Love Hurts
Chapter Two:
School without Dumbledore was hard to imagine, in fact Harry hated the thought more than he hated Voldermort. Dumbledore was like a father that Harry had never really had the chance to experience. He tried hard to swallow the sour lump of bile that stung his throat and made his eyes water against the hard wind.
The Golden trio didn't seem so golden fighting the wind to make their way to their dreary lessons in the now unsafe castle. The last six years had obviously only just taken its toll on the three youths who look dishelmed and very pissed off. Every student in the class turned and stared at the late bunch as they entered and most Slytherins now minus the great Draco Malfoy as he was on the run though obviously innocent, In a Slytherins point of view and strange enough also in Hermione's, snickered at their untidy entrance and their hung heads as they made their way to their now separate seats all the while, even more unusual, not saying a word to either of their "friends" beside them.
Hermione was worried about Harry, he was skinny and pale and his hair normally a cute disshelved now looked unwashed and the bags under his eyes though he tried to hide them with magic was painfully obvious for her. She slipped her headphones out of her ears and put her small X-Logic mp3 player in her bag and pulled out her books grudgingly. She didn't know when she had lost her passion for books but she had and it depressed her almost as much as Harry's current condition did. When her book was propped up in front of her face she brushed away the small tears from her face which had been hidden by her bushy hair. Why was it every time she stepped into Hogwarts her heart broke a little more and longed for the days when life was nothing but a mystery, when she didn't understand? She now knew why ignorance was bliss and wished for the ignorance denied to her thanks to her "friends" whom she now thought if she had never met perhaps the situation would never have occurred. She now loathed them and their company at times and preferred to keep to herself for fear of getting hurt again. She didn't want to get hurt again. She couldn't, she wouldn't. Draco, she swore was the very last person she had allowed to break her trust.
Ron wondered when his friends had become so odd. He didn't remember Harry being so reserved and he didn't remember the ever annoying, know it all named Hermione being quiet and he has never remembered a time when they had ever sat apart. He bored as a button stared blankly at the teacher until the lesson was over and followed his quiet friends until without even saying goodbye they went their separate ways, Hermione going to one of her other classes and Harry and Ron, both in the same class left for theirs. Along the way Harry did not say a word to Ron and this freaked him out a little bit. Since when did he not know what to say to his friend?
Hermione had no intention of heading to her next class, she could use the time turner and go later, she wouldn't be able to concentrate anyway, she always had too much on her mind, and she wished it to be blank. She climbed up all the stairs to the top of the castle but not making her way to the astronomy tower, wishing all the while that this school would invest in either lifts of escalators. She counted the doors with the old children's game, my mother told me to count to ten and then she said count back again, when she opened the door she did not expect what she was about to see.
Harry was in his own world again, maybe he was dreaming, perhaps he was hallucinating but he could have sworn he saw Hermione head the opposite direction of her class and up the stairs. If he didn't have a class with Ron he would have followed her to see what she was up to. There was something seriously wrong with that girl. Then again they were all keeping secrets from each other weren't they? He could not trust anyone anymore, not even the two who were his best friends. This to Harry was not devastating but it was indeed unsettling, he also had come to expect it. Trust was a luxury his kind were rarely afforded.
Bang, "ow fuck," Hermione muttered as her foot collided with something very solid and then jumped almost sky high as it gave a groan in response. The room was pitch black which did not bother Hermione as she was used to the darkness. She lit her wand with a lumos charm and bent down over the figure of the only boy she had really loved. The one who had broken her trust along with her heart. Draco Malfoy. When she realized that she loved him she didn't know. All she knew was that she did and that was all there was too it. Before she could say anything he took her time turner, the only one left now that all the ones in the ministry had been destroyed and others had been confiscated and tracked down. Hers, being Mc Gonagall's was never found, he turned it in his hand taking her back in time with him.
Why was Harry scowling so much? Ron looked at his friend and felt sick inside at the thought of the golden trio finally falling apart, Hermione was distant and depressed and Harry was just odd. He couldn't describe his massive change except for that he was no longer the happy, eager and smart wizard he had known and cherished since first year when he had chosen to be friends with him instead of with the slimy git Malfoy. He knew Malfoy was trouble, he also knew the path that Harry would have walked down had he chosen the disgusting Slytherin over him. He shuddered at the thought of Harry on the side of He-Who Must Not Be Named and the evil that and darkness that would have followed, an all the adventures he would have missed out on. He was feeling nostalgic and despite his tough guy exterior he couldn't help the sting of tears behind his eyes. He was not the type of person to cry easy and he knew inside that it would have to be him to fix the relationship between the three. Harry was too preoccupied and Hermione, stubborn, sweet, level headed Hermione was too wrapped up in her own world to see beyond her own face. He could not hold that against her though. She couldn't help that he really loved her with every fiber of his being, but he also knew that the one he loved was the one girl he could never really have. He knew that love hurts and the worst part was that you could never control who you fell for and you never knew when it would hit.
Hermione was shocked at what she was seeing, she was in the astronomy tower and there was Dumbledore speaking. Also in the room were Draco and Snape. She ran to the past version of her lover and held him crying for the fate she could not change. At that exact moment she realized that she realized when she had fallen for him. The moment he could not kill the headmaster she had looked up to like a really old and smart parental position. Her heart pounced in her chest when she realized he could not see her. There must be something wrong with her time turner, he should be able to see her but somehow he was unable. She turned around to face the figure behind her. His face melted the hardness in her heart and broke down the walls she had built around since he had run away. As she turned she watched Snape murder everything she had ever believed in. Draco pulled her to him and hid her face into his chest to shield her from the horror in front of her eyes. She cried into his chest her heart breaking into a million pieces. She knew no one would be ale to know the love she had for Draco and so far they had only been friends, not even he was aware of her emotions. She could never have him and yet she wanted him so badly. She could never love anyone like she did him. She could never tell him, he would never feel the same.
Draco looked down at the girl trembling in his arms, her shoulders heaving heavy with tears, her bushy hair almost smothering him. She looked up into his eyes for a spilt second; they were brimmed with fresh tears. His heart was moving in leaps and bounds and he wanted to hold her to him for the rest of their natural lives. If only he had the courage right now to lean in and kiss her soft pink lips but before he could make a move she put her head back against his chest and he simply held her to him hoping she could not hear how fast his heart beat was going. How did she do that to him? How was it she had that effect, what was it about her that said everything without not saying a word? How is it he could see into her soul but he could not see into her heart? He was scared for the first time in his life; he was scared that he did not feel for him how he felt for her. He wanted to whisper it into her ear but now was not the time. He picked up her time turner and twisted it forwards to when they had left leaving the dying Dumbledore behind.
They both sat in silence on the floor Hermione's hands cupping Draco's face running her thumb over she cheeks which now seemed hollow with famine and he was also covered in dirt, his once fashionable and neatly tended to clothes in tatters alike to his and his family reputation. Hermione wondered if he knew of his mother and fathers fate. They had both been sent to Azkaban to receive the Dementor's kiss before serving a life sentence in the deepest dungeons of the wizarding prison never to see the light of day ever again. If they died no one would ever know as the person who serves meals and cleans their cells was a deaf mute with a hefty punch that could knock King Kong for six. She desperately wanted to take him an care for him but she knew that out in the world the same fate awaited him and she did not want that to happen to him. She looked up ion despair and that's when she saw the large golden doors lying behind the man in her arms.
"What is that and why are you in here with it?" she questioned now skeptical worried that she had betrayed more than she had ever imagined.
"The gates of Elysium, and I am guarding it." Was his simple answer. He did not tell her who had told him to guard the sacred place and she did not know what the gates of Elysium was doing in Hogwarts. She hoped to get answers but before she did there were other matters to attend to. She walked up to the doors and put her hand on the handle. The handle was like ice in her hand but she felt like she could not let go. She didn't want to let go. She was drawn to this door and its secrets, most importantly what lay beyond it. The afterlife. If she could not have Draco in life she would rather choose death. But how to draw him away from the gate. This would take all her brainpower to figure out but she was determined to find a way.