Lost Along the Way (Dramione)

Chapter 16

HERMIONE'S P.O.V.

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The end began at Hogwarts.

We were back, in search of one of the final horrcruxes.

The three of us, Harry, Ron, and I ran through the school, where spells were being cast all around us. The building that I had come to know as my second home was slowly falling apart.

As we ran through the crowd, I could see people falling to the ground out of the corner of my eye. I only prayed that it wasn't someone close to me...although every fallen wizard was a terrible, terrible loss. But we didn't have time to stop and help anyone along the way; we were heading to Voldemort, so we could end this.

As we began to break away from the center of the chaos, we came face to face with the most dementers I had seen in my entire life.

We kept running but one of them stooped down in front of me.

Before I could raise me wand, I suddenly became unable to move any part of my body.

And I couldn't think straight, the only thought going through my head was that I was going to be miserable for the rest of my life.

From somewhere far away, it seemed, I heard Harry and Ron calling my name. But their voices were faint and I couldn't focus on them.

I could no longer see anything around me now, either.

Instead, an image popped into my head. It was Draco. He stood with his hands in his pockets, not looking at me. Then the light of the moon reflected in something. A single tear was resting on Draco's eyelash. Then he spoke, hardly loud enough for me to hear, "I'm sorry for calling you a mudblood."

A different memory appeared now: I was sitting at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall.

"Hermione? If you press on that fork any harder, it's going to go straight through that table," Ron said, his mouth full of food.

I looked down and realized I had indeed been digging my fork into the table. I quickly set it down and looked over at Malfoy.

He was was already looking my way.

I got a really funny feeling inside of me as I locked eyes with him. Then Pansy started whispering something in his ear, and as she did, a huge grin spread across his face.

I didn't stay to see what happened next.

I got up from the table angrily. I heard Ron start to say something, but I blocked him out. I sped as fast as I could out of the hall, without breaking into a dead sprint and causing a scene.

Right before I exited, I threw a quick glance at Draco. He didn't even seem to notice that I had left; he was talking to Parkinson...

Back in the present, I was growing weaker and weaker as the dementor pushed me harder, bringing to mind only the most unhappy memories I had in my head...

I was climbing after Harry, as Ron struggled from behind me to get himself up onto the building.

When I reached the top, I looked into the window of the store that Draco was in. He was walking around some sort of cabinet, examining it carefully. My forehead wrinkled, and I looked at the other people who were with him. Every single one of them was a follower of Voldemort...deatheaters.

I looked at Draco again, horrified. Then I caught something, though I couldn't tell what. I squinted, trying to concentrate more on it. The sleeve on Draco's left arm had slid down very slightly, while he was looking at the cabinet. And not far bellow his wrist, I saw a tattoo of some sort, but I could only see the very bottom of it and had no idea what it was.