:: Chapter Eighteen: Running ::

"I believe I get a say in this too," She poked him in the side. "After all, it is me that this is all over." She giggled.

"Hermione Granger this is not a laughing matter." Draco scolded.

"I know, but honestly who would have ever thought that I would be trapped in the middle of a love triangle?"

"Who would have ever thought Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy would be together?" He countered.

"This all sounds like a dream. I feel like someone is going to wake up from this and everything will be gone. And I really don't want to go back to that."

"Hermione. it's been two days."

"I know, but these two days have been better than the past two years."

"I may not like Potter but he can't be that bad, otherwise he wouldn't be doing what he's doing."

"No, Harry's not bad at all. It's me. I. its lonely dating an Auror. And I never stopped loving you, I was just angry."

"And you had reason you. I was afraid." He admitted softly.

"Afraid of what?"

"Everything, my father, my future, what was going to happen to you."

"Don't worry about me. And you father is gone so you don't have to worry about him. But your future? What do you have to be afraid of?"

Draco sighed deeply and stood up from the bed. "It's nothing." He lied.

"It must be something otherwise you wouldn't be running away."

"It's nothing!" He snapped.

"Why can't you just tell me? You're supposed to be able to tell me anything."

"I just can't tell you. I don't want you getting involved in it." He began pacing the floor in front of the bed.

"You don't want me involved?" She repeated. "What the bloody hell is wrong with you Draco? I've opened my heart to you and you shut me out!"

"They're after me! Are you happy now? They want me dead!"

"Who?" She asked concerned.

"All of the Death Eaters, every last one of them. Running away from that life is not taken lightly."

"So they want you dead because you ran away from being a Death Eater?"

"No. They want me dead for running away from being the Dark Lord."

"Dark Lord?" Her face visibly paled.

"My father was next in line with Voldemort because he had no heir, obviously Lucius had an heir, me."

"But. I don't understand."

"It's up to me to control the lives of the Death Eaters, the reign of the Dark Lord."

Hermione could not seem to swallow the large lump in the back of her throat. The person her boyfriend had been trying to find for the past couple of years was the one person that knew her every weakness. He knew that if his lips touched that delicate spot at the base of her neck she would melt, he knew that if he even looked at her, her heart would flutter. In all aspects of the saying, she was sleeping with the enemy. She opened her mouth to say something to him but she couldn't manage a single word. She sighed and tried again.

"I. I shouldn't be here." She arose from the bed and gathered her clothes that were in a heap by the bed. "I can't do this."

"Hermione don't." Draco protested moving towards the door.

"I can't do this. It's one thing to cheat on my best friend but it's another to be fraternizing with the enemy. The dark lord. And how Idare/I you come to Hogwarts! All those innocent children. This is some sort of ploy isn't it?"

"Why must you always be so stubborn?" He asked, agitation coating his voice.

"Don't insult me, Ferret Boy. Or did you seem to forget we're on opposite sides of the spectrum?"

"I didn't tell you because I thought it would end everything, I told you because I love you." The tears that had stung her eyes blurred her vision. She turned her head away from him sharply.

"Don't tell me that." Her voice cracked. "Don't lie to me anymore Draco, I can't handle it anymore."

"I'm not lying to you." He grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him. "I love you, that's why I ran away from that life. That's why I gave up that life."

"I will not subject myself to be another ploy in your chances of bring Harry down to his demise." She tried to escape his glare but she could not. "I don't want to do this anymore."

"You don't have to." He whispered in her ear. His warm breath tickled her ear sending hundreds of chills down her spine. "I would never let anything or anyone hurt you again, including myself." He placed trailing kisses down her neck until he came to that soft spot at the base of her neck. "I'm not like them."

"How can you just give up that life? You know just as well as I do that." But she never got to finish that sentence. His lips covered her in a sweet kiss.

"I know."

"I'm tired." She said softly. She placed a gentle kiss on his cheek and opened the bedroom door. "Anyways," She turned back to face him. "I must be getting home." He walked her to the door. "Goodnight." He placed a gentle kiss on her lips and watched her leave before shutting the door.

"One Dark Lord cannot reign while the other still lives." He muttered to himself. "The reign of the Dark Lord is only as long as the individuals life. and mine may not be much longer." He sighed, resting his back against the hard word of the door.