Carpe Dium

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N... This is a one shot story. I wrote it one night while I was really bored. I'm sorry if you guys hate it but those are the breaks. Please don't flame me!

When you're done, I'd love to hear what you think. So please go review.

For everybody, there comes a point in their life when they have to stop and think over every last one of their priorities. Usually, this point in their life is brought on by a major conflict. Sometimes death, other times just dramatic issues but for him, for him it was the realization of love.

Falling in love is something that hits you right in the face. It's like a slap across the cheek and it leaves a scar. Not an actual scar, the kind you can see, but it leaves a mark on the inside. You will always remember if love's cruel hand slaps you, because no matter how hard you try, they will be in your heart forever. Love isn't something one can toss to the side, despite how hard he tried.

Before he really met her, love was just a four-lettered word that guys used to get women to sleep with them. His mother had never told him that she loved him, nor did his father. Malfoy's did not love and they did not show emotion.

But when he met her, when he started seeing her as a person, he knew that love existed and it lived in him. She opened his eyes to the world. She showed him what life could be like if you just sat back and smelled the roses. Granted, there were no actual roses to be smelt, but he liked the expression.

She always used silly muggle expressions like that. She thought they were cute and he thought the she was cute so anything she found cute, must be adorable. He loved listening to her ramble, certain things that she said always stuck out but mostly, he never really listened. He was always too busy just being content in listening to the sound of her voice.

But now, he would never hear that sound again. She was lost to him, gone with the wind. As quickly as she had come into his life, she had left. Why did she leave, one may ask? It wasn't by choice. They both wanted to stay together, but alas, the world is cruel and unfair so she had to leave. It was destined to happen. But she didn't actually leave. No. She was stolen from him. Not so much stolen, though. She was killed.

Now, he stood in the background at her funeral, hidden from view. He watched as her best friends laid down roses on her grave and he scoffed. She hated roses. She thought that they were contradicting. They were gorgeous, yes, but they were painful. They had thorns up and down their stem and that made them dangerous. Her favorite flowers were daisies. They were simple and pure. Nothing could take away from that.

So days later, when no one was by her grave, he walked over to it and place down one single daisy. It was what he knew she would have wanted. He knelt down in front of her tombstone that read: Hermione Granger "Live every moment as though it's your last, because one day, it really will be." 1984-2004

He cried at the quote. That was what she always said. She liked to say Carpe Dium every day to him. It was the Latin saying that meant seize the day. That used to be how she woke him up. He remembered distinctly the sound of her voice and the words she would say. "Rise and shine, sleepy head. Today is another day. Get up. Carpe dium, sweetheart."

Yes, sweetheart is what she would call him. She had loved him, but now she was gone and he couldn't help but feeling like it was all his fault.

He rested his forehead on the tombstone and cried for what seemed like hours, remembering the first time they kissed.

Flashback

She was talking to her friends after a Slytherin vs. Gryffindor Quidditch match. Of course, the Gryffindor team had one. She was laughing and joking. He felt a pang of jealousy course through him when he saw Ron Weasley's hand around her waist. They were apparently an item and he wanted to rip off Weasley's arm at the mere thought of them together.

She walked alone afterwards while the boys went to shower off, being extremely dirty and sweaty after the match. He decided to skip the shower and follow her.

"I always knew you'd end up with that pauper," he said when he found her wandering down an empty corridor.

"Stay out of my business, Malfoy," she replied hastily, trying her best to not let him get to her. Of course, it was no use. He always got to her. He knew just what to say to get under her skin.

"You know what? You two make the perfect couple. The mudblood and the pauper... perfect match if you ask me."

"Yes well no one asked you so you can stop talking now. Honestly, sometimes I swear you only speak to hear the sound of your own voice."

"It is a very sexy voice, isn't it?" he replied with his trademark smirk. She only grimaced at the idea of him being sexy... She began to walk away but something inside of her stopped her.

"You're... jealous, aren't you?" she said as if she knew it was the truth.

"Jealous? Of the Weasel? You have got to be kidding me."

"I think you're jealous," she said while poking him in the chest with her index finger. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're only making fun of my relationship with Ron because you wish it was you who had the relationship with me."

"Well then it's a good thing that you know better, now isn't it?"

"Why don't you get off your high horse, Malfoy, and for once say something real? Or don't purebloods know how to tell the truth?"

"Granger, if I were you I'd stop right now before something happens that cannot be undone."

"What are you going to do, Malfoy? Are you going to attack me? Are you going to make me pay for insulting you? Or are you going to kiss me, like you've been dying to do for the longest time now?"

"And what if I am going to kiss you? What would you do?"

She didn't even look stunned or shocked or surprised. "I wouldn't stop you."

So he did it. He kissed her and she kissed him back. That was the first time they expressed their feelings for one another, but it certainly would not be the last.

End of Flashback

Of course, she stayed with Ron. She would never leave him for Draco. Ron was a sure thing. Draco was a death eater and not willing to change his ways. Ron was a member of the Order and training to become an Auror. She knew that she couldn't be with Draco. She was also in the Order and in Auror training and they would be on opposite sides once the war started. No matter what, they would be unable to stay together. She tried to get him to convert once, or at least be indifferent towards the war but he was too stubborn.

When he looked back on it now, he felt like the biggest fool in the world. Why didn't I just say yes? I should have just stayed out of the war. Maybe then she would still be alive. He knew that all of the what if's wouldn't change a thing but he couldn't help but wonder. Maybe if I hadn't fallen in love with her and she hadn't fallen for me... he trailed off in his thoughts, leaving it unanswered.

The point was that she was gone now and she would never come back to him. He got up off of the ground and apparated back to Malfoy Manor, where the house was empty. Only house elves lived there with him now. His mother had died during his sixth year of school from cancer. He wasn't really phased by this due to the fact that he never liked his mom. They didn't share any special mother/son bond and they certainly didn't share love for one another. When she died, he felt relieved.

He walked up the stairs and to a room that he had decorated just for when Hermione came to visit. After school ended, she would come and visit him often. The war still hadn't begun yet so they were safe at that moment.

She would use floo powder to get to his home and then she would sneak up, going unnoticed and just sit on the bed in their room, and wait for him to notice she was there. He always noticed rather quickly because he usually checked the room every fifteen minutes. He looked forward to her visits and made sure that the room was perfect.

The room itself was a perfect display of their love. The furniture was black, the walls were white and the rugs were gray. On the bed, the comforters had two sides. One was black and the other was white. He switched the sides daily. The comforter was like a war in itself. He could never decide which side to choose.

There were no other colors in the room except for the color of their skin. Whenever she came, she would only wear clothes with those colors and he would do the same as well. They felt like it was a sin if they wore any other colors inside of their sanctuary.

Now, when he opened the door to the room, he looked down at his attire to make sure he was decent to go inside. He had just gotten back from the graveyard and had gone in all black, the color of mourning. So now he could enter the room and as he did so, he still felt as though he were betraying her.

He looked at the bed and noticed that it was unmade. He hadn't made it since the last time she had been there. He always told the house elves to stay out of the room so it was only he who would make the bed, but he had been afraid to revisit this room. It was cold and unwelcoming. The white side of the comforter was up and on it lay red bloodstains.

The idea of touching the bed made him depressed, so instead of making it, he just walked out of the room. He closed the door behind him and took out a rather large key from his pocket. He locked the door. Then, he went downstairs and got quite a few large pieces of wood and a bunch of nails. He returned to the doorway and began boarding up the door. No one would ever step foot inside that room again except for him.

As he boarded the doors up, he reminisced about the last time she had been there. It was the day that she died.

Flashback

Draco sat in his study watching the clock. He was waiting for the Dark Lord to call for him. He had mentioned earlier something about an attack. It was late in the afternoon and he was sure that he heard something coming from downstairs. The stairs creaked and he knew exactly who it was.

He looked down to see what he was wearing and found that he was wearing green sweatpants and nothing else. He quickly threw on a black shirt and changed into black pants. Running, he went to his favorite room in the house and quietly opened the door.

There she was, sitting on the bed with her back turned towards him. She was on the far side of the bed so he crawled across it, wrapping his arms around her from behind. "I've missed you," he whispered into her ear. "You haven't been by in over a week. Where have you been?" He asked.

That's when he noticed the thing that scared him the most. She was crying and had a large bruise on her eye. "WHAT HAPPENED!" he shouted in rage, knowing the answer already.

She kept her head down, staring at the floor as if her feet were interesting. "R...R...Ron... he...he found out... about... about us and well... he... he didn't take it too well."

"How did he found out?"

"He found one of your letters a couple of days ago. I kept them hidden under a loose board, which is hidden under the bed but he went snooping. Apparently he got suspicious of me because I kept randomly disappearing so he searched my entire room. When I got home from work one day, he was just sitting on the bed, waiting for me. He asked me all sorts of questions and I admitted it." She broke down in tears once more. "I told him," she said in between sobs. "I didn't want to pretend anymore. I didn't want to pretend. And he knew. He knew that I loved you so he attacked me."

Draco took her in his arms and kissed her. "Listen to me," he said. "I want you to forget about that prick. He's nothing but a bloody git. You'll live here for the time being. No one will find you here. Only death eaters know where the manor is and they never come unannounced."

He kissed her and that was when the bed became unmade. He stripped her of her clothes and did the same for herself, not wanting to make her do anything except enjoy the experience. She was tired and weak and he wanted to take care of her. When he entered her, she winced in pain and that was when he knew the extent of what her boyfriend had done. Ron had raped her and she was still sore. "I'll stop if you want me to," he said to her as she blinked away the tears.

"No. Don't. I want to feel good again! I need you to remind me that sex can be beautiful and not just forceful and painful. Remind me!"

He nodded and began moving in and out of her but she winced with every move that he made. "Mi, we should stop," he said, but she just kept moving her hips with his in a rhythmic motion, pretending as though she didn't hear him.

When they climaxed, he collapsed onto her and whispered into her ear, "I want you to know this, 'Mi. I love you and you mean more than anything to me. I can't bear the thought of ever losing you." They fell asleep in each other's arms.

Later that day, the door to the manor swung open and death eaters invaded the house. They searched every room until they found Draco and Hermione, wrapped in each other's arms.

Voldemort was outraged. "I had a visit from a friend of yours," he said to Hermione. "He told me that you had gotten to one of my most promising death eaters. I didn't want to believe him of course, but now I see that he was right. Young Malfoy, how could you? If your father was still alive today..."

"BUT HE'S NOT! He died rotting away in Azkaban and I am free to live my life as I please."

"And you wish to spend your life with this mudblood, or shall you serve amongst my ranks? You can't have both, Draco."

"If you're going to make me choose, then I don't think you'll like my answer," he said while making sure Hermione's naked form was covered. She didn't say anything, merely just sat there with the covers all the way up to her neck.

Crabbe and Goyle, who had by then become very skillful in the dark arts, pulled the covers off of her, leaving her nude for all to see. Draco quickly found her a bathrobe and ordered her to put it on while he put on his boxers.

"This room is depressing, Malfoy," Voldemort hissed. "There's absolutely no color in it whatsoever."

"That's what makes it beautiful," Hermione whispered, too afraid to really speak.

"What was that, mudblood? Do you have something to say?"

"I said that the absence of color makes it beautiful. Things are simpler without color. There are no boundaries, everything is the same, and EVERYTHING else is out of place. YOU are out of place, for you have green in your robes. All of you have color in your robes, making you out of place in this room. The only colors allowed in this room are black, white, gray, and skin colors. Everything else doesn't fit and looks out of the ordinary. It makes things so simple yet complicated." Then she went back to staring at her feet. She felt naked in front of the fifty or so men that had now entered the room. She was wearing a white bathrobe that barely reached her mid thigh. She then got up and searched for her panties, thinking that it would be an extremely embarrassing situation if they found them first. When she found the she hid under the sheets that remained on the bed. The sheets were black so the men couldn't see through and Draco was happy that this was the case.

"Now please get out of my house!" Draco said through gritted teeth.

It was then that Voldemort lost his temper and took Hermione's life away from him. Then, the death eaters left, leaving Draco to sulk in his misery.

End Flashback

That day had been the worst day of his life and it had only been a week since then.

When he finished boarding up the room, he apparated inside and boarded it from the inside as well. Then, he took out a small dagger that she had once given him as a Christmas present. "I'm coming, Hermione," he said through his tears. He thought of the saying, Carpe Dium and sighed. "I'm seizing the day. I'm coming for you, my love." He stuck the dagger in his stomach and fell to the floor in agony.

His last words were these. "Live each day to the fullest. You never know when it could be your last."

As he lied there, losing his blood, he thought about how much he wished he had listened to that saying while he was alive. He wished so badly that he could've been with Hermione every day that they had walked the earth.

His body lied there and rotted for months and months before anyone ever found him. He had fired all of the house elves the day that Hermione died.

No one came to his funeral and no one visited his grave. But he knew it would all be okay because he could meet his love in the after life and they would now be together forever.

A/N... if you like my writing, I'd love it if you would go and review my other story, Paralyzed. Thanks you guys.