Disclaimer: Every Harry Potter related character and concepts belong to J.K Rowling and Warner bros. This story was created for non-profiting entertainment only.
Recap: No sooner had the blonde sat down on the couch, the portrait opened up and lightning cracked swiftly. Draco gazed at the person as thunder rumbled loudly.
"Your move, Granger."
Draco and Hermione discussed the plans that were going to take place no sooner than tonight. As the Head Boy was listening to Hermione, he mind wondered.
"So when do I have to go outside?" Draco asked as he glanced at the sheet of paper that showed the plans. "We," Hermione corrected "will have to go outside as soon as you figure out how you are going to get another model of your broom."
Draco frowned at Hermione. "What happened to my broom?" he asked.
"Filch confiscated it." the Head Girl answered hastily, as she looked away.
--Wait a minute; she said that 'we' are going out in that rainstorm-- Lightning struck loudly. Did he really want to risk her safety?
"Hang on," said the blonde as Hermione placed her stuff on the table. "Why are you going out there with me too?"
"I told you before," replied Hermione as she turned to face him. "You can't do this alone." Her answer only made Draco frown. As Draco wanted to get a specified answer out of Hermione, lightning cracked across the sky once more.
Without wasting anymore time, Draco and Hermione made their way down to the entrance hall. Draco found out that Hermione organized the prefects' duty in such a way, that the prefects would have no idea that the Heads had sneaked out.
"You could go and get a broom from Slytherin now while I wait here." Hermione said. Nodding slightly, Draco made his way to the dungeons.
----
Entering the Slytherin common room, Draco saw that everyone had gone up to bed. Sneaking into the boys' dormitory, Draco grabbed Blaise's broomstick and silently made his way out.
Draco quickly made his way back to Hermione.
As he reached his destination his mind wondered once more as to why this Gryffindor was helping a Slytherin. Draco's train of thought was broken as he saw Hermione holding a small golden ball.
"Where'd you get that?" asked Draco, as he stared at the snitch in disbelief. Hermione smiled smugly and answered "The broomstick cupboard."
Together, Gryffindor and Slytherin made their way into the unnatural rainstorm.
As both of them entered the Quidditch pitch, Hermione turned to Draco and asked if he understood what she had explained back in the common room. Draco nodded.
Hermione released the snitch from her grasp and they watched as it flew away in the rainstorm. Five minutes later, Draco climbed on the broom and flew up in the air.
As Draco flew higher, he could have sworn he heard, the commentator's voice fading slightly in the howling wind.
It was then as if Draco himself was in a Quidditch match. Colors of red and green blurred quickly away from him, and he could distinctively hear the commentator's voice.
Soon, it felt as if Draco had been flying for hours. As thunder rumbled and the rain had gotten heavier, Draco felt determined to find the snitch; to put an end to this and hopefully get Hermione out of the rain as soon as possible.
The distinct voice of the commentator could no longer be heard. Wondering if he was still in the Quidditch pitch or not, he suddenly spotted the familiar glittering gold of the snitch in the corner of his eye.
Draco abruptly forgot that he was not in the field to play Quidditch, but to remember. Thunder rumbled loudly as Draco turned his head to look at the snitch.
Excitement shot through him as he gripped his broom preparing to catch the snitch. It flew away and Draco chased it, making sure that it was still in his line of vision.
--Finally it wouldn't be only Potter who would take all the glory!-- Thunder rumbled loudly as he caught up to the snitch.
Draco smiled inside a he stretched his arm to grab the tiny ball. As he did so, in a fraction of a second, the familiar sequence of lightning struck.
As more lightning branched out across the sky, one struck his broom and the bristles now were caught in fire.
Quickly grabbing the snitch, he made his way down. Although despite the rain, the tail of his broom was still burning ablaze.
Lightning struck again and before he knew it, it had hit him.
Draco Malfoy fell unconscious and towards the ground as he slipped from his broom and into darkness.
----
It was like watching a very bad incident in reality. Draco Malfoy watched from the skies as his lightning struck body had caught fire on his broom.
His unconscious body was now a burning inferno falling towards the ground.
Unfortunately, his body did not reach the ground. It had landed into the whomping willow. Draco then watched as his body was being thrown about the air and slammed on every branch like a rag doll.
The menacing tree then threw his body and it landed in a heap on the ground. Draco then saw Hermione Granger running towards his scorched body and kneeling beside him.
----
"Wake up, Malfoy." a brunette haired girl said softly in the rain. Very slowly, Draco Malfoy opened his eyes and his gaze met the girls.
In an instant, all of reality came hitting hard upon him and Draco's body was in terrible pain. The blonde tried hard not to cry out in pain as he closed his eyes tightly. The heavy raindrops against his skin made it painfully stinging and his body had ached all over.
Slowly, the pain subsided and as he opened his eyes once more, flashes of memory flashed before his eyes; one that included Hermione's unfortunate incident. Draco was now looking back at the brown haired girl.
"Did you remember?" Hermione asked. "Yeah," Draco answered. "I did."
Then, Draco hesitantly looked at his scorched body and found out that his body was no longer broken, bruised and scorched. "What happened?" the blonde asked. "You healed when you were experiencing the terrible pain." The brunette answered.
Hermione then helped Draco to his feet. Suddenly, it was only then that Draco had felt something in his hand.
Opening his hand slightly, both Draco and Hermione saw that it was the snitch. "Slytherin did win the match." Said Hermione, answering Draco's questioning look.
----
Draco Malfoy was now inside the Heads warm common room sitting in front of the fire. After taking a hot bath, the Slytherin sat in front of the fireplace.
The Slytherin got up from the rug and moved to the armchair closest to the fireplace.
"Umm, thanks for helping me tonight, Granger." The blonde said uneasily. The Head girl, who was reading a small book in another armchair across from Draco's looked up and replied "You're welcome, Malfoy." She then continued reading.
After a long awkward pause, "So I guess, we'll do your incident tomorrow then." the Slytherin said. "I wouldn't know." Replied the brunette, as she continued reading the book.
Draco frowned as he asked "Why?"
Hermione closed the book and set it on the table. "I don't remember how I died, Malfoy." She answered placidly. "Perhaps, now that you remember your forgotten memories, you could tell me."
Draco inwardly regretted asking her as he clenched his jaw tightly. Quickly, he replied. "We'll have to wait when the weather clears up a bit."
Without saying a word, Hermione quietly made her way up to her room.
----
The next morning, Draco got up unexceptionally early. Finding it hard to go back to sleep, Draco washed up and was soon making his way down to the Great Hall.
Seeing that the sun was slowly rising up from the hills, Draco sat down at the Slytherin table. The blonde watched as some of the students slowly came through the giant doors, and as some sat at their table eating their breakfast.
With food appearing on his table, Draco ate his meal.
Soon, a dark haired Slytherin sat across Draco. Ignoring the person, Draco continued eating his bowl of cereal.
"Fine morning wouldn't you say, Draco?" asked a familiar voice. "Exceptionally," replied Draco, as he scooped the remaining cereal out of his bowl.
"Blaise." Draco greeted, as he raised his head to meet to dark haired boy.
Draco pushed his empty bowl away. "I've been meaning to talk to you about your broom, Blaise." He said, while looking back at the other Slytherin. Draco thought it'd be better if he told the owner that the broom had turned into ashes.
Swiftly, Blaise Zabini raised his hand to Draco. "Don't bother," said the boy as they both watched another sulking Slytherin enter the Hall "I know what happened to it."
Draco immediately raised an eyebrow. "I heard you come into the dormitory, and saw you take the broom." the dark haired Slytherin explained, as he conjured a daisy out of his wand.
"I figured what you would do with it when you took it without permission." Blaise said nonchalantly, as he plucked the petals off a daisy.
Draco glanced at the petals on the table. --Usually, Blaise wouldn't take things like this to lightly, especially if it were his.--. "And, you don't mind?" he asked.
"It wasn't mine anyway." Said Blaise smirking. "It belonged to Theodore Nott."
----
"How exactly are we going to pull this off, Granger?" asked a perplexed blonde haired Slytherin.
The Head Girl watched as the Head Boy walked around the room after they had discussed about the events that were to happen later. "Mostly every student has gone off to Hogsmeade." the Head Girl assured.
"And I suppose the teachers are having a merry occasion over there too?" Draco exclaimed scornfully.
Hermione looked out the window. "Actually, almost all of them are." She said. Draco let out an incongruous laugh.
After a few moments, Hermione suggested they should just better get all of this over and done with.
Soon, Draco Malfoy headed out into the ground while Hermione Granger went to the Gryffindor common room to retrieve something.
----
"Well, well, well," drawled a blonde Slytherin 'Why does all of this look so familiar?" he asked as he glanced at the undividable Gryffindor trio.
Hermione glared at Draco, "I'm surprised you don't have Crabbe and Goyle behind you now, Malfoy." Harry said.
Never leaving his eyes off the brunette witch, "What's the matter, Granger?" he asked raising an eyebrow. "That bloody cat of yours finally got your tongue?"
Hermione was retorting back to Draco, unfortunately the Slytherin didn't care to listen at the moment. Something foreboding hovered in the air and Draco hated every part of it.
Like history repeating itself; Draco watched once more as the squid's tentacle rose high above Hermione's head and made a move to grab her once more.
--Oh no!-- The Slytherin wasn't going to make that tentacle grab her again. As Draco looked at Hermione, she seemed as though in a trance.
"Granger, watch out!" He shouted as he tried to push her out of the way. Unfortunate like the last time, the squid grabbed her once more. It wrapped around her midriff and brought her higher into the air.
"No!" shouted Draco and Harry. The Slytherin was already taking his jacket off and was about to dive into the lake to save her when someone pushed him out of the way and onto the ground.
"You stay away from her, Malfoy!" said Harry vehemently. "Get off of me, Potter!" exclaimed the Draco. Soon, both Gryffindor and Slytherin were rolling on the ground.
"You are not going to save her again!" said Harry as he grabbed Draco by the collar. "If I'm not, then who is?" yelled Draco as he tried to push Harry out of the way.
"I am!" shouted Harry fervently, as he let go of Draco and made a run for the lake. "No!" cried Draco loudly as he got up brought Harry down to the ground once more.
Harry struggled wildly. "Let go of me, Malfoy!"
Draco tried hard to restrain the Gryffindor on the ground. "You don't understand, I have to rescue her down there!" Draco said loudly. "Just let me go down there and bring her back up here."
Harry struggled even wildly "Hermione is dying down there!" cried the jet haired boy. "And she won't be if you stop struggling and let me go down there!" said the blonde. "If she's lucky, she might just explain what is going on later."
Harry hesitated struggling, swiftly Draco let Harry go and dived into the lake.
Draco was immensely content as he got to her. But his happiness didn't last long; Hermione was already blue in the lips.
Like before, Draco quickly got her out of the lake. As they reached the surface, the Slytherin saw Harry Potter waiting noiselessly by the bank.
As Draco placed the unconscious Head girl beside Harry, the Gryffindor boy wonder looked at Draco.
Before Draco realized what was happening, the squid grabbed both of his ankles and pull him back down. He had just managed to see the old Professor, the school nurse and the half giant burst out the door.
The squid tore Draco's skin off by dragging him across sharp jagged boulders and pulling him into a death hug.
All the Slytherin could think at the moment was that the Head Girl would be safe, and he was sure about that.
Draco Malfoy then saw the big figure wrestling with the giant squid and the blonde had immediately been knocked out.
----
"Hermione?" Cried a distant voice "Oh my god, Hermione!"
Somehow, Draco realized that he was back on land. He felt so exhausted; every breath he took was painfully sharp.
"Get him to the Hospital Wing, hurry Hagrid!"
As the half conscious Slytherin looked up to the sky, hoping that Hermione was in fact alright, he saw through a half closed eye that the sky glimmered with the red Northern Lights. Draco smiled inside.
----
"She's alive, Dumbledore!"
"I wondered when all this would happen."
"Why didn't you save Hermione yourself, Harry?"
Draco cracked his eyes open and saw that it was at night. Instinctively looking over his side, he saw the same disarray appearance of the vacant bed.
Painfully getting out of his bed, Draco walked out of the Hospital Wing. His feet walked on the same paths once more and he had reached his all too familiar destination; the courtyard.
The Slytherin immediately recognized the female figure that sat under the star filled sky. This time, Draco got out of the shadows and made his way to sit beside her.
As soon as he sat down next to her, the Northern Lights appeared in the sky once more.
Hermione looked up at the dazzling sky and smiled softly. "It's so beautiful." She sighed. Draco looked up to the sky and saw that the two colors were entwining with each other and it seemed to disappear within each other.
"So now I guess, you remember everything now?" asked the blonde as he looked back at her. Hermione looked back down and turned to face him.
Gradually, she smiled at him. "I do." She answered, and suddenly her smile disappeared "But, I never got to say thank you, Malfoy."
Draco looked away. "You just did, didn't you?"
The next thing the blonde knew was that Hermione was hugging him. "Thank you, Draco." She whispered. Stunned, Draco could only hug her back. --You're welcome, Hermione.--
As they broke apart from their embrace, Draco was mildly surprised that the Aurora Borealis was still playing above them.
"I'm also sorry that I had to place you in an uncomfortable situation these last few weeks." Hermione said, biting her lips as she looked away.
"Actually, if you hadn't" began Draco, as he tried hard to put the next sentence into words. "I wouldn't have realized that something was there the whole time."
The brunette looked back at him inquiringly "Which was what?" she asked.
Draco turned his gaze to Hermione, "You."
This is my longest chapter, so I hope that you enjoyed it! It would be great and it would also be the fuel to keep me writing the next chapters, if you were to review and tell me your thoughts about this chapter.
Till then,
--FlexibleFish--