Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Until Again	By : RynStar15 Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Draco/Hermione Views: 15444 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 3
Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Harry Potter and do not make any money by using the world of J. K Rowling here.

Chapter List
- 9
- 10
- 11
“I saw you kiss him.”

Hermione flinched. She continued to hug herself and stare at the wall, ignoring the words as she’d ignored his crack of apparition. She couldn’t face him, not yet. It hurt too much.

“You meant it.” His voice was low, accusatory. It drove into her like a thousand nails.

“Yes.”

She heard his breath catch but he didn’t move, frozen as she was by the weight of the last days. Breaking into Gringotts, meeting Aberforth, destroying the cup, the battle, the kiss, the Fiendfyre and Draco…losing Fred, losing Tonks and Remus…losing Harry…the last fight, Draco's face across the Great Hall as she held Ron…

Ron…

She couldn’t think, wracked with indecision. She’d called Draco here, to their place, without a thought other than the burning need to see him. But now she couldn’t look him in the eye. There was no denying what she felt for Ron any longer. She loved him. He loved her. They hadn’t admitted it yet, but it was there. He’d been amazing; thinking of the Basilisk fangs, holding her close as he’d flown them down to the depths of the school, coaching her in destroying the cup, holding her after as the fear it had seized her. He’d protected her every inch of the way, never leaving her side, fighting as she’d never seen before, his hand in hers, always there. And then thinking of the house elves, something no one else would do…

It was too much. He had penanced for his mistake in the woods all those months ago, time and time again. He’d penanced for getting with Lavender, for not choosing her first. They’d talked long into the night a dozen times since and she could see the man he’d grown into. His love was pure, his heart was strong, his soul full of courage and compassion. They’d shared a past unlike anyone else, two children doing everything they could to keep their best friend alive. No one could ever know the hours they spent in the dark of the night planning, researching, worrying. No one could know the bond they’d made, two misfits bowing under the shadow of their friend’s fame and yet while everyone gloried in his accomplishments, no one saw the pain they endured as the cost.

On some levels, Ron knew her deeper than anyone in this world. Every time he turned those beautiful blue eyes on her her heart caught. It was a love so different from the one she felt with Draco. It was as bright as this one was dark.

And in the Room of Requirement he’d fought for her. He’d protected her. He’d saved her. And had gone back for Goyle because that’s who he was, Gryffindor to the bone.

“I’m not sorry,” she finally whispered.

“You have no reason to be.” His voice was dark, low, frightening in its sadness. She trembled, swallowing hard to maintain composure. After several deep breaths she found her voice.

“In the Room of Requirement-”

“I did everything I could, you know that-”

“I know. I saw. I heard. You protected Harry, you tried to stop them.”

“They were out of control, I had no idea they would-”

“I know,” she breathed. She remembered every minute. She’d only heard the correspondence, having been deeper in the room in search of the diadem. But at the sound of his voice she’d ran to him, floored when she heard him stopping his goons from attacking Harry, trying to protect Ron, trying to protect her…

“I had no idea he even knew that spell,” he growled. “Bloody imbicile…got what he deserved…”

“He was your friend.”

“He was. And he tried to kill you. For that I’ll never forgive him.”

Her eyes slammed shut against the emotion. It was such a blur after that. Fire and heat and Ron’s hand dragging her, seeing Draco’s face on the pile of rubbish, opening her mouth to beg Ron to go back for him but he was already turning, screaming death threats at Harry she knew he didn’t mean.
And then the explosion, and Fred…running down the hall…

“You told that Death Eater you were one of them…”

“I was, Hermione. You know that. But I wasn’t trying to join them. I needed a wand; I’d lost my mother’s to the fire. It was a means to an end.”

Shaking, Hermione drew something from the pocket of her robes, fingering it lightly before dropping it to the ground. It clattered softly, rolling, but it echoed through the room with a torturous declaration.

She heard him moved forward softly to retrieve it, felt the tension as he realized what it was. “How did you-?” he croaked.

“I stole it from Harry’s trunk. He used to Elder Wand to repair his own so he has no use for it now.”

“The…the Elder Wand? As is the Peverell brothers’ Elder Wand?”

“That’s it,” she sighed, still turned away from him, still not able to meet his gaze. “The very same. Dumbledore won it off Gregorovich, you won it off Dumbledore when you Stunned him, though you didn’t know it. The wand was buried with him. When you let Harry take your wand he won it off you. So when Voldemort found it in Dumbledore’s grave it belonged to Harry all along. That’s how he won.”

A heavy silence ensued. She still couldn’t look at him, not yet.

“Thank Merlin,” he let out a soft laugh and a long sigh. “Thank Merlin and Harry Bloody Potter.”

Stunned, she finally turned. His face was as haggard as she’d seen; exhausted, depleted, grief stricken. Much as she figured hers was. His words left her speechless, but as she watched the relief flow through him she could tell it was genuine.

“It’s over," he said, his eyes hard on her but his face light. "We’re free.”

She nodded. “Yes, we’re free.”

They stared at each other a long moment until he spoke, his words slicing into her. “So why are you here? Shouldn’t you be celebrating with your red-headed ponce?”

“Don’t you dare speak about Ron-”

“I’ll speak however I wish!” he thundered, waking a step towards her so that she took one back, but he persisted. “You called me, you asked me to meet you here and I damn well deserve to know why! What are you playing at, Hermione?!”

His lips crashed upon hers, taking her brutally. It was the roughest he’d ever been by far and Hermione felt a quiver in her belly as his emotion sparked hers into flame. Anger flared and she blamed him for it. She hated that she was doing this to Ron, she hated that Draco couldn’t be enough. She was sick to her stomach of all the lies, all the betrayal and deceit. She just wanted him to have done the right thing, to have picked the right side from the beginning so they could have been together and she would never have felt the pull of Ron’s love.

But he hadn’t. He’d chosen the enemy. And now she could never give herself to him fully.

“Damn you,” she hissed, shoving at him as he bit her shoulder, likely leaving a mark. But she couldn’t care less. She deserved the pain for what she was doing to Ron. “Damn you for making me this way, damn you for making me love you, you selfish coward!” She ripped out of his grip and slapped him hard.

“Fuck you, you prideful bitch!” he growled, slamming her into the wall so hard she gasped. He gripped her thighs roughly and yanked them around him and she hung on as his hands caught her wrists and rammed them above her head. He kissed her again, all teeth and anger and pain and she loved it. She thrashed against him, suddenly overwhelmed with fury.

“Why didn’t you come to us, to me? Why did you have to side with Him?” she cried, trying to get a hand loose and failing, bucking her hips against his as he stood firm, pressing tightly against her.

“You didn’t listen to me!” he roared, shoving her rougher against the wall, his cheeks pink, his eyes flaming. “I told you to stay out of it but the bloody Know-It-All knows best, doesn’t she? DOESN’T SHE?”

“YES, DAMN IT!” she screamed, shoving against him hard enough to make him lose his footing and she was able to drop to the ground. She brought up her knee and caught him in the stomach when he bent to secure the organs between his legs. “I DO, AND I DID!” She thrashed out, shoving him hard enough that he fell against the end of the couch. “WHO, WON, DRACO? WHO WON?”

“AAARRGH!”

He charged, grabbing her roughly and throwing her from him where she hit the floor with a cry. Then took to the room, smashing lamps and chucking tables, shattering a mirror above the fireplace she’d barely even noticed was there. As she watched their little house torn to shreds her fury mounted and she jumped him, clinging to his back and raining down punches. He flipped her with a yell and she hit the floor, her bones jarring. He turned from her but she launched to her feet attacking him again, shoving and swatting as he tried to hold her back.

“I HATE YOU!” she screeched, beyond control, beyond caring. “I HATE YOU, YOU INSUFFERABLE PRAT! YOU DISGUSTING DEATH EATER! MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY ARE DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU!”

“ME?” he thundered, shoving her so hard that she tripped over a broken table leg and crashed to the floor once more. He dropped atop her, hands on either side of her shoulders, trapping her in. His knees held her hips and he received several blows before securing her wrists above her head where she screamed in frustration, not able to match the much stronger opponent. “It’s all my fault, is it now? I killed them all single handedly?”

“No,” she conceded through clenched teeth. “No, but you stood aside, you stood aside and let it happen, just like you let Bellatrix torture me! You’re a COWARD!”

He slapped her so hard she was breathless in its wake. She was able to wriggle a hand free from his loosened grip and cracked her fist against his cheek, so hard his face whipped to the side and he lost grip on her wrists. She began beating on his chest, shoving at him, horrified when she felt tears in her eyes, when he saw them and held her down tighter.

“Let go of me!” she cried hysterically.

“No.”

“God dammit, Draco, let me GO!”

“No.”

“URGH!” she screamed and screamed, kicked and thrashed and punched and shoved but he held still as a statue, taking the abuse, seemingly emotionless which enraged her even more.

“I hate you!”

“I know.”

“GOD DAMMIT, I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU, I HATE YOU, YOU RUINED EVERYTHING!”

“I know.”

Seeing the horrible self-loathing in his gaze she screeched, coming unhinged. She wrench her hands out of his grip, covering her face as she screamed until her voice broke and a harsh sob took place. She cried harder than she’d ever cried, images of her lost friends, knowledge of her lost childhood, fear of losing Ron because she couldn’t let Draco go overcame her and she cried. When he pulled her into his arms she fought him weakly, her strength sapped.

“Let me go,” she gasped, even as she clung.

“No.”

His arms wrapped tighter around her and she let out a harsh sob.

“I hate you.”

“I know.”

“Why couldn’t you have changed? Joined us?”

“You knew I wouldn’t. That’s not who I am. I wouldn’t turn my back on my family any more than you would.”

“Please,” she choked hysterically, fumbling for a hold on him. “Don’t let me go. Don’t let me go.”

“I won’t. You know I won’t.”

“Please love me.”

“You know I do.”

This time when he kissed her it wasn’t in anger. She could taste the iron tang of blood from his split lip, felt the tenderness of her cheek when he cupped it, kissed it, apologizing wordlessly. She made her own apologies, gently loving him, engulfing herself in the touch and taste of him. She knew right then how desperately she needed him. He had shown her a love unlike anything she'd ever imagined. No, it wasn’t the fairy tale romance, it wasn’t the happily-ever-after and there would be no riding off into the sunset. But she needed their love more than she needed air. It was the one thing which had brought her back from the brink over and over the last few years, the one certainty she’d clung to.

He showed her once more the places his love could take her as his hands found her body, reveling in every inch once more. She hummed against his lips as she was sparked back to life, that fire that burned painfully inside her flaring. He stoked it tenderly, his touch soft, reverent.

They came together there on the wood floor amongst the destruction Draco had wrought in his anger. A piece of table leg was lodged under Hermione’s back but when he slid into her, filling her, all sensations honed to only him, only his touch, his words which fluttered softly through her hair. He moved slowly, methodically, making love to her as he’d never before. Her breath stuttered in her throat and tears gathered in her eyes at the beauty he showed her. And when they rose up together, when they found that precipice, they held each other tightly and fell as one, forever united by a bond no words could explain.

Hermione sighed in contentment against his chest several minutes later as they lay wrapped in each other. Draco toyed with her hair absentmindedly, his other hand tracing lazy circles against her back. He kissed her sweaty temple, his lips lingering and Hermione fell a little more.

She sighed regretfully. “I can’t stay. Someone will notice I’m gone.”

He stiffened slightly. “Someone? Or Weasley?”

Hermione pursed her lips, not wanting to fight about Ron. She knew Draco was sore about the subject, but she didn’t kow what else she could do. She wouldn't lie to him.

"Yes. Ron will notice I'm missing."

He was silent for a moment. "You're living with him then?"

"Yes. Him and the rest of the Weasleys, and Harry. They took us both in. We had no where to go."

"Your parents?"

A ball of pain caught in her throat at the memory of her parents. Would she ever be able to reverse the spell effectively? Would they ever remember their daughter? Or was it best to keep them this way, oblivious to her world, content in Australia?

"They...they don't..."

Draco shifted slightly, turning in her arms to look at her. "They don't what?"

She felt the tears in the back of her eyes and swallowed them back. She'd made the decision, she had to live with it. "I Obliviated them before I went in search of the Horcruxes. They don't even know I exist."

There was a long tense moment and then his face fell, his eyes full of sympathy. "Oh, Hermione..."

She cleared her throat of the ball lodged there. "It was for the best. I was Harry's friend, they were in danger. So I hid them. So...now I have the Weasley's.
He pulled her tightly agianst his strong chest. "I'm sorry," he whispered and she knew he meant it.

"It had to be done."

Eventually they moved apart, finding their clothing amongst the debris. Dressed, Hermione fingered a piece of mirror which lie next to her, wishing she didn't have to leave, wishing she could stay here forever with Draco. But the thought of never seeing Ron again was too much to bear.

"I have to go," she whispered again. Draco stared at her from where he stood, straightening his black tie. His fingers stilled, fell.

His eyes bored into hers. “And you’re going to stay with Weasley?”

She swallowed and her heart clenched. Images of the two side by side flashed through her mind, one light, one dark, one giving, the other taking. Both courageous in their own ways, both loving her in their own ways, both claiming her heart as she could never imagine.

The words stuck in her throat but her heart already knew the truth. There was fighting it, no denying it any longer.

“Yes. Yes, I’m staying with Ron.”

His face hardened, a shadow of the Death Eater she knew was beneath. “You’re mine, Hermione.”

She met his gaze, her eyes never wavering. She needed him to see, to feel the truth of her words.
She stood slowly, going to him, her hands taking up his half-done tie and smoothing it into place. “I am. And you are mine. But I won’t leave Ron for you. I love him and I’m staying with him.”

She watched the pain play over his face as his eyes dropped to the wand in his hand, his fingers white where they clenched it. She saw his entire body harden, knew he was steeling himself to let her go. She knew he would if it was what she wanted, because he loved her.

It was the only sign she needed.

She gazed up into his pain filled eyes and cupped his cheek. He flinched slightly as if their close proximity was painful. “But I won’t let you go,” she whispered, watching as her words sank in, enjoying the play in his eyes as he heard her truth. “We made a promise, Draco. No matter what. I am sticking by that promise. I refuse to lose you. I won’t. I love you, I need you-”

His mouth captured hers, drawing out the impossibility of their situation, the truth of their love and the reality of their insurrmountable affair. They would never make it, the two of them. The odds were against them from the start and even now, even with the war over, they could never be together.

But they would always have this. They would always have their secret love, their secret life, hidden away from prying eyes where it could never be tainted, never be touched.

So they would take what they could get in the moments that they had. They would cherish their love in a way only they could, because only they would ever understand it.

So when they said goodbye they knew it was not forever. It was only until they could meet again.

***

XOXO

RynStar15
- 9
- 10
- 11
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Until Again