Partners. ~A Harry Potter, Dramione FF~

Chapter 10

Chapter Ten:

Finishing the school year without Draco was hard for Hermione, but she grew back together with Harry and Ron. It felt different with them though, yet she didn’t know what felt different. So she went on… a broken relationship duct taped back together. She didn’t even know if the boys ever realized their relationship had broken…

She agreed to go with the boys on their quest to find the horcruxes, but she secretly doubted they’d be able to find any of them. She only came to protect them. She knew they wouldn’t survive on their own. She also hoped that maybe they’d run into Draco. So she could at least get a glimpse of him.

She was nervous at the wedding, the next morning they would wake up and run off to some dangerous journey where they could possibly die. She was scared, more scared than she had ever been, even more so when Kingsley’s Patronus arrived.

She fell on the floor when everyone started to panic. She crawled around, looking for Harry and Ron, trying to stay as calm as she could. She saw the faces of people she knew, people she loved. They were scared, screaming and shouting and her whole world slowed.

She saw Molly and Arthur Weasley, fighting side by side. She saw Fleur, in her beautiful wedding gown, panicking and searching for Bill. She saw the twins, joking around as they took down two death eaters. She started to tear up when she saw Ginny, trying her best to fight off the death eaters and frantically searching for a way out.

This was her life now… She was smack dab in the middle of a war. She shot out a few spells to help the people that were losing, she helped in every way she could, still crawling around on the ground.

When she finally found Harry and Ron, she grabbed their hands and apparated to the first place that popped into her head… After Hogsmeade of course, she knew they couldn’t go there.

~~

After Ron’s first few… episodes, she knew he had feelings for her, and she also knew she still had feelings for him. When he left, she didn’t know what to think and when he came back it got harder for her. She loved Draco… and yet she still loved Ron, too.

‘How could I possibly be thinking about my love life when I’m in the middle of a war!?’ She exclaimed to herself. ‘Just… Shut up and start thinking of possible horcrux hiding places.’ She had deemed herself insane… officialy…

She sat alone, outside the tent, on watch. She took most of the watch shifts lately, finding it hard to sleep. Thinking of her love life brought her back to thinking about Draco. She didn’t even know if he was still alive… He had disobeyed the most powerful dark wizard ever.

She looked up at the stars, thinking about what would happen to her if she found out he was dead. “I just hope you’re not…” She whispered.

“Hope who’s not what?” Ron asked, coming out and taking a seat next to her.

“Nothing… It’s nothing.” She replied. “I’m going to bed. Mind taking watch?”

He hesitated, looking at her a bit confused. “Erm… sure, why not. Goodnight, ‘Mione.” He said.

“Night.” She mumbled, ducking into the tent.

~~

Hermione did the first spell that popped into her head when she saw Harry, she was just lucky it was the spell she wanted. Harry was taken aback but he soon understood why she did it. They had caught Ron before her and Harry so she couldn’t do anything to help him.

When they looked at Harry’s scar, she knew exactly where they were going to take them. She didn’t know what to feel, happy because she would see Draco, worried because he might be dead, sad because he was on the wrong side, scared because she was going to be presented to Voldemort… Her feelings were jumbling up in her head and her head started to pound.

When they showed up at Malfoy Manor, the first thing they did was call Draco. They asked him if he recognized them, but all he could do was stare, and Hermione stared back. He looked scared, she had never seen him scared… except the time she had punched him in the face.

 She gave a small nod, one that only he could see, giving him the go ahead to give her away.

“I… I do…” He said, slowly. “The redhead and the girl.”

“Who are they?” Lucius asked him.

Draco looked to her again and she gave another nod. “Ron Weasley and… and H-Hermione Granger.”

Tears sprung to her eyes, she couldn’t bare to see him this way. She blinked back the tears and swallowed the sob that threatened to escape her mouth, she would not cry in this situation. Not in front of these people.

A tear slipped from Draco’s eye but he quickly wiped it away before anyone but Hermione could see. He still loved her, though he still thought she hated him. He was very wrong, she loved him too, and the first chance she got, she would tell him.

Once Harry and Ron were sent to the cellar, she got scared. Bellatrix said she had wanted to ‘talk’ but Hermione knew she had other intentions. Everyone was sent out of the room and she watched as Draco hesitated.

The moment he left, Bellatrix cast the Cruciatus curse on her. She fell to the ground, screaming in pain, and the tears sprang to her eyes again. These weren’t tears of pain, though, these were tears of sadness. Draco was standing right outside the door, listening to her scream and he could do nothing about it. She knew he still cared about her and she felt bad for him, she wished he wasn’t on the dark side… but she knew he had no choice. 

~~ 

Draco was standing by the door, tears streaming down his face as he listened to Hermione’s loud, high-pitched screams. He had to concentrate very hard to stay where he was, otherwise he would burst through that door and get himself killed. 

Hermione had stopped screaming and he heard a loud bang. He burst through the door to see that Harry and Ron had broken out of the cellar. He was secretly happy, knowing they had a chance and Hermione could be okay.

He saw her, lying on the floor in the middle of the room, tears streaming down her face. Her only movement was her chest, rising and falling with every breath. ‘She’s breathing, that’s good.’ He thought to himself.

He was engulfed into a fight, throwing spells at Harry and Ron, but he purposely performed most of them wrong. Once Harry took his wand and no one was paying attention to him, he ran over to Hermione to see if she was okay.

He knelt down beside her and she instantly started to say something. He couldn’t hear her so he bent down closer.

“I’ll be fine, go before someone sees you.” She said.

He hesitated. “I love you.” He said, before getting up and running back to the fight.

Before he got there he could’ve sworn he heard her croak out, “I love you too.”

Everything happened so quickly. Bellatrix disappeared, Hermione screamed, and everyone turned to see Bellatrix holding Hermione upright with a knife to her neck. His eyes went wide but he quickly brought them back to their normal size. He stared at Hermione and she stared back at him. They were both very, very scared.

Harry and Ron dropped their wands and Lucius told him to pick them up. He grabbed the wands and then went back to where he was standing, out of the way. He stared at Bellatrix and Hermione, expecting something to happen but nothing did.

A small squeaking broke the silence and everyone started to look around for the source. He looked to Hermione and she was looking up at the ceiling. He looked up to see a house elf slowly unscrewing the chandelier. He smiled to himself. 

By the time everyone found the source of the squeaking, the chandelier started to drop. Bellatrix dropped Hermione and quickly got out of the way. Hermione fell to the ground and the chandelier dropped on top of her.

Before he could move to help her, Harry ran over and took the wands out of his hands. He looked back over and saw that Ron had helped Hermione out from under the chandelier. He gave out a relieved sigh and watched as Dobby the house elf apparated them out of the Manor.