Snow. I used to love snow, it reminded me of Snow angels with my parents, snowflakes clinging to my mother's curly blonde, shoulder length hair as a smile crinkled the corners of my father's chocolate brown eyes. It reminded me of the legendary Weasley snowball fights in the grounds over Christmas, but now I also remembered the ruined Potter house. I remembered the snake. A shudder rocked through my body as the door opened behind me.
"Why didn't you go home?" I asked quietly as my smoking buddy leant against the railing next to me.
"I don't have one," Malfoy's soft tone breathed as I lit a second cigarette and lit his too with a quick glance. "Thanks." In my minds eye Malfoy Manor loomed in front of me and I rubbed at the thin scar on my neck, thankful that this was the only injury to my person with that cursed blade.
"Don't you?" I questioned softly as I turned my body to face the man who had become one of my friends since the term began. Harry knew about our friendship and Theodore Nott knew from Draco's side but that was it. Draco's grey eyes met mine through the smoke he blew, and I raised an eyebrow.
"Lucius Malfoy has been sentenced to life imprisonment in Azkaban. Narcissa Malfoy has been banished to one of the Black property's in France for five years. Malfoy Manor has been seized by the Ministry and currently a bunch of curse breakers are working to turn my childhood home into an orphanage for wizarding children. I do not have a home. Not at the minute anyway. I will probably move into the Malfoy cottage when I leave here, but for now… Hogwarts is home," Malfoy's voice was gruff as he spoke, obviously remembering the hearings.
The Malfoy trial was one I wanted no part in, I couldn't even look at Lucius Malfoy's face without remembering how he'd laughed and begged to call his master while I was being tortured. Malfoy had also been a bit difficult to stomach but I'd slowly learned to deal with what happened and separate it from the young Malfoy in front of me.
"Sorry for prying," I breathed quietly before taking a long drag and staring out over the black lake.
"Why are you still here?" Malfoy asked as he moved closer.
"Nowhere to go. Ron is dating Lavender again and invited her back to The Weasley home and Harry went with them. My parents… they…well, they didn't make it," I answered softly, glancing down at the cigarette as it burned in my hands.
"I'm sorry," Malfoy breathed, and his left hand moved towards me slowly but then stopped.
"It's not your fault. I… I cast an Obliviate charm to remove myself from their lives and tried to send them to Australia, but they died in a car accident on the way there," I said harshly, then I laughed as a wave of sadness threatened to overcome me. "It's so fucking muggle it's ironic. I tried to save them from dying a gruesome death in the middle of a fucking war. A war that they were only part of because they happened to have a magical daughter. But no a drunk driver hit them at 4 in the morning, head on collision, instant death." Without realising it I had started to cry, then I felt Malfoy's hands pull mine around his waist as he held me.
"I'm so sorry Hermione." Malfoy's voice rumbled in his chest as I pressed my face into his cloak, unable to stop the tears now they'd started. I'd been so strong for so long, strong for Harry, strong for the Weasley's, strong for everyone else except for myself. Harry and Ron didn't even know my parents were dead, only Malfoy knew that and for once it was nice to fall apart and not be the strong one, for once it was nice to be supported.
When my tears finally subsided I pulled myself from Malfoy's hold, almost unwilling to move out of his warmth. As I looked up at him his charcoal grey eyes met mine and it was clear he felt the same because he smirked quickly before he defiantly pulled me back to him, tilting my chin up at the same moment and pressing his warm lips to my own.