The days faded into one another as Draco sat at the Manor, waiting. Monday faded into Tuesday. Tuesday blended into Wednesday as Wednesday drifted slowly into Thursday. He watched the sun rise and set with little knowledge as July melted into August, September into October. As Lucius was released from Azkaban, Draco watched the leaves fall from the trees, the deep orange tint they held turning to brown. He watched as his childhood home, the place where he had once felt safest, become taken over by the Dark Lord, the wizard who had tortured Draco's mother in front of his own two eyes until he agreed to kill the one man who only wanted to help him.
The only thing holding Draco's sanity together as the Death Eaters moved into his home, as they had their way with his house and his Auntie's haunting cackle filled the house, as he watched the two people he had always seen strongest, his parents, cower in fear in their own home, was the image he had seen in the loo.
He couldn't forget the way her face lit up that last blissful day as the two of them walked through the yards of Hogwarts towards Hogsmeade to the muggle cafe. He couldn't forget the way her frizzy hair surrounded her face, even back in a ponytail, swept away with the wind. The smell of the freshly cut grass around them filled his senses even as December came and went, Christmas not being anything like he had ever remembered at the Manor.
Normally on Christmas, his mother's house elves had the smell of cinnamon filling their home as stunned fairies decorated the stairwell, happiness filling the entire home, along with the soft sound of music playing in the background and hundreds of presents under the tree for Draco alone to open. That was how it had been for years. This year as Draco's seventeenth Christmas rolled around, there were no fairies, no presents under the tree or cinnamon rolls baking in the stone kitchen. Instead, the manor filled with darkness, the only music filling the room being the bone-chilling sound of Bellatrix' laugh or Greyback's howls. No presents sat under the tree for Draco to open this year, the only gift he received was the fact that Hermione had been spotted with Harry Potter in Godric's Hollow. She was still alive.
Draco waited through January for more word on Hermione. How was she doing? Where was she? Never hearing anything on whether or not her body had been found. He couldn't help but fear that she was somewhere, lying dead somewhere in a creek or forest. As February drifted through with the winter snow still falling, he hoped she wasn't injured somewhere. He prayed that Potter was better than he knew him to be and that Hermione was safe and sound somewhere secure. March came with the snow melting, the small budding of flowers near the tree where the peacocks nested as Draco started pacing his room at night, hoping to hear something from a Death Eater that Hermione had been spotted, that a bar keep had seen her in Hogsmeade or she had left Harry's side, returning to Hogwarts where Snape currently resided, never with any luck.
Draco got ready to face the rain of April, ready to see the tiny tulips near the peacock's home bud as the last days of March came to an end, when finally, he heard a cackle.
"HAHAHA!" Bellatrix laughed out, filling the manor with her sadistic laugh. "We found him. We can kill him. HAHAHA. We have Harry Potter!" She cackled with pride in her gleeful laugh. It was almost enough to make Draco throw up what little he had eaten as he ran downstairs in fear of seeing Hermione with him. Instead, the room was empty minus Bellatrix, his mother and his father.
"Where?" Draco asked firmly, starting to feel rage in the fact that this may be one of his Auntie's pranks as she spun around the room, arms held out wide like a young girl dancing in the sunlight as she held her head up to the ceiling laughing.
"We caught Potter! We caught Potter!" She called out with glee, "He'll be here any minute Draco." She said, running over to her nephew with a look of nothing less than ecstasy on her face. "Do you know what this means? The Dark Lord will come! And he will praise us! And forever will our names be known as he raises his hand! Do you know why?!" She asked, hatred in her eyes as she stared at the man who hid the scared little boy from his own family. "BECAUSE WE CAUGHT POTTER!"
Suddenly a group of Snatchers came in the room, Draco's stomach dropping as he saw Hermione being one of them that the Snatchers held captive. "They claim that they don't know a Harry Potter," One of the Snatchers exclaims, holding the sword of Gryffindor. "But I could have sworn this one was him." He said, holding up a boy with a swollen face, his eyes barely slits through which Draco could obviously see, they were green. His stomach sank at the thought of what would happen if his parents, his auntie, found out that Potter was in fact himself. What would they do to Potter? Or worse, what would they do to Hermione for traveling alongside him?
"Draco, come here." Draco heard his mother's voice call, bringing him back to reality as he moved closer to the boy whose face was puffy and red, swollen and misshapen. He recognized a few of the others that Hermione had been brought in with. A dark-complected thin boy about their age stood, his hands bound as Draco recognized him as a member of the Gryffindor House, unable to place the boy's name but knowing that he was one who had dated the youngest Weaslette their sixth year. Also with them was none other than Ronald Weasley. Yes, Hermione being with him, the Weasley boy, another Gryffindor who had dated Potter's precious Weaslette, this had to be Harry Potter. He knew it.
Draco stared at Harry, recognizing all of his familiar features, the slight scar on his nose where Draco had broken it only the year prior, his scar on his forehead, now misshapen and deformed from something that he had gotten into. Draco immediately recognized Potter`s bright green eyes, an obvious trait that made Potter stand out in a crowd anyway, and knew, for Hermione's sake, he couldn't confirm who Potter was.
"Is it him Draco?" Lucius whispered, his face beside that of his son's as Draco could see the excitement in his facial structure for the first time in nearly a year. "If so, we are forgiven. Our debts are repaid. Is it?"
Draco looked back at Harry, unsure of what to say. "I...I can't be sure." He says softly as Lucius stepped back with a sigh.
"We need to be certain Lucius," Narcissa says with fear in her voice. "If there is even a shadow of a doubt, we are all dead where we stand."
"What about the Mudblood then?" Greyback asked as Draco's stomach sank and one of the Snatchers forced Hermione to turn around, facing the Malfoys.
"Yes! Yes! That is her!" Narcissa exclaimed matter-of-factly. "I am sure of it! She was at Madam Malkin's with Potter! She was in the Daily Prophet!" She said, certain that she had the right girl. "Draco that is the Granger girl, isn't it?"
Draco stood there, fighting back the tears in his eyes to hide them from his family as he swallowed back the tenseness in his throat. "I...maybe..." He started as Narcissa looked at him factually. There was no way he could hide her, no way he could deny, claiming that Narcissa was wrong. It was too obvious, blatantly obvious. "Yes." He answered, looking everywhere but at Hermione as he said the word of betrayal, silently apologizing to her in his head.
"But then...I should have known." Lucuis said, his eyes suddenly opening for the first time at the boy he didn't realize was standing in front of him as a prisoner. "That's the Weasley boy! It's him, Arthur Weasley's son! What's his name."
"Yea," Draco answered, turning his back to Hermione. He couldn't let her face him as he betrayed her now worse than ever, as he offered her up for anyone to take and torture for them to find out whether or not the swollen faced boy was in fact Harry Potter. He only had one option, to try and take it all back. "It might be. I haven't seen them all for a year. I can't be sure."
Draco looked down in self-loathing as he listened to his family bicker over who would notify the Dark Lord. He hated himself for what he had done as Bellatrix ordered him to send the Snatchers outside. As he reentered the room, he heard words that made his stomach churn as he fought the urge to throw up his dinner, the taste of bile fresh in his mouth.
"Take the prisoners to the basement Greyback," Bellatrix said with an evil smile. "All of them except for the Mudblood." She said, pointing at Hermione as Draco watched the girl shiver in fear.
"NO!" Draco yelled out before he could catch himself, causing his family to turn and stare. "Weasley, he is weaker. He would be easier to get answers out of." He said as Ron shouted out in Hermione's defense, begging to be tortured instead.
Bellatrix reached out, hitting Ron hard across the face as the sound of skin on skin contact echoed in the room. Her rotten teeth shown in Ron's still-blurred eyes from the contact as her decayed smelling breath filled his nostrils, nearly causing him to gag with nausea. "If I kill the girl, when I kill the girl," She said with an evil smile, causing Draco's stomach to sink at the thought. "Then I will torture you. Blood traitor is right next to Mudblood in my book little puppet." She said before pointing down towards the cellar stairs, Greyback following her demand.
Draco felt as though he could sink no lower, knowing now that he had just sentenced Hermione to her death as he watched his Auntie pull a short silver dagger from under her robes, dragging Hermione by her hair, along the ground where Draco had once played as a child, learning to crawl and walk, into the center of the room.
Looking away, Draco felt the nausea returning. No, this wasn't happening. It couldn't be. He had done everything in his power to save Hermione. To keep her safe from this as he watched tears already forming in Hermione's coffee colored eyes as she stared at him. No, Draco reminded himself, watching the girl stare straight ahead, her eyes empty. She wasn't staring at him. The Mudblood that he had grown to love over the past year and a half, that he had made love to, and argued with, and lost his virginity to all in less than a blink of an eye in time was shutting down. Hermione Granger, the smartest witch of her time and bravest witch he ever knew, was already giving up hope.
Bellatrix smiled, walking towards the young girl before bowing down in front of Hermione, taking her dagger and piercing Hermione's pale white skin on her forearm, a red ribbon of blood spilling out as Hermione screamed out in pain, filling the room with the horrid, blood-curdling sound.
Tears filled Draco's eyes as it took everything inside of him not to lunge forward, knocking Bellatrix off of Hermione and hold her body close. He watched as the room suddenly moved in slow-motion while he saw a bright red M appear on Hermione's skin.
"Where did you find it?" Bellatrix asks, yanking Hermione's hair back from her face, causing a small squeak of pain to exit the young girl's mouth. "Where?"
Hermione had more courage than Draco imagined as her mouth opened to answer Bellatrix, instead spitting directly in the woman's furious face.
"Little bitch thinks she can play," Bellatrix said in fury, backhanding Hermione as she lay on the floor. Bellatrix circled her like a lion ready to attack and kill it's prey. Draco shuddered, moving closer to his mother as Bellatrix gave Hermione a swift kick to the ribs, causing her to scream out in pain once more. Draco couldn't handle it. He couldn't watch this as he buried his face into his mother's dress and Bellatrix' voice rang out again.
"WHERE did you get this sword?" She asked, her voice sickening. "WHERE?!"
"We found it- We found it- PLEASE?" Hermione asked, begging for her life before getting kicked in the stomach this time, causing Hermione to throw up all over the floor of the Manor.
"Do you want to be marked forever as a Mudblood? Do you, you filthy bitch?!" Bellatrix screamed out, her voice showing that she was having fun in torturing Hermione. "You have been inside my vault, haven't you! Tell the truth! TELL ME!"
Climbing back on top of Hermione, Bellatrix carved deeper into Hermione's arm, once again filling the Manor with the sickening screams as Draco silently cried, knowing his mother would say nothing about the tears while she held him close. Silently, he apologized to Hermione. For loving her, for ruining her innocence, and for obliviating her. He apologized for agreeing that she was in fact the friend of Harry Potter, for betraying her as Hermione as the word MUDBLOOD was carved into her arm and Hermione's screams reminded him of what he had done.
"ANSWER ME!" Bellatrix yelled, pointing a wand at Hermione as she stood up, "CRUCIO!"
Hermione cried out once more as her body withered in pain, her muscles tensing up and releasing against the girl's own will as every nerve ending burned as if on fire. Her screams of pain echoed off the walls as each and every one of the bones in Hermione's body felt as if it were silently breaking, her organs twisting as if wringing the blood out of them, and her skin pleaded against the needles she felt entering every cell of her body.
Suddenly, all the pain stopped. Hermione couldn't explain it as her skin no longer tinged, her nerves no longer burnt and her organs no longer squeezed against themselves. Her body was still withering in pain, screams still leaving her mouth, but Hermione's mind was elsewhere as the scent of spearmint gum filled her senses and every solid memory Draco had erased came rushing back.
"I'll do it," Her own voice telling Dumbledore with determination.
"Granger," Draco's voice told her calmly, his grey eyes staring into her own. "Please shut up."
"You don't have to show me MUDBLOOD!" He yelled out, causing Hermione to jump back in fear.
His kisses trailing down her back, then up her legs as Draco took the greatest care, making sure to embrace touching her in passion.
"Close your eyes Hermione," He told her carefully with concern, brushing the hair from her eyes. "Go to sleep and the pain will ease."
The look in his eyes as he stared down at her, slowly making love to her as she imagined it would feel making love to the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with.
"Kiss me one last time."
"I love you too." Draco whispered through a cracked voice, as she saw the tears he was choking to fight back. "Obliviate."
Hermione stared straight ahead as Bellatrix moved on, now yelling something at Griphook that Hermione could not understand. Bellatrix' laugh sounded as if it were underwater as Hermione's eyes went to the word now carved on her arm. MUDBLOOD. Silently, a single tear fell down her cheek as she thought of the love she had once held for Draco, the love she wasn't supposed to remember for the boy who now had his face hidden in his mother's shoulder, sobbing silently as Ron, Harry, Luna, and Dean ran back up the stairs from the dungeon, all a blur to Hermione as she heard hollers. As she was yanked to her feet, a dagger at her throat.
Please, just kill me. Hermione thought to herself, having enough of the torture, the agony of the returned memories, each one hurting a little more than the last. Make this nightmare end. She thought as the blurred voices filling the room all stopped, the chandelier above her and Bellatrix fell, causing her to run and fall into the familiar arms of Ron, the arms that always seemed to make everything feel better, even when they weren't. Her best friend, her rock in an ever-changing world.
Draco could see that Hermione was still numb, not quite herself as Dobby, his old house elf, stood in front of the group, disapparating them out of the Manor. He watched in slow motion as the dagger that had tortured Hermione left Bellatrix' hand. He held his breath for the quarter of a second that it took for him to watch the dagger spinning through the air, each turn causing him to feel a little bit more fear. Time stood still as he watched the brown of Hermione's hair blur in with the red of Weasley's shirt, all of them spinning into a blurred orb of disapparation as the dagger hit the orb and they left with a flash, the dagger never reappearing on the other side as Bellatrix smiled with pride. The dagger had hit someone, Draco's stomach sank as he could only hope that it wasn't Hermione.