Lunar Cost - Dramione

(•_•)...22...(•_•)

Draco found himself walking through his home, Malfoy Manor, only he didn't know how he had gotten there, and was confused because blinding white replaced the usual grim black and dark green.

"Hello? Mum?" Draco began to panic. What had happened here? What was going on? Then his filled with worry and dread, fear. "Hermione? Hermione, are you here?'

He ran. He ran through the house; the house he shared with with Hermione for so long. The kitchen that he made her waffles in. The hallway his old room was where he had nursed her back to health—where Tami Lynn had discovered Draco Malfoy. He checked Bootsy's cave where he had held her when her nights were long and horrid. Near the gate where the gnomes would attempt to gnaw at his shoes. He searched, frantic, not understanding where he was or why he was there, only that there was no escape and he couldn't find anyone.

"WHAT IS THIS HELL?" he screamed to the high ceilings, hearing it echo through the abandoned hallways and rooms.

"Not hell, son. Death."

Draco spun around at the voice of a man that he was so familiar with but so disgusted to be seeing. The was a second of pure loathing as Draco's eyes met his father's before he simply turned around and walked back down the hallway.

"Don't you want to know why you're here, son?"

"Don't call me that."

He kept walking, now without any purpose but to get further away from Lucius. Lucius followed, Draco increased his pace, Lucius did the same, until the two were almost in a sprint. Draco yelled at his to "get away" but he wouldn't listen. He didn't ever listen to me Draco thought.

Draco had almost made it outside to Bootsy's cave—where Lucius wouldn't be able to find him—when he spewed the awfully tempting words.

"Do you want to see her?" he said in a sing-song voice. Draco turned around slowly, his jaw clenched and his eyebrows furrowed, nostrils flared as he huffed great breaths through his nose. "I can take you to her."

"You aren't worth shit," Draco started, frustrated at his father's using of Hermione against him, "but I need to see her. Take me to her."

Any whisper of loving emotion was void in his voice, as could be expected when Lucius was involved.

"You always were ungrateful. Don't you understand, son? It's not that simple. You're dead, Draco."

"What the hell do you mean? I'm talking to you, aren't I? And you aren't d..." Draco's voice faltered as a lump of emotion grew in the back of his throat. "Are you dead?"

"I am! Thank you for noticing!" Lucius looked down on his "ungrateful" son. "And another thing—"

"Cut the shit, Lucius, just tell me if I can get out of here so I can see her." Lucius gave him a look of disapproval at being cut off, unsure if he should actual divulge this information, or to keep his son here with him until he eventually left on his own terms. He would give Draco what he wanted. For once, he wanted his son to have at least one good thought when remembering his father.

"That part is up to you, son."

Lucius blew away in a cloud of slow-moving black smoke until the smoke itself dissolved into the air, still clear and bright as the rest of the house. Draco looked around, unsure of what had just happened. Why had Lucius left before he could ask questions? What did his words mean?

"What does that mean?" he shouted into the air around him, but there was no answer only an echo.

Come on, Draco, you can do this, just breathe, he thought. This is for her, it's always for her, breathe for her, Draco. BREATHE DRACO! FUCKING BREATHE ALREADY! YOU NEED TO SEE HER!

He fell to the floor, a sob escaped his lungs and tears pooled on the glassy, smooth white floor.

"I need to see her," he wept, barely a whisper, he begged. "I love you, Hermione."

***

Hermione knelt by the bed, rejecting the chair Healer Barnes had offered. She placed Draco's arm that had been hanging off the side of the bed next to him and was stroking it with her own hand; her head laid on the bed near his elbow where her face was turned to look in the direction of his, tears that seemed almost permanent floating in the corners of her eyes.

"Please wake up, Draco," she whispered at a volume in which she couldn't even hear herself. "Come back to me."

She began to close her eyes, they had been open so long, it was like she refused to even blink, afraid that he would make some voluntary movement to indicate he was still in there and that she would miss it. But still, her eyes closed with difficulty, they stung against her eyelids and the lids were pushed out and ran down her face and got stuck in her long eyelashes. Her breathing slowed and she knew she would fall asleep soon. She pulled up the chair Healer Barnes had offered and brought it as close to Draco as the legs would allow. As she went to sit down, Draco's hand shot out and grabbed the arm of the chair.

"Draco?" Hermione wasn't sure what was happening. She thought perhaps it was involuntary, maybe he was having a nightmare. "Draco, are you here?"

She edged closer to peer upon his face, to see any signs of his eyes opening, his lips pulling apart to speak to her and tell her "I'm here, Hermione. I'm here."

But there was nothing.

A wave of sadness washed over her. She had really thought he would wake up that time. Leaning over the bed, she brushed a silent kiss over his cold, sweaty forehead. Something grabbed hold of her neck and pulled her into Draco. She immediately fell into the embrace.

It was strong, loving. The two of them stayed that way for quite some time. She pushed her head into his shoulder. He held onto the back of her neck and her back with all of the strength his could muster, cold hands on her skins, but she didn't care. They pulled apart only enough to look each other in the eye. Emotion flew between them. Call it relief, call it euphoria, they knew what it was. The years spent hating each other were wasted time, a distraction for what could have been much earlier in their lives.

Despite those years, here they were, staring into the other's loving eyes, terrified to ever look away again. Happiness was overflowing in the scene that was unfolding, Hermione felt her heart would burst and the corners of her mouth would split with the smiling, she even wondered if her eyes would slip out under the stress they've been through. Draco felt everything she was feeling by a multiple of three.

His hands traveled to hold her face, close to his, their foreheads were pressed against each other and Hermione leaned in to lay her lips onto his. Nothing fast or lust-driven, but slow and sensual. She never wanted to pull away, she wanted to stay like this forever, but Draco pulled her face back; she looked confused.

"I love you, Hermione," his voice was scratchy, barely there, but he got the words out. Her smile returned to her face and she pressed her lips to his once more.

"I love you, Draco Malfoy."