High (A Harry Potter Fanfiction--Dramione)

I Stole Happiness With You

Draco sighed deeply as he observed the product of his labors. "Done," he whispered into the lonely expanse of the room. "All done." After a year of slaving over the Vanishing Cabinet, he had finally succeeded in repairing it.

Victory never tasted so bitter.

Hermione.

He had a plan.

Hermione.

Even if he survived this, she'd never forgive him.

Hermione.

It was all he could think of these days, keeping her safe. He wished he had an option that left him a sliver of a hope that she wouldn't hate him for the rest of her days. But it was more important to him that she had a rest of her days to hate him with.

"Goodbye, Hermione," he whispered as he scribbled the note he desperately wished he didn't have to send.

______________________________

I have something I need to show you. Please meet me in our Room?

--Draco

She sighed as she read the note. Perhaps this was just a ploy to get her alone so he could beg her to take him back, but she knew that was unlikely. Even if it was, she should see him anyway. She was worried about him.

He hadn't been in classes in over a week. When she did catch glimpses of him in the Great Hall he looked as if he hadn't slept in weeks. That happy boy on the broomstick who swooped down and kissed her so passionately, his heart full of love and light, was gone. He now looked like a shell. Those eyes which once carried a mischievous glint were now hollow, unsettling, and covered in dark circles. The handsome face which previously wore a perpetual smirk had the pallor of a corpse. The air of casual grace and charismatic arrogance with which he once carried himself was replaced by an alarming lack of presence.

As she made her way to the Room, she sighed inwardly at the realization that this probably had something to do with the Vanishing Cabinet Draco was trying to fix. Every time she thought about the impossible situation he had been forced into, her heart broke for him.

The loving him thing...that didn't just disappear.

When will it stop?

She approached the wall where the door to their Room usually appeared and was startled to find that the door which manifested was not one she had ever seen before. She opened the door tentatively and entered the Room. "Oh, my...", she gasped.

The Room was full to bursting of every conceivable type of junk and treasure one could imagine. She realized, with more than a bit of curiosity, that this Room probably held artifacts from all the way back to the time of the Founders.

"Draco?"

When he appeared from around a corner she tried to tame the butterflies in her stomach at seeing him this near. His eyes held a momentary hint of warmth at seeing her, and a ghost of a smile appeared on his face.

"You came."

She nodded.

"I wasn't sure you would."

She looked down at her feet, trying to avoid the broken look in his eyes. "You said you have something you need to show me."

He nodded, motioning for her to follow him. He hoped he was putting on a brave face because he felt anything but. All he wanted to do was throw himself at her feet and beg with everything he had for her to run away with him. But his stubborn Gryffindor would never agree to that. Not when she had actually wanted him. Not now that he was nothing to her. Not ever.