A/N: Sheesh, no need to hate it so much!! Keep in mind I'd only had 4 hours sleep!
The three young students stared in horror at Lucius, who was fixing his son with a steely glare.
'What do you have to say for yourself Draco?' His father hissed menacingly. 'You were in your right mind yet you still ran off to rescue a Mudblood? Explain yourself.'
'They talked me into it and forced me to come.' Draco blurted out; pointing accusingly at Harry and Ron. 'They threatened me! You always say a Malfoy should watch out for himself!'
'Draco!' Hermione cried in horror. 'Shut up! I thought you came because you cared about me?'
'Well son, did you?' Lucius asked with a glimmer in his eyes.
'No. I came to save my own skin.' The blonde-haired boy said in a steady monotonic tone. Hermione took a few shaky breaths and then realised hooded men were waiting outside the doorway.
'Harry? Ron? We're in trouble I think.' She whispered.
'Stupefy!' Harry suddenly shouted as he pointed his wand at the eldest Malfoy. Lucius easily deflected the spell and petrified the dark-haired boy with a smirk.
'Draco, get the girl.'
'But-' Lucius's son seemed torn and his father shot him an unreadable look. 'Okay.'
'Draco no! What are you doing?' Hermione backed away from him as he drew his wand and raised it. 'Just before you acted as though you cared and now, now you're-'
'Shh Hermione, it won't take that long.'
'Draco!' Her voice rose in panic as his face resumed a steely look of impassiveness and he cleared his throat.
'Facio mortuus.' Hermione froze and with a long sigh, collapsed onto the floor as still as death. Everyone in the room froze and Ron's face crumpled, leaving him wide open for Lucius to stupefy him also. Draco stared quietly at the dead girl on the floor of his bedroom and bent down to brush a strand of hair out of her eyes. The Death Eaters filed in, and exchanged exclamations of shock as sounds of glass breaking drifted up to them.
-
Hermione looked around herself in surprise and wrinkled her brow in confusion. She wasn't quite sure where she was, but she was sure that she shouldn't be here. Moments before, she had been in Malfoy Manor, backing away from Draco who had been intent on harming her… was she dead?
Her surroundings were bare yet cluttered, dark yet light, colourful yet colourless. She was both confused yet filled with understanding… but what was the whisper borne on the breeze? She couldn't quite catch it.
She sat down yet remained standing, and fell silent as she spoke. Draco hated her but she knew he loved her… and she was dead yet alive.
This meant nothing… yet the answers to everything were derived from it.
-
Mad-Eye-Moody paused in the doorway and grinned menacingly. 'Are you all ready?' he called out as he raised his wand. The members of the order nodded and as the first Death Eaters ran down the stairs, they began the attack.
-
Harry blinked as the spell wore off and became aware all the others in the room had left but for Draco. At the boy's feet was Hermione… but she wasn't moving. The blonde boy was slowly running his fingers through her brunette hair, staring into nothingness as he hummed something under his breath. Ron was still stupefied across the other side of the room, so Harry crawled slowly over to his other best friend.
'Hermione?' he asked quietly. 'Hermione?' Draco didn't seem to notice him. 'Draco? What happened to her?'
'Nothing.' Draco sighed. There was a crash and Harry turned to see Ron on his feet shaking in anger.
'He killed her! Malfoy killed her!'
'Your father?!' Harry demanded of the blonde boy. Ron dashed forward and grabbed Draco's shirt. The boy seemed oblivious to him, and simply let go of Hermione's hair as he was pulled to his feet.
'YOU KILLED HERMIONE!!' Ron screamed in Malfoy's face and lost all coherent speech as he was consumed by his rage. Harry stood gaping at the two and then fell to his knees by the still girl.
'Hermione?' he asked quietly. Her hair was spread out in a halo around her head and not a breath of air escaped her lips. Harry prodded her in the side and waited for a response but got nothing. 'Hermione?' His voice cracked and a tear escaped his eye. 'Hermione?! HERMIONE?!'
-
Hermione winced as a loud noise cut across the landscape to strike her like a blow to the heart. She felt sudden emotions akin to grief fill her heart and clutched at her chest as if to suppress them. What was happening?
A vision of Draco materialised in thin air; one of him being clutched by the collar and shaken. She dove to snatch him to her but he vanished before she took a step. Next appeared Harry bending over a form she couldn't recognise; his body shaking with sobs. Ron was last and he was filled with the fury of hell. She shied away from him and he vanished in an array of rage.
She closed her eyes and tugged at her short hair. Where was she? Why was she so confused?
-
Hermione didn't respond and he began to shake her by the shoulders. Her head lolled back and forth, her hair fell in her eyes, and her body uttered a soft wheeze as the air escaped her lungs. Draco finally snapped into reality and shoved Ron away from him; running to snatch Hermione's frail body from the hands of her frantic friend.
'Consto facio.' He muttered as he waved his wand. She gasped and woke; shoving him backwards as she regained her own feet. Her pale skin resumed its healthy sheen and she flexed her stiff limbs.
'WHAT THE HELL?!! WHERE DID YOU SEND ME??!!'
A/N: The Latin was:
First thing Draco said meant 'act dead'. The second thing meant 'stop act'.