"The sunrise illuminated her face and gave her a soft glow, making her seem like a perfect painting. Her smile shone brighter than the sun, and he wondered why he had never noticed it in the way he did now. In that moment, Draco felt a different rhy...
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"Leave." The word was so simple, yet she felt so terrible from it. She knew that it wasn't her place to be comforting him, but he has never acted so emotionally open in all her years of knowing him. Was it something I said? I hope not. Hermione tried to fit together what she might have done to leave him in such a state, but she concluded that it must've been what he read in the letter from his mum. She could only imagine the hell his family was going through. She didn't forget the torture she went through at their hands though. Her head was hurting terribly, so she took a shower and crawled into bed. She laid awake and eventually eased her mind and dozed off.
Hermione awoke from a nightmare with her heart in her chest. Her clock read 1:26 am. With a sigh, she got up to get a glass of water. She noticed the lights downstairs in the living room still on. Was Malfoy still up? "Good morning." Draco was indeed sitting in front of the dimly lit fireplace, his back to her. "Morning? It's barely past midnight!" Hermione rubbed her eyes and walked down next to him. He was in a jumper and sweatpants, despite the heat radiating from the fire. "May I ask what you're doing up at this hour? I thought you were asleep ages ago!" He still hadn't looked at her, though she was standing right next to him. She had nothing better to do so she plopped down next to him. Still no reaction. Hermione notices that his eyes were glazed over and not quite focused. "Malfoy? Can you hear me?" No reply. "Malfoy!" Hermione nudged him and he seemed to awaken from his daze. "Your scar." He said abruptly. "Pardon?" "Your arm. Let me see your arm." She knew exactly what he was talking about. The scar that was permanently in her life, reminding her of her blood status. She reached it towards him. He took hold of her arm gently but held it with a firm grip. "He did this. None of this would have happened if he wasn't so loyal to him. To Voldemort." "You're scaring me, Malfoy. What are you talking about?" Draco jumped to his feet, dragging Hermione with him. He tore his left sleeve up, revealing the Dark Mark etched on his skin. "He did this! My disgusting father did this! To the both of us!" He was in a trance almost, screaming nonsense. Hermione stared at their forearms, two reflections of the same image. The pain and suffering left in Voldemort's wake, the trail of blood that followed him. Draco was shaking, his face pale. "It's my fault you have to live with that the rest of your life. It's all my fault." Hermione grabbed him by the shoulders and stared him in the eyes. "Draco. None of this is of your doing. You were afraid, confused of this cruel world that was forced upon you. Don't you dare blame yourself for something you had no power to stop! Look at me, look! It's okay now, we're all ok. It's over, it's over." She was trying her hardest to bring him back from whatever thought he was reliving. She knew the nights when she was alone with nothing to comfort her but her own pain, when she wished for nothing more than someone to hold her and tell her she was safe. He had angry tears spilling down his face and he was leaning on her for support. Soon she found her hugging him, both of them in a heap on the floor, and that's the way they fell asleep. The painting of Merlin, the greatest wizard of all time, watched them from his two dimensional quarters. How young, he thought, to be the remainders of war. How tragic that they needed to grow old so fast.
