1Ok, let me just start out by saying I am so, so, soooooo Sorry! I hate it when people do this to my stories, and yet here I am doing it. If you don't hate me too much, please keep reading my story!

Chapter 18: Inevitable Escape

"Mr. Wea...I mean, hello Arthur." Hermione tried to sound col, calm, and collected, but her heart was racing. She couldn't hear for the rushing in her ears, and knew her face was probably red. Arthur Weasley, sitting before her. All that was left of the life she used to love.

How could she possibly destroy him, and with him, all that is left of her sanity? Her heart was breaking at the thought.

"Hermione...I would say its good to see you but, of course, I know why you are here. And you won't...you won't get me without a fight." He and Hermione exchanged a heartbroken glance. Hermione's eyes filled with tears, and she looked away.

'Kill a man who is like my father?' "I can't do this!" Hermione stopped, shocked at her outburst. Had she said that out loud?

"Hermione, can't do what? You mut do this, or we die." Draco looked into her eyes. "Please Hermione...don't fall apart on me."

"Draco, I can't live this lie! I love you more than anything in the world, but Mr. Weas...Arthur...he was like my father, Draco. And much as I would like to kill my current father, I can't and won't kill Arthur." She looked to Mr. Weasley, who looked shocked and slightly pale. Then she looked back to Draco. "Draco, we can leave. Run away. We can stage our own deaths and escape the lives we hate so much. We can find a way to fake a death in combat...It's not as though it hasn't been done before. We can do something...anything...to escape this miserable existence called our lives. And we can do it together. Draco, you and I...we can live the life we want, and not the life that is wanted for us."

Hermione took in a deep breath after this speech. She look slightly crazed, and Draco paled. But Arthur stood up, and walked slowly over to Hermione. Sometime during this war between sides he had developed a limp, but it didn't stop him. He stopped once he reached Hermione's side, and put a hand on her shoulder. Suddenly, he pulled her into a bone-crushing hug.

"Now there's the 'Mione we all know and love." Hermione felt a tear fall into her hair, and looked up to Mr. Weasley. Then she hugged him back. But Draco looked at them both as though they were insane.

"Excuse me, Hermione, but do you know exactly WHAT it is that you're proposing? Betrayal of the Dark Lord? Living a secret life? You're such a...a...a...Gryffindor! Do you really think that that is possible? Escaping the Dark Lord by faking a death? Dark Magic can find anything, Hermione, especially traitors. You weren't brought up around it...you haven't seen it's true terrors. I've seen people turned inside out and left to slowly rot. I've seen them exploded into tiny litle bits and then brought back together only to be exploded again. And you think that you can so easily escape the Dark Lord?"

Hermione was looking at Draco as though he were dirt beneath her shoe.

"Draco..." Her voice was deadly quiet. "You are merely thinking like a Slytherin. I know we can do this...it's been done before. We could have a Secret Keeper. One we trust. One I would trust with m own life. And he's standing in this room. So maybe a false death wouldn't work...but would you help us, Mr. Weasley?"

Hermione looked at him entreatingly, and he looked back at her as a familiar warmth came back into his eyes.

"Hermione, I would be honored to put my life on the line for you and...someone you hold dear."

"So it's settled. Draco...we're going into hiding."

Draco looked shocked. "Don't I get a say in this?"

Hermione grabbed is chin and pulled him down to give him a quick peck on the lips. "Honey...I made the choice for us." And then she pulled on his arm to pull him out.

-x-

"You know, Hermione, I'm not quite sure that I enjoyed the way you just made a major life decision for me."

"I'm sorry, Draco. Would you like to live a life you hate for the rest of your life, where you fear death every day? Because if you do, I won't be there with you."

"You don't understand me at all!" Draco looked pissed. "Of course I want to stay here and have a happy life with you. But I'm going to fear death here, too. Hermione, I think you should think more on this."

"What's to think about? I don't want to be near Voldemort anymore. At all. I want to stay, with you, and have a life with you. One where I don't hate every minute of it." Just as happened every time they had a "discussion", they were slowly moving closer together.

"Hermione, you don't know WHAT you're doing! He could destroy you. And...I can't lose you." Hermione embraced him.

"You won't."

Draco wrapped Hermione in his arms and pulled her into a deep kiss. It lasted well over a minute, if not two, before either of them pulled away. Looking into each others eyes, they knew they wanted the same thing. Hand in hand, they left the school grounds where they had previously been standing, and walked into the abandoned school.

Hermione led the way, and soon they were in fron of what used to be the Gryffindor common room. The door was swinging open, the portrait of the Fat Lady long gone. They walked up a ser of stairs and were soon in a bed room.

Use you're imagination to know what they wanted to do then.

Short, short chapter. Not too sure if I like it, but I hope you do!