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Temptations	By : Nikkilicious Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Draco/Hermione Views: 16325 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 1-Fall
- 2-Gluttony
- 3-Sloth
- 4-Sloth Cont'd
- 5-Greed
- 6-Greed Cont'd
- 7-Envy
- 8-Envy Cont'd
- 9-Lust
- 10-Lust Cont'd
- 11-Pride
- 12-Pride Cont'd
- 13-Wrath
- 14-Home
- 15-Mystery
- 16-Attack
- 17-Rise
- 16
- 17
AN: Hi everyone. So, I�m sorry for the delay of this. For those of you who don�t know, I had a lot of trouble because someone stole this story and posted it on ff.net as their own. Totally plagiarized it. Now, the issue is resolved and everything is fine but the entire ordeal was very stressful and upsetting and it definitely put a damper on my inspiration and drive for this story. Buuuuut, here is the ending. :D
I want to thank you for those who supported me during all this trouble and those who helped clear things up. And a special thanks to the lovely person (I won�t say who) who actually informed me about the other story. I OWE YOU! <3
Now, I�m going to be keeping an eye out on this story and all my future ones and I, again, appreciate those of you who do also.
Enough of my rambling. On with the show.

PS: Plagiarizing is not nice! IT IS ILLEGAL! You wouldn�t read a book that you bought from your local bookstore and then type it up and re-publish it as your own, would you? No! This is the same thing. When you take a story that a fan puts on the internet, even if they aren�t making any money off it, that is still STEALING! Please do not do this. It is immature, rude, mean and just plain wrong. And you WILL get caught.
Thank you.

�Every end is a new beginning�

-- Proverbs

Hogwarts was louder than she remembered. Perhaps it was because she�d just been away so long. When someone stays in a place a long time, they tend to get used to the sounds. She wasn�t used to it anymore. The chattering coming from the Great Hall, the pounding of feet in the corridors. But she wasn�t complaining. No, on the contrary, she loved it. She missed it.
Hermione walked down the empty hallway, her feet dragging against the stone floor. There were no classes seeing as it was the weekend and everyone was milling about but she had found herself in probably the only deserted place in all the castle. Which was fine by her. She wanted to be alone.
Even though she was by herself, she could still hear the sounds. They wafted through the air and drifted to her ears. It was nice to know that all she had to do was turn the corner and she would be with people, a far cry from where she was only days ago.
Her solitary thoughts were soon interrupted. Someone approached her from behind and she didn�t need to turn around to know who it was.
�Figured you�d be in the library.� Hermione couldn�t help but laugh, memories of the burning libraries flooding into her mind.
�I was.� She turned then, a bright smile on her face. �Hard to read when you are being watched by dozens of eyes. You should know that, Harry.� It was his turn to laugh. He did know. Being a celebrity wasn�t all it was cracked up to be.
Neither said anything else for a moment. Harry shifted on his feet and Hermione stood still, folding her hands in front of her. It was great to be together again but that didn�t mean there wasn�t any awkwardness. Especially on Harry�s part. He hadn�t told her but after he and Ron had decided to finally let her go, they did just that. They�d let her fade into their memories and had started to move on. And then, suddenly, she was back. Back in their lives like she�d never left in the first place.
He felt guilty. He felt thrilled. Sad, angry, confused. He just felt all of it.
�I saw you in bed with Malfoy.�
Hermione was caught off guard by this and her eyes flickered with something briefly as she frowned. When she didn�t say anything, Harry went on.
�You know, Ron and Pansy are� they�re getting closer. I don�t know what it means but they are.� He visibly swallowed. �The world has turned upside down Hermione. We don�t know who is who anymore. Who is the enemy, who is a friend? Its just� scary.�
�War is supposed to be scary. I�d be worried about you if you weren�t frightened. But the fact that you are, that just means you�re human. You should be scared.�
He seemed to accept this because he sucked in his top lip and nodded.
�Hermione, what happened? With Malfoy, I mean. What happened between you?�
Hermione didn�t say anything for a long while, pondering over his question in her head. Truth was, she didn�t know what happened. Everything was all jumbled in her mind. She remembered all the different emotions she had felt for him over the past few weeks but she didn�t know when the transitions occurred. But the point was, there had been transitions. There was a change, somewhere along the way.
�I don�t know. But, what we experienced� when you go through something like that with someone, you can�t help but create a bond. Granted, a very messed up one.� She took a deep breath and met his eyes across from her. His face was expressionless and he stood perfectly still, listening to her every word. �People change, Harry. And I don�t mean just Malfoy.�
�How do you feel about him?� He asked. There was a pause, a beat, where the world seemed motionless. She didn�t breathe and neither did he. There was no thinking or feeling. Just stillness.
�I don�t hate him.�
It was simple but it was complicated. It was vague but it was perfectly clear. Hermione didn�t wait for a reaction before turning on her heel and walking away.

Draco leaned against the cold stone wall, his hands in deep in his pockets. To an onlooker he might seem catatonic, just standing there, staring out into space. But he was doing far more than that. He was thinking, his mind whirling around like a tornado on a rampage. So much new information had been brought to light. So many questions answered.
They�d been home for three days and in that time he�d felt a rollercoaster of emotions. Draco Malfoy was not used to feeling so much.
He liked it.
Amycus Carrow and Antonin Dolohov, the two Death Eaters who�d attacked them, had been given trials and were sentenced to life in Azkaban. Everyone had seen that coming but the trials did prove to be very informative anyway.
Apparently it had been the two of them all along. They�d been lurking around the castle for weeks, planning and plotting how to get in and accomplish their task. They�d gotten some hair, made some Polyjuice Potion, and Dolohov temporarily turned into McGonagall. It was planned to a T.
Then, in the forest, the red-eyed monster hadn�t been a monster at all. It was Carrow disguising himself. Just part of the strategy to heard them to the trap. The trap was quite another thing all together. Designed and made by Voldemort himself, it was the perfect torture device. Voldemort couldn�t get close to Hogwarts, only being able to enter certain parts of the forest. So that was where he set every thing up. And then he sent two of his loyal followers to do his dirty work and lead the intended to where he wanted them.
That brought Draco�s thoughts around to the most interesting part of all. The whole reason behind the entire ordeal. Voldemort had planned it. He had been after Hermione and himself. But why? Well, according to what they�d gotten from the Death Eaters and what they�d pieced together themselves, it was just a way to get rid of them. He couldn�t quite kill them straight out. For one, it would have been too risky, and for two, it would have been incredibly detrimental. Too much so. At first he didn�t quite understand it either but the more he thought about it, the more sense it made. Voldemort�s whole plan was to weaken Harry Potter and everyone else at Hogwarts. To distract them, and worry them. If he�d killed Hermione and Draco and left their bodies for everyone to find, that would have started the war. He would have had Aurors hunting him in a second. But if he just� made them disappear for a while� well, then no one could really blame him, could they? Not really anyway, because there was no proof. And with two of the more prominent students missing, it would (and did) cause an uproar in the school. It was just what he wanted. A sufficient distraction so that he could accomplish whatever it was he hoped to accomplish. And if Hermione and Draco happened to kill each other along the way� well, then that was just fine by him. Killing two birds with one stone, so to speak.
Draco felt a sharp pang in his gut at the thought. It wasn�t that he didn�t expect that sort of careless betrayal. He did. But to truly realize that, after all he did and tried to do, Voldemort didn�t give a flying fuck if he lived or died� that struck him. It made him realize just who it was his father had devoted himself to. And it made Draco think about a lot of other things too. Like� sides. Of the war. And which one he should be on.
Shaking his head slightly, Draco pulled himself from those questions. He�d been dwelling on it for days and he�d just had about enough. Sighing, he tried to remember everything else that had been revealed in the trials.
They�d found more out about getting out of the trap too. He remembered when he and Hermione had been in the fake Ministry of Magic. They never could figure out how they actually escaped it. With all the other places, they�d simply beat out whatever particular emotion they�d been feeling. But according to the theory, if that was the way to defeat it, then they shouldn�t have gotten out of the Ministry at all. Turns out, the trap had a mind of its own, and a clever one of that. It was designed to torture and kill its occupants, however it could. When Hermione and Draco were in the Ministry, they were angry with each other and getting more so by the second. It somehow knew that. It also knew that the next place would only help to increase their anger. So it sort of� jumpstarted things and sent them on ahead to the lake. So they could get mad and kill each other.
If he wasn�t so fucking resentful he�d admit how truly impressive the thing was. Only a very cunning person could have done it. So purely Slytherin.
Draco scoffed.
Leaning his head back against the wall, his eyes roamed the stone ceiling. After the trials were over and everyone�s questions were answered, Hogwarts went on as usual. Classes resumed and the Aurors and Ministry Officials slowly started to filter out, though, not before casting even more protection wards on everything, including the forest.
Things had seemed to get back to normal.
Not.
Gryffindors and Slytherins. His friends and her friends. There were hardly any lines anymore and the ones that were left were almost impossible to see and thinning by the minute.
Draco couldn�t remember a time like it, not even when he was trapped with Granger for weeks on end. At least when they were away, they still fought. That was a welcomed normalcy. But now� well, he didn�t know what it was like now.
But the crumbling walls between houses wasn�t what had him the most confused. It was Granger who was on his mind most of the time.
He couldn�t stay away from her. And she didn�t seem to mind being around him. It wasn�t an obvious thing. They went to classes and meals and sat tables apart, never saying a word to each other. But late at night, when neither could sleep, they�d roam the castle and meet up. Was it intentional? He wasn�t sure. But they�d meet and ihey would walk around the halls or go to the Astronomy Tower. Quite stupid of them, he knew, but neither really had the energy to care.
And every night would end the same. They�d go to the Room of Requirement, lay on the bed that appeared, and go to sleep. It made him sick that he was so dependent on someone else, especially Hermione fucking Granger, but he couldn�t sleep without her beside him. He had a feeling the professors knew. It was just too� easy. Filch never seemed the catch them and no one ever said anything about them being missing from their beds at night. They both knew they should have stayed put in their respective dormitories. After disappearing for weeks, he was sure every second either of them was out of sight, everyone immediately thought the worst. But, even if they all felt that way, they kept quiet. And that was fine with Draco because, in all honesty, it wouldn�t have stopped him if they did say something about it. He didn�t know how it happened or why but he was attached to her. And fuck him if he didn�t hate it.
Besides, he had a feeling that, for now at least, everything was going to be okay.
He couldn�t say the same about the future.
The war was fast approaching. The threat loomed nearer everyday. It was that realization that had led Draco right to where he was at the moment. That and something els, something that she�d said. You could have been a good person.

At the time, she�d meant that he could have been but now it was too late. Yet, the more he thought about it, the more he realized that it didn�t matter if she thought it was too late or not. At one point in time, she looked at him and saw the potential for a decent human being. He could be good. Better.
Smirking that famous Malfoy smirk, Draco pushed himself off the wall and took the two short steps to his left to the entrance of the Headmistress�s Office.
�Peppermint Poppers.�
He went in. He would prove himself.

AN: And that is the ending m�dears! I hope you enjoyed the journey and I hope, even more, that you were satisfied with the ending. I know it isn�t what you expected but I�ve had this ending planned from the VERY beginning. It just gave me chills imagining Draco being outside of the headmaster�s office, thinking, and then he reaches a realization and goes it. Very ambiguous but at the same time, we know what he was going to do. :D
I think I got every unanswered question answered. If I didn�t, feel free to put it in a review and I will answer it as soon as I can. I tried not to leave anything out.
THERE WILL BE A SEQUEL! :D I can't say when or how soon but there will be one.
Thanks so much for sticking with me guys. You all rock.
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Temptations