Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

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This chapter is dedicated to you, the fans.

After seventh year if began. On the train back home to be in fact. She had been in the usual compartment with Harry, Ron, and Ginny. Lavender and Seamus would stop by occasionally but it was a seemingly usual ride. Until her cat disappeared. Hermione went to find Crookshank, so she followed the trail of the orangy-yellow cat hair. It all led to eh Slytherin parts of the trains, and as she opened one of the compartment door she found her fat cat on the lap of a very familiar blonde. One she wouldn't have to see anymore, which made her stomach flip-flop with excitement. They both gave each other their usual smirk before she made her way over to him and snatched her cat out of his lap.

"You know petty games of stealing my cat is really unnecessary, Draco. We're not eleven anymore." She said as she stroked Crookshanks' head.

Draco shook his head and ascended from his seat before making a few steps to face her head on, "Really? I wouldn't have noticed, after all you still act like you're eleven."

She laughed mockingly, "Is that the best the Slytherin Prince can come up with? Please, I don't have time for this."

Hermione started out of the compartment, but Draco grabbed her by her upper arm and jerked her towards him, causing Crookshanks to hiss and hop to the ground. The bookworm stood vulnerably underneath his gaze waiting for an explanation.

"You don't have to hide it anymore. There's no one around in this area of the train, and I wouldn't tell a soul," he drawled with a dangerous twinkle in his eyes.

Hermione tried hiding the blood that was rushing to her cheeks, "Really? And what exactly am I hiding?"

"Everything."

She laughed and pulled away from him taking a seat on one of the seats, "I have nothing to hide. I mean I have a good relationship with Harry, I enjoy time with my friends, I get things done, and I have a seemingly nice life. What could I possibly want?"

"What I want."

The smile was wiped away from her lips and she looked out of the window at the English countryside, "Malfoy, don't alright? This is silly. In two hours we won't have to see each other anymore, and it'll be done. No more of me, no more of you. Finished; the end."


He leaned against the compartment door with his arms crossed over his chest with an emotionless mask, "Is that what you want? No more of me."

"No," She answered right away.

"Then why do you put on this facade like I'm the scum on your shoes? Is it because of Harry? Because believe me love, that can be taken care of."

She never realized the danger in that statement.

"Now com'on, if we're never going to see each other again there's no harm in a little fun, is there?" he teased, cautiously walking over to her. When he reached her small frame he jerked her up and sat down in her place, pulling her to a new seating position of straddling his lap.

She tried breaking her wrist away from his hands, but she wasn't using all her strength, she liked this game as much as she hated to admit it. Biting her lower lip she looked out the compartment door and raised an eyebrow, "What if they come looking for me?"

He pulled her closer, "Let them find us."

She could smell his cologne, the expensive one he always bragged about, the one that made her swoon. His sweater wasn't like Ron's or Harry's, it was made of fine materials, and a dark chocolate instead of one of their goofy colors. The way he was staring at her made her blood boil. And surprisingly she was the first to ever make the move. Tearing her wrist away from his hands she cupped his face in them and pressed her lips onto his forcefully. Draco positioned his hands at the small of her back, forcing her closer to him. As their kisses became bites for one another's lips, Draco moved his hand up her shirt, and traced serpents in her smooth skin. Her body temperature rose at the thought of everything and just as she slid her hand down his side.

"Draco!"

They both broke away and stared at their interrupter.


"Blaise," Draco said coolly as he maneuvered Hermione off of him.


She didn't dare look him in the eye, instead got Crookshanks who was contently sitting beside the window and passed Blaise up without a word. The brunette watched her walk down the corridor and into a nearby bathroom. Once everything was clear he slammed the door and made his way over to Draco.

"Would you care to inform me what that was about exactly?"

Draco stared at him with a smug expression, "That was the signing of the biggest alliance the wizarding world will ever see".

Her fork continuously stabbed the plate as she stared into a lost tangent. The hospital was really causing her to miss the manor. The mix of peas and carrots upset her stomach, and she wanted nothing more than lamb, and veal, everything Draco had given her. Hermione scoffed at the plate before pushing it aside and laying on her side so she could see out the window. This was the second to last day of his trial, and tomorrow she was up to testify. The thing she was dreading the most.

Knock, Knock

The sound startled her from her trance, and she inclined her head to face it, "Come in."

She watched the doorknob turn, and an immediate scowl was found on her lips. She looked the woman over before sitting up in her bed and crossing her arms over her chest.

"Pansy?"

The woman sat in the chair next to her and crossed a leg over one another before pulling out a cigarette from her clutch. Strangely enough she lit it with a muggle device, "Well it's nice to see you've recovered." She said with a honey coated voice. But Hermione knew these people all to well. That cigarette was to keep her from lashing out rather than to enjoy.

Hermione shrugged, "Are you here for any particular reason ?"

Pansy looked up at her and Hermione could feel her insides going cold. The glare she had used on her many times at Hogwarts. Full of malice, and disgust. It was infamous, "You know that you've gotten yourself buried in so deep. Sweet, innocent Hermione – a bunch of fucking bull shit. We all see right through that little act of yours. So you know where I just came from? Draco's trial, and from the looks of it you won't be seeing him anytime soon."

"You underestimate me, Pansy," Hermione spat.

"Really?" She got up and took in a long drag before blowing the smoke out slowly, "You caused us to lose our leader, and we underestimate you? Is there some equation behind this? Some arithmetic that we didn't learn because we just weren't as smart as you? Stop the act. What are you going to do? Bat your pretty eyes for the minister, and say how much you're sorry and that you really do love Draco Malfoy? It's not a fairytale!"

Hermione was alarmed at Pansy's speech. In fact it hurt her. She wrung her hands before exiting her bed and put on her robe, "I know. I know alright! But I'm going to get him out, any way I can. I will need the deatheaters help of course if they are still loyal …"

"Don't you ever ask where our loyalties lie," Pansy hissed.

"Then you agree to talk to them?"

Pansy stared at Hermione for a good while. Wondering how she ever got put into the situation she was in; it was difficult to see a mudblood running their lives. Something their parents, grandparents, ancestors would have never seen coming. She rose from her seat, and ran a hair through her hair before stepping towards Hermione, "Yes, I will tell them, but don't expect us to bow down to you anytime soon. You're a real wretch, something that we would rather keep as a servant than an equal."

With her hands on her jutting hips, Hermione stepped towards the rather petite Pansy, "You're still going on about mudbloods, purebloods, halfbloods? This is it. There is no more. If Draco doesn't get out then you have no leader. You're world will come to shambles."

"Our world?" Pansy spat, "It's yours now too! When they find about where your loyalties are. I mean are you really that dense mudblood?"

Hermione's hands stayed by her side to keep from slapping her, "Don't call me that."

"Really? Now I have a command for you, don't you tell me what to do."

There was a very tense moment between the two brunettes, and neither one was willing to give in. Hermione was the first to break though. She turned away from Pansy and waved her hand in the air, "If you have nothing else then you can leave."

"Fine, but you haven't heard the last of us."

Hermione watched as Pansy snatched her things from the chair and exited the room, slamming the door behind her. She flinched. It was true. What would she do? How could she explain herself? Hermione was falling into this mindset, a dark mindset, where she wasn't thinking logically, just rationally. Which was just how she was when she was in the manor. She was free now though! Right? Then Hermione realized that being captive didn't have an affect on her, it was Draco.

Draco would never leave her.

…

"Can you do this?" Viktor asked her.

Hermione bit her fingernails in thought. Could she? She calmed herself down a few notches before nodding, "Yeah."

He put a comforting arm around her and turned to face her, "It'll all be over. You wait and see Hermione. He'll get what he deserves and you will finally be free from his wrath."

Will I? Would she be free from Harry? From Ron, the Weasleys, her parents and the people she betrayed. Draco had done the killings without her knowing but she still loved him. She still needed him, wanted him, she couldn't live without him. Her breathing was shallower now as she continued to have thoughts pour in and out of her head. She felt herself being pulled up and dragged into the courtroom. And she saw that blonde hair, his beautiful blonde hair and instantly she was calm.

"Now Hermione Granger is called to the stand," Mr. Peterson, Draco's lawyer announced.

She took her place, swore her oath, and took a seat never letting her eyes wander away from Draco's gray ones.

"Ms. Granger," Peterson started, "how are you today?"

"Fine,"

"Good, good. That's just fine," He coaxed, luring her in, "Now tell me –"

They were mostly simple questions. Things Hermione answered with ease, and Draco kept her going. Viktor was on the other side nodding along, but she didn't care; she didn't care at all. She wrung her hands nervously underneath the table, and expected it to be over soon until he dropped a bomb on her. Everyone for that matter.

"So tell me about you and Draco Malfoy's relationship."

If the room wasn't silent before – this was silence. No one dared to breathe when that was said. Hermione stomach was tumbling roughly, and she was getting extremely warm, "Excuse me?"

The lawyer titled his head to the side a finger scratching his chin, "Your relationship before all of this happened. And do remember, you're under oath"

She couldn't lie. Hermione shook her head and shrugged, "Yes, there was a relationship, but we stopped it before I was married."

"So you're saying that it was physical?"

"No!" She was flustered, "Yes. Oh I don't know, it was more. But what does that have to do with anything?"

Viktor was in disbelief at what was taking place in front of him. This was still Hermione right? He was about to call out, until Hermione started to cry. The courtroom watched her spill those frustrated tears, all in either hate in pity.. Hermione looked up at Draco and bit her lip, and then everyone knew. This wasn't a dream.

The lawyer handed Hermione a tissue before continuing, "Did you have something to do with the massacre?"

"No!" She yelled, "No. I would have never done that to them, it would've never crossed my mind something so awful."

"So truthfully nothing to do with it?"

"No," She breathed.

"But you did have a relationship with Draco Malfoy which could've caused this."

"Our relationship has nothing to do with this."

"Oh," His eyes glinted, "it has everything to do with this."

"Stop!" She screamed, "Just stop! You fucking bastard. You wouldn't know anything that I have gone through. You know that I lost a child? Did Draco tell you that? Did Draco tell you that it was his child? What about the last train ride we ever had a Hogwarts, or the fact that I told him after Harry proposed that I never wanted to see him again! Do you know what I feel in my heart, bad or good? Sick, twisted. NO! SO JUST LEAVE ME BE!"

Hermione pushed her way out of the stand and ran through the courtroom leaving them shocked, and quite appalled. Viktor couldn't even see her. He had no interest in her. She betrayed their world by joining his forces, and now he didn't know quite what to do. One of the ministry officials was appointed by the minister to go and find her before she did anything. So John offered to go, only on one term though that he fought to have control over.

She retired in a deserted bathroom, and just cried. Not just hiccups, or sobbing, but wailing. Hermione couldn't do this anymore. She refused it. Her life was already in shambles, it wouldn't get better, she would never be happy. She couldn't breathe anymore.

"Hello? Hermione?"

She quickly shut up before trying to hide. Too late though, John spotted her before she got any farther. He stopped her, and pulled someone out from behind him.

Draco stared at her for a good long time, "Can I just have a moment with her? I swear there will be no dark magic, any magic for that matter."

"I really can't," John replied.

"Please," it was Hermione spoke this time.

They both looked at the messy woman before John pointed at Draco, "Anything from you, Malfoy and they'll make this harder."

John left, and that's when Hermione ran into Draco's arms. She rested her head in the crook of her neck, shutting her eyes tight. He held her to the point of suffocating her. They didn't know what to say to one another, the words wouldn't have come out right. Hermione kissed his neck lightly, and sighed, "What are we supposed to do?"

Draco didn't have an answer. He just stood there with her in his arms waiting for the ministry to run in saying that it was time for him to go to Azkaban. And truthfully he was just afraid of losing her as she was him.

"I love you, you know that right?" He asked.

She nodded.

"I need you to know that, Granger."

Hermione tore away from him and threw her hands in the air, "You ruined this! You know that right? We could've gone on with each other but still had out lives. But you were selfish, but you knew that I cared for you, that I loved you! I still love you! But Draco I don't know, what are we supposed to do now? What am I supposed to do?"

Draco grabbed her by the arm and yanked her towards him, "You were just as selfish. You needed security, and you didn't want the looks of disgrace on people's faces as you walked by. If you weren't the one ashamed of me then we would have also not been in this situation."

"Ashamed of you!" her voice was rising along with his, "Draco I was proud of you, but I was afraid of being with you for so many different reasons, none of them being that I was ashamed of you. You were fucking around while we were together, I knew! I saw the lipstick marks on your neck. You didn't even try and hide it! You didn't love me; you just wanted the satisfaction of knowing that I wanted you!"

"Hermione I did that to make you jealous! Those women meant nothing. Not what you meant to me."

"Prove that you love me!"

Draco had a dangerous glimmer in his eye as he shoved her against the bathroom wall and his hand around her neck, "I have proven to you that I loved you."

Hermione looked at the ceiling as the grip on her neck got tighter and tighter causing her to start gasping for air, but she wasn't going to ask him to stop. If he wanted this then he could do it. But Draco quickly took his hand away and stared at her intently. She was crying now, tears spilling down her cheeks, but that was the only thing she really ever did anymore.

"You know," she started, "As much as I said that I hated you in the past, I don't, and if you leave now I don't have anything left. You are the last possession I have."

The words sent him off the edge. What he had wanted to hear from day one, she finally pronounced. Draco forced his mouth onto hers and kissed her for the last time. A passionate fray of what they had left to give each other. Hermione cried through every second of it, trying to memorize every single thing about him, and before she could get any farther the bathroom door swung open with ministry officials filing in, trying to pull the two away from each other. Draco and Hermione both clung on to each other for dear life.

And finally they pulled her away, and Draco tried going after her put he was seized by ministry officials. Hermione was screaming, and it hurt him.

"Get off of her!" He shouted, "You fucking bastards leave her alone!"

They kept her away from him with ease, but getting Draco out wasn't easy. There had to be at least six trying to get him out of the bathroom, but he wasn't leaving her. He couldn't leave his love with those savages.

"Draco!" She wailed in the official's arms, "Stop it! Draco!"

And that was it; they got him out and told him the verdict sending him into a rage that they could easily stop with a spell. Draco fell bound to the floor, and then they brought Hermione out of the bathroom while Draco couldn't move. She felt her heart stop when the verdict was told to her. She fell limp to the floor beside him and kissed his neck repeatedly and was watched like a spectacle. No one knew what exactly to say to her. What to do to make her calm down and they realized there was nothing – absolutely nothing that they could do.

"I hate you." She muttered before getting up and pulling away from them.

From that moment in time she was no longer Hermione Granger. She had no name, she didn't have a soul, and she didn't care anymore.

For the second time, her soul had died.

A/N: No this is not over! And I want to thank you all once again for supporting me, I hope you all loved that chapter just as much as I loved writing it. Thanks you guys.