R U N N I N G

P L A N N I N G T O R U N - Draco's POV

I was sitting on the grass outside when I heard light footsteps walking up behind me and turned towards the source.

I could see Hermione coming up to me with a smile on her face, "Hello love. How did it go with mother?" I asked her when she finally arrived.

She sat on the floor next to me, "It went really well Draco. She is the sweetest person I have ever met and I can tell she loves you much. You mean the world to your mother and she wants us to go as far away from London as possible. We need to get to planning quickly though. She really wants to make sure you'll be safe and kept far away from Lucius. I would like to finish planning before we leave for school again. She deserves to know what our plans are" she told me confidently.

I nodded and wrapped my arm around her to pull her closer to me, "We have to be careful about where in the house we talk about our plans. We should keep the conversations in either our room or mum's room. We don't want to accidentally have Lucius overhear everything we're talking about" I told her.

"Agreed. Now, let's go upstairs and find where we're going to live. Do you have any place, in particular, you'd like to go?" she asked curiously.

I thought about it for a moment while helping her stand, "I guess as long as it's not America, we can go whenever. Do you have any specific place you'd like to go to?" I asked her.

She stayed silent as we walked back to my room.

It wasn't until we were sitting in front of a computer, that she finally spoke, "How about Holyhead? It's far away enough from our families, but not so far away that Blaise and Ginny can't visit us. Plus, with Ginny playing on the rugby team at school, maybe she can go to the University there and join the Holyhead Harpies! They're her favorite team after all and how perfect would it be if she was on their team? What do you think?"

I nodded excitedly, "I think that's a great idea! It's honestly perfect, now we just need to find a place to live that's big enough for us to be comfortable and for our friends to visit us when they want to. We have to apply to the universities there and possibly look at jobs, although with both our trust funds and the secret money mum saved up, we'll have enough not to have to work until we both graduate medical school" I told her calmly.

We logged into the computer in my room and began our search. We looked at universities, houses, apartments, and potential jobs. By the time dinner time came around, we had a huge list of potential prospects. We decided to stop for the day and eat dinner with mother so we could keep her company.

*1 week later*

I sat with my mother in her room reading to her from her favorite book. I could tell she was growing weaker considering how much she napped.

She had always enjoyed napping but nowadays, it seemed like that's all she did. We could see her fighting to stay with us on the days we would look at our plans to run.

Hermione and I had contacted some of the universities in Holyhead and now it was only choosing the one we liked most and had the best medicine program.

The rest of the summer was spent searching for houses we both liked and showing mother. I knew she was enjoying the process, but she continued to grow weaker and weaker. As the days went on, she talked to us less and less.

Hermione had grown slightly distant as the summer wore on she would spend hours cooped up in our room with the lights off. If she wasn't sitting in the dark, she was scrubbing her skin raw in the shower. I didn't know what to make of it but hoped she'd open up to me sooner rather than later. I also hoped she hadn't magically stopped loving me over the summer.

Saying goodbye to mother before leaving for King's Cross wouldn't be easy. I knew in my heart, that this would probably be the last time I ever saw her alive and I felt hollow inside. Like a piece of me was already missing. Hermione's distance didn't help.

We entered the room together on the day we were set to leave. Mother struggled to sit up, "Draco... before you go... I just want you to know that I'm proud of you and the man you've become. I love you, sweetheart, please never forget that you'll always be my favorite boy. And you Hermione... please take care of my son. He's the best part of me. I love you both so much and I wish you a lifetime of happiness and peace" she wheezed out, finally laying back down to drift off to sleep.

I struggled to keep my tears at bay and felt Hermione hug me lightly around the waist. I hugged her back half-heartedly and let her steer me away from the room. We collected our things and waited for the driver to bring the car around.

I felt myself being dragged around and the next thing I knew, we were already on the train. I had Blaise, Hermione, and Ginny all staring at me with concern.

I finally let the tears, that had threatened me earlier, fall and let the emptiness consume me. I felt a crushing weight sit on my chest and struggled to breathe. I tried to scream, but it felt like my head was underwater and I was drowning. I felt myself hyperventilating and then everything went black.

*2 hours later*

I fluttered my eyelids and opened my eyes slowly. Waking up, it felt like a lead pipe had hit my head. I tried to sit up and saw huge coffee-colored eyes staring at me from above lined with concern.

"Dray... are you okay? You... really had me worried there..." the coffee-colored eyes told me.

I looked around and saw more eyes on me. Blaise's hazel, Ginny's green, and even Weasley's blue. Even a second set of blue I had never seen before, all just staring at me.

I finished sitting up fully and noticed we were still on the moving train, "How far away are we from school? What happened?" I asked cautiously, my head still heavy with pain.

The eyes moved away from me to give me space, "Mate we're only 10 minutes away from school. You've been out this entire time" I heard Blaise say.

Meanwhile, Hermione kept eyeing me with concern. A welcome feeling, considering how she'd been acting only a few days ago, "Baby you had a panic attack and passed out. You started crying and breathing really fast, and then you just... passed out in my arms" she told me gently.

"Yeah, you scared the poor girl half to death Malfoy... I thought Ginny was going to have to catch her if she passed out from the hysterics she had. Thanks for that" I heard Weasley say.

I heard a brief smack and turned towards the sound. There was a weird-looking blonde girl with ocean blue eyes just staring at me with a dreamy far off look on her face and a slight smile.

I turned back to my friends with a questioning look, "Yeah that's Luna Lovegood. Ron's girlfriend. She's a Ravenclaw" Hermione explained quickly.

I nodded silently and reached out for her hand, "I'm sorry I scared you, love. Are you okay?" I asked, wanting to make sure I hadn't hurt her when I had blacked out or anything.

She nodded silently and let me take her hand, "Okay! Let's leave them alone now. They still have to talk about what just happened to Draco and I'm sure he wants to keep that private. Out everyone. Let's find another cabin" Ginny almost yelled at everyone. I watched every file out quickly and slam the door shut.

Suddenly I was very aware of the awkward silence between Hermione and me, "Love... I really am sorry. I don't know what came over me but one minute I was saying goodbye to my mum and the next thing you, Blaise, and everyone else are staring at me. I'm sorry I scared you, baby. I promise it won't happen again" I tried to explain as quickly as possible.

She patted my back gingerly, "It's okay dear. I know you're upset about your mother" she told me softly.

I could feel her trying to let my hand go and obliged, not wanting her to feel even more awkward around me.

She gave me a small smile before turning to look out the window as we arrived at school. I vowed to myself to find out what was wrong with her before things got worse.
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Okayyyyyyyyyyy so I know I haven't put an author's note in a chapter in a while. BUT I just wanted to apologize in advance because... something wicked this way comes. Prepare for battle my lovelies! Bye for now 😘