Left Behind 3: Curses

Wanted

Another long one...Hope you guys are enjoying these extra long chapters.

-

Draco and Hermione both felt the pain from the Crutiatus curse in so many levels and in so many ways. Somewhere in the background the black leach that was sucking Draco's life away bit by bit made a sound like laughter.

Seconds felt like forever until they were wrenched out of the memory of that first night and slammed back in to the white room.

This time instead of landing on the gurney they crashed into a mass of the black web that coated the walls. It snapped and hissed like a wet log on a fire and Hermione let out a cry as the black veins burned her skin.

Draco grabbed hold of her firmly yanking her away from the webs and the pain. Staggering he went down to one knee a few feet away from her. Hermione looked at him as she clutched her burnt arm to her chest.

His body was thin and frail and his breathing ragged. 

He looked so much worse than only a few minutes before.

Are these dreams and the pain just visions of what the black is doing to him?  She wondered. Is everything bad that happens to him here just a reflection of the curse?

Unlike the last few times she had thought in full sentences Draco didn't seem to hear her ponderings. He looked like he was in his own world just trying to pull himself back together.

Right in front of her he blinked out like a hologram flickering in and out of existence.

"NO!" she yelled and lunged towards him throwing her arms around his shoulders. 

Hermione buried her face in the side of his neck feeling desperate.

"Don't go," she whispered against skin that barely existed beneath her fingers. Under her touch he slowly became substantial once more. She held him close to her chest willing him with everything in her to stay.

Just stay, please, she begged.

"I wish I could...I-I think I am going," he said and she heard just a slight waver to his voice.

You can't go, you can't leave me.

This time she could tell he heard her.

I don't want to leave you, he answered her mentally and his head turned towards her so that she could feel his cheek against hers. If they shifted just a little more their lips would meet.

She wanted to kiss him, but a kiss would feel like goodbye.

Hermione pulled back.

"Why is it that the voice inside my head feels more like you than the one that I hear when you open your mouth?" she asked, the sound of desperation was evident in her tone.

"Maybe because it's the real me, or at least the purest form of who I am," he snorted. "Though calling me pure in any capacity would be a mistake."

That's not true, she protested.

"We both know it is," said Draco and the world shifted again swirling and twisting violently.

Hermione heard the darkness growl and then they were back in the oasis again. 

Hermione blinked up at Draco...something was different...he looked different and she felt...she felt different. Draco was carrying her in his arms across the beach. Hermione looked up at him, and realized with a start that what had changed was the fact that instead of watching this memory take place, like a play, this time they were re-living it first person.