||Now It's Just Us||

Chapter 38

Draco was sat on the bed, with Hermione beside him. She was sleeping, they had spent nearly the entire night reading and thinking of ways to test their incantation. Her body was curled up into his left side, and he had an arm around her to keep her steady. 

For want of something to do, he summoned that day's Daily Prophet. It materialised in his hands, and he began single handedly shaking it open. 

He didn't know how it happened. In a split second, the paper was thrown across the room and set ablaze. Draco stood watching it, taking heaving breaths. 

"Wha-?" Hermione covered her mouth on spotting the flaming paper. 

"Draco!" 

He let out a guttural growl and threw his wand across the room. It hit the wall and clattered to the floor. 

This was never supposed to happen. 

"Draco, the room will catch fire!" Hermione shrieked, clearly angered. She stopped the fire and watched the paper crumble into ashes on the floor. Only half of it remained.

"This is all my fault," Draco growled, and noticed Hermione flinch at his tone. He didn't care at the moment, he really didn't. 

"What-? Draco, wait!" 

He didn't even let her finish before he reached for the door. He pushed roughly past her and was about to twist the doorknob, but she restrained him by using both her arms to hold him back.

"Draco, you haven't cast the spells yet," she had raised her voice in hopes of getting him to listen, "stop fighting me! You know you can't leave like this!"

"Let go, Hermione," he said, as calmly as he could muster, "let go, I don't want to hurt you."

"What makes you think I'll let you?" her voice was several octaves higher.

Draco realised his mistake.

He turned around in her hold and looked remorsefully at her, "I didn't mean it like that, I-"

"Stop it," she said, "I don't want an explanation. Tell me what's wrong, you're distressed."

He was very distressed, she got that part right. 

"I have to leave," he said irrelevantly, "I have to, or-"

"Draco, you aren't being rational-"

"How do you expect me to be rational?" he was yelling again, and wasn't ashamed, "She was my friend, she was like my sister! She's gone and it's my fault so stop asking me to be fucking rational about it!"

His chest heaved at the effort he had put into his words and he tried to leave again.

"No!" she raised her wand and pointed it at his chest, "Shut up, for once, and listen to me!"

He was shocked to see that her stance was very threatening. If it would have been under different cirmumstances, he would have been even more afraid of her than he was at the moment. 

"You're making me think you're Imperiused," she said accusingly, "and I will cast a full body bind on you if you don't tell me what happened."

He lost whatever composure he had left. 

"Pansy," he breathed out, his face crumpling, "because of me, Hermione! Because I did something I shouldn't have now she's gone!"

He roughly wiped away hot tears from his face, "I need to leave because the longer I stay here the more people get in danger because of me."

"Leaving will only make it worse," Hermione said, "what do you mean she's-?"

"She's dead!" he was yelling now, he couldn't help it. He ran his fingers through his hair and tugged at it. The pain distracted him for a few seconds.