Library visits

Chapter 17

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"Theo,"

Hermione's eyes widened and she yanked her hand away from him and stood up.

"What?"

"Theo, during the war, he got the assignment. He didn't have a choice, he would have been -"

"Didn't have a choice?" asked Hermione, shaking her head in disbelief. "Of course he had a bloody choice!"

"Granger, you don't understand."

"Oh, because he didn't have the backbone or the simple human decency to say no to a murdering psychopath about killing two innocent, non magical, defenseless people? You're right Malfoy, I don't understand that. And I don't think I want to either."

He stood up and said, "I'm not taking his side, but -"

"But you did take his side! Who knows how long you kept this from me!" she yelled, slapping his hands away from her.

"I didn't want to stress you out -"

"Stress me out? What do you think it's doing now?"

"I just felt so guilty for not telling you. I just want you to understand -"

"Understand what? That one of your best friends killed the only family I had? Or that you didn't have the guts to tell me about it?"

She grabbed her purse and headed into the living room, intending to floo over to the Burrow. She couldn't stand the thought of spending a night there.

"Hermione please, let me at least try to explain it to you."

She turned around and faced him, "Fine. Try to explain to me what exactly makes it okay that he killed them."

He ran a hand through his hair, "It doesn't make it okay. I'm just trying to get you to see where he's coming from. I know what it's like to get an order from Voldemort and not know what to do. To feel like you had no choice. We all knew what he would do to us if we didn't do what he asked of us."

"So because you made a bad decision, innocent people had to suffer for it? Because you were scared, innocent people had to suffer for it? Because you didn't have the balls to stand up and say no, to come to the Order and get help, my parents had to die? Hundreds of innocent people had to die?" asked Hermione, tears streaming down her face.

Draco took a step toward her, "No, of course not. But you have to see that we were young, we had our parents telling us one thing, and even if we thought differently we'd never say it."

Hermione backed up, "So if He would have told you to kill my parents, you would have?"

Draco paused for a beat too long, and Hermione looked horrified.

"That is sick." she said, shaking her head and reaching into the bowl filled with floo powder.

"That's not a fair question!" yelled Draco.

"Oh? Why isn't it? It's a judge of character Malfoy."

"I didn't know you back then like I know you now."

"That's not the point!" she screamed, scattering the handful of floo powder across the floor when she slammed her hands against his chest to push him away.

"Then what is? What can I say to make you realize that even if that was me back then, it's not me now!"

Hermione shook her head, "I need to leave."

"Granger please, we need to work this out." pleaded Draco.

"If I stay here any longer I might say something I really will regret."