Disclaimer: I'm just a toddler in the JKRowling's sandbox, nothing more than that.
...
-Fire, Fire Everywhere-
"Hey, you there, have you seen the Head Boy around here?"
The scared little first year squeaked out a negative response and ran in the other direction. She wasn't the first one that Hermione had interrogated that morning.
"Hermione!"
She whipped around.
"Why are you looking for Malfoy?"
"Oh just something," she said noncommittally.
Her two closest friends shared an odd look while the third not-quite-so-close one stayed sulking and the closer-than-the-third fourth clung close to Ron until Harry broke the stare.
"Well, it's been two weeks since we've actually got to talk to you—"
"I've just been—" Hermione tried to justify her actions but was cut off by Harry not giving her a chance to speak.
"Busy. Head girl stuff and homework. It's alright. We understand. But today is Sunday!" he said with a wide grin, "So Ron and I thought the three of us should take a short trip to Hogsmeade!"
Ron shook his head in agreement, also smiling. Until, the fourth of their party spoke up.
"I keep telling you two. I'm sure our dear Hermione must have better things to do with Malfoy. You two have been spending quite a lot more time together, I hear. And not just doing duties or studying" Ginny's displeasure was quite apparent to Hermione. However, Harry and Ron sensed none of it. Boys, she thought, always oblivious to the seedy underbelly of the workings of women.
Lavender, picking up on Ginny's implications and eager to redirect Ron's attentions back to herself, quickly agreed, "It's best to just leave her to Malfoy and go to Hogsmeade ourselves."
Forever playing the mediator, Harry directed a question to Hermione, "Have you really been spending your free time with Malfoy instead of us?"
Furious at Ginny and Lavender but unable to vehemently deny the accusations, Hermione confessed, "Maybe... yes." And quickly followed with, "But not all my time. And we're just talking, really. He's really quite decent now! Nice to hang around even."
Ginny smiled triumphantly.
"You're right, but we've missed you Hermione."
Ginny's smile left her.
Hermione was surprised; she was even more surprised when Ron jumped in to agree.
"Yeah, Hermione. I mean, we know you have other friends, but can't you find more time for your best friends?" His charmingly boyish smile warmed her heart. Her best friends had seen Draco's change and believed he had changed for the better. They had chosen to let go of their childhood rivalries. "Actually, we've all been talking about it. The only thing is, we can't figure out why… We noticed that he started being less smarmy to you," at this, he looked pointedly at Hermione, "and then everyone else after."
Forgoing his position as mediator, Harry tag teamed with Ron to satisfy his curiosity.
"What do you think, Hermione? Surely, you must know?"
"Yeah! Does it have something to do with you hanging around him more?"
Hermione tried to defuse the escalating situation and offered to explain it to them all in a more private location. With one stipulation. "You two will have to leave." She was referring to Lavender and Ginny who had stayed silent through the inquisition.
The two boys seemed okay with this. However, Ginny was not. "What? Why do I have to leave?"
"Yeah! I want to know too! Parvati'll just die when I tell her that I know something that she doesn't!"
"That's exactly the point, Lavender. This can't get around. And Ginny, you have to leave because I don't want to be attacked while explaining myself."
"Sorry. We'll talk later," Harry muttered to Ginny as Ron did the same to Lavender.
She turned and walked towards her tower. The boys understood and followed, leaving Ginny and Lavender behind.
x
"Hey Hermione, why's this the first time we've ever been in your dorm?"
"Draco and I agreed not to let anyone in. But I'll convince him to let this one slide. If he's even in there," the last part she whispered under her breath. They gave no indication that her using his first name was any big deal.
After Draco discovered that she had tried to drug him with truth serum, she had seen neither hide nor hair of him. Neither had anyone else she had questioned.
"Oh," Harry responded, having understood the desire for privacy after sharing a dormitory with four other boys just being boys.
Ron was in awe while admiring the Heads Tower's splendor.
"Maybe you should've tried harder to be Head Boy, Harry."
"Ha, Dumbledore knows I already help protect the school. I don't need the title to emphasize it."
Hermione laughed. It was just too true. And Hermione was happy that Harry was joking about it now. Times were serious. It helped to keep a bright perspective sometimes.
"Tsk tsk tsk Hermione. I wouldn't be laughing if I were you. Don't think we've forgotten why we're here," he admonished, still in his joking mood.
"Oh darn."
Harry and Ron offered smiles in return while she pretended to glare at them.
"Start, please."
"I know, I'm trying. It's hard. A lot has happened."
"Just start from the beginning."
"Very well…"
x
She told them about the truce, leaving out how they sealed the truce. Harry had already known, but Ron was skeptical that Malfoy would be able to keep his promise.
Then she told them about the Veritaserum incident, all the while sighing throughout. It was not one that she wanted to remember. Embarrassing to say the least. Stupid to be honest. And extremely painful to think of it objectively. Harry and Ron couldn't believe that she would rather experience the pain rather than just answer the question. Of course, she didn't tell them what the question was. They wouldn't understand. They did understand; however, that Draco had willingly touched her—a mudblood—and carried her to the Madame Pomfrey without being ordered to.
The next part, she grew a bit nervous. She told them that she would only say it once. And if they inquired further, she would stay silent. They agreed. Though they fought every urge to keep their agreement. They wanted to murder Zabini themselves. And their blood thirst was only slightly assuaged when Hermione relayed what Draco had told her had happened to Zabini. The details he gave her were vague, but chilling… not that Zabini hadn't deserved it.
That ended her Hermione's storytelling.
"Well, now you two know why we've been more friendly. I don't know why he's been friendly to other people though. Maybe I've been rubbing off on him," she joked.
"So, are you guys really mates now?"
Her mind went to their first kiss and the many kisses following, but she simply answered, "Yes. Friends."
"So where's Malfoy now?"
"I… I don't know."
Ron, ever the skeptic, "You two practically live together but you don't know? When's the last time you saw him?"
"A couple of weeks ago. He just disappeared…"
"So the fer—err—Malfoy isn't here?"
"Nope."
"This is his dorm, and a swanky one at that, why would he leave?"
"Well…"
"Hermione… tell us…"
"Well… I may have tried to drug him…"
Her barks of laughter shocked her.
"Oh, Hermione, you are a right genius."
"What? No! Not with anything bad, just a little Veritaserum. I was just trying to ask him to clarify some things."
"When people don't answer things, other people just let it go or keep bugging them til they answer… Our Hermione drugs them!" Ron was in tears.
"Oy, Ron. Careful, she might try to poison your pumpkin juice." Harry couldn't help join in on the fun in between his own bouts of laughter.
"Oh shush you two. It was important! I really wanted to know."
"Haha, know what?"
She was silent.
This lead to their own silence.
"… Hermione… what did you want to know?"
Silence.
"Hermione!"
"Okay! He was acting really weird one night. He kept asking me about the war—"
"That bastard. He hasn't changed then."
"No, Harry. Not like that. He asked me if I… if I'd would fight or leave. Or course I said I'd fight but—"
"That's our girl," Ron piped in.
"—But he wouldn't tell me why he was asking. So I wanted to use the Veritaserum—"
Loud footsteps drowned out her words.
"Hermione!" Someone bellowed. It was Draco.
Harry and Ron noticed that he too used her first name.
Draco stumbled into the common area, "You need to leave now. We need to leave now, I—" He saw Harry and Ron in their room and stopped.
"What, Malfoy? Why do you need to leave?"
"Yeah, Malfoy. Out with it."
Hermione felt the familiar rivalry rekindling itself, so she stepped in. "Draco, where have you been?"
"It doesn't matter. We need to go now."
"Does it have something to do with why you want to leave now?"
"Yes! Now let's leave!"
"Draco. Tell me."
Not wanting to delay Hermione and him further, he acquiesced.
"A few days ago, some unmarked letters were sent to a couple of the Slytherins and myself. They were sent to all of those whose families had shown themselves to be aligned with—"
"—Voldemort" Harry interjected in disbelief.
"I want proof," Ron demanded, but he didn't expect Draco to actually provide him with evidence.
Draco pulled a letter out of his robes and threw it at him, "Now you know." He turned towards Hermione and grabbed her arm, urging her to leave with him, "For the past couple of weeks, ... I've been talking to my father."
"About what?" Hermione was even more curious now.
"About what I was to do... He wanted me to go with him."
"And?" She leaned in for his answer. The boys who had been watching from the sidelines leaned closer too.
"I refused. He left. Can we go now?"
Hermione was in shock. She knew Draco didn't have any inclination towards the Voldemort's side, but she had forgotten that denying Voldemort would be to deny his father too.
"Your father... Draco that's crazy."
"I didn't say it wasn't. But this is happening. Now. It's our last chance to leave unscathed."
"No. Even if this is really happening. I told you I'd stay. I told you I would fight. I intend to keep my words."
His eyes pleaded with hers. He wasn't going to leave her in the thick of things.
"Why can't we go to Dumbledore? He'll know what to do."
Draco was about to respond, but it was too late.
Bright light burst in from the window, slightly blinding them.
Screams sounded like alarms, never ending.
The four ran down to the first floor of their old wizarding school. From there, they could see the terrible destruction. They could see their professors lining up at the edge as a defense.
Friendfyre had been simultaneously cast at the far edge of the Forbidden Forest, raging towards the school. Towards them.
A loud ringing joined the cacophony, an alarm, and a calm disembodied voice warned students to stay in their dormitories until otherwise told. Those willing to fight were to make their way to the forest's edge. Voldemort was coming.
The four froze only to collectively break out at a sprint heading towards the forest.
At the outskirts of the Forest, nearing the professors and other students, ready to protect their school, Draco pulled Hermione aside.
"Do you leave with me or do you fight with them?"
The emphasis of his words were not lost on Hermione, and she found herself being pulled towards Draco's outstretched hand.
About to grab his hand, everything suddenly froze for Hermione.
x
She gained "awoke" in a world of gray. Devoid of all forms of life save for her and another man.
"Hermione," he spoke, stepping closer to her, "My name is Mark."
Hermione's eyes widened, "What are you?... Why am I here… How am I here?"
"That is not important, but I'm here to help."
Hermione shrunk back, wary of the new man.
"Please, trust me." His eyes pleaded with her, reminding her of Draco.
"Why should I?"
"Because I know you! I know what's going to happen to you!" He fought back the urge to just tell her to stay, and that if she left, nothing good would come of it for her. And that's all he wanted, he didn't care about anything else but her safety. Fortunately for him, he knew that rationality would win her over. So he regained his composure. "Trust me, Hermione, I know you."
"But why?"
"You just should. The path you're on now, it will lead to doom. I know you will foolishly choose him and that you two will leave."
"Him… you mean Draco? I haven't decided yet though…"
"You will," he said solemnly, "And never mention his name in front of me again. It's a foul name. It's bearer will bring you only misfortune. If you go with him, your friends will die." He didn't want to lie to her, but he had to. "You shouldn't leave, so selfishly, Hermione. You have to tell him that you want to stay and fight. Think of your friends!" He knew how important they were to her.
"How do I know all that's true?"
He tells her of her past childhood. "Your broken arm from the sandbox. The time your grandfather caught you reading in his private study. He hit you that day. Told you never to enter his study again. But the years later after he died, you did. And you found out why he didn't want you in there."
"You know what I'm talking about, don't you Hermione?"
"Yes..."
"We both know why he didn't want you there. But how do I know? Because I've been watching you! For your own good."
"Watching me?"
"Yes. So you should listen to me now when I say that you should not leave with him!"
"That's… that's all true. But—"
"But NOTHING! Right now, you're looking at two paths, dear child. One leads to happiness with your friends. The other leads to doom."
"I need... I need time to think about this... It's all coming so fast."
"You don't have time! I need to leave you soon... but you know… in your heart and mind, you know it's true, and you know what you should do."
x
She found herself in the same position, about to grab Draco's hand, but she stopped herself.
"I fight with them. What are you going to do, Draco?"
…
This has been semi-edited... I'll edit it more when I have the time.
Water, water everywhere, but not a drop a drink.
I thought about finishing the chapter right after Draco came in… but I've been horrible at updating so… there you go… D:
I also apologize for this chapter not being as smooth as I would have liked. But I really just wanted to get this chapter out for you guys!