Draco stayed in the west wing as Pansy, Blaise and Theo headed to the entrance hall. He had never felt so horrible in all his life. "I was the one who had it all. I was the master of my fate. I never needed anybody in my life. I learned the truth too late."
Draco placed his paw on the small table that the rose sat on and sighed. He had the chance to break the curse and he blew it. "I'll never shake away the pain. I close my eyes but she's still there. I let her steal into my melancholy heart. It's more than I can bare."
As he looked into the mirror that he had uncovered for Hermione to see her father, he was finally reminded of how horrible he looked. "Now I know she'll never leave me, even as she runs away. She will still torment me, calm me, hurt me, move me, come what may." Ever since the curse, he covered every mirror, and every reflective surface. He was well aware of what he had become, but he didn't want to admit it.
"Wasting in my lonely tower, waiting by an open door." The mirror was mocking him, at least that's what Draco thought. Draco thought a Blast ended skrewt was ugly, that was before he saw his beastly self.
He stepped out onto the balcony, and watched as Hermione got further and further away from the castle. The gold color of her dress that stood out amongst the dark bushes seemed to get smaller and smaller, the further she travelled. "I'll fool myself, she'll walk right in and be with me for evermore."
***
Hermione united with Philippe who was tied to the railing of the manor staircase, and pulled herself up on his saddle before rushing out of the manor grounds. As she travelled from Wiltshire to London, she could feel a serious change of weather. The cold winter curse of Wiltshire turned into a warm summer air in London. After about two hours of travel, the glow of Big Ben caught her attention, which meant Diagon Alley wasn't very far.
As she reached the brick wall of Diagon Alley, she saw her father practically being thrown into a stagecoach that had no windows. Hermione saw that two threstals were connected to the stagecoach, and Cormac stood next to them with a smile on his face. "Stop what you're doing!", Hermione shouted with furry.
"Hermione, it sure has been awhile since we've seen you around town. Your father has been telling us a whole bunch of lies while you were gone."
"Just what exactly do you think you're doing with him?" She glared at Cormac with a grimace before looking at everyone else for answers. It seemed that the everyone in Diagon Alley had come to see what all the commotion was about. Suddenly Hermione saw Kingsley Shacklebolt step forward.
"I'm sorry, Miss Granger, but this is what's best for our people. A crazy man like him doesn't belong in our world."
Hermione she's mouth widened in shock. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. A town full of wizards were afraid of a muggle. Wizards and witches didn't have to worry about that since the 1700's. "My fathers not crazy!" Hermione's heart started to beat faster at the idea of losing her father. She already lost her mother, she couldn't lose him too.
"You may think that, Hermione, but he's been running around town yelling about a beast that wants to kill you. And here you are, most likely coming back from the British library." The whole town started to laugh at Cormac's statement. They all figured the bookworm got lost in one of her stories.
"I was just there! He's not lying. There really is a beast!" She suddenly remembered the mirror that Draco had given her. She yanked it out of the bag on Philippe's saddle, and said the words "I wish to see the beast", before showing the mirror to everyone.
They gasped at the sight of the ruffled fur, sharp teeth, and huge claws. His cold eyes seemed to stare back at them. "Don't be afraid. It's Malfoy. You all know him."
"Draco Malfoy, One of the most powerful death eaters?", someone from the crowd asked. Because of the witch's curse, the villagers only remember the horrible things that he has ever done, and they didn't remember any of the great things.
"No, he's changed! He's gentle and kind", said Hermione with a look of worry. It seemed that the people didn't believe her at all, but when she looked more at the people around her, she saw two familiar faces. "Harry, Ron, you two believe me, don't you?" Just as she suspected, Harry and Ron looked at her like they had no idea what she was talking about.
"I'm sorry, Granger, but Malfoy has done some horrible things", said Ron. This wasn't the Ron she went to school with, and grew up with. This wasn't a friend at all. He was a stranger with memories who was embarrassed to have a different opinion than the people around him.
The look on Cormac's face showed pure hatred. He hated the fact that Hermione was defending the beast. He was even more angry about the look of affection on her face as she defended him. If Hermione truly cared about this beast, all he had to do was remove him from the picture, and nothing would get in the way of his chance at marrying Hermione.
"You all know what Malloy has done", Cormac's shouted loud enough for the whole crowd to hear. "Our world is finally free. Are you going to let him ruin that for us? Do you want to live in a world of darkness and destruction? He'd probably kill every last one of us if we let him. I say we kill the beast!", Cormac's shouted to the crowd around him. Cheers were heard from everyone, and it made Hermione feel uneasy. Cormac's stood in a triumphant pose with a smirk on his face, but that smirk disappeared when he noticed Hermione's glare. Cormac's pressed his lips together and pondered for a moment before speaking. "Now, we can't let her go and warn the beast. Kingsley, lock her up too."
Hermione felt herself being lifted into the air by two men. As they pushed her into the stagecoach, Hermione yelled the words "You're the real monster, Cormac." They snatched her wand and the mirror. The last thing she saw was the smirk on Cormac's face before they slammed the doors shut. The hateful words that left Hermione's mouth meant nothing to him. Once the beast was dead, Cormac's would have everything he wanted.
***
"Castle to E5." Blaise and Theo were playing a game of wizard chess since they knew three was nothing else left to do. Right as Blaise's castle took out Theo's pawn"Maybe that's her. Has she returned?", asked Theo. The little teacup who was watching the chess game with a bored expression had a smile on his face when he heard Theo's words.
"Mione? Is she back?", the teacup tried to look out the window, but Blaise and Theo were blocking him from seeing anything. Instead of Hermione, they noticed a group of people with wands, and they didn't look very happy. After watching the group approach the manor grounds, Theo decided to warn the beast, while Blaise rounded up all the furniture.
"Alright, everyone, we have been helping Draco for these past few years, and that is what we will be doing for our last night together." Blaise was pacing was and forth to make sure everyone heard him. Blaise was ready to defend this manor like his life depended on it, which it did. "We must protect the Manor as long as we can."
***
Hermione stared out the small hole in the stagecoach door to see that everyone in Diagon Alley had gone to help kill the beast. "I have to warn the beast!", Hermione whispered to herself as she tried to find a way out of the stagecoach.
" Warn him? Why on earth would you want to go back to that horrid place?" Hermione was in the middle of slamming her shoulder against the door to hopefully rip the door off its hinges, but nothing was working.
Hermione rubbed her shoulder a bit before sitting down beside her father. "Dad, he's changed. He let me go so I could help you. He took me back to Hogwarts. The Malfoy I knew never wanted to kill anyone. I saw the look on his face when I was being tortured under questioning, and it was empathy. When everyone else left me, he was there for me. He's anything but a beast." Hermione sighed in frustration before something shiny caught her attention. She suddenly noticed the stagecoach had hinges on the inside. "Dad!" She nudged him on the shoulder, and pointed to the hinges connecting the roof and walls together.
David then remembered that he had stored some of his dentist tools in his pockets. He pulled out the drill and passed it over to Hermione. " Try this." She twisted and turned the tools on the hinges until they were loose enough to come off. Hermione helped her Dad walk over to their home so he could rest up. "Dad, stay here in the village. I'm going to handle Cormac myself." Hermione ran to her room and changed from her yellow ball grown into a white dress with a blue jacket.
"Alright, Philippe, back to Manor. Are you up for the ride?", asked Hermione as she petted his mane. He neighed in response before nodding his head up and down. "That's what I thought. Just like me, always up for an adventure." Hermione jumped up onto his saddle before heading back toward Wiltshire. "We can't let Cormac's win."
***
The first place Theo headed to was the west wing. Theo somehow knew that Draco would still be there, staring at the rose like his life depended on it. "Draco, the castle is under attack. You must pull up the shield charms", Theo said as he tried to catch his breath from climbing up so many stairs. It was easy at Hogwarts when he was in his human form, but that amount of stairs can really tire a clock out.
Draco had a look of despair as he looked at the rose. Hearing Theo's words didn't alarm him at all. He wasn't going to fight for his life when he already hated it. "No, just let them come. Hermione made her decision and now it's time for me to make mine." That was probably the first time he had used her first name in a long time, but it didn't feel unfamiliar to him at all.
Down in the entrance hall, Blaise had told the piano and wardrobe to keep the door shut for as long as possible, but their method didn't last long. On the other side of the door, Cormac's pulled out his wand and yelled "bombarda maxima", causing the door to fly off it's hinges. Dust filled the villagers visions, but the Manor's insides weren't damaged at all. Cormac's decided to push Marcus inside to check that nobody was waiting to attack them. "So this is the Malfoy Manor?", said Cormac with a scoff.
"I feel like I've been here before", said someone in the crowd. Everyone turned to see Astoria Greengrass shaking in fear.
Cormac moved his wand back and forth with the lumos charm to see certain areas of the entrance hall. The item that caught his attention was a single tea cart sitting in the middle of the entrance hall. Just when the teacup was inches from his face, Cormac heard shouting. "Blimey, is that your breath or a garbage truck?" Cormac turned to glare at Marcus, but he had the same look of confusion. When all the villagers looked at the cart with wide eyes, Cormac finally realized that the teacup was the one talking.
"Attack", Cormac heard from the other side if the entrance hall. Suddenly the whole room lit up, and a whole army of furniture stood at the base of the staircase, ready to fight. Cormac sent a few explosive spells, then managed to sneak away to find the beast and let Marcus do the rest of the fighting.
He travelled up the many different staircases of the Manor and kept his wand at the ready just incase the beast came out of nowhere. As he made his way up another staircase, Cormac started to feel lost since there were so many hallways, staircases and towers. The air started to get colder. Cormac saw a large opening to a balcony of a turret. There the beast sat at the edge of the balcony, looking over the grounds of his home. "Well, well, well, look at what we have here. Did you honestly think Hermione would stay here with you? After everything you've done. Get the picture, Malfoy. She sent a whole village to come here and kill you. She never wanted you in the first place."
Anger boiled inside Draco, but he knew that he wasn't going to attack Cormac. He simply stared at the grounds when he saw another villager enter his grounds. The white horse stood out amongst the black horses, but he sighed since it was another person attempting to kill him. When the world seemed to be too silent, pain shot through every inch of Draco's body. He's felt this pain before. It was the crucial us curse, but he didn't do anything to fight back.
Without thinking, Draco jumped from one turret to another. His sharp claws pierced the wood of the turret roof as he tried to pull himself up higher. "I knew you've always been a coward, Malfoy. You won't get away this time." Draco knew that it won't be long until Cormac caught up with him. Draco jumped from turret to turret while Cormac ran through the hallways in order to keep up with him. Just when Draco was about to jump onto another turret, he felt his shirt being tugged which stopped him from moving.
Cormac had a firm gasps on Draco's neck and slashed his chest with his wand. Blood dripped down Draco's shirt and onto the balcony. That was when a realization came to him. Hermione wasn't going to return and he was going to stay a beast forever, so why was he still fighting? There was clearly no point anymore. "Avada", he heard the word leave Cormac's mouth, but never felt the impact. Draco opened his eyes to see Hermione with her wand pointed at Cormac while her other hand contained Cormac's wand. She tossed it onto another balcony of the manor, and watched as Cormac went to go get it.
Hermione's main focus was the beast, and she tried to get to him as soon as possible.
Once Draco saw Hermione standing on the turret across from him, a huge smile formed on his face. It gave him a reason to keep fighting. "Mione", Draco shouted with a smile. Happiness replaced his pain as he looked at the beauty in front of him. For a moment he thought he was dreaming, that there was no way Hermione would ever come back to this place. The wind blew her dress to the side and pushed her hair behind her face. In that moment he knew he wasn't dreaming. "You came back."
Hermione tried to reach out to him, but was pulled back. Cormac appeared behind her and pointed his wand at her throat. "Hermione Jean Granger, when will you realize that you are only getting in the way. Once this beast is dead, we will return to Diagon Alley where you will be my wife", said Cormac in a powering voice.
"I will never be your wife, I am not going to let you kill Draco, and I will never be associated with a monster like you." Her voice got louder with every word she spoke. Suddenly a huge shadow blocked her from seeing Cormac. When she realized what was actually happening, she panicked. "No, don't!"
Draco held Cormac by the neck and stared at him with his cold, dead, beastly eyes. Cormac kicked his legs back and forth as Draco had a firm grasps around his neck. Gasping for air, Draco held him so he was dangling from the turret with a distance of 200 feet above the ground. "Please let me go, beast", Cormac pleaded as his face started to grow purple.
Eyes wide with fear, Hermione backed up to the wall of the turret and watched in horror. Hermione may feel nothing but hatred for Cormac, but she never wanted to actually kill him. She watched as Draco's eyes softened. He pulled Cormac back onto the balcony before saying the words "you're the real beast." Allowing Cormac to breath normally, Draco release his grasps on Cormac and watched as he ran away in fear.
"Draco", said Hermione in awe as she reached out to him once again. Right as their hands were inches away from each other, Hermione heard the familiar curse "Sectumsempra", leave Cormac's mouth. Hermione searched her surroundings and saw him standing across from then with his wand in hand and a smirk on his face.
The curse of the rose seemed to be affecting the castle as well. The cemented balcony that Cormac was standing on had collapsed completely, sending him to his unfortunate and well deserved death.
Hermione rushed over to Draco and placed her jacket over his wounds. Blood quickly soaked the material, and it came to her attention that the was starting to lose consciousness. "No! Draco, stay with me. Everything is going to be alright. She didn't care that the Manor was falling apart piece by piece around her, and could collapse on her at any moment. All she cared about was making sure Draco was okay. "You can't leave. You showed me a new side of beautiful. Please don't leave me." Hermione's eyes started to water as he started to close his eyes. Hermione quickly grabbed his beastly claw, and pulled up his sleeve to reveal the darker fur on his left arm. "This doesn't define who you are. I...I love you."
Draco's head fell to the side to his cheek was pressed against the floor. "It can't be too late." Hermione turned to her right and saw the glass jar on the table of the west wing. The last petal of the rose had fallen, which meant their time was up. Now Hermione was full on crying. She dropped her head into Draco's chest and let the tears fall from her eyes. At this point, she hated magic. She hated the witch who cursed Draco, and all she wanted was him back whether he was a beast or not.
A gold light pulled her away from her thoughts. It was coming from his chest, and he started to float in the air. She was very confused as to what was going on, so she started to back away from the scene. A few moments later, every inch of Draco's beastly body was surrounded by a gold light. When it reached the point where the light was too bright for Hermione to look at, she placed her hand in front of her face and covered her eyes to block her vision. His beastly paws turned back into hands and feet, his fur turned into human flesh, and his horns disappeared completely.
When he returned to the ground, Hermione saw the blonde boy with grey eyes that irritated her for many years, but now he was someone else. "Draco", she asked as she looked at his blonde hair. Draco, however, was still wondering what had happened . She watched as he turned around and looked at her with a smile.
"Granger", he whispered happily, and Hermione didn't even have a moment to realize what was going on because Draco smashed his lips onto hers.
When they broke apart, Hermione realized that she had broken the curse. "Malfoy, you're back!"
"Granger, I never left."
***
Down in the entrance hall, Blaise had turned back into his old self, but Theo said he looked better as a candelabra. "Theo, looks like they were able to break the curse on their own. Glad to see you again, Nott." Blaise gave Theo a hug before rushing away to find his Pansy.
When Pansy transformed back into her old self, she literally jumped into Blaise's arms. "Blaise, they did it! They broke the curse!"
Blaise, Theo and Pansy greeted everyone in the Manor like they haven't seen each other in years. The wardrobe turned back into Madame Malkin, the teapot turned back into Narcissa, and the tiny teacup turned back into little Teddy Lupin. "Mrs. Malfoy, it feels like it's been forever", Pansy greeted with a smile.
"Oh my, it sure feels like it has been. Now, where's my son?" Narcissa searched through the crowd of people and tried to find her son. Draco and Hermione suddenly appeared at the bottom of the staircase, and everyone greeted them with pure happiness and joy. "Draco, it's so great to see you like yourself again. I'm so proud of you", said Naricissa as she practically gave him a hug that was strong enough to strangle him.
"Mione! It's me, Teddy!" Hermione picked up Teddy in her arms and rested him on her hip.
"Hello Teddy, it's so great to see you", said Hermione with a smile. Hermione felt horrible that a four year old had to suffer through the curse of the manor, but she made sure there was nothing but a smile on his face.
"How did you guys break the curse", Teddy asked with curiosity since he didn't fully understand the concept. Both Hermione and Draco realized that everyone in the crowd was waiting for them to answer Teddy's question.
"It was Hermione who broke the curse. I've been in love with her since Hogwarts. She just returned her feelings for me." Hermione smiled as she heard Draco's words.
"A rose was my good luck charm, and it always has been since my first year of Hogwarts when my mother handed me a rose before the train took off."
"I guess it's time to celebrate", said Theo as he flashed a grin at Pansy, who slid closer to Blaise. Nobody seemed to notice that Draco and Hermione couldn't keep their eyes off of each other.
"Thank you for giving me an adventure in the great wide", said Hermione. "And for taking me back to Hogwarts." Hermione spent so much time dreaming for a fantasy, that she didn't realize till now that the biggest adventure was right in front of her. "I can't believe I forgot about you. Even though we had some rough times at Hogwarts, I'm glad it got us where we are now."
"I'm glad you feel that way, Granger, because I feel the same way."