Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Empire of Ants	By : crzydiamond Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Draco/Hermione Views: 9533 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything related to the franchise. No money is being made from this story

Chapter List
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Hello! I'm new to AFF but not to hp fanfiction. This is my first story on the site so all feedback is needed. But please be gentle :)

I tried to keep the characters as...well in character as possible. But as we all know, its hard when we get carried away so lemme know if things get too ridiculous.

Thanks!

crzydiamond

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Draco Malfoy was dying.

He never thought he'd see the day a Malfoy was lying in the mud, slowly bleeding to death.

He was alone, in a small clearing in a forest and past the dull roar in his ears, he could the sounds of the creatures in the woods. There was no doubt that things were waiting for him to leech dry before they descended upon his still warm carcass.

Shit. He really never thought he'd...actually die. Draco leaned his head back against the wet ground, motionless as the heavy rain pounded down around him. He could only feel it faintly- his limbs were starting to go numb.

There was no moon and no stars. He lips quirked into a smirk, morbidly amused by the irony of it all. He was going to die in darkness. Alone. Arrogant as he was, he always thought his death would be some elaborate affair. Certainly not him bleeding dry in the dirt. And definitely not when he'd just turned twenty.

Draco was young and like most of his fellow Deatheaters, felt a sense of immortality once he donned the inky black robes- the robes he watched his father don. The robes that would bring back pride to their cause. He thought himself invincible.

And in a twist of fate, that was exactly the opposite of what Draco was. No pride was taken in dying during one of the first battles of the war. Or the fact that he hadn't even been hit in battle. But by the supremely idiotic Neville Longbottom who'd he been trailing through the woods. The buffoon fell head over heals and some sort of red light blasted from his wand, hitting Draco in the chest. The Gryffindor had been trying to say “lumos” but mumbled it so incoherently, that the spell changed into a splitting curse. That split right through the blonde's chest.

He'd fallen to the ground stunned. And bloody Longbottom didn't even notice. He just got up, brushed himself off, and continued on his path to the dark heart of the woods with his wand in a trembling hand.

Of all the ways to fucking die. Killed accidentally by Neville Longbottom.

Draco briefly thought of his parents. With regret. He'd only just began to actually get to know his father, who'd been driven insane by Voldemort's requirements of the Malfoys. After his wand was taken, the Malfoy patriarch crumbled inside his stoic exterior. And he began to open up. A little.

He groaned heavily, feeling pain shoot through his chest as his cracked ribs hit his already torn vital organs. He'd only be alive a couple of more minutes.

God his life had been so short.

Draco closed his eyes, trying to enjoy his last few moments in his world.

And then he heard a sound.

Even injured he managed to move quickly and turn himself to face the direction of the noise. He heard it again and it sounded like steps. Of a person or an animal come to finally put him out of his misery, he didn't know.

He decided he couldn't care anymore. And dropped his broken body back to the ground.

A few moments passed and the steps grew closer, the sound slightly muffled by the constant noise of the run. They stopped.

Draco heard her before he saw her.

“Malfoy.”

Merlin had to be playing cruel games on him.

Of all people to find him dying in the dirt, Hermione fucking Granger. The one girl he loathed the most. The one girl he'd never truly been able to break down. He hated her, probably a little more than Potter. But only because she never resorted to hating him back.

“Oh,” was all she managed to say as she looked at his mangled body. He finally opened his eyes and looked at her. She was dirty, scratched and bruised, her hair and clothes sticking to her like a wet second skin. Her brown eyes were large and doe like- her wand was trembling slightly in her hand.

“Leave,” he said through clenched teeth, stained pink from his blood. “You're far from the last thing I want to see mudblood.”

He could see her rolling her eyes and then heard her dropping to her knees beside him. His eyes widened when he realized she had her wand out.

“Leave me to die!” Draco snarled so vehemently that she actually pulled back in shock. “Don't sully the last moments of my existence with your presence!”

“No,” Hermione finally answered with a small determined shake of head. “I'm going to save you Malfoy. If only to have you locked up where you belong. But I can't...just step over you.”

The blonde leaned his head back again, gritting his teeth with irritation at her typical Gryffindor behavior. “Thats exactly what I'm asking you to do Granger. Just leave me the fuck alone.”

She paused and stared at him for an empty silent moment, with eyes that seemed to sear through his skin. Merlin what he'd give to choke her and shake that look from her eyes.

“Do you want to die?”

Draco was ready to answer yes but faltered. Of course he didn't want to die. No one wanted to fucking die, not even the Dark Lord.

“Are you stupid?” he sneered as best he could through the pain. “No one wants to die Granger. But I'd rather die than actually owe you something.”

The girl shook her head exasperatedly, whispering complex healing spells that he'd never head before. He snarled at her like some sort of wild animal and if he could, he would've surely wrapped his fingers around her throat and squeezed the life out of her.

“Malfoy stop.” The weariness in her voice almost had him doing a double take. “I'm not going to let you die. Even though you hate me and I can't stand you, I can't just walk over you like...like we didn't share the same world for seven years...”

She paused. “As loathe as you are to admit Malfoy, for a little while we shared a childhood. Before this war really began.”

He didn't answer, couldn't answer because he was gritting his teeth against the pain of his ribs slowly knitting back together. He opened his eyes and watched her face, drawn in concentration, as she slowly drew the life back into his body. After a couple of moments, he found that he could speak again.

“You're delusional if you ever thought we lived in the same world.” His tone was soft but poisonous.

Hermione shook her head, her shoulders slumping a little. “I didn't...I don't presume to know anything about you Malfoy. But you can't deny that we...grew up together at Hogwarts. We all did. Some of our greatest and worst memories are intertwined.”

There were another couple moments of silence occasionally broken by Draco's low groans of pain as his internal organs began to heal.

“You're the first one I've seen...” Hermione trailed off and concentrated on the tip of her wand.

“Dying?”Draco offered dryly. “Poor mudblood Granger hasn't seen someone die yet?”

She didn't answer.

“Get used to it Granger,” he hissed. It was clear that the subject of death made her uncomfortable and he wanted to stab at her as best he could. “It won't be long before some of your best friends die. You will die, at some point-”

“I don't want to get used to it!” she snapped at him, finally losing her patience. “I don't ever want to get to the point where someone's death doesn't mean something! I don't want to be that hardened!”

Draco wanted to roll his eyes at her honest naivety. It was almost a pity to know that someone who thought as purely as she did was going to be completely broken by what she was going to see. Such a ridiculous innocence that would lead to nothing. It was almost a pity...almost.

“You decided to fight you stupid wench.”

The more he thought about, the more she was bothering him. Reminding him of how far gone he already was. She represented how they all used to be...and the fact that someone as...filthy as her still had the innocence of when life was so ridiculously uncomplicated- it made him boil with rage.

“You decided to fight,” he repeated. “You won't have a choice. Get the stupid fantasies out of your head Granger.”

“Shut it,” Hermione said, narrowing her eyes. “Or I'll make this more painful than it has to be.”

“I didn't ask you to save me Granger,” he snarled back. “And I'm still not asking you to.”

She sniffed indignantly. “You don't have to owe me anything Malfoy. I'm not doing this because I want something from you. Not everyone has your Slytherin tendencies.”

“A life debt you stupid bint.” He gasped out as his vertebrae cracked back into place. “You stupid fucking Gryffindor, I'm going to owe you a life debt.”

Hermione ignored him, though she began to worry her bottom lip between her teeth. She'd almost forgotten about life debts. And he was right. In some ridiculous small way, she was tied to the boy she despised for eight years of her life. She knew it had to be frustrating for him, having to be indentured to a <i>mudblood</i>.

“No matter. I'm not going to ask for anything Malfoy.”

Draco groaned, partially from pain and partially from frustration. “Thats not the fucking point! I'm forever going to owe you something Granger. Perhaps saving someone's life isn't a big deal to mudbloods but it is to my kind. Thats why there're fucking life debts in the first place!”

He dropped his head back to the wet ground. “I will forever be reminded of you, Granger. Till the day I die. Involuntarily, subconsciously. Always, always knowing that you saved my life. Until I return the favor.” He smirked, once again amused by the irony. “To you of all people.”

“It could've been worse,” she murmured. “It could've been Harry.”

Draco snorted. “I doubt Potter would've saved me. You can't delude yourself into thinking he would either. Thats why I hate that it was you Granger. Who happened to come into this clearing. And save my fucking life. You who actually has enough compassion to save the life of her enemy.” He sneered out the last sentence.

“There's nothing wrong with having compassion Malfoy,” Hermione answered stiffly.

The pain was beginning to overwhelm him and he knew that soon he'd fall unconscious as the worst of his injuries were healed. Something in the shadows caught his eye over her shoulder. Her face became fuzzy as he focused on what it was moving behind Granger's back.

He quickly realized that it was no shadow. It was a Deatheater, creeping silently towards them.

His eyes found the eyes of the girl above him and she actually had the audacity to give him a small quirk of her lips that could've been a smile if they weren't mortal enemies.

“Almost done,” she said softly, more so to herself than to him

“Granger.” He grasped her wrist, ignoring for the first time in his life that she was filthy. His fingers slipped on her slick and wet skin as he tried to drag her down to whisper in her ear. “Turn around,” he rasped. “I owe you Granger. Turn the fuck around.”

She frowned as his words were drowned out by a sudden boom of thunder. And then a clap of lightening cracked across the black sky and for a moment, everything in the clearing was illuminated. He saw Granger's face clearly, studied her bonework lit up like a showcase from the light around them. And then he saw the shadow...the wraith in black and when he blinked, the light was gone. And Granger was sprawled on top of him, unconscious. Her wet curls clung to his face accusingly.

He felt something akin to guilt eat his gut as he studied Granger bleeding from the temple, her breathing shallowed.

Damn, he thought before slipping off into darkness.

He still owed her.
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