"No, she can't be dead, she can't!" Draco refused to believe what his eyes where trying to communicate to his brain. It just felt too... unreal. but unfortunately it was real. "Let's take her to the hospital wing. I don't want to give up." Draco ordered. "But no one survives the killing course. Only... Harry." Blaise mumbled in protest even thought he knew that was a lost cause. People are incredibly irrational when in pain... or in love. Two so close things... maybe even the same thing in the end.
"I don't care! I said let's take her to the infirmary." Everyone collected the keys, even the one that "Ron" before had lost, because they managed to get it back during the battle. Morgan went to Zeus to repair the cut on his wing, but he did let her close; only the Dragonlears can tame the dragon, and the last Dragonlear was gone.
Draco took Hermione in his arms, and they sadly went out, head down, like a funeral procession. They walked away from the room, carrying the keys like medals of a terrible race. Not even a breath of wind from one of the drafty windows was heard during their run to the hospital wing except for the sound of their feet on the stone floor, as if even the school's halls and corridors, had seen what happened and where now crying Hermione with them.
"Madam Pomfrey!" Draco called when they finally reached the hospital wing's doors. "Oh dear, what happened?" the nurse asked taking Hermione from Draco and placing her on a bed with a levitation spell. "She was hit by the killing curse." "Merlin! Come on, girls, I need some help here!" cried Madame Pomfrey calling other nurses.
Madame Pomfrey walked straight to Hermione's bed and smoothed out the sheets around the motionless body lying under them. Ginny slowly stepped a few steps foreward. "Is- Is there anything we can do?" She asked in a whisper. The nurse's her head lowered and a tear fell on the white sheets of the bed. She wipped away everything with the back of her hand and then turned towards the group of students... and shook he head. "I'm afraid not, darling, we're talking about the killing curse, you can't survive it." She took a deep breath and tryied to continue talking in the most comforting way she could at the moment. "I know you would like to stay with miss Granger, but I would like you to let us visit you: you don't look so much better than her right now." She saw the protests in their eyes ready to take voice, but it took her just a glare lowering the gaze and a resigned movement of her head to stop them.
Madame Pomfrey was right, they weren't a great show: Harry had a cut all the way up his arm and shoulders, Draco had long bleeding cuts through his chest and on the shoulders, Ron had a big scar on his right arm up to his shoulder, it seemed like if the spell that hit him had been captured by his skin. Ginny had a sprained ankle and was lipping since they got out of the space-time in addition to little cuts all over her. Morgan had a cut above the eyebrow and through her face, while Pansy and Blaise were all dusty, with bruises and cuts, blood shed on clothes and face, probably with something broken... they weren't a great show at all.
In more or less half an hour they were all in order, well, they had scars, plasters, bandages all over their body, but they were fine. They all gathered around Hermione's bed in the warm light of that tragic day's dying sun. They made white flowers appear, each one different: Pansy a daffodil, Blaise an orchid, Ron a tulip, Harry a lily, Ginny a calla lily, Neville a daisy, Morgan a carnation, Luna a gerbera, and Draco a beautiful white rose, everlasting love.
You know that feeling of emptiness... that feeling you don't know where it comes from but nevertheless you feel it all of a sudden? As if you had been deprived of everything that once could have been inside of you, and you can't even move, not knowing if you are terrified or just in pian, or maybe dead?
Not even the dementors can make you feel that way. And that was the only living thing that could be perceived from that group of indistincted people, that group of indistincted pained faces around that lonely white bed. That meant, that there was nothing more left, that meant that this feeling that mekes you feel dead was the most lively thing left in that room. They stood there in the trembling light of the moon and the worm on of the oil lamp on the bedside table, thinking. until it finally hit them in all his painful force. She was dead. Hermione Granger was no longer there with them. that girl that passed her life sacrifing herself for the others, that always found a way out in every crazy situation, had done the last sacrifice, she didn't find a way out for herself.
Harry and Ron, that had been with Hermione since the beginning to the very end, let finally the first tears escape from their eyes standing proudly at her left. Just as she would have wanted, they were trying to stay brave, stay strong. Hermione. How could it be possible. They had been always deeply convinced that nothing like that could ever happen to her. They realised that they had had the foulish, childish idea that Hermione just could never die, couldn't leave them... after all that they had gone through together.
They always thought that nothing, ever, not even the darkest magic could defeat her, they were used to believe that she was strong enough. But the fact is, that they were right. It hadn't been a powerful a dark lord, or terrible magic that had defeated Hermione Granger, she hadn't lost, she chose to leave. She chose to let others go on leaving herself behind. She didn't chose to die, she chose to win. As Harry and Ron had though for all those years, Hermione was strong enough. Strong enough to overcome a stupid idea like death. She knew what was going to happen and accepted it, she understood death and decided that was time to go on. She won.
They all stood there, trying to stay strong, silent lonely tears were running down their faces but not even a sound was heard. Half of them was still refusing to believe, still stuck with the childish hope that somehting could bring her back. Owever, the other half knew. The other half knew that Hermione Granger was gone and wouldn't come back. That She wasn't going to open the great hall's doors a few days later running to hug them, completely restored. The first half was the one that was keeping them on their feet, the second, instead, was pulling them down, sinking them.
They didn't know how much time passed, maybe minutes or hours, when Ginny sobbed loudly and fell to the ground leaning on Hermione's bed. She had been strong for too long. that's why she had given up, it was pointless trying to hold back tears for much longer. Harry kneeled down next to her trying his best to confot her and hold himself together. Ron was standing next to him with an hand on his shoulder and the other holding Pansy's one, several tears slowly making their way down his cheeks. Blaise was olding Morgan with an arm around her waist with her head resting on his shoulder letting the tears roll down on his robe. Luna was seating on a white chair at the end of the bed with her head in her hands sobbing silently and Neville was awkwardly caressing her blond hair.
And Draco, Draco was seating motionless on the other white chair at Hermione's right. If you didn't pay enought attention to notice he was blinking, you would have said he was dead. Well he actually was as dead. everything he ever had of alive was dead, lying on the white bed next to him. how could it be: the person who teached him how to live was dead.
form his spot near Ginny, Harry was staring at one point frowning: a twinkle illuminated Hermione's hand under the thin ray of light that filtered through the window, at sunset of that terrible day, after a breath of wind had moved away curtains and shutters of the windows from the outside. "Watch! her ring!" Harry exclaimed interrupting that overwhelming silence. He picked up Hermione's cold hand, watching carefully: the ring was burnt, the diamond broken in half.
Ginny's head shot up, she leaned over Hermione and put her ear close to Hermione's chest and started crying again, this time for joy. "She's alive! She is still alive!" Everyone suddently smiled widely, sobbing louder and holding each other. "The spell must have hit the ring!"
"Madam Pomfrey!" called Draco. moving for the first time since he set on his chair next to Hermione. He also had let another tear run down his cheek and a light smile veiled his lips. "What happened?" Asked the nurse, returning to the bedside. "She isn't dead! Not yet! The spell hit the ring!" The nurse took a few moments to take in the news, and then she started yelling at them. "get out of here! Now. You'll visit her in a little. Let me do my job!"
After a few minutes she called them back to Hermione. "So?!" Harry asked. "She is alive; but it won't be for long. Even if the spell hit the ring, it is always the killing course. She is very weak, I don't think she will pass the night." She said, looking down with a sad sigh. "Are you sure that-" "Yes, Miss Weasley, I'm sure, there's nothing you can do for her right now, if not letting her rest." and with one last sigh, Madame Pomfrey walked away.
Everyone was petrified. there, still in their places, still holding each other. Disappointed and angry but understanding. Even if standing there knowing that Hermione was going to die and not being capable to save her was hard, no, it was almost impossible, they knew that the best thing for Hermione was letting her rest in that few hours she had left. Draco was completely motionless, like a marble statue. The person who had saved his life, was dying because of him, and he couldn't do anything; the love of his life was dying, and he couldn't avoid it.
Minutes, than hours passed, and one by one, all of them had gone back to their dorms forced by madame Pomfrey. The hospital wing was completely deserted. In all that silent, the door cracked open and Draco slipped in. (slyther-in;) He walked straight to his white chair near Hermione's bed and let himself fall on it. and there he stood, motionless, staring into space, trying to find something that could save her. that small space was illuminated by the oil lamp on the bedside table near the bed, a warm light like the one of a cracking fire. Warm as her smile. That was his last thought before he fell asleep.
Draco opened his eyes and blinked a few times, long dark shadows stretched up to the sky and transformed in tall trees. He was lying on the ground of the forbidden forest. He collected all his strenght and stood up. the dark trees where tall and creepy, but he was used to that king of place after all that had happened in the last few years. A veil of fogg was covering the ground. A black figure was walkng towards him, he could see it clearly now: between two trees ahead of him, someone was waling his way. He was now close enough for him to recognize the person in question.
"Professor? Professor Snape? What are you doing here?" "Helping you. What a news. I've been trying to do that for years." Snape repleid with his usual shuffled tone. "So- you are not angry, disgusted, or something? I think you know that I am with Hermione Granger." "Why should I be angry? May I remind you that I sacrificed my life for Lily's son? Lily, my only love, a muggle-born." Draco nodded slightly. Snape started walking around the small clearing full of roots that emerged from the ground.
"So, what happened so important to recall me in this place?" "Hermione. She's dying because of me! Madam Pomfrey said she won't pass the night. I don't know how to save her, it's impossible!" Snape walkied for a couple of moments sending quick looks at a desperate Draco. He sighed and started talking. "Since you don't have neither a philosopher's stone or unicorn blood, there's only one thing that can keep her alive even if she's at death's door. A blood union." Draco looked at him with an interrogative gaze.
"You have to cut the palms of the hands of the two people who love each other, to take their blood, each takes the blood of the other with a finger and puts a drop on the lips; then, holding each other's hands, they have to kiss, and at that moment the blood will unite both in hands and lips. This union is very strong, and can save one of the two even if he is on brink of death, if it's made when one is still alive." Snape explained quickly, rolling his eyes.
then he looked back at him deathly serious. "But you see, it's very dangerous: if two people really love each other, and their love is strong enough, then both will stay alive, but if their love isn't true, or not strong enough, they will both die... so you have to think of it, there's no turning back." there was no need for an answer. Draoc had never been so sure of something, and Snape seemed to get it because he kept goung. "But if you do love her, Draco, then go, and save her, don't lose your gryffindor princess. like I did." he said before disappearing in the for like the rest of the forest.
Draco woke up in his chair in Hogwart's hospital wings. He turned to look at the face of the girl who lay motionless on the bed. "I love you, Hermione, I swear it on our december moon." he whispered.
Draco lifted gently Hermione's hand from the bed, he took his wand from his pocket and with firm hand he streaked the girl's candid hand in blood-red. He looked down at his hand and for a moment wondered if it would work. -I have nothing to loose beside her.- he thought while cutting his palm too.
He placed a finger on his wound and gently touched Hermione's half-closed lips, dropping a small drop of bloo, then with a trembling hand he took some from the palm of the girl, bringing his red-stained finger to his lips. He squeezed Hermione's delicate hand in his, leaning over her, and leaving a kiss on the girl's cold lips.
Can the kiss of true love overcome death?
When Draco broke apart it returning back leaning against the back of his chair, and terrible headache attacked him. Hermione's face was the last thing he saw before falling into a dreamless sleep.
AN
sorry for not updating but this chapter took me quite a long time in addition to various school things.
"Our December moon" is something I added to chapter 14 yesterday. Legends tell that on the night of december's full moon, magial things happen. that's what Hermione tells Draco before the fireworks display and after they talked on the stairway, she reepats it. You can recheck chapter 14 for more details if you want.
The flowers they brought to Hermione when they thought she was dead, have all different and special meaning according to the one who brought it. (es: Draco brought a white rose, that means everlasting love)