A/N: Hey all - I'm really sorry, but the holidays have been crazy. I'm surrounded by family constantly so finding free time to write has been impossible. I will do my best to update like normal from now on. I feel horrible since it's been about four days since an update and for me that's a long time. I feel really bad though about the challenge in particular. I have not had time to look at some of the private messages that have been sent to me about the challenge thoroughly and I don't think it's fair to choose until I've read them all completely. Hopefully by next update I'll have an answer. I apologize about this. Alright, I'm done with my babbling so happy reading!

Oh and by the way, I know it's late, but...Merry Christmas!

Numb - Chapter 22

Draco's first instinct was to throw himself at the man standing in front of the recently shut door, the only way out of the room, but he was held back; Hermione. Her grip upon his arm was born of strength he was quite sure was subconscious. Her brown eyes were dark scanning over Alan like he was an inferius, sent to kill her and only her. Her heart was pounding so loud that Draco could practically hear the faint thumping himself. That just about did him in for he found himself scared for her.

"Well, you came to me. Easier than I could have ever imagined. Would you prefer to walk out there next to me or would you like me to stun you both right now?"

Draco jerked up without any further thinking shoving his wand into the air faster than the word 'magic'. Most people would have been caught off guard by Alan's entrance, but he was obviously much faster than most and very protective of his girl. Oh yes, he was worried about Hermione, but he had to push all of that out of his mind. He had to focus on now, a concept that seemed to be hard for even the best of wizards and witches.

"Jameson this is between you and me now. Do you understand? You're going to be leaving–"

"What are you doing?" asked Hermione looking away from Alan to give Draco a confused glare. "This is my fight, not yours."

"This is not the time to throw a Hermione Granger hissy fit–"

"Hermione Jameson," interjected Alan quickly, "She isn't back to Granger yet and certainly will never live to see that day."

Draco turned back to face Alan whose smirk made him seem as though he belonged to the pureblood line of the Parkinson family. Not only did it bother Draco, it made him hate the man in front of him even more. His dark eyes looked even more vicious than his own father's. That was saying something.

"Actually, by the way you're looking at me, I guess that you hoped your last name would become hers someday. You wanted her to be a Malfoy. How very interesting." Alan's smirk broadened forcing Draco to bite his tongue and bury his nails into the palm of his hand. He could not only taste blood, but feel it dripping between his fingers.

"Hermione I suggest that–"

"Alan I'm done arguing with you and I'm finished being your little wife. Make this easier on all of us and just hold out your arm. All of this will be over soon."

Her former love raised his eyebrows in ardent surprise at her forward approach. This was not the girl that he had come to claim as a wife, but the girl he first met. He did not like this, not at all. He disliked the man next to her even more.

"What do you need my arm for? I don't recall you mentioning a reason for–"

"Alan, again, I'm done with this. I'm done with you being the forceful husband and me being the obedient wife. I'm the one in charge of my life now and I decide what I am going to do. Right now I know exactly what I'm doing which is taking my life back! I'm taking back the life that you stole from me! Now give me your damn arm before I walk over there and break it off myself."

The two men were at a loss, but for different reasons; Alan was wrathful, prepared to rip Hermione limb from bloody limb; Draco was pleased finding that Hermione had never looked more beautiful, more powerful, more like herself than he had ever seen her.

"So honey are you going to make me do this the easy way or the hard way?"

Alan was not accustom to this type of behavior from her or anyone else. Not only was he baffled, but uncertain as to how he should approach the situation. Yes, he had a wand, but so did they and he knew full well that Hermione use to be able to do wandless magic (before he had broken her, of course). Whether she had regained that ability, he did not know, but it worried him none the less. Alan was definitely scared. As a scared man, slightly insane man on top of that, he took out the blunt of his anger by throwing out his inner, deepest thoughts to the woman he claimed over all others with hateful words.

"Hermione I'm going to kill you. I really am going to kill you and I'm going to enjoy it. I will rip out every part of your body that I can get my hands on to the point where I will actually be ripping out your soul. Hermione you were so beautiful. You were so fucking beautiful and when I saw you waking up in the hospital bed for the first time...I wanted you. I wanted to have every part of you and I did. Now though, you've given it up for what? For this bastard?"

"He saved my life!" she screamed. There were no tears in her eyes for Hermione was not crying. Not only did she not want him to see her cry, she was just sick of crying altogether. She was tired of allowing Alan to make her cry.

"Well this bastard right here says that you will not hurt her. No harm will ever come to her again."

Alan chuckled as though he had literally lost his mind completely. Hermione and Draco exchanged a quick glance before they turned back to Alan. "You obviously couldn't protect your first wife when that curse hit her square in the back, blonde hair sprayed all over, falling down face first. You did have a hot wife Malfoy. She looked cute clad in a tight blue shirt."

Draco initially was angered, but then it struck him like a blow to the face. Did I hear him right? Did he...no fucking way...

"What did you just say?" asked Draco trying to remain as calm as he could; all in all, he wasn't relaxed at all.

"You couldn't protect your first wife so how the hell will you protect Hermione?" snarled Alan, pissed off that he had to repeat himself.

"No. How do you know she died from a curse? No fuck that—how do you know what she was wearing when she died?"

Alan's eyes widened.

"You um...said it already."

"No I didn't. How did you know that?" asked Draco, shaking with anger, Hermione next to him preparing for the man she loved to explode. Alan masked his fear (yes, he was very scared of Draco at that point. No, fuck that, he was down right petrified of the man shaking in front of him) by simply smiling at him.

"You going to cry over this?"

Draco reacted faster than a firebolt when he grabbed Alan by his black robes and threw him into the bedroom wall, clenching the heavy material with every ounce of strength he possessed. Draco's eyes were red and bloodshot making him appear that he was undoubtedly insane.

"Answer me you son of a bitch!"

Alan grunted as Draco pushed him harder into the stony wall cutting up his back. He said quickly, "I'll tell you the second I get my wife back."

"Answer me now or I swear to Merlin that I will kill you!"

"Drake they'll hear–"

"Did you kill my wife?!" he screamed no longer able to hold back the question burning his mind. With this Alan knew he was done, that any lie told would easily be exposed by the strong man holding him up. He had no other choice.

"Malfoy what do you think my rank initiation task was?"

Draco had never felt more hatred towards someone in his life. He was staring at that man that not only hurt his Hermione, his angel and savior, but the man who had killed his wife on the grounds of becoming a head death eater. Alan had killed his wife, his Taylor, and stolen three years of his precious life. To say that Draco was mad would have been an understatement. Draco was positively enraged.

"You killed Taylor because...because–"

"I killed her because that was my task. That was my task and unlike you, I didn't take it lightly. Unlike you, I completed mine. I told you that I joined directly after you left and I waited for my chance to join the ranks of his clan for years. I would have thought that the infamous Draco Malfoy, supposedly a smart wizard, would have caught on to that sooner. You of all people should know that joining the ranks means taking a life. The Dark Lord found it fitting for me to kill her because I was your replacement."

Draco dropped him to the ground. He had not meant to do it, but he had lost all feeling. He was a complete shadow for a moment.

Alan leaned back against the wall with pain overcoming his body. Draco had hurled him at the confined stone-barrier with such brute force that his back was aching with a throbbing agony. If he was a smart person, in the sense of having common sense, he would have remained silent, but a death eater does not always use common sense if it means stopping others from hurting. He knew that if he kept talking then he could continue to hurt Draco.

"Your wife was always meant to die Malfoy. I didn't go there to ask about Potter nor do I give a shit about him in any way. I went there because the Dark Lord told me to hurt you through any means. Hurt you, but not kill you. The Dark Lord had come in contact with you without you even realizing it. He said that he spotted you when he was actually out on a midnight stroll for he does them often in muggle London where nobody knows who he is. It's easier for him to kill that way even if it is just for bloody sport. He spotted you with that blonde and realized that you had left him, left our cause, for some filthy muggle. He gave me an address and told me that you had a wife with which I was to kill. I had no problem killing her and don't for one second think that I'll have any problems killing Hermione."

Draco's rage was building like a fast acting plague. It was sinking from head to toe, making him twitch with anger. Hermione stood back watching the display in front of her; her former husband and current lover were staring at one another, both prepared to kill.

"I will say though that it was a shame considering how fucking sexy she was. She was almost as hot as Hermione here."

Draco lunged for him as Hermione threw her arms around him. Obviously he was much stronger than her, not to mention the adrenaline that was coursing through his veins, so holding him back was impossible. He threw his hands around Alan's neck strangling all life out of him.

Hermione put her hands to his shoulders attempting to push Draco back, but he was just so blind sided that he did not stop for her. Hermione did not know what she could do to snap him out of this. Of course she loved seeing Alan in the state he was in, turning blue and all, but she had to do this herself. She couldn't let Draco kill him as much as she would have loved him too.

"Drake I–"

"You son of a bitch!"

"DRACO!" she squealed forcing his face to look at hers. When their eyes met, he stopped his administrations against Alan though his hands remained around his raw neck. Hermione had that hold over him.

"Draco you know what we came here to do. We won't be able to do it if you kill him. It needs to be me. It has to be me. Please, just let him go."

Alan's face was nearly purple when Draco unclenched his hands from him. Immediately he sputtered, gagging on his own attempts at breathing, as Hermione pulled Draco into an embrace. He held onto her as she stroked his back and rocked him back and forth. Knowing full well that Alan was not a threat, she just held onto Draco, the love of her life, as he felt his loss again.

"They killed her because of me...they killed her...and now they want to kill you. I can't let that happen." He pulled up from her to meet her eyes. She saw that the red flare had left his eyes replaced by the grey storm she loved so much. Her fingers quickly traced his features.

"Nothing is going to happen to me if we do it now. We can do it now and this can all be over. Then you can take me away. Then we can get away."

It took several minutes for him to calm down; his convulsions turning to mere tremors. Finally they turned back to Alan whose eyes were glazed and made him look like a small child, wide and all. Draco released his firm grip that he had on Hermione allowing her to move over to him pulling out his arm. Alan grimaced in pain as Hermione bit into his arm pulling away parts of his flesh and most importantly, drawing blood. The vial was pulled out of Draco's pocket with her other hand, Draco too distraught to focus on even the most straightforward of tasks.

Hermione uncorked the large vial and let drops of his blood fall in it. Her own had already been added so the potion was finally ready for her to drink. All that was left was for her to swallow the liquid.

"Hermione...just do it quickly. The taste will be vile so just glug it fast."

She nodded before placing the glass up to her lips, tensing at how cold the bottle was. The smell was lingering in her nose, the pungent odor nearly making her gag. She knew that this was the last moment in her life where she was going to be controlled by Alan.

That thought gave her the strength.

She chugged the entire substance without another thought. Yes, the taste was dreadful, but for her it could have been lemonade. The taste was not at all bad with the outcome in her mind. This meant freedom. This meant a life for her without her husband hindering her happiness. This meant that she belonged to herself again...and in a good way, to Draco.

Upon finishing every drop (and I mean every bloody drop!) she threw the bottle at the wall shattering it into pieces which, much to her joy, landed on Alan.

"I can finally feel. I'm not numb anymore."

"Thank Merlin," whispered Draco. This brought her out of her trance making her face him, turning her attention to the man she loved.

Alan, who was still very much alive, watched the couple embrace in silence. He watched her spread gentle, chaste kisses all over his face, him basking in her love. To see such a scene, well, one could say that he himself would have clawed them both to shreds had he not been in his weak state.

"I love–"

Hermione was cut off as the door slammed open next to them. Hermione and Draco both jerked as they saw the Dark Lord himself walk into the room followed by none other than Fenrir Greyback and Bellatrix Lestrange. All three of them looked somewhat amused at the sight before them.

Draco reacted and pushed himself in front of Hermione and out of harm's way. His strength had obviously returned for she fell back with force.

"I knew it," uttered Greyback, his eyes callous and malicious, "I knew that I smelled mudblood along with those sweet apples."

Hermione reacted much like Draco had the moment before and did something that nobody expected from her. She raised her wand and pointed it directly at Alan's chest, instantly alerting them all as to her intentions.

Alan smirked at her as he said in a cool voice, "I never liked apples." Hermione smiled right back at him.

"Precisely why the smell is so bloody appealing. AVADA KEDAVRA!"

With a flash of green light, Alan was dead.

"I don't say this often," began Voldemort, his voice filled with amusement, "but I am actually impressed. I didn't think the mudblood had it in her."

A/N: Well, well, well - Alan finally got his. What do you guys think?

"Numb" is a song by the band Linkin Park. One of their more well known songs, but it works for the chapters. The line that I thought about for the chapter was, "Cause everything that you thought I would be is falling apart right in front of you." Perfect, eh?

READ AND REVIEW!! If you can read it, then you can review it.

Iris is the work of fanfiction. The characters belong to J.K. Rowling, but the featured story is mine.