The Hoax (Dramione Story)

t w e n t y - o n e

“What’s your favorite . . . animal?” He asked randomly and looked at her. “I hope it’s not a monkey.” He teased her with a small wink.

“Now, that, I can answer.” She responded with a grin and took a deep breath. “It’s not a monkey, either.” She told him with a small laugh. “I would have to say . . . a cat?” She smiled and nodded. “I love my cat, Crookshanks, what’s yours?”

“Believe it or not, I really like dogs.” He replied shortly after. “Ooh, I guess we wouldn’t be able to live together if we had pets. I would have a dog and you would have a cat.” He said and suddenly frowned. “Wait, where is your cat? It’s not in school, is it?”

“No, Crookshanks is with . . . my parents. I stopped bringing him over because of the war.” She responded hesitantly.

“Why do you do that?” He asked curiously as he looked right into her caramel orbs.

“Do what?”

“You start to get hesitant and insecure when it comes to talking about your parents, almost like it hurts to talk about them.” He said quietly.

Hermione looked away from his sharp stare and instead, looked down at her fingers. She sighed and licked her dry lips. “Do you remember when we first played this game?”

“Yeah, of course.” He said with a crooked grin.

“And you asked me if there was a dark secret that I’ve never told anyone before, right?” She asked as she looked up at him with sad eyes.

“You refused to tell me because it was too personal, that you’d tell me some other day.” He told her with a nod, telling her that he understood.

“Well, that ‘some other day’ is today, I guess.” She said slowly and drew in a shaky breath. “You have to promise not to tell or I’ll have to hex you to the next century.” She said with a nervous laugh.

“I promise.”

“Before the war began, I worried about my parent’s safety. I’m a muggleborn and reading the Daily Prophet about poor, innocent muggle families getting murdered . . . it scared me.” She started and paused before she could tell the rest. “I obliviated my parents.” She whispered through her teeth. “I made sure they didn’t know who I was, I changed their identities, their occupations, and everything. I sent them to Australia to hide them from Voldemort and the death-eaters.” She told him and looked up at him with wet eyes. “After the war, I went to Australia to look for them to reverse the spell . . . but I found out that they’d died in a car accident a few days before I got there.” Her voice cracked at the last part but she cleared her throat and remained strong. She looked over at Draco and forced a grin. “If I had only been a bit faster, maybe I could have parents right now. But because of my stupid spell—I ended up killing my own parents.” She said quietly and took a deep breath after a while. “Well, here is Hermione Granger’s sob story. Thank you for listening.” She tried to joke as she faked a grin.

“Don’t do that.” He said in a serious tone.