tears in heaven | dramione

The Arrival

They apparated to a country she had never seen before, had only heard either in books or in Ron's stories of his brother Charlie, but she'd always struggled to understand anything considering the redhead's lack of skills in storytelling. The country had always been famed for vampires, all the rich myths of such undead beings having been set in its deep woods, great mountains. Hermione remembered how in her first year she'd made plans of visiting, but those never came to be, till now seemingly. Her interest wasn't in vampires, for all the world, including way too many muggles knew all about them, including that they didn't really sparkle, but in the other known magical fauna present there. That included dragons.

"Where are we?"

"Well, if I'm not mistaken and something tells me I'm not, we're in the woods surrounding the castle. I know those like the back of my hand," Draco answered, his arrogant attitude like a habit he cannot give up on. "Have your wand ready."

Hermione's hand was already on it. Nevertheless, she looked at him curious, "Why?"

Draco shrugged. "Would you leave your castle unprotected, especially when no one is at home."

"I will think about that when I have a castle," she joked.

It cames as a surprise when he answered seriously. "You should. Who knows? You might. Maybe, you will." He had his wand ready. A moment later, he looked up, and repelled a curse coming towards them, a mauve lightning burning the trees as it came closer.

Another curse was approaching from their left. Hermione shot back. When the two light streaks met, they exploded with a loud sound.

"How you had your castle protected, may I ask?"

"Well, all I can say is that father and I are very creative people when it comes to such things."

Hermione rolled her eyes and they kept going.

Ahead of them, between the branches of all sorts of trees, Hermione could see the castle, a rather fancy and very royal-looking one. It was just as she had thought it would look like. Under other circumstances, she would have enjoyed being there, with him or anybody else.

Draco led her through the woods, repelling curses now and then, alongside her, and before she knew it they were at the castle's gate. It seemed still way too easy, especially considering Voldemort had hidden a piece of his soul in there.

The platinum-haired wizard opened the gate, then screamed. His companion was hit by some spell, thrown backwards meters away. She tasted blood in her mouth and sighed. Despite the pain, she stood.

A dark shadow was over Draco, hurting him, killing him, sucking away the essence of his soul. She pointed her wand towards the creature and shouted, "Expecto patronum!" The dead of the night turned all white.