Chapter XV: Confessions

"Harry, you need to eat." Hermione probed as they sat together on the floor of the tent a fortnight later, surrounded by what little food they could find. Harry shook his head when Hermione held out her hand and offered him some bread.

"Hermione what is that on your arm?" Draco gasped suddenly, his eyes transfixed on Hermione's right forearm. Everyone turned their gazes down to her arm. Hermione lifted it up to the light and let out a gasp of her own.

"I had completely forgotten about that, with..well, you know." Hermione's voice got quieter as everyone contemplated Ronald Weasley's death. Draco reached over and tenderly picked up her arm and ran his fingers over the word, letting out an animalistic sound of disgust and anger. Hermione's eyes began to swim with tears as she finally managed to make out the word "whore" messily carved into her arm. She moved her arms out of Draco's grasp and put her forearms next to each other.

"Mudblood whore." Hermione whispered before promptly bursting into tears. Draco looked startled before he enveloped her in a hug, soothing her back.

"You are not a Mudblood whore. Tell her Harry."

"He's right, you're not a Mudblood whore Hermione." Harry smiled at her comfortingly, patting her leg as it was the only part of her that wasn't being smothered in Draco, before turning his eyes to the man in question. "Is there nothing you can do to get rid of it?"

"Not if it's the same dark magic used by Bellatrix." Draco's eyes flitted over to Hermione's left arm as he pulled away from her. "We could always cast a concealment charm over it." Hermione nodded and Draco pulled out his wand and muttered a few concealment charms over her arm. The offending word slowly began to fade under the charms.

"Thank you." Hermione whispered, managing to give him a smile. Harry coughed awkwardly.

"Draco, I have a question for you."

"Go on then." Draco eyed him questioningly, his heart pounding in his chest.

"What exactly was it you and your Uncle were talking about in Gringotts?" Harry asked, giving Draco a stern look. Draco's heart dropped. "When you were saying how you're number one priority right now?"

Hermione turned to look at Draco, who fiddled with his fingers without looking back at her.

"Draco?" Hermione asked, fearing the answer.

"I suppose you deserve to know." Draco said eventually. Harry's fist pounded on the floor.

"You're damn right we deserve to know!" Harry roared, making Hermione jump. "I made an Unbreakable Vow with you!"

"I know and I should have told you everything in the beginning."

"Well go on then, we're listening."

Harry and Hermione stared at him anxiously waiting. Draco cleared his throat, opened his mouth but no words came out. He tried again.

"Draco it's alright. We just need to hear the truth." Hermione patted his knee and smiled at him encouragingly. Draco, not caring that Harry was inches away from him, laced his fingers with Hermione's.

"I knew if I told you everything in the beginning, you wouldn't help me." Draco refused to look at either of them. "I knew that if I told you what my position with the Dark Lord was you would never agree to make the Unbreakable Vow and trust me."

Hermione's hands started to tremble and she swallowed the painful lump in her throat.

"Ever since the Dark Lord recruited me, I've been in training."

"As a Death Eater." Harry piped up. Draco looked up and scowled.

"Or so we all thought." Draco rolled his tongue around in his mouth contemplatively. "At first, the prospect of becoming a Death Eater was kind of exciting, until I realised what it all entailed, and I didn't realise that being a Death Eater at such a young age was the least of my worries."

Draco squeezed his eyes shut, his heart hammering against his chest. Hermione gave his fingers a squeeze.

"It's okay Draco, you can tell us everything." Hermione's voice seemed to snap Draco back to reality and he opened his eyes.

"The Dark Lord knows his downfall is right around the corner." Harry's eyes widened. "He knows that you have been killing off his-"

"Don't say it, it's one of the possible taboo words." Hermione interrupted and Draco nodded.

"And he also knows that he will die."

"And what has this got to do with you?"

"He-" Draco stopped and fought of the nausea that swept over him. Draco swallowed. His face began to crack and his fingers trembled between Hermione's. Hermione reached over and cupped his face in her hands.

"Draco look at me." Hermione whispered, as grey met brown. "What has his downfall got to do with you?"

"He was training me, Hermione. Understand I didn't want any of this. I don't want to have to do it." Draco began to sob, ignorant to Harry's presence, who was stunned into silence. Harry kept his eyes on Hermione, feeling like he was sitting in on a private moment for Draco.

"You don't have to do anything. What was he really training you for?"

"He was training me to become him." Draco let out a strangled sound of anguish and hung his head, obscuring his view of Harry and Hermione with his blonde bangs.

"You're not going to become the next Lord Voldemort, do you hear me?" Hermione squeezed his hand, their fingers still intertwined, her own voice shaking.

"Draco?" Harry asked hesitantly. "Will you tell us the rest?" The blonde man nodded slowly.

"He gave me a mission, one I've had since sixth year." Draco looked up at Hermione. "I'm supposed to kill you."

Hermione's eyes widened as she stared at Draco.

"I couldn't do it, Hermione." Draco drew his knees up to his chest and let out a long sigh. "I couldn't do it, and I knew you were the only ones who could help me escape my fate. At the manor, when my aunt was finished torturing you-" Draco's face twisted into pain and anger at the memory. "- I was supposed to kill you."

"But you didn't." Hermione whispered, tears sliding down her cheeks.

"I couldn't. I just couldn't kill you." Draco's voice was becoming smaller and smaller, and Harry and Hermione had to strain their eyes to listen. "I kept thinking not you. Anyone but you."

"Why couldn't you do it?" Hermione whispered. "Why couldn't you just do it?"

"Isn't it obvious, Hermione?" Draco asked in return, raising his glassy grey orbs to look at her. Hermione suddenly flung herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck as she sobbed into his collarbone.

"Yes, I suppose it is." Hermione whispered before she pressed her lips to his in a hurried kiss that left him no room to respond as she drew away and clung to him tightly once more.

"There's something else I need to tell you." Draco said in a hollow voice, his body going rigid in Hermione's arms at the prospect of what he was about to admit to them.

"What?" Harry said, growing impatient at Draco's slow explanation of everything, and at the fact that Hermione found it necessary to keep launching herself at the blonde man in question.

"I killed Ron." Draco said in a small voice, so small that only Hermione heard. She froze, her body beginning to tremble as she moved away to see his face. Draco couldn't look at her, for he knew her face was a mask of horror.

"What do you mean, you killed Ron?" Hermione said, her voice trembling. Harry's eyes bulged and he shot up out of his seat, whipping out his wand and aiming it straight at Draco. Draco didn't even flinch.

"I didn't mean to. Let me explain." Draco requested and Hermione sat back on the pillows, drawing her legs up to her aching chest, drawing away from him.

"Explain, but I'm not lowering my wand." Harry spat as he towered over the two people on the floor, his wand trained at Draco's chest.

"You died, Hermione." Draco whispered, looking up at Hermione who instantly paled, her entire face draining of colour. "Mermaids told me you had died. I saw you, lying on the rock, dead." Draco's face cracked before he contained his composure.

"They told me they'd bring you back for a price. I offered them pearls but they didn't want it. They wanted a life for another."

"So you chose Ron's!" Harry snarled. "Why couldn't you have chosen someone like Voldemort!" Draco blanched.

"I didn't choose anyone's life. It just happened. A life so insignificant to me would perish in exchange for Hermione's." Draco breathed in slow calculated breaths to remain calm.

"I don't fucking believe you!" Harry roared, and sent a curse Draco's way, but Hermione easily deflected it with a canary yellow shield, having noticed Harry's wand twitching with anticipation.

"Stop it." Hermione hissed at Harry. "Put your wand away before I do something drastic with mine."

Both boys blinked at Hermione's unexpected threat. Harry raised an eyebrow but pocketed his wand anyway.

"I clearly had no soft spot for Weasley, but I didn't want him to die." Draco continued explaining like he hadn't nearly just been cursed into oblivion. "I didn't think about the consequences when I accepted the deal. Who would? I wasn't about to lose Hermione, not when I've tried so hard to keep her alive."

Hermione had tears running down her cheeks as she hesitantly enveloped Draco in an embrace.

"Can you forgive me?" Draco whispered in her ear, his warm breath tickling her tender skin.

"Of course."

"Harry?" Hermione whispered as she craned her neck to look around at Harry. Harry slumped down onto the cushions and removed his glasses, rubbing at his eyes tiredly. "Do you forgive Draco too?"

Harry looked up and emerald met silver, a silent understanding passing through them. "Yes I do."

"Thank you." Hermione whispered as she crawled over to Harry and embraced him too. He wrapped his arms around his best friend's waist and clung to her.

"I'm going to go the Burrow, is that okay?" Harry asked Hermione. She pulled away from the hug and eyed him sternly.

"Harry Potter, are you stupid?"

"I can answer that one." Draco piped up, smirking only half heartedly. Harry glared at him.

"No you won't." Harry shook his head at Draco as Hermione placed her hands on her hips.

"Voldemort is out looking for you! We're on a mission, you can't just swan off to the Burrow." Hermione calmed her erratic breathing as panic rose in her throat.

"I'll be fine, I managed to get there once.." Harry trailed off and swallowed awkwardly. "Please, I just want to see Ginny."

"You had better come back." Hermione said before she squeezed him so hard Harry felt like she might have cracked a rib.

"Of course I will, someone needs to defeat the big bad Lord." Harry grinned as he stood up. "After all I am the Chosen One."

Hermione smacked up upside the head before Harry disappeared out of the tent. The familiar sound of disapparation and he was gone.

Xxx

Ginny Weasley suddenly sprung from the kitchen table, her fork clattering to the floor as she ran to the front door.

"Ginny!" Mrs Weasley cried, as her sons stared after their sister who by now had wrenched open the front door and had flung herself at the black haired boy who hadn't even had time to knock.

"Oh Harry." Ginny gasped as she planted kisses all over Harry's face, who stood there and relished the affection. "What are you doing back here?"

"Ginny, Harry come inside." Mrs Weasley ordered as she ushered them in doors. "Quickly dears."

Mrs Weasley quickly put up the wards that Ginny had breached and sat back down at the table heavily.

"I came to see how everyone was."

There was a grieving silence in the kitchen at the Burrow that made Harry uneasy. Suddenly Mrs Weasley burst into loud sobs making Harry swallow the lump in his throat awkwardly. Ginny laced her fingers in Harry's.

"She's always crying." Ginny whispered as Mr Weasley led his wife out of the kitchen. Fred and George looked up at Harry and gave him a weak smile.

"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry.." Harry stopped as his throat choked up. He cleared his throat. "I mean, I wouldn't have come here if I didn't..." Harry stopped again, frustrated. He didn't seem to be able to say what he had to. "Coming here was dangerous, I know, I'm sorry but I had to see how you all were." Harry let out the breath he didn't know he was holding and smiled at Ginny as she squeezed his fingers.

"Nice of you to come here, though Harry." Fred said as he offered Harry a chicken drumstick, which he politely refused.

"Aw come on, you look like you haven't eaten in months."

"That's because I barely have." Harry replied, rubbing his neck gingerly.

"Have a drumstick." George said as Fred threw one at Harry, which he caught with his reflexes.

"How have you all been?" Harry asked as he took the seat next to Ginny's. She joined them at the table and sighed.

"Mum won't stop crying and Dad's kind of just shut down completely." Ginny answered in a small voice. Harry nodded, unable to say anything.

"We're all doing alright though. I have my other brother's to keep me from going crazy." Ginny whispered and Fred patted her on the shoulder.

"Where is Ron?" Harry whispered and again, everything froze. Fred cleared his throat.

"We sent him to St Mungo's until we can get him a proper funeral, where you can all be there." Fred picked at his drumstick thoughtfully. "Say, how is your mission coming on?"

Harry could sense the twins desperate attempts at keeping off the topic of Ron so he gladly went along with it.

"Fine, we're almost ready to complete it." Harry took a bite of his drumstick and swallowed quickly. He seemed numb to the taste.

"Good because we're all dying to get our hands on Voldemort. He's infiltrated Hogwarts."

"He's what?" Harry asked, letting his mouth drop open. Ginny chuckled at his expression. "We've been expecting it but not this soon.."

"Fancies himself the next Dumbledore." George let out a long sigh. "We can all tell the battle is going to be at Hogwarts."

"How can this happen?" Harry groaned.

"Have you managed to defeat all Voldemort's...what are they called?"

"I can't say the word, it might be tabooed if I say it."

"Oh. What letter does it begin with?"

"H."

"Horcruxes?" Ginny suddenly piped up, and all three boys stared at the red head. Ginny blushed. "Hermione told me about them before you all left." She shrugged and took a swig of pumpkin juice.

"We have two more. We know that Nagini, his snake is one but we have no clue what the other is."

"Perhaps you're one, Harry?" Fred joked, taking another bite of his drumstick. George scoffed and Ginny giggled.

"How ironic would that be." Harry piped up, letting himself have a little laugh. Laughing hurt. It didn't seem right to laugh when his best friend wasn't there to laugh too.

"So what did these Horcruxes turn out to be?"

"Tom Riddle's diary-" Harry noticed how Ginny shuddered. "His father's ring, a diadem of Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff's cup, Slytherin's locket. We managed to destroy them."

"You haven't destroyed anything from Gryffindor." Fred pointed out.

"We noticed that but we don't have a clue what it could be."

"You're a Gryffindor." George said and everyone in the kitchen seemed to freeze, only the sound of the Weasley clock could be heard. "It would make sense..the night he tried to kill you.."

"There is no way you're a Horcrux Harry." Ginny whispered, her voice trembling. "You can't be."

"It's probably something like Gryffindor's sword." George tried to add helpfully but Harry shook his head.

"The sword destroys them."

"Buggar." Fred swore.

"Draco thought there was a pattern-" Harry stopped abruptly at the three pairs of round astonished eyes. Oh shit.

"Malfoy? What the hell do you mean Malfoy?" Fred let his drumstick drop onto his plate with a thud.

"Well he's uh, been helping us."

"Helping you?" George exploded, his eyes going wide.

"Yes, he's changed, he's.." Harry hesitated. "He's different. He took an Unbreakable Vow that he was on our side."

"Really?" Ginny asked, slightly in awe. Harry nodded.

"Damn, that wanker can be useful after all then." George laughed as his siblings joined in, and eventually Harry.

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I am so incredibly sorry at how late this chapter is – I've had so much on. I know I keep saying that but it's true. I'm kinda lagging in this fic because I've sort of come to a dead end – well it's just taking me a while to figure out how to finish it. It's no where near finished just yet though :) thank you to everyone who is still reading and waiting patiently. I'm not entirely happy with this chap though but oh well. Please review :-)