Going Under

Chapter Two: The Promise

There is always some madness in love. But there is always some reason in madness. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, On Reading and Writing

I'm falling, Draco.

His eyes were all she could see, cold and grey and full of glass, shards that would cut her too deeply if she would look too long. However, she did, and she lived bleeding in the silver pools with their harsh jagged edges. She could feel him wash over her, clouding her judgment making it so hard to continue with their façade. She hated his games and she hated that that was the only way they could be together, the only way that they could love each other.

I love you to the point of no return, past the black seas of evil and desperation, past the walls around your heart.

His hands were shaking at his sides, manicured fingers curled into tight fists. His knuckles were white with strain as pale wrists disappeared beneath dark robes. She remembered the scars that laced his body, scars that he had caused himself when he was trying to bleed away the pain. She remembered the perfect round scar she had left on his chest right over where his heart stayed, beating strongly in his chest. She rubbed her thumb over her own identical scar on the palm of her hand, the one that he had created.

I will love you forever, even if I have to hate you forever, and forever is a very long time, Draco.

"Poor little mudblood, whose is it, Potty's or Weasel's?"

Draco, please don't put me through this. Do not play like this. Don't leave me alone.

She reached out and upon feeling no one take her hand, she collapsed.

You know how much I hate the darkness.

***

He ran through the storm, mud sloshing under his worn sneakers. He past the beasts attached to the carriages, their skeletal eyes burning into his back. His glasses were fogged up and specked with rain water. The trees of the forest swayed in the icy wind, looming figures of forbidden dreams. He could see the lights in the distance and he sprinted forward. He slowed down a bit when he reached the cabin stairs, taking them with one leap. He forced the doors open with his exhausted limbs and sprung into the warm house, his wet robes leaving a river behind him.

He fell to his knees on the hearth rug, hand clutching at his chest as he rushed air into his starving lungs. He heard the clatter of a chair to the wooden floor and thundering footsteps hurrying to get to him. He felt the foundation shake as a large figure knelt beside him. He looked up into a burly face, gasping, and his throat feeling like sand.

"'Arry, it's not time for t' train. 'Ow did y' get 'ere?"

"We stopped it early so… that I… could run and get help… for 'Mione…"

"What is it, 'Arry? What's wrong wit' 'Ermione?

"She needs help, Hagrid. She never told us. No one knew."

The half giant put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "I'll get Professor Dumbledore."

***

The old man stared straight ahead, blue eyes no longer twinkling. His face appeared unusually drawn as he past whispering paintings. A stressed expression was tapered on his face as he quickened his pace. Two of his employers walked behind him, talking in low tones. He sighed as he reached the doors to the Hospital Wing where Hagrid was trying to send a good deal of six year Gryffindors and Slytherins back to the Feast.

"Why is Draco in there?" screamed Pansy Parkinson. "He did nothing to Granger."

"How do you know, you ugly cow?" yelled Ginny Weasley from her place beside Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood.

"That is quite enough!" bellowed Severus Snape as he pushed his way to the front of the crowd, Hagrid sending him a grateful look. He stood in front of the group with a dark sneer on his pallid face, turning to glare at the students, his own house included. "You will go back down to the Great Hall and you will behave yourself. If you choose not to go or if I hear about a quarrel between you in the corridors, it will be a bloody one hundred points each!"

As the group walked away grumbling their protests, Minerva McGonagall walked swiftly up to the doors and peered into the windows briefly. She rounded on her stressed colleges and allowed a concerned appearance to cross her normally strict face. "How is she, Hagrid? Has Poppy said anything?"

He shook his head.

"Can we go inside?"

"I suppose y' can. She 'as never come out t' say anyt'ing."

"What are we going to do if Alastor is right, Albus? What if it is a Dark Child?"

The Potions Master suddenly got an odd look on his face as he turned to his larger peer. "Where is Draco?"

"Madam Pomfrey is keepin' 'im for some reason."

***

She felt warm, like she was standing in the sun. Her whole body was content to just stay where it was. She felt no fear; there was no frigid feeling in her chest. She smiled when she registered the feeling of a familiar hand in hers. She did not want to wake up, not as long as he was near.

Being near you can kill him. Being near him can kill you.

"Draco…" she whimpered, feeling the images rise in her head. She saw her beloved lying still in a pool of blood. She saw Lucius Malfoy raise his wand to kill her. She then saw him strangling her baby, calling her a bastard child, saying that she was something that was not fit for love. "Draco, don't leave me. I need you and I need our baby. She deserves love. She deserves everything. Please, don't let her die…"

"Love, open your eyes."

You deserve to die you little mudblood for all the pain that you have caused everyone. He hates you. He doesn't love you. Stop deluding yourself.

"I can't…"

You are such a weak little wench, Hermione Granger, so scared of everything.

"Do it for me."

Struggling with herself, she rounded up what little amount of courage she had and opened her eyes. First she saw the looming shadows that the candle light passed over everything. She gazed at her environment until her eyes met stormy grey orbs that she had dreamed about with the same loving stare in them. Tears welled up almost immediately as she flung her body at him, wrapping him in her arms and sobbing in his shoulder. He buried his face in her hair and breathed him the smell of her, thanking the heavens above that she was back in his arms again.

"Please, don't leave…"

He pulled back from her and took her chin with his finger, swiftly guiding his lips to hers. Their kiss was warm and sweet like honey, passionate, subtle and gentle as he always was with her. He pulled back softly and leaned his head on hers, keeping contact with her eyes.

"I am going to be here for you and for our baby. That's my promise. I'm afraid that is all I can give you now."

Crystal streams poured down her cheeks with him wiping them away. "Do you love me?"

"Of course…"

She leaned back on him, placing her hands on his chest as his arms wrapped about her shoulders. "That's all I need."