Disclaimer: Don't own it and I'm sure as hell not getting paid for it.

A/N: I know it's short, but there's a reason for it.

Harry and Ron burst into Hermione's office, scaring her into falling backwards in her chair.

"Don't DO that!" she snapped at them, her hand over her heart. "You'll give me a heart attack!"

"Sorry," Ron said quickly. "We just had some important news to tell you.

Hermione raised an eyebrow at them. "If it has anything to do with Quidditch I'll pass."

"No, they finally caught the slimy bastard with enough evidence to be sent to trial!" Harry said, a look of success on his face.

"Who?" Hermione asked, at a loss.

"Lucius Malfoy of course! He's being tried by the Wizengamot right now!"

"Come on!" Ron said as he and Harry turned and ran out of Hermione's office just as quick as they had burst in. She quickly followed them, anxious to get down there before the verdict was delivered. The trio slipped into the room seemingly unnoticed and Hermione's breath caught in her throat.

There he was, in all his arrogance, restrained in a chair in front of the entire court. Hermione looked around the room, trying to survey the faces of the Wizengamot, trying to find some sort of answer as to what the verdict would be. After finding nothing her eyes went back to him, fear clutching her heart.

A loud voice suddenly boomed over the din causing a tension filled silence to fill the room. Hermione absentmindedly twirled the small platinum serpent ring on her finger nervously. It was the only thing he'd ever given her and it had been lying on her pillow the morning after he made her promise to be only his. It had only been a few months since then and that promise was about to kill her heart completely.

"By the order of the Wizengamot, this November 3rd, we find Lucius Malfoy guilty of Death Eater Activities, by a vote of 52 to 48. His sentence will be a life term in Azkaban."

These words pierced straight through Hermione, tears forming in her eyes. Lucius began to blur through her eyes and she quickly wiped them. She saw the Aurors take him from his confined chair and lead him out the door to be taken to Azkaban. As much as she tried not to cry a single tear escaped her eyes and fell slowly down her cheek.

Lucius finally looked behind him and straight up at her, the only woman that had made a difference in his life. Even his late wife hadn't cared about him. He saw the tear she shed for him and her fight not to cry for him. A fleeting smile passed his lips before he was shoved through the door, away from her forever.

Harry and Ron were practically shouting with glee when the door closed behind Lucius. You would have thought Christmas had come early this year. In their ranting, neither saw Hermione slip out of the room, desperate to get back to her office before the rest of her tears spilled down her face.

She ran up the stairs instead of taking the lift, trying to outrun the sounds of the room she had left. With one small word, her life had been ruined. 'Life', a life term in Azkaban. Ever since they had found out about Crouch and his wife taking their son's place, no one was allowed to visit a prisoner sentenced to life. That meant she would never see him again...never.

Her heart felt like someone was trying to squeeze it until it popped and she couldn't take it anymore. She slammed her door closed behind her and fell to the floor in a crumpled heap. The tears she had held back overflowed and she sobbed with all her being.

What was there for her to cling to now? What escape could she find for this? She had nothing to hold her anchored to reality and she found herself just wanting to curl up in a corner and go unnoticed for the rest of her existance.

Since the ending of the war he had been the only one to notice her, the only one to take her for what she was and not some glorified war hero with medals and titles.

He was the only man she'd let touch her inside and out, and the only man she wanted to. There was no replacement for Lucius Malfoy. No way to find anyone that could compare to that perfect man.

For in all his imperfections, we really was perfect. Perfect for her, perfect to touch her, prefect to want her, perfect to claim her as his own.

And now he was gone from her side forever. She didn't get enough time with him, she didn't get to spend years with him just doing anything they wanted. She never got the chance to walk with him in the open with no worry of what people thought or said.

She realized she had been living inside a glass bubble that someone had just so generously shattered for her. And there was no way to pick up the pieces to put it back together.

Author Babble:

Sorry about the shortness. I wanted to dedicate an entire chapter just to this event.