"Long, Long, Long"

Chapter 21

The sound of footsteps on the pebbly path near the shrubs concealing Draco from view awoke him the next morning. He was deeply confused for a moment as his mind tried to clear and when he looked up, he saw it was Lucius making his way down the walkway from the house. He was only recognizable by his walk, as his head was hidden under the large hood of a long, dark cloak. Draco, remembering why he was there, stiffened and waited silently until the sound had faded away completely before relaxing.

The sky was overcast, but it was light enough to be clearly at least mid-morning. How had this happened? He was supposed to sneak in at night, under the cover of darkness. It was only by luck, really, that Draco even knew that Lucius was gone. What if he had left and Draco had missed his chance? He grumbled furiously at himself for a moment before realizing he might only have a limited amount of time to do the investigating he intended.

He stood and glanced at his watch—it was nearly eleven! He decided that he needed to be out of there by eleven thirty at the latest. Even that might be cutting it close, as he had no idea where his father was going or how long he would be there. Draco made his way stealthily to the side of the house. He was pretty sure no one inside had seen him, and the nearest neighbor was not quite near enough to be able to notice a strange man sneaking up the walkway.

Deciding that apparating onto the roof would be a bit risky, Draco started uneasily up the chimney, which conveniently had a brick design on it that provided small ledge for him to step on and grip. Though in reasonable shape, Draco struggled quite a bit to make it to even the second story, and there he nearly slipped off a window sill he used a step and fell. Thankfully, an extremely old vine of ivy gave him something to grasp before sliding off. This little incident did nothing to boost his confidence, however, and it was with much difficulty that he finally heaved himself over the ledge of the roof a few minutes later.

There he took a moment to catch his breath, his heart beating abnormally fast due to effort and anxiety. But he had made it, and the window into the guest room unlatched easily with a simple spell and slid open. Draco crawled through and listened intently for the presence of anyone else on that floor for a moment. Nothing.

He stepped over to the wooden desk, which was littered with various scraps of paper with various handwritings, snippets from the Daily Prophet, lists... Draco chose one piece of paper at random and examined it, realizing quickly that it was one of the letters he and Hermione had exchanged while she was in Azkaban. How did Lucius get these? wondered Draco, thinking simultaneously over all the things they had said in those letters. Was there anything betraying? Anything worth something to Lucius? Draco figured he must have taken them when he came looking through Hermione's apartment.

There were several other letters, a couple with seeming randomly circled words in them. Draco then moved on to the articles from the Daily Prophet, which included all the articles about him or Hermione that had appeared in the last year. They, too, had various circled words, but Draco could draw no connection between any of them. Then there were the letters Lucius had written to some of his Death Eater fellows inquiring about certain things: whether any of them had seen Draco recently, who could offer him a place to stay while the manor was searched, where he could buy a posion where no one would suspect what he was up to... Draco shuddered at this last one, hoping that any plan that involved poison Lucius had given up on.

In the midst of the whole mess was one sheet covered in notes written with the same pen that had circled the words in the letters and articles. A lot was scratched out and Draco had difficulty reading through it, but there seemed to key words written along the left-hand side of the page:

letter: owl, first, tower, help, unsigned

day: note, school, enter—owl, follow, die, arrive, away

Lucius, always paranoid, seemed to be writing his notes in some kind of code or unconnected way that Draco could not make any sense of. He frowned, still looking at the sheet, and paced the room, thinking it all over. When he had pretty much memorized the words but still had no idea of the real steps of the plan, Draco decided another look at some of the other stuff on the desk wouldn't hurt.

He shoved the newspaper clippings and letters out of the way and found another sheet written in that familiar pen, but with very strange words indeed:

Hermione,

Hermione,

Hermione,

Unfortunately, I cannot

Sadly, I have little time

Meet me in person on the first

Meet me at

I need to request

I need your assistance

Once again, I seek your help

Now even more confused than before, Draco sat down at the desk and stared at the strange words for a long time. Did he take notes on something I said? Is this a letter he was going to write to Hermione? Why would he call her that? Why did he change his handwriting?

Then something clicked. Draco looked at the letter just underneath the sheet he'd been staring at and compared his own handwriting to that of Lucius's. It was nearly identical! Not even nearly, it was! His father had been practicing Draco's handwriting! But why? What could he possibly use that for?

The answer was so obvious to Draco when he finally came to it that he literally hit himself in the forehead. Lucius was going to write to Hermione pretending that it was Draco who was writing. Draco looked back at the other sheet, the one with the random word lists on it. Letter, it said, owl, first, tower, help, unsigned. Owl—well, he couldn't use Draco's owl, so he'd have to explain the change in birds. First—what did that mean? He shrugged it off and moved on. Tower—that was easy, he had said to meet in the tower at Hogwarts. Help—asked for help? Maybe. Unsigned—Draco had left all his letters to Hermione unsigned, so Lucius had probably continued the trend. It all made sense!

But when had he written the letter? When did he say he would meet Hermione? A thought occurred to Draco—first: that must be a key part of the letter, since he'd written it down, so did he plan to meet on the first? Of December? That was today! Draco glanced at his watch—quarter to twelve. When was Hermione going to be there? Draco decided it didn't matter, gathering together all of Lucius's notes, which he stuffed in his pocket for further reference.

The creaking sound of the door opening made Draco freeze.

"Draco...what a pleasant surprise."

x x x

Hermione called in sick at the Prophet and paced her apartment in anxiety as she waited for eleven fifty, when she would apparate to Hogwarts. What did Draco need help with? Was he okay? What if he didn't show up? Hermione closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She was worrying pointlessly, once again. She would see Draco in less than and hour, she would have all her questions answered then. Hopefully.

Eleven thirty…eleven forty…quarter-to…finally the time arrived for her to leave. Hermione took a deep breath and left her home, a moment later arriving at the school, which looked much more dreary and cold than it had during her years there. Stepping up the path onto the actual grounds, Hermione felt a growing sense of dread as she approached the castle. She could not, even to herself, explain why this was, but assumed it had something to do with her already heightened worry combined with the overall creepy appearance of Hogwarts. She paused before the large front doors, gazing nervously up at them. After a moment's hesitations, she grasped the handle and pulled one heavy door open, slipping inside to the complete darkness.

There was a ruffling noise in a corner and Hermione shrieked as a large black bird swooped towards her and then out of the hall a split second before the door closed completely.

"Lumos," whispered Hermione, casting her wandlight over the dark corner from which the bird had come. She thought she saw something move at first, but after waiting silently and still for an entire minute, assumed she had imagined it. Even so, she was now thoroughly spooked, and it was only the thought that Draco needed her help that kept her from sprinting from the school grounds and locking herself safely in her apartment in London.

Hermione stumbled over the rubble on the floor towards the stairwell and made the familiar journey to the tower. Once she reached the floor where the tapestry hung, she had the eerie feeling that someone was following her. She spun around, searching the corridor behind her for signs of another person, but saw nothing.

"Draco?" she called out hopefully, still scanning the area around her with her lit wand. There was no reply, and after a moment, she continued her walk towards the tower.

The stairwell up to it was as dark and cold as it had been the last time she was there, if not more so, and it saddened her to think the Hogwarts, once a place of great comfort to her, was now unbearably uncomfortable and creepy.

When she finally made it to the circular room at the top, she found it deserted. Draco hadn't arrived yet. "Nox," she whispered and let her wand arm drop limply to her side as she stepped towards the window. Outside, a light rain started to fall, wetting the windows of the tower as well as the floor where they were broken.

A stepping sound behind her made Hermione spin around and she nearly screamed in shock and horror at who she saw.

"Expelliarmus!" said Lucius, grabbing Hermione's wand out of the air as it flew towards him. "So nice of you to come, Ms. Granger," he said, smiling coldly at her.

x x x

Ludwig Krug faced Draco, a slightly amused expression on his face. "There's always something that goes wrong with Lucius's plans," he commented. "Not one has been perfect." Draco didn't respond. In fact, he wasn't really listening—his mind was working on the more pressing matter of how he was going to get out of there. Fast.

Krug raised his wand. "But your father is a good friend of mine, Draco, so I like to help him out when I can. Now, for instance." Now Draco started to pay attention. He didn't know how Krug was going to deal with this situation, but he did know that the Death Eater's plans did not involve Draco's escaping to Hogwarts and saving Hermione from his psychotic father. Krug raised his wand, "Imper—"

"Expelliarmus!" Draco reacted quickly. Krug's wand shot out of his hand and hit the wall. He lunged for it, leaving Draco's path to the door unblocked. Draco bolted for it—the window would take far too long. He had made it to the stairwell at the end of the hall before Krug appeared behind him.

Draco leapt down the first set of stairs to the landing. He fell harshly on his ankle and pain shot up his leg, but he kept going, stumbling down the creaky old stairs two at a time.

Elena Krug appeared in the hallway on the first floor and looked shocked to see Draco there. He unceremoniously shoved her out of his way as Ludwig appeared at the bottom of the stairs. He cast a hex Draco's way, which thankfully missed and left a gaping hole in the wooden front door. Draco promptly opened the door once he reached it and sprinted outside. He stopped running at the end of the path leading to the road and took the split second he had before Krug cast another hex at him to apparate.

Misty rain was falling when Draco arrived at the outskirts of the Hogwarts grounds. He hardly took any motice, however, as e ran towards the castle at a full-out sprint. Was he already too late? Was Hermione at the tower yet? Was Lucius? Because he had no idea, Draco did not slow his pace until he was surrounded by the intense darkness of the entrance hall.

"Lumos," he said, raising his wand. To his surprise, the entire area was a wreck—statues and suits of armor had been knocked over, vases shattered on the floor, tables and chairs thrown about…. Draco vaguely remembered something Hermione had told him in one of their letters while she was in Azkaban. She'd said something about it, that Death Eaters had used the school as a hideout or something and torn everything apart. But Draco didn't waste any more time thinking about it. Stepping carefully over the broken materials on the floors, he made his way as fast as he could towards the tower.

Once he reached the proper floor, the bits and pieces of things on the ground had thinned and he could run at a fair speed. He only started to worry about whether or not he was being heard when he reached the actual base of the tower. He stopped and listened intently. No sounds from above.

The silence was suddenly broken by an incredibly loud, piercing scream that Draco immediately realized, in horror, was Hermione's. He leapt up the stairs two at a time and heard Lucius's cold chuckle and then a moment later his voice saying, "That was for breaking my wand at the duel. There are many other incidents I could make you pay for right now—in fact I'm rather tempted to—but unfortunately, Ms. Granger, our time is limited." He paused for moment and Draco was sure Lucius was listening as he pounded heavily up the stairs. He stopped running and a thick silence followed. "Draco…?" called Lucius uncertainly.

Draco didn't know how to respond. He hadn't really thought out what he was going to d at all, and now he was stuck just a few steps from both his father and Hermione with no idea what to next. Suddenly, an idea struck him. On impulse, he changed his voice and said, "Lucius Malfoy? This is the Ninistry of Magic." This statement was greeted with silence. "Please step down the stairs and drop any possible weapons you are carrying."

A few seconds passed in thick silence. Then a wand was thrown into Draco's view, bouncing off the curved wall and rolling down several steps to Draco's feet. Draco was stunned. Lucius had given up his wand that easily? Something was very strange about this. "Thank you, Mr. Malfoy, now please sstep down the stairs." Nothing happened for a moment and then:

"Who are you?" asked Lucius.

Draco hesitated a little too long. Lucius ran quickly down the top few steps and came into view before Draco, who shouted "Protego!" just in time to shield himself from Lucius's stunning spell.

"Stupefy!" cried Draco, but Lucius dodged it, slamming into the wall to his left. Draco took the second he had while Lucius was disoriented to grab the wand thrown earlier and sprint past his father up to the top of the tower. Hermione was there, lying on the floor, looking more than a little frightened. "Draco!" she said upon seeing him, noticeably relieved.

Just as Lucius stumbled back up the steps into the room, Draco managed to toss Hermione the spare wand he was carrying, which he now realized must be hers. "Avada--" shouted Lucius, flicking his wand towards Hermione.

"Impedimenta!" interrupted Draco. The two spells bounced off each other and missed their marks.

"Stupefy!" Hermione stood and aimed her wand at Lucius.

"Protego!" the spell bounced off of his invisible shield and instead hit Hermione, who collapsed to the ground instantaneously, unconscious.

Lucius turned quickly on Draco, muttering something under his breath. "Prote--" Draco tried to defend himself, but was too slow—Lucius's spell hit him squarely in the chest and he was thrown against the stone wall, leaving him dizzy and gasping for breath. The window shattered behind him and he tried to meander around the fallen shards of glass as he crawled towards his wand, which had been thrown out of his hand in the impact.

"Crucio!" cried Lucius before Draco reached it. Searing pain penetrated every part of his body. he couldn't see, he couldn't hear anything except his own screaming...and then Lucius lifted the curse and Draco panted on the ground for a moment, unable to do anything else. He reached feebly for his wand, only a couple of feet away, but...

"Accio," said Lucius softly, and Draco's wand flew gracefully to his outstretched hand. Lucius allowed himself a grin: despite the unplanned early arrival of his son, he now had Hermione unconscious and Draco weak and wandless before him. It seemed he would succeed after all.

Draco was thinking the same thing, and no matter how hard his tired brain tried to think of a way out of this, he could come up with no reasonable plan.

Lucius turned" towards Hermione's motionless figure and raised Draco's wand, "It's finally over, Draco," he said quietly, "Avada Ked--!"

Draco, summoning what remained of his energy, lunged for Lucius, knocking him off balance and stumbling towards the wall, which he hit with considerable force. The forming rain puddle made Lucius slip and before anyone even realized what was happening, Lucius was scrambling to find something to grab a hold of as his momentum pushed him halfway through the broken window. His hand was cut on the glass and he howled in pain. "Draco," he said. It was an order, a demand that his son stand and do something. It was the same tome of voice he'd used towards Draco his entire life. Draco didn't move.

The broken glass, the only thing holding Lucius where he was as the edges cut painfully into his skin, gave way under his weight and he slipped silently from view. The whole experience had happened so fast and was so strange that Draco at first felt sure he had imagined it. Perhaps his father had killed him and this was some wierd post-death fantasy. It was morbid enough to be.

Whole minutes passed in silence and Draco finally came to the conclusion that it had, in fact, all happened. His father was dead. But what of Hermione? Draco jerked his head around to look at her. She lay perfectly still. In his mind he started to panic. No. He got to his knees and crawled over to her. No movement. No signs of life. Had the curse hit her after all? Had Draco's efforts not been enough? No, he thought, she's not. But then why did she appear so? Hope flooded through him as Draco suddenly remembered that she had been stunned. Maybe that was it...

He reached over and grabbed her wand out of her limp hand, his own having been lost with Lucius. "Ennervate," he whispered hopefully, and waited. Nothing happened. Draco hardly dared to breathe. "Hermione," he whispered, almost inaudibly. "Hermione," he said again, lightly touching her shoulder.

And then her eyes slowly fluttered open and she tilted her head slightly in his direction. "Draco," she said, and smiled.

"Are you alright?" he asked, noticing her wince as she moved.

She placed a hand behind her neck. "I think I hit my head, but it doesn't seemvery serious." She sat up slowly and looked around, a bit confusedly. "Where's Lucius?" she asked.

"He's gone."

"Gone...? Gone where?"

Draco nodded meaningfully towards the window. It took her a second, but Hermione eventually caught on to what he meant. She took her gaze from the window to look back at him. "Nice to see you," she said and he smiled. "It's been a very long time."

"Much too long," agreed Draco. He leaned forward and placed his lips on hers. For the first time in many long months, they kissed, and neither wished to leave the moment for many more, lost as they were—and had been nearly a year ago in the same place—in their own world.

But fortune had never been with them. In a few minutes, they heard sounds coming from outside, noises the light drizzle still coming down could not conceal. Draco regretfully left Hermione momentarily and stood at the window to see what the sounds were.

Ministry officials, running and shouting to one another, were making their way towards the school. There were four of them, all with their wands out. Draco remembered with a start that Lucius's plan had involved anonymously telling the Ministry of Hermione's murder and Draco's guilt.

"What is it?" asked Hermione concernedly.

"The Ministry."

"The Ministry?" she asked, surprised.

Draco nodded. "My father was going to have them arrest me for your murder." He turned back to the window, seeing the wizards disappear from his view as they came to the front doors. "He must have gotten ahead of himself, informing them that you were dead before you were."

Hermione nodded and went to stand beside him. He looked over at her mournfully. "I need to leave before they make it up here."

"But why?" asked Hermione, startled, "You didn't do anything; they can't arrest you."

"I think you're forgetting that my father is lying dead on the ground below us and that it was me who pushed him. And you know as well as I that the Ministry will not see things the way we do, even if he was a Death Eater." Hermione frowned, but nodded her understanding. "Not to mention I'm still wanted for betrayal and elping the Dark Lord and all," he added.

"Then you have to go..." she said, not really asking, just stating the sad fact as it was. He nodded and she sighed. "Well then of course you realize you're not leaving me behind this time."

"What?" said Draco.

Hermione smiled and took his hand, leading him down the stairwell. "I'm tired of sitting around worrying about where you are and whether you're alive or not—I'm going with you."

Draco thought about this as they made their way down the staris. "But what if I'm caught and you're found to have been assisting me? You'll go back to Azkaban, and Potter's influence only goes so far..."

Hermione shrugged off his protest as they paused outside the tapestry leading to the tower. He opened his mouth to point out another flaw in her plan but she quieted him with her hand. "There's nothing for it, Draco—I'm going with you. End of story."

Draco smiled at her stubbornness and kissed her warmly, gratefully, as she wrapped her arms around his neck. The Ministry wizards could be heard pounding up the stairs, not far off. Draco and Hermione pulled away and he took her hand in his. "Then let's go," he said, pulling her off away from the threat at hand.

THE END

x x x

Author's Note: Thank you for reading! If you've been lazy about reviewing up to this point, please review now—it would be greatly appreciated.

As you may or may not have guessed, this story was partially inspired by the Beatles' song "Long, Long, Long." For lyrics, see below.

"Long, Long, Long"

It's been a long, long, long time,
How could I ever have lost you
When I loved you.

It took a long, long, long time
Now I'm so happy I found you
How I love you

So many tears I was searching,
So many tears I was wasting, oh. Oh--

Now I can see you, be you
How can I ever misplace you
How I want you
Oh I love you
You know that I need you.
Oh I love you.