Isolation

24. Hours

.

The bitter breeze thrashed around her, like it was trying to sneak into her pores and freeze her blood.

Merlin knew why, but her feet had carried her to Astronomy Tower, and she would swear the residual energy of Snape's Killing Curse was still clouding the air up here. The atmosphere felt thicker and close, and a niggling itch had scratched at her spine the moment she had arrived.

Leaning against the railing, her troubled stare searched the skies and tried to look past the shadows of storm clouds to find the stars, but only Vega and Arcturus were bright enough to wink back.

Forgotten voices ricocheted around her skull.

I have to do this...

She shuddered. Harry had told her exactly what Draco had said that night, and she would swear on Godric's grave that she could hear the whispers of his words crawling across the walls.

I have to kill you, or he's going to kill me...

She gripped the railing tighter and closed her eyes, and the ghosts of the past formed in her mind. She could see it all so clearly; the scene repeating itself in her head. Draco, Dumbledore, Snape, Bellatrix. So alive and fresh, like she could graze her fingertips over their forms and feel the beats of their hearts.

Hermione focussed on the image of Draco that her brain had conjured as he lowered his wand, just like Harry had described, and her heart felt like it was throbbing in her throat. He looked so vulnerable, and it made her fall a little harder for him, but the logical voice in her head reminded her that this was purely her interpretation of the events.

Just before Snape lifted his wand to murder the man she had admired so much, she felt a breathy murmur tingle her ear, and her eyes snapped open. Spinning around with a sharp gasp to inflate her lungs, she frantically hunted for the source, but she was alone.

Completely alone.

And it petrified her.

Her surroundings seemed to vibrate with sinister shadows, and eerie whispers were buried in the dark. The space became suffocating, and her chest was suddenly heaving as the icy chill coiled around her limbs.

Breaking into a sprint, she ran to her dorm, leaving the spirits of the past to fizzle behind her in the Tower. The slaps of her racing footsteps echoed down the empty corridors and she dived into her room, skidding to a stop and shutting the door behind her. Pivoting on her heels, her eyes softened when they landed on Draco; snoozing on the sofa with Crookshanks resting in his lap. A sad smile pulled at her lips as his husky breaths drifted over to her, and that painful pulse of affection drummed in her chest.

"Crooks," she whispered, tip-toeing towards the couch. "Come down, boy."

With a lazy stretch, her faithful pet obeyed and wandered into Draco's room to give them the privacy she wanted. Reaching out with uninhibited fingers, Hermione stroked his face. She had repeated these ministrations before, but had never taken the times to feel how he was between the caverns of her fingerprints, and he felt like liquid Autumn; pleasantly cold and like the firm flesh of plums. Closing her eyes, she engraved the sensation into her brain, noting his lips were the texture of melting wax and the fine stubble on his jaw tingled like static.

"What are you doing, Granger?"

Her eyes snapped open just as Draco's lids slowly peeled back to fix her with a suspicious glare. Her body went still for a moment, but with a single tug of her lip with her teeth, she simply sighed and lifted her chin.

"I met a woman who lost someone she..." Loved. It was what she wanted to say, but her tongue hesitated. "Someone she cared about."

Draco's brow furrowed, but he remained silent.