A Hard Year

17

Hermione's POV

The very fragile crack between Draco and me that had just slowly begun to heal felt as though it had been ripped apart forever. I couldn't breath, I couldn't think and I couldn't move.

Draco's face had suddenly turned several shades lighter and the girl, apparently named Amy, was standing triumphantly in the centre of the room. I could not understand how someone could stand so proudly when they had caused so much heartache, pain and betrayal to another, who had never harmed them in any way.

I looked down at my fingers, to see that I had tied them in tight and painful knots and so I quickly untangled them and pressed them firmly against the sheet covering my body.

"Just the same as the rest of them then Hermione, he can get you into bed just as easily as the next girl."

Rage boiled within me and continued its fiery ascent up my body. Every part of me wanted to react and to lash out at her cruelty, but there was no strength left within me anymore.

"Shut up! Hermione I have no idea what she's talking about, I had no idea!"

He was running his hands through the depths of his platinum hair like a madman. I'm sure the absurdity of this situation is far less for him than it is for me. I felt the tears nestling in the corners of my eyes fighting against my resistance to shed them.

"I sympathise with you Hermione; you fell for his charms and promising lies just as easily as I did."

Her words resonated within my ears and the longer they lingered the more I believed them to be sincere. I wanted with all my heart to believe that Draco would not keep this from me after everything he had done to make things right. Maybe I was only ever a meaningless fuck to him. My conscience sneered maliciously in my ear encouraging the doubts in my mind to manifest.

"Get out!"

Draco's shrill voice pulled me from my almost unconscious state of disbelief and I found my lips forming words without my consent.

"No!"

Draco's steely gaze met with mine with slight shock at the fact that I thought her testimony actually might bare some validity. He closed the small distance between us and held my arms tightly as his forehead met with mine.

"Hermione... listen to me. If she is pregnant then I had no idea"

His words bore such intensity and such desperation to be believed that I almost cast my doubts into the deep abyss of all the others. In that moment he was the man I'd spent the night with again.

My eyes met his as I filled my lungs with the air filled with all the poisonous accusations against him, it was almost painful.

"If you know it's not true then you wont mind if I want to be certain... I cannot be with you with yet another uncertainty in my mind."

For a moment I thought I saw a sadness fall upon his grey eyes because his word was not a certainty in itself...but I had to know.

"Do you mind if I use the paternity charm?"

I did not taint my voice with malice, knowing it would only hinder her cooperation.

"Be my guest."

Her confidence unnerved me more than I would have liked. I managed to find it within myself to pull the dressing gown, where my wand resided, over my shoulders and pull the cord loosely around my waist. The sheets that I was originally holding against me, now pooled at my feet and I withdrew my wand from the pocket at my hip.

I tried to still my shaking hands as I angled the tip of my wand to her stomach.

"Fetus de Draco?"