By Marmalade Fever
A.N.: I'll be switching back and forth between the A (original couple) and B (Sold couple) labeling and the old method of describing who they are.
"Narcissa, don't you think you're being a bit…" Lucius began.
"Shush," his wife scolded, before coughing into her handkerchief so hard that she was left gasping for breath. Lucius knelt by her side and rubbed circles into her back. "I…" she said slowly, still regaining her breath, "just want… one thing. Just one. And I'm sorry, but… I don't care… I just don't care, Lucius."
"I know," he said, sighing. He looked up as he heard a tap at the window and left her side to allow a sleek, black owl to enter. It held its foot out to him and he removed a letter. He read over it slowly, color draining from his face.
"What is it?" Narcissa asked.
"I… the Dark Lord, he…"
"What?" Narcissa asked, alarmed.
"He's ordered my retirement…"
Narcissa breathed again. "Well, well! What's so bad about that?"
"Cissy," Lucius said, slowly, "he's going to kill me."
…
The three wizards and two witches sat huddled around the pensieve. Without ceremony, Harry lifted his want to his temple and pulled out a pearly strand of memory. After he placed it in the pensieve, he nodded to everyone and they all leaned forward into the basin.
They landed in what was unmistakably the charms corridor at Hogwarts. Ahead of them were three figures: a seventeen-year-old Harry Potter, an eighteen-year old Hermione Granger, and an eighteen-year-old Ron Weasley. All three were power-walking down the corriedor. "Right," young Harry said, "you, Ron, you go down to the Great Hall… warn everybody!" Ron nodded and jogged off.
"What about me, Harry?" young Hermione asked, her bushy hair bouncing.
"I remember this," Hermione A commented. Harry shushed her.
"You come with me," young Harry continued. "I'm going to need all the help I can get." They continued down the corridor at top speed, dashing down steps two at a time.
"Do you remember being… in such good shape?" Hermione B asked her counterpart.
"N-no…" was the reply.
"This isn't working, Harry. Here," young Hermione said, casting a spell that made their legs look like mere blurs as they ran faster.
"You have got to be kidding me!" Malfoy B muttered, now running to keep up. All five adults were panting. The two young adults sped ahead, passing by a rattled Sir Nicholas.
"Watch out for Peeves!" one of the older Hermiones warned herself as they ran below a lackadaisical poltergeist, who seemed content to ignore them. Quite suddenly, the two young ones halted. The five spectators held stitches in their sides.
"Which way?" young Harry asked.
"I…" young Hermione began, looking first left, then right, "I don't know," she finally said, indecisively.
Young Harry was shaking slightly with adrenaline. "Left," he said, nodding, and they turned.
"You're kidding me, right?" the married Hermione asked, somewhat bewildered.
"What?" her husband asked, as they broke into another jog.
"That was the difference! He turned left instead of right! Left!"
Her husband paled. "Oh, Sweet Merlin, no!"
"What?" the other Hermione asked.
"We're headed straight for my ambush!" Draco B said, also looking ashamed.
"Ambush?" the first Hermione repeated, sounding a tad-bit offended. Her husband sent her an apologetic glance.
"It was a long, long time ago, dearest… I love you, now," he added hopefully.
Further down the passage they could just make out the silhouette of a figure with silver-blond hair. "Malfoy!" Young Harry was seething. He held his wand aloft.
"Harry, no!" young Hermione begged, though she, too, held her wand out.
Young Draco's eyes flicked from Harry's to Hermione's for a moment. "This is between me and Potter, Granger," he said, gruffly.
"I didn't call you a mudblood," married Draco murmured, relieved.
"Get out of the way, Ferret," young Hermione spat, her teeth clenched.
Young Harry took a large breath and aimed. "Alo kaleem!" A blazing purple light shot from young Harry's wand toward young Draco's chest, but at the last second a shield charm stopped it, forcing it to reverberate toward Harry, knocking him flat.
"No!" young Hermione screeched, as young Harry began to vanish.
Young Draco's face shone gray as young Hermione punched him in the stomach before running off in the other direction.
Young Harry's image flickered before he disappeared completely and the memory halted.
…
The five adults sat in a stupor around the pensieve. "Alo kaleem?" married Draco asked, confused.
"Dark magic," his wife answered. "It's a vanishing charm, of sorts."
"Dead painful," Harry added. "I didn't reappear for ten hours or so, caught in a sort of limbo. Lucky for me, no one was around when I reappeared, so I was able to put on my invisibility cloak and slip away unnoticed."
"By then it was too late," the second Hermione added, her face rigid. And uncomfortable silence fell on all of them.
Unmarried Malfoy stood and left the room. A moment later, unmarried Hermione followed. She watched him take a flight of stairs and kept twenty or so paces behind. After he slipped into his room, she paused and went in behind him. She found him lying on his bed, staring up at the canopy. "It's my fault, then," he said, in barely a whisper.
An unfamiliar feeling swept through Hermione: pity for Draco Malfoy. "No, it's not," she said firmly.
"I suppose it's your fault, then, for not choosing to turn right?"
"And Harry's… and, it's no one's fault at all. It was just a stupid mistake, Malfoy."
"I wish I'd known what it was I was gambling away back then," he said, dolefully.
"The souls of countless innocents?" she asked, staring into the corner of the room.
Malfoy laughed dryly. "Smartest witch under the age of fifty… and she doesn't even know when the answer is herself." He turned his eyes toward her.
Hermione's expression didn't falter but she sat down by his side and held his hand. She leaned forward. "You are not in love with me, Draco Malfoy."
He frowned and gave her hand a squeeze. "Maybe, maybe not. But what matters is that there is potential… oh yes, Granger, there is. I've seen it." She stared at him in the eyes. "And I do so want to love you," he added, barely above a whisper.
Hermione lifted her hand and stroked the side of his head before placing a chaste kiss on his forehead. "I know," she said. "I know." She left his side and closed the door behind her. "And I want to love you," she added, quietly to herself.