Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters below.

From the previous chapter…

Draco darted over to Hermione and grabbed hold of her and suddenly streaks of light decorated the skies.

It was over all too fast.

Never Give Up

"Hermione?" Draco called her name for the seemingly hundredth time. And for the seemingly hundredth time, Hermione Granger didn't answer him. Draco was getting desperate. Desperate for her to hear him; for her to hug him and say everything's all right now; for her to kiss all his unshed tears away. But she wouldn't say a thing. She was still staring blankly into space, staring right through Draco.

"Draco," Harry was trying his best to break the truth gently to Draco, "she doesn't know who you are anymore."

"No." Draco's answer never once deviated from that. It was always a "no" whenever it came to forgetting Hermione, moving on, and to get her to see and recognize Draco.

Harry almost gave up – Draco wasn't exactly the most flexible person on earth, but when it came to this, he was practically immovable like a heavy rock firmly settled on the ground.

"Draco," he tried again, "we have to let them examine her before we know what really went wrong to cause her to act this way." He got the same answer as he did before.

In actual fact, the two of them were not the only people in the entire room. The whole jury was there, and so were the previous members of the Order of the Phoenix, save for Sirius Black.

Remus Lupin placed his hand gently on Draco's shoulder. "My boy, it is time. You have to let us do what we have to do. Don't you want to know the truth behind it all?"

Draco wanted to know the truth; goodness knows how much he needed to know. But he was so afraid of what they would do to Hermione in order to get the truth, and he was so very fearful of the consequences. Hermione Granger was a good student, and she was a good person. But she was a Deatheater, and no matter how good her academic results or testimonial from her tutors were, there was no escaping the fact that she worked for Voldemort. Deatheaters would mostly be sent to the Azkaban prison, where in Draco's opinion, a place that contained no humans, only monsters.

"Promise me you won't hurt her. Promise me, and I'll let you people do all the questioning you want."

Remus looked at Draco in the eye and knew that he couldn't lie. "I can't promise that, Draco, and you as an Auror should know that perfectly well."

"Then you can't touch her," came the matter-of-fact statement.

"Draco," Remus was fast losing his patience, and so was the rest of the jury.

"No."

Remus was about to hex him when Harry stopped Remus.

"Draco," he said, "you ought to be ashamed of yourself."

Draco continued massaging Hermione's hands, which were tightly bound by rope to the arms of the uncomfortable steel chair she was currently sitting in. There was no telling whether he was listening to what Harry was saying, but Harry knew that he was, and so he continued speaking.

"You think you're the only one in pain? You're so bloody selfish; have you ever thought that Hermione might just be suffering as well? And maybe even more than you. You're not the one who had to be one of Voldemort's Deatheaters. You're not the one who had to be confined and locked up until you're fully trained by Voldemort. You're not the one sitting in that chair, Draco."

That caught Draco's full attention. He turned to look at Harry, and said, "What do you mean?"

"I mean that you're not only keeping the truth from yourself, but from everyone else, and Hermione as well. It is bloody obvious that she's under some kind of spell and goodness knows that she'll want to be out of it as soon as possible. And guess what, Draco? You're the only one preventing that from happening. This time, you're causing her pain, and no one else."

Harry knew he was harsh with his words, but he had to be. At this point of time, any other kind of treatment would just go through Draco's mind without him thinking about it. He had to make Draco see some sense.

"I wouldn't hurt her."

"I know you wouldn't." Harry's tone became gentler, but nonetheless still firm. "That's why you have to let her be examined. They're professionals, Draco. Even though they can't promise you that they can't hurt her, you know that they'll try their hardest not to. In any case, any temporary kind of pain is definitely better than a permanent trance."

Draco seemed to be thinking about it, and Harry knew that he shouldn't push his good friend anymore.

"All right," Draco said after what seemed like such a long time, and the answer was such a relief to everyone it was almost like music to their ears.

Remus Lupin and the rest of the jury proceeded with the examination quickly, before Draco could change his mind. But during the entire period of assessment, Draco was there, holding Hermione's hand in his.

"We've come to a conclusion."

Draco looked at Remus Lupin with imploring eyes.

"She's been under the Imperius Curse for too long. Plus, we suspect that Voldemort had been feeding her a potion that has the same controlling effects of the Imperius Curse. That's why he has so much control over her."

"Not anymore."

"Yes, Draco, not anymore."

"Her memory?"

"We're not all sure about that; about whether he erased it or not. If you'll give us the green light on feeding her the Veritaserum, we'll all find out."

"Okay."

And there the potion went, down Hermione's throat. She gurgled for a while and Draco rubbed her back lovingly, muttering soft and gentle words in her ear, which strangely, seemed to calm her down quite a bit.

After a few seconds, Remus Lupin began the questioning all over again.

"What is your name?"

"Hermione Granger."

"How many siblings do you have?"

"I don't know."

"Who do you work for?"

"Lord Voldemort." That answer pierced through Draco's heart like a sharp arrow. He wanted to shout out his denial, but he controlled himself and all he said was, "it's my turn to ask."

Remus nodded grimly.

"Do you remember who Draco Malfoy is?"

Hermione hesitated for a while, before her answer tore Draco's heart apart.

"No."

Draco's mouth formed a silent 'oh' and suddenly he couldn't feel his heartbeat. He couldn't feel the ground beneath him, nor could he feel the pressure of Harry's hand on his shoulder. He couldn't feel the sympathetic glances that everyone in the room gave him. Yet he could feel the earth swallowing him up and the sky falling down on him.

Remus Lupin knew that that was enough – another blow like that would have Draco on the ground forever.

"All right. Enough," and he practically dragged the lifeless looking Draco Malfoy out of the room. Draco actually let him do that without protesting and Harry knew how much Hermione's answer had broken his heart.

Once outside the room, Remus took Draco by the shoulders and shook him forcefully.

"It's not her fault, Draco, and you know it."

No answer. Draco seemed to have heard someone talking, but he couldn't really hear anything – everything just seemed to be in a blur. Hermione, his sweet, loving Hermione, couldn't remember him. What point was there in living? At that point of time, his life seemed even emptier than it had been when Hermione was forcefully taken away from him, if that was even possible.

"Draco!" Remus urged.

Still no answer.

"Draco, listen. We will try our damnest best to get her out of that stupor, you hear me? Do not give up, Draco. Because if you do, there won't be anyone left to be strong for her."

Draco seemed to get a little of his senses back.

"I-" was all Draco managed to say before he slumped against the wall and slowly curled himself up into a ball. The unshed tears came without warning.

Remus's heart went out to Draco.

"Draco, please, stay here. I need to go back in."

Remus went back into the room and asked Harry to watch over Draco – he couldn't trust Draco to be alone right now.

Harry nodded without hesitating and went out of the room.

After an hour, Remus came out, looking so tired that Harry almost didn't have the heart to question him about what went on in that room. But looking at Draco, who was no longer crying, but still slumped against the wall without saying a word, Harry knew he had to ask, for both Draco's and his sake.

"What's going on?"

Remus sighed as he looked at Draco and he wondered if he was listening to what he had to say. Since there was no indication at all, Remus turned his head back to face Harry, and he took a deep breath before launching into a lengthy explanation.

"The potion Voldemort fed her was even more powerful than we had expected. We managed to find out the name of the potion as well as where Voldemort's lair really was. We sent a couple of Aurors to apparate there to get the potion and did a test on that. It turns out that the potion was specially concocted by Goyle's father. It made Hermione under the complete control of Voldemort. The bad news is the potion is addictive, unless we find the antidote. The good news is that her memory isn't erased."

This caught Draco's immediate attention. His head snapped up from its original position and he asked, "so she still remembers me?"

"We think so. But the thing is, even though her memories aren't totally gone from her mind, she's right now, just like a patient who's suffering from amnesia. We're not sure how long this state of mind will work. And the fact that the potion's addictive isn't helping matters. Even if she is provided with triggers that prompt her memory, the potion may just erase them in the same day. So it's almost like a vicious cycle over and over again."

"The antidote?" Harry asked.

"We need to find it. Obviously Hermione wouldn't know, and Goyle isn't exactly talking either. So we're rather caught in a dead end, unless we find out where or what the antidote is."

Draco stood up, and this gesture surprised the hell out of both Harry and Remus.

"So can I take her away?"

Remus had an unreadable expression on his face.

"I don't know, Draco. I really don't. I think we need the approval of the majority of the jury for that. Or else…" he couldn't bear to finish his sentence.

"Or else she gets sent to Azkaban." Draco's voice contained so much anguish in it that Remus wanted to lie. But he couldn't.

"Yes, Draco, even though it most probably wouldn't be a permanent stay there."

Draco didn't want his Hermione near any of those things in Azkaban, even if it was only for a short while.

"Fight for me, please." It was not a demand, but a plea – a plea to Remus to help him and Hermione get out of this rut they were stuck in.

"I will, Draco, you know I bloody hell will."

The wait seemed like forever. It seemed like a hundred years had just gone past before Remus stepped out of the room, looking even more tired than before.

And then he opened his mouth to give his answer…

A/N: MUAHAHA another cliffhanger! Sorry I've been sooooo bloody busy with work. Plus, the writer's block I'm having right now isn't exactly helping. But maybe reviews will help? Haha P