I DO NOT OWN THESE CHARACTERS: J.K.ROWLING OWNS THEM. This is just a fanfic written by a huge HP fan.
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“And with those beautiful words from Dennis’s friends, I would like you all to take a moment to remember a young man who was incredibly intelligent, brave, headstrong and loyal. Those of us who were close friends of his, you will remember the special friendship each held with him, and will cherish all the wonderful memories you made together. And those of us who did not know him personally, we will remember him as the smiling boy that passed us in the hallways, the brave boy who stood up for what was right, and the laughing boy at the dinner table, enjoying the time he had with his friends.
“We will miss Dennis, we will miss him dearly, and nothing as tragic as this should have happened to a young man with a full life ahead of him. But we cannot change the past. We cannot change what has happened here in recent events. But one thing is for sure, he will be happy where he has gone, as he joins his beloved brother Colin, who also passed from us too soon. These young men fought for us, fought for what was right, and deserve the utmost respect.
“Please join me, and raise your wands to the sky, in honour of this brave young wizard, Dennis Creevey, whose time has come and gone quickly on this earth. Gone, but certainly, not forgotten.”
At Professor McGonagall’s words, Draco joined in with his classmates and pointed his wand to the twilight lit sky, each of them muttering ‘Lumos’. Their wands lit up the darkening sky. He didn’t shed any tears on the outside for Dennis, as he didn’t know him, but on the inside he was crying a million tears as he felt extremely guilty for his death. Draco kept thinking that if he hadn’t have ducked down, out of the way from a curse he had felt many times before, then he would still be alive right now, and he wouldn’t be sitting at his memorial service.
Draco looked upwards at the sky and silently said sorry and farewell to Dennis. When he looked back down, McGonagall was lowering her wand, and everyone followed suit. Many people started to leave but everyone in the front row stayed still. There was still an audible sniffing through the crowd that had lasted throughout the whole service.
Draco and Hermione were sitting next to the Professors of the school, the Ministry staff and Dennis’s parents. They were only up there because they were the Head Prefects.
“Stop blaming yourself, there is nothing that could have been done.” Hermione whispered to him. He thought he must have had a guilty look on his face, the same one he’d been wearing in the week since his death. Hermione had been reassuring him all week long that there was nothing to be done now and that it wasn’t his fault, but he couldn’t help but continue to feel guilty.
“We’ve been through this, there was something I could have done. I was just too much of a coward to take one stupid little Cruciatus curse.” He whispered back.
“You know what, I’m not having this argument here. But we aren’t done.” She whispered back, a little shakily. She had tear stains down her face when Draco looked at her. She’d been crying into a few tissues that she’d kept supplied in Draco’s pocket. There was a small pile of scrunched up used tissues on her lap.
He stared down at her for a little while until she told him to stop it, then he looked over to the casket lying on a stone table containing Dennis’s body. An involuntary shiver was sent down his spine and he had to turn away.
The old Professor was talking to Dennis’s parents, who were inconsolable over the death of their second son, so soon after their first son perished. Draco’s mind wandered away, and drifted to the thought of Blaise and Goyle. They had been taken care of so fast and efficiently, that he started to wonder why his father hadn’t been dealt with as quickly, just as every other Death Eater had been.
He thought about the conversation he had with Hermione and her friends, just two days ago down by the lake.
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“I still can’t believe he’s gone, I mean I knew Blaise and Goyle were crazy, but I didn’t expect them to kill.” Ron spoke, his mouth full of chicken he had taken from the Great Hall.
“Well, it wasn’t exactly meant for Dennis.” Ginny pointed out. The Weaslette was holding Potter’s hand, stroking the ring that had restarted in McGonagall’s office after Dennis had passed away.
“Yes, but that doesn’t excuse what they were doing at all though, does it? They were out to injure, but instead got blood on their hands.” Potter corrected his girlfriend, who was nodding her head in agreement beside him. Draco turned from the chilly lake to look down at the four of them. The Weasley’s were sitting beside each other, Potter on Ginny’s arm and Hermione was on Potter’s other side.
“I shouldn’t have ducked. I’ve dealt with that curse countless times... one more wouldn’t have hurt – too much.” Draco said quietly, looking back out at the lake. He could see the Giant Squid moving through the dark waters, its long body occasionally poking out the surface.
All was quiet down behind him. They obviously didn’t know what to say. During the war, they most likely presumed he remained unharmed, and served the Dark Lord faithfully, but in reality, that curse was thrown at him most days, several times even by not only the Dark Lord, but his Father too. The Dark Lord always knew if you were lying to him.
Draco could hear Hermione sigh, “Draco, don’t. We aren’t going to talk about this anymore.” The tone in her voice screamed out ‘I’m having the final say, so shut it’ and that’s exactly what he did – at least about the subject of whether or not he should have ducked.
“Okay, so don’t get all angry at me or anything, because I can’t be bothered fighting you today, but I have a question.” Weasley spoke, finally finishing the last of his chicken and talking without a mouthful of food.
“Carry on.” Draco said, his back still turned on them.
“Why the hell did they get dealt with so fast, yet your father’s only just received his court date, and it’s still not till the 14th of February?” Draco’s eyebrows shot up in the air, as he hadn’t ever actually thought of this. When he turned around, Weasley had his wand out as a precaution, but Draco ignored it.
“You know, that’s a good question Weasel, as much as I hate to admit. Why the hell hasn’t he been kissed yet? Or even dealt with at least?” Draco was looking at Weasley with a scowl on his face. It wasn’t directed at him, it just appeared there at his thoughts.
“Actually, Hermione and I were discussing that this morning in the Library and we think we may know why he hasn’t even had a court date until now.” Potter spoke up. Hermione seemed to be nodding her head, acknowledging what he was saying.
“Well, what is it then? Spill it.” He probably sounded his ‘normal’ Slytherin self then, bossy and rude, but he wanted to hear what they were saying. Hermione ignored his tone but the other three noticed it and looked irritated. Draco was sure that after living together for a little while now, Hermione was getting used to his little quirks.
“Well, apart from your Aunt Bellatrix, Lucius was one of the, if you will, ‘top’ Death Eaters in the whole group, which warrants him to know a lot of stuff that perhaps was confided in him to keep secret, that no other Death Eater would have known. We think they have been keeping him sane for a while, just to see if they can get anything extra out of him, such as any plans that Voldemort may have had just in case he was killed. And they may even just want to know what happened within the organisation itself.” Hermione spoke quickly, trying to get it all out at once.
“That makes sense, although not the part about the plans in case he died.” Draco said after she had finished.
“Yeah, I agree with you on that part Malfoy. Voldemort had no doubt in his mind that he would win. He believed the Elder wand would work for him to kill me, but he didn’t realise it actually belonged to you at the time.” He nodded his head in agreement. When Draco had found out, in those shocking few minutes before the Dark Lord’s death, that the Elder wand, the most powerful wand in the wizarding world had belonged to him, a rage boiled up inside him. At the time he would have killed for something like that. He would have killed to have that while the Dark Lord was residing in his home, that he no longer liked being in. If he had that wand, he could have used the Cruciatus curse right back at his father, he would have duelled with him and won, and won for good. Even now, Draco still wanted that wand, although now he wouldn’t kill for it. He wouldn’t kill for anything, ever.
Potter continued “He thought no one knew of his horcruxes so he would be safe if anything were to happen again, that was his safety blanket there. I doubt there were any other plans whatsoever.”
“Then they must be keeping him to find out what happened within them all, and to find out whether or not he knows where the other Death Eaters who haven’t been caught are hiding.” Ginny said.
“Most likely. Mind you, I’m surprised they haven’t asked me anything, especially about the dealings within the group. I was let in on a lot of stuff simply because I was a Malfoy, and if my father was loyal, then I should have been as well.” Draco looked down from the leaf he was staring at, hanging from a tree branch above him. It was one of the very few left, as winter was on its way. There were four faces staring at him, the looks on their faces he couldn’t comprehend.
“Do you know where any of them are hiding?” Potter asked quietly, manning up and asking the question that was so obviously going through all of their minds. Draco got angry, losing his temper a little like he had back in the common room before the Halloween party.
“Are you bloody serious? Has my hanging out with you four, befriending Hermione, switching sides completely and trying to deny my past not shown you that I didn’t ever want anything to do with them? That I don’t want anything to do with them now? If I knew their whereabouts, don’t you think I would have told the Aurors about it by now?” Potter stood up and faced him, his wand pulled out of his pocket just enough to shoot a powerful enough spell to control him if need be.
Draco noticed Hermione also jump up, but she came closer to Draco than Potter had, and she didn’t have her wand drawn either.
“Calm down Malfoy, we were just asking. I didn’t know it would make you so angry.” Potter’s voice was calm, but that annoyed Draco even more and his fists were balled up so tight that his knuckles were turning white.
Hermione walked up to him and wrapped her tiny little hands around his large ones. She caressed them, without the other three seeing and stared up into his eyes with those large chocolate sweets of hers. He melted a little on the inside, a sure sign that he obviously had feelings for her in there somewhere. It wasn’t long before the anger drifted out of him, and his shoulders slumped back down.
“I’m sorry.” He said to the other three, and looked at Potter whose green eyes were penetrating him through his black round-rimmed glasses. They all mumbled sorry themselves and Potter sat back down with the two Weasley’s.
He stared back at Hermione and whispered to her, “I’m sorry, I just need some time alone. I’ll see you upstairs later.”
With that, he mumbled goodbye to the four of them and walked back up the hill, to the entrance of the castle, and made his way back up to their common room on the seventh floor. Sometimes he cursed it being up so high, as he had many stairs to climb, and sometimes he wished they had those Muggle elevators Hermione was telling him about one night. It would be so much easier. Draco used to think that they used these stairs to make sure students got exercise daily, but that would have just been silly. It was just an enchanted castle.
He entered the common room after a glare from Snape, and flopped down on his bed to rest his head.
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Draco was brought back to reality when Hermione stood up and pulled on his sleeve to stand. They watched as the coffin was lifted up magically, and walked down the aisle, away with the family of Dennis Creevey.
He thought about Blaise and Goyle again, as they were walking up the stairs, back to their common room after being separated from everyone else. Blaise had been sentenced with a minimum of fifty years in Azkaban for Dennis’s death but because he hadn’t directly killed him, he hadn’t been sent to prison for life. And the Cruciatus curse he shot, earned him a few extra years on the basis that it was one of the Unforgivable Curses.
Goyle on the other hand hadn’t been sentenced to Azkaban. He had been stripped of his wand, and his magic, and had been given house arrest for the next ten years, as he was an accomplice of Blaise’s to everything that happened within the school grounds. He had apparently been cuffed around the right wrist with a silver bracelet that stopped him from using magic and stopped him from leaving his property.
He thought them to be fair enough, and hoped that by the time Blaise was due to be out of Azkaban, that he wouldn’t do anything to Draco. Being around Dementor’s for so long would have screwed up his mind.
Walking beside him, Draco could see Hermione sprouting some fresh tears, probably from having thought about Dennis again. She had told him that they weren’t close at all, but she never liked to see someone so young, smart and innocent be killed for no good reason at all.
Outside their common room, Draco whispered to Snape “Wrackspurt” and he let them in silently, which he was grateful for as he couldn’t be bothered with Snape’s bullshit.
Draco walked Hermione over to the couch and sat down. He pulled her up onto his lap and she leaned her head down on his chest. He couldn’t quite understand why she was crying so much, so he asked her. Her reply shocked him, as he hadn’t even realised it.
“Harry told me he was standing next to Ginny, but Dennis was on the other side of him. It could have been him Draco; I could have lost one of my best friends for good. It came so close to it.” Her voice was shaky, and he didn’t blame her. He would have been this upset too if... if it were Hermione rather than Harry standing there.
Draco had to admit that he would have cried also if he had have found out Hermione had have been mere inches from death. He hadn’t even had a chance to kiss her yet, and when he tried to, she scattered. But that didn’t matter, he had inhaled the sweet scent of that perfume she wore and he loved.
As he sat there on the couch with Hermione, Draco realised something.
He liked her. He liked her a lot. Draco Malfoy, really liked the girl sitting on his lap right now, spilling tears onto his now wet shirt. He couldn’t hide the feelings like he hid everything else in his life, this was real. It was at the front of his mind. She was the number one thing in his thoughts.
Draco Malfoy deeply liked Hermione Granger.
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Finally an acceptance of feelings! Comment and Vote! (ED)