"Come on, you've slept long enough. Wake up."
Hermione ignored the voice, continuing her slumber, the peace and quiet calling to her.
"I've been waiting for you to get up." A male voice called out to her.
Hermione opened her eyes, instantly covering them with her hands at the brightness. "Where am I?" She looked up and saw Death looking at her. "Death? What are you doing here? What am I doing here?"
She looked around them and saw bright white walls and floors and everything just plain white. When she glanced at herself she was surprised to find her uniform in tatters, streaks of red all around her.
But she didn't feel any pain.
Death gave her a sad smile and understanding flooded into her. "I'm dead aren't I?" Tears fell down her cheeks, an overwhelming sadness taking over her. "How did this happen?"
Hermione knew she had taken a major gamble when she accepted Death's offer. She knew things were serious when Havoc threatened her. But she never thought she would end up dying.
"You did really good Hermione." Death came over and sat next to her. "I knew I did the right thing trusting you with this."
Hermione shook her head. "What if I still failed? There is still one day left, what if I wasn't enough? He hates me now, doesn't he?" Hermione sobbed loudly. She had truly believed that they would make it out alive, that she could've had a future with Draco. Something which was now lost to both of them.
Death shook his head. "I don't think so. Everything that's been going wrong, it's all the things that Draco has dreaded the most. His father's death, his mother being alone in that manor with no protection, someone innocent getting hurt because of him, you get hurt." He grabbed onto her shoulders, slightly shaking due to her tears. "One of the things he dreaded the most was you being hurt, Hermione. He told you he loved you. He doesn't hate you."
Hermione nodded solemnly. "Is he safe?"
Death shook his head at her. "I can't tell you until you reach the land of the dead."
"Where am I right now? What can I do to go there? If you haven't noticed, I'm dead."
"Not exactly." Death got up from his seat and glanced back at Hermione who glanced at him questioningly. "You're only dead if you wish to be."
"That does not make any sense to me. At all." Hermione stated blankly.
"You are currently in the Void. it's a state between the dead and the living. You could go back if you wish." Death pointed behind her. "Or you could move on to the afterlife. Which do you choose?"
"What do you mean, I can choose?" Hermione questioned.
Death shrugged. "Exactly what I said. You can go back to the living realm if you wish to. Or you could pass onto the land of the dead."
"Return to the living land as a ghost?"
Death laughed. "No, not as a ghost. Those are different occasions. You would return to your body, alive and well. As well as your injured body would be."
"Does everyone have this option? Did Draco have this option?"
Death looked at her for a moment and stood up from his seat, holding a hand out to her. "Let's go for a walk, shall we?"
Hermione grabbed onto his hand and stood up, her knees instantly buckling underneath her. If it weren't for Death, she would've fallen down.
"The first few minutes are a bit difficult. Your body needs to adjust." She nodded, following Death, who opened an invisible door, leading her to a room made up of entire glass.
"The void certainly lacks in color." She stated plainly, causing Death to laugh.
"We haven't had any renovations since it was made." Hermione stepped through, fog covering the floor as if they were atop a cloud.
Death guided her to a seat in front of a desk, pulling the chair out for her. "Come on Hermione. We have a lot to discuss and very little time."
"I'm dead, don't I have all the time in the world?" She crossed her arms across her chest but took a seat anyway.
Death crossed the desk and took a seat behind it, placing his legs atop the desk and leaning back in his chair. "Let's call this a performance review of sorts."
Hermione raised a brow. "A performance review? Of what? My sins and good deeds during my time on earth?" She asked sarcastically.
"Heh, no." Death snapped his finger and a crumbled piece of paper appeared in front of her. She didn't need to read it to know that it was the contract she had signed. "A review of your contractual obligations."
For a moment her heart stopped, wondering what would happen now. Would the whole timeline be erased, going back to the time when Draco had killed himself?
"Calm down, you actually did okay." Death informed her, causing anger to surge up inside her.
"Okay? I did okay? I fucking died!" She hit the desk with her hand. "I died before my thirty-four days were up. Ron is in the hospital, Draco has a task to kill Dumbledore, Harry knows something is wrong and I am not there because I am dead!"
"Hermione, did you really think this was going to be easy?" Death asked, a frown on his face.
Hermione stammered before answering, "Of course, I didn't think this would be easy, but-"
"Life is not easy Hermione. There are ups and downs and it is completely unpredictable. You got this chance to save someone you knew and you did very well. I am proud of you. Just be glad that you actually did something worthwhile in your life. You made a difference. You had an effect on someone's life."
"But there's so much more I could've done. Maybe if I'd been smarter or I'd handled things differently-"
"You are 17. You're not living your life if you haven't screwed things up."
"What about Harry, Ron, and my parents?" She questioned, tears flowing from her eyes. "I can't leave them alone like this."
"They won't be alone. You would always be with them, in their hearts." Death answered calmly.
Hermione furrowed her eyebrows, irritation swelling inside her. "That doesn't make it any different! I need to be there for them in person. I need to stand beside them and support them in whatever they do. I don't want to be there in only their memories. I want to be selfish."
Death nodded, "I agree. After going through such hardships, you deserve to be selfish for your happiness. Then go on. What are you waiting for?"
Hermione paused. What was she waiting for? What was stopping her from crossing the line to go back to the land of the living?
"I don't want to be there if Draco isn't." She whispered. "That is me being selfish."
Death gave her yet another sympathetic smile. "As much as I would love to, I cannot tell you if Draco Malfoy is alive or not."
Hermione shook her head, teardrops falling to the ground. "That's not fair. I did so much and you can't even tell me if he's alive or not?"
"You made his life better. You made him believe his life was worth something."
"He thinks he deserves a fate as bad as Hitler. That he deserves to be remembered as an evil genocidal psychopath!" Hermione could feel tears running from her eyes. "How could he think that? How could he not see what an amazing person he is?"
"Because there was no one to tell him." Death stated. "Draco was all alone before you came along and showed him that he had someone who cared."
Hermione huffed. "Draco Malfoy was not alone. He had Pansy and Theo and Blaise and all his other Slytherin friends around him."
Death placed a hand on her knee. "He might've not been physically alone, but mentally, emotionally? Everything that he was going through inside made him feel alone. He couldn't share it with any of his Slytherin friends. And that just worsened his condition. Hermione, you made him feel lighter. With you, he could tell you exactly how he was feeling, without having to sugarcoat it. You made him feel heard as if he wasn't alone."
"But you were also alone." Death told her.
"I had Harry and Ron and, and Crookshanks!" Hermione argued.
"When you were alive, did you truly feel like you weren't alone? Yes, you had your two friends and your cat, but did they truly feel like friends to you?" He sat beside Hermione on the bench. "When I first meet you, you were desperately alone. Harry Potter was obsessed with the task his Headmaster gave him and the little book of his, not to mention his relationship with Ginevra Weasely. And Ronald Weasley only cared about the attention he was receiving from Lavender Brown." Hermione wiped the tears that fell from her eyes. "You didn't want to admit it, but Hermione you were as alone as Draco Malfoy was."
"But I wasn't alone at the end. And now I can go to the land of the dead, knowing my final moments weren't wasted."
Death nodded. "I am sorry that you died. Well, not too sorry though."
She furrowed her brows at him. "What do you mean 'not too sorry'?"
Death placed his legs down leaning on the desk. "You weren't supposed to die. Well, there's a clause in your contract. See?"
He pointed towards small symbols right above her signature.
"How was I supposed to know?! I can't read those weird symbols of yours!"
Death smiled. "Don't worry, I'll read it out to you." He cleared his throat. "In the event of my demise due to any supernatural forces, any ties that therefore bind me to Death shall not be valid."
"Supernatural forces? You mean Havoc?" Hermione questioned.
"Well, normally, yes. But here it may also apply to your supernatural best friend murdering you with a supernatural spell." Death placed the contract away.
Hermione processed the whole scenario before speaking up. "So you mean all the heartbreak and grief I had was all just a ruse?"
Death frowned. "No. You still have a choice. You can choose to return, or you can choose to die and go to the land of the living."
"Does that mean everything will go back to the way it was? Before this whole thing? Like it was all a dream?"
"Ah, no actually. The contract is very much real. So were the events that occurred. You erased the previous timeline."
She was surprised to hear this. "When exactly did I do that?"
Death glanced up as if the answer was written above. "I believe it was the last day you two spent together on patrol. Something changed within him. You showing him some importance made him think that he might have a chance of surviving."
"But what about all the burdens he'd been feeling recently? He said he wanted to end his life so as to not cause others pain." Hermione spoke out in fear.
"If he does decide to take that step, then it would be a part of your new timeline." Death answered passively causing Hermione to get angry.
"You are a terrible person, do you know that?"
Death shrugged. "I'm not exactly a person, you know. And you can return and see if Draco is still there or not."
Hermione thought for a moment. Going back did seem like the best option. "Fine, I would like to return to the land of the living."
He then quickly got up from his seat. "Let's go then."
Hermione faltered. "Go? Just like that?"
Death raised a brow. "Yes. And a bit quickly, we're a little behind on time."
She quickly stumbled out of her seat following Death. He led her back outside t where they had begun, but this time the hallway got narrower and narrower until they reached a pitch-black door, with bright light coming out from the edges.
"Tada!" Death motioned towards the door.
"Is this literally my bright light at the end of the tunnel?" She asked blandly.
"Yes, well where do you think they got that idea?"
Hermione made her way to the door, opening it a bit. She squinted at the light that came through. Before walking through the door, she turned back to Death.
"So, this is where it ends, huh?"
Death gave her a small smile. "Or where it all begins."
Hermione smiled at him. "Part of me wants to tell you to keep in touch with me, but the other half just wants you to stay as far away from me as possible."
Death let out a chuckle and shook his head at her. "Just as long as you don't hug me or start weeping."
Hermione joined in with his laugh. "Thank you Death. For giving me this opportunity."
"Go on kid. You've got this."
And Hermione stepped through the threshold, the blinding lights enveloping her completely.
AN:
Short, I know. But the next chapter will be out in one week!
A lot of the dialogues in this chapter are similar to the book 'In 27 Days' from which this fic is inspired.
