Chapter Seven

Last Letter

The moment she was back home she broke into a sprint. She ran to her room so fast it sent Adonis into a frenzy, flapping his wings sending feathers everywhere. Hermione didn't stop, spitting out a feather that had flown into her mouth. She pulled out drawers, files, until she found the one piece of parchment she was looking for.

It was naturally crinkled after all the time she handled it, and she handled it then with as much care as she could due to her shaking hands. Tears were already falling, but she was bawling as she read her name in his writing.

My Dear Hermione,

I've waited three years to tell you this, so please accept it for what it is: The truth. Every word I mean now and will always mean is the truth. I'm sorry I ever lied to you in the first place.

I didn't want the life that I'd been given. If I could have changed my fate, I would have. I know what you'd say, you would say that I had that opportunity. You offered it loads of times. You pushed for it, but at what cost? Would it cost me my family? Would it have cost me you? I couldn't risk that.

You know I only put part of myself into fighting that final battle, to make sure my family survived, but I was hoping the whole time that someone would kill me. I never deserved to live. I never deserved you but you kept me living, kept me fighting, just enough to see you make it through.

If you won't forgive me, then please, do me one favor. I don't want our relationship to have an unhappy ending. One of us should be happy, and for that to happen you have to notice what's in front of you. For the brightest witch I'll shall ever know, you sure are blind to the obvious. There's someone for you. Someone better than me. Give him the love he's waited for, and the love you were afraid to give. I'm aware I didn't help your cause, but I'm selfish, and I wanted you. I still do, always will, for the rest of my days.

I am truly sorry.

Forever Yours, Draco Malfoy

She touched the words he wrote, felt the indention's his quill made, pressed down by his hand. Drops fell on it, one by one, staining and luring the words. It darkened it.

Malfoy wrote it a year after the war. She cried then too, and placed it safely in her drawer, not looking at it again.

She held her wand under the corner and watched it catch fire. Lit in flames she dropped it in the rubbage bin before it could scorch her fingers. The heat from curling up from the rim scalded her legs but she watched the - his last one - letter die into cinders.

She had no need for it. She had the memories. She wanted nothing more to remind her of her betrayal...

It was a secret Hermione would tell Harry if the time came. If she absolutely had to. Telling him the truth would be easy, it was explaining why she would ever try inventing a spell to fool the map when they had been sternly told that there wasn't a way to.

In the dead of the night, past her time as Head Girl, she waited at the corner of the corridor from the Room of Requirement. she didn't have long to wait, she saw him within minutes of her arrival.

Draco walked up to her, not a hint of surprise on his tired features. He'd been so worn lately that he lost his stagger and cockiness, and she thought it sad.

"I can't tell you," he said instantly, a habit he came to have whenever he found her in the dead of the night. He knew what she was going to ask, she asked it every time, insisting. She was incredibly stubborn, but she was wearing.

"Draco, we can help you."

"No, you can't. This is too dangerous, especially for you."

"I've been in danger before."

"Not because of me," he snapped. "I'm not Potter. I'll be damned if I bring you into this."

She sighed, feeling her heart breaking. She leaned on the stone wall. "This is too hard."

He brushed her arm. "Because of the map -"

"Not just because of the map."

He nodded as though he understood. "I wish I'd been born anyone else."

"If you were anyone else I wouldn't..." She didn't say the words. They never said them.

Pressing himself against her he kissed her forehead. He held his lips there, his hands curled around her wrists. Then, he let her go. He left her.

Hermione held onto the wall. She felt herself break in half.

She grabbed a fistful of her hair and pushed the memory out of her mind. She had to sleep. She had to forget. It was in the past. It meant nothing. He meant nothing.

Then, her mobile rung.

"Hermione? Hermione, dear?"

She held the phone away from her ear for a second startled at the screeching voice. "Mum? Are you okay? You sound frazzled."

Her mother sighed on the other line. "We're fine, your father and I, we're both fine, but our house was broken into."

"What?" She twisted her clock to see the time. "How? I have spells on your house!" How could anyone get through? It was nearly impossible. Did she miss something? Did she do a spell wrong? Was it all her fault?

"I don't know..."

"I'm coming there right now."

"No, no, dear, don't bother! All the way here to Australia? That's not necessary!"

When Hermione had gone to fetch her parents in Australia and re-modified their memories they decided to stay. She accepted their decision, never having been a large part in their everyday lives, and she brought everything else she had hidden to them. That included all of her childhood things. It was best with them, she had no use for them, and it would keep her in their thoughts.

"There's nothing you can do," her mother comforted. "We're going to stay at our dear neighbors until we have the police investigate. Nothing was stolen so it's pointless to file anything... All the same, I'd like to know we're secured. When you come here for Christmas, would you mind doing the spells again? I'd feel better having you do them."

"Sure, mum, of course I will."

"We're both alright, you get some shut eye. I'm sorry I called so late, but it's..." Her mother let out a broken sob. "It's scary."

"Mum, are you sure -"

"Yes, I'm sure. Get some sleep. I love you."

"I love you too..." She slid her mobile closed.

Someone got through her spells. She knew what her friends would say, that it wasn't possibly her fault. There was no way that her spells could have been penetrated, but it was possible. She wasn't perfect... But if they were as secured as she made certain they are, then who was powerful enough to break through them? And what did they want?

Her parents were safe from this person, or of no interest. They left them alive and unharmed. It was her they were after, she knew. Who?