Hey guys,
Before I review this chapter, I need to tell you that, it's going to be the last but one chapter. This story I drawing to a close. I'll be putting up a sequel, but I want to update my other stories before starting with that. So it might be a while before we saw Hermione and Draco as they are here…
Anyway, thanks for all the reviews, guys!
CHAPTER 37
'Where's Chadwick?' Hermione asked her voice low and muted. Lisa's lifeless body was still in front of them.
Draco shrugged best he could while holding her. ' I don't know. Died, maybe. I suppose his body vaporized.'
Hermione shifted. 'Are you sure?I just keep feeling as if-.'
She cut off. Draco shook her gently. 'As if what?'
'I dunno…' she shivered.
Draco sighed.
'Hermione, we need to leave.'
'We can't leave her like this.' She said, obstinately.
Draco looked her in the eye.
'Hermione, if we wait for Ministry officials to come, they're going to know what happened. As soon as they find out how she was- killed- they're going to open her up, and check how the spell affected her. they'll completely slice her up.'
Hermione opened her mouth in horror. 'They can't!'
'They will,' Draco said, gravely, 'Which is who I'm giving you this solution right now. But I'm not telling you what to do. Just a suggestion.'
'What?' Hermione asked, trembling.
'Vanish the body. Lisa's gone. Nobody will know what happened.'
Hermione opened her mouth to prtest, but the logic behind his reasoning struck her.
'I…suppose,' she said, softly. Draco turned to her, and she could see the question in his eyes. Very slowly, she nodded.
Draco lifted his wand, and with a heavy look on his face, vanished the body. Hermione felt a jolt of panic, knowing that she would never see her best friend again.
'Ever…' she whispered.
Draco didn't say anything.
'Draco, we shoud leave,' Hermione murmured. Draco nodded. He screwed up his eyes, and next minute, they were apparating back to the Malfoy Manor. Hermione stubmeld onto the floor of their room. Draco carried her to the bed, and they both collapsed, dead tired, on it.
XXXXXXXX
Wisps of thought were drifting pass her mind. Half made images, half formed visions. She saw Lisa and her, laughing and talking together…but then, a deep void appeared, and she fell in, the smile frozen on her lips. Her screams mutated to Harry's, as he was tortured at Voldemort's fee. Then, it was Ron, his eyes closing for the long time. Hatred, sadness, tears, all over…and throught it, all, a pale man with spidery white hair laughed at her from far, far away.
XXXXXXX
Draco was lost in sleep, but through the veils, he could hear a deep thundering. It was muffled and muted, but rumbled in his gut just the same. In fact, it sounded like- well, like a bunch of men running up the stairs.
He began to wake. A few threads of sleep were still connected, but his eyes opened, and he was dimly aware of the figure hovering above him. he couldn't make out anything about it except that it was a concerned and had a worried look on its face.
'Mister Malfoy?' The figure asked.
Draco stared dazedly back, unable to answer. He was more awake now, but still gripped in the realms of terror that had enveloped him.
Strong hands grasped his shoulders and shook him. he jerked awake, and beside him, Hermione stirred.
'Wh-what?' he asked, somewhat annoyed.
'Is what I should be asking,' Fudge said, snappily. He had been the one to wake him up, and was looking quite angry and distraught. 'I demand to know what has happened,' he said, sternly. 'Something has, do not deny it. Your house has been broken into, your mother is unconscious in the other room. And you yourself are under arrest. Twenty four hours are over. Ms. Granger proved nothing.'
'Oh yes she did,' a voice said, beside Draco. Hermione had woken up.
'Nobody accused the man I love of guiltiness when he isn't, minister. I am going to explain something to you, and I suggest you listen very carefully.' She said, her voice deep and sharp.
Perhaps because nobody had spoken to him before in that masterful tone, but Fudge obeyed, and allowed a sleepy Hermione to drag him to a corner, and talk to him. Meanwhile, Draco noticed women dressed in palish green rushing outside. Mediwitches, he realized. He got up, and absently began walked to the door.
'Stop him!' Fudge shrieked swinging around. Four men immediately appeared in front of Draco, barring his way.
However, Hermione stepped between them.
'Gentlemen,' she said, calmly, 'Draco is not leaving anywhere. Allow him to leave the room. You have his word that he will not flee.'
Fudge snorted. 'How can I believe that?'
Hermione turned to him with ice-cold eyes. 'you haven't heard my entire story, minister.'
That shut him up.
Draco wandered outside, and saw the mediwitches carrying his mother, covered in silken sheets on a stretcher. Her bare shoulders had a pal blue scar across them, just above her breast. Draco wondered where she got it from.
He thought he might tell them that she was dead, but he couldn't form the words. Instead, he walked past a large bronze statue, sat at its base, and began to cry.
