A/N Hi all! Thanks for the reviews. Here is the next chapter to this story. Happy reading and don't forget to review!
Draco's secret
As it turned out Malfoy's injuries were not as severe as she originally thought. That didn't stop him from whining and complaining about it endlessly though. Every time he whimpered Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Fuck Granger could you have wrapped this any tighter?" he whined.
"Malfoy it needs to be tight to keep it from bleeding. Didn't you even pass basic healing at school?" she stopped there remembering that he had not returned for seventh year when they learned that.
"Sorry." she mumbled.
"Whatever."
"Do you think you could try to act like a human being while you are here? I mean I did save your life…"
"Don't fucking remind me." he spat.
"I'm not rubbing it in or expecting some great favor in return, all I ask is that you treat me the way that I treat you. Deal?" she asked extending her hand.
"I guess." he mumbled but he did not take her hand. She felt foolish as she put her hand back at her side.
"So what were you doing down there in South America? Vacation?" he smirked.
"No, I was on assignment." she told him as she sat back at the end of the bed.
"For what?"
"For none of your business." she replied. He scowled.
"I'm bored."
"Well I am sorry to say that there is not much to do here. Harry uses this house just for overnight stays in London. His friends and other order members know where it is and how to find it. Actually your cousins used to own this place." she mused.
"Cousins? Who?'
"The Blacks. Sirius left Harry the house when he died."
"Fucking Potter gets all the luck eh?" he joked at the deplorable condition of the room they were currently in. It looked as if one strong wind would knock it over. Hermione laughed.
"Yeah."
"So is there anything to do around here besides watch the wallpaper peel?" he asked.
"Well I think there is a wizard chess game lying around somewhere but you wouldn't want to play with me." she said.
"No way would a mudblood beat me." he said proudly.
"What did I say about that name? Are you really this dim?" she yelled.
"Sorry, slipped. So why wouldn't I want to play with you?" he finally asked.
"I stink at wizard chess. Never could get the hang of it so you would just beat the tar out of me game after game." Hermione replied.
"Sounds like fun." he grinned.
"You would say that Malfoy." she stood up to get the game from the dining room.
Meanwhile Draco tried to get up out of bed again. He knew he needed to leave this place as quick as possible. Voldemort himself was planning to kill him. Draco, by the grace of the gods had managed to avoid and elude him for a full year. Word around was that Voldemort was growing weaker and didn't know why, but Draco was not about to take chances on that. He thought back to that night on the tower last year and to the events afterwards.
Snape was pulling Draco by the arm out of the Hogwarts gates. Harry Potter was in pursuit of the duo but Snape was doing an effective job of keeping him away. When they stepped just outside of the gates Snape apperated the both of them back to his house on Spinner's end. The dimly lit grungy house smelled strongly of mold as they went inside.
"What did you do that for?" Draco yelled at Snape when they were safely inside.
"I completed your mission, just as I promised Narcissa. But there will be consequences I'm afraid." he said in an oily voice.
"I'm not afraid." Draco said not believing one word of it. Suddenly out of the shadows a figure in a long dark hood appeared. Draco backed away slightly but then the figured lowered the hood and a mane of white blonde hair fell out. It was his mother.
"Mum!" he said running over to her.
"Thank you Severus. I don't know how I can repay you for this favor. I was so scared. He is my only child. The only good thing Lucius ever made." she hugged Draco tightly and wept into his neck.
"Yes Narcissa, but there are going to be repercussions. The dark lord will not be happy I'm afraid." he said gravely.
"I don't care. I don't wish to follow him if he had no regard for my son. Lucius failed him but that was no reason to put him in harm's way. Let me look at you Draco, you look ill." she cried.
"I'm fine mum. I'm sorry I couldn't do it. I didn't think it was going to be so hard to kill him. But when I looked at him he was already weak, half dead. I felt, I don't know sorry for him." he told her.
"Empathy is not a crime my son, no matter if your father thinks it is a weakness." she comforted him. "But now we must make plans to hide. Severus do you have any ideas?" she asked him.
"Narcissa I am afraid the dark lord already knows you are here. He will arrive any moment. I cannot defy him anymore. I am sorry." he said turning away.
"We must go mum. I know how to apparate. Let's go." he grabbed a hold of his mothers cloak but at that moment the house shook. Five hooded men burst through the front door.
"Stop right there!" one of them yelled.
"Draco, go!" Narcissa cried.
"Not without you! You are all I have left!" he said grabbing her arm and trying desperately to apparate. He couldn't do it. He wasn't strong enough to transport the both of them. He tried whispering in his mother's ear the location but the men were advancing on them.
"Just go son!" she yelled.
"NO!" Draco cried as his mother wrenched his grip from her arm. She threw herself in front of the five men.
"No, not her! Please not mum!" he said desperately. Narcissa managed to stun several of them with her wand to keep them from getting to Draco.
"GO NOW!" she screamed. Her vivid blue eyes looked back to her only child. Draco saw tears running down her pale cheeks. He nodded at her and mouthed;
'I love you.' before apperating out of the house. He heard her scream as the room before him faded away. Tears streamed down his face because he knew he was alone. The next year was spent in over 46 places. Staying just a week or less in each place. He had no money and lived out of garbage cans and doing small jobs for people for food and shelter. He had avoided the Death Eaters until the last town in South America.
Footsteps brought him out of his memories into the present. Hermione was returning with the game. He quickly wiped his eyes on the sheets so she would not see him upset. Upon entering the room she looked at him oddly.
"Something wrong?" she asked.
"No."
"Are you in pain?" she asked brow furrowed.
"No." he replied.
"Why are you crying then?" she asked.
"I'm not crying!" he said.
"It's okay if you are. I know that wound must hurt." she said in a soothing way.
"It's not the fucking wound." he spat back.
"Then what? Did you remember something?"
"Will you just fucking drop it Granger? Shit!" he said moving around on the bed trying to get comfortable.
"Let me help you." she said leaning over his body and grabbing the pillows behind him. She fluffed them and adjusted them so that he could sit up in bed better. He sat there motionless as her chest came very close to his face. He inhaled her perfume.
"Uh…thanks Granger." he said somewhat in shock.
"You are welcome. See how nice it is to be civil?" she smiled.
"I guess." he said with a scowl.
"Here set it up will you? I don't really know how." she admitted. He laid the board on the bed and set out all of the pieces. A minute later he was ready. Five minutes later he beat her.
"See." she said. "I told you." He smiled proudly.
"Let's play again." he said.
"No, I need to check your wound and then fix you some supper." she said. Carefully she removed his bandages.
"Be right back." she said and a minute later she returned with a small vial, basin and washcloth. She uncorked the vial and placed three drops of the liquid onto his gash. It sizzled and singed, but remarkably Draco felt no pain. She rang the cloth out in the basin and wiped the remaining dried blood and crust off of it before waving her wand to bandage it again.
"Pretty good Granger." he said admiring her work.
"After the war I am going to be a healer." she said. "That is if I make it." an uncomfortable smile played across her face.
He didn't really know what to say to that. He gave a sympathetic look to her before regaining his composure.
"Are you hungry?" she asked.
He didn't want to answer. He didn't want to depend on her for anything but his stomach was growling loudly again. The sandwiches she had brought him had been his first proper meal in a long time. He nodded.
"Alright, I will be right back. Anything special?" she asked. He thought for a moment and shook his head no.
"Anything is fine." he said. Hermione was shocked by his polite behavior. She figured her little speech earlier had helped. She closed and locked the door behind her.
Draco tried to stand up once again but he just was too weak from his injury and lack of food. He looked down at his chest. Every rib protruded from his sallow skin. His fingernails were still dirty and ragged. Not like his former self at all. His usually pale shining hair was dirty and greasy and smelled like cigarettes. But for the first time in a year he felt safe, and it unnerved him. He knew he wasn't safe. He knew he never would be. He decided to stay a week or so and move on again. It was not the life he wanted but he would not let his mother's death be in vain. A few minutes passed and Hermione returned to the room carrying an incredibly large tray. It was heaped with several different things to eat, drinks and desserts. She sat the tray on the nearby nightstand and reached under the bed pulling out a bed tray. She placed a plate, cup and silverware on it and set it across Draco's lap.
"You don't have to…" he started. He felt like a child, helpless and scared.
"It's nothing I wouldn't do for any patient of mine." she said smiling. He noticed her smile. It was bright and cheery and it warmed his heart.
"Thank you." he mumbled.
"I never thought I would hear Draco Malfoy thank me." she joked.
"Yeah, well don't get used to it." he said smiling back slightly.
"I won't." she piled his plate high with lots of different foods. Some he had never seen or tasted before.
"What is this?" he said pointing at the noodles on the left side of his plate.
"You sure are sheltered. It's macaroni and cheese." she said. "I'm sorry I don't know how to cook very many things, even with magic."
Draco picked up a large forkful of it and put it in his mouth. He chewed and swallowed it quickly.
"It's good." he grinned.
Hermione blushed.
"Can I ask you something?" she said quietly knowing he probably wouldn't want to talk about it.
"Depends. You can ask. I don't know if I will answer." he said taking another bite.
"Where have you been? Where did you go after…" and she broke off in tears. Draco felt slightly guilty.
"Granger. It's a long story." he sighed. He felt the need to unburden his heavy heart.
"What else have I got to do?" she joked. He looked away. He had never told another living soul about the night Dumbledore died or about his mum sacrificing herself to save him. Could he trust her?
"You can't tell anyone else." he said seriously.
"I can't promise that Malfoy. You know we need to find and kill Voldemort. If you have information, no matter how insignificant you think it is, I need to report it to the order. However anything personal will not leave this room." her brown eyes looked determinedly at him.
"Alright." he said helping himself to more pumpkin juice. "Where do I begin?"