Chapter XIV: A Life For Another
Water filled Hermione's mouth the second she broke the surface of the inky Great Lake and plummeted straight to the bottom. She knew nothing of her situation as spindly fingers snaked their way around her ankles and dragged her gracefully through the water.
Draco was thankful for the quick silent Bubble-Head charm he'd cast on himself, encasing his mouth in a bubble like substance that allowed him to breathe underwater before he'd hit the water. However his triumph was soon over ruled when he realised that he'd fallen into the Great Lake with Hermione, whom was not hanging onto his waist anymore.
Draco fished around around in his pocket for his wand and pulled it out, quickly casting a silent Lumos to illuminate the inky waters of the lake. He could make out Harry using his own wand on Hermione's bag that was still around his body, and Draco only had to guess that Harry had silently cast a Bubble-Head charm too. Ron was no where to be seen.
Draco cast a locating charm and followed the arrow that protruded out of the end of his wand like a red hologram. The arrow led him down deeper through the water, and Draco was beginning to panic. If his wand was telling him to go deeper, surely Hermione was already dead. He spotted her still form just below his feet, strung painfully across some rocks.
The further he got to her, the quicker he realised she was surrounded by mermaids. They were enthralled by Hermione, who lay on the rocks not breathing, her face and lips paling out of colour. Draco's heart raced as he pointed his wand at the offending creatures, but before he could perform any magic the mermaids had abandoned Hermione and surrounded himself.
They latched onto his body with their spindly arms, their long fingers grasping him tightly and possessively. Draco struggled against them, the creatures hissing to each other as their interest in the young wizard increased, their Medusa like hair reaching out for him through the water.
"You dare to try and claim what is not yours?" The mermaid hissed defensively.
"Hermione is not yours either. Give her to me." Draco demanded, his wand thrust into the mermaid's face.
"Miss Granger's lungs stopped breathing moment's ago. She belongs to Death now."
"NO!" Draco bellowed through his bubble, struggling against their vice grip.
"Why do you wish to save her so?" The mermaid asked, as she swam around him, the creatures alike keeping their distance now, draping their tails possessively over Hermione's lifeless form.
"She's my friend!" Draco replied. The mermaid hissed at him.
"Tell us the real reason you wish to save her, young man, and perhaps we can negotiate."
"Bring her back." Draco snapped.
"You know we don't have that power."
"I know you do." Draco argued. "Now, you bring her back or so help me I will kill you all."
The mermaid watched Draco for a moment, her dark muddy green eyes contemplative. Draco stared back defiantly, earning a loud aggravated sigh from the mermaid.
"Why would we want to bring her back? She's nothing but a Mudblood witch."
"Don't call her that!"
"Tell us, young wizard, why you want to save her so."
"She's my friend." Draco yelled defiantly.
"You have feelings and demons to face, young man." The mermaid swam away from his form, but continued to watch him. "We will bring Miss Granger back for a price."
"Name it. Anything you want you will have." The mermaids turned their grotesque faces towards each other, slight surprise written on their faces. "Do you want pearls? I can buy you pearls if that's what you want." Draco was becoming desperate, and wished he could throw all the riches of Malfoy Manor right at them, if it meant he could have Hermione back.
"A life for another."
"You want me to kill someone to save Hermione?" Draco blinked rapidly at her under the water in confusion, his heart pounding. The mermaid rolled her eyes at the young blonde man in front of her.
"No, the life of someone so insignificant to you will perish, and Miss Granger shall live in return."
"Deal." Draco said immediately, the thought of losing her the only one that swam through his mind. He couldn't lose her.
xxx
Hermione and Draco's head emerged from the Great Lake simultaneously, gasping for air as Draco removed the bubble-Head charm. Hermione instantly began to panic, and Draco pulled her close to him, his hands in her hair as he pressed his wet cheek to the top of her head.
"Draco what happened?" She croaked, her throat sore from disuse and having swallowed water.
"Thank God you're alive." Draco whispered, his voice lost over the loud lapping of the water on their bodies.
"Where's Harry and Ron?" Hermione peered around, unable to make out any other figures treading water in the middle of the Great Lake.
"I don't know." Draco replied truthfully, silently praying Potter was fine fathoms deep underneath them. "Do you think you can swim to the shore?"
Hermione nodded determinedly, and together they swam towards land, fighting the fatigue they felt in their muscles and the tiredness behind their eyelids.
Hermione's head was pounding. She was exhausted, wet and cold, and not a very strong swimmer. It was one of the things Hermione hated to admit she wasn't very good at. Hermione stopped swimming for a moment, wanting to call out to Draco to take a breather with her but she couldn't even open her mouth. She felt dizzy, and she had the strange feeling of being Obliviated, suddenly realising she didn't remember anything after they were falling off the back of an ancient albino dragon. Hermione's eyes lolled and she slipped silently through the water.
Draco became suddenly aware of a silence behind him, and with a dreaded feeling he spun around in the water and watched as Hermione's head dipped below the surface. He swam over to where she had just disappeared and grabbed her hand, pulling her body up towards him.
"You are not leaving me again." Draco whispered as he hoisted her limp unconscious form onto his back and swam to the shore.
He lay Hermione down, pointed his wand at her chest and whispered; "Enervate." Instantly Hermione opened her eyes and looked up at him through her thick wet lashes and she smiled. Draco smiled back and pulled her up into an embrace, an embrace that seemed to warm him and fill him whole-heartedly.
"Thank you." Hermione whispered as she clung to him, their wet bodies pressed together in desperation and longing. They sat like that for a few minutes, seemingly lost in the moment, until a voice broke through the silence, using only one word, a word that Hermione would never be able to forget.
"Ron.." A soaking wet and incredibly fatigued Harry Potter managed to croak out as he stumbled across the bank towards Hermione and Draco, carrying a limp Ronald Weasley in his arms.
He lay his best friend out on the bank, a resounding silence engulfed them as time seemed to pause for a torturous moment. Hermione looked from Ron lying on the floor to Harry, who stood above him, seemingly frozen to the spot, his emerald eyes glazed over in despair as he looked desperately at his female counterpart. Then she screamed.
"Ron. Ron. Come back Ron." Hermione sobbed, as she knelt over his lifeless body, seizing him by the shoulders and shaking him hard. "You're not supposed to die! Come back! I need to tell you I'm sorry, I'm so sorry about everything. We need you. I need you. You're our best friend. Ron please, just come back."
"Hermione.." Draco whispered uneasily, trying to take a hold of her comfortingly but she threw him off insignificantly and continued sobbing in defiance over Ron's dead body. Draco stood there, tasting for the first time the feeling of rejection as it stung him sharply.
"Harry! He can't be dead." Hermione sobbed, her delicate face cracking repeatedly into creases, her cheeks stained by her tears mingled with the lake water, as she stared at her green eyed best friend.
"Hermione, he's gone." Harry replied numbly, who'd sat on the floor and stared straight ahead of him. He hadn't cried, screamed or even touched Ron since he'd lain him on the floor. But Hermione knew the breakdown was soon to come.
"He can't be! He can't leave me again!" Hermione sobbed, as she clung to the front of Ron's soaking wet robes. She couldn't look at his once bright face, now pale, his lips blue and his eyes closed. "I am so sorry. I really am. I said I wasn't, but I am. Please, please forgive me."
"Draco..." Hermione turned around to seek solace in Draco, but found him no where.
"He stormed off to the edge of the forest earlier when you were crying." Harry replied robotic, before he suddenly bent over his drawn up knees and allowed himself to cry without even removing his glasses. Hermione crawled over to him and launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around him. Harry clung desperately to her arms as together they mourned the loss of their best friend, their brother, their other third.
They had felt themselves torn into two, feeling nothing but loss and grief and a strange alienation. Ron Weasley, who had faced giant spiders, Dementors and even Lord Voldemort himself, was cheated into Death by the one place it had all began.
Harry had apparated to the Burrow with Ron's body, feeling he had to be the one to deliver the terrible news. Hermione had stayed behind with Draco, as she was in no fit state to apparate. They hadn't spoken two words to each other, Hermione muted into grief and Draco into resentment and grief over Hermione's grief. Draco desperately wanted to reach out to her, to touch her but she wouldn't allow anyone near her.
They were sitting in the tent, Hermione on the couch curled up in a ball and Draco on a chair he materialised out of thin air. He was watching her, the way she stared blankly ahead without blinking, her beautiful rich orbs glossy with unshed tears. The tension and silence was killing Draco, who could stand it no longer.
"You were in love with him wasn't you?" Draco whispered, ignoring the stab of rejection that was in it's prime of novelty. Hermione's head snapped up and they stared at each other for a long moment.
"No." Hermione replied quietly, her voice hoarse and cracking from the strain of not being used in hours. "I wasn't in love with him."
"Oh." Draco replied awkwardly, not understanding but refusing to push her any further. Hermione watched as he shifted uncomfortably in his chair.
"You don't understand, do you?" Hermione whispered, tears falling fast down her cheeks. Draco shook his head. "Harry and Ron are my boys. My best friends. My rocks, my brothers, my other thirds. Ron's dead, and he was so dear to me, I loved him like a brother, I need to grieve. I said some terrible things. I hated him for what he did to me, but he was still my best friend. Can you understand that?"
"Of course I can Hermione." Draco replied, moving to sit next to her fragile and almost breakable looking body. "Just don't push me away."
"Then come closer." Hermione whispered and broke into a fresh peal of tears as Draco wrapped his arms around her body and pulled her onto his lap.
Then she was kissing him, having roughly grabbed his face and pressed her lips to his. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and he pulled her closer, as she sought solace in the way her mind would shut down completely when she allowed herself to get this close to him. Hermione was straddling him now, forcing him back against the sofa, desperately kissing him, her entire body on edge as his hands found their way up her legs.
Draco desperately kissed down her neck, leaving burning hot trails along her skin. She moaned into his hair, running her delicate hands through it, musing it out of it's Malfoy perfect style. They froze suddenly when they heard the familiar sound of apparation outside the tent. Hermione scrambled off Draco just as Harry wandered in through the door, tired and his face full of anguish. Draco managed to catch him just in time as he almost collapsed in exhaustion. He deposited Harry on the sofa and Hermione flung herself at him.
"Harry." Hermione whispered, smoothing back his damp jet black hair. "How are they?"
"Ginny wouldn't stop screaming." Harry replied solemnly. "It nearly killed me, Mione."
"I know, I know." Hermione murmured as she continued to stroke back his hair.
"Mrs. Weasley was in pieces. She kept talking about getting revenge on Voldemort but this is all my fault, Hermione." Hermione's heart tore in two as her remaining third, now her half, looked up at her with grief stricken eyes. Hermione started sobbing, shaking her head at her best friend in defiance. "It's all my fault. Don't you see? Ron's dead because of me."
"No, no. Harry it's not your fault." Hermione whispered as she rested his head in her lap and continued to stroke his hair. "You listen to me, Harry Potter. Ron didn't die because of you, people have never died because of you."
"Sirius died because of me. My parents died because of me and now Ron, my best friend is dead because of me." Harry roared angrily, tears leaking out of his eyes from underneath his glasses as he clung onto Hermione's arms like his own life depended on it.
"Never say that.." Hermione murmured, tears rolling down her cheeks, seemingly unfazed by one of Harry Potter's all too familiar outbursts.
Draco watched the two wizards on the sofa, who were like brother and sister and he realised. A life for another. He had unwittingly exchanged Ron's life for Hermione's. It was all his fault; he had killed again.
Xxx
HEY GUYS! Hell yeah I'm back – with a pretty crap chapter, I must apologise. I hope you understand the reason why this is so late – I have recently been into hospital for two major operations on my hip and have spent the six weeks holiday recovering and had no inspiration whatsoever. But thank you for all the reviews so far!
Yes, I killed off Ron and to all those Ron lovers I am so sorry but he's the one character who really gets on my nerves, although he was pretty fun to write. I felt it necessary to kill him off though, don't ask why. I think we needed a bit more angst and it kind of helps play into the development of Hermione and Draco's relationship. And I hope you're all happy with the Dramione in this chapter and again I apologise because there's not much Dramione but I think their relationship needs development.
Oh, and I have no clue if the Merpeople can bring people back but my ones can before anyone tells me Hermione-style that Merpeople cannot, infact, exchange people's lives.
AND OMG, WHAT DID Y'ALL THINK OF HPDH2? WASN'T IT JUST SO AMAZING. LIKE OMG. Words cannot explain. I needed to just yell on here that I LOVED IT. :-) [even though I'm extremely late in celebrating haha]
Send me some love dears :-)