imprisonment

Chapter 17; H

A/N Listen to Innocent by Taylor Swift. Trust me on this one.

Hermione cursed herself for revealing that information to him. She knew it would show him that she trusted him and that she was willing to open up to him, but she wished she had made something up.

No one knew what happened to her parents besides Harry and Ron, and she decided to keep it that way. Obliviating them was the hardest thing she had ever done, and almost brought her to tears every time she thought about it. The war was far from over, and she doubted she could even reverse the damage she had done to them.

She wanted nothing more than to see them again. She didn't even care if they had no memory of her. She just wanted to hear their voices and see their faces. Even if she was a stranger to them, it didn't matter. She just missed them with her full heart.

She didn't want to let Draco see how much his question affected her, so she tried to collect herself and move on.

"What about you? Where would you go?" She asked him.

If he was going to crawl in and see her deepest desire it would only be fair to ask him the same. If she could get him to let his guard down, then she could use his answer against him.

"I would go back to before first year. Back when I had a clean slate and no responsibilities." He said at almost a whisper.

Draco was a complete mystery. On the outside, he seemed to be emotionless with no regard for others. There was a part of him that cared—that cared too much. She could tell he spent so long trying to build walls around himself.

You can't lose anyone if you didn't have anyone to lose in the first place.

She made it her mission to knock down those walls. Getting past them was the key to him. If he let her in, he would never be able to push her out again.

Draco was lonely. He had no one. He had never let a soul in. She could tell that he wished someone would try, but no one ever did. No one tried to get to know the bully. They never stopped themselves to ask why he acted that way. They just tossed him aside.

She knew at that moment she had to show him that she cared when no one else ever did. Yes, it was manipulative, but she needed out of here. She needed to win the war and he was just a means to an end.

"I would give anything to go back to when everything was so much simpler. The days when the only thing I had to worry about was going to a new school," Hermione said to him, hoping it would make him feel better to know she understood how he felt. She had a role to play.

"It seems like another lifetime," he sighed. There was a longing in his voice, a longing that wanted to erase every wrong choice he ever made.

"You know Malfoy, it's never too late to be someone else. There is always a way to turn things around." Hermione tried to make him realize that he didn't have to be the person he once was. He no longer had to close himself off from everyone.

Of course, it was all a part of her plan, but it benefitted her for him to open up.

"That's easy for you to say, you're miss perfect." He said in an irritated voice.

She had tried her best to reason with him and ease him into opening up. Instead, he acted like this. Her life was far from perfect, and she was tired of him making it seem like it was.

Death eaters took everything from her, and he was one of them. How was she supposed to show him sympathy when he constantly rejected it. It made it hard for her to keep up the act. As much as she needed to win him over, she couldn't hold her anger in.