A/n: Sniff, darn I really wanted this to be longer, but my brain couldn't make anymore and there's another idea of a Scorpius/Rose fic and I don't wanna lose it. I think I did a fairly ok job for my third fanfic....so here she is!
Grabbing his Dark Mark, Bellatrix cackled, " You can never escape us dearie! We will always know where you are. "
Hermione shuddered, those memories broke her down almost everytime. She still felt disgusting for using both the Crutacious and The Killing curse. No matter how many times she said she was okay, nobody fell for it. They knew she changed, everyone did. They just didn't know the horrible things she had done. And how she believed that she had found someone who could understand her, a new friend to keep the horrendous visions of the past away. She laughed bitterly, actually he was one of the reasons she was headed for the broken up astronomy tower. She trusted him, she really felt he changed, that they could become friends slowly, but it was all a joke. He really set her up for torture and humilation. Of course she retaliated, but it still burnt her inside. When he saw her in the hallway he tried to explain, to say that he was sorry, but she didn't give him a moments time. Hermione Granger was determined to never have anything do with Draco Malfoy ever again.
Wiping a spontaneous tear from her eye, she quicked her pace. She had to do this, it would make all the pain she ever felt go away forever.
He finished writing his letter and taped it to his mirror. He looked up to find his eyes rimmed in red, it was midnight and he had that dream again, the one of Bellatrix. Of course he had many nightmares based on her, but this was the one that caused Hermione to despise his being. He took a deep breath, he knew what he had to do, he was ready to go to the astronomy tower. While he was briskly walking, he couldn't help remember all the times he had tried to explain. He even wrote her letters, but never received a response, he knew she didn't even read them. How he wished he could go back to the simple times when the biggest problem had been figuring out new ways to irritate the Gryffindors.
Hermione was almost to the tower and she couldn't stop thinking about how good of an actor Draco was. Was it possible to be that convincing? ' Stop it Hermione, he's not worth your thought process.' She told herself as she opened the astronomy door. She slowly walked to the crumbling edges and looked down while immediately regretting it. She felt like the ground was sucking her down. She took a deep breathe, got closer to the edge, and sat down. She was contemplating on whether she should do this or not. No, she had to.....it would hurt everyone else, but she couldn't keep thinking and dreaming about the war.....it had to stop sometime. Just then she heard the door slowly creak open.
Hermione.....that was all he could think about lately. Why? He didn't know, it's not like they knew each other. They did get remotely close while she was at the Manor, but Bellatrix took care of that. Still walking, he remembered all the times where he just wanted to sabotage all of the Dark Lord's plans, no matter what the consequences were. He couldn't though, not with his family at stake, soon after he became a Death Eater he didn't care what happened to himself. Ha, death would have been a blissful blessing. Sighing he heard the Astronomy door creak loudly as he slowly pushed it open.
They both looked at each other, locking eyes until Hermione icily blurted, " What are you doing here? Stop stalking me and go away."
He was shocked, he needed her to get out to do what he wanted to do. " I'm not stalking you, and you are the one who needs to get out."
She huffed indignately and roughly said, " I'll be done in a couple minutes, but you gotta get out. Now. "
He pondered for a moment, what in the world was she talking about. ' I'll be done in a couple minutes' what the hell was that supposed to mean. " What do you mean you'll just be a couple minutes, you weren't here all night were you? "
"It doesn't matter if I was or wasn't, just go away and get out! "
" No, girls first, believe me you won't have to deal with me much longer!" He muttered that last sentence rather depressingly.
Now he was confusing her, they still had the rest of seventh year to go and he was in many of her classes. Unfortunately, they would be seeing a lot of each other.
" You wouldn't understand, I have something extremely important to do and I'm not gonna be able to do it if you keep questioning me! "
She scoffed, " What are you going to do anyway?"
" It....doesn't.....matter. It'll make everyone's life that much better. Now move away from the edge! "
Hermione was pretty pissed right now, it wouldn't matter if he saw anyway, he'd be estatic. She stood on the edge, glared at him, and bent her knees, preparing to jump. She was scared out of her mind as she glanced out the opening again. She faltered again when she heard him.
What in the name of Merlins five foot beard was she doing?! She was going to do what he was going to do! He saw the frightened look on her face and decided to talk to her. " Granger what the bloody hell are you doing? " When he looked at her face again, it was drowning in tears and he felt something twitch in his chest.
" I...I can't do this anymore! I can't sleep without reliving the war. I don't even know why I'm telling you, but it doesn't matter really. I'll never be myself again, you can't forget something like this. I...just...want to end, I want the pain to stop! " By now she was sobbing hysterically.
Damn. He couldn't say anything comforting without being a hypocrite. He was gonna jump, too. " Believe it or not, I know how you feel, in fact I was gonna jump off of here, too. That's what I meant when you wouldn't be bothered by me for much longer. I have horrid things ingrained in my brain as well. I was forced to watch as people, people that I knew, were being driven to insanity. Among being a torturer, I was asked to murder Dumbledore, as you already know. Do you know what that was like? Given the choice of your family dying in agony in front of you if you didn't kill the one man who tried to help you? Dumbledore always tried to make me understand, but I couldn't do that to my family, no matter what they've done to me. To top it off, Bellatrix forced me into pretending I didn't mean what I said to you. I did, Hermione, I meant that I do understand, I do want equality. She ruined it, you hate me. I broke your trust, albeit unwillingly, but still. " By the time he was done, he was pretty much out of breath.
She glanced at him with glassy brown eyes. They were driving into his soul, trying to see if he was lying. Finally, a last tear made its way down her cheek as she whispered, " You meant what you said? Really? "
" Yes. Honestly I did."
She backed away from the edge and looked at the floor, " Please, don't jump. It's a horrible way to go."
His grey eyes melted into hers and he contemplated. As she looked at him, he softly said, " I won't if you don't."
She read into him again, she was thinking if they could ever be something. Anything could happen....he was the only one who was there for her in the Manor, not that it was anyone else's fault, it's just they weren't stationed in the same place. " Draco....do you......do you think that we could possibly be more than.....well much more than this? I don't want any promises or vows or anything, I'm still healing slowly and I don't know what to feel, but....if we're careful and slow then....maybe? "
His chest felt like it was feather light, he could get used to that idea. They'd have to take it extremely slow after all that happened, but he definately thought it was possible. Her face flushed and fell, quickly he answered, " Definately, we've been through so much. We'd have to move half a step at a time, but in the end it would probably be worth it. " He saw her face brighten almost immediately and he smiled.
They both stood there awkwardly until they slowly walked to each other. Time dragged on, then simultaneously they wrapped each their arms around each other, enjoying the others warmth. They stood there for what seemed like forever and headed to the dorms. They didn't know how the future was going to treat them, but perhaps it wouldn't be so omnious with someone to share it with? They learned many important things in all of their years at Hogwarts, but the most important lesson was......
how to save a life.
A/n: Sorry, the end was.....weird. Haha, but the story wasn't too bad! Thank you all to who review and who've read this!