Bathwater

The Easiest Way to Azkaban

Now, I hope this isnt too confusing for all of you. I realize that my writing goes all over the place sometimes, but this was my favorite chapter to write and I loved the outcome of it.

You may recgonize a lot of the parts because they're repeated - since they are meant to be memories - but there's one in there that I never wrote in any of the other chapters. But that's a little something, something for you all (;

Hope you enjoy.

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'It can't be that bad, can it?' Draco Malfoy's voice sounded far and distant, a small trace of an echo to every word. An echo that bounced off the dark, invisible walls of his head with some sort of pain and anguish.

'How can you be so sure?' Another voice, a girl's voice spoke. It was his girl, his witch—Hermione Granger. 'Why is it that you, the cowardly ferret, are not afraid of this? How can you just take it so lightly; have you no plans of the future? Wasn't there something you wanted to do that didn't involve changing diapers?'

"—Do you have a pass?" A woman behind a tall desk, thick glasses and a bored expression on her face asked as Draco Malfoy waited for the doors of the elevator to open. "Excuse me, sir, do you have a—"

Ding.

"Sir!" The elder witch protested, frowning after the blonde's figure as he pushed his way into the elevator; shoving the people exiting it with force. She watched him jab at a button on the right side, making it close rapidly before anyone else could attempt to get inside of it. (Well, apparently he didn't care that all those people were certainly going to be late.)

'I'm not afraid, bookworm,' he heard the memory of his voice sound in his head once more. There was a hint of anger in it, but as he breathed deeply and closed his eyes as he waited for the elevator to come to a stop, he saw that in his memory he was smiling through his eyes at the brunette laying on him. He had to take another deep inhale as he could still feel her head upon his chest and the smell of her hair in his nostrils. '…Because I will have you by my side,' the memory continued, 'and yes, there are plenty of things I wanted to do, but now I don't have to do them on my own. I'll have a wife, and a child as it seems, that I can make proud when I do succeed in them. And I take it lightly because I know you, Hermione. I've seen you with Teddy, and you'll be an excellent mother.'

There was a pause in his head. 'You - you actually want me to be the mother of your children?' Malfoy could still hear the astonishment in Hermione's voice. '…Do you think we can make this work?"

'Granger,' Draco's voice spoke again in his head, this time sounding further away; like it was not reflecting off the walls of his brain or playing behind his eyelids, but instead playing in a faraway room that the words were hard to figure out. 'I don't have the choice to decide, you'll be it any way. But, yes, I'm glad that it will be you…Because together, we can make it work.' And even as the memory was fading from his head, he knew he meant every single word.

He always had, always.

Ding.

The door to the elevator opened and Draco pushed a couple of small wizards dressed in navy robes aside as he rushed out of the doors. His breath became hallow and his heart beat rapidly with fear running in his veins as he continued his hurried path towards his destination. (He had a couple of moments to get there. There was no time to be considerate at any wizard or witches that crossed him.)

'Mmm, Malfoy,' as the blonde wizard kept racing down the tiled floor underneath his feet, another memory played in his head. One that seemed more excruciating, more painful than anything as he inhaled the cold air of the building and his heart seemed to lurch as the voices started speaking. 'It's time to get up now.'