Lunar Cost - Dramione

(•_•)...18...(•_•)

Draco was the first to wake up. The sleep came easy, but it left too soon. He was glad Hermione was able to sleep longer. That day was the day to return to Hogwarts.

He was terrified.

Hermione started to shift under his arms. She looked up at him and smiled, overjoyed to still be looking at the face of Draco Malfoy and not Taviyis Renfro.

"Good morning, handsome," she yawned, barely keeping her eyes open.

"You see, I knew you fancied me," Draco teased with a smirk on his face. He smiled, caressing her cheek with his thumb, staring in awe of her beauty. She nudged him for joking around and slowly get off the bed to get ready to leave for the train.

Draco told her they could just take the floo, but she insisted they go to King's Cross Station and take the train.

She walked over to the dresser and grabbed some clothes to wear under her robes and met Draco downstairs in the kitchen. He was making waffles. He muttered something about how she came down too early and that it was supposed to be a surprise, but Hermione just laughed and kissed him on the cheek. The old Draco would never do that.

I suppose he never would've been allowed to she thought.

They ate in comfortable silence until they both finished, at the same time, and Hermione cleaned up the dishes, after a heated argument over the task. About the time she finished, it was time to leave.

Narcissa met them at the front door in their attempt to leave and handed them both small boxes. Christmas presents she called them, as tension in the house was much too thick on Christmas day. She revealed she had already given Tami Lynn hers on the day she left. Draco hugged his mother as he walked out the front door. Hermione's hug was longer, filled with the type of love a mother would give to her daughter. Hermione no longer had a mother. And Narcissa never had a daughter. This special love between them was something that could never be replicated; it was unique and stronger than anything.

A few tears were shed as Narcissa finally let Hermione catch up with Draco.

On the way to the front gate, Draco was silent. It wasn't the comfortable kind of silence like during breakfast. Hermione looked at him peculiarly. She reached for his hand but at the last moment he yanked it away and turned to face her, stopping the walk all together.

"Granger, you know I can't come back as myself, right?"

"What are you talking about? I thought we talked about this! You must!" Hermione couldn't believe he was going back on his word!

"I know. I know what we talked about. And I have every intention of revealing myself, but it can't be the first thing people see. I must come back as Taviyis and then reveal myself. Please understand this is what I have to do," he looked anywhere but into her eyes. She tried to force him to look at her, but when she did, she only saw pressure and pain in his eyes. She started to feel bad for her behavior. She was supposed to understand him, not guilt trip him. "It's just too much to handle at once. I will eventually. But I can't just yet."

They stood in silence for a second. It felt like hours. She wrapped her arms around his middle and he let go of the breath he was holding.

"I understand, Draco."

With that, her wand found its way onto his face. She dragged the disguise across his face for the first time in a long time. Lastly, the freckle on his nose. He missed that freckle. They apparated to King's Cross Station and got on the train.

***

They got to their compartment. Neither of them had said a word. Hermione was getting tired of the silence. When she turned to break the silence, she found that he had fallen asleep, his forehead against the cold, foggy window. All her frustrations left her as she saw how peaceful he looked asleep.

She decided to take a walk through the train corridor to get some air. Some people gave her some funny looks. The entire school knew that she had not gone to the Burrow this Christmas; it was everyone's personal mission to find out why. Hermione caught the eye of one them but kept walking, not looking where she was going.

Two bodies collided.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Hermione said, turning around to face whoever it was she had ran into.

To her surprise, she had bumped into Ginny! Hermione wore a smile on her face, happy to see her old friend. Ginny wore no such smile. She looked Hermione in the eye, looked away, and walked in the other direction.

"Gin? What's wrong?" Hermione spoke quietly and softly, reaching out, concerned.

"'WHAT'S WRONG?' WHERE SHOULD I START?" Ginny quickly spun around and yelled in Hermione's face. "You've known me for all your years in the wizarding world. You depended on me; I've depended on you. You don't just get to be a huge part of my life and then walk out before we even leave Hogwarts! It's not right and you know it."

Hermione stood in shock. She never thought Ginny would lash out like this. Ginny seemed to be even more irritated at her silence and started to turn away.

Don't let her walk away Hermione thought.

At the last moment, Hermione pulled Ginny into an empty compartment, locked the door and sat her down.

Ginny only looked up at her with tired, sad eyes. They were red with tears and frustration and it broke Hermione's heart. She didn't know what to say. She wasn't ready to tell her about being a werewolf. She wasn't ready to see the fear in her eyes. But she had to say something.

"I erased myself from my parents' minds." Hermione didn't make eye contact. She simply looked at the floor as she spoke.

Ginny did a double take. The anger and hurt in her eyes turned to sadness and empathy.

"You did what?" She stood up and wrapped her arms around Hermione. "Why would you do that?"

She explained to Ginny it was to protect them. She said this was why she's been distant and that she'd try to be more involved from that moment on.  Tears were shed, apologies were given and just like that, Ginny left the compartment and Hermione was left there, remembering that Draco had known all this time.

She raced down the corridor to their compartment; he was awake. Hermione opened the door and shut it quickly. He was about to crack a joke, something narcissistic or flirty but before he could, she spoke over him.

"How did you know? About my parents. How did you know, hm?" She spoke quickly but sternly, showing no emotion through her eyes.

"Granger, I told you already, I jus—"

"I don't want the games, Malfoy," she said curtly. He hadn't heard her call him "Malfoy" with vicious tones in a long time; it scared him. "Just telling me how you knew."

He exhaled a large breath and placed his hands on her shoulders.

"Okay. Let's sit down. No games, I promise," he paused for a moment, unsure how to word it. "I was ordered to kill them."