Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Memento	By : Marionne25 Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Draco/Hermione Views: 3621 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and am not making any money from this story.

Chapter List
- 4
- 5
- 6
Author's Notes:
I AM ALIVE.
I AM REPOSTING MY AUTHOR'S NOTE YESTERDAY WHEN I UPDATED 'BEYOND THE VEIL' ANOTHER DRAMIONE.
I AM TRYING TO UPDATE ALL MY WORKS THIS WEEK SO HERE WILL BE MY A/N FROM YESTERDAY BEARING THE REASON WHY I WAS ON HIATUS FOR A VERY LONG TIME.
i have not abandoned any works, life just keeps getting on the way.

this is also a short post but bear that is is quite meaningful and where the story is weaving through together.

I have so many excuses for missing out on all my stories for the past weeks, and months or so.

I have been flooded with work and with a lot of other 'does not make sense' kind of thing in my life right now.
But most importantly and very recently, my father (godfather actually) passed away last October 5, 2018.

He was supposed to turn 59 this November 1. He passed away due to some liver problem that was diagnosed of him two years ago. He was lucky to last for two more years after that diagnosis.
He is my godfather but he literally raised me up as the family lived under the same house. His wife is my aunt (mom's sister) and other than my grandma, i was closest to him.
He was an Impressionist Painter and he had a great impact and influence in my life. I always looked up to him and loved him dearly.
I was the last to see him in the hospital and after my visit ,he passed away the following morning.
They say he might have been waiting for my visit.
I couldn't visit him on the first days he was taken into the hospital because of my own health risk at the moment; but i fought my way into seeing him late Friday night.
It saddens me gravely and the past two weeks is a struggle that I thought i would never endure again from the passing of my grandma last 2012.
The pain of loss after death is the most inevitable and horrifying experience one will ever have.
His things are still all over our house, his studio still remained intact, untouched as he left everything.
And it makes me cry every now and then to realize that he wasn't coming home anymore from a late night with his friends, dinner and sketching with other artists and all that.
That he wasn't coming back home for me to find him in his studio painting at the ungodly hours because that's the way he is.
It makes me cry at the thought that i wasn't going to receive a morning message from him at my coffee mornings at my favourite cafes. That there will be no weekend visits at home from me where i'll spend it with him and mom and aunt for a brunch or so.
I will always miss him.
I'm sorry i had to burst that all our here cause it makes me feel extremely depress lately.
I had to miss so much into my writing and right now, my writing comforts me better than anything else in this world.

Lots of love.
let me know how all of you are ding

sending love and light

III

“Getting by.” he answered him gently as his eyes settled across the view before them and he took the bottle back into his lips. “I always get by.”

Lupin nodded quietly, eyes towards the son of his bestfriend he saw grow from a young lad and into the man that he was today.
Remus Lupin did all that he can to guide him into the life that he had been given by fate and although he tried his best to do whatever he can to help Harry overcome the trials of his life, he always felt that he could have done more for the boy.
He regretted that despite all his efforts, it will always never seem enough and Harry will never be truly happy after the war and what he had lost.

“I know it’s not exactly a walk in the park, Harry.” Lupin said as he stared next to him outside the house and by the starry night by the gardens. “But you’re doing alright and if there is anything you need, you know that the rest of us is just-“
“I know.” Harry cut him short taking his eyes from the sky and moving it back to him as he gently tossed the tip of his beer bottle to Lupin’s. “I know you and everyone else is just there for me.”
He gave his old professor a small smile and returned his gaze back across the sky.
Lupin nodded at him knowing it was the end of their conversation.

Harry had truly change through the years and if he had any emotions, he stopped showing it to any of them.
He had tried to be very strong for a very long time and because of it, he seemed to have forgotten that it was alright to feel from time to time – that it was alright to be hurt, to be angry, to let it all out.
But he had not shed a single tear since they lost Hermione Jean Granger twenty years ago.
Not a single tear had been shed from this boy’s eyes and Lupin knew that it was one sign that he was never right again and might never truly be.

“Did you accept the vacation leave I heard you were offered for later this year?” Lupin asked him knowing that Kingsley as the rest of the people who knew Harry, had been egging him to take a few weeks or months’ vacation.
He had never accepted any.
And Lupin already knew that this one vacation leave offer won’t be any different.
“I don’t need a vacation.” Harry dryly told him. “I have a lot of work to do and I want to finish them on time-“
“Harry, you’ve never had a vacation and I think it’s alright to-“
“There are cases that are not yet or never solved at the Ministry and some laws that needs tending to. Besides, I’m finalizing a few of the charities from Hermione’s old list before and they will all be given the rights to money they were deprived and a few retired people who would be receiving their war retirement awards and money. Like I said, there are things to be done and I can’t afford a vacation.”
Lupin opened his mouth to say something but Harry gave him a nod and gestured that he was going to go back inside the house where the rest were already clearing up the dinner party.
He nodded at him, silent with his thoughts and as he stared outside the house.
This was exactly where they had lost Hermione Granger years ago.
And he knew that Harry never wanted to leave the place because he was still hoping that one day, she would just show up and come back to him.
Twenty years had passed and not a shed of evidence of life was ever found of Hermione.
And the boy who made sure of that was going to be let out of Azkaban very soon for a pardon and parole that was granted to him by the government for which were now fair and just to all it governs.
Harry Potter would surely never truly recover now that was ruled out.
They didn’t speak of it but he was sure that it was in Harry’s mind – the news that Draco Malfoy was going to be released from Azkaban after serving twenty years in prison.
He was given a double seventy years sentence which was close to a lifetime sentence.
But his record inside Azkaban had been clean and he had been vouched for a parole for this record that he was able to produce through time.
Whether it was because he wanted to be released and given a pardon or it was because he simply gave up with life inside Azkaban they weren’t sure.
But it served him well and sooner than everyone would expect, he was going to be let out of the prison.

“Harry, I was thinking of going with you to the Ministry within the week.” Lupin said as they walked back to the house. “I would like to take a visit and maybe see a couple of people from years back?”
“Yeah, sure.” Harry said as they entered the house that was a little quiet now seeing the women were in the kitchens clearing things and the others were already possibly back up their rooms. “I usually leave by seven or eight in the morning but tomorrow I have somewhere to go. The day after I can bring you.”
“Yeah, that would be good.” Lupin said as Harry led him to the living room. “You won’t stay for the night?”
“No.” Harry said as his eyes roamed the room. “I don’t really sleep here.. “
His voice trailed off and Lupin knew that Harry, as much as possible, avoided staying in the place where Hermione had last been.
He had never healed through time.
“I come and go here but I don’t sleep here.” Harry said as he put down his empty beer bottle and moved towards the long couch where he had dropped his traveling cloak earlier on. “My house isn’t very far anyway.”
“Well, alright then. I’ll see you the day after tomorrow?” Lupin asked him seeing that Harry looked tired and might want some sleep already. “You won’t say goodnight to Molly?”
“She slept earlier on.” Harry commented with a smile as he wore his cloak over and patted Lupin over the shoulder. “I’ll see you, professor.”
“Harry-“ Lupin had stopped him from turning away and the boy looked back at him with an exhausted look in his face and weary green eyes. “You do need to get some rest and you need to take good care of yourself.”
“I appreciate your concern, professor-“ Harry replied nodding at him. “I really-“
“Hermione wouldn’t want you to live life this way.” Lupin had said and there was something in the way he had mentioned Hermione’s name that changed the way Harry had looked at him. “Hermione would surely not want you to-“
“We won’t know what Hermione would want or not want anymore, professor.” Harry said, his eyes had narrowed and a dark gleam appeared in his eyes before he shoved Lupin’s hand off from his shoulders and he moved away from him. “We both know that Malfoy made very sure of that. Did you forget?”

A look of alarm passed Lupin’s eyes upon seeing the cold feature that passed Harry’s face.
But it had vanished as it had come.
Lupin took a step back as Harry moved away from him, the dark look over his face slowly fading as if he had only been possessed very momentarily and he was back to his old self.

“I didn’t forget.” Lupin answered him with a curt not. “Nobody will ever forget what happened, Harry.”
“That’s right.” Harry said straightening up. “I will never forget and I hope none of you will ever as well. Goodnight, professor.”
And with that, he bid him goodnight and turned away from him, leaving Lupin alone, staring at the exit door of the house.

Lupin nodded at him and took the pillow by the couch that Molly left for him earlier for the room he usually used when he was in town with them.
Lupin’s eyes followed him out the front door where he had taken back his shoes and umbrella for the night started to be cold again as he left the house quietly, eyes sad and heart burdened.
And Lupin knew; he knew that his heart was still as heavy as the last time he had seen the boy as it hangs dead around his chest since Hermione’s disappearance two decades ago.

“Do you reckon things will change over the summer?” she asked him as they settled into an outdoor table by a lunch café across town.
“Maybe.” Draco said as he signaled for the waiter to their table. “Refreshments?”
“Anything that isn’t sweet.” Hermione answered him as she straightened out her summer dress for their little brunch together. “I’ve been meaning to tell you something.”
“Oh yeah? Hold that thought.” Draco said as the waiter neared them and he ordered two iced cold blue mint lemonade for them and then a few of the brunch specialties from the menu. “Sorry, what was that?”
Draco looked back at her and Hermione looked reluctant to talk now.
She was biting her lower lip which told Draco that she was afraid or nervous about something.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, worry in his face as he reached across the table for her. “Something happened?”
Hermione looked back up at him, eyes uncertain.
But she sighed heavily and moved across the table towards him so that they were facing one another very closely.

“I need to stay with them for the rest of the summer.” Hermione told him with a heavy sigh and fear in her eyes. “I won’t be seeing you until the term begins.”
Draco stared at her, contemplating what she had just told him.
It may have sounded like a simple plan but Draco knew what that meant.
The Order of the Phoenix as he had come to understand, was preparing for something now that the Dark Lord was out into the open.
If Hermione was going to stay with the rest of the Weasleys at their place, he knew that it was for her protection because the Dark Lord and his allies were indeed advancing.
Despite that Hermione never openly talked to him about what she knew and she accepted without question that he couldn’t divulge to her things that he also knew, they had a mutual understanding that things were happening behind them, behind closed doors and both ends would soon have to come into a decision for which side of the war they were going to stay and stand with.

“Draco?” Hermione’s small voice came back to interrupt his thoughts.
He blinked and looked back at her, she was still biting her lower lip.
“I’m fine.” Draco said. “Don’t worry about it. I guess you should just try as much to enjoy your stay there with them.”
He didn’t say it unkindly but the hint of jealousy in his voice was very evident that Hermione’s worry slightly increased.

No, they weren’t together as they have both ruled out within themselves.
But they both knew that they weren’t friends either.
They were something else, something else that neither would admit now in fear of being rejected or the realization that they might have been assuming something from one another.

Since the first time they started hanging out over the summer, they both knew that there was something between them that remained unspoken.
They never met at school, not really.
And although he no longer bullied her, he kept his distance so as to keep from suspicious eyes as to why the two of them would ever talk to one another publicly.
Hermione understood this arrangement without words.
Although it worried her to see him still bullying the rest of the people at school he wanted to tease or that he still did what he wanted to do with Harry at Quidditch, she had remained out of all it and only sent him a dark look from her eyes that meant that she disapproved of everything else he did.
He didn’t exactly say anything about any of it, but he retreated once Hermione was within the premises and she was likely to not want to see what he was doing.
They remained close for some sort of relationship over every summer and winter break.
He would cross towns and see Hermione in the Muggle town where she lived because it was the place where they weren’t known and there was absolutely no face to recognize who he was.
Asking her to be with him at Wizarding World London was as good as a risk for her life.
He liked the idea of it – that every summer and winter – they seemed to have a secret place, a secret world that only the two of them knew about.

They might not be friends, but they sure were something.

“It’s only about two weeks of summer-“
“Two and a half.” Draco corrected her giving her a look before withdrawing himself back from the table and settling back to his own seat. “I don’t think that makes any difference anyway. Just go with them and enjoy yourself.”
He looked away from her then, eyes settled over the bottle of sparkling water that was placed over their table for the two of them.
Hermione stared across him from her spot and knew that he wasn’t alright and wasn’t alright with what she had just told him.
But what was she going to do?
She knew that it was end of discussion and Draco would never raise anything against it.
It was an unspoken rule between them – they could go for opinions and suggestions but they would never stop one another from what the other wanted to do and she knew that Draco would not say anything about her decision.
After all, despite her reservations about the plan, she knew that she must follow in order to help protect Harry.

“We’re not exactly staying at the Burrow.” Hermione told him as she was told that a different location was going to be the summer place for them but neither of the three of them were told where exactly. “But I’m not sure where we’re going.”

Draco’s eyes lit up at the information she shared.
She opened her mouth to say something else but he shook his head.
“That’s enough information, Hermione.” he gently warned her. “It does not matter where you go as long as you’re protected with the rest.”
She nodded quietly, slightly ashamed of herself from almost saying something about the Order’s plan for them.
“Is that woman still teaching you how to read minds?” she asked out of curiosity.
Draco looked away from her again, eyes deep in thought.
“Draco-“
“Yes.” Draco answered her with what sounded like a snap at her. “Yes, aunt Bella is still teaching me. And I’m progressing quite fast. My godfather also thinks that I am coming close to an advance level to it.”
His voice had turned gentle again and the words made sense to Hermione without explanation.

The Dark Lord was preparing him for something and he was in no surprise, good at it.
It wasn’t a threat he was giving her.
It was a silent warning that whatever Harry was learning and doing, he should be doing it fast because if the Dark Lord uses him against the Potter boy, he was surely going to flat out defeat Harry down on his face.
“I see.” Hermione answered him looking away with a sad look over her eyes. “I should practice more with Harry.”
“Practice more with him or not, the idea is that your little bestfriend should be alert and on his feet every damn time. No matter how trained you are, what you must understand Hermione is that the war will come and take you – unless you’re prepared and alert. Nobody can train for it – you cannot train to evade death. But you can cheat it if you’re prepared.”
She was silent again and she knew that he was speaking the way he had been raised and taught but his Death Eater for a father and his friends.

Was her mother never concerned of him and the way he was being influenced at the manor?

He looked at her and suddenly, he was concerned with the worry that was growing in her face.
This wasn’t her problem nor her burden to take – it was his and his alone.

“Do you want me to teach you?” he offered out of the blue. “I can teach-“
“We don’t want them to see you teaching me anything or giving me anything, Draco.” Hermione said with a morose look over her face. “Don’t worry, I’ve been working on it on my own. Professor Lupin can help us out.”

Draco nodded coherently at her.
Although he looked like he wanted to say something else about it, he had changed his mind and had turned into another smile and changed their topic.

“Anyway, are we still going to do what you asked of me?” Draco slowly asked her and this time, Hermione’s expression changed again.
A momentary look of fear had changed into what looked like determination about something.
“Well, yes..” Hermione whispered back at him as if afraid someone else in the low-key café would hear them. “If you’re still up to it.”
“Ofcourse I am.” Draco said with a stark look and glint in his eyes and as he moved back closer to the table, he held her in a gaze and slowly asked her. “Are you still up for it?”
He asked the question back but Hermione felt that it was a dagger through her heart.
No, she wasn’t up for it.
But as in all wars, sacrifices were to be made without a choice, without reservations.
“We’ll do it on Friday.” Hermione simply told him withdrawing herself back from the table.
But Draco’s hands were fast and he managed to reached for her hands across the table.
She looked up at him, afraid f what he was going to say.
“I asked you if you’re up to it and not when we’re going to do it.” Draco told her with a serious look about his face. “So, are you sure you’re ready for it? Can you actually do it?”

No, she wasn’t sure she can do it.
That’s why she needed Draco with her so that she was going to be forced to do it.
After all, Draco Malfoy was good at making people do something that they don’t really like.

“I think I can-“ Hermione began. “I think that-“
“You can’t say you ‘think’ you can, Hermione.” Draco truthfully told her. “You have to say that you can and that you’re determined to do it. Because if not, then I suggest we don’t do it at all.”
“Draco, I’m just saying that-“
“Hermione, what we’re about to do could possibly – possibly, I tell you – be dangerous enough as it is irreversible. If we plan to do this – if you even plan to really do it – you have to make sure that you’re up for it. Either you’re up for it or we don’t’ do it at all. You can’t decide to do it now and then when we get there, you’re half-hearted and reluctant to do it. Remember what’s at stake.”

That was the phrase that stuck in her and she knew already that despite that she was determined to do it, she was afraid to do it.

“I’ll let you in on something.” Draco said as he smiled at her trying to assure her that he wasn’t going to judge her no matter what. “Snape gave me an advice before on something.”
“Go on.” Hermione said with a weak smile as she reached back to him over the table and they began to unconsciously hold hands again as they spoke to one another. “What did professor Snape tell you?”
He looked back at her, unsure how she would take the information or what effect it was going to do with her.

“Well, he told me simply that if you’re afraid to do something, then don’t do it at all.” Draco whispered to her and although he spoke to her and his eyes were on their hands around one another, he sounded like he was speaking more to himself. “But if you were going to do it, then no matter what, you must not be afraid.”

His eyes moved from their hands and back at her where she had been staring right at his eyes.
Hermione blushed and blinked away when their eyes met.
She carefully sighed and withdrew her hand from Draco’s gentle and warm grasp.

“I want to do it.” Hermione whispered at him. “I need to do it, Draco.”
“But you’re afraid t do it.” Draco whispered back at her looking her straight in the eye. “Remember that if you’re going to do it-“
“I must not be afraid.” Hermione nodded at him as her eyes met his. “But I am. I really am, Draco.”

He looked back at her, contemplating on what to tell her.
His heart seemed heavy with the situation she was presenting him but he also knew how burdened she was feeling at that very moment for having the need to decide something that she shouldn’t be bearing anyway.

“I’ll tell you what, if the time comes that you can’t do it, I’ll do it for you.” Draco offered her with a gleam in his eyes.
Hermione’s eyes widened, her facial expression struggle between delight and fear again.
“But Draco-“
“But in return, I will take something of the same favor from you.” Draco cut her short in a business like tone which was far different from the tone he had been carrying when he offered himself to do what she had to do.
“Take something?” Hermione asked him, slightly perplexed. “I’ll do something for you? What is it?”
“A favor I may someday need from you.” Draco said extending his hand to her in an agreement. “A favor that may come in handy should the time come that I need help from an inconvenience on my part.”

Hermione’s eyes narrowed at him.
Ofcourse Malfoy would need something in return – he was still a Malfoy and business was business.
“If it does not involve me or any of my friends dying, I’ll do it.” Hermione said taking his hand back but Draco withdraw it from her. “Draco-“
“Promise me you’ll do it, whatever it is.” Draco challenged her. “I promise that it won’t be related to having any of your little bestfriends harmed or whatever it is you fear. I promise that no harm will come to them. But I will want your word that should the time come that I need the same favor from you or something akin to it, you’ll do it.”

Hermione stared back at him and she couldn’t help but think that Draco was meaning to ask her of this from a long time now but didn’t have the opportunity to ask her.
“Are you in trouble??” her nosy self asked him. “Are you- “
“I’m the one offering help here.” Draco said with a smile at her. “Take it or leave it, Granger.”
And the glint in his eyes told Hermione that it was a risk he was willing to take for her – and he waited patiently if she was willing to do the same thing for him.

And miles away from them all, inside the cell of Azkaban, a boy who had grown twenty years older in life lay down in his own cell.

His eyes stared dead at the wall opposite his bed.
His thoughts consuming him and he had been up for days and weeks since the news broke out that the Ministry of Magic was granting parole to atleast three Azkaban prisoners.
His case was taken into consideration and he was approved to be paroled.
His Defense Council had visited him a few days ago to tell him that the paper works wasn’t going to take very long as the government worked better and faster since the regime of the new world had began.
He was going to be given the freedom that should have been his anyway.
He was going to be freed any day now and he was going to be given a chance to redeem his life.
His eyes had gone deep and weary and all the beautiful glow of its grayish blue colour had vanished into the years.
He had come to accept his fate but the parole that was given to him was enough to shed a little bit of life in his that had felt forsaken by the gods.
If there were any gods and he does get out of Azkaban, he swear that he was going to find justice.
Not for himself – that was something he felt he didn’t deserve.
But he was going to find justice for his beloved Hermione.
She had vanished without a trace and he had paid very dearly for it just because he was found at the scene of the crime.
He knew that he could possibly never find her; she was possibly dead a long time ago.
He heard the news and he read the scraps of papers – the Ministry had given up searching for her as she had vanished without a trace.
No one else knew what really happened that night.
He had passed out, he had been weak and the next time he had opened his eyes, he was down and was to be arrested for a crime he knew he didn’t commit.

He wished he defended himself better so he could have spent the better of his twenty years in search of her.
He was innocent, he remembers that at the least.
And just like Sirius Black, knowing he was innocent kept him sane within the walls of that dreadful place.
But he was also a Malfoy and at the time of his arrest, any threat do the peace of the world that the Chosen One had given them back was to be eliminated.
He wasn’t given a proper trial.
Not when he was a Malfoy and every evidences pointed towards him.
He was a Death Eater, a son of a Death Eater and came from a long blood line of Pureblood Slytherins and a family that openly supported the Dark Lord and hated anyone who wasn’t of the Pureblood line.
And he had a long history of vindictive relationship towards the vanished victim – nobody would ever question him for being the culprit for her disappearance.
His history with her was ticket enough to land him his own place at Azkaban.
He wished he remembered more of that night.
He knew something was amiss and something had gone wrong that night.

He knew he was innocent.

The truth that he knew that he would never hurt Hermione kept him sane all these years and the reality that something or rather someone had killed her or had abducted her from the world was enough to remind him every day of the love he lost just because what they shared had been forbidden by the world around them.
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Memento