Okay. I seriously deserve to be slashed and burned. So so so sorry I haven't updated since the last millenium! I've had so many things on my plate from the PSATs to my birthday to the SAT IIs. Well, the thing is, I'm here now, with the final chapter of Tough Love.
If you forgot the story already due to my lack of updates, I'll recap for you: There were rumors about H&D. H&D get together.H finds out it was all a bet to D. Anger and Tears. Detention for H&D. H is attacked by Lucius. L puts H under mind spell. H realizes that she truly loves D. H is forced to send D right into L's trap. And here we are.
Chapter Thirteen
Through the dark woods, streams of moonlight were visible revealing Lucius Malfoy cackling malevolently as he swooped down from a low tree branch.
"Well, how have you been lately, son?" he half-whispered mockingly with a burning desire to kill in his eyes.
Draco merely glared directly back out him. Not an ounce of fear ran through his blood. "In fact, father, I've been great since you've been locked up in Azkaban. So why don't you do us all a favor, and go back to where you belong?"
Draco's voice shook with anger, causing Lucius to sneer with satisfaction. "I will ... but I have one simple task to… cross off my list before I leave."
Draco furiously gripped his wand tightly, prepared to face whatever his father had to offer. "And what is this… task?"
There was a flash of burning red in Lucius' eyes as he met Draco's. "Let me show you." Lucius said with a large smirk, his voice content with revenge. Draco pulled out his wand, ready to hex his own father at any second, but before he could say anything, Lucius spoke first. "AVADA KEDVRA!"
"NOOOO!!" Hermione screamed, shaking herself out of the horrid nightmare. Her breathing was stressed and heavy. The dream felt so real, as if she really did lose…
Draco.
Immediately realizing that her surroundings were dark, Hermione glanced around her bedroom for the clock. In a dark corner, Hermione found a lighted screen reading… 8:35.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
She was supposed to meet Draco at the Dark Forest five minutes ago. With her eyes puffed red, and her hair and clothing tangled, Hermione stumbled out of bed and out the door. There was no way she was going to let Lucius get to Draco. Hermione sprinted all the way to Hagrid's Hut, not even bothering to catch her breath.
As she anxiously ran towards the Dark Forest, she noticed that Draco was no where in sight. Could Lucius have gotten to him already? Or did he not arrive yet? Half empty or half full?
Hermione's mind was about to explode from excessive thinking that she didn't even hear a maniacal laughter creep up behind her. Suddenly shocked and alert, Hermione guarded her wand securely in front of her with a swift turn.
"Mudblood." Sneered the blond figure before her. Yet it wasn't the blond she expected.
Draco stood two inches from her face glaring down at her with a menacing smirk. Hermione staggered backward, not understanding the meaning of what was happening.
Am I still in my nightmare?
"I—I don't understand." Hermione looked quizzically at Draco, with an evident trace of fear. Hermione's voice raised two octaves as she spoke to him, scared for his life. "Did you run into Lucius, Draco? He's looking for you. Are you even listening to me? Your father wants to KILL you."
Hermione was unnerved as she watched Draco nonchalantly stare at his cuticles, while she was delivering to him horrific news. Something was extremely… off.
"You know…Granger." Drawled the familiar tone of Draco. "If you continue to go into hysterics it will save me the effort of killing you."
Hermione looked at him wide-eyed. "What the hell is going on? Draco? What are you talking about? I'm confused."
"Well," Draco began, looking extremely bored. "Father tricked you into thinking he was going to kill me, and now he's ordered me to kill you. You see, I'm actually not as 'good' as you see me. I'm pretty good at lying, and since you are supposedly the top of class at Hogwarts, I would have suspected that you wouldn't be THIS dumb. Honestly Granger, do you honestly think someone like me could befriend, nonetheless, date someone like you?"
Hermione couldn't absorb what was going on. Her head was going dizzy as she slowly processed the information. Yet, it didn't seem to fit. The puzzle was missing too many pieces to make it whole.
"I don't believe you." Hermione declared defiantly as tears formed at the corner of her eyes. "This doesn't make any… sense. Where's Lucius? If he wanted to kill me, he would have killed me on the spot the day I met him there."
A shadow darkened Draco's eyes, defining the struggle that lay hidden beneath the stormy grey eyes.
"You know what, Mudblood?" Draco said with distaste, his desperate expression quickly evaporated.
"Now, now Draco. Hold your tongue." Came the silvery voice of an identical, older blond. Lucius. "Play nice with the… dead-girl walking."
Hermione shuddered as she felt herself getting cornered by the two blond figures. Slowly backing away from the sinister smiles that were thrown towards her, Hermione crashed into the tree behind her earning her a couple of painful splinters tacked to her back.
She briefly noticed the concern pass through Draco's eyes.
Epiphany. As if someone had just turned on the light bulb within Hermione's head, she knew exactly what was happening.
Draco's under the Imperius Curse.
The anger that had been lingering within Hermione's blood boiled to a high. She was full on pissed off.
"Draco!!" Hermione cried desperately towards the threatening teenager. "Draco! I know you're in there somewhere. You can beat this. You can beat your father. Use all your strength to overcome this curse!"
Draco's expression changed slightly, as if he was undergoing an inner war. Lucius glared malevolently at Hermione. "So, you really are the brightest witch of your age. I really can't get anything past you." He smirked knowingly, earning death glares from the feisty brunette. "Too bad my pathetic excuse for a son isn't 'emotionally' here to save you from this… CRUCIO!!!"
Hermione felt the Unforgivable Curse hit her square in the chest, and cried out in pain as she felt her insides being ripped apart. This time, the curse was stronger than the last. She felt as if she was dead when she felt Lucius release the curse. Slowly breathing herself to consciousness, she noticed Draco charge towards Lucius.
The next occurrence happened too quickly for Hermione to comprehend clearly what happened during her distressed state. All she saw was a bright green light being blasted from one blond to the other before she blacked out.
-:-
"Hermione." Came a singsong voice. "Hermione"
Who the hell is singing her name?
It was obvious that it was still late at night, for there was a bright moon out. Hermione lifted her head to observe her surroundings before quickly setting it back down again due to the heavy pounding she was experiencing.
"Hermione!" the singsong voice no longer sounded singsong-y. "Hermione, oh God, your awake."
Hermione tried opening her eyes once more and noticed Harry, Ron, and Ginny sitting by her bed with concern. Ginny began sobbing hysterically and Ron looked as if he were about to faint.
"Oh, thank God you're awake." Harry said with the warmest voice. "Hermione, we were so worried. We thought you'd never wake up."
Hermione's eyes watered as she looked at her loving friends surrounding her, feeling slightly dizzy. "Oh, Harry, Ron, Ginny! I love you guys soooo much! You're sooo soft!"
Ron looked at her with extreme concern and turned to Harry. "Do you think she's got a head concussion?"
"No, I'm pretty sure she's just overdosed on morphine."
Hermione smiled euphorically before falling back into a deep slumber to the singsong voices in her head without any worries.
-:-
Hermione awoke once more. This time she was alone. She felt pain throughout her body, and for once, noticed clearly that she was covered with the warm white sheets of the Hospital Wing. She noticed that her painkillers were low.
Her mind clear of blurring drugs allowed her to process what resulted her in the hospital bed. Quickly being refreshed in her memories, did Hermione realize she didn't know where Draco was.
Oh, God. What if Lucius…What if he…
Hermione sat up, panicked, and tried to scramble out of bed to search for Dumbledore.
"Miss Granger. Where do you think your going?"
Hermione noticed Madame Pomfrey walking towards her with concern and anger. "You MUST stay in bed. But, I'm very glad you're awake. You haven't eaten in days."
Days?
"How long was I out?" Hermione asked, curious.
"Well, you were in a coma for 3 days, when you awoke briefly. Then you passed out for another 3 days. We were beginning to become concerned as to whether we should've sent you to St. Mungo's."
Hermione breathed slowly as she felt her heart rate increase with the anxiety of figuring out where Draco was. "Madame Pomfrey, if I was in here for six days, unconscious, may I ask where Malfoy is?"
Madame Pomfrey looked taken aback by the question, then glared menacingly at the mention of the name. "Why, dead, of course." With nothing else left to say, Madame Pomfrey walked away, leaving Hermione by herself in despair.
Hermione felt her heart break into a million pieces. Draco was… dead. Gone forever. She didn't feel tears form in her eyes as she would've expected. Instead, she felt empty, completely hollow.
Her heart was racing too fast for her to feel the ache that lay hidden. The one man she had ever truly loved has been banished from the face of the earth. In all his blond glory, his death had been from the act of his father.
Hermione sat in her bed staring into space feeling completely numb. She was off medication yet she didn't feel any of the pain that actually existed within her. With a rush of emotions coming over her hollow corpse, Hermione jumped off her bed and ran towards her dorm. Despite the pain that occurred with every moving muscle, she kept running with all her might towards her sanctuary.
The Head Wing.
It was still early in the morning, so nobody walked the halls of school. In the quiet corridors, only the heavy breathing and shuffling of feet could be heard coming form Hermione. With every painful step taken, Hermione felt her heart heave. Finally reaching her destination, Hermione stepped into the dimly lit common room. It was completely different from when she last left it. Everything had been cleaned and organized, and all the empty liquor bottles had disappeared. Slowly, Hermione limped towards the nearest armchair and fell onto it. All the physical pain she currently felt helped mask the emotional trauma she was experiencing.
As if a huge emotional truck just hit her, Hermione burst into tears. Hot, melting tears. She cried harder and harder, though she wasn't sure if it was because of the post-effects of the Cruciatus Curse or because of her aching heart.
"Why?!" Hermione suddenly exclaimed, losing control over her voice. "It's my entire fault! If only I wasn't so goddamn stupid!"
Her words were barely audible since the tears pouring out of her tired, red eyes slurred her enunciation.
"It's my entire fucking fault that that son of a bitch killed him!!!" Hermione screamed with frustration through her tears.
"My God, Granger! Cursing the heavens at such an ungodly hour." Came a voice behind Hermione. "You'd think a model student would know better."
Hermione's heart skipped a beat as she turned to face Draco Malfoy smirking at the base of the staircase wearing silk, green boxers and nothing else.
Hermione's mouth dried at the vision in front of her. She wasn't sure whether it was because Draco Malfoy, who's supposedly dead, was standing before her, or it was because he looked so delicious half-naked.
"Good morning, gorgeous." Draco said pleasantly, ignoring the non-stop tears pouring from Hermione's eyes.
Hermione finally found her voice, but all she could say was "You! You son sniff of sniff a sniff bitch!!! I sniff thought sniff you were sniff dead!"
The 'd' word sent Hermione into a new set of hot tears.
Draco suddenly became concerned, and rushed towards the beautiful teary-eyed brunette. He pulled her into his arms, like he did many times before, and tried to stop her consistent tears. "Hermione, I'm right here. Shh… it's okay."
"No! It's not okay." Hermione said defiantly through her wet tears. "I went through 30 minutes of hell thinking you were gone forever."
She clinged on tighter to his torso, hoping to keep him there forever. Slowly, she calmed a bit in his warm, strong arms. Almost as soon as she was calm, she was angry. Pushing Draco a foot away, Hermione glared daggers at him. She began punching him, knowing it would not affect his strong body in anyway.
"You ASS!!! I can't believe you almost died! I can't believe you would have left me alone in a world without you. I hate you!! I hate you! I hate you so much that I… love you."
Hermione softened into his arms, unsure of what she had just said aloud. Draco chuckled quietly and spoke quietly into her ear, as if sharing a secret.
"I'm not quite sure how that works, but I honestly don't hate you. I just plainly love you." He gave her ear a light kiss before working his way to her soft pink lips.
Hermione stopped him mid-kiss. "Before we go on, tell me exactly what happened that night."
"Well, you and I were getting it on in Hagrid's Hut, when my pig-headed father happened to—Oww!" Draco winced as Hermione smacked him playfully. He rolled his eyes before continuing the story in a bored voice. "Okay, so the truth is, in the most simple words: you passed out, I broke out of the Imperius, Lucius Expelliarmus-ed me, I Avada Kedvra-ed him, he died, I carried you to the hospital, and voila. Here we are." He leaned into kiss her before she pushed him away once more.
"You killed Lucius?" Hermione looked at him with a shocked expression.
"Yes."
"Okay… then why did Madame Pomfrey tell me you... died?"
"I don't know. What did she tell you exactly?"
"I asked her word for word, "Where's Malfoy"" Hermione said matter-of-factly.
"I think she thought you meant my father because you didn't exactly clarify which Malfoy." Draco said as if it were the dumbest thing in the world.
"Oh." Hermione replied, suddenly extremely embarrassed. Draco looked down at the blushing beauty, and pulled her into a deep kiss, sending shivers down Hermione's spine. "Did you happen to get better than me at kissing?"
"I was always better at kissing." Draco said with his signature smirk.
God, he's handsome!
Hermione smiled timidly at him. "Do you really love me?"
Draco rolled his eyes with playful annoyance. "Of course. What's not to love?"
Hermione giggled with pleasure as Draco lifted her off the armchair and carried her up to his room.
A sexy blond in nothing but green, silk boxers plus a gorgeous brunette being carried to his bedroom.
Never a clean outcome.
Check out my new story 'Infidelity'...HGDM!!!
REVIEW, por favor. I just turned 15!!! I'd love a birthday present, and I'm pretty sure you know what I want.