A/N: Finished July 9th. Oh god guys... It's the last chapter before the epilogue. I might have a sequel or I might not.. I dunno whatever. Anyway here it is. Enjoy
Chapter 14: A Maze in the Mist
Draco stepped out of the shadows and made his way back to the double doors that led to the corridor where the Great Hall was. He had gotten his best friend and one of his former worst enemies together. Then it hit him: Former.
Did he truly consider his war with Ron Weasley and Harry Potter over? He had so many reasons why he loathed Potter and Weasley. Jealousy was of course the main reason. He could admit it to himself, and that was the first step to making things right.
Snape. Snape became a Deatheater and did things much worse than he had. While Draco had murdered one or two people, Snape had tortured Muggles, raped Witches, killed countless amounts of people! Snape redeemed himself, didn't he? He became a spy for Dumbledore and risked his life to save Potter and countless amounts of people. Did he save more people than he had killed in cold blood? If Snape could make things 'right' then couldn't he, Draco, do some right in the world.
'How quickly the might have fallen.' Draco mused to himself. He was the king of Slytherin, the future ruler of Voldemort's army, his father's puppet, owner of half the world! How quick was he to think about giving it up with all its glory just to make things 'right'.
What was that anyway? Who judged whether something was right or whether something was wrong? Who had that kind of authority? Who dared to get in the way of Lucius Malfoy when he was angry? Then it hit Draco: He did. He judged for himself whether something was right or whether something was wrong.
Deatheaters killed countless amounts of people. They had a conscience all right. If Draco had a conscience, everyone had a conscience. They judged for themselves that what they were doing was appropriate. That was the difference between Malfoy junior and Malfoy senior. That was what Blaise was trying to show him all along. That's what Hermione had taught him.
What was right for Draco right now? Not the quoted right either but the real right? He had to fix things he had broken, and if he couldn't fix them, he had to make up for them. So what was on Draco's list? Hermione. He procrastinated and went to find Potter.
He saw him in the corner snogging the younger Weasley. Draco snorted loudly but thought of no insult. He would talk to him tomorrow. For now he had to speak with Dumbledore.
Dumbledore. What would he say to Dumbledore exactly? 'Hey, Dumbly, what's up? You're doing good I hope, but anyway, I came here to tell you that even though I've been a bastard for the last 17 years of my life I've decided that I want to work for the Order of the Phoenix because I've made friends with a Mudblood girl I used to want to kill. Oh, by the way, FYI, I made up with Weasley and will make up with Potter later on.' Even in his head, that didn't sound right.
"Draco?" A voice brought him out of his thoughts. He looked up with a grim expression to see none other than the Mudblood. Wasn't that just wonderful.
"Yes?" He asked as he smiled up at her. He groaned and his expression dropped back to what it was. It was her fault he had changed.
In the beginning of the year he wanted nothing more than to kill her, Potter, and Weasley. He wanted to help the Dark side conquer over Dumbledore and slap the twinkle out of the old man's eyes. What happened to him? What happened to the Malfoy inside of him? She happened.
She talked to him and made him feel comfortable and loved. He felt loved. Never in his life had Draco seen such comfort in someone caring for him because he didn't think his parents ever honestly cared.
She was willing to forgive. She forgave him for six years of torture without even thinking of an ulterior motive. She didn't think he had an ulterior motive, and to be honest he found such great comfort in that. Then again, it also made him feel bad because he had an ulterior motive, an ulterior motive that was set up by his best friend who had an ulterior motive himself.
Blaise's words echoed in his mind: 'your arguments, your skills, your brains! You and she get along! By Merlin, I wanted you to see the light. You LOVE her.' He didn't love her. How could he love her?
She had a light that burned as bright as the heavens in her eyes. She wasn't naïve, yet, she was trusting. She opened her heart, her mind, and her soul to be broken apart in a million pieces. She had seen things that would make people cringe in fear or call for their parents, but she never gave up. She never gave up on Potter. People would have run away from him. People DID run away from him. Everyone thought he was a psychotic mental patient who belonged at St. Mungos. She stuck by him.
How could he love someone whose soul was so pure? Draco didn't even have a soul anymore. It was gone in the abyss of an ocean millions of miles away, deep under coral, sunk with ships, doomed to never be found again. She had never done anything wrong in her life besides breaking school rules. She never hurt anyone who didn't deserve it. She was brave and loyal. She was, in a nutshell, perfect.
"Have you seen Blaise?" She asked him with her brown eyes looking questioningly down at Draco.
"I had to talk to him maybe forty minutes ago. I haven't seen him since." He said truthfully.
"What are you hiding?" She asked him. He sighed but shook his head, "Draco tell me."
"It doesn't matter right now. I do want you to know that I'm sorry about everything."
"You've already told me." She said suspiciously as she sat down beside him and put her hand on his arm.
"You're making this far too hard for me. I guess I deserve this being hard." Draco said as she shot him a curious glance, "In the beginning of the year I thought of you as just a Muggleborn below me. I guess I never truly knew you or really cared to know you.
"I had no feelings and I thought my future was set for me to become a Deatheater along with my father. I thought I would be forced to participate in a war I do not want to be part of. I was afraid I would lose everything I cared for. Everyone I thought I cared for.
"Blaise propositioned me with this bet. It was a bet to see who could…erm… who could bed you first." She looked stunned but waved him on to continue with a rage in her eyes, "So Blaise and I each went our own ways to try and erm… seduce you. In the process of it, I tried to tell myself that I didn't care for you at all. I tried to convince myself that I didn't care. I guess it worked because I could still stand being with you and going on with the bet.
"Slowly though I became jealous of what Blaise was doing. He liked you even before the bet, or I thought he did. Then that night with Potter. He said you were his and I snapped. I used what I was taught, what I thought to be my destiny. You ignored me, and my heart broke. Still I hid any feelings.
"After that I went on. I had to find a way to get back in the game. I was a Malfoy then, and Malfoys cared about winning. I was a Slytherin and Slytherins played dirty. Blaise and I had made a set of rules, a kind of contract you could call it. No using alcohol, drugs, spells on you, potions, or on each other. I found a loophole I didn't realize I had written in. It said that I could not put a spell or potion on you or a curse, spell or potion on Blaise. It didn't say I couldn't curse you.
"I went to the only person I knew would ask no questions but had to comply. We couldn't tell anyone of the bet, so I had to find someone who already knew of it. Snape gave me a curse and a timeline to use it. The curse, however powerful it may be, was only undetectable because it was wandless.
"You know that wandless magic was only weak, but this curse was powerful. It was a curse to bring out the person's outer feelings. I needed a trap to get you to be jealous enough to get sexually frustrated. The only way was to have you walk in on myself and someone else in the act of intercourse. The question was who? Who would be powerful enough for you to be in a fit of jealousy? I wasn't about to turn homosexual and bed Potter or Weasley. Then it hit me, Weasley: Ginny Weasley.
"She was just a pawn in my plot. I lured her into being sexually frustrated herself by seeing me half naked and dripping wet. I won't go into the details of how I managed that. I thought, how do Gryffindors think? What is the average Gryffindor vulnerable to? Comfort and compassion was the answer sitting right in front of my face.
"I told her I was jealous of you and she comforted me. Comfort and compassion would be her downfall. What happened afterward, you saw. I only then had to play my cards right and catch you in your most jealous rage. I cursed you then. What I had overlooked, however, were a few side effects that I didn't care about.
"I felt terrible. I had come to truly care for you. When I saw your face, I cared, and that strengthened the curse. What I overlooked was that if the curse had been cast with the true feelings of the recipient already that much magnified, the curse did nothing. You cared about me that much.
"I took the curse off of you. Some things happened to someone I cared for like a sister. She had told me of her story of how she loved and put herself out on the line to be heartbroken. She did everything for Ron Weasley. She didn't care if she got hurt in the process. She was the reason Viktor broke up with you in your sixth year. She wanted Ron to be happy even if he wasn't with her.
"She told me her whole story and how her heart was broken in the end. I had to do something. I had to make things right. By that point I had grown something I never thought I would have: A conscience. I felt bad even if that wasn't my fault. When I saw them together, I realized, how can I set you up for the same kind of misery she had gone through when I cared for you that much? I couldn't. I lifted the curse.
"If Blaise truly loved you, then I wouldn't stand in his way. I blew up the contract, and he seemed mad. He seemed angry at me for trying to make things good for him. Me, The Draco Malfoy, The Slytherin Prince, Owner of Malfoy Cooperation and half the world, had been set up. He had wanted me to see the truth.
"Slowly I had begun to pull away from my father's ways, the Deatheater ways, the teachings I had been taught. I had begun to think for myself and I even promised myself, Blaise did too that we would never use another Unforgivable. Without realizing it, I had learned that I was not a Malfoy. I was Draco, my own person who could make his own decisions. I could decide for myself what was right. You know what was right for me? To seek redemption.
"Don't you see? Blaise set me up for it all! He set me up for you! You changed me! You made me the person who I am today in just six months. Look at how much power you have, Hermione Jane Granger! You, the light in your soul, the jump in your step, you made me over as if I was clay for you to mold.
"Along with all my friends, my true real friends, I began to think for myself. I am willing to put everything on the line. I refuse to have anything to do with my father. I am my own person. I'm sorry for everything I have done, but I do not regret it. I thank you for everything. I hope that someday you will forgive me and we can be friends." Draco said as he stood and walked outside.
"Draco!" She yelled after him, but he was nowhere to be found. "I need to know! I need to know for myself! Do you love me?" She yelled out as everyone outside looked at her, including a very cozy looking Lily and Ron, and a chummy looking Blaise and Marijana.
He looked back at her and walked to her with a smile on her face, "I wasn't sure if I did before. I know now. After telling my own story and listening to it, my heart seemed to be torn down."
"Do you love me?" She repeated as a tear dropped down her face.
"I care about you more than I thought it was possible to care for someone. At this point, I would give my life for you. What is love?" He asked honestly.
"Love is what you just described. Love is you willing to give everything for someone."
"I love you, Hermione." He said with a sweet smile as she looked into his eyes.
"I love you, too."
As those words echoed through his ears his eyes were visible.
Walls of blue tore down into an ocean that decomposed them into life. A maze lay beyond that had its obstacles quickly disappearing into the wind. The center was a place that could not have been reached unless given the permission. The permission was granted and a path was uncovered with signs pointing into the heart. The Maze in the Mist had been penetrated and within it were no secrets, lies, or deception, only forgiveness and redemption. The Maze in the Mist was no longer visible.
Fin
A/N: Epilogue next
Chapter 14: A Maze in the Mist
Draco stepped out of the shadows and made his way back to the double doors that led to the corridor where the Great Hall was. He had gotten his best friend and one of his former worst enemies together. Then it hit him: Former.
Did he truly consider his war with Ron Weasley and Harry Potter over? He had so many reasons why he loathed Potter and Weasley. Jealousy was of course the main reason. He could admit it to himself, and that was the first step to making things right.
Snape. Snape became a Deatheater and did things much worse than he had. While Draco had murdered one or two people, Snape had tortured Muggles, raped Witches, killed countless amounts of people! Snape redeemed himself, didn't he? He became a spy for Dumbledore and risked his life to save Potter and countless amounts of people. Did he save more people than he had killed in cold blood? If Snape could make things 'right' then couldn't he, Draco, do some right in the world.
'How quickly the might have fallen.' Draco mused to himself. He was the king of Slytherin, the future ruler of Voldemort's army, his father's puppet, owner of half the world! How quick was he to think about giving it up with all its glory just to make things 'right'.
What was that anyway? Who judged whether something was right or whether something was wrong? Who had that kind of authority? Who dared to get in the way of Lucius Malfoy when he was angry? Then it hit Draco: He did. He judged for himself whether something was right or whether something was wrong.
Deatheaters killed countless amounts of people. They had a conscience all right. If Draco had a conscience, everyone had a conscience. They judged for themselves that what they were doing was appropriate. That was the difference between Malfoy junior and Malfoy senior. That was what Blaise was trying to show him all along. That's what Hermione had taught him.
What was right for Draco right now? Not the quoted right either but the real right? He had to fix things he had broken, and if he couldn't fix them, he had to make up for them. So what was on Draco's list? Hermione. He procrastinated and went to find Potter.
He saw him in the corner snogging the younger Weasley. Draco snorted loudly but thought of no insult. He would talk to him tomorrow. For now he had to speak with Dumbledore.
Dumbledore. What would he say to Dumbledore exactly? 'Hey, Dumbly, what's up? You're doing good I hope, but anyway, I came here to tell you that even though I've been a bastard for the last 17 years of my life I've decided that I want to work for the Order of the Phoenix because I've made friends with a Mudblood girl I used to want to kill. Oh, by the way, FYI, I made up with Weasley and will make up with Potter later on.' Even in his head, that didn't sound right.
"Draco?" A voice brought him out of his thoughts. He looked up with a grim expression to see none other than the Mudblood. Wasn't that just wonderful.
"Yes?" He asked as he smiled up at her. He groaned and his expression dropped back to what it was. It was her fault he had changed.
In the beginning of the year he wanted nothing more than to kill her, Potter, and Weasley. He wanted to help the Dark side conquer over Dumbledore and slap the twinkle out of the old man's eyes. What happened to him? What happened to the Malfoy inside of him? She happened.
She talked to him and made him feel comfortable and loved. He felt loved. Never in his life had Draco seen such comfort in someone caring for him because he didn't think his parents ever honestly cared.
She was willing to forgive. She forgave him for six years of torture without even thinking of an ulterior motive. She didn't think he had an ulterior motive, and to be honest he found such great comfort in that. Then again, it also made him feel bad because he had an ulterior motive, an ulterior motive that was set up by his best friend who had an ulterior motive himself.
Blaise's words echoed in his mind: 'your arguments, your skills, your brains! You and she get along! By Merlin, I wanted you to see the light. You LOVE her.' He didn't love her. How could he love her?
She had a light that burned as bright as the heavens in her eyes. She wasn't naïve, yet, she was trusting. She opened her heart, her mind, and her soul to be broken apart in a million pieces. She had seen things that would make people cringe in fear or call for their parents, but she never gave up. She never gave up on Potter. People would have run away from him. People DID run away from him. Everyone thought he was a psychotic mental patient who belonged at St. Mungos. She stuck by him.
How could he love someone whose soul was so pure? Draco didn't even have a soul anymore. It was gone in the abyss of an ocean millions of miles away, deep under coral, sunk with ships, doomed to never be found again. She had never done anything wrong in her life besides breaking school rules. She never hurt anyone who didn't deserve it. She was brave and loyal. She was, in a nutshell, perfect.
"Have you seen Blaise?" She asked him with her brown eyes looking questioningly down at Draco.
"I had to talk to him maybe forty minutes ago. I haven't seen him since." He said truthfully.
"What are you hiding?" She asked him. He sighed but shook his head, "Draco tell me."
"It doesn't matter right now. I do want you to know that I'm sorry about everything."
"You've already told me." She said suspiciously as she sat down beside him and put her hand on his arm.
"You're making this far too hard for me. I guess I deserve this being hard." Draco said as she shot him a curious glance, "In the beginning of the year I thought of you as just a Muggleborn below me. I guess I never truly knew you or really cared to know you.
"I had no feelings and I thought my future was set for me to become a Deatheater along with my father. I thought I would be forced to participate in a war I do not want to be part of. I was afraid I would lose everything I cared for. Everyone I thought I cared for.
"Blaise propositioned me with this bet. It was a bet to see who could…erm… who could bed you first." She looked stunned but waved him on to continue with a rage in her eyes, "So Blaise and I each went our own ways to try and erm… seduce you. In the process of it, I tried to tell myself that I didn't care for you at all. I tried to convince myself that I didn't care. I guess it worked because I could still stand being with you and going on with the bet.
"Slowly though I became jealous of what Blaise was doing. He liked you even before the bet, or I thought he did. Then that night with Potter. He said you were his and I snapped. I used what I was taught, what I thought to be my destiny. You ignored me, and my heart broke. Still I hid any feelings.
"After that I went on. I had to find a way to get back in the game. I was a Malfoy then, and Malfoys cared about winning. I was a Slytherin and Slytherins played dirty. Blaise and I had made a set of rules, a kind of contract you could call it. No using alcohol, drugs, spells on you, potions, or on each other. I found a loophole I didn't realize I had written in. It said that I could not put a spell or potion on you or a curse, spell or potion on Blaise. It didn't say I couldn't curse you.
"I went to the only person I knew would ask no questions but had to comply. We couldn't tell anyone of the bet, so I had to find someone who already knew of it. Snape gave me a curse and a timeline to use it. The curse, however powerful it may be, was only undetectable because it was wandless.
"You know that wandless magic was only weak, but this curse was powerful. It was a curse to bring out the person's outer feelings. I needed a trap to get you to be jealous enough to get sexually frustrated. The only way was to have you walk in on myself and someone else in the act of intercourse. The question was who? Who would be powerful enough for you to be in a fit of jealousy? I wasn't about to turn homosexual and bed Potter or Weasley. Then it hit me, Weasley: Ginny Weasley.
"She was just a pawn in my plot. I lured her into being sexually frustrated herself by seeing me half naked and dripping wet. I won't go into the details of how I managed that. I thought, how do Gryffindors think? What is the average Gryffindor vulnerable to? Comfort and compassion was the answer sitting right in front of my face.
"I told her I was jealous of you and she comforted me. Comfort and compassion would be her downfall. What happened afterward, you saw. I only then had to play my cards right and catch you in your most jealous rage. I cursed you then. What I had overlooked, however, were a few side effects that I didn't care about.
"I felt terrible. I had come to truly care for you. When I saw your face, I cared, and that strengthened the curse. What I overlooked was that if the curse had been cast with the true feelings of the recipient already that much magnified, the curse did nothing. You cared about me that much.
"I took the curse off of you. Some things happened to someone I cared for like a sister. She had told me of her story of how she loved and put herself out on the line to be heartbroken. She did everything for Ron Weasley. She didn't care if she got hurt in the process. She was the reason Viktor broke up with you in your sixth year. She wanted Ron to be happy even if he wasn't with her.
"She told me her whole story and how her heart was broken in the end. I had to do something. I had to make things right. By that point I had grown something I never thought I would have: A conscience. I felt bad even if that wasn't my fault. When I saw them together, I realized, how can I set you up for the same kind of misery she had gone through when I cared for you that much? I couldn't. I lifted the curse.
"If Blaise truly loved you, then I wouldn't stand in his way. I blew up the contract, and he seemed mad. He seemed angry at me for trying to make things good for him. Me, The Draco Malfoy, The Slytherin Prince, Owner of Malfoy Cooperation and half the world, had been set up. He had wanted me to see the truth.
"Slowly I had begun to pull away from my father's ways, the Deatheater ways, the teachings I had been taught. I had begun to think for myself and I even promised myself, Blaise did too that we would never use another Unforgivable. Without realizing it, I had learned that I was not a Malfoy. I was Draco, my own person who could make his own decisions. I could decide for myself what was right. You know what was right for me? To seek redemption.
"Don't you see? Blaise set me up for it all! He set me up for you! You changed me! You made me the person who I am today in just six months. Look at how much power you have, Hermione Jane Granger! You, the light in your soul, the jump in your step, you made me over as if I was clay for you to mold.
"Along with all my friends, my true real friends, I began to think for myself. I am willing to put everything on the line. I refuse to have anything to do with my father. I am my own person. I'm sorry for everything I have done, but I do not regret it. I thank you for everything. I hope that someday you will forgive me and we can be friends." Draco said as he stood and walked outside.
"Draco!" She yelled after him, but he was nowhere to be found. "I need to know! I need to know for myself! Do you love me?" She yelled out as everyone outside looked at her, including a very cozy looking Lily and Ron, and a chummy looking Blaise and Marijana.
He looked back at her and walked to her with a smile on her face, "I wasn't sure if I did before. I know now. After telling my own story and listening to it, my heart seemed to be torn down."
"Do you love me?" She repeated as a tear dropped down her face.
"I care about you more than I thought it was possible to care for someone. At this point, I would give my life for you. What is love?" He asked honestly.
"Love is what you just described. Love is you willing to give everything for someone."
"I love you, Hermione." He said with a sweet smile as she looked into his eyes.
"I love you, too."
As those words echoed through his ears his eyes were visible.
Walls of blue tore down into an ocean that decomposed them into life. A maze lay beyond that had its obstacles quickly disappearing into the wind. The center was a place that could not have been reached unless given the permission. The permission was granted and a path was uncovered with signs pointing into the heart. The Maze in the Mist had been penetrated and within it were no secrets, lies, or deception, only forgiveness and redemption. The Maze in the Mist was no longer visible.
Fin
A/N: Epilogue next