Hello everyone. I am sitting here, and I figured I should upload the chapter since it's all corrected. I'm STILL looking for a BETA if you're interested. Keep that in mind.
A few weeks past similarly to that. Hermione would wake up, go to some random room, Draco would find her and they would look around his estate. One thing that changed however was each day Hermione cried less and less as she came to speed with what had happened. She didn't like it but she had to move on at this point.
One day on a normal Wednesday Hermione woke up a little earlier than usual. And by earlier than usual I mean she could hear Draco quietly sleeping in his room. She tip-toed down the main staircase and looked around. She was about to go to the pool for a morning dip when a paper magically appeared on the doorstep. Hermione quickly recognized it as the Daily Prophet. She picked it up then headed into the over sized living room. She sat in a random chair and looked at the front page. She gasped.
It was a picture of her and Draco, the night when he had found her. You could tell she was a wreck even in the bad quality of lighting. She turned the page and it was another picture. But this one was when she and the boys had gotten metals for being war 'heros'. The picture next to it was of Draco, he was obviously avoiding cameras when this was taken. At the bottom of the page it showed clear pictures of her hiding her 'mudblood' scar and him hiding the death mark.
She turned the page once again and saw a picture of Ron looking embarrassed, and on the other a crying Pansy. How the hell did these make any sense? Hermione fed her curiousity and read the first page.
"Hiding proof?
After being accused of Hermione Jean Granger's murder four years ago, Draco Lucius Malfoy has been trying to clear his name by doing service in the muggle world. Even though there was no evidence against him.
28 days ago Draco came back into the wizarding world with a familiar looking female under his arm, people quickly identified this as Hermione. With the common question being, 'She's alive?'. But this was also compared to her appearance making people believe that it was some homeless woman Draco had charmed to look like her.
This possible identity switch cannot be proven however, because after their appearance there they quickly apparated to Draco's estate which is under extremely strict security precautions. We are lead to believe however that this is in fact the actual Hermione because later that evening Draco arrived at the Weasley house (to be further known as the Burrow) where he went inside and had a conversation with a Miss Ginny Weasley. He left there via floo and has not been seen since.
On the next few pages we will be talking about some things that protean to this case."
As she finished reading the article Hermione got angry. She violently folded the paper back up and walked to Draco's room. She forcefully opened the door causing light to poor into the room. Draco groaned. He flipped onto his back. He was only wearing pajama pants. His pale skin contrasted deeply to the sheet on his bed and the mark on his left arm.
He opened his eyes and saw it was Hermione standing at the edge of his bed. There was a shadow on her face making it impossible to see her expression.
"Oh, it's you. What's up Hermione?" He asked casually. When she didn't respond he sat up and saw the real expression on her face, anger.
"Wow. Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed." He said. She threw the paper at his head. It hit and all the different parts of the paper separated. As the papers settled he looked at her, shocked.
"Why didn't you tell me this was all going on?" She asked, sitting on his bed. "People don't even know if it's me that you found. They might not get it out of their heads that I'm not a drunk anymore."
"I couldn't tell you because you weren't stable. If I would've shown you nothing could've stopped you from stealing my wand to prove your point about not being a wineo." He said.
"I don't even remember any spells." She said putting her head in her hands. "Yes I did drink all the alcohol, yes I did drugs trying to make myself not wake up, yes I stole for food. But now I can't even prove I had no control over it." Draco put his arms around her in a hug.
"I know that. I know that when you're on the street things can seem hard. My main question is, why did it happen?" He asked softly. "You had brains, you could've done so much. What happened?"
"I don't really remember. I remember rushing into the muggle world, then next thing I remember I'm in rags and it's a year later. Then I remember half the nights after that. The other half I drank away." She cried into his bare chest.
"Whatever the case, I didn't tell you because I didn't want to hurt you." He said, holding her tighter. "Two years ago the Prophet changed staff. They put so many lies into that paper I can't even believe it. They put in peoples harshest words and the meanest pictures."
"Why do you protect me? We were never friends, or acquaintances, or even mutual ignorance. We were enemies."
"I protected you because after you stood up to me, after you managed to hide, as I saw you get tortured, I realized that not only were you smart and beautiful, but you had strength I couldn't believe. Then every time you made an appearance in the paper I fell harder. When we shared a dorm in our final year I fell completely." Draco said, he loosened his grip so that they could look at each other.
"Every day from when you went missing I never stopped looking. My heart snapped in half when Potter called of the search. I couldn't go to any memorial services. I went to the muggle world searched for days on end...only to come up empty every time. I know we can't rewind the past from here. I know that me hiding the papers from you was wrong. I know how our teenage years were filled with hate. And I am so sorry for all of it." Draco said with honesty. Hermione's eyes filled with tears and Draco's filled with worry. He was about to apologize for everything when Hermione knocked him backwards with a strong hug. Before he got a chance to speak her lips were on his. After a minute she pulled away.
"I've felt the same Draco." She whispered. He grinned. "I had to drink away dreams but when I didn't, you were in them. I could tell you had changed, but I didn't think you could feel the same. So I blocked the feeling until I didn't know them anymore. When I had left the Weasley's I thought about coming here. But I thought you hated me. Apparently every one else did too."
Draco reached into his nightstand and pulled out a wand case. He opened it and handed Hermione her wand. Her mouth was open wide.
"I don't know what's going to happen from here. But I know you'll need this. Tomorrow we're leaving the estate. I am going to help you, no matter what it takes, no matter what happens, we are going to tie up all the loose ends. And as long as I'm with you, I don't care how long it takes."
The drama we all know and sometimes love is coming up very soon. I will see you then my readers.
Please rate and review! :)