lot had happened to us this year and it hadn't even been a term yet. Who would've ever thought that I, Draco Malfoy would be facing his future with Hermione Granger no - Lestrange?
"You know, we've been through a lot together. Maybe not as much as you and Potter but still, its been a pretty rough term." I said carefully, voicing my thoughts.
"Yeah, that's true. Remember when we had that mind connection at the beginning of all this?" she replied with a smile. I grinned back, of course I remembered. But it seemed so distant now.
"And then that day when you ended up in the Hospital Wing. Man, I was so worried for you." I added, shaking my head.
"You were the one who rescued me. I couldn't believe that you could do such a thing! I mean, when I realized I was in the Hospital Wing I thought that I had fainted and Harry or Ron had taken me there. But then when I next woke up I saw you next to me and then you told me that you had brought me there. I was so surprised! Oh, and I found something beside my bed that I think you dropped that day." She said timidly. She put her hand inside her pocket and pulled out a piece of ripped parchment.
I looked at it numbly for a moment until I realized that it had my handwriting on it and that it was clearly torn from a journal of some sorts. My journal! God, the next moment it was wrenched from her grip and I had in my hand, furiously scanning what she had read.
'I don't know what I'm thinking. Her face keeps on flashing in my mind and it's starting to haunt me, I have already spent a night tossing about, unable to rid that beautiful face from my memory. What is going to happen?! What if I begin to love her?! I sincerely hope not, that would be the most disastrous thing to happen, should Father find out. . .'
"You had this all this time?" I choked out in a hoarse voice, a faint flush on my face. Had I already felt that way about her then?!
"Yeah...I'm sorry I didn't give it back to you. I mean, we were still enemies then." she replied meekly.
"But we aren't now right?" I said pointedly, holding her eyes in an intent gaze.
"I don't think we are...not sure about you..." she trailed off tearing her eyes from my gaze. I smiled at her and I knew that she understood what I couldn't express in words because a smile graced her features too.
"Did you know why I was in the Hospital Wing anyway?" she suddenly said.
"No? Why?" I replied curiously.
"It was because I had seen Voldemort in my mind. There was all this pain going through my body and he was speaking Parseltongue, Draco. And I had understood it! I was in a state of shock and I just really didn't know what was happening. He had told me that 'I would not be forgiven.' And as much as I wouldn't like to admit it, I was a bit intimidated by him." Her voice trembled as she remembered the ordeal.
"Well, don't worry. He explained it all, every single gift that he had was passed on to us, so you shouldn't be too surprised that we can speak Parseltongue too. And its bullshit about you not getting forgiven, he didn't even know who you were then! But he does now, and he won't be hurting you anytime soon." I replied soothingly, moving closer to her.
"I saw him again after I came out of the Hospital Wing." She whispered, turning her usually warm eyes onto me and continuing as though she hadn't heard me, "And that time I had heard your voice too...you were listening to his commands. You were a Death Eater too, Draco. Are you?"
"Of course not! I don't have the Dark Mark." I pushed up the sleeves of my robes to show her my forearm, "See?"
She nodded and let out a sigh of relief, "Thank god. But which side are you going to choose?"
I bit my lip, not knowing what to say, "Well, I still don't know."
"Time's running out. We have to choose soon." She said in a defeated voice. She looked away, I had never seen her acting so vague and at such a loss to what to do. So I tried to lighten the atmosphere.
"Well, tell me if you remember all those incidents in the Prefect's Bathroom." I flashed her a wide grin as I said this and she smiled bashfully and her cheeks began to colour.
"That first time you were such a pervert! Why didn't you tell me earlier that you were spying on me?!" she burst out with an indignant expression on her face.
"I had my reasons.." I replied brazenly.
"Oh and I never got to say sorry to you for my behaviour that night. I didn't mean to say all those things..." she murmured, "Did you know that I actually went back afterwards to check if you were still there?"
"But I wasn't there. I was in here!" I exclaimed as I realized that it was that very night which I had found this place.
"I followed the drops of blood that you left - "
"And found me here?" I said eagerly.
"No. It was by chance that I came in here."
"Nah, but Voldemort said that nothing was ever by chance. We were fated to find this room, both of us." I replied upon remembering his words.
Then we lapsed into silence as everything fitted together like a seamless puzzle. Everything that had brought us together was meant to be. So maybe me starting to fall for her was also meant to be...
"I lost my necklace that night and you found it." Hermione said abruptly.
"Yeah, that's right. But I gave it back to you." I replied slowly, not understanding why she was saying this.
"There's just something about the necklace that I don't like now...it feels evil." She said cautiously.
"Well, it was given by Voldemort to your mother, so it probably is evil." I reasoned, looking at her sympathetically. But I couldn't help thinking that it was quite entrancing to look at and it did mesmerize me.
"Every time I wear it, I have bad dreams. It just seems that I was drawn to it the first time I saw it, but then when I had it, all these bad things happened." She continued to say, frowning. Then another voice interrupted.
"Well, Miss Granger, or Lestrange if you would prefer, if you don't want that necklace, I'd be more than honoured to take it from you." Annika stepped out of the shadows and to my horror she had her wand out. There was malice in her eyes but it seemed as though her lilting voice had temporarily paralyzed Hermione.
"What do you want, Annika?" I sneered through gritted teeth.
"You." She moved forwards and I saw Hermione's eyes widen in shock. But she still wasn't able to move. It was as though she was under a spell, "But I wouldn't mind having the necklace too."
As she passed Hermione, she threw her look of loathing and I couldn't understand where her hatred of Hermione had come from; she barely even knew the girl. When she reached me she put her hand to my cheek and let her fingers linger seductively. By instinct I quickly tried to move away but I found my legs cemented to the floor.
Annika's smile widened. She had woven some type of spell on both of us, and I found that my anger at her was rising fast. She wasn't even faintly beautiful at this moment in time. I turned my face away from her so that her hand wasn't on my cheek anymore, then I turned back and looked at her furiously.
"What have you done to us, you bitch?!" I snarled at her, "Where is Voldemort?"
"Nothing. Just a simple Paralysis Charm on your bodies, I haven't hurt either of you in any sort of way. The Dark Lord is still attending to some business with Harry Potter. They seem to have gotten into a little fight again," she said lazily, she knew she had the upper hand now, and she wasn't afraid to use it.
"He won't be here in time to save that wretched Gryffindor girl, I'm so sorry Draco, but I'm going to have to kill her." She continued and my eyes widened in shock and horror. Her wand was already pointed at Hermione. Oh, life was so cruel, I thought bitterly and I closed my eyes in anticipation, not wanting to witness the scene that I could not prevent. I whispered an apology to Hermione in my mind and I tried to block out the image of her lying on the ground with no sign of life in her. But the words that I had thought I was going to hear never came.
I opened my eyes in surprise.
Hey everyone,
I actually have like a bit of the next chapter written =) so I'll try and get it up soon.. I was going to make this chapter longer, but then I'm sort of swamped with homework cause its nearly exams here, so I had to cut it short there.
I hope that you guys liked it, I'm sorry that it was kinda dull, I just had to make them kinda go over some things, its just part of the plot. But now that most things have been cleared up with Hermione n' Draco, the plot will thicken. Yay =)
Next chapter will be their choices, so stay tuned!
Thanks to all my beautiful reviewers, you guys really keep me going! If there's anything that you guys are a bit confused about, don't hesitate to ask because I'll clear it up for you.
I think that's it for now. Thanks to everyone who took the time to read my story, I'm really grateful, even to the silent readers out there.
Cheers!
psychohart
Chapter 19 - Reminiscence
Disclaimer: No suing the poor girl who just wants to write a story. Alright, I don't own anything except for the plot and various characters. Fine. Just Annika then. =)
A/N - I don't usually do this but I have to say something before the story starts. PLEASE SOMEONE TELL ME HOW TO DO ITALICS AND BOLD! Its really annoying me now..grrr.. ah well, on with the story!
Draco's POV
I glanced at Hermione, she was sitting in the armchair with her head in her hands, muttering obscenities under her breath. Personally I knew what she was going through, the choice between good and evil, Darkness and Light, ah I was having trouble deciding too.
She was biting those lips of hers and I felt that funny feeling in my heart again, pretty cliched eh? Here we are, stuck in the common room that brought us together, having to make the biggest decisions of our lives and I'm still thinking about my feelings for her.
We could either pledge our loyalty to the Dark Lord or to die at his hands. Well, of course there was no guarantee that he would triumph, but who can deny that he is extremely powerful...
"Draco?" whispered Hermione, still looking lost.
"Yeah?"
"What are you thinking?"
"About..?"
"You know, Voldemort and ...Darkness, Light...gee, what else could we be thinking about at the moment?!" she exclaimed a bit hysterically.
"Oh..right!" I said playfully, and for that I received a slap on my arm. I grinned cheekily at her and she blushed, sheepishly taking her hand away from my arm.
"Well?" she said softly.
"I...honestly don't know what to be thinking." Her eyes dulled at this and her shoulders sagged, "But, I'm working on it!" I added hastily and she managed a small smile.
"I thought that you might have some idea on what to do, I mean with your family and -" she said before I cut her off.
"This isn't about family, Hermione. Its about us, its our decision and its our lives that were putting on the line. Our family has nothing to do with it, we're Voldemort's heirs, not them." I said seriously making her look at me in surprise.
"Sorry." She mumbled.
I looked at my watch and realized that we only had an hour or so to decide...I tried to gather all my thoughts together but with every passing moment it was becoming harder to decide. Good or evil?
I tried to imagine the consequences of joining the Dark side. Well, at least my family would be with me...not that that was a comfort. Hogwarts would fall, the wizarding world would be filled with Darkness..Voldemort would become too strong to defeat. It would become the death of Light. The very world I lived in would change, He would be at the centre of it and I would have to listen to His orders.
Then I looked at Hermione and she was clearly thinking hard too. What would she choose? I knew that deep in my heart she would choose Light, she was brought up in a Muggle family, she was friends with Potter and Weasley and she was the epitome of pureness. What was stopping her from choosing it though?
Her eyes met mine and in that second I knew that I wouldn't be able to bear it if she chose a different side to mine. I wouldn't be able to take it if I was fighting against her. I wouldn't be able to go through with being her enemy again. And then another thought raced through my head.
She was holding back because of me.
I thought back to what had happened leading up to now, the things that I had been through with her. What had brought us together anyway? I smiled as I realized that a lot had happened to us this year and it hadn't even been a term yet. Who would've ever thought that I, Draco Malfoy would be facing his future with Hermione Granger no - Lestrange?
"You know, we've been through a lot together. Maybe not as much as you and Potter but still, its been a pretty rough term." I said carefully, voicing my thoughts.
"Yeah, that's true. Remember when we had that mind connection at the beginning of all this?" she replied with a smile. I grinned back, of course I remembered. But it seemed so distant now.
"And then that day when you ended up in the Hospital Wing. Man, I was so worried for you." I added, shaking my head.
"You were the one who rescued me. I couldn't believe that you could do such a thing! I mean, when I realized I was in the Hospital Wing I thought that I had fainted and Harry or Ron had taken me there. But then when I next woke up I saw you next to me and then you told me that you had brought me there. I was so surprised! Oh, and I found something beside my bed that I think you dropped that day." She said timidly. She put her hand inside her pocket and pulled out a piece of ripped parchment.
I looked at it numbly for a moment until I realized that it had my handwriting on it and that it was clearly torn from a journal of some sorts. My journal! God, the next moment it was wrenched from her grip and I had in my hand, furiously scanning what she had read.
'I don't know what I'm thinking. Her face keeps on flashing in my mind and it's starting to haunt me, I have already spent a night tossing about, unable to rid that beautiful face from my memory. What is going to happen?! What if I begin to love her?! I sincerely hope not, that would be the most disastrous thing to happen, should Father find out. . .'
"You had this all this time?" I choked out in a hoarse voice, a faint flush on my face. Had I already felt that way about her then?!
"Yeah...I'm sorry I didn't give it back to you. I mean, we were still enemies then." she replied meekly.
"But we aren't now right?" I said pointedly, holding her eyes in an intent gaze.
"I don't think we are...not sure about you..." she trailed off tearing her eyes from my gaze. I smiled at her and I knew that she understood what I couldn't express in words because a smile graced her features too.
"Did you know why I was in the Hospital Wing anyway?" she suddenly said.
"No? Why?" I replied curiously.
"It was because I had seen Voldemort in my mind. There was all this pain going through my body and he was speaking Parseltongue, Draco. And I had understood it! I was in a state of shock and I just really didn't know what was happening. He had told me that 'I would not be forgiven.' And as much as I wouldn't like to admit it, I was a bit intimidated by him." Her voice trembled as she remembered the ordeal.
"Well, don't worry. He explained it all, every single gift that he had was passed on to us, so you shouldn't be too surprised that we can speak Parseltongue too. And its bullshit about you not getting forgiven, he didn't even know who you were then! But he does now, and he won't be hurting you anytime soon." I replied soothingly, moving closer to her.
"I saw him again after I came out of the Hospital Wing." She whispered, turning her usually warm eyes onto me and continuing as though she hadn't heard me, "And that time I had heard your voice too...you were listening to his commands. You were a Death Eater too, Draco. Are you?"
"Of course not! I don't have the Dark Mark." I pushed up the sleeves of my robes to show her my forearm, "See?"
She nodded and let out a sigh of relief, "Thank god. But which side are you going to choose?"
I bit my lip, not knowing what to say, "Well, I still don't know."
"Time's running out. We have to choose soon." She said in a defeated voice. She looked away, I had never seen her acting so vague and at such a loss to what to do. So I tried to lighten the atmosphere.
"Well, tell me if you remember all those incidents in the Prefect's Bathroom." I flashed her a wide grin as I said this and she smiled bashfully and her cheeks began to colour.
"That first time you were such a pervert! Why didn't you tell me earlier that you were spying on me?!" she burst out with an indignant expression on her face.
"I had my reasons.." I replied brazenly.
"Oh and I never got to say sorry to you for my behaviour that night. I didn't mean to say all those things..." she murmured, "Did you know that I actually went back afterwards to check if you were still there?"
"But I wasn't there. I was in here!" I exclaimed as I realized that it was that very night which I had found this place.
"I followed the drops of blood that you left - "
"And found me here?" I said eagerly.
"No. It was by chance that I came in here."
"Nah, but Voldemort said that nothing was ever by chance. We were fated to find this room, both of us." I replied upon remembering his words.
Then we lapsed into silence as everything fitted together like a seamless puzzle. Everything that had brought us together was meant to be. So maybe me starting to fall for her was also meant to be...
"I lost my necklace that night and you found it." Hermione said abruptly.
"Yeah, that's right. But I gave it back to you." I replied slowly, not understanding why she was saying this.
"There's just something about the necklace that I don't like now...it feels evil." She said cautiously.
"Well, it was given by Voldemort to your mother, so it probably is evil." I reasoned, looking at her sympathetically. But I couldn't help thinking that it was quite entrancing to look at and it did mesmerize me.
"Every time I wear it, I have bad dreams. It just seems that I was drawn to it the first time I saw it, but then when I had it, all these bad things happened." She continued to say, frowning. Then another voice interrupted.
"Well, Miss Granger, or Lestrange if you would prefer, if you don't want that necklace, I'd be more than honoured to take it from you." Annika stepped out of the shadows and to my horror she had her wand out. There was malice in her eyes but it seemed as though her lilting voice had temporarily paralyzed Hermione.
"What do you want, Annika?" I sneered through gritted teeth.
"You." She moved forwards and I saw Hermione's eyes widen in shock. But she still wasn't able to move. It was as though she was under a spell, "But I wouldn't mind having the necklace too."
As she passed Hermione, she threw her look of loathing and I couldn't understand where her hatred of Hermione had come from; she barely even knew the girl. When she reached me she put her hand to my cheek and let her fingers linger seductively. By instinct I quickly tried to move away but I found my legs cemented to the floor.
Annika's smile widened. She had woven some type of spell on both of us, and I found that my anger at her was rising fast. She wasn't even faintly beautiful at this moment in time. I turned my face away from her so that her hand wasn't on my cheek anymore, then I turned back and looked at her furiously.
"What have you done to us, you bitch?!" I snarled at her, "Where is Voldemort?"
"Nothing. Just a simple Paralysis Charm on your bodies, I haven't hurt either of you in any sort of way. The Dark Lord is still attending to some business with Harry Potter. They seem to have gotten into a little fight again," she said lazily, she knew she had the upper hand now, and she wasn't afraid to use it.
"He won't be here in time to save that wretched Gryffindor girl, I'm so sorry Draco, but I'm going to have to kill her." She continued and my eyes widened in shock and horror. Her wand was already pointed at Hermione. Oh, life was so cruel, I thought bitterly and I closed my eyes in anticipation, not wanting to witness the scene that I could not prevent. I whispered an apology to Hermione in my mind and I tried to block out the image of her lying on the ground with no sign of life in her. But the words that I had thought I was going to hear never came.
I opened my eyes in surprise.
Hey everyone,
I actually have like a bit of the next chapter written =) so I'll try and get it up soon.. I was going to make this chapter longer, but then I'm sort of swamped with homework cause its nearly exams here, so I had to cut it short there.
I hope that you guys liked it, I'm sorry that it was kinda dull, I just had to make them kinda go over some things, its just part of the plot. But now that most things have been cleared up with Hermione n' Draco, the plot will thicken. Yay =)
Next chapter will be their choices, so stay tuned!
Thanks to all my beautiful reviewers, you guys really keep me going! If there's anything that you guys are a bit confused about, don't hesitate to ask because I'll clear it up for you.
I think that's it for now. Thanks to everyone who took the time to read my story, I'm really grateful, even to the silent readers out there.
Cheers!
psychohart