Pairing: Draco Malfoy/Hermione Granger
Setting: Death Hallows AU
Word Count: 675
Tag: turncoat!draco
"We wouldn't make five miles." She said, gathering the blanket over her bare chest and sat up. His hand fell from her mane of curls and trailed down her spine, his fingers running along the slight concave on her back.
"Why do you say that?" They have never discussed about their plan before, still in their heady cocoon of intimate revelation. It was the fifth day, in the middle of nowhere he had Disapparated them once she gave him her consent, and being the responsible one as usual, he had noticed when her shoulders had tightened once again. Fulfilling the right obligations were never his strong suit, compared with his lover, his first instinct was to do good by himself only: he had her now, and by doing right by her, he would lose her in the process. He knew it from the start, from the first time he laid eyes on her and his heart almost stopped.
"I can't leave them behind." She couldn't meet his eyes, because the moment she broke the bubble unintentionally, waking up in his warm arms shivering from a silly dream, she stared the engine of going back. "I will always want to go back."
He was nodding before she finished her sentence. He understood, surprising even himself, because that part of her was what made him fall in love with her at the first place. He dared say if she didn't have that in her, he would not love her as much as he did now. "What do you suggest we do?" She would want to go back, and he would let her. Damn it all to hell, he would follow right after her.
She turned back to the boy who was still lying stationary on the mattress, his arm cushioned by his blonde head; the Mark stood out over his porcelain skin and his snow-white hair. "Let's go back… and… You don't have to run anymore." He was either Adonis or the Devil himself. It really depends on the look in his steel-grey eyes: whenever they were arguing, arguing very badly sometimes, the look in his eyes intimidated her, reminding painfully the boy he once was; but she would trade anything (except him) just to have him stare at her as he did when he told her he was in love with her.
He pulled at the roots of his hair. He hated when she was unconsciously pleading her with her doe eyes, the soft furrow of her brows and he hated when he could read every emotion on her face now.
She was too right, however: Potter didn't break him out of Azkaban just to give him back to her; they still have not fulfilled their agreement. Now the Order was in more danger because he was out and in their protection.
He was the most selfish when he was with her, if that was even possible. He wanted to make her happy, but by fulfilling the criteria of making her happy, he would potentially lose her, and it was going to be in the foreseeable future. The fact that they now were in the middle of nowhere, the chances of her life in more danger had increased Merlin knows how much. Both of them understood that completely, and that was why she was starting to guilt.
He was sinning during the time he seek for redemption and he knew that even redemption comes with other consequences.
"We'll go back."
She nodded, and allowed him to envelop her back into his arms. "We will go back and we will fight. Together."
He would go back and they would keep on fighting; but he could never make anymore promises he knew he would not be able to keep.
"Together. Until the end." She kissed him first, a reverse of what started this all.
Each touch was more precious than the last second now, when there was once more a ticking clock over their heads, counting down to the minute when surely someone would lose the other.