You Change My Mind | By : AkashaTheKitty Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Draco/Hermione Views: 9501 -:- 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. |
Hermione was at
her wits’ end. She really was. She could see no way out and apparently Harry
could see no way in. She was afraid that, any day now, Voldemort
would remember her and decide she wasn’t worth keeping. She didn’t want to die.
In fact, she very much wanted to live. Her only way of survival would be to
somehow get Draco to help her, which, at this point, seemed highly unlikely.
If she couldn’t
use her body anymore and she couldn’t appeal to his conscience, then what was
there? Greed? He was rich, as far as she knew, so why
would he care for money? But then again, it always seemed like it was the ones
who had money who wanted more… The point was really moot. She hadn’t access to
the amount of galleons that a bribe would take. Power?
Yes, he seemed to be a true Malfoy in that respect. She very much suspected
that it was this need for power that had him doing his Lord’s bidding. Perhaps,
if she could convince him that the Order wasn’t doing as poorly as he seemed to
think… But how could she do that without betraying any secrets? And what would
then happen? He obviously wasn’t about to change his opinion about the one
matter that lay at the heart of it all – blood status.
It stung a bit.
Somewhere along the line his act had worked and she had come to believe that he
didn’t truly hate her. It was hard for her to understand how he could be so
passionate about sleeping with her without caring one whit if she lived or
died. She knew, of course, that sex was not love. She knew that sex was not even liking. It had just always been so… intense. So invigorating. Perhaps it was simply a matter of her
circumstances. Yet, he’d said he’d felt betrayed by her. If he didn’t feel
anything, then how could he feel betrayed?
She shook her
head and went to her bed. She felt so confused.
Before she could
lie down, the door swung open and Draco was striding in. This was odd; it could
barely have been more than a day. He looked thoroughly harassed.
“What now?” she
warily asked when he didn’t greet her but just began pacing.
“Things…” he
mumbled, shaking his head. “Things just got out of hand.”
“How? What do you mean?” she asked,
feeling alarmed and hopeful at the same time. Had they come for her?
He shot her a
glance. “He’s not coming,” he said as if guessing her thoughts. “None of them
are. They never intended to.”
Hermione was
taken aback by this. “You’re lying. Of course they intended to come for me.”
“That’s what we
thought. That either we could get him or we could turn you.
But since you don’t respond as favorably to kindness as I had thought, I now
have but a few options. The most obvious being to torture you
into a speedy submission, which is what he
wants.”
“I don’t believe
you,” she scoffed. “This is another one of your tricks. I’m not telling you
anything.”
He stopped to
stare at her. “Are you insane?” he asked. “You don’t believe that I would do
what I have to in order to save my own hide?”
“No, I believe
that,” she said. “And it is what you’ll have to do. What I don’t believe is
that nobody cares about me being here.”
He just kept
staring at her for a minute, and then he went back out the door mumbling at her
to stay put. Hermione blinked. That was different from what she’d expected and…
Where would she go? He was back shortly, carrying a stone basin that Hermione
instantly recognized for what it was: a Pensieve. She
warily edged away from him.
He glanced at
her and snorted. “Relax, Granger. I can’t take your memories like this.” He put
the basin down on her desk. “And you seem to have taken to Occlumency
well enough to resist the Dark Lord himself, so Legilimency
has been out of the question for a while.”
“Then what do
you need that for?” she asked.
He touched his
temple with his wand and pulled out a silver strand that he placed in the Pensieve. “I’m proving something. Look.”
She shot him a
guarded look. “It’s a trick.”
“No trick,” he
said, holding up his hands and going over to sit down in his armchair. “But do
hurry. I haven’t got all night.”
She slowly edged
towards the Pensieve, keeping an eye on him. He didn’t
move or speak, but merely watched her thoughtfully. Finally curiosity got the
better of her and she leaned down to enter the memory.
It was almost pitch dark.
Draco was standing alone in the shadows of the woods, his hood drawn to hide
his eerily pale hair and face. His eyes were intently focused on what was
happening in the clearing in front of him. Two males were talking, arguing
even. Hermione gasped as she recognized them. It was Harry and Ron and neither
of them were looking too happy. They were so consumed
with the argument that they hadn’t noticed the Death Eater listening in on
their conversation.
“We know she’s alive!” Ron was saying. “We know they
have her trapped at their headquarters. We even know roughly in what room! Why
can’t we go get her? It’s been weeks! We don’t know what they’ve been doing to
her, what kind of horrible—“
“It’s a trap, Ron!” Harry interjected. “You know I
love her as much as you do, but we can’t afford to play into their hands. Who
knows how many would be killed in the process?”
“So, that’s it, then? We just leave her there to DIE?”
“Hermione knew the risks. She ALWAYS knew the risks!
She wouldn’t want us to lose the war trying to save her.”
“You’ve changed, Harry. There was a time you would
have risked anything to save a friend.”
“I don’t have that luxury anymore, Ron! Half the Order
is dead and the other half is losing heart.”
“Yes, and I wonder why with such a brilliant and
devoted leader!” Ron spat before he stormed off.
Harry stood, for a while looking after his friend,
before he sat down on a stump, covering his face with his hands. “I’m so sorry,
Hermione,” he whispered, as his shoulders started shaking.
Hermione
stumbled back out of the memory, her vision blurry and her legs refusing to carry
her. Unwelcome arms caught her as she collapsed.
“I-it’s a
trick,” she whispered, shaking her head, knowing the truth.
“You know it
isn’t,” he said.
“How would you
know where they were? Why wouldn’t you kill them if you did?”
“It was recon.
It wasn’t my job to kill them, and I probably wouldn’t have survived if I had
tried.”
“Nobody’s
coming,” she mumbled to herself.
“Nobody’s
coming,” he agreed, helping her over to her bed.
“W-when you kill
me, is there any way you could let them know?” she
asked, the tears slowly sliding down her cheeks. “So they can stop worrying
about me.”
He whipped up
straight. “THAT is what you ask of
me? To reassure two gits that don’t even care enough
to come for you that you’ve found peace when you’re dead?”
She slowly
nodded. “They were right. I did know the risks. I chose to ignore them.”
“You don’t have
to die,” he hissed. “If you help us, he’ll let you live.”
She shook her
head. “I’m never betraying them,” she said, a kind of apathy
come over her.
“You ARE
insane!” he stated, his eyes growing wild.
She blithely
smiled through her tears. “I wouldn’t expect you to understand.”
“Hermione,” he
said, his eyes and voice betraying an increasing panic. “Don’t make me do
this!”
“I’m ready when
you are,” was all she said.
He slowly raised
his wand at her. She didn’t even flinch. For a long
moment they were just staring into each others’ eyes. He ran his free hand
through his hair, making him look disheveled for the first time she could
remember without there being sex involved.
“Please
reconsider,” he whispered.
She shook her
head and closed her eyes. For the longest time nothing happened and then she
heard the door slam.
**********
Next
chapter is the last… :-O
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