The Lost Timeline | Dramione | ✔

#16 A New Hope

With a Hogsmeade weekend looming and Professor Selgentar breathing down his neck, Draco was panicking. The curse he had initially thought to use was waiting at Borgin and Burkes.

"You can't expect to go through with it now." Hermione stated matter-of-factly.

Draco shook his head. "I never meant to go through with it at all."

"If you would just let me tell Har–"

"Forget it," Draco cut her off, rubbing his face and running his slender fingers through his hair. "You might be able to give me the benefit of a doubt, but Potter is stubborn and thick-skulled. He wouldn't be able to entertain the idea that I would sell out my entire family or renounce their ways."

Draco's hand inched towards his left forearm and Hermione caught the subconscious gesture.

"Well, tell Dumbledore, then! He'll believe you."

"What? 'Excuse me, Dumbledore, sir, I was planning to kill you because Lord V– The Dark Lord commands me to?'"

"Yes!"

"No."

"What do you plan to do, then?" Hermione asked with her brows furrowed.

"We'll need to give that wretched Professor something to chew on."

"That's your great idea?" She turned away almost condescendingly, lowering her eyes to skim the book that was in front of her.

"Give me one that doesn't require me flipping my world upside down, Hermione. If you have an idea in that big bushy head of yours, please, share it." Draco didn't sound earnest, as she thought he might. He sounded vulnerable and bare, a little exasperated. The voice of someone who felt that he'd given thought to every possibility and still found himself at a crossroads.

Hermione glared at Draco, "I already gave you an idea. If anyone can help, Harry–"

"I don't want Potter's help!" Draco snarled coldly, resenting the idea of lowering himself to Potter's level. Believing the Boy Who Lived was beneath him was the only way Draco was able to deal with the shame and disappointment of not acquiring his friendship, not that he would ever admit it to Hermione.

"You don't want me to tell Harry, and you refuse to tell the headmaster, Draco, do you even want help?"

Draco took his head into his hands and sighed. "I don't know how to help myself. I'm surrounded on all sides." His thoughts went to his mother. How could he forsake her? Was it possible to turn his back on family, on love? Draco was many things, but he wasn't a neglected child. His family indulged his every whim and gave him anything he could possibly ask for. Except a family that doesn't deal in the Dark Arts. The thought came unbidden into his mind and he shunted it aside, unwilling to blame his family for standing up for what they believed in.

Hermione watched as Draco struggled with his conflicting emotions. She empathised with him, she really did. But she had no words of comfort that would not sound false to her ears. There was no easy way around it. Hermione took his hand, squeezing it to show him that she was there for him.

"You're under the impression that Voldemort will win." She said without preamble.

At the Dark Lord's name, Draco flinched his fingers back from her.

"Yeah... He's pretty sure of himself."

"And you? Are you sure of him?"

"How can I not be? How did he come back after The Boy Who Lived did him in? He's careful this time, he's not going to take any chances. Why did you think he lay low for years instead of attacking openly? He's afraid."