“Hermi-“

“No. Don’t. Don’t you dare try to comfort me, you hated him.” Hermione rips herself away from him and drops to the ground on the nearest wall. She could run, but she doesn’t. She knows there’s no where left to go. So she stays on the floor, holding her head.

“He was all I had left…” She said after a long moment.

“He was going to take you from me.” Draco said coldly. “I haven’t done what I did just to loose you to The Weasel.” Draco’s expression is cold and emotionless. He doesn’t move towards Hermione on the floor, but to the fire in the middle of the room. He stops in front of the fire, looking at the flames burning away the wood. Hermione looked up at him, still holding her head, and furrowed her brows in confusion.

“What do you mean—Draco—what did you do?” Hermione had a scared, wild expression. Draco sighs and continues to stare at the flickering flames, not wanting to see the pain he caused written all over her face.

He told her Ron Weasley was found dead this morning, but spared the details for her own sake. Draco was sure she didn’t want to hear how he found The Weasel and made him beg for forgiveness right before he disemboweled him. Quite the show, Draco thought. He didn’t even ask why Draco was there. Seems like word got around that Draco Malfoy was on the hunt for the remaining order members. Ronald Weasley was the last one left. Draco has completed his last mission.

“I’ve told you before Hermione, no one is going to live with the regret of leaving you behind.” Draco said coolly still looking at the fire. “If that means they don’t get to live at all, so be it.”

“So you kill them…? My friends…? Harry?” Hermione howled, tears falling more heavily now. “They didn’t want to leave me Draco, I was- I was-“

“You were starving to death in an enchanted trunk. If I hadn’t shown up you would have died.” He said, cutting her off. Draco was looking at her now with a possessively dark expression on his godlike face. The only emotion he had let her see since she got here. He could see the hurt and confusion in her eyes, but he didn’t look away this time.

“I saved you. You’re mine now.” He said fiercely, still staring into her beautiful brown eyes.

Hermione paled, but stayed silent. She realized what this meant and could feel her world falling down all around her. The only person keeping her safe and sane was the reason why she was so lonely and crazy in the first place. Oh what the oxymoron I am, thought Hermione, how could Draco be so kind to me, but so evil to everyone else. Draco watched as she realized what he did and listened—no matter how hard it was—as she cried for her friends.

Not knowing what to say, Draco finally looked away from Hermione and walked over to the window. They were in the library at Malfoy Manor. The only place left that Voldemort doesn’t have monitored. Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, Godric’s Hollow, and Hogwarts are all under Voldemorts control.

Hermione Granger, The Brightest Witch of her Age, is just a shell of the girl she once was. She refuses to use magic. Draco usually finds her curled up with Hogwarts: A History, not reading, but staring at the cover with a blank expression. He bought all her favorite books, remembering what she liked in school, that weren’t already in the massive Malfoy library. Even if she didn’t read. He was never mean to her and always treated her with gentle care. Never touched her when she didn’t want him too. Always made sure she had access to the kitchen and library. She was grateful, he could tell, but she wasn’t happy. He never saw her laugh and only saw her smile when she was dreaming—if she dreamt. Most nights were spent holding and rocking her back to sleep after a nightmare. Hermione Granger was broken.

Two years ago, Draco Malfoy found her on a raid in Godric’s Hollow right after Christmas, hiding in a enchanted trunk. Voldemort received information regarding Harry—he was last seen at the graveyard—in Godric’s Hollow. But when he looked down into that trunk, and Hermione looked up at him with scared eyes, he felt his heart crack for the first time in his life. He knew from that moment on he would never let another soul lay a hand on her beautiful brown skin. Draco picked her frail body up, and gently pushed back the chestnut curls falling in her face. She looked beautiful still, and he couldn’t understand how someone so beautiful and kind could be left there to die by the people who were supposed to love her the most. He Disillusioned her and brought her back to the manor. He didn’t know why, but if anything else happened to her, he would never recover.

Now Draco Malfoy is the highest ranking death eater in Voldemorts army and has killed many men, women and children. Hermione is his reason. After finding her and nursing her back to health, he went out to find the Order Members who left her there to die. Draco Malfoy is ruthless. Right before he kills them, he asks why they decided to leave such a talented witch to die.

Their answers are never good enough to keep them alive. Ron begged Draco to spare him and said Hermione would hate Draco for what he has done to her friends. Draco asked him why he left her there in that trunk. Ron said he didn’t leave her there, that he was looking for her. Draco killed him anyway.

Draco knows Hermione will never forgive him for killing her friends, but at least she’s safe. No one will ever touch his lioness again and he would do it all again if he had to.

But, he wishes things were different, that he didn’t find her almost dead. That they had met in another life where blood status and evil doesn’t exist. Where he could have told her how he felt the moment he saw her on that train. Somewhere safe.

That’s where she could learn to love him.

Prompt:

BURY A FRIEND :: THE FOUR HUSBANDS OF AURELIA LESTRANGE

“I’ve spent the last five years of my life a slave to the expectations that had been put on me since birth. Adrien, Serrano, Tom...I’ve been wife and lover to them all, and yet they’ve torn every piece of me apart. That small voice in my head always told me to run the moment they’d pulled out the ring. When did I stop listening to it?”

The Journals of Aurelia Lestrange, 1950

is it wrong i think ron is just as prejudiced as draco like just with different things… canonally he has degraded house elves & other magical creatures. he’s really mean to hermione in the beginning & not bc she’s a muggle born but bc she’s a “know it all” he just finds different ways to be prejudiced i think he was a lot of help and a good friend to harry but all his other interactions make me think he was just like draco but born from a family on the right side. ron also was very mean and rude to harry when he would offer the get stuff for him, i understand it was out of embarrassment but he’s your friend ron he seen a lot of embarrassing things from your family & he does not care. draco could have been given a redemption arc if ronald weasley can end up with hermione granger.

honestly don’t get me started on JKR writing of hermione, JKR is the type of girl to hate other girls i firmly believe this. she wrote hermione as a annoying know it all but also made her the reason harry knew anything??? she was literally just made for harry to know everything without being the smart one. i know we took the world she created and ran with it but god i started to love hermione in POA when she kept that secret from harry and ron all year basically. she knows she doesn’t need ron and harry she’s only around bc they treat her with more kindness than anyone else, also think the hat considered putting her in slytherin but her being muggle-born ruined that one so he considered ravenclaw bc she values knowledge and wisdom but her sheer loyalness and determination to fit in made the hat ultimately pick gryfindor which makes me think she was aware of the situation with harry & ron but not care enough she wanted friends & thought that’s how friends were. she loves ron and harry & i think ron realized he was in love with her bc he realized she wasn’t gonna be around forever unless he or harry married her. they need her they wouldn’t have passed a single class without her let alone save the wizarding world.

NOW for my draco input

first things first if you read the books with “harry potter is the ONLY pov we have” in mind, you can really see where he is very blinded by the glitz and glamor of the wizarding world & can’t see things that are quite literally right in front of him.

He hates draco bc he’s told he should hate draco bc of his family and harry’s family and ron’s family & just a bunch of stuff that an impressionable 11 would think makes him the enemy. even when he met draco in the robe fitting shop & he didn’t know who he was harry thought he was different but he didn’t hate him. he just thought oh wow this is what its like if you grow up in this world. he wasn’t until he met ron where he seen even in the wizarding world there were poor people & prejudiced. he felt bad for ron! harry wasn’t broke but he seen draco ragging on ron for being poor & he’s been the poor kid he knows how it is.

now with that in mind i reread all the books & redid my assessment on draco.

draco has been emotionally if not physically abused by his father his entire life. maybe not intentionally but lucious was a horrible man & he had no guts.

draco is a spoiled rich kid who got all the shit for following what he was taught from a very young age.

PS-POA

now the teasing and name calling and bulling he did, we know that the bully always has a bully themselves & we never see draco’s “bully” bc it’s his family structure. now you could call him weak bc sirius seen it and left his family BUT sirius was not an only child he left behind a family that he knew would continue if he left he wasn’t even the only BOY. the black name would live on. draco didn’t have any siblings he also didn’t know how he was living was abusive the friends he chose were family friends who have known him and his parents for a long time of course he wouldn’t see anything different in their homes than his so he wouldn’t think anything of it. so he’s mean & cruel bc it’s all he knows. also he’s a teenager they can be little shits sometimes.

GOF

he is starting to realize his family dynamic is not the only one to exist, he goes to the quidditch world cup the same boy we last saw in prisoner of azkaban but he leaves the confused boy we came to love. i like to believe before the attacks he was told to watch & learn & right after they start he sees the kids in the air and he looses it he runs off to the woods with the others but remember he’s a slytherin, he realizes he won’t ever be the one being put into the air like that when he realizes that he stops, leans against the tree, and watches as he slowly starts to question if he and his family are the bad guys. we start to see this internal battle when hermione exposes her harry and ron in the woods next to draco (using magic illegally might i add) & draco proceeds to belittle her but effectively telling them to get her out of there without calling her a slur. this is MONUMENTAL bc at this time harry and hermione are under the impression they were only attacking muggles. i believe ron knew who and what they were doing just didn’t want to “scare them”. draco knew harry and hermione wouldn’t know those people hate muggleborns too & in his own little way wanted to warm them. we also see this internal battle when he talks about going to drumstrang it sounds as though he is bragging but i think he’s really relieved he wasn’t sent so far away & surrounded by all that darkness. why would he need to brag to his friends when his friends know what the school is & was probably considered to go themselves…

OOTP-HBP

I firmly believe that this is where draco is going thru the biggest part of his internal battle. at the beginning of OOTP we see from harrys pov that dumbledore is straight up ignoring harry & that he is willing to lie (lie being a loose word bc it was the truth but mrs. figg did not witness it) to a court full of ministry workers for harry so he won’t be kicked out of school & so on. that establishes that harry’s POV is skewed towards the wizarding world bc he knows from her description of the dementors that she did not actually see one but he doesn’t question it. he is only focused on dumbledore ignoring him almost all book long that’s the main focus for the entire book. but we see in OOTP that draco is getting less expressive with his hatefulness but more vengeful of his peers he is coming to terms that life has changed & him and his family are a big part of what’s coming next. in HBP harry is way more aware of draco & most of this comes from hate for his father for essentially killing sirius (harry knows bellatrix did the killing but LUCIOUS was the leader & also the only one he knows knows) Harry starts to notice that draco isn’t just not being a bully anymore he’s downright different. Draco stops with the PETTY meanness and starts actually saying some crude things out of anger and resentment of his current situation i like to believe draco was given his task the moment after his dad came back from the DoM even before lucious being placed in azkaban. he was alone all summer long & as soon as he gets back to school all he can think about is having to kill his headmaster. in the bathroom scene where harry uses snapes spell he sees draco physically upset & obviously going thru something but bc it’s in harry POV we believe everything is how it actually happened. i think draco was just about to switch over to the good side until harry used that horrible spell on him. he still struggles internally after this but he learns to hide it a lot more due to the fight with harry. we see in the tower that he doesn’t WANT to kill dumbledore he just wants to save himself and his family from torture or death. draco begins to see the good and bad in EVERYONE.

DH

we don’t get to see much of draco in this one but when we do he is always on the edge of “who should i be helping right now” the manor with identifying harry, him not wanting to give up hermione or ron but knowing he can get away with not identifying harry if he identifies them he does what he has too. him LITERALLY THROWING HARRY HIS WAND. & we learn alot about draco’s mother in this book and HBP she is a FEARLESS women who defied  Voldemort multiple times! how tf could JKR give her a redemption & not her son?! draco only came to that side when his mother called for him not his father his mom. draco is the main character in my book he goes thru way more for the wizarding world than anyone else he has to relearn EVERYTHING he was taught & he does it all before voldemort dies.

BOOK COVERS :: KING & LIONHEART ↳ THE MARAUDERS

On the night of her eighteenth birthday, on December 31st, 1977, Ivy O'Connell almost died. Her dad had been drunk, again, and her siblings were nowhere to be seen, so Ivy had decided to treat herself to a nice drink in the pub around the corner, only to be almost run over by some crazy people riding a motorbike at speeds that shouldn't have been possible and nearly getting hit by a green light she'd never seen before.

Ivy is sure that if Remus Lupin hadn't have been there she would've been flattened against the pavement, her life ended before she could even drink legally.

But Ivy is nothing if not persistent, and she grows ever more curious about her rescuer, especially seeing as he seems to disappear into thin air. And of course once her friend Marina shows up spouting tales of a long haired boy in a leather jacket and riding a motorcycle, Ivy knows he has to be related to Remus. Together their search leads them to Scotland, and both girls are in for a rather rude awakening when they run into their mystery men entangled in what seems to be something far bigger than themselves.