Draceo and Hermionette

Deadly Skirmish

"Hagrid!" Draco ran to the looming giant who was righting tables and other large objects which had been up-ended during the fight.

"Hagrid, can you do something for me?" Hagrid looked down at the blond boy, surprised, all he knew of the younger Malfoy was that he was a coward in the Dark Forest, told on him about Norbert, and almost got Buckbeak killed.

"Wha' d'ya want?" he asked, trying to sound as friendly as possible, but his voice came out in a growl.

"I want you to give something to Hermione for me," Hagrid was immediately on his guard, why would the prince of purebloods want to give something to the smart, muggle-born Hermione?

"I want you to give her…" Malfoy frantically searched his pockets, "this!" he held up a ring. It was large and made of solid, heavy metal. Set with highly polished black onyx and bearing a large, elaborately etched "M", it could be nothing but the Malfoy signet ring. "And I want you to tell her, that if she really wants to marry me, she should meet me two dungeons down from Professor Snape's classroom, its on the left. She should be there an hour after curfew."

Hagrid's shiny black eyes shown extra-shiny for a moment, almost as though there were tears in them, "Anythin' for my Hermione." He said, offering a slight smile under his wild beard. Draco glanced around quickly, he couldn't be seen with the half-blood oaf.

"Thanks," he said, and sauntered off.

"What the bloody hell did you do!?!" a screaming, tear-torn voice ripped across the courtyard. It could belong to only one person.

"Weasley?" Draco turned to see Ron dashing towards him from the inner halls of the castle.

"You killed him!" a crowd had begun to gather. Draco quickly ran through all the people he had hurt recently, but he couldn't remember killing one, or even touching anyone Weasely would be worried about.

"What?" he asked, very softly, confused.

"Yesterday, during the battle, you killed him! You killed Nevil!" What? Draco hadn't killed anyone yesterday, he hadn't had the chance, and he certainly didn't kill Longbottom, that would have been plain wrong, seeing as his parents were crazy and all. Then it clicked. Lucius.

"That wasn't me, Weasley. I didn't kill anybody."

"No!" Ron bellowed, his voice filling all the echoing spaces of the courtyard, "but your father did, and you're all bloody Malfoys, you would have killed him if you had the chance!"

"Weasely…"

"No! Stand and fight, a real duel!" Ron had his wand out, pointing it tremblingly in Draco's direction, "Fight a wizard's duel, when you don't have any chance to curse somebody from behind!" A year ago, Draco would have sneered away the idea, a month ago, he would have taken that offer, a week ago, he would have made the challenge himself, but not today. Today, with Hermione, he felt his heart weighed down and knew such a thing impossible.

"Weasely, if only you knew the reason I have to love you."

Ron's face paled. Was Draco coming on to him? No, impossible, Draco was a playboy who dressed like a model and probably played the harp in his spare time….oh, God.

Ron raised his wand again, "Fight!"

"I will not fight you, Weasely." In the crowd, disappointed Gryffindors and Slytherins murmered among themselves.

"Vile, dishonorable, coward!" Blaise Zambini cried from the front of the mob which had circled around the two, bringing a slight silence to those who had heard. He walked forward quickly, grabbing Draco by the shoulder and whispered in his ear,

"What are you doing? No proper wizard turns down a duel!"

"Blaise," Draco whispered back, his face full of resigned sorrow, "sometimes you just have to let these things go."

"Let them go!" Blaise screech-whispered, "you are a pureblood you have been challenged by another pureblood to a duel over the death of a third pureblood. You can't back down from that! It's treason to your blood and all of ours!"

"I will not fight him! I have no quarrel with Weasely!"

"If you do not fight him, I will." Blaise whirled to face Ron, his wand out and ready to battle. Draco began walking away. They wouldn't fight. Blaise knew better than to draw so much attention to himself.

A bright violet flash on the wall before him made him turn around. Blaise and Ron were surrounding themselves with coloured smokes and flashes of light as they battle to what appeared to be the end. Draco ran towards them.

"Stop! Stop!" he stood between the two, trying desperately to separate them, pushing at both their faces so each was turned toward the sky or the floor, unable to see where to aim their next curse. A boom and a green light ended it all.

Blaise crumpled to the ground, motionless. Ron stared at him, a look of abject horror in his blue eyes, his wand still partially raised. "Ron?" an unidentifiable voice whispered out of the crowd. Dropping his wand, he turned an ran. Draco stood motionless, his eyes locked in Blaise's ever-staring expression of shock. It was him. He had done it. He, Draco, had stood in the way of his best friend, and his friend had not seen the curse coming, he hadn't known to put up a shield. It was all his fault. Tears began to roll down his pale cheeks.

Taking a deep, shuddering breath, Draco dashed off to find Ron.

Coming upon a fountain, the one built by Rowena Ravenclaw to symbolize life and peace in Hogwarts, Draco felt around in his pockets. It was there, it had to be there. He hadn't gone anywhere without it since he was eight and his mother had given it to him. Of course, it had to be refilled every once and a while, but essentially he hadn't been without it for years. He stopped just before entering the open hall which housed the fountain.

Ron was there, leaning and panting over the side of the fountain, his shuddering breaths mingled with the perpetually falling water. He couldn't see Draco since his back was turned.

Walking with a silence that would have impressed Snape, Draco grasped the smooth object he had drawn from his pocket and glided forward. Ron turned suddenly, having seen Draco's form in the rippling water.

"Malfoy, I didn't mean…." A look of purer hatred than Ron had ever seen passed over the blond boy's eyes.

"Weasly, you cast the Killing Curse, you can't do that by accident," Draco's voice was low and as cuddly as dry ice.

"I know, but," Ron stumbled over his words, "I didn't think it would hit him, I just…"

That look passed over Draco's face again, seeming to freeze his heart. Raising the smooth object high over his head, Ron Weasly had time to glimpse the sickly dark purple liquid in the glass bottle before it hit him.

The glass shattered, shards of it flying down Ron's skin and tearing his clothes, some even hitting Draco, but it was the liquid that did the worst damage. It was as if he could not comprehend the pan for a moment, because Ron simply stood there, and than he began to scream. He ran at Draco, hands outstretched as though catching hold of his life-long enemy would throw the pain onto him. Draco stepped back quickly, his hard eyes watching the scene, knowing he would come to no harm. Ron's face had split apart, sizzling and crackling as what little was left of blackened flesh dropped to the ground. The visable, ragged edge of where the drops had fallen spread out and down, hair eaten away, scalp completely gone, the red-smeered white of the skull sounding off noises like fireworks set off under a mountain of snow. Finally, the bone seemed to almost cave in as the no-longer visible potion ate its ways toward Ron's brain, his screams growing steadily louder. As a hole opened into his mind, the screams stopped, the body, no longer recognizable, swayed and than collapsed. A portion of fluid drizzled out of the skull, but the acidic potion continued to burn its way through Ron's lifeless body, soon allowing blood to ooze out of a new hole in the boy's neck.

A/N: Sorry about the long wait for an update, reviewers will be addressed in the next chapter, and please review again!