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The Paths We Take	By : Luckycharms Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Draco/Hermione Views: 18436 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 4
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. That right goes to the AMAZING JK Rowling. No profit is made off this story. Shout out to Scorpia11 for being my awesome Beta!!

Chapter List
- 13
- 14
- 15
AN- I just want it known that is was utterly by accident that this chapter ended up being 15k words…Anyway…Enjoy! XOXO
“I thought that I've been hurt before,
But no one's ever left me quite this sore,
Your words cut deeper than a knife,
Now I need someone to breathe me back to life”
Stitches- Shawn Mendes

Chapter 14- Gryffindor Courage
Salem, August 1^st, 1692
Ginny stood in the shadows just outside the tent entrance with her arms crossed as she watched Hermione rocking back and forth on the ground, mumbling a prayer while holding Draco’s head in her lap. He was wrapped in multiple blankets spelled with warming charms as he slept, however, she couldn’t really say peacefully. It had been four hours since they had done everything they could to heal the Slytherin Prince, four hours of painstaking effort to not fall apart as they used the last of the Wiggenweld and as many healing charms as they could to seal the lashes that splayed across the blondes’ skin. Although without any Dreamless Draughts, they couldn’t stop the sweating nightmares he was suffering through. But it seemed the curly-haired witch’s presence helped to at least ease his thrashing.
Hermione continued to rock the blonde in her arms as she prayed for his adversity to end. She blamed herself for arguing with him, for the words that spilled from her lips, which hurt him enough to want to walk into the woods and cast a Patronus that inevitably forced him into the conditions he now faced. If she had just kept her mouth shut, he would be fine. If she had followed her heart instead of the stupid logic that kept telling her it was wrong, Draco wouldn’t have had to fight just to stay alive. She knew it was her fault…It seemed everything was her fault.
“O God…grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change…the courage to change the things I can, and the w-wisdom to know the difference. Living o-one day at a time, enjoying one m-moment at a time. Accept-accepting h-hardships…as t-the path…pathway to pe-peace…” she began to sob as she pulled Draco closer to her chest before looking up to the ceiling of the tent, waking him just enough to hear her pleas. “Please…” she implored through her warm tears. “Please help him…I-I didn’t mean for this to happen. I-I didn’t mean…” she lowered her head and squeezed her eyes shut. “Please save him…I’ll do anything just…please help him…I beg you; this-this isn’t his fault, he’s a good man…” she claimed while puckering her lips before slightly opening them as she cried and droplets of tears fell into his hair. “He paid for his mistakes; he doesn’t deserve this…If you want to punish someone then punish me instead. I deserve it…Give me his pain, God…let me take it away from him…Please give me his pain…” she inhaled slightly before looking up once more. “Please…”
Ginny’s lips parted while she wistfully watched her best friend crumble to pieces. It broke her heart to see her in so much despair and know she felt guilty for the actions that had led them to where they were now. But she knew her best friend was not to blame. Not even Draco, who had cast the damn charm, was responsible. She couldn’t even really hold Ann or the town of Salem accountable either because none of this would have happened…if it wasn’t for Osiris and his poignant cursed amulet. She wished she could just throw the stupid thing away, but they all knew that wouldn’t work. They had to go through whatever five eras that were in store for them…why though, she had no idea.
“Hey Red…” Blaise spoke gently, pulling her from her thoughts as he laid a soft hand upon her shoulders. “How is she?”
“She’s a mess…they both are…” she claimed despondently. “She never prays. Not since she was a little girl and has told me even then, she only ever went to church because her parent forced her to go. Blaise, she wants to pass Draco’s pain on to her and blames herself for what happened to him; and no matter what I try to say, she won’t listen. It’s like she’s not even here anymore…And she refuses to leave his side. Mione flat out screamed at me when I tried to take over and give her a break. I don’t know what to do…” she declared while steering her gaze to the dark-haired wizard with dejected eyes.
“There…there isn’t really anything we can do” he shrugged as he glanced at Hermione wiping Draco’s hair gently out of his face with her fingertips.
“We have to figure something out. Blaise, she had no Calming Draughts in her bag. No Sleeping Draughts, Dreamless ones, or even pain-relieving potions either.”
“So?”
“So?” Ginny grabbed his arm and moved him away from the tent so the bookworm couldn’t overhear her. “So, that means she used them all. When have you ever known Hermione to not be prepared for anything? There’s absolutely no way she would have forgotten to pack important potions like those. She always made sure to have plenty in stock in her room and even went as far as to carry multiple bottles of each to breakfast. To breakfast! She shouldn’t have run out just yet! I packed them myself…And-and Godric, she murdered two people. Two…She has never outright killed anyone, ever!”
“Okay, she’s a little unstable-”
“A little? Blaise, you saw her back in that alleyway…We both saw her. She’s well past the point of being unstable and has fallen into a crevice we apparently can’t yank her out of. The only person who can possibly do that is Draco and he is unconscious…Merlin knows for how long. I can’t even help her when she has night terrors, how the hell am I supposed to assist her in pulling herself together?”
“Give her space…” Blaise spoke calmly, making the redhead raise a brow in confusion. “I know you’re the type of friend to always want to help, Red, but that’s not what Hermione needs right now. She’s fallen into a deep state of regret and only she can dig herself out. Nothing you say or do will make any difference because she won’t hear it. All she’ll hear is the little voice inside her head telling her she fucked up. You need to give her space. Give her some time to wrap her mind around everything and sort through the logic we all know she’s thinking…
“And when she’s ready…you’ll be there to help her pick up all the broken pieces. We all will…cause like it or not, we’re family now and families will always stick by each other. Even if that means we have to stand in the background and watch our loved one’s crumble into nothing.” He took a step forward and wrapped Ginny within his warm embrace. “She’ll get through this…just like Draco will” he stated before pulling back and placing a gentle kiss upon her forehead. “They have a strong team standing behind them…and we will both catch them when they fall.”
Friday, May 7^th, 1999
Harry sat quietly in the large claw foot tub that rested in the en suite attached to the bedroom he and Ron were staying in until Sunday night and stared unseeingly at the clear water covering him. After Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey, who had poked and prodded the raven-haired wizard until she was positively certain he was okay, came rushing through the floo the instant they had received Lunas’ urgent Owl, Harry had managed to slip off before dinner to find a moment to collect his thoughts.
He had tried explaining things to the best of his ability, including witnessing Hermione saving Draco right before he was hung, but could no longer take Narcissa’s unwavering gaze, which held fear and panic, as she waited for him to be pulled into another vision…or worse, keel over. He wondered how Draco was fairing with everything, since he was the one still harboring the painful wounds, but the more he thought about it, the more he just wanted to break down again.
Physically, The Chosen One was fine, but he couldn’t say the same for his mental status. Knowing Hermione was there to heal the Slytherin Prince after the torment he had endured, helped him feel slightly better about the situation, but it didn’t do anything to still the thoughts of giving up. Draco was dead set on letting muggles take his life and honestly believed the rest of his group, that included his best friend Blaise, would leave him behind. He wished he could say he could only imagine the feelings the blonde went through, like everyone else, but unfortunately, he had actually lived it. Although, the experience left him feeling confused about the kiss he had witnessed between the pair and he began to respect the blonde who had not only suffered through so much, but willingly sacrificed his life so Hermione wouldn’t die alone in 79 AD.
It seemed however, that even after Harry had thought he was done with horrible things constantly happening to him, somehow, life found a way to place him back in the center of its cruelty. Of course, he was the one who demanded to do the ritual but outside of that, he had no part in anything else and didn’t understand how bad things regularly kept following him. Although, similar to the Malfoy heir, he could handle pain and heartbreak, but the emotions he’d felt in Salem’s jail once Draco concluded that no one was coming…broke him.
The last time he had ever felt this doleful, was when he had lost Sirius to the Veil. He had sworn he would never allow anything to crush him like that again, but there he was, sitting in a plain bath worrying for not only his friends, but the health of his former nemesis while shattering into a million pieces. However, as soon as he was about to dip his head under the warm water to try and rid the memories of the polluted liquid Draco had been submerged in, the bathroom door burst open, startling him so much that water splashed over the edge of the tub.
“Merlin’s beard, Pansy!” he shouted before looking down at himself in shock and quickly covered his genitals with his hands. “Don’t you knock? Get out!”
“Sorry” she giggled, but instead of exiting the same way she came, Pansy balanced a plate in her hand and decent sized bag on her wrist, while closing the door behind her. She then brought out her wand and summoned a stool to set everything on. “So,” she exhaled heavily before tucking her wand back into her skirt and glancing down at the raven-haired wizards’ flushed face, “what would you like first? I brought dinner since you decided to skip that, and…What? What’s wrong?” she inquired as Harry sat completely stunned with his hands still covering his privates.
“Uhhhhh, I don’t really know how to tell you this, Pansy, but um…I’m naked…”
“Well I would hope so!” she chuckled while opening the bag. “If you took baths in clothing then I would have to question your intelligence.”
“What are you doing in here, Pansy? I’m trying to-”
“I know what you’re trying to do” she cut in rather quickly while pulling out strange bottles. “And I can tell you that this” she pointed to the water, “is not a proper bath and will do nothing to help relax you.”
“Pansy?” he argued in frustration while throwing his hands in the air before hastily covering his dick back up when he realized he had just flashed the girl.
“Yes, Potter?” she questioned while pulling the stopper off a vile and began to pour the oil substance into the bath. However, when he didn’t answer, she softened her shoulders and gazed tenderly at him. “Look, Harry…I-I’m used to doing this for Blaise, Theo, and…well Draco too. I’m not ashamed or embarrassed that you’re naked. I have three male best friends and I’m used to seeing more than I should. Though I am a little disappointed Draco hasn’t used this muggle bath set I bought him two Christmas’s ago. This stuff was not cheap, and he just threw it in the back of the closet of his en suit like it was nothing!”
“I-I am so sorry he did that to you and so very happy for you and your ability to not shy away from the male anatomy, but I am beyond uncomfortable with…this!” he claimed while pointing back and forth between the tub and her.
“So, let’s fix that, shall we” she smiled as she once again brought out her wand, poured another vile into the water, and flicked her wrist, causing large bubbles to appear and cover the Golden Boy. “Better?”
“Um…I guess…” he shrugged while making sure the bubbles covered every inch of his lower half. He was grateful Pansy was not only still human but was nothing like Moaning Myrtle, who had tried to take a peek at him multiple times in the Prefects’ Bathroom fourth year. “Wh-why are you doing this?” he inquired with a raised brow as she dropped a large bath bomb by his feet. Though he had to admit, his sore muscles were already starting to feel better, especially after she had dumped Eucalyptus and Spearmint Epsom salts into the water. However, when she rolled up her sleeve and reached her hand into the tub to stir the mixture, he just about jumped out of the water.
“Would you calm down” she sighed while rolling her eyes. All she wanted to do was be there for him and keep an eye out to make sure he didn't do anything stupid in case the psychological trauma he was going, or about to go through, became too heavy. But the more she thought about being there for him, the more she realized how much she actually enjoyed his company. “It’s not like I’m going to give you a hand job or something.” At the sound of the words ‘hand job’ Harry’s entire body stiffened as Pansy shook her head and went back to stirring the bath.
Yet when the Slytherin Princess leaned over to spread the substance around further, her chest pressed up against the side of the tub giving the Gryffindor Prince a perfect view of the top of her ample breasts. His dick began to harden, and he silently prayed she would remove herself before he surrendered to the urge to reach out and touch her. Unfortunately for him that didn’t stop him from unconsciously touching himself under the safety of the bubbles. He then realized what he was doing when she pulled back and quickly stopped before she noticed the bobbing foam. But she did notice, although she refused to say anything as she was flattered that someone was actually showing some sort of real affection for her.
She knew Draco had always used a hardening charm when he thought she couldn’t see, which didn’t help with her self-esteem any. So, she faked orgasms as she sullenly gazed at herself in the mirror in hopes to turn herself on. And the more she thought about it as she walked over to the shelf in the corner of the room and picked up a towel, the more she realized how much the Slytherin Prince didn’t seem to want her. But she was still optimistic he would finally see her as more than a ‘friend with benefits’, and as someone who could one day be his future wife.
“So, uh…W-why are you h-here?” Harry questioned nervously while praying that a conversation would make the wood in the bath simmer.
“I told you already, Harry” she stated while drying her hand and shaking the somber thoughts from her mind before walking back over to him, “I’m here to help you relax…and feed you. You haven’t really eaten much since we arrived and you’re getting a bit thin.” She bent down and picked up the plate off the stool before taking a seat and summoning a fork. “Mrs. Weasley had the house elves make us all meatloaf. Next to French onion soup, which I was told was your favorite from Weas-well younger Weasley, she didn’t think that was filling enough so you’re stuck with this. It’s not bad actually. I never had it before tonight.”
“It’s served at Hogwarts…” he claimed, narrowing his brows in confusion.
“I always avoided it” she shrugged while cutting a piece with the side of the fork. “It never really looked appetizing to me, but when Narcissa Malfoy tells you to eat it while staying in her Manor, you do as your told” she chuckled slightly before feeding the Gryffindor, who appeared apprehensive. “Harry,” she sighed as he slowly began to chew, “we’re friends and-and I do this sort of thing with friends. If you’re not comf-”
“It’s okay, Pansy” he claimed gently before swallowing. “I-I’m just not used to anyone but Hermione barging in on me to talk about…homework. It was always homework.” He narrowed his brows while trying to think of other conversations he had had with her during the school year, but nothing ever emerged. “It’s just a…strange…change is all-A good one though!” he immediately corrected when Pansy’s lips fell. “It’s a nice change…”
She smiled softly before cutting another piece of the meat to feed him. They sat quietly for a few moments as they both thought about how awkward the silence was, before Pansy cleared her throat and looked down at the half-eaten plate in her lap.
“I-I’m sorry for what I said about Granger…What Theo told you all during our argument…I don’t actually feel that way about her, I just…she can be overwhelming at times.”
“We all have a long history with each other, it’s too be expected. And if we’re being completely honest here, I would have to agree that she can be a bit…overwhelming at times too…It’s okay…”
“It’s not,” she raised her eyes to him and smiled softly, “but thank you for saying that.” He nodded his head before playing with some bubbles with the tips of his fingers. “Are-are you going to be okay? Mentally, I mean?” Harry inhaled deeply as he stared unseeingly before him for a long moment.
“Eventually…” he huffed gently through his nose with a small grin before gazing up at the raven-haired witch. “I have a really good friend to help me get through it.”
“Oh, well I mean Weasley is-” she began, but Harry’s small laugh interrupted her. “What? What’s so funny?”
“I meant you, Pansy” he smiled warmly while lifting his arm from the tub and reaching out for her. Anxiously taking his hand in hers, Pansy felt Harry lightly squeeze as he sat up straight and licked his lips. “Ron doesn’t know how to really deal with…this, and Hermione’s obviously isn’t here. And before you say it, I’m not substituting her with you. We might have only been friends for less than a day, but since this whole thing started, you’ve never actually left my side. That’s a true friend and…well I’m glad it was you who walked through that door.”
“Really?”
“Really” he smirked. “I mean think about it, Ron would never have made this bath so amazing” he laughed, causing Pansy to chuckle.
“It’s true” she clicked with a snicker. “I am the Queen of bubble baths.”
“That you are…but,” he squeezed her hand once more, “you’re more than that, you know? You’re a good friend, Pansy, and I’m really happy I get to know you.”
“Ditto” she answered, making both of them chortle in amusement at her use of a muggle term. “I-I know you’re not really comfortable with me being in here already, but um…can-can I hug you? I think we both could use a hug right now.”
“As long as you don’t mind getting wet-” Harry froze for a second as he replayed what he had just said through his mind while the Slytherin Princess pinched her lips together as she tried not to laugh. “I-I didn’t mean it like that!”
“Mmhmm, yeah of course, sure” she giggled before setting the plate down on the floor and leaning in. Hugging the Gryffindor Savoir while a single tear slipped from her lashes, Harry held her tightly as he too did his best to not cry into her soft black hair as a flood of emotions washed over them both.
Salem, August 2^nd, 1692
Draco had awoken the following morning in the empty tent to the sound of birds chirping away in the trees surrounding him. He had no idea how long he had been out, but it felt like weeks; though it had only been a day. He remembered the incoherent voices speaking to him or even about him, he wasn’t quite sure, though he at least knew he was alive. However, the memory of his torture in Salem felt more like a bad dream than something that had actually occurred. Although, when he moved to sit up in the cot he was laid in, an agonizing soreness engulfed his entire body, allowing him to understand that he really had almost died and that his best friend had literally sliced through his leg like he was a Christmas ham.
After being rescued, the events leading up to where he was now, standing haphazardly in the middle of the expanded tent, were slightly foggy. He recalled waking up in pain in the middle of the woods as his group tried their best to fix his broken body, and he remembered fighting to push Hermione out of his mind before she saw too much in the Manor; but one occurrence during his healing faze, made him question everything. The memory was hazy at best, but he couldn’t recall if it was in fact a memory or if it was just a fabrication conjured in his delirious state.
Trying to think further on the words he thought he heard Hermione speak, the wavy-haired witch walked through the entrance of the tent, pulling him from the prayer he was trying to remember, and froze. Raising his grey eyes slowly to her stunned ones, a sudden mixture of anger that they had left him in that cell for so long, embarrassment that he was captured in addition to being tortured by muggles, and sorrow that the girl he thought he fancied, witnessed him at his worst, invaded his mind. He couldn’t figure out the words he wanted to speak, or if he even should speak at all, as they stared at each other, because he knew if he said anything, every emotion he was feeling would spill from his chapped lips. But if he thought the awkward moment couldn’t get more cumbersome, Hermione broke the heavy silence while stepping towards him.
“Y-you’re awake…H-How are you feeling?” she questioned nervously, but Draco just continued to stare at her dejectedly. “Well…y-you look better” she claimed with hope in her voice while fidgeting with her fingertips. “I uh-I-I came back to see if you were well enough for a bath…t-to clean you up.” He still didn’t speak so she licked her lips before bending down to pick her beaded bag up from off the cot where she had slept near him. “There’s a river with a beautiful waterfall not too far from here. I-I thought maybe I could help you. Blaise said you’ll be sore for a little while and that you shouldn’t walk without some assistance; at least until your hip has had another day to heal. Ginny went to return Isaiah and Blaise is making breakfast while keeping watch, so if you’re up for getting some air…”
The blonde Slytherin remained quiet as the bookworm glanced at him balancing most of his weight on his right leg. But she quickly let out a sigh and stepped forward to aid him out of the tent. However, when Draco flinched at her touch, she quickly stepped back with her hands raised.
“Draco…I-I won’t hurt you…” she stated gently as he eyed her timidly while his chest rose and fell at a fast pace. “I promise.” Slowly stepping back up to him, she reached out and waited for him to flinch again, but this time he had allowed her to touch him. Even though he was feeling a hurricane of different emotions all at once, he desperately needed a bath as he could smell the urine and sweat covering his body. However, when he looked down, he noticed he was no longer wearing the soiled drawers he was used to and comfortably wore his Slytherin pajama bottoms with a white t-shirt. He didn’t even realize he was dressed as a thousand thoughts flitted though his mind. “Are you ready?” she asked, forcing him to lift his eyes from his clothing and slowly nod his head.
Hermione gently escorted the Malfoy heir out of the tent while Ginny and Blaise took turns keeping watch, after the redhead had returned, and led the Prince to a large river that surprisingly was not that far from their camp site. Setting him down on a boulder near a roaring waterfall that emptied into a vast alcove, she quickly put a few wards around the area before walking back to him and reaching into her bag for a sponge loofah, a bar of unscented soap, and two bottles consisting of shampoo and conditioner, because she knew the blonde loved his hair products.
Helping him remove his shirt and his pajama bottom, Hermione guided a reluctant Draco, now wearing only his boxer briefs, towards the calmest part of the headwaters a few meters away from the waterfall. She then placed a warming charm around both of them and slowly stepped into the river, only stopping once the water reached his hips and began to tenderly wet his torso before soaping his skin up. He still never spoke as he stared unseeingly in front of him and only the sound of the cascading falls reverberated in the woods around them.
“So…” she began, trying to break the silence while gently cleaning the red marks that covered his back and biceps, “um, Julia has been bringing us food. Ginny created a temporary invisibility cloak for her so she could sneak out and Joseph is packing up the house so they can return to England as soon as possible. And the only muggles who can get through our wards is them, so you don’t have to worry. Julia misses you by the way. She feels terrible for what happened…”
She continued to ramble on about the family and how they planned to sneak out of Salem as they had helped the group significantly, while she washed Draco’s hair. However, a pulsing headache was brewing in the back of his skull and all he wanted was for her to stop speaking.
“Please stop talking…” he uttered in almost a whisper once she was done cleaning every inch of him and had him clean below his waist out of respect. The brunette witch however, ignored his request and once she helped him out of the river and released his hand to reach for an item in her bag, she continued to talk aimlessly, causing the blondes’ temper to boil over and his silence to break. “Merlin, Granger, just shut up already!” he snapped profoundly while rubbing his temples as anger surpassed every other emotion he was feeling.
“I beg your pardon?” she inquired with narrowed brows in complete confusion while slowly standing up from the bent position she was in with a white towel in her hand.
“Fuck!” he scoffed while shaking his head in irritation. “You’re so good at staying silent when asked about your damn feelings, but when it comes to my almost death, that’s when you decide to fucking care and talk up a storm! How about you do us both a favor and just shut the hell up! I don’t want or need your charity o-or you pretending to give a damn after you left me in that cell to be brutalized!”
“A-are you serious right now?” she questioned completely taken aback as he crossed his arms. “We didn’t leave you anywhere! We couldn’t risk having to save you and possibly myself, or Blaise, or-or Ginny because we got caught somehow! A-and the town was already on high alert! If we snuck in and they noticed that you were gone, then that would be Julia and her father’s life on the line! Not to mention how your sudden disappearance could mess with the timeline!”
“Mess with the timeline? You’re bloody joking, right? The timeline would have been fine if you would have just admitted your damn feelings for me in the fucking barn! Then maybe I wouldn’t have gone out to the woods to try and think of way to prove to you that I’ve changed! I SHOULDN’T HAVE BEEN THERE!”
“You went through a trauma,” she uttered when she realized what was happening, “so it’s perfectly logical that you would be feeling th-”
“Logical?” he laughed mirthlessly. “You really don’t fucking get it. This…is all on you!” he paused as his bottom lip quivered and his eyes began to water. “You abandoned me! You abandoned me in Knockturn Alley, you abandoned me in the barn, and you bloody fucking abandoned me in that cell…You, Granger!” he claimed bitterly while letting his emotions get the better of him. “And I finally realized that I don’t need you anymore. You couldn’t make up your damn mind when it really mattered so I’m just gonna do it for you. I’m done…I’m done trying to show how much I care for you; I’m done trying to be, Merlin, be the right guy…I’m done. Find someone else who’s apparently worthy enough for Gryffindor’s ‘sweet innocent little Princess’ and leave me the hell alone.”
“Draco…” she muttered as her brown eyes began to glisten.
“Piss off, Granger!”
“No! You don’t get to push me away because I ‘hurt’ your feelings! I’m so sorry for what happened to you, I am, but we didn’t know you were in that serious of a condition and we did our best to save you! I’m not pretending, Draco! How could I not care? Especially after seeing what you did for me in your family’s manor! I sent you my Patronus, so you knew we were coming! We just needed to wait for an opening!”
“Oh, come off it! You think I’m pushing you away because you ‘hurt my feelings’?” he scoffed before licking his lips and nodding his head as he tried to ignore the fact that she brought up the one memory she was never supposed to see. “Get this straight, Granger…I may have royally fucked up my past with the shite I’ve done, but in no way did I deserve to be treated like that by muggles because you left me in there to rot like some worthless scum…You gave me hope with that Otter…and then you ripped it away and left me feeling broken and rejected by the three people I considered family. I deserve better than you, because apparently you only seem to care when it’s convenient for you” he spat sullenly as his heart shattered.
“So, I take back my answers to the questions you asked me on that ship. Yeah, you’re now just a ‘convenience’ that I am officially over. No, we can’t grab dinner o-or a Butterbeer when we get home, and no…I sure as hell don’t wanna be your friend anymore. Once we make it through the other four eras and finally get home, I want nothing to do with you. And while we go through this bullshite, do me a favor and just stay the hell away from me, got it?”
Hermione stared at Draco thoroughly speechless as a single tear rolled down her cheek and her bottom lip trembled. It wasn’t so much the words the Slytherin was speaking, as it was the way he had said them. His tone was deadly serious, and in that moment, she realized she was too late. This was just one more thing adding weight to her already broken soul, and there was absolutely no way to mend it now.
“I’m…I’m sorry…” the brunette claimed as tears began to stream heavily down her face. She knew after the anguish Draco had endured, he would suffer through emotional and psychological trauma, but he seemed to have skipped over every stage of grief and went directly to anger, which she thought she could handle. However, it appeared she was wrong. “I was scared…I was scared to have feelings for you, I-I…I thought that what you felt for me wasn’t real, that it was just because we’re stuck here together. But I did-do, have feelings for you. I like you…a lot, and I…I wanted to save you that night, Draco, you have to believe me!”
“I can’t believe anything you say anymore…” he stated after staring at her for quite some time. “Like you said back in the barn…‘It’s easy to pretend when it’s with friends’…Guess now you don’t have to fake it any longer…We’re finished here.”
“Dra-”
“Malfoy!” he snapped as a tear slipped from his lashes. “Only friends get to call me by given name, Granger. And seeing as I apparently never would’ve looked twice at you if we weren’t stuck here…” he huffed dolefully through his nose. “It’s funny, ya know…? It took me almost dying in your arms and you rummaging around through my memories for you to finally see me as more than who I used to be. It’s just too bad that everything else I ever did to save your life and show you what you meant to me since this shite started, wasn’t enough.”
“Please don’t do this…” she whimpered. “I need you…”
“NO, I NEEDED YOU AND YOU WEREN’T THERE!” he screamed as he released all the anger he’d been holding inside, making Hermione shudder at his booming voice. “It’s already done! I’m not getting hurt by you anymore, do you hear me? You don’t get to use me anymore! You don’t get to play with my emotions because you can’t grow the hell up and figure out what the fuck you want! You had plenty of chances to be with me and you didn’t take them! I would have killed every fucking person in that Gods forsaken town to get to you if you would have been taken instead! I would have done everything to save you! I was willing to give you the damn world, Hermione and you just…” he paused with a heavy breath as he stared deeply into her somber eyes. “Forget it…You’re not worth the breath.”
“Malfoy…Draco, please…”
“LEAVE, HERMIONE! Do what your good at and just fucking LEAVE!”
Hermione threw the towel at Draco’s chest before collecting her things and rushing back to camp, leaving the blonde to limp over to the rock and sit down while rubbing his hands down his face. She raced through the woods as fast as her feet could take her and didn’t stop, even when Blaise had asked her what was wrong, until she made it into the tent, threw herself onto her cot, and began to bawl her eyes out. Ginny raised a brow in confusion before she and Blaise rushed in to find out what had happened. After Hermione muttered half coherent words through her deep sobs, what Draco had said, the Italian clenched his fists at his side while the red-headed witch comforted the bookworm in her arms.
Having had enough of the duo going back and forth and causing more stress than they were already going through, Blaise exhaled heavily before storming out of the tent and down to the river to hear his best mates’ side, and hopefully fix the damage between the pair.
Saturday, May 8^th, 1999
Harry awoke in the middle of the night with a slight twinge in his stomach, though he didn’t know if it was due to being hungry or if it was for another reason. He did, however, have a strange feeling that he was supposed to be up right then…like a gut instinct he had felt on a few occasions that warned him when something wrong. Although, he brushed the sensation away as he assumed it was just residual from his time spent in the vision with Draco.
Slipping out from under the covers as Ron drooled on the pillow next to him, the raven-haired wizard rolled his eyes at his friend before putting on his glasses and grabbing his wand. Stepping into the grand darkened hallway, he began to make his way down to the Kitchens when he saw an obscured figure turn the corner towards the Library. Snuffing the light from his wand, in case the shadow was an adult who would yell at him for being out of bed so late, he continued on his way. However, when he began to walk past the large arched entryway that lead into the Athenaeum, he heard a loud bang and a male voice curse aloud.
Never shaking the sense of curiosity, that had been imprinted in him since before the war, Harry halted his trek when the voice began to mumble between the sounds of sobbing. Raising a brow in worry, he slowly opened the Library doors and stepped inside. But his eyes widened in fear when he saw Theo kneeling in front of the large fireplace with over a hundred lit black pillar candles surrounding him in the shape of an hourglass.
“Nott! What the bloody hell are you doing? Get out of there NOW!” the Gryffindor demanded before flicking his wand to snuff out the candles and summon the book from the Slytherins’ hands. “What the hell is wrong with you? Are you trying to die? Are you trying to get lost in the damn past? What the fuck were you thinking?” he yelled in outrage; alerting the two Gryffindor’s who were searching the halls for their missing roommates, to the Library. When Ron and Neville entered the book room, they stood stunned at the sight before them while the Chosen One continued to ream into the brunette wizard as if he was scolding a child.
“It was hard enough doing this ritual with a whole group! Have you gone completely mental? Trying to do this shite alone, have you lost your damn marbles!” he reprimanded while storming up to Theo, whose head was hung low as he cried uncontrollably, forcing Harry to stop and stare sullenly while breathing heavily. “What are you doing, Nott?” he questioned wistfully. “Why are you trying to do this ritual? You saw what it did to me…Wh-why would you do this? A-and alone? What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking this was all my fault!” Theo shouted in anger while raising his puffy red eyes to Harry. “Of course, I saw what this shite did to you! We all saw it!” he claimed with a trembling lip as fresh tears slid down his face. “I got our friends stuck in the damn past and because of it you a-and Draco…This is my fault! I’m responsible and I have to fix it! And the only way I can attempt to right my wrongs is to pass the visions from you onto me!”
“Nott…? Y-you can’t…That’s not how this works…”
Theo scoffed before biting his lower lip while shaking his head as The-Boy-Who-Lived knelt down in front of him.
“Then you didn’t read the fine print” he stated while pointing to the book in Harrys’ hands. “If another person does the ritual in the same fashion, while searching for the same person, using the exact same token…the visions will pass on to them…”
“Do you honestly believe Harry would let you do that?” Ron interrupted while taking a step forward. “He wouldn’t even allow one of us to volunteer when we preformed the damn thing in the first place.”
“He was hoping no one would find him…” Neville chimed in dolefully. “Isn’t that right, Nott? That’s why you came down here so late…” Theo nodded his head before looking back to the raven-haired wizard in front of him.
“Please…” he began to implore, “please let me do this…I-I have to do something to make this right. I have to fix this…”
Harry stared at the Slytherin with parted lips as his chest rose and fell dejectedly while the brunette’s brown eyes pleaded with him. But he couldn’t find it in himself to let anyone, not even someone like Umbridge, go through what he had.
“No” he declared sternly.
“Please, Potter! I deserve this! I deserve to have the burden you bare! I-”
“You’re not doing it and that’s final! I won’t allow you to throw your life away because you feel guilty…! Just because you made a bet that led to all this doesn’t mean you should carry this burden. We all make mistakes we have to live with and mine was doing the ritual. But Theo…that-that ritual was draining. If you tried doing it by yourself, you most certainly would have died and that wouldn’t be helpful to anyone. We don’t even know if the visions would even transfer or if we would both be stuck with them.”
“I’m not helpful now, Potter! This is all my fault and-and if I have to die to do this then I will! The world is better off without me anyway. All I ever do is create problems for everyone around me.”
“Don’t say that” Ron asserted adamantly. “Don’t you ever say that! No one is better off with you dead! You might feel like this is your fault and you know what, it might be, but Godric, Nott, we don’t want you to die, especially for something that was an accident.”
“And you have been helpful” Neville added. “Without you supporting me while Harry was going through that horrible vision, I would have completely fallen apart. And you helped research everything with us and you’ve been doing your best to atone for the one mistake that could have very well happened to any of us. You didn’t know what would have transpired after you made that bet. No one did. You can’t keep beating yourself up over it. Shite happens and we’re dealing with it the best way we know how.”
“They’re right, Theo” Harry spoke softly while turning his attention back to the Slytherin, “you’ve been helpful. And none of us want to lose you. For one, Malfoy would kill us if we ever let anything bad happen to you, and like it or not, we’re in this together. But…now that we know we can’t bring them back until they make it through all the eras, we can still continue to work together and concentrate on finding them. With my visions, the map, everyone who has lost sleep over this, and you, we can find them. Whether it’s in history books, pictures, paintings, whatever, we’ll find them, and they will all make it home. After that, we can either go our separate ways or we can remain friends; that is if Ginny and Hermione don’t kill all of us first for being so stupid” he chuckled, making Theo, Ron, and Neville chortle as well. “I would like to get to know you better, Theo. Just like I’m doing with Pansy. I’m sure everyone would like to. Don’t let us miss out on that opportunity, alright?” he half-smiled as Theo looked down at his hands before glancing back up to him.
“You-you honestly want to be mates?” he questioned in confusion before looking to Ron who had his arms crossed, as he was known to be the most difficult person to prove that one had changed to.
“Yeah, why not?” Ron smirked. “But…please don’t try to do this again. We may never be the of best friends, Nott, but that doesn’t mean we don’t care. You can always come to any one of us if you need someone to talk to. Just…don’t sleep in my bed without telling me first, okay? I already had a traumatizing experience with Parkinson, I really would rather not wake up to you as well…”
After releasing a small snort through his nose while wiping his face with his sleeve, Theo glanced at the three students surrounding him with hope in his heart.
“Thank you…”
“Don’t thank us” Harry claimed softly. “Friends look out for each other…no matter what. Come on now, let’s get back to bed before Mrs. Weasley see’s us. I don’t think any of us would wanna hear that scolding this late at night” he smiled warmly as he took Draco’s family ring out of Theo’s hand. “And just so this never happens again, I’m taking this and this book, and I’m charming the shite out them before giving it to Mrs. Malfoy to hide. This will never happen again; do you hear me?”
Theo nodded his head as Neville helped him stand while Ron cleared away the black candles with his wand. Harry patted the brunette Slytherin on the back a few times before the group of four slowly walked out of the library and back to their bedrooms.
Salem, August 2^nd, 1692
Blaise stormed through the woods completely fed up with all the bullshite him and his group were dealing with. He was tired of the fighting, he was sick of the past, and he was over not seeing two people he knew would be a perfect couple, struggling to get together. He was going to fix this mess even if it meant binding both Draco and Hermione together until they could learn to get the hell along and stop causing unnecessary stress.
Spotting the blonde Prince leaning up against the boulder where Hermione had left him, still only in his boxer briefs, the dark-haired wizard marched over to him in determination. He was fully aware of the mental state his best mate was possibly in, but he had to make him understand as he apparently refused to hear the brunette Gryffindor’s side of things.
“What is wrong with you?” he yelled vehemently, though slightly louder than he intended to. “What the hell did you say to Hermione? She’s crying her bloody eyes out…again!”
“I said what needed to be said, Zabini!” Draco countered before shaking his head and rolling his eyes.
“Zabini? What the fuck, Draco?”
“Well when someone cuts deep into my leg without my permission, causing me immense pain as I BEGGED for them not to, I generally don’t consider them a friend anymore! A friend would have just let me fucking die like I wanted!” he snapped angrily.
Blaise stared at Draco in disbelief as he tried to wrap his head around what he had just heard, but unlike Hermione, he knew about the effects psychological damage could place on a person and he knew the Malfoy heir all too well. All Draco needed was a firm push to pull him back into the man he once was.
“If you think that’s what friendship is then you’re the daftest person I have ever met and also fuck…you!”
“Fuck me?” the blonde chuckled with raised brows while pointing a finger at his chest as he leaned forward off the boulder. “Fuck you, Blaise! Fuck you, fuck Granger, and fuck that little Weasel!”
“Wow…So, are you fucking us all at once or are we taking turns…?”
“Shut up, you dirty wanker!”
“Well this ‘wanker’ saved your damn life! Do you honestly believe that what I did was easy? To see you in so much pain and knowing that the only thing I could do was hurt you more before I could make you better? Do you think that was easy for any of us?”
“Do you think I care?” Draco rebutted callously. “Do you think I care about how you felt? I was the one in pain! I was the one suffering and you all let it happen! Because of you, Granger, and Weasley, I gave up! I WAS READY TO DIE AND YOU WOULDN’T LET ME!”
Blaise scoffed while crossing his arms as he licked his lips while staring at his friend with a tilt of his head.
“Why?” he inquired, knowing the Prince wouldn’t be able to answer as his morbid thoughts were more of just a feeling rather than him actually wanting it to happen.
“What? What the fuck sort of question is that?”
“An easy one, actually. You’re so adamant that you wanted to die and blame us for the feeling of abandonment, so answer me and tell me…Why? Why did you, or do you, or whatever, want to die?”
“Fuck you!”
“You already said that. Is that all you got? You were angry enough at Hermione to literally make her cry but all you can say to me is ‘fuck you’. I mean I’m not blaming you for being morose. You have every right to hate me and Red, seeing as we’re the ones who told Hermione to wait until morning.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Oh, that’s right!” he snapped his fingers before shaking his pointer in the air as if he was remembering something. “You probably never even let her defend herself as you most likely just screamed every emotion you’ve kept bottled up since she turned you down in Knockturn Alley” he jabbed ruthlessly. “Hermione wanted to save you the same night we found out you were taken, but Red and I said ‘no’ because we thought it was better to have a plan rather than to just storm the gates carelessly and risk everyone’s lives! She fought for you! She scared the ever-loving piss out of Ann Putnam and us; threatened to make her go insane if you died! You should have heard her, Draco…Red said she had never seen her like that, ever. Her magic sparked all over her body and her eyes…I’ve never seen someone’s eyes grow so dark before.”
“What’s your point? So, she scared a twelve-year-old child! Big deal?”
“Big deal? That girl never left your damn side since she rescued you! She prayed to that muggle God to take your pain away; did you know that? Did you let her tell you that? She wanted to pass it on to her, and Merlin, if Ginny hadn’t taken her wand away after what she did for you, she would have found a way to do a transfer spell o-or obliviate you!” Draco’s heart stopped when he realized that the prayer, he had heard escape from Hermione’s lips, was in fact real, and he suddenly felt overly confused. “Wake the hell up, Draco! She likes you and you have no right to be pissed at her! You wanna cry, go ahead; you wanna be livid, throw things, punch someone, lose your fucking shite, then you do that, but you do it at me! Not her…! But I’ll tell you what, mate, I know you; probably better than you know yourself. So, why don’t you tell me who you’re really pissed at, so we can all move forward.”
“You know perfectly well…who…” Draco struggled to stand as his anger grew more intense while cursing aloud as every muscle in his body ached violently, “…I’m pissed at!” Using the boulder to keep himself balanced, he flicked his hair out of his face as he glared at Blaise menacingly and tears stung his eyes.
“Who?” Blaise questioned.
“You!”
“You’re not! Tell me who you’re mad at!” he stepped forward with his fists clenched at his sides.
“I said, you!” Draco shouted, now with both hands on the rock, steadying himself.
“TELL ME WHO YOU’RE REALLY MAD AT!”
“YOU!” the blonde screamed as tears began to stream down his pale cheeks.
“STOP…LYING! STOP BEING SO DAMN STUBBORN!”
“I’M NOT LYING OR BEING FUCKING STUBBORN!”
“YOU ARE!”
“I’m not…” he whimpered while trying to hold back the sob wishing to escape his throat.
“Then what is it?” Blaise inquired with a hint of sadness in his voice. “What’s causing you this much stress that you would push us away, push Hermione away…? Pain…unimaginable pain? What they did to you…I am so sorry, but the world is full of brokenness, Draco…And we can either fill our coffins with the rocks they have thrown, or we could take those stones and build something great out of it. So, tell me…Who are you really mad at?”
“…Me…” Draco began to weep uncontrollably as his best friend’s heart shattered once more. “I-I let them take me…I-I couldn’t stop-I couldn’t stop them.”
“Exactly…” Blaise stated while taking a step forward. “You-couldn’t-stop them…That’s not on you, mate. It’s not your fault, it’s not mine, and it damn sure isn’t Hermione’s. It was those men. Those men who did precisely what you have done all your life…Judging someone, despising them for something they can’t change, and you hate yourself because it put you in every muggle-born you have ever belittled shoes…It put you in Hermione’s shoes…”
“I hate them…” the Slytherin Prince continued to bawl as his anger turned to sorrow and his thoughts focused on how much he loathed the two men who had tortured him. But his sadness quickly turned back into anger as the faces of John and Samuel beating him mercilessly filled his mind “I need to kill them…I have to kill them!” he stated adamantly while wiping his nose across his bare arm while the dark-skinned wizard sighed and licked his lips as his head bobbed up and down; knowing his next words would either make or break his whole reason for coming out into the woods in the first place.
“She already did that for you…” he admitted softly, causing Draco to flick his eyes to his friend in shock and confusion.
“What? What’d you say? Hermione’s never purposefully killed anyone. Potter made sure everyone knew how proud he was of her for being their rock and able to hold back when he and that Weasel wanted to lose control during their journey to defeat Voldemort.”
“Then she must really fucking like you because she single handily murdered your captors in cold blood, possibly changing the past in the process…You didn’t see her, mate. You didn’t see the pain behind her eyes; the heartache, the revenge... It was like it wasn’t even her anymore, like she was a completely different person. The tone in her voice…it was ruthless. Draco, she damaged her soul for you, and you didn’t even give her a chance to explain. I know what it’s like to be scared to show your feelings. My mother made it very difficult for me to trust people and Hermione…she was fighting a battle with herself because she knew that if she admitted she fancied you then it would make it real. And with your past…you can’t fault her for being confused and terrified.
“But she showed how far she was willing to go to save your life, to defend you like you have done countless times for her…Don’t you think she deserves a little more leeway? She already blames herself for what happened to you and fell into a deep depression because of it…and neither of us can seem to help pull her out. The only person who could save her is you and you pushed her away. I’m not asking you to fall in love with her or even be with her, but the least you could do is let her know you don’t blame her too. She needs you, just as much as you need her.”
Draco’s breath caught as Blaise explained everything to him while his heart beat rapidly within his chest. He felt like the biggest arse in the world for the things he had said to the brunette witch to purposely hurt her; to try and make her feel the same pain he was feeling, and silently prayed to anyone who would listen, that he wasn’t too late.
“Where is she…Where’s Hermione, Blaise?”
“She’s with Red in the tent…I’ll take you to her, but only if you promise to not scream at her for what she did to protect you. We don’t know yet if she altered anything by killing those men and threatening Ann-”
“I don’t care about the damn past, Blaise! I care about her…! Please take me to her. I need to talk to her; I need to explain that I was an idiot. I need to help her!”
“Okay, alright…” Blaise claimed while holding his hands in the air. “Let’s just hope her sadness hasn’t turned into anger yet and she hasn’t taken her rage out on the tent. That thing has come in handy as of late.”
“Blaise!”
“Okay! Salazar, just trying to lighten the mood…” he smirked while collecting the pajamas and towel from the ground before throwing Draco’s arm over his shoulders and began slowly walking him back to their campsite.
All the while, Ginny had calmed Hermione enough to stop her gut-wrenching sobs and was finally able to distract her with the history book. It wasn’t an easy task as the wavy-haired witch seemed inconsolable at first, but after a few minutes of uncontrollable crying and cursing the blonde Slytherin’s name, Hermione was finally able to take a breath while Blaise spoke with Draco. Though now the brunettes’ focus was solely set on finding something specific in the tome.
“Hermione?” Ginny began, concerned, as she watched her friend rapidly flip through the pages.
“It’s not here…None of it’s here…” the Golden Girl muttered when she stopped flipping and stared down at the book on her lap.
“What’s not there?”
“Everything!” she claimed while raising her puffy red eyes. “Malfoy’s capture, the two men I killed, Joseph and Julia…it’s not here. It’s like none of it happened…”
“Well, Mione, we’re still in Salem…”
“So? If we altered things, then it should have automatically changed in history.”
“Maybe it just needs some time. History most likely hasn’t caught up yet in order to show the change, if any. We’re still here so maybe we just have to wait and check it again next era. Assuming the timeline will stay moving forward.”
“No, something’s wrong…” the brunette shook her head before flipping once more through the pages, but this time at a slower pace.
“It might not be” Ginny stated with worry embedding her tone while reaching out a hand to stop the Gryffindor Princess before she began to cry again. “Look, Mione, I know you wanna know this instant if we fucked things up, but I think we’re just going to have to wait until we aren’t in 1692 anymore. Once we get to the next place, we can take a look at the book again, alright? There’s no use stressing over it right now.”
Hermione sighed heavily before closing the tome and setting it next to her before rubbing her hands down her face in defeat. Ginny watched her friend as a single thought burned in her mind and decided to take the opportunity to finally ask the question she needed to know since they began healing the Malfoy heir as the bookworm was now in a calmer state.
“Mione…Mione, what happened to all your potions?”
“What?” the brunette witch inquired while snapping her eyes to the redhead. “What potions?”
“You know what ones I’m talking about. I know you had plenty before we left for the museum, but when we were healing Draco…” she paused as her best friends’ breath caught in her throat. “Hermione, what happened to all the Draughts? I won’t be mad just…just tell me what you did with them.”
The curly-haired witch gazed at Ginny while her breathing accelerated, and a single tear fell from her lashes. However, Blaise’s sudden appearance in the entryway of the tent, pulled the red-headed Gryffindor’s attention to him as Hermione stared unseeingly in front of her. The dark-haired wizard tilted his head in order to tell Ginny he needed to speak with her, before stepping back outside to wait. Ginny reluctantly stood up as she licked her lips before ambling out of the tent to see what the Italian needed.
“I don’t want to leave her alone for long. Wha-” she stopped when she saw Draco standing sorrowfully behind Blaise and narrowed her brows in annoyance at him. “You’re a right callous git, you know that?” she whispered while shaking her head in irritation. “Why would you say those things to her? Do you know what she’s going through right now? How could-”
“He knows, Red” Blaise cut in while crossing his arms as Draco lowered his head in shame. “He knows what he did was a dick move and he’s here to fix it.”
“Why should I let him anywhere near her after the things he said to her? He broke her heart!”
“He had his reasons…” He stepped forward to whisper in her ear. “I’ll tell you later, but you have to let him speak with her. Please, love…Let him do this…”
Ginny glared at the blonde, who looked utterly dejected, and softened her shoulders before walking up to him.
“I swear to Merlin, if you hurt her again then what those muggles did to you will be nothing compared to what I will do, do you understand me, Draco? We went through hell and back to save you…Don’t make me regret it.”
“I won’t hurt again…” the Slytherin Prince responded wistfully while her eyes darted back and forth; studying him to make sure he was sincere. “Please just let me talk to her.”
She looked to Blaise for a moment, who nodded his head, before looking back to Draco and sighing.
“You should know she’s been abusing potions since before we arrived here” she admitted while pressing her tongue against the inside of her cheek. “Pain Potions, Sleeping Draughts, Dreamless Draughts, Calming Draughts…That’s why we couldn’t give you any to help you. She used them all to combat her nightmares from the war…”
“Please tell me you’re lying…”
“I wish I was, Draco…But I will tell you what I told her before we found out you were taken. I’ve noticed that the closer she sleeps to you, the less nightmares she has. Which means she used all the Draughts back in China and in Knockturn Alley as those were the only two times, she wasn’t near you.”
“Or she was taking them regardless if she was next to me or not…”
“That’s what I’m afraid of…If she’s out of them and she’s addicted, her depression could be a side effect of withdraw. I tried asking her about it, but she won’t tell me. If you fix this with her…I need you to-”
“I’ll figure it out, Red…But I have to repair what I broke first.” Ginny nodded her head as she exhaled softly before transfiguring a stick on the ground into a cane to help Draco walk without assistance.
“I’m trusting you, Blondie…” she claimed before stepping out of the way to allow the Prince to enter the tent.
Releasing a deep breath, Draco walked into the tent as Ginny placed a silencing charm at the entrance to give the pair some privacy. She and Blaise headed back towards the fire to finish cooking breakfast while keeping watch as Hermione stopped pacing back and forth in the center of the shelter and glared at Draco angrily.
“Get away from me, Malfoy!” she demanded as her hair began to spark and her fists clenched at her sides.
“Hermione…”
“Oh, so it’s Hermione now?” she snapped cruelly. “Trying to soften me up before blowing up on me again? What more can you say, Malfoy, that you haven’t already said? Oh, wait, you haven’t called me a Mudblood yet so there’s that…! I get it! I fucked up and you want nothing to do with me! You don’t need to come in here just to rub it in my face that I’m not wanted!”
“But I do want you…” he stated gently as the witches’ chest rose and fell rapidly. “I’ve always wanted you, Hermione. Ever since first year, I’ve only ever wanted you...I just didn't know it at the time. I was wrong to say what I did. I was an absolute arse and you didn’t deserve it. And…I would never call you that name again, you know that. I was angry at myself for getting caught by muggles, of all people, and I was pissed that you saw that memory at the manor. You were never supposed to know that I helped you. And-and I took that frustration out on you, on Blaise…I’m-I’m sorry.”
“Fuck you!” she adamantly claimed with narrowed brows. “You think saying that now is going to fix anything? You think that your ‘apology’ is just supposed to make it all better? I just wanted to help you and you shoved it back in my face like it meant nothing! So, no! Fuck…you, Draco Malfoy! Fuck you!”
“I deserve that.”
“You’re damn right you deserve it! I did everything I could to try and get to you as soon as possible! I risked EVERYTHING for you and all I get in return is you shouting at me, purposely trying to hurt me! If you wanna be mad about what happened in the barn, then I don’t blame you! I was a right arse! But to think that I would ever abandon you…That hurts more than any insult or callous thing you could ever say to me…”
“I know I hurt you, love…A-and I’m not expecting you to forgive me again. I don’t deserve another chance with you, I know that, but I am so sorry for the things I said and for lashing out. I really am, but you have to understand what I went through…I don’t care about the beatings I took; I care about the fact that I honestly thought you had left me. Those men told me you left town and at first, I didn’t wanna believe it. But then morning came and…and I don’t know, I just…I gave up. I gave up hope. But it was wrong of me to assume you didn’t care, even if Blaise didn’t tell me what you had done for me in that alley.”
“You…you know what I did?” she inquired as fresh tears spilled down her cheeks.
“Yeah…yeah, I do.”
“You weren’t supposed to find out…”
“And you weren’t supposed to know I helped you that day in my family’s manor. I guess that makes us even.”
“We are so not even!”
“You’re right. What you did for me means so much more and I should be thanking you…not punishing you” he stated while taking a few awkward steps forward, closing the large gap between them. “I know the self-hate you’re feeling for taking a life and I know how that can haunt a person. But I’m willing to do whatever it takes to help you through it. And…I am sooo proud of you for standing up for what you believe in, and I am terribly sorry that it had to come down that.” He bit his lower lip while raising a hand to cup her cheek tenderly. “I didn’t mean what I said, Hermione, and I really don’t want you to plead with your God to take my pain from me. I never would have learned what it was like to be in your position if I didn’t go through all that. And I would never wish my pain upon you, please believe me when I say that. You are worth every breath I take. I’m sorry for not giving you enough time to figure out what you wanted, and I will apologize all the way into the afterlife to make it up to you.”
“I didn’t want to leave you there…” she wept as he rubbed his thumb across her freckled skin.
“I know, love. Blaise told me everything…But I-I have to ask…Did you recognize those men? Have they come up in your book at all? Before everything went down?”
“No…And now that you mention it, I never heard of Julia or Joseph Hamman either. My book mentioned almost everyone in this town…”
“Okay…I-I just wanted to make sure. It’s-it’s easier when you don’t know them. Also proves you didn’t kill someone important that possibly made a great change or something in history. Would suck a lot for muggles if they were the inventors of vehicles or grocer stores” he chuckled nervously.
“The first patented Motor Car was invented in 1886 by Karl Benz and the first self-service grocer store was a Piggly Wiggly in 1916” she corrected while looking down at the floor.
“Oh…” he sulked slightly, though never removed his hand from her cheek. “Hermione…can…can we start over? Be friends again? I don’t wanna lose you in my life. I wouldn’t make it very far without you.”
“Why, because I know muggle facts that you don’t?”
“No…Because I can’t breathe when I’m away from you.” Hermione raised her watery brown eyes to his as he gazed sincerely at her.
“I…I was confused for a long time, but…I’ve decided that I don’t want to be your friend anymore” she claimed, forcing his lips to fall to a frown.
“Oh…uh okay.” He lowered his hand and took a step back. “I-I understand…I just wanted to let you know how sorry I was. I’ll leave you alone then…” He turned to hobble out of the tent when he felt a hand grab his bicep.
“No, Draco…” the brunette began as she rotated him back to face her. “I…I don’t want to be your friend, I-”
“I got it, Hermione” he declared with a sullen expression. “I messed everything up…again.”
“Will you let me finish?” she insisted as she gazed deeply into his soft grey irises. “I don’t want to be your friend.”
“I really don’t understand what-”
“You’re insufferable!” she groaned in aggravation. “You’re supposed to be smart!”
“Are you insulting my intelligence?” he questioned in offense as Hermione chuckled slightly before relaxing her shoulders.
“I’m questioning your intelligence right now, yes” she smiled while tugging his arm, bringing him closer to her, before reaching up as she stood on her tip toes, and connected her lips to his; shocking him in one swift motion.
Suddenly realizing what the Gryffindor Princess was trying to say, Draco closed his widened eyes and pressed his lips harder against Hermione’s as she brought her other hand up and cupped both sides of his face. If his heart beat any faster within his chest, he was sure it would burst from his skin. He never thought he would ever get this moment, especially after hurting her so badly, but he reveled in the tender kiss until all thoughts of the outside world disappeared. However, one thought did push through before he gently broke the blissful interaction and stared down at his smiling witch.
“What’s wrong?” she frowned when she thought he had changed his mind about being with her. “You only wanna be friends, don’t you?”
“Are you kidding me?” he claimed quickly before her logic ran wild. “Hermione, I’ve been dreaming of this day for a very long time. I never want to be just friends with you again.”
“Then what is it?”
“I-I know this is horrible timing, Princess, but…Red will have my dick cut off if I don’t come back to her with some sort of information.”
“Information? I-I don’t understand?”
Draco sighed as he ran his fingers through his hair and pinched his lips together as he thought about how he was going to go about his question without angering the Gryffindor.
“Hermione, love-”
“This is about the potions, isn’t it? It’s none of her business!”
“Love…we’re all worried. Those Draughts are highly addictive.”
“I know that!” she yelled while turning away from him. “I…” she exhaled sharply before rotating back around and slumping to her cot with a huff. “I didn’t take them…” she admitted calmly. “I never even packed them.”
“What do you mean you didn’t pack them?”
“It’s been a year since the war, and I didn’t think I should use them anymore. And we were going to a museum, I didn’t think I would need sleeping aids on a day field trip. I only brought one bottle of Calming Draught, hoping I would never need it, but I ended up using it after we were chased by that T-Rex. I took the potions Ginny had packed out because I didn’t want to have access to them. She doesn’t know it, but I gave most of my potions to Madam Pomfrey weeks ago and planned to give her the rest after the field trip.”
“So…you’re not abusing them?”
“No” she stated while resting her elbows on her thighs. “I would never do that. I know the risks.”
Draco limped over to sit beside to her on the cot and began rubbing her back as she leaned over and rested her head on his still bare chest.
“Okay, so we tell her that then. There’s no use trying to hide it from her. We both know she’ll figure it out eventually. Yeah, she may be mad you didn’t say something earlier but you’re right, it’s not her business. It’s not mine either but…I’m glad you told me. And I’m glad we’re okay.” When she didn’t say anything as he held her close, he stopped rubbing her back and glanced down at her. “We are okay, right? You didn’t just kiss me for shits and giggles?”
Hermione chuckled while lifting her head and placed another supple kiss upon his lips. He inhaled deeply through his nose as he caressed her cheek before the kiss broke and they pressed their foreheads against each other.
“I’d say we’re better than okay” she smiled warmly before pressing into him once more.
“Wait…” he began while reluctantly pulling away and biting his lower lip to hold on to the taste of her. “Are you sure you want this? I-I-”
“Draco,” she pressed a finger against his lips to shush him while staring deep into his searching eyes, “I want this. I’m not running anymore and I’m not letting logic keep us apart any longer. I promise…I want this.”
“Sooooo, does that mean…I’m like…your boyfriend now?” he raised a brow as he tested the new title upon his lips and realized how much he liked it.
“If that’s what you wanna call it, sure” she smiled warmly before bringing him back into a heated kiss.
Before he knew it, he and Hermione’s kiss grew deeper as she moved to carefully straddle him, without causing injury to his sore body, and cupped both his cheeks in her hands as he wrapped his arms around her waist. The taste of her tongue gently caressing his as her fingers entangled themselves in his hair, was so intoxicating that it sent an exhilarating wave of emotions coursing through his blood.
Unfortunately, the moment was interrupted as Ginny and Blaise stepped into the tent, worried the pair were hexing one another as they couldn’t hear anything through the silencing spell. Their sudden appearance startled the couple so badly that Hermione fell backwards off the blondes’ lap and onto the floor with a laugh.
“Oh, fuck!” Blaise exclaimed with a wide smile plastered on his face as Draco reached down to help the brunette up. “Well they’re definitely not hexing each other!” he chuckled while elbowing Ginny gently.
“Yeah, I can see that, Blaise” she snapped as she smacked him in the arm and Hermione retook her seat next to the Slytherin Prince. “Thank Godric his underwear is still on at least. Merlin!”
Draco glanced down at his boxer shorts and quickly covered himself with his arms when he realized he was seconds away from flashing everyone in the tent. Ginny snickered with a shake of her head before throwing him his pajamas she had cleansed for him, at his face.
“Hold on…” Hermione spoke in confusion. “How were we supposed to hex each other when you both have our wands?”
“You both can do wandless magic well enough” Blaise answered with a shrug of his shoulders.
“That doesn’t have the same effect” both Draco and Hermione stated in unison before bursting into a fit of laughter, causing Ginny and Blaise to raise their brows at them.
“Yuuup, they are definitely meant to be together” the Italian wizard claimed with a grin as he crossed his arms.
“So, are we good? Can we all eat breakfast without arguing?”
“Yes, Gin” the brunette replied while standing up and walking over to her friend. “Can I talk to you for minute?”
“Of course, Mione” she smiled as the bookworm began walking out of the shelter. Ginny turned around and gave Draco a curious look, and when he nodded, confirming that he did indeed ask the Golden Girl about the potions, she looked to her boyfriend and kissed his cheek before exiting the tent.
“Sooooo?” Blaise began once the girls were out of sight. “Are we okay?”
“How could you even ask me that, mate? Of course, we’re alright. I-I’m sorry for shouting at you.”
“Wait” he chortled while uncrossing his arms and moved to sit on Ginny’s cot in front of the blonde. “Did I just hear you right? Draco Malfoy…is apologizing…to me?”
“Don’t let it go to your head, Blaise. I just happen to be on a roll with apologizing today and in a very good mood” he claimed while shaking his head and laying back.
But something hard pushed into his back, forcing a groan to escape his lips. Pulling out the history book from under him, he sat up right and gazed down at the large tome. He ran his hand over the front cover as the thought of opening it to see if his almost demise was in it, when Blaise cleared his throat, bringing his attention to him.
“You’re not in it…yet. Or possibly not ever. We’re still not sure.”
“Whadda mean?” Draco questioned with narrowed brows.
“Red told me that Hermione already searched through it and found nothing. Almost like none of it happened. Not even Joseph and Julia are mentioned.”
“Well it makes sense, I guess…” Blaise raised a brow in confusion. “I mean we’re still here. The book most likely won’t change until we leave.”
“Red said that too…”
“But it is curious. If it doesn’t change after everything, knowing how much we impacted this town…then I have to guess that Salem didn’t want anyone to know.”
“Mind explaining your theory a little further…”
“Think about it, Blaise” Draco began while setting the book to the side of him. “Salem is famous for its witch trials, right?”
“Yeah. Everyone including people in our world know about it.”
“Exactly. Everyone knows. Which means the town wouldn’t want it getting out that an actual wizard escaped being hanged and his ‘fiancée’ murdered two people in the process. Ann Putnam and her friends would be utterly terrified of witches after Hermione threatened her and would still accuse people. Possibly much worse than she would have if you guys hadn’t cornered them. As for Julia and Joseph…they helped us. And if my assumptions are correct, Hermione said they were planning on heading back to England-”
“You think they actually did, and the people of Salem pretended they never existed. It’s bold but…that does make the most sense. We’re going to have to wait until the next era to really find out though.”
“Blaise…” Draco continued as he glanced down at the tome while a thought formed in his mind. “I-I think what happened…was actually supposed to occur…”
“I’m not following…”
“If I wasn’t captured, Hermione never would have threatened Ann or killed those men-men who she claims were never mentioned in her book beforehand. And Ann, yeah, she was a prissy little twat, but…” he licked his lips while he leaned forward and rested his elbows on his thighs. “If she was as bad as history says she was, then she had to have turned evil after the alleyway. Otherwise, she would have accused Hermione well before she found me in the barn, instead of lying and telling me she only saw her and was going to tell. I think if we didn’t show up, history as we now know it, never would have happened.”
“That’s really out there, Draco.”
“I know it sounds mental, but you have to admit it makes sense.”
“Yeah but I mean…I don’t know mate, it’s a wild theory that’ll be hard to prove.”
“I know. It just got me thinking.”
“Hey guys…” Hermione interrupted as she poked her head through the flaps of the entryway. “Breakfast is ready when you are” she stated sweetly.
“We’ll be right out, Buttercup. Draco here needs to get dressed. I would very much like to hold my food down while we eat” he chortled before standing up and smacking the blonde with the back of his hand lightly. “We’ll talk later, alright?” He then exited the tent, leaving the Prince to awkwardly redress into his pajamas while thinking over the conversation he had just had with Blaise.
XX
After a full day of catching Draco up on what he had missed, where he proudly hugged Ginny for using the techniques he had taught her back in the Ice Age, and the Prince got the rest he needed, the group sat around the small fire Blaise had made late at night before heading off to bed. Ginny laid tucked between her wizards’ legs as Hermione made sure the blonde was comfortable leaning up against a tree before taking a seat next to him. He was slightly fearful of being out in the darkened woods again, but with his friends and his girlfriend keeping him company, the anxiety he felt dissipated just enough that he could enjoy spending time with the people he’d grown to care a lot about.
“So, Blondie” Ginny chirped as she fiddled with the bottom of her tank top, “when were you going to tell us you could produce a Corporal Patronus?”
All eyes turned to the Slytherin, who was caught off guard, as his gaze lingered back and forth between the three.
“H-How did you-”
“Mione checked your wand after Julia found it in the woods” the redhead answered before Draco had a chance to finish his question. “And then Julia told us she saw it was an Owl.”
“A Eurasian Eagle Owl actually…” he smiled proudly while lowering his gaze to his hands. “And it was the first one I ever created…I-I didn’t even think it was possible…”
“Well I’m positive we all would love to see it one day” Ginny smirked happily. “I’m sure it was beautiful.”
“It was…” he claimed softly before looking at Hermione, who appeared extremely proud of him. However, a rustling in the trees behind Ginny and Blaise, startled the Slytherin Prince so much he feared he was about to be captured again, and began to panic while trying to scramble away.
“Draco! Draco, it’s alright!” Hermione declared while trying to calm him as the pair across from him stood up in shock. “Draco, love, it’s alright. It’s just Julia…” she stated as tears began to fall from his lashes. She began brushing the water away with her thumbs as she cradled his face in her hands and his breathing started to slow. “You’re alright, you’re okay…We will never let anyone hurt you again, do you understand me? No one is going to hurt you.”
“Is-is Mr. Draco alright?” Julia inquired gently as she leaned to her right to get a better look at the scared blonde shielded by Hermione. “I-I did not mean to frighten him.”
“He’s okay, Julia” the brunette responded, all the while never removing her gaze from Draco’s. “You’re okay” she stated warmly.
“May-may I see him?” the young teen questioned nervously. After getting a hold of himself and reigning in his troubling thoughts, Draco nodded his head softly before the bookworm helped him to sit up. Though as soon as he was righted and Julia was able to fully see him, he found himself laying back on the ground once more, as a loud grunt escaped his lips, when the small brunette muggle raced towards him and tackled him with a hug. “O, Mr. Draco! I am truly sorry! Tis all thy fault! I am so happy you are alright! Praise thee good Lord for watchin over you!”
The Malfoy heir pushed himself upright while still tightly hugging the teen in his arms as he smiled joyfully at the welcome he was receiving. He was delighted to see Julia again, but when he heard a soft sob in his ear, he pulled her back slightly, and gazed at her sullen face.
“Oh, Julia, darlin…” he began while wiping away the tears staining her pale skin with his thumb as she sat on his lap dejectedly. “None of this was your fault and I don’t want you to blame yourself for what happened to me.”
“I-I prayed every night for thee to be better…I did not know Ann would tell…”
“Precisely, little one…You didn’t know. You can’t control everything; you want to, but you can’t. It’s not tolerable, it’s not adequate or valid, and mainly…it’s not fair, but that’s life, Julia. Don’t blame yourself for this. None of it was your fault and whatever you do, please don’t let this stop you from being curious. You’ll miss out on so many great things if you let this haunt you” he stated while brushing a strand of her brown hair out of her face. “Learn for your mistakes but never allow them to control you, okay?”
“Yes, Mr. Draco…”
“I’m so happy to see you” he beamed before bringing the girl into another hug. “I’ve missed you!”
“I have missed you as well” she claimed before pulling back and looking up at the three sets of eyes watching them. “But…thy father has sent thee here to tell you he has found a man willin to take us back to England. We leave just before sunrise so that no one shall see us. I have come to say farewell for thyself and thy father, who be preparing the horses.”
“That’s wonderful news…” Hermione declared delicately. “Be sure to tell him how grateful we are for him…and for you.”
Julia stood up and rushed over to the brunette witch, who didn’t hesitate to cradle her in her arms, before breaking away to say goodbye to Ginny and of course her favorite wizard, Blaise.
“You be good, you hear?” the dark-hair wizard stated with a grin as he crouched down to the teens level and rested his hands upon her shoulders. “Don’t go trying to make friends with people who aren’t worthy, alright? If they can’t see you for the remarkably brilliant person you are, then they don’t deserve to get to know you. You are an amazing girl, Julia…Don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise.”
“Alright…” she wistfully smiled.
“Promise?”
“I promise…”
“Good…Now let’s not keep your father waiting, alright? Stay safe, young lady” he winked, causing Julia to giggle before hugging him once more.
After saying goodbye to each one of them one last time, Julia sadly walked out of the woods, never to be seen again by the group sullenly watching her leave.
“If I don’t have a child just like her when I finally have kids, I’m going to cry myself to sleep every night until they leave me for Hogwarts…” Blaise claimed as a small tear trickled down his cheek. The first and only tear he had ever shed since he was a baby. Allowing his friends to know just how much he cared for the girl that had apparently left large footprints across his heart.
XX
The next day flew by relatively quickly as the group discussed the Malfoy’s heirs’ theory and the other eras they might encounter, while the sun was still high in the sky. It wasn’t until later that night they had decided, after Draco received plenty of rest and was healing rather well, that if they hadn’t received the next clue by the bewitching hour, they would move their camp further into the woods to put more distance between themselves and Salem.
Draco could now walk without assistance and the scars covering his back and arms were steadily disappearing, thanks to Blaise and his knowledge of new healing spells Hermione had never even thought of, but he was still sore in a few places. Though he was just thankful to be alive as the group began to pack up the tent since it was nearing midnight. Both he and Hermione had also finally received their wands back from Ginny, once she was certain they were mentally stable enough to wield them again.
Everything seemed to be going relatively well until Draco saw a faint glow emit from Hermione’s beaded bag resting on a tree stump and his heart stopped as he dropped the log in his hands. Rushing over to the bag, causing the rest of his group to stop what they were doing and race over as well, the blonde pulled out the amulet and lifted the parchment from under its open wings.
“What’s it say?” Blaise questioned with a slight impatient bounce in his step.
“Ooooh, fuck me!” Hermione proclaimed in annoyance; somehow deciphering the next era rather quickly while the rest of her friends eyed her in confusion.
“What’s the clue, guys?” Ginny requested while slumping her shoulders, causing Draco to look back down at the paper shaking within his fingers, and read the line aloud.
“A fourscore war…but a war nonetheless…which side will you choose…in the war of the oppressed?”
Shout out your guess in a review! I wanna see what you guys think the answer is! A specific answer will earn you a shout out in the next chapter :) XOXO
@saxman66- I hope you enjoyed this chapter and it answers some of the questions and worries in your last review :)
@1_luv215- You are too sweet! Thank you so much for your kind words and thank you for trying to help me get more views. I wouldn't say it's JK Rowling worthy but I appreciate your words all the same. In all honesty though, I am strongly thinking that after this story is complete, that I am going to only post on Fanfiction, AO3, and Wattpad as I have more than double the views and so many more reviews as well. I sort of feel this site is dying out with readers. I haven't decided yet though. But if I do stop writing on here, I still hope to see you on FF if you're willing to create an account. :)
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The Paths We Take