Chapter Nine
A Great Team
Crumbles of the ceiling fell on Hermione's four poster bed waking her abruptly. She sat straight up as if coming from a nightmare. She had dressed the night before in her school robe, her wand in her pocket. The other girls were screaming, not understanding what was happening.
As if from the walls came Professor Dumbledore's voice. "I must ask every student present to evacuate the building. Every student must evacuate unless you are at least seventeen years of age, and decide to fight this war."
Hermione ran down the staircase as the others scrambled around the room for their clothes. Harry, and Ron were down there, waiting, wands in their hands. In silence they rushed out of the common room, and down the corridors until the war was pressed upon them, flashes of lights, people cursed, falling, and screaming. The dirt, and dust choking them. No one could take two steps without accidentally walking, or tripping over someone.
They took each other's hands, tight, and sweaty, but the crowds of jostling people separated them quickly. Hermione felt Ron's hand wrench from her own. "Ron," she called. "Ron!"
"Hermione," he yelled back, but they were forced to start fighting immediately without each other.
Hermione wheeled around, and started dueling a girl that looked no older than herself, but carried a sneer as though it was her natural look. She ducked to the left as a green curse flew by her ear. Her heart jumped. That was too close. She yelled, "stupefy," and watched as the girl was knocked out on the ground.
She saw Harry, and Ron fighting a man with silvery hair, and squinted eyes. At least they were together, that gave her some form of comfort.
She spun on her heel to see Parkinson, a girl with the face of a pug pointing her wand at her, and she raised hers screaming, "expelliarmus." Empty handed Parkinson glared at her as she ran away disappearing into the crowd. That girl never could duel well.
She turned to fight her next opponent when she saw him. Malfoy. He looked different... Sick in fact, like he hadn't had a good nights rest in months. He probably hadn't. Maybe it was because he was tired, or simply didn't care, but he wasn't fighting as well as she knew he could. He wasn't even trying.
After cursing his adversary to the stone floor he faced her. Worry was etched onto his face, his wand shaking in his hand.
"Kill her!"
Hermione saw his father dueling a man she didn't recognize. His face half amused, and half angry at his son. It was amazing how he managed to yell at him while fighting.
Malfoy didn't budge. He didn't seem to hear his father.
"Kill the damn mudblood, Draco. Now!"
Hermione put her wand in her robe pocket, her hands at her side. She was defenseless.
Malfoy's eyes widened, and though he opened his mouth no words were spoken.
"Kill me," she mouthed.
He shook his head.
"Go on, Malfoy," she screamed. She thought of every sweet gesture he made, his friendship, his betrayal, all the times he called her mudblood, cursed her, hated her. "This is what you wanted, right?"
Again, he shook his head unable to talk.
"It is! Kill me, and get it over with!"
His father cursed the man out of the already broken window turning to his son. "What's your problem? Kill the mudblood!"
"No," he growled.
Hogwarts was literally falling apart in hunks as explosions went off, people were screeching, but louder than anything she heard the slap his father gave him. It echoed in her ears, a red print across her rival's cheek.
"You stupid boy!" He pointed his wand at Hermione.
She should have drawn her wand, hid, do something other than what she really did do. She stood there, prepared to take the fall that so many of them were doing, her emotions over the past months were raw, but now that she should have been drowning in them she felt nothing.
"Foul girl," Malfoy's father yelled as the green blast shot at her.
In a true Seekers fashion Malfoy grabbed her waist pushing her to the rubble below them. The spell shot over them, and Hermione craned her neck to see who it hit. She bit her tongue from screaming.
Collin Creevey, the boy who followed Harry around like a lost puppy, always with his camera snapping pictures of everyone, and everything. Tonight it was missing from his neck. His eyes open, and unknowing, lying on the ground.
Malfoy had her pinned only but a second before he lifted himself, and her to their feet. His wand still clutched in his hand he used it to send a curse straight at his father.
Being caught off guard his father flew backwards crashing into a wall sending more loose rocks, and dirt as he fell. Hermione was shocked by this, her mouth agape.
Malfoy held her arm dragging her literally into a nearby, empty classroom, magically locking the door not letting her go. He brought her closer to him, his body against hers as he looked into her face.
"Are you thick," he suddenly shouted. "You could've gotten yourself killed! I told you to leave!"
Hermione narrowed her eyes at him. "Did you really think I'd leave my friends, Malfoy?"
He backed down releasing her arm. "No, of course not, but you should've drawn your wand. Why didn't you?"
"I wasn't going to hurt you!"
"What about everyone else?"
"I promised Harry I'd fight this with him, with that I knew I was promising my life. I was ready to fight, and give it up, but I rather put away my wand in a room full of enemies than hurt you, even if you're one of them!"
Malfoy pulled her into a tight hug. "How can you be so smart yet foolish."
She leaned against him realizing that there was a war still happening out there. She could still hear the yells, and the sounds of crumbling stone, the castle shook threatening to collapse. "We can't stay here forever."
"They'll be ready to murder me. Both sides."
"Then stay here," she said. It seemed logical, but she remembered that Malfoy wasn't always logical, pride got in the way.
He kissed her head. "We'll fight, beside each other."
She thought of all the people out there wanting him dead... "But -"
"Together, Granger."
There was no use arguing. Her friends were out there fighting, and she was going to join them. With Malfoy at her side.
They creaked the door open, and saw a red spark shooting past them. They jumped out, and began fighting the first foe they saw. Two men, twins covered in scars, one bleeding from his hairline. They were defeated easy, falling on the ground, and they turned to the next couple. Their wands like swords slashing through the air, dueling with every enemy they came across.
There was always the momentary confusion when they came across a deatheater. With Malfoy by her side it was easy to take that advantage to curse them. After Hermione cursed one, Malfoy laughed.
"We make a great team, don't we, Granger?"
She smiled, "we always did, Malfoy."
They made their way to the entrance hall when they saw the crowd stirring as if someone was pushing their way towards them, and indeed someone was. A tall man with his blonde hair pulled into a low ponytail. She should have known.
"Get away from the mudblood, son," Mr. Malfoy growled.
Malfoy pointed his wand into his father's face, and chuckled humoursly, "don't make me curse you again, father."
He swung his wand to Hermione, and yelled something she didn't catch, because at that moment Malfoy, her friend, jumped in front of her. There was a green flash, and she felt him fall against her chest. Instinctively she wrapped her hands around his waist supporting his weight until they were lying on the ground.
"Stupefy," someone yelled... Ron...
Mr. Malfoy's wand flew into the air, Ron never faltering his from his chest.
It was all in a blur, her brain trying desperately to make sense of the events. Malfoy's father had just tried to curse her when his son, her friend took her place. She looked down at Malfoy's pale face his light gray eyes open, but not seeing her. She bawled, everything around her falling away.
"Draco," she cried hoping that he would answer, leap back to his feet, call her a mudblood, anything but lie there... She ran her palm over his eyes closing them. She didn't want see them any longer. She curled herself over his chest.
Since the morning she had been numb, and she wondered if every emotion had been drained out of her, and if she would ever feel again. Like a storm it came over her a rain of the worst emotions a person could feel. Depressed, loss, heartache, and desperate. There was a physical pain in her chest, her heart literally hurt. "Please," she choked. "Please, don't leave me again. Come back... Draco..."
Hermione felt Ron's hands on her arms, but he didn't try pulling her back. It was to let her know that he was there. She knew he was there, in the back of her mind she knew that everyone was still there, that the war was continuing on, but it should have stopped. The world didn't exist anymore. There was no war. Everything that had been worth fighting for seemed to vanish with a green light.
A/N: It's not over yet, there's one more chapter. Stay tuned.