"Do you ever wonder how this all started?" Blaise asked her, eyes no longer cold as they'd once been but alive with warmth and admiration.
"Yeah, I even remember." She grinned up at him. "I said hello to you. That was it. No hatred, no anything, I just said hello."
"Like I was a person. Yes, now I remember. You had me interested, and that was before I even knew you."
"I presume you're still interested though?"
"I suppose, Ginevra," he said, "since I'm after falling in love with you."
They sat together in the old Gryffindor common Room, the one Common Room nobody was permitted to enter anymore.
"I can never get used to that," she told him.
"What, being called Ginevra?"
"Well, that too," she replied. "But that's not what I meant. I mean, hearing a Slytherin say the word love."
"Well, you'd better get used to it, shouldn't you?" he said and, smiling, kissed her.
"This has all happened so fast," she muttered after the short kiss.
"I got something for you, Gin." He moved to take something out of his pocket.
"What is it?" She looked expectantly at his empty hand.
"Open up your hand," he said. She did and he nicked her, a small blot of blood and pain later and immediately a knife came into view. "It comes visible when it touches blood," he explained.
"How romantic," she said sarcastically as they watched it fade back to invisibility.
"It's dangerous times. I…this could protect you." Blaise's face was oddly serious, looking like the observant, quiet boy he'd once been before she'd awoken him and brought out what he truly was and what he'd always wanted to be. " Always keep this on your person, Gin. I know we haven't know each other that long, but I want to know everything and…and if anything happened to you…"
"Nothing's going to happen," she told him, tucking the knife down the front of her robe and tilting her head up to kiss and reassure him. "But…er…next time, jewellery or something pretty would be more appreciated…"
He laughed, and that was the exact second Harry appeared and dragged her away, knocking Blaise out and making what was left of Ginny's life – the life and happiness she'd only just began to rebuild with Blaise – crumble to pieces, right in front of her eyes.
Ginny could barely stand and the only comparison Hermione could find to her old friend was that of a famine victim. Her hair was no longer full of vitality, only dull red, red like that of rust, like that of old blood. Dry and dead, significant and completely unlike before. But Ginny's eyes were what were most dead. As they looked upon Hermione, there was no surprise or happiness or anything, instead all there was was a dull look of fear, there by custom at this stage.
She was dressed as a House Elf. House Elves…the one thing Hermione had ever tried to free. She hadn't succeeded. But she knew now, without one doubt in her mind, that she would free poor, innocent Ginny. She had to.
"Ginny…!" Hermione cried.
Ginny flinched from her name and scuttled to the shadows, as far as she could without disturbing Harry's chain. Hermione didn't get up to follow her. If Ginny felt safer in the darkness, Hermione wouldn't take that away from her. Not until she had something better to offer.
Ron's face was so bloody. He'd been butchered and beaten to a pulp but, in typical Ron -style, he was still standing and from what Hermione could see of his eyes through the mess, his eyes were set fully on her with what looked like worry and compassion. Look at all that Harry had done to him, and all Ron could think of was others. Typical Ron.
Look at all the pain Harry had caused. There was no possibility of Harry being forgiven. He would never be the Harry of before. He would never be a friend again. She looked up at him now with pure hatred running through her veins and pushed herself up from the ground, lifting herself to look at him on an equal level. It would be lying to say she wasn't afraid. She was. But she could fight her fear, it would not overcome her, and would possibly drive her on to do whatever she had to save her last two best friends.
"Is it true?" he asked in a low, terrible voice.
Hermione closed her eyes in mental agony then turned to face him. Draco Malfoy, who was currently glaring at her with eyes like molten silver, the same colour of Saturn's rings, the same colour as a reflective lake with moonlight glinting off of it. Beautiful, but something you could drown in and die. She felt like she was drowning now. She certainly couldn't breathe properly.
"Yes," she admitted. She knew what he was talking of, of course. That was the problem with making a deal with the devil – he would nearly always turn his back on you and he would always have the upper hand. Enjoy it while it lasts Harry, she thought viciously to Harry's sneering, smirking, smug face.
"Why?" Draco asked.
She stared at him, wondering if he was serious. Finding that he wasn't planning on saying more, the tension in her chest eased as she yelled, "Why do you think, Draco? You're a Malfoy! You're a Dark Lord! I never did anything but of course I accepted Harry's offer to become his spy! Of course I did! Just on the off chance that it might keep Ron alive!"
"I thought you had feelings for me." His voice was still dark and low and his eyes still pouring into hers. She couldn't look away.
"I do!" she exclaimed and was instantly surprised that she had admitted the truth to herself so easily. "I do, I guess. But I have no loyalty towards you, Draco, and I don't know what you expected!"
He kept silent but continued to stare at her unnervingly.
"What did you expect?" she asked him in a softer type of voice. She was looking at nobody but him. She wasn't aware of their presence at that moment, caught in his eyes.
"He loves you, you know," Harry interrupted and his voice was full of mocking spite. "And from what I caught, he has for some time now. He was coming here to save Weasley. Just for you." Harry laughed loudly and terribly.
Her eyes widened into his. Draco's face was completely emotionless and he stood as if he was made of stone. Maybe he was made of stone, it really would explain so much.
"Is it true?" she whispered, shocked.
Silence, and then the statue of Draco Malfoy nodded.
The world snapped back into focus and suddenly there was a whole range of colours around her, not just silver. She suddenly remembered who Ginny Weasley, Ron Weasley and Harry Potter were, and at the same time her and Draco's own identities. She remembered that there were more important things at stake, like the lives of her best friends. This was a life and death situation.
Hermione Granger had always been quite a clever and logical girl, but the next thing she was to do would be something she could never be proud of, no matter how necessary. She had to use Draco's love against him.
"Prove it," she said in a voice unlike her own. "Let me go."
He didn't move. And then, just one more nod. And his eyes were no longer the eyes of stone; instead there was a tragic sadness in them. She knew he didn't want her to go.
"Give me my wand," she commanded in the same business-like voice.
Harry didn't stop Draco from conjuring her wand. She couldn't imagine why. Perhaps he was just too surprised, or maybe he just wanted to see what was about to happen.
"And Ginny and Ron's." His eyes were still set on hers.
"Let me," Harry said with exaggerated manners and conjured them. "Here, Ginny," he said with mock kindness. "Here's your wand. Now come out of the shadows like a good girl. You don't want to miss the show." Harry also threw Ron's wand to him without a word. "Now what, Hermione?" Harry beckoned. "Do you really think you can do anything against me? These two-," he gestured at Ron and Ginny, "are much to weak to perform enough dark magic to have any sort of effect on me. And you – well, we all know you were always better at reading than doing."
It was true. Ron and Ginny couldn't perform any dark magic and Hermione, herself, had never been able to perform many of the Dark Arts. She could perform in school but both she and Harry knew that, even before he was to become a Dark Lord, he would always have been triumphant in a duel with her.
She wasn't looking at Harry though. Draco was the only person she had eyes for.
The plan had formulated so quickly. She didn't even know if it would work. But if it did…
"Dementia!" she cried aloud. Harry and Draco hadn't brought the Dementors to their side, no doubt because Harry's unfounded fear in them still remained. Although, because the Ministry was still in tatters, there was extremely little Dementors could do (especially since Ministry officials didn't know they were Harry's greatest fear), they still all hung around in dark areas, and the world was that bit more mistier and miserable. The spell she'd just cried was the spell to call a pack forward, it was a highly classified spell she'd had the fortune to come across in one of the Malfoys' more guarded books. Harry, obviously, had no idea what spell she had just cast and was looking around anxiously. Draco might have known but his expression did not changed and he kept looking at her with those beseeching eyes.
She could only pray now. There was nothing really left for her to do but say her prayers.
The spell itself actually took most of her strength. She remained focused and her heart lifted when she saw the mist gathering through the window. She knew Harry wouldn't have noticed anything, but Draco must know…so why wasn't he doing anything?
The rest happened rather quickly. Mist developed to large hooded black shadows and Hermione reacted quickly. The problem with using dark magic was that it made it nearly impossible to cast white magic and vice versa. She couldn't quite manage the darkness, but the white magic was quite familiar to her now.
Ginny and Ron were too weak to cast any sort of dark magic to damage even a fly on the wall, but they were well able to send a Patronus to protect themselves. After all, they'd had a year of practice at it, ever since Harry himself had taught them how to do it in the DA meetings.
She escaped from Draco's gaze to join Ginny and Ron's side, to join their Patronus's together. Draco stood on his own on the ground, and Harry stood near but not in the silver light of the Patronus.
Both Dark Lords tried to conjure their old Patronuses. Both failed.
"You have to have happy memories," Hermione whispered now, voice shaking not smug. "You have to be able to use white magic, and you have to be able to remember a time when you were happy."
Draco didn't have any happy memories. And Prongs had left Harry forever.
Two Dementors advanced on the two boys. Harry's horror was highlighted in the light. At the same time, Ginny's Patronus began to flicker.
"Hermione," Ron's weak grip on her arm. She looked down at Ron's face, at his honest blue eyes. "Hermione…you have to save Harry."
She didn't want to. In one stricken second, she knew she only had one second to decide. She could decide to save one boy – Harry Potter or Draco Malfoy? Not too long ago, she'd been forced to make the same decision and she had chosen Draco. She knew now, deep in her heart, who she had to save now. Who it only made sense to save, and who Ron would never forgive her if she didn't.
She pushed Harry into the silver light, just as Ginny's Patronus flickered again. In the flicker, she saw the moment Draco Malfoy was kissed by the Dementors. There was nothing she could do, no time, and she was holding all three of the Patronuses together. There was nothing she could do, but she tried…
The Dementors dispersed into mist and withdrew in the time span of a second, having found their victim and all others protected. She ran to Draco but it was too late. Those silver eyes stared vacantly ahead, and he was no more.
Hermione looked up at the sound. Harry Potter had fell to the floor, and he was dead. Ginny Weasley stood above him, with savage eyes, and a dagger dripping with blood in her tiny trembling hand. "I had to, Hermione," she muttered then, eyes still on Harry's definitely dead form. "I've been waiting for so long to do that. I had to. He would have killed us all. You have no idea what he did to me…I-I had to, Hermione. He killed Luna…he killed so many people…he raped me…" And then the knife dropped to the floor and, after a minute, so did Ginny and her gentle sobs filled the air. Ron moved to check Harry, and then to his sister.
But Hermione didn't care about Harry, or Ginny, or Ron, or Luna. She would later, but now all she thought of was Draco Malfoy. Draco Malfoy was gone, Draco Malfoy was dead to the world, and she would never understand anything. She had never really even known him at all…
Sorry this chapter took so long to get out!
Thanks a million to Ptrst who beta read this for me, and for being so helpful and a great writer and reviewer in general. Thanks again – sorry I didn't give you any heads up before just throwing this chapter at you! lol
Thanks to Magical Flame, HermioneTheSlytherinPrincess, Vedgirl1202, Lisi, iNsEcUrEGoThGiRl, Mystical4, Seghen, Aurorablu, green pea soup, joy, Ptrst (again), sabs, sugr-n-spice522, Jasmine-Signet and Anigan for your kind reviews!
Last, last chapter should be up soon, in less than a week. And then that's it! Yay!