Damaged Goods by slytherin_after_dark

Chapter 49

- NOT MY STORY!! ALL CREDITS TO @slytherin_after_dark ON A03!!

For a moment, the world seemed to have stopped as Hermione stared at Draco's lifeless body, slumped against the wall.

She rushed to him, feeling for a pulse but there was none and his skin was cold.

"No," she said between sobs.

Her lungs seized and burned. Her vision was blurry. She had prepared for a panic attack. With shaking hands, she fished the calming draught out of her medical kit.

Breathe—she commanded herself but all it did was spark a memory of her having a panic attack in Italy and he had held her in his arms and told her: "Breathe, Granger. I've got you. You're safe."

But now—he wasn't holding her; wasn't able to tell her everything was going to be okay. And she hadn't been there for him when he was in the agonizing final steps of the dark magic poisoning his blood.

Gently, she moved his head to the floor so he was lying flat.

If only she could get his heart to start beating again. Who knew how long it had been?

She tried to not look at his face. Tried to pretend it was just another patient she was trying to save during the war and not Draco. Her Draco.

She grabbed her wand and used electric surge spells, charging them higher and higher. Each time his body lifted only to collapse lifelessly again.

"Come on, you can't leave me," she said and charged again.

Nothing. Her whole body trembled violently as she tried more obscure spells. Added adrenaline. Magical spike spells. But he remained lifeless.

If she was in a healing quadrant, she knew what would happen. Right now, another healer would be coming over to her, putting a hand on her shoulder and say what she could not: Time of death, 7:24.

That's when she collapsed on his chest and the silence against her ear where a heartbeat used to be was the loudest emptiness she'd ever heard.

"Please," she screamed in tears. "Don't leave me."

Even all the calming draught in the world couldn't take away the panic in her now. She clung to him in desperation.

"I found you again. I can't lose you."

She was crying violently, feeling the pain rip through her.

"I know how to help you now," she hugged his chest tighter. "I know how to save you. Please. Don't go where I can't follow."

Everything turned cold. The world seemed to have lost all its warmth at once. She felt herself drowning, sinking below a surface and she'd never be able to come up again.

She screamed his name, hoping if he could hear her on his way to the afterlife, he'd turn around.

"You promised...you promised you'd always come back to me."

She was gasping but no air came to her burning lungs.

"It wasn't your fault," she sobbed against his lifeless body. "I took a potion. You're not the reason I fell into a coma. Please, come back to me."

The rational healer part of her brain told her there was nothing left to do.

Draco Malfoy had died of the runes. They had slowly poisoned his body until his magic could no longer hold the darkness at bay.

But her heart—her heart couldn't accept it. She wanted him to return to her. To not leave her in this world alone.

Intent. She thought back to Snape's conversation.