Title: The Gene
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Word Count: 499
Notes: This was written for the community dramione_ldws at LiveJournal for Round 3 Challenge #8 - I must be crazy to be in a loony bin. The prompt was based on "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and was to be set in St. Mungo's and have a theme of insanity. This was my final week in the competition.

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The Gene

"I don't believe you."

"Malfoy, I don't understand you."

"Why's that, Granger?" His eyes met hers with a smirk on his lips. He'd been waiting for this conversation for days, months even.

"You have been nothing but cordial to me since the end of the war, yet your 'side' lost. Why is that?" Her brow crinkled in worried confusion; surely worried because she expected him to lash out at her and confused because she truly didn't understand his new-found behavior.

His smirk widened to a grin, as he tutted, "And they call you the brightest witch of our day."

"I'm very sorry, Mr. Malfoy."

"Thank you for tonight, Draco." Her voice was quiet as she glanced down at her shoes. It was completely uncharacteristic for her to be so shy, yet endearing.

He lifted her chin with his fingertips and gazed into her eyes. "I should be thanking you."

She furrowed her brow, "Why?"

"Isn't it obvious?" he asked. "You gave me a second chance." His lips brushed against hers.

"It can't be. She was fine four days ago."

They had been sitting in front of the fireplace all evening talking about anything they could think of; her favorite color, his silly quirks, her fear of water, and his true feelings about his father. They had laughed and smiled. She had cried.

The firelight danced off her dark curls and he brushed his fingers through them to get her attention. She hummed in content.

It was time for his confession.

"Hermione?" He swallowed. "I love you."

Her smiled was easy and she didn't hesitate. "I love you, too."

"Sometimes there are no warning signs."

"And what did he say?"

He saw her fists clench together. "He said he couldn't approve of us."

Draco would have liked to have been surprised, but he wasn't. He was, however, as mad as she was. "What more do I have to do to prove myself? I've done everything I can think of! When will it be enough?"

He watched her anger dissipate instantly as she wrapped her fingers around his tightened hands. "Shh. No one else matters, Draco. It's you and me now."

He sighed.

"Forever," she said and twirled the ring around her finger. "Everyone is just going to have to get used to it."

"We were going to get married."

The healer at St. Mungo's set his clipboard down. "I am truly sorry, Mr. Malfoy. We have tried everything. There is nothing left to do."

Draco's body shook – with anger, fear, and pain. "It just can't be possible."

"Unfortunately, it can. All witches carry the gene. It affects some and not others. Unfortunately, Miss Granger was one of the unlucky ones."

Draco moved his eyes from the healer and over to his fiancé, lying on her sterile bed in a medicated induced coma – his fiancé who had been declared mentally insane two days ago and was harmful to others and herself.

Draco wanted nothing more, at that moment, than to die.