Blood Red, Snow White | Dramione ✔

14. The side effects

Draco sat back in his bed as his breathing calmed. He had had another nightmare and that too of Hermione. It had become the usual for him to wake up screaming and sweating. Never once, after the war, did he get a good night's sleep.

Hermione

He sighed.

He had not seen her after the final battle which was over 4 months ago. She had broken down completely when Harry had told her about the deaths of Mr and Mrs. Granger, and had been admitted to St. Mungos immediately. He had gone the next day to see her but the healers kept him away. He was told that she won't be well, until, well until God wished.

He too was completely broken after hearing that and hadn't returned home until, after 5 days, his parents found him lying on a cold pavement.
It took him over a month to get a grip on himself. He had started healer-training almost immediately, determined to find a way to bring his Hermione back. Yes, his Hermione.

Theo and Luna were officially dating and were living with Blaise and Pansy. Daphne was stuck in her house because of her family and Neville lived with his grandmother. Ron and Lavender were dating and so were Harry and Ginny, but they all lived separately and barely heard from other. They were all fighting internal wars.

Grief enveloped Harry when he thought about Remus and Tonks. While the Weasleys had offered him help in Teddy's unbringing, Harry was determined to do it on his own. He had lost his father's only living friend and now he was going to be a father to his son. And he knew who the perfect mother for him was.

Ron and Ginny grieved the loss of their brother, Fred Weasley, for a whole month. After that, things seemed to fall into place but something just wasn't right. Nobody felt like doing anything. That's how exhausted they were after fighting a war.

These were the side effects of war.

*****

Draco was sitting on the couch in his room with piles of papers and healing books beside him. He sighed and rubbed his forehead. He heard a knock at his door.

"Come in.", he said.

Lucius entered and came and sat on the armchair.

"How are you, son?"

"I've been better", Draco mumbled.

Lucius sighed, "There's no use Draco. I've never heard patients becoming normal after spending more than 3 months in coma."

" But she will. I will bring her back.", Draco snapped.

Lucius hummed and then spoke, "Mr. Greengrass asked for your hand in marriage to Astoria Greengrass. "

Draco scoffed and looked at him with disbelief etched on his face.

"I can't belive you father.", he muttered.

" So what's your answer?"

"Do you really want me to answer that ?", Draco scoffed again.

" Why yes of course I do."

"Fine. No. No is my answer."

" And may I ask why?"

"Yes you may. It's pretty simple, really father. They just want to get us married so that they can take revenge from us. We betrayed the Dark side and no don't even start defending them. They only said that they changed sides to save their sorry arses from Azkaban !"

Lucius sighed and then pinched the bridge of his nose.

" Then who will you marry, Draco? There aren't many pureblood women left. Even Ms. Parkinson is dating that Zabini boy. "