A/N: Hey readers…Look – this update took so long because about a month ago I wrote out the upcoming chapters and was ready to upload it and all when all of a sudden I clicked the delete button and ALL of the STORY was GONE. I mean all of it. I was so depressed and angry at the stupid thing (and yes my stupid mistake as well) that I became discouraged and didn't end up writing again and until now. So I'm sorry and I apologize. This is true I promise! But here's something to make you smile…the next chapter!
Disclaimer: Own nothing but plot.
"I can't believe Lucius Malfoy was here at Hogwarts!"
"Yes, Ron we can't either but can you please lower your voice," said Hermione. The three of them were in the library the following day which they had spent discussing about Hermione's traumatic encounter with the older and more evil Malfoy. It was late in the evening and they were the only students left within the shelved walls of the Madame Pince's territory.
"I mean someone must've let him in," asked Ron and then added as an after thought, as if he had only realized something, "Actually, how do visitors get into the school anyway? Do they just walk in or maybe send a warning letter in advance?"
Just as Hermione opened her mouth with a reply, no doubt an answer from Hogwarts: A History Harry spoke up. "I don't think it matters how he got in – I mean I'm sure Dumbledore would have known he was here."
"So what do you think matters then?" asked Ron.
"Obviously Hermione has to take his words into consideration." said Harry in a quiet tone. Turning his gaze over at Hermione, he asked, "So what are you going to do? I don't think Lucius Malfoy is someone to be taken lightly."
Ron rolled his eyes. "Well, that's a bit of an understatement Harry seeing as he is a Death Eater and in league with You-Know-Who."
Harry shot him a look. "I know that Ron. I just didn't want to make the situation more dramatic than it already is."
"So how about it Hermione, what do you reckon you'll do?"
Hermione took a deep breath. That night was still so vivid and close in memory that even just the sound of Lucius Malfoy's name makes her whole body shudder in fear and confusion. In all honesty and with much consideration to every consequence imaginable, Hermione had no idea what she was going to do. The most rational option would obviously be to end it with Draco, keeping everyone safe, not to mention relieving Harry and Ron of the torture that was her relationship with the boy. But that would leave the two of us miserable. She and Draco have gone far too long and done far too much and endured far too much pain to let go of something that felt right to both of them. The horrible fact that she had fallen in love with Draco was the one thing muddling her brain, preventing it from making reasonable decisions.
But Hermione knew that even in the most sensible corner of her heart, she could not bear being without him. Which brings with it the second option: Hermione can tell Draco everything that happened and they will figure it out. They will stand up for their relationship and not let even his father get in the way of their happiness. The problem with this was Draco. She was afraid that if she disobeyed Lucius's orders, that he will hurt the person closest to Draco and Hermione could not bear the idea of being the reason he lost his mother.
Hermione has grown to learn the love Draco truly feels for his mother and the dependence he has had on her since his childhood. Hermione is certain that the good side of Draco exists only because his mother was there to nurture it. She could not imagine this side of Draco possible if his father was his only influence in life.
Her stream of thoughts was penetrated by Ron's concerned voice. "Hermione? Hermione. what do you reckon you'll do?"
Shaking her head, she looked over to the window which now revealed a darkening sky. "I don't know." As Hermione answered in a whisper, a looming mist of danger and sorrow hovered gloomily over the Forbidden Forest.
Hermione was at the foot of the stairs on the seventh floor the next afternoon when someone from behind suddenly pulled on her hair gently. Being caught off guard she wheeled around swinging her backpack that weighed a ton ready to fight whoever the culprit when she was caught in even more surprise when she realized who it was.
"Draco!" she cried. "What the bloody hell are you doing scaring me like that?"
The boy brought down his hands which he raised in defence when his girlfriend almost knocked the senses out of him. "Bloody? Since when did you start speaking like Weasley?" he asked. "Oh, you must have learned it during all that time you've been avoiding me."
He meant it as a sarcastic joke but it came out more as an accusation. Which it was, he thought. I haven't seen her for ages and the first thing she does is attack me. It was true. It had almost been a week since he'd said those three fateful words to the girl in front of him and almost four days since he'd seen her last. It didn't take a genius for someone to figure out the reason for her sudden absence. But what he couldn't firgure out was why she was running. If Hermione was anything, she was upfront - about anything. She wasn't one to runaway from her problems. If so, then it made him a problem - for her.
Draco was becoming increasingly depressed. Why did they have to tell each other how they really felt. It just messed everything up. He knew it was too soon. Wait, it was her fault! She said it first and it would've looked awful if I didn't say it back. Draco thought indignantly. So technically I should be mad because she started it and now she's ignoring me without explanation and then she attacks me when I want to talk to her.
Draco's feelings and inner analysis went from confusion to depression to umbrageousness. Maybe honesty just isn't what it used to be...
"I have not been avoiding you." Hermione replied, clearly hearing the accusation in his voice. Although it was true, she didn't want him to know it.
"Oh, so I guess we've been trying to look for each other but just keep missing each other." He said sarcastically, nodding, "Totally reasonable. Hogwarts is quite a large school."
"Draco, I've just been busy. Actually I'm quite late for class." She said, raising her hand to check her watch then kicked herself when she realized she wasn't wearing one. She looked up, Draco saw it too. "Well," she stammered when he eyed her suspiciously, "I must be late. I know it. Can we talk about this later?"
"When is later? How can I set my watch to later?"
"I don't know. I'll tell you." Hermione wanted to get out of there so much she would pay with an A assignment if she had to. Seeing Draco after how long, just being near him, having him look at her the way she likes it made her tremble in pleasure and pain. She was so much in love with him that just being in the same room made her giddy like a silly school girl with a crush. But it was different too because what they had was mature and real. This moment made her realize once again what she would have to give up. And she started to realize how much she didn't want to. Because at the end of the day, no one, not even Harry and Ron (of course, this was a completely different level of love) could make her feel the way Draco makes her feel.
Hermione started to walk away, assuming that that had closed the conversation. But she hadn't even taken three steps when Draco grabbed her and pulled her back, facing him.
"No, what if you try to run off agian and I don't see you for another week. And once I do spot you, you actually hit me with your bag?"
"Draco, you're over reacting. I'm not avoiding you and it won't be another week till we see each other again."
"Over reacting? Hermione, I tell you I love you and then you disappear. Tell me its not about that." The mention of that night brought them back to a time when everything seemed perfect; just right. A time that seems so long ago to Hermione. Draco looked at her in the eyes and she saw in them the lingering shadows of sadness. His gray eyes, always so sharp and alarming, were soft. His hand on her arm lay gently over her skin, his thumb absent-mindedly rubbing circles on it.
Her heart was racing and she could feel the lump on her throat beginnging to rise. The sudden urge to cry and tell him everything that had happened was tempting her. But the image of Lucius Malfoy and his cold, domineering voice stopped her. She couldn't tell him - not now, not yet. She, herself, was still so confused. How could she explain it to him if she couldn't even explain to herself.
"I've just been busy, Draco. Of all people you should understand. Professors have just been piling loads and loads of homework on us. I can't spend every spare time I have with you." Hermione answered. "Its not that I don't want to but at the moment, with all the school work, I simply don't have a choice. If I want to work my way towards being Head Girl, I have to focus on my studies."
Her voice was pleading and it was clear to Draco it was time to let her go, for now. He nodded in agreement. She gave one last apologetic look, leaned in and kissed him on the cheek, quick and sweet, and she was off.
Draco stood there for a few moments staring after her before making his own way to the opposite direction. His mind was muddled in confusion. What he couldn't figure out was which made him more uneasy. The fact that she was so busy she couldn't spen time with him but she could with Potter and Weasley; the fact that he had many of the same classes as she did and knew that the professors weren't in fact burying them in work; or the fact that she didn't answer his question.
That night Hermione gave note to a second year girl in Hufflepuff to deliver to Hannah. Hermione was done thinking on her own. She needed a female's perspective and fast.
Draco entered the Slytherin dungeon just in time to hear a loud bang. He looked to see where the commotion was and quickly enough spotted a throng of Slytherin students near the back. Blaise Zabini saw him and walked over with a smirk on his face.
"Draco, come take a look. Crabbe and third year duelling it out. Its the most pathetic thing I've ever seen, watching him fight."
Draco nodded. "Yea, I bet he can finish him off since it would probably take a few minutes to think up any spells."
"Yea, poor Jasper."
Draco smirked. "I meant Crabbe."
Zabini cleared his throat. "Yea, no, yea I meant Crabbe too." Then added, "Listen, wanna check it out?"
"No, thanks. I think I'm gonna pass this one out." Draco slipped through the crowd and went straight to his dorm room.
He realized that only a few months ago he would have gone to the crowd and probably encouraged it even more. It was because of Hermione. It was all her doing. He was a better person because of her. She changed him without hin knowing and it was moments like this that made him see just how far he'd gone. He was better.
When he looked back on his life and the way it was, the way he was, he always felt a sense of disgust. How and why he found joy in other's misery he could not fathom. All he knew was that it made him a sad person. The only reason people enjoy other people's failures or humiliation was because they themeselves have nothing to be proud of. Draco knew he still had a long way to go to justify everything he'd done in the past and he was ready. But he knew he needed Hermione by his side to be able to make it.
She single handedly made him see a side of him he didn't even know he had. Draco wasn't just vile and dangerous, cruel and merciless; there was a softer part of him. He was ambitious, determined and gifted and while before he used these talents to torture others, he now turned all that concentration into his own life - his school and his family.
His mother was another reason that he hadn't taken after his father. Being in the same household as Lucius Malfoy can more than turn evil those around him; the older Malfoy had a knack for bringing out the worst in people. Thank Merlin his mother was there to prevent the transformation, (but if it wasn't for Hermione, it would've just delayed it). She was the one who comforted him when he was sent to his room for trouble that he didn't commit. She was the one who let him have extra dessert when his father was teaching him discipline. She was the one who gave him those loving winks, gentle nudges and soft caresses whenever he felt intimated or afraid of his father. In all, she was, for a long time, his assurance that not everyone was like his father and that if he ever fell prey to the older, wiser and much powerful man, at least he had someone to turn to.
Draco hated knowing that the world had such an opposing and simply wrong view of his mother. Narcissa Malfoy may not show her delicate and caring front to the rest of wizarding world but it was no reason to think her evil. It was being associated with her husband that caused her to be loathed almost to the level of being a Death Eater. She was the victim of Lucius' reputation.
Just thinking about his father made his skin crawl.
Hermione sipped on her cup of coffee as she and Hannah sat in the empty Charms classroom the next morning. Hannah came rushing into the room where Hermione sat waiting, breathlessly.
"What happened? Is everything alright? Your letter seemed really urgent." Hannah cried, not knowing what was about to be revealed to her.
"It's fine, Hannah." The other girl said soothingly, trying to calm her friend. "I'm not injured or anything. I just - I just need your advice, I suppose."
For the next twenty minutes, Hermione filled Hannah in on the last few days of her life. Hermione was rewarded by gasps of horror and cries of shock. Her friend didn't interrupt her until she was entirely done telling her story. \
They now sat together in the calming silence of the empty room, each girl thinking their own thoughts and contemplating the situation.
"So," Hermione said, breaking the silence that had overgrown its welcome, "what do you think I should do."
Hannah looked up, wakening from her reverie. "What do you think you should do?"
"Well, I only have two choices haven't I? Either I end it with Draco or I tell him everything."
Hannah shook her head. "Hermione, you know you're the smartest witch in the school but I don't think it's that simple."
"I know that, Hannah. Don't you think I've thought this through, considering all the different circumstances that might come out of each choice - which ever I decide to take." Her voice was steady but Hannah heard the hint of tears and sorrow. "If I end it with Draco, it would do nothing but leave the both of us miserable. Not to mention the hate and despise he'll have for me after I tell him I don't actually love him. Hannah, I can't have him hating me."
"He might hate you but his mother will live."
"Yes," Hermione nodded, her voice soft and low, almost as if she were talking to herself, "yes, his mother will live. And Draco would never know I almost go ther killed."
"But if you tell Draco everything...you know him better than anyone but even I know that if Draco is faced with a challenge or something is stopping him from getting what he wants, he's going to fight. And, well, him against Lucius...Hermione, I just don't think he'll-"
"I know!" Hermione cried. She couldn't take listening to Hannah telling her things she already knew. The hardest part was that she knew it was true. If Draco fought his own father...Draco was gifted but even, a young man, who doesn't have the experience...Draco might not make it. And the scary thing was she was sure Draco would fight and wouldn't let anyone else do it for him.
Draco was stubborn and would never seek for help when he knew he was more than capable of solving the problem. If Hermione tells him the truth, how his own father came to visit and threatened Hermione just to end her relationship with his son, it would anger him and send him into a fit of rage and no one knows what he might do. And of course, Lucius might be more than willing to carry out his promise.
Heemione sat down, tears running down her face. "Either way someone gets hurt. If I break up with Draco, he'll hate me and I'll just be miserable and..."
"Heaty broken?" Hannah offered gently. She could see the pain her dear friend was going through. Hannah was more than surprise when she learned about Lucius and that night he confronted Hermione. All along, though never telling Hermione the truth, Hannah had a feeling something might happen. It was never a good thing to be associated with a Malfoy, regardless of the situation or type of relationship. As long as Lucius Malfoy was living and head of the family, anyone who came in contact with them was sure to walk away worse than they initially came.
But this was more complicated than anything Hannah had ever faced. Lives were in danger and they were playing with a truly evil and powerful man who had some of the most dangerous dark wizards in his favour. If Hermione sides with Draco and defy Lucius' orders, Narcissa Malfoy may not be the only one to get killed. Hannah didn't know why Lucius didn't threaten Hermione's life himself (for which she was eternally grateful) but she was positive that the anger the man might feel for being disobeyed might not stop him from harming the young girl as well. And anyone else for that matter.
This just goes to show the hatred and disgust some pure wizards really feel about half-blooded wizards and muggle borns. To go so far as murdering just to end a romantic relationship must mean that they do not feel these non-pure bloods are worth anything. Wizards have immense pride and respect for those they view as equal or the same, but if they see you as below them, sometimes it gets ugly and things happen that puts a stain on the dignified and reputed integrity of the pure-bloods.
Hannah intently studied her friend. Her heart went out to Hermione because she knew that this strong, outspoken and intelligent girl had truly given her heart away.
"But if I tell him everything, his mother could end up dead and if Draco fights his father, he might too and thats more than I can bear." Hermione wiped the corner of her eyes. The tears were now coming down on their own volition. Everything seemed so sudden. Only over a week ago life seemed perfect for Hermione. School was great, Harry and Ron had finally accepted her relationship with Draco (not entirely but they were doing their best) and she and Draco pronounced the depth of thier feelings for each other.
And then Lucius came.
He changed everything.
And she knew there wasn't anything she could do.
"Hermione," Hannah's voice brought her back to reality. "I know this is hard and probably beyond anything you've been through because this time it involves your heart. Now, I can tell you what I think but I'm just not sure if it'll do anything for you. In the end, you have to do what you think is right."
Hannah leaned over and grabbed hold of Hermione hand. They held each other for a few moments. "I know." Hermione whispered.
"Is there anything I could do to make this easier for you?"
Hermione sniffed. "Yes, just stay with me a while."
As Hermione closed her eyes, a single tear made its way down her soft, reddened cheek. It was slow and hesistant and slid down with a scent of sorrow that hinted the coming of death.
"Have you decided yet, Hermione?"
She was sitting in the common room with Harry and Ron later that night. It was near midnight and everyone had finally gone up to sleep. As usual, they stayed behind to discuss certain matters at hand.
"Hermione?" Ron called a second time.
"Oh, um...yes, I think so." She replied hastily. Hermione had just made up her decision and wasn't too keen on discussing it with anyone. Even Hannah didn't know. Before they left the Charms classroom, Hannah knew Hermione had made the choice but knew better than to ask her.
"You think so?" Harry asked. "What do you mean you think so?"
"I mean, Harry, that I'm quite sure what it is I'll do." Hermione asnwered back, hearing the harsh tone on his voice. "But of course in a situation like this, no one can be too sure."
"Well, what is it? You'll break it off with him then?"
"I don't feel like talking about it right now, please."
"When are you going to do it? When are you going to tell him its over?"
"Harry." Hermione sighed.
"Unless of course you're not going to end it. So, you're going to tell him the truth and anger Lucius - "
"Harry, I don't-"
"You don't know what you're doing, Hermione. This isn't some stupid game and Lucius is not going to like losing- I can't believe you'd take such a risk, all for him-"
"Harry!" Hermioen cried, stopping him midsentence. "I can't believe you would say that to me. I can't believe you don't trust me enough to know what I'm doing! How dare you think so less of me. Have you forgotten how much we've been through together. I think I'm more than qualified to know and judge just how dangerous Lucius Malfoy is."
This put Harry to shame. He knew Hermione was right, she was always right. But a part of him still thought that Hermione was being blinded by love. That thought disgusted him. Knowing his bestfriend was in love with his enemy - it was more than Harry could take. What's more was that he knew he had new feelings for Hermione so it made it even worse.
As evil it might sound, he was almost glad that Lucius had shown up and interrupted Hermione's fling with the git. If Harry and Ron couldn't stop them from being together, Lucius Malfoy certainly can. Of course, Harry wasn't delighted with the threats and what Hermione had gone through but if it was going to keep Hermione away from Malfoy, he had to be somewhat relieved. Harry knew nothing good can come out of her relationship with the young Malfoy. How could she think there was.
"So what are you going to do then?"
"I said I didn't want to talk about it. What I'm going to do is between me and Draco."
"I don't give a bloody damn about that prat! I want to know what you're going to do so we know what you're getting yourself into. We have to know if you're doing the right thing and keeping yourself safe or if you're going off to fight a battle against Lucius Malfoy with his son. I need to know so I'll know what to do and be there for you! If you don't tell me how am I supposed to protect you."
Harry and Hermione were standing face to face. Hermione was quite surprised by her bestfriend's outburst. There was something very individual in his speech. Harry must've realized this too because he cleared his throat and took a deep breath. He looked down at his feet as if guilted after his yelling.
"Harry, please trust me. I know what I'm doing." She said softly. "I know its me your worried about and you'll never how much it means to me knowing I have the two of you beside me. But this is mine and I know what I'm doing."
"So you're really not going to tell us, huh?" Ron's small voice came from the other side of the couch.
Hermione chuckeld inspite of herself. "Not tonight." She gathered her things and headed towards the girl's dormitory. At the foot of the stairs she turned back, looked at them sweetly and said, "But you'll know soon enough."
Hermione stood in front of the wooden door. She stood there thinking and feeling. What she was about to do was something she would have to live with for the rest of her life. She didn't know how she was going to do it or what will happen after she does but she had thought and felt enough to know that out of all choices she had, this was what she wanted to do. She's going to go in there and tell him what she's decided to tell him. How he's going to take it she can't be sure. She just hoped he'd understand. After she tells him, everything will be left to fate. As intelligent as she was, even she couldn't predict what will happen in the future. All she knew, as of now, was that entering this room will change her life forever.
Hermione took a deep breath. She raised her trembling hand and gently held the knob, clutching it like life support. She closed her eyes and opened the door. She took a step forward. There he was, sitting there, waiting for her. He stood up. They looked at each other. Hermione smiled weakly. "Hello."
Cliffhanger! So sorry my dears! But I had to. I couldn't have it happen in this chapter. Next one I promise! PLEASE REVIEW. I do this all for you guys! No one else. JUST YOU. REVIEW! TEll me what you think. I'm so evil, right? Well sorry but there you go. Tune in for the next chappie. School for me is almost done so your lucky. The next one wont be so long. Toodles!
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PS: HOW GREAT WAS THE MOVIE? It was awesome!