December 1998
Hermione was headed to the library to meet up with Draco and Blaise. They had two weeks left to finish their group transfiguration essay and Hermione had already done most of the writing. She was fully prepared to tell them off for not helping her more until she saw Blaise standing worriedly at the entrance to the library.
Draco Hermione thought.
"Have you seen him?" Blaise asked frantically. Hermione furrowed her eyebrows and shook her head. Blaise started pacing and Hermione became more worried.
"I tried to make him talk about it.. I tried to force him to tell me and .. " He continued to pace muttering to himself. Hermione grabbed Blaise by the shoulders, despite him being much taller and bigger than her he stopped moving immediately. She looked into his eyes.
"What happened?" Blaise bit his lip and shook his head. Hermione sighed, knowing they weren't in a place in their friendship to share secrets, nor could she boss him around like Ron or Harry. She dropped her hands, heaved a big sigh and turned around.
She thought back to the night she found him, alone and bleeding. He had hidden himself away so he could emote in private and she knew he'd be doing the same if something was upsetting him. She hoped it was nothing serious.
The first place, other than the dungeons, that she thought to go was the astronomy tower. That's often where she went to think but she quickly realized that would not be an ideal place for him to be alone with this feelings. Hoping he wasn't in the tower, fighting his own shadow, she headed for the lake.
It was dark, cold and very snowy. She was glad that her hat, gloves and scarf had been stuffed into her backpack by Ginny earlier in the day. Pulling them on she let herself out the front door, not pausing to think about any retribution for being out of the castle at this time in the evening. She knew she'd be returning well past curfew but also knew the headmistress would do little to punish her at this point. Choosing not to dwell on that favoritism she continued on until she saw a dark figure hunched in a clearing of the woods, not far from the lake. She knew it was him.
"Draco?" She spoke softly when she was close enough that he might hear her.
He let out a breath and she took a few steps closer. "Draco?" She asked, reaching her hand out to touch his shoulder. Before she could he let out a small noise and said.
"He's dead."
She pulled her hand back and gasped. "Who? Who, Draco?"
He let out another pained moan and said "Lucius" She felt a pain in her gut. Not for the man. No not for that monster who had caused her and her dearest friends such misery. Not for the man who wanted her and her kind gone, eradicated. Who had pledged himself and his family to a mad-man. No her pain was for the boy in front of her. She could feel the conflict radiating off of him. Not long after term had started Draco had denounced his father, announcing to her and the entire Great Hall that his father was worthless and he had earned his punishment, Telling Hermione privately that he believed he had earned his own just the same. She knew of his great guilt. Also of his sadness that his family had been torn apart in such a terrible way - his pain was the same yet so different than the rest of his peers. She knew that at that moment he had hated his father and everything he stood for.
But now? Perhaps she had wished Lucius dead she knew Draco never would have. He had idolized his father - as he should have. Without thinking she closed the distance between them and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. This must have broken his resolve because he fell to his knees, taking her with him, and sobbed.
