Always Mine (A Drarry Fanfic)

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"Tomorrow," Hermione Granger said. "We go back to Hogwarts." She regarded her friends. Harry had a sort of strangled look on his face, Ron was breathing slowly and staring at the floor, and Ginny's jaw was locked, her eyes fierce. "Obviously, not everyone in our year will be coming back, in the Prophet it mentioned something about Ernie MacMillan, that Hufflepuff who tried to convince everyone Harry opened the Chamber, he became a Herbologist. Terry Boot from Ravenclaw, he was in the DA, Kingsley said he's trying to get into the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Department at the Ministry, along with Dean. Seamus did mention something about being in the Foreign Contacts Department at the Ministry when we were doing our possible job opportunities during fifth year." Hermione took a deep breath. "I know that Neville, Parvati, and Lavender are coming back. Padma Patil from Ravenclaw, and Hannah Abbott from Hufflepuff. Malfoy, that Parkinson girl, Blaise Zabini from the Slug Club, and some Theodore Nott, all from Slytherin." she concluded.

"How d'you know all that?" Harry asked. He seemed to be more relaxed now, and his face was no longer pale.

"A few weeks ago, the Prophet wrote a short article about how Narcissa and Lucius made the decision to send Malfoy back to Hogwarts, and for the article, they interviewed Malfoy, where he mentioned those other Slytherins. I've been owling Neville over the summer, and he told me he was returning. Parvati and her family leave near his grandmother's place, and they talked a few times over the summer. She told him about her sister and Lavender there. I ran into Hannah at Ollivander's, she was really happy to see me, I suppose all Hufflepuffs are like that. She mentioned some other Hufflepuffs that were coming back as well, I don't think I mentioned them earlier. A girl named Danika Westwood, and a boy, something along the lines of Walter Miller. Oh, and Neville wrote to me, and told me to tell you lot that he's dating Luna!"

At the mention of dating, Harry and Ginny exchanged an awkward glance. They had broken up three days before Ginny's seventeenth, something that made life simpler for both of them. Harry did love Ginny, but as a cousin, or sister. Ginny did like Harry, but it was time to move on. And besides, there was no way, with Ron between the two, that the relationship would ever work out.

"It's late." Ron spoke up, in a choked voice. "We have to catch the train tomorrow, nine. Good night."

"Yeah, 'night," murmured Ginny. She and Hermione got up and walked to their room and sat down on their respective beds. "Hermione, I can't believe it. Back to Hogwarts, back to where all those people, they died." She began looking away, and Hermione knew she was crying. "George hasn't been the same since. He's been up in his room for hours—hours—crying. Hermione, I can't go back. I'm going to do what you three did last year, run away." She broke into a fresh flood of tears. She wiped her face with the back of her hand and laughed bitterly. "Mum won't mind too much, I doubt Ron'll care—"

"Ginny, stop. You will go back to Hogwarts. Fred—" Hermione started.

"I don't care! You don't understand. Fred, he was the only one out of all of them, who understood me. Hermione, you don't understand!" Ginny wailed.

"I do," she whispered. "What do you think I've been doing the whole summer? Trying to calm Harry and Ron down without breaking down myself, that's what. Ginny, I know Fred's death probably hurt you the most, after George, but you need to know,  he hasn't gone unnoticed. All of us miss him, Ginny, but your pain is more than ours. That's the only difference."

"I'm sorry. I just feel so lost. Like I don't know what I should do. I want to do something, but I can't do anything."
Hermione's thoughts went back to the Weasley clock. Ever since the war had ended, both Fred's and George's hands always pointed to lost, and were occasionally joined by Ginny's. Now she understood why.

"I know, Ginny. 'Night."

"Good night, 'Mione."
-
Harry was standing in the Great Hall, wearing his Invisibility Cloak. Voldemort was looking around, flustered. "Where is Potter?!" the Dark Lord was yelling. Draco Malfoy stood behind his master, playing with his mother's wand. He could've sworn, the man his family served so loyally was an utter nutcase. Voldemort whipped around to face Draco, and then he yelled, "Potter! Come to me!" The Dark Lord's red eyes were alight with determination and triumph. Draco looked around. "You! You are Potter. Come to die..."

"I'm not Harry!" he yelled. Harry? thought Draco. Something's surely wrong with me now. "Not Potter!"

"Yes, you are. I challenge you to a duel." Voldemort said. Harry, under the Cloak, was unsure what to make of what was going on. His archnemisis from Hogwarts was going to be killed by Voldemort, the man who wanted to kill him, Harry. Nothing made sense anymore. He looked at Voldemort and Malfoy in the middle of the room. Everyone was dueling their enemies, nobody was paying attention to anything besides the warrior in front of them. "Crucio!" Voldemort screamed. The curse missed his target by inches.

"This is all your fault, Potter!" Malfoy yelled. "All your fault!"

Voldemort cackled with glee. "Let's see how you avoid this, Potter! Avada Kedavra!"

"I'm not him! I'm not-" And Draco Malfoy's body crumpled to the ground, and everything went black...
-
Harry woke up with a start. He wasn't exactly sure what had happened. Then he remembered the dream. Harry felt something that was close to regret, but that wasn't exactly it. It was nowhere as near as bad as how he felt when he thought of Remus, Tonks, Colin, and Fred, but it wasn't completely okay either. Besides, Harry thought, Why do you care if Draco died? What difference does it make if he's dead? You hated the git, anyway. Then a more unsure part of him: Right? And there was only one answer to that, one that would never change. Of course I hate him.

He tumbled out of bed, and instinctively looked over to his left, where Ron was still sleeping. He charmed a pillow to shoot at top speed towards his best friend. "What?" Ron muttered. Harry was impressed with himself, Ron slept like the dead.

"Wake up, it's seven thirty already."

"Right. You know, mate, I've been thinking about asking Hermione out to Hogsmeade or something like that. The first Hogsmeade weekend, maybe? Any advice? You've been out with Ginny loads of times—erm, sorry about that," he added, after noticing his friend's expression, "I doubt Ginny'll be help." Ron finished lamely.

"Well. Just go and, you know, ask her."

"All right. Thanks?"

"No problem." Then, as an afterthought, he added, "I'm not that good at advice." Ron laughed. The two teenagers walked out into the kitchen and helped themselves to their breakfast. "Where're Ginny and Hermione?" Harry asked.

"Last minute packing." Mrs. Weasley replied. They might've called it last minute packing, thought Harry. He knew that they were upstairs, contemplating whether or not they should go look for Hermione's parents in Australia. He was partially hurt that Hermione trusted Ginny more than she trusted him or Ron, but he supposed spending a year in hiding with them might've been too much. Just then, the two girls sauntered downstairs.

"We can Apparate to King's Cross, you have passed your test, after all, it'll be good practice, and besides, you'll need to try it eventually." Hermione persisted, glad to have the old Ginny back after their little excursion the previous night.

"You know as well as I do that I hate to Apparate. Who likes to anyhow?" Ginny replied.

"I do. And Apparating is how you're going to get around the rest of your life."

Ginny groaned. "Fine." Hermione grinned victoriously.

-
Okay, thanks so much for checking this out! The characters are probably a bit OOC, because I am not the great JKR. This isn't much good, I know, but I'll see where this goes...it's probably gonna be another cheesy eighth-year-at-Hogwarts story. Also, I'll be updating about zero over the summer, since I'm going on vacation! If you actually like this, please vote and comment!