Sara: here are the answers to your questions:
Is Voldemort dead?
Yes, Voldemort is dead… When the kids shot their spells at him they left him unconscious, and the rest of the answer will be in this chapter…
But then who killed him?
This is answered in this chapter.
What's going on with Harry and Draco?
This is explained in this chapter…
What were you hinting at in the end?
I didn't want to give away much in this chapter, that's why I left it like that… you'll find out many things in this chapter… anyway, if you have any more questions don't doubt in sending me an e-mail to:
marety 2 hotmail . com (take out the spaces.)
Thanks for your review!!!
Luv, Marina
Alba: muchas gracias por tu review… en cuanto a lo de dejar el chapter ahí… bueno che!!! No me digas que no te gusta ser un poquito mala de vez en cuando… jaja… lo que pasa es que si resolvía todo en el chaper 19, tenía que terminar el fic antes… porque la verdad es que después el 20 no iba a tener trama… Igual como te dije en el mail… no todo es lo que parece… pero… a Draco también le tira mucho la sangre y la familia… así que este capítulo explica muchas cosas y resuelve muchas otras… pero también crea conflictos… Bueno… si sigo así, te voy a contar todo el capítulo… jaja… Espero que te guste!!! HARRY SOBREVIVIRÁ??? jeje
Besotes, Marina. Te dejo mi otra dirección de mail:
marety 2 hotmail . com (sacale los espacios…)
Chapter 20: "Justified betrayal"
"Well… first of all, Harry is… he is dead… Hermione, I think we should go and see his body…"
"Wait a minute… what happened to Voldemort?" Hermione asked.
"Don't you remember?" Ron asked.
"Why should I? I was unconscious…"
"You were the reason he was killed…"
"What do you mean? The last thing I remember doing was shooting a stunning spell to this rat." She said pointing distractedly at Draco.
"It wasn't a stunning spell… Mione… all the hatred you felt towards me, caused you to shoot an Avada Kedavra at me… but when Voldemort fell to the ground, he covered me… so the spell really hit him, not me…" Draco explained.
"So… where's Harry," she asked gloomily…
"He's in Dumbledore's office…"
"Is he really…"
"Yeah, he is… I'm so sorry, Hermione." Sirius said.
Hermione was shocked to hear this… she couldn't believe she had lost two loved ones in such short time… She somehow blamed Draco for all of this that was happening to her… if he hadn't betrayed them, maybe Harry would still be alive… Thinking about all this made her head spin… She kept walking with Ron at her side… at least he still had Luna… Ginny was devastated, she still loved Harry, but she had now lost all hopes of feeling his lips or see him smile… his green eyes would never open again… Ginny started crying, Hermione gave her a one-armed hug. Draco walked behind them escorted by Sirius.
"He's here…" Sirius said. "Sugar Bomb."
When they entered Dumbledore's office, they saw Harry lying on the floor and Dumbledore sitting behind his desk. Hermione walked towards Harry, she wanted to make sure this wasn't some kind of dream… she leaned over Harry's body… he was so cold… tears fell from her eyes.
Suddenly he opened his eyes, sat bolt upright and shrieked.
"Oh my God Harry! I thought you were dead!" Hermione said hugging Harry hard… she noticed how the warm was slowly coming to his body.
He was panting. "It was so cool…" He said trying to smile, but he was too weak to do that.
Hermione hit him kindly on his head. Ginny leaned over him and hugged him once Hermione had released him. "I have to speak to you, Gin…" Harry said trying not to faint.
"Later, Harry, you should rest now… and you, professor Dumbledore, will explain us exactly what happened. Now." Ginny said determined not to leave without a clear explanation.
"All right, Miss. Weasley, I'll tell you what happened…" Dumbledore said in a calm tone. "Seeing that we had a slight chance of losing this battle, Mr. Potter had a wonderful idea. He remembered having heard about the Rigor Mortis potion in one of his classes, and deduced that if he took it, the plan would be perfect. The thing was that we had to be careful whom we told this too… Mr. Potter knew that Mr. Malfoy was a superb potion maker. He asked for help and Draco decided to take some action into our plan. Draco knew that the only person who could be any use for him for his plans was Miss. Granger, because she was a muggle-born and a person that Voldemort wanted to kill." He paused.
Hermione looked at Draco incredulously. "You used me? You used me?! I'm beginning to feel better about the betrayal thing…" Hermione said.
"That's why we decided to create a distraction with Miss. Granger." Dumbledore continued. "Voldemort thought that Draco was really coming back, because Draco learned how to block his mind and make him think he was really spying on us, with my help. Before the War, Harry drank the potion, and as soon as it caused an effect on him, everyone thought he was dead when he really wasn't. Mr. Malfoy helped a lot too…"
"I can't hear anymore of this, I'm going to my room." Hermione said turning on her heels and going out of the room. She walked through the corridors without realizing it. She opened the door to the Head's room and entered feeling worse than ever. In case Draco was following her, which he was, she shut herself quickly inside her room and started crying. (A/N: If you can, listen to the song "Where are you now" by Britney Spears…) She could remember every word he had whispered in her ear. How could he have made it up? It seemed so real, maybe deep down he really felt that, but he thought it was fun to fulfil his needs with an innocent low class Mudblood. At the thought of this, she started crying harder.
"Mione! I know you're there! Let me in!" she heard Draco call from the other side of the door.
"No, Malfoy! Go away!" She said and heard him walking away, she didn't hear the door of the room, though, and so she presumed he hadn't left the room. When she finally put herself together, she decided to leave her room, determined not to look at Draco or speak to him.
When she came down, she found Draco sitting by the fire, his head in his hands and muttering to himself.
She couldn't stand the sight of him; those words had really hurt her. She would not give up, if he loved her, those words wouldn't have seemed so real, he wasn't that good of an actor anyway…
"Mione, please listen to me…" Draco told her, looking up.
"I'm sorry Malfoy, if you had feelings for me, you wouldn't have said those words." She said determinedly and got out of the room.
After Harry fully recovered from his experience, he decided to speak to Ginny. Now it was all over, she wasn't in danger anymore… he was free now…
"Hey there…" Harry said sitting in his bed, when he saw Ginny waking up in her bed. As Luna was now staying in the boys' room, to spend more time with Ron, Ginny decided to do the same.
"How do you feel?" She asked.
"Fine, I guess… a bit dead… but fine…" He said smiling.
Ginny clicked her tongue and threw a pillow to him.
"Hey! I'm not fully recovered!" He said laughing. "I need talking to you…" Harry said when he stopped laughing.
"I'll take a shower and we'll meet outside."
"In how many hours?" Harry said.
"Five… and I want you to stand on one leg the whole time…" She said entering the bathroom.
"Ok… I'll meet you outside…" Harry said as he made his way to his bathroom. (A/N: Dumbledore conjured a new bathroom just for the girls…)
After half an hour, Ginny finally got out of the bathroom… She was wearing a black skirt, white shoes, and a white blouse tied behind her neck.
'Whoa! Hi there…' Harry thought.
"Don't stand there looking stupid, Harry, tell me what you wanted to talk to me about!" Ginny said laughing.
"What? Oh, yeah… now that it's all over I'll tell you the truth… I didn't leave you because we were not compatible… I left you because I was afraid…"
"Afraid of what?" She asked.
"Afraid that if Voldemort knew I loved you, he would go after you… and I didn't want to cause any more damage… you know… last year was Sirius…"
"So?" She was starting to like this talk…
"So now there are no more obstacles…"
"So? Harry! Please finish your concept!" Ginny said half laughing.
"What do you think if we try again?"
"Yeah… but promise me that if you want to leave me again… you won't use another stupid excuse and tell me the truth."
"I promise…" He said walking towards her and taking her waist.
"And that you will buy me something as a punishment for having lied…"
"Hey! That's not fair!" He said kissing her.
"Do you want me to let you kiss me?"
"All right, I will."
"And one last thing…"
"Yeah…" He said still kissing her.
"Don't ask advice from my brother… he sucks at buying gifts for women… in fact, I bought all the gifts he gave to Luna…"
They both started laughing.
"All right, let's do something. We'll go to Hogsmeade tomorrow and you can buy anything you want… not exceeding the contents of my vault…"
"Mmm… all right, half a vault would be enough I guess…" She said laughing.
"I'll bear that in mind…"
Several days passed and the end of the term was getting near. Dumbledore had decided to have a ball to celebrate Voldemort's fall. Everyone around the school was really excited about this piece of news, everyone except two people… Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy. They hadn't even looked at each other in weeks, but secretly, they knew they couldn't bear seeing each other with another person.
One day before the ball, Hermione and Draco hadn't been able to find a partner.
Hermione entered the room…
Draco was sitting by the fire with a glass of Pumpkin juice in his left hand. He lifted his head, but didn't turn around.
"Harry gave me this; he said it was yours…" Hermione said.
"What is it?"
"I don't know… it's wrapped, but it looks like a bottle or something… I'll… I'll leave it here…" She said and left the bottle on the table in front of Draco… not looking at him. She was about to leave when he took her wrist.
"Wait, Granger, I know what this is… Potty wants to play cupid…"
"What do you mean, Malfoy, I have several more important things to do than listening to you…"
He took the bottle and unwrapped it. There was a scribbled note in it: "Give it to her… it worked with you… it will certainly work for her…"
"It's for you… as you don't believe me… this is the last resource… it's a Veritaserum potion… take it or leave it, Granger… I'm not begging for your love…" He said… he really wanted her back, but it was not in his Malfoy nature to beg for anything…
"Drink it…" She said distractedly. "But be quick, I don't want the story of your life, Malfoy…"
He drank the potion…
"Why did you tell me all those things in the War?"
"It was part of our plan…"
"Whose plan?"
"Potty's, Dumbledore's and mine…"
"Why me?"
"Because you were the only one who would be intelligent enough to fake a Cruciatus attack when you weren't really feeling a thing…"
"Why didn't I feel anything?"
"Because I didn't want to hurt you…"
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I was afraid…"
"Of what?"
"I was afraid that if Voldemort discovered you were involved in the plan, he would kill you… and discover our plan…"
"Do you still love me?"
Draco seemed surprised at this question; he was expecting her to ask anything but that…
"Yes, Granger, and I wouldn't need a Veritaserum potion to tell you that…"
"Then why did you sound so confident when you told me those horrible things in my ear?" She was on the verge of tears…
"Because I needed to… believe me… I wouldn't have said it if I didn't need to…"
"Did you feel those words?"
"Of course not! They were meaningless! If I had wanted to fulfil my needs, I would have run away with Parkinson…, or any other girl… but not you, Mione… believe me, I wouldn't have chosen the biggest know-it-all in the whole school if I didn't love her… I love you, Mione…"
She had waited so long to hear those words that a tear escaped her eyes… she was so tired of everything… she just wanted to hug him, to kiss him, but no… he would have to apologize first, and after the potion effect had passed… she wanted it to be real…
"All right, go to your room now, until the effect passes… we'll continue our chat later." She said.
"Fuck off, Granger! You can't order me!"
"As you wish, spoiled brat! Ferret!" She said and locked herself inside her room. Malfoy did so too.
After a few hours, Hermione was sure that the effect had passed…
"Malfoy, let's speak…" She said.
"Now what, Granger?"
"When… when you were… under the effects of the Veritaserum… you told me… you told me you still loved me…"
"I can barely remember…"
"Is it true?"
"Could be…" He said looking in the other direction… he didn't want to give away that easily, she had been the one to get mad in the first place anyway…
"C'mon, Draco! Don't let your pride blind you! Do you love me or not? I don't have all day…"
"Yeah, I guess I do…"
"So… you apo…" She said.
"I apolo… I apologize… God, I hate to apologize! So, am I cleared of all charges?"
"Not yet… you'll have to go through some punishment… you broke your promise…"
"What promise?" He asked surprised.
"You promised me you would never make me cry again, but I cried a lot after that because of you…"
"What's the punishment?" He asked resigned to accept whatever was coming.
"Take me to Hogsmeade and buy me something…"
"What do you want?"
"It has to be a surprise you dummy!"
"Yeah… all right…" He said. "Why don't you choose it?"
"Yay! When do you want to go?"
"How about now?"
"Sure…" She said and kissed him, she hadn't felt his lips in a long time… it felt so good…
"Missed me?"
"Did you miss me?"
"Yeah… but not much… just a little bit…"
"C'mon! You self-centred albino ferret!"
"All right, yeah, I really missed you! But don't make me say it again! We Malfoys cannot express our feelings…"
"Let's go to Hogsmeade… I might kick your ass if you keep talking like that."
"Sure, let me grab my coat… and put on something, it's cold outside…"
She just nodded… in a burst of melancholy, she ran at him and hugged him with all her might…
"Whoa… Are you all right?" Draco asked surprised.
Hermione nodded hard. "I missed you…"
"Me too, Mione… me too…" He said kissing her forehead.
They made their way to Hogsmeade holding hands…