In His Heart ~hotsleekeyz~

ONE-SHOT

Pairing : DracoXHermione

Setting : 6th Year when all things had been too hard for everyone at Hogwarts. Death Eaters on the loose and Voldemort on the rise. And still, the final judgment of mankind was to be determined by the love of one man--- Draco Malfoy

MP3 song of choice : My Immortal and Ascend of the Spirit by Evanescence

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The ages were dark and gloomy and fear still hovered through the cold atmosphere around Hogwarts. Voldemort had just gained his physical form back and his powers were fast regained. All his men were set out to slaughter even the youngest half-bloods around. Terror raged and no light could be seen. It was in Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts and everything was bound to end.

In the demeaning state of tattered clothes that was her robes, Hermione stood firm in front of the thousand of Death Eaters around her. She was sent to a Death Eaters' hide and she had no idea whatsoever what was in store for her. Her mind was in a daze. Hermione wondered greatly how come that she was still alive. . . considering she was the worst type of mudblood for Lucius' Malfoy's eyes---a Death Eater.

"What do you want with me? Why haven't you killed me yet? After all that you've caused in the wizarding world, I'm probably the last one to die!" spat Hermione as her eyes emitted anger too much to be measured.

Lucius eyes glinted in malice and superiority. His golden locks flowed freely with the cold, silent wind. "Because it is in your hands whether we will all die or not."

"How could it? I'm just a sixteen-year old girl trying to make it through her last two years in Hogwarts when all of a sudden you'd capture me, without even telling me why for Pete's sake! I've been expecting to be dead by now and yes, I'm a piece of mold trying to wait when I'd be broken down into smaller proteins. . . yes. I'm expecting you've killed me as soon as you saw me, since your son Draco has the greatest loathing for me."

Hermione's eyes were too fierce, full of raging emotions. She was tied to a post with heavy chains linked to her wrists.

"Loathing. . . Granger you should be sure you know your words well. I believe it isn't loathing that my son Draco has for you. . ." Lucius voice was calm, and very sure of himself.

The Death Eater snapped his fingers and in a few seconds came out Draco being dragged by Lucius' colleagues. By how Draco looked, it wasn't right. Hermione was even more unsure of what she was witnessing. It was as if Draco had been a prisoner as well.

Lucius carried on, "Granger. . . you say it's loathing that Draco has for you. Let's do some things and see if you would still be able to say that it IS loathing that my son has for you. . ." Lucius turned his head to Draco's direction, his face away from Hermione's sight. "And you Draco, watch what I will do to this poor little thing. . ."

Hermione swore to herself there was something else in Draco's eyes at that moment. She saw him wince but for what? Why was Draco looking so miserable and morbid?

Steady, heavy footsteps walked towards Hermione and in no time, Lucius' back palm hit Hermione's cold-stricken cheeks. The impact was great that Hermione was almost thrown off her position if not for the chains that locked her to the post.

And there was another. . .

Lucius slapped Hermione as hard as he could while the poor girl suffered endlessly at the continuous assault. After what seemed a lifetime, Lucius stopped and he then turned to Draco and grabbed his son by the wrist. He pulled Draco to him and pushed him affront while his firm fingers held Draco's chin from behind. Lucius was forcing Draco to look at Hermione's form. Draco tried to struggle free but Lucius appeared to be stronger, only by emotional means.

Young Draco was too weak at that moment that he wasn't able to resist his father who was relatively physically weaker than he was.

"Draco! Look! Look how I tampered this filthy little mudblood. . . a sight that you've learned to adore since you were young. . . the blood that taints their virgin skin fascinates you, now doesn't it?" Lucius nudged Draco to look at Hermione even closer "Look at her Draco. . . you enjoy watching her like this don't you?"

Hermione was shaking her head. . .she wanted to die and just end it all there at once instead of taking the humiliation of being the center of attraction of a crowd full of devious men.

At last, Draco was able to pull away from his father and he immediately turned his back on Hermione, though not moving an inch from where he stood. "Kill her father."

Draco's voice was irresolute. It wasn't the usual smug tone that he used to utter his curses with.

"KILL HER, Draco? Son, you want me to kill her?" Lucius eyes glinted more in malice.

"Yes. Not like this father." Draco's voice was then firmer.

"Why. . ." It was more of an order rather than a question.

It took Draco some while to collect his answers from his very confused mind. "She should have died the moment you saw her. Why are you keeping her like this?'

"LIKE THIS? Son, this is how you lived. You enjoy seeing mudbloods suffer and die in front of you. . . how is this case any different?"

"It's the usual thing but since you've as good killed every living mud- - - mudblood in the magical world, well then perhaps it wouldn't hurt to kill this lady at once."

"Wouldn't it hurt you to see her die? Hm, Draco?"

"NO!"

Draco at once gathered his feet and ran away from Lucius just as when Death Eaters held him by his arms and led him back to his father.

Lucius smirked evilly at the desperate attempt of his son to not see what was to happen next. He has affirmed himself that Draco wasn't completely strong. . . That Draco was in fact weak. . . that Draco has a soft part for Hermione. . .

And so he took out a great silver dagger and walked towards Hermione while swiveling the weapon skillfully through his fingers. He carelessly pointed the dagger towards Hermione's neck and hissed, "You filthy scum. . . What have you done to my son?"

Hermione looked tremendously baffled. "I haven't done anything to that bastard!"

Lucius dug the weapon deeper onto the young girl's flesh, almost tearing the skin apart.

"Why is Draco like THIS? You should know by now that he is meant to be the next Dark Lord. He is to be the heir to the powers of Lord Voldemort. . . but he can't live with anything like this. . . he has to fully abstain from any emotion for any sort of creature like you. . ."

"What are you talking about?"

Lucius took his fingers and dug them either side Hermione's cheeks while the other hand took hold of the dagger. "What am I talking about? Granger, I'm most certain that my son Draco has fallen in love with you and in such case I believe it's hardest to fall out of it. He's smitten by your beauty, your personality and just the mere thought of you. . . you've got so great impact on him that he denied me of letting him watch how we do things here-- -how we mercilessly slaughter mudbloods as if they're some boars. And you're not any special from them aside from the fact that you had the heart of a very promising young Slytherin. . .now, we've got to kill you before him so that his hate will grow even greater. . . he will become more evil and there would be no stopping him once it sinks in to him that you're dead. . . you're dead because of him. You will bring him to power just as I planned it. . ."

"I WILL NOT SUCCUMB TO YOUR PLANS! Talk Granger out of this and I swear I will follow everything you want me to!" yelled Draco from behind Lucius.

Without looking at his son, Lucius gripped on tighter onto Hermione and said, "No, Draco. . . this girl is bound to die from your hands tonight. . . to mark the beginning of your reign as the new Dark Lord. She will be the offering to Salazar Slytherin's ancestors. . . now do it Draco. . . kill her before I do."

"NO!" came Draco's instant retort.

"Kill her Draco or you wouldn't know how it feels to touch such evilly pure, yet tainted thing."

"NO! I will not kill her!"

Lucius straightened up and let go of Hermione who was more than trembling in fear at the scene. Before the blonde-haired man could have said anything, Hermione cut him off, "Do it Draco. . . Kill me for all I care. I'm supposed to be dead by now. There's simply no difference when it'll happen because it is bound to happen. Kill me now."

Hermione's voice was calm and sure. Draco shivered at the tone.

"No. I can't do that Hermione. I'm not a murderer."

"NOT A MURDERER DRACO? You've watched hundreds of lives pass away in front of you and you've never done anything to spare their lives!" came Lucius growl. Lucius handed Draco the dagger and Draco took it roughly away from Lucius' hand.

"Do it Draco. Kill her now", hissed Lucius in seething anger.

Unpredictable as he was, Lucius wasn't able to read Draco's movements only to find Draco snatching his wand from the inside of his robes and flicking it gracefully, unlocking the chains attached to Hermione. At that sight, Lucius' eyes rapidly grew wide and the next thing he knew, he was running to Draco to grab the wand away from him.

"*Argh*"

A grunt. A painful one.

Before Lucius could have taken Draco's right hand, the young man's left hand had the dagger with it, that he inserted swiftly towards his insides. . .

"NO! STUPID BOY! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?"

Lucius was raging in anger at the sight that Draco committed suicide.

Draco fell to his knees, and then collapsed onto the floor while he writhed violently on his side. "I will never succumb to your plans father. . . let me do anything else but kill her."

Hermione, out of instinct, ran to Draco's side and knelt beside him. She tried to pat him awake since obviously, by that time, Draco's mind was already slipping at the rapid loss of blood.

Draco smiled. Not the famous Malfoy smirk, but a warm and sincere smile.

"In all those times, I've dreamed too much to have you with me. . . to call you mine alone. And yet, I never did anything in fear that letting go of you when the time comes, would be so much harder than merely wishing that one day you'll be mine. . ." whispered Draco with all his might.

With one flicker of his finger, Draco used wandless magic to Disapparate Hermione out of the place and back to Hogwarts. Once the pitiful Gryffindor was out of the range, Draco smiled yet again that it drove Lucius crazy.

"Happy Birthday Father. . . and here's to you. . ." said Draco in a resolve never to shatter even in his death.

One last flicker of his finger, Draco had sent the whole place on fire, exploding at the slightest touch of air. . .

And nothing was left. . .

~Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns characters, setting, etc. Except: the plot is mine.~

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THIS WAS TO SUPPOSED TO BE A FIC-LETTE! *hmph!*

Anyway, I've decided to use another writing style from here onwards. My series of fic-lettes will consist of a small introduction to the scene, with only a line or two from the characters to actually make the WHOLE story. . . lol. I've written all the lines I wanted and I'm off to simply making their intro then I'd post it at once. I hope you do support the series!

Thanks! And please do review. I want to know what you think about it. *mwah!*