A/N- Mmm, almost done! What is mine is not Harry Potter, Hitch, or She Falls Like Rain. I cringed a bit when typing this. Seemed a bit too dramatic. Agree?
Hermione returned to the common room at a late hour. She wasn't aware of how much time elapsed since the news, nor did she care. She got to the portrait and murmured the password.
She must have looked about as bad as she felt for the portrait Draco to exclaim, "Goodness, Hermione! What in Merlin's name happened to you?"
Portrait Hermione joined in, "Oh dear, this had better not have anything to do with those girls. That Slytherin that wears too much makeup pranced out of here as if it were Christmas!"
"Yes, yes, Hermione! I too saw her. In addition, I saw the Chinese Ravenclaw skip around with the same happiness."
"Wait, what? When did you see Cho, Draco?" Saying his name made Hermione wince, even if this was not the real Draco.
"It must have been a few hours ago. I swear those girls are up to no good."
Hermione nodded to herself and the portrait, sensing this conversation was over, let her in. The shock of the scene in front of her stopped Hermione in her steps. Draco lay limply curled on the floor by the couch. Without thinking about how much he hurt her- for the second time, and without dwelling on what the portraits said, Hermione rushed over to him. She roughly shook him, tears welling in her eyes, this time out of worry for the boy that had hurt her so much. For the boy that she cared too much about.
"Draco!" Hermione desperately pleaded, "Wake up! Please, Draco!" Hermione was now sobbing. Quickly thinking, Hermione levitated him, and sprinted past the portrait door. Her vision was blurred by the fresh tears, but she kept running in what she hoped to be the right direction to the Hospital Wing.
Hermione finally got the Hospital Wing and gently levitated Draco down to one of the beds. Madame Pomfrey bustled out of her office and looked between Hermione and Draco worriedly. "I've got him, dear." Madame Pomfrey said as a way to tell Hermione to leave the room. Hermione got the hint and started to walk away as Dumbledore entered. Then did Hermione remember the bond. She was allowed to leave the room to talk to Cho earlier, but she shouldn't have been able to.
"Professor Dumbledore, sir. The bond--"
"Yes, Miss Granger. I am aware that the bond had been broken earlier today?"
"Yes, sir. But why?"
"I haven't the slightest idea; I am more concerned about what just recently happened. Would you care to explain?"
"Errm, sure."
Hermione's feelings of heartbreak came rushing back to her. In the anxiety if Draco was okay or not, the feelings had been pushed aside. Now that there was nothing she could do about him, Hermione felt empty again. Dumbledore led the way out and Hermione followed with her head hung and silent, unstoppable tears flowed down her cheeks. Before she knew it, they were in Dumbledore's office. And Hermione's reverie was broken by Dumbledore gently calling her name.
"Oh. Yes. Well, in the simplest form," Hermione sniffled and continued with a thick voice, "He hates me and I hate him."
"In all of the emotions I have observed in you and Mister Malfoy, not one of them has been hate. I personally believe that this is one giant misunderstanding."
Hermione thought of Dumbledore's words for a moment, and then the conversation with the Portrait. It was a set up. All at once, it clicked. The Populars. They were threatened. They got revenge. At this realization, Hermione giggled out loud. Dumbledore looked at her curiously. Hermione jumped up and started running to the door, over her shoulder, she called, "Thanks, Headmaster! I need to tell Draco!"
As Hermione sprinted to the Head Dorms, she felt like her heart had started beating again. When she got to the empty dorms, her heart stuttered. Using all of her energy, she ran down to the Hospital Wing. Her heart felt like it almost stopped beating again. Draco was in the same place she put him down with the same tragic, painful expression on his face. Madame Pomfrey was looking through her potions cabinet, but her face held all expressions of lost hope.
Hermione rushed to his side and internally cursed the Populars. With tears forming in her eyes yet again, Hermione started murmuring to him. "Draco. Whatever Pansy said to you isn't true. Cho said things to me that I know aren't true either. Please, Draco. Wake up. It was all a set up to get us apart. Don't let them win. I know you're strong, Draco. I know you're going to pull through this. Wake up!"
Draco was struggling in his mind. He had surrendered to the darkness earlier. But now, he wanted to overcome it. He heard her voice. He heard her pleas for his well being. And now he wanted nothing more than to make her wish come true. He struggled but the darkness didn't want to give up and kept him pushed down. Draco felt like he couldn't breathe. Instead of the numb sadness after he gave up, he was feeling pain. There was pressure. Not the pressure of the darkness, but real pressure. It wasn't much, it was actually very light. Like someone's face pressed against his heart. Then he heard her again. It was her head against his chest. He couldn't understand what she was saying, but he wanted to know so badly. Then he broke through the darkness. He slowly opened his eyes and confirmed that it was her murmuring on his chest. A slow smile found its way up to his face and he wrapped his arms around her.
Hermione gasped, shocked when Draco's strong arms surrounded her. She looked up to see him smiling softly at her. They kept their eyes locked on each other as they both closed the distance between their faces.
Madame Pomfrey slightly coughed, trying to interrupt the kiss, but failing. She had witnessed the whole scene of Hermione talking Draco back into consciousness. It had truly been magic. But in a place like Hogwarts, magic wasn't too rare.
A/N: That's where the chapter ends. I think there will be one more chapter after this. Umm, this next part is what I originally had as the beginning for this chapter, but I decided to change it.
It was late at night and Hermione and Ginny were curled up on the Gryffindor common room sofa in front of the crackling fire. Hermione had been zombie-like for weeks after the event between her and Draco. Though she responded when talked to, she was like a shell-- empty. After you exchanged a few words with her, no matter the topic, she would go back into her funk. Her face was always void of any emotion, and her eyes never really focused. Ron was peeved, Harry was completely clueless as to what he should do, and Ginny was concerned.
Tonight, Ginny had finally gotten Hermione to just sit with her, she'd been trying for days, and the redhead simply didn't know how to start the conversation. Out of the corner of her eye, Ginny could see Hermione blankly staring into the fire, and since recently, a normal, small frown upon her lips. "When are you going to snap out of it, Hermione?" the words came out harsher than Ginny expected, though Hermione didn't flinch. However, the latter did listlessly blink once at a speed that would be of a person that hadn't slept in close to a week. For all Ginny knew, Hermione hadn't.
Getting no response, Ginny went on, using the nickname Hermione hated, "Talk to me, Emmy. Why's this affecting you so much?"
"I dunno, Gin. I just feel… like I'm missing… a chunk of myself." Hermione answered in the same dull way she now talked.
"That's not healthy, Hermione. C'mon, tell me exactly how you feel. Get this off your chest."
Hermione sighed, then whispered, "I feel like I want to throw myself off of every highly-elevated tower on this campus if it would just make me forget him." Tears spilled over the rims of Hermione's eyes, and there were only more coming. "If it would just get rid of this pain for a moment."
After some silence, while just watching her best friend cry, Ginny whispered back, "How often? Does it hurt, I mean."
"It only hurts when I'm breathing."
A/N: Well, leave me a review. Sorry for the wait, as always. I'm going to start writing my stories on paper so I can update on a regular basis. Peace!