A Future Uncertain

Chapter 17: Memories

Hermione quickly grabbed her wand from her pocket. She was at a disadvantage on the floor, but she couldn't leave Ron unguarded.

She called out a string of hexes, each one blocked by Draco. He threw himself off the desk, taking long strides towards the girl throwing hexes at him. Each step he took made Hermione more nervous. Frantic, Hermione began casting faster, harsher spells.

"I wasn't," he called in between blocking another hex, "trying," he huffed, throwing a disarming spell that missed "to hurt him!"

Hermione wasn't interested in his confession. Ron was lying on the ground, while Draco had that annoying, pleased, smirk plastered to his face. He wouldn't get away with hexing Ron without repercussions. After Hermione threw an electrification charm, his stance changed. He wasn't ready for the real spells she was about to throw.

His blond hair had grown longer since their time in the manor, and the sweat from the underground library mixed, with the effort he was giving to keep spells from hitting him, was plastering the hair to his forehead. Not used to the feeling, his hand flinched towards the bothersome hair. Taking advantage of the millisecond distraction, Hermione threw a limb-buzzing charm, hitting him directly on his wand arm.

Hermione stood up as the wand clattered to the floor. Draco's arm went limp, but his pride wouldn't let him stand by and accept defeat. His arm hanging limp by his side, he began to charge. Hermione had yet to see Draco make any aggressive move that wasn't magical, and there was nothing that could prepare her for the six-foot-something man that was barreling towards her.

Throwing her arms up at the elbow, she tried to block as much of the impact as she could- unfortunately, that left her head unprotected. As soon as he made contact, they were both knocked to the ground and Hermione's head bounced on the hardwood.

Draco hadn't thought this far into the fight. She was trapped underneath him, but he wasn't about to begin throwing punches. Her eyes began to water, and he instantly felt guilty. He hadn't meant to hurt her. He was just mad, and bloody hell, the woman had just electrified him.

Moving off of her quickly, he retrieved her wand whispering his apologies and hoping that she was listening to them. The wand was much different than his- it was made of Vine wood instead of Hawthorn, but roughly the same size. The wand was fighting him, but he conjured a counter spell for his wand arm's recovery without too much trouble.

Hermione looked ready to murder him. Approaching her cautiously, as one would an angry dog, she allowed him to perform a healing spell on her head.

He moved her hair to the front of her shoulder unnecessarily, hoping the sensitive gesture may calm her down, even if just a little, and tentatively put his wand to the back of her head, effectively curing the wound.

Instead of catching her breath after her head had cleared as Draco had hoped, Hermione began swearing at Draco. Every time he thought she was finished, she would begin another round of verbal assaults. After a crafty insult of Draco being as cruel as a Dementor and as daft as a troll, the forgotten red-head on the floor began to stir.

Before Hermione could stop him, he knocked Ron out once more. This time, Draco had the decency to keep a straight face.

"That's assault on an Auror, Malfoy!" she yelled, smacking her wand out of his hand to keep him from further assault. "Do you want to spend your life in Azkaban?"

The wand clattered to the floor, and Draco immediately dropped his stance and rested his hands on his knees to catch his breath. "I need to modify his memory, Hermione."