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
- 5
- 6
- 7
Author's Note:
I'm so glad to be able to get out of bed and go back to my routine after getting sick for days. I still feel slightly groggy with all the medicines but i'm just glad that I make more sense now and I can make sense of my surroundings better that i'm up on my feet to resume onto my work and all that.

Still stormy and rainy at my end of the world.
Here is a chapter and the weekend will be full of work so hopefully I am able to fill in my readers while I'm away for full work over the weekend.
I love your messages and thank you for all the kudos. I will try to answer everyone.

Lots of love
xx

IV

“I can’t stay long.” she whispered as she sat at the corner of the café at the end of Diagon Alley where it led and met with the next streets.
“I know.” Draco answered as he moved the chair and made sure that neither of them were easily visible to the other customers. “I took the liberty of getting one for you.”
He pointed over two cups of coffee and a small platter of sandwich for her.
This would be a very quick meeting and one both of them knew would be short.
The new term was about to begin and he wanted to see her because this was going to be difficult once school resumes.
“I thought I’d see you at term already?” Hermione asked him remembering Draco’s words a few weeks ago.
“There are changes.” Draco said in a hushed whisper as if afraid that someone would hear him or rather someone was following him.
Hermione noticed how his eyes kept darting around them.
“Draco? Is everything-“
“My father’s in Azkaban.” Draco simply told her. “I’m sure you’ve heard and read after the whole Ministry fiasco. Hermione, I need you to promise me you’ll stay close to Potter and the rest. Things out there are coming from extreme to worse. I can’t protect you. I need to focus on protecting my mother right now.”
Although that was evident for any child, there was something about the last that he said that made Hermione feel that something else had happened.
“Did something happen?” Hermione asked him and though she didn’t say anything, she noticed that he had unconsciously shifted his left arm and withdrew it from the table and closer to him as if to keep it secure.
Her eyes stayed there for a bit longer but she shook her head, trying to dislodge the thought from her mind.

“Draco?”
“The Dark – he advances and he will advance with new allies this year. I can’t focus on protecting you at school, you must do that yourself. I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to be sorry.” Hermione whispered and she reached out for his arms but he kept it hard and on place as if afraid she would touch him. “Draco, look at me.”
Hermione stayed staring at him, concerned at his thinning figure and pale face.
“Draco.” Hermione whispered again. “I’m here for you. You don’t need to worry. We’ve trained for what is to come.”
“And so have we.” Draco simply told her without meeting his eyes and with nothing but spite and regrets in his voice. “I can’t promise you the safety of your friends, I’m sorry.”
Hermione stared at him trying to read through him but for some reason, for the first time – he was barring her from his thoughts.
Or did she just think so?
She never intentionally wanted to read Draco but this time for some reason, she felt that she was barred from his thoughts either way and she didn’t want to give it a try.
She didn’t want him to think that she didn’t trust him.
“The government will fall soon.” Draco suddenly said as if he was desperate to share any possible information for her to begin with the rest of the Order. “They must prepare.”
“Yes, I know.” Hermione said. “Cornelius Fudge is to be removed-“
“No.” Draco said in a state of irritation as if she had a fault at not being informed well.
“What do you mean?”

“The new Minister of Magic they will reinstate will not last long.” Draco answered her and all the while she avoided looking her in the eyes as he continued. “Death Eaters are in the Ministry. They are everywhere, Hermione. Your friends there must be very careful. Be careful who you trust. Don’t just trust anyone.”

Although that was a very serious and obvious statement already, Hermione knew the weight of it as it came from Draco.
Both of them knew that it was the trust from where they began – or whatever this was – that was tying them together bringing in information to the other without having to go through the ordeal of telling anyone else where these information came from.

Well atleast, that was for Hermione’s case.
Hermione knew that Draco would never tell a soul of whatever she gave him, well not that he allowed her to give him anything.
He was always the first one to stop her from saying anything that he knew may possibly be useful to the Dark Lord and the Death Eaters.
She trust him completely and she knew that he did the same way that is why even as risky as it could be, he tried his best to give her something that was important and yet would not raise suspicious to where she got them.

“I don’t.” Hermione answered after a while and this time, she reached for his hand and Draco slowly opened his palm to hold hers.
They remained like this for a few seconds, Draco’s eyes outside the window view while Hermione’s focused on their table while both hands remained holding one another.
Even if neither said anything, they knew whatever ‘this was’ it wasn’t going to go anywhere until the war was over or atleast, until they survive it.
‘This’ was an unspoken word or feelings from them but they both knew that it existed somewhere and because of so many fears and possibilities, they both refused to say anything.
It was beautiful enough this way and neither wanted it to end for as long as it could exist.
They looked the other way, holding one another’s hands as if they were some doomed lovers or atleast, until the war was over and they both, survive it.
“But I trust you, Draco.” Hermione whispered only enough for Draco to hear her. “I need you to know that. I will trust you with my life.”
He didn’t say anything, he didn’t confirm that she felt that way towards her.
But Hermione felt, for the briefest moment, that his fingers pressed gently firmer after she said those words as if it was his way of confirming and giving her the same answer he couldn’t give her back.

“We need atleast one representative from his side before this commences and becomes official.” One of the wizard of the Wizengamot stated as he read through a long parchment.

It was Draco Malfoy’s order of release.

“This boy is close to what an orphan is already.” another wizard with a green scarf around his neck had stated. “What I’m interested to know is if he will still have access to all his family’s accounts? Wealth and all that? After all, he is an only heir.”

“He will have access, that is definite.” answered the eldest among the room in an authoritative voice. “But that will come in due time. It is his birthright and no law can possibly break that whether he is a convict or not.”

There was some silence around the room as each read several parchments, parts of files of the case for which Draco Malfoy was brought in to Azkaban and sentenced for, two decades ago.

“The boy is of age, he will indeed gain what is his. His part of the Black family wealth will take more time for him to gain access but that does not even matter. As in the Malfoy wealth alone which he can gain immediately by law, he can live with more than seven more lifetimes.”
“I don’t think the boy is considering which wealth to take hold first.” said the only witch in the room. “I think he is only and will only be interested that he is given his freedom.”

“He has been well-behaved in the time he served in Azkaban. Very unlike his – shall we call them friends and family? His father wasn’t as quiet nor as lenient as he was in the time he was in Azkaban.”
“I visited the boy twice.” the eldest said. “The first time was two weeks after he was brought in and though he was quiet, there was life in his eyes. The second time I visited him was when I brought news that Narcissa Black Malfoy, his beloved mother, passed away. The fire of life left his eyes. And the last I have heard, he was as quiet as the dead in his Azkaban cell.”
“Anyone convicted for murder with no trial will feel the same way. We must admit that we threw the boy in Azkaban without proper trial.”
“He was found guilty!” said a younger wizard at the end of the room. “And it was Harry Potter’s fiancé whom he has murdered.”
“Old school grudges are not reliable and factual evidences to rob a boy of his life.” the eldest wizard said. “Have I been head at the time of this council, this would have been given a proper and closer inspection. But there is no point dwelling on spilled milk. The boy has been convicted and sentenced and now, we focus upon his release.”

There was a long silence in the room at the moment as things were considered and read through.

The law passed was that anyone who had showed good behavior and progress of morals inside Azkaban was to be released as long as they have served more than ten years of the time parted to them.

Draco Malfoy had served two decades of the seven lifetimes sentenced of him with no record of misconduct inside the prison.
For someone convicted of murder, he was indeed unusually quiet and docile.
Did he regret so deeply what crime he had done?

“Twenty years and absolute no misconduct?” asked the other elder wizard. “Is this the behavior of a guilty man? Are we sure we convicted the right person?”

“When I first visited him,” said the head of the Wizengamot. “He asked me only one thing and the only thing he has ever asked me – if we have news of Miss Hermione Granger. I told him none and that she is of no concern of his any longer. I never heard anything from him again. At the time, I thought that his first stay in Azkaban was too much for someone as young as he is – to have a good life and then be exposed to such darkness. I brushed it away – perhaps out of haste and out of the idea that we were convicting Death Eaters after another every week at the time – we were victorious at the Ministry. But now as I look back…. Maybe I should have contemplated more from his question.”

Another long silence as their unwarranted and unspoken thought reflected and echoed upon one another’s eyes.

“When will he be released?” asked the witch from the table.

“Possibly in two weeks’ time to a month. We are only waiting for several documents but today, we all sign this right here to state that we are all allowing the release of Draco Malfoy.”

“I think two decades is more than enough to serve such crime.” a wizard had spoken as he reached over for quills around the table. “It is a unanimous agreement then in this room that we allow this new law to take effect for this boy’s case and allow him to be released?”

There were murmurs of agreement.

“I think we had made enough unwarranted decisions. We have thrown him in there without proper procedure and we must admit it is not just for the crime he had committed but because he was the son of a Death Eater.. “
The witch made nodded in deep agreement as if she had been harboring this fact for the longest time.
“We made the boy pay for more than the crime he had been convicted for.” she had echoed what each of them were thinking at the moment.
Each wore a guilty face but nobody spoke a word of disagreement.
The head of the table looked around him and reached over for a parchment and asked to be handed the official document.
“Then let’s begin.” he had said as the parchment was given to him, looking over to where he was supposed to sign – one out of twelve signatures. “And each of us too, will someday pay...for there is no crime ever left unpunished.”

An element of varied colour ignited at each of the special quill that each member held as they carefully signed their names at the end of each parchment.

“What the hell was that?” Draco asked her as he let her pull her into an empty classroom. “Granger you know you can’t just-“
It was almost midnight and they had arrived back at Hogwarts several hours ago.
And right after the dinner feast, Hermione had sent him her Patronus to tell him to meet him by the staircase at the seventh floor.
“You attacked Harry!” Hermione angrily told him locking the door behind her and pulling her wand out to his throat. “Why?”

Draco stared at her.

It wasn’t his plan to attack Harry.
What happened in the train, well just happened.
Out of anger and spite perhaps?
But it wasn’t his intention but he had the chance and he took it.
He looked back at Hermione and she was fuming in anger.

“’Mione..” he tried to reason with a gentler voice trying to reach for her but she quickly moved away and swayed his hand away from her. “Listen, I bet he didn’t tell you the whole story-“
“What?” Hermione whispered back at him as he raised both hands to show her surrender. “I can’t believe you did that. Draco, he’s my bestfriend-“
“And he was getting in my way!” Draco reasoned to her his face turning red in apprehension. “He was spying on me in that compartment!”

“He was- what? What do you mean he was spying on you?“

“Did he leave that part from his side of the story?” Draco mocked her and Hermione suddenly realized that Draco had a point. “Did he tell you why he was left behind in that train when you were always together all these years getting on and off it?”
Hermione gritted her teeth as the thought made more sense the more she dwelled on it.

She breathed heavily and lowered her wand from Draco’s throat.
Draco could see her eyes move sideways, her brain now moving faster than her reflex and her emotions.
He could see her battle with her emotions that what he was saying made sense and that Harry was spying on him.

“We should go back to our dormitories, Hermione.” Draco offered her as he lowered his hands as well. “It’s our first day back tomorrow, we should all be well rested.”
He moved to her, gently reaching for her hand as she pocketed her wand back now.
She moved to him and looked up at his gentle eyes.
“You will always tell me the truth, right?” Hermione whispered as he placed his long arms around her. “You will never lie to me?”

Draco looked at her and nodded.

He pulled her closer and kissed her forehead wanting nothing but to keep her in his embrace for a long time.
Her scent, her touch gave him peace and comfort and he wished never to be parted from this feeling.
“I will never lie to you.” Draco told her. “I’ve never kept a secret from you and I never would. I’m a lot of things but I am not a liar.”

Hermione stared hard at him knowing he was telling the truth and that it was a promise she could hold onto especially in the dark days that was looming ahead of them.
- 5
- 6
- 7
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Memento