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Patented Daydream Charms	By : Padfoot Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Draco/Hermione Views: 24585 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 9
- 10
Epilogue

Draco
slowly edged away from the Vanishing Cabinet, as if a sudden whisk of air might
make it shatter into tiny pieces.
His hands were slightly shaking and his eyes were wide with
disbelief. He�d done it... By
Morgana�s Bane, he�d actually done it!

When
this information had finally sunk, he started jumping up and down, punching his
fist into the air like a maniac and letting out a series of �whoop�s�. Tears of happiness streamed down his
face. He wasn�t going to die! He and his parents would live! Yes, yes,
yes!

�Who�s there?� a voice suddenly called out from the darkness.

Draco gasped in surprise, and his heart skipped a beat. He immediately reached for his wand and
sent the person in the doorway hurtling back outside. He then took a deep breath and turned
towards the cabinet.

It�s
Showtime, he decisively said to himself.

*

�Death
Eaters! Death Eaters in the
castle!�

Hermione
and Luna stared at professor Flithwick as he ran past them, seemingly not even
registering that they were there, and burst into Snape�s office. Hermione�s heart thumped loudly against
her ribcage. What was going on?!
Death Eaters? Here? She and Luna had been hanging around the
dungeon for ages now while seemingly nothing had been going on. Hermione had stupidly assumed things
would have been as uneventful all over the castle because Harry had simply been
paranoid.

�Severus!
... Death Eaters in the castle ...
You have to come back with me and help,� they heard professor Flithwick
say.

Suddenly
there was a loud thump. Snape came
hurtling out of his room, but stopped in his tracks when he suddenly caught
sight of the both of them.

�Professor
Flithwick has collapsed,� Snape said smoothly. �You�ll best take care of him while I�ll
go help fight the Death Eaters.�

As
Snape hurried upstairs to join the fight, Hermione and Luna rushed inside to
find professor Flithwick unconscious on the floor. Hermione quickly went to his side to
check if he was alright.

�Do
you think it�s true?� Hermione asked nervously after she had made certain the
professor had a pulse and was still breathing. �That there are Death Eaters in the
castle.�

�Well...
my Inner Eye isn�t as in tune with the universe as I�d like it to be,� Luna
replied, �but if I were to dare venture a guess, I�d say �yes�. The professor was scared enough to faint
after all.�

�Yes,
he was,� Hermione said thoughtfully, slowly edging a book under professor
Flithwick�s head to support his neck.

*

�...
- no harm has been done, you have hurt nobody, thought you are very lucky your
unintentional victims survived ... I can help you, Draco,� Dumbledore said.

�No,
you can�t,� Draco said, his wand hand shaking badly. �Nobody can. He told me to do it or he�ll kill
me. I�ve got no
choice.�

�Come
over to the right side, Draco, and we can hide you more completely than you can
possibly imagine. What is more, I
can send members of the Order to your mother tonight to hide her likewise. Your father is safe at the moment in
Azkaban ... when the time comes we can protect him too ... come over to the
right side, Draco ... you are not a killer...�

�But
I got this far, didn�t I?� he said slowly.
�They thought I�d die in the attempt, but I�m here ... and you�re in my
power ... I�m the one with the wand ... you�re at my
mercy...�

�No,
Draco,� said Dumbledore quietly.
�It is my mercy, and not yours, that matters now.�

Draco
did not speak. His mouth was open,
his wand hand still trembling. Oh,
how tempting Dumbledore�s offer sounded, to be able to get away from all
this. Why should he have to kill
someone if he didn�t want to? The
sole reason why he was doing this was to protect himself and his family. But what if they could be
protected? What if they all could
hide away until Voldemort was defeated?

Draco
realised that this was it; this was the moment in which he was forced to make a
choice. He had been postponing it
all year, making half-hearted decisions and deliberately failing to complete his
tasks so he wouldn�t have to make a possibly wrong decision. Not anymore. Draco now had to do the thing his father
had never managed to do; to pick a side and stick with it.

Draco
then decided that if he had to choose between serving a man who threatened to
kill him and his family and a man who wanted to protect him, he�d choose the
latter. He didn�t want to go
through with this. He didn�t want
to kill someone who was offering him a way out, to kill someone who actually
cared about his fate.

Just
when he was about to lower his wand, he suddenly heard footsteps thundering up
the stairs and a second later Draco was buffeted out of the way.

*

Draco�s
hand was shaking so badly that he could barely aim. How was he supposed to be able to think
with all these people pressuring him?
�Draco�s got to do it�, �Now, Draco!�, �Quickly, Draco!�, �Draco, do it,
or stand aside so one of us ��... He wished they would just shut up! If he stayed where he was, he would have
to kill Dumbledore, which he didn�t want to do. But he didn�t want to stand aside
either, for that would be Dumbledore�s death sentence. He felt his palms sweating substantially
and his throat was cork dry. Draco
was seriously starting to panic. He
honest to God didn�t know what to do...

Then
he heard the door bursting open behind him.

�We�ve
got a problem, Snape,� said Amycus.
�The boy doesn�t seem able ��

�Severus
...� Dumbledore said.

Out
of shock, Draco�s wand almost dropped from his hand. Was Dumbledore actually pleading?

Next
thing, Draco found himself roughly pushed out of the way, and if he hadn�t hit
the pillar the force of it would have made him tumble to the floor. Draco
watched Snape advancing on Dumbledore.

�Severus
... please ...� Dumbledore said.

Draco�s
frantic gaze flickered back and forth between Snape and Dumbledore. He knew what was going to happen. Snape had taken the unbreakable vow;
Draco hadn�t been able to fulfil his task, so Snape had to kill Dumbledore or
die himself. Draco had no doubt on
which of the two options Snape would choose. Snape gazed for a moment at Dumbledore,
and there was revulsion and hatred etched in the harsh lines of his face.

�Avada
Kedavra!�

A
jet of green light shot from the end of Snape�s wand and hit Dumbledore squarely
in the chest. Draco he observed the
scene with a strange sort of detachment, like he was watching a moving
photograph in the Daily Prophet; as if it wasn�t really happening. But it was; it was happening! Draco watched the Headmaster blast into
the air, and fall backwards, like a great rag doll, over the battlements and out
of sight. It was real, not
fantasy, and Draco�s mind didn�t seem able or willing to comprehend that as if
it was too farfetched or horrible to be real.

*

�Run
Draco!� Snape shouted.

Draco
did as told, ran towards the school gates and let Snape deal with Potter.

So
close, he had been so close!
Draco wasn�t even sure what he was cursing to have missed so closely;
killing Dumbledore, or a way out.
All he knew was that if he had at least made a choice, his situation
wouldn�t be as bad as it currently was. As of now, he was still under
Voldemort�s servitude, yet he hadn�t fully succeeded in completing his
task. Draco had no doubt he would
be punished for not killing Dumbledore.
The fact that he had managed to get the Death Eaters inside would
hopefully still count for something.
Dumbledore was dead after all, which was the whole point of it, so
perhaps Draco didn�t have to share his fate.

When
Draco had reached the gates, he turned around for one final look at
Hogwarts. He hoped with all his
might that Granger wouldn�t be badly hurt or killed. He was surprised to realise
that he�d actually be missing the Gryffindor swot. He couldn�t be certain, but if he hadn�t
used the Daydream Charms, and it had been just him, his despair, his tiredness
and unfamiliarity with human kindness, he might have been able to do it, to kill
Dumbledore.

Maybe
that�s why it was Granger he saw in his Daydreams; to help him find out who he
was, to help keep him sane in a time of hardship and teach him how it felt to
care about someone. Granger had
been correct; the Daydreams hadn�t been about them shagging. Not that he would�ve minded that one
bit. Draco had never actually
shagged anyone else to compare with, but he did think both of them made a good
team in the sack. Too bad they
couldn�t continue to practice some more.
They�d most likely never see each other again, but Draco comforted
himself with knowing that he�d always have her in his
dreams.

And
with a loud CRACK, Draco Disapparated.

*

�How
did he die?� whispered Tonks. �How
did it happen?

�Snape
killed him,� said Harry. �I was
there, I saw it. We arrived back on
the Astronomy Tower because that�s where the Mark was ... Dumbledore was ill, he
was weak, but I think he realised it was a trap when we heard footsteps running
up the stairs. He immobilised me, I
couldn�t do anything, I was under the Invisibility Cloak � and then Malfoy came
through the door and Disarmed him ��

Hermione clapped her hands to her
mouth. She felt as if the floor had
suddenly been pulled from under her feet.
Malfoy? But ... He didn�t
... He couldn�t ... He wouldn�t ...

But
then she realised that he indeed did, could and would.

...
Oh, Draco, no.

*

Hermione�s
face was glazed with tears and Ron was holding her, stroking her hair while she
sobbed into his shoulder. She hated
funerals. It should be a
ceremony about honouring the deceased, but they seemed mostly designed to make
as many people weep at the same time as possible. As if a loved one dying wasn�t bad
enough...

So
much sadness, so much despair. And
it wasn�t even over yet. Others
would continue to die at the hands of Voldemort, families would still be torn
apart, and new, unfading scars would be etched onto people�s souls; remnants of
things they have lived to see or things and people they have lost. If Hermione were to live to see the end
of this war, her soul would probably be as scarred as Mad-eye Moody�s face. But she knew one thing; it would be
worth it.

She
hoped that whatever Draco would be doing in the future, he would likewise
believe it to be worth it. If he
did, perhaps the next time they met � and they would; she had no doubt about
that - he could return her unanswered question with a �Yes, I do like
myself�. That�s where all good
things start really, with liking the person who you are.

Hermione
was disappointed with the part Draco had played in the events that had taken
place, but she didn�t hate him. If anything, she pitied him. She was mostly let down to know that she
apparently hadn�t proved to be as big of an influence in his life as Draco had
been in hers. Perhaps she simply
wasn�t able to see the difference in him.
Maybe it wasn�t her place to know, for she knew it wasn�t his place to
know the transformations he had made in her life; it was personal. Perhaps the time for Draco to prove
himself was still to come. And when
that time came she wished him all the luck, for he would probably need it.

As
she buried her face closer into the comforting nook of Ron�s shoulder and her
fingers that held on to his shirt curled into a fist as he in return tightly
held on to her, she realised something else.

Ron
really did smell nice.

***
THE END ***

A/N:
I suppose most of you nice people who�ve been kind enough to leave me a review
want to gouge out my eyes for the ending. Regardless, I want to thank you all for
taking the time to review this story.
I savour each and every one of them.

Until
next time.

Hugs,

Padfoot.
- 9
- 10
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Patented Daydream Charms