the other || dramione

10

I'm so sorry it's been, like, over a month. I blame Paula545 for making 'The TARDIS' forum which distracted me, but before she made that it was my own fault. But it's mostly Paula's fault :P! ly really Paulala :P! Please R&R peoples

Chapter 10

Draco

'I know what you have to do' Hermione hissed in my ear as she passed me in the great hall. I looked at her and then back the my table. The expressions on the faces of people around me told me that they hadn't heard what she said, but wanted to know what the hell was going on. I shook my head but didn't say anything. The questioning looks continued but no one out rightly asked. Even if they had I wouldn't have answered. I was too tired for petty lies and there was no way I could tell the truth. I appeared to be focusing on my food, but really was just thinking.

It made sense I suppose. Hermione was a smart girl, the smartest girl I knew. Probably the smartest girl in the school. And I hadn't been exactly subtle in what I had said. Most people wouldn't have been able to work it out from what I had said, but Hermione wasn't most people. Hermione was better than most people. But if Hermione knew it would cause no end of problems. If it hadn't been for the fact that I didn't want to cause a scene I would've banged my hand on the table - hard - I was that frustrated. This was all getting ridiculous and I knew it was my own fault. Hermione would never have got involved if I hadn't kissed her. If I hadn't kissed her, she'd still be chasing after Ron Weasley and I'd been able to get on with my task without any of this hassle.

Except that wasn't true. Yes, it would've been a hell of a lot easier without Hermione trying to help me all the time, but it never would've been hassle-less. I had been asked to commit murder for pity's sake. You'd have to be completely heartless to be able to see that as a problem-less task. Completely heartless like Lord Voldemort himself, like most of his Death Eaters, like my father even. I wasn't completely heartless, and I didn't want to be. At the end of the day I just wanted to live my life and make my own decisions without being pulled onto one side or the other without a say. I didn't want to commit murder and yet I knew there was no way I would pull out of this. There was an honour in being asked to do this. A dark, wrong honour, but an honour all the same. There was a great number of people He could've asked, but he didn't he asked me. I had to do it. The decision was out of my hands after all, the decision had been made. Hermione had to understand that. Hermione had to understand that as much as I didn't want to, I had to kill Dumbledore and she couldn't stop it. There was nothing she could do to stop.

I knew she would try though. I knew she would pull out every trick that she knew, every idea she could think of to try and stop it. And she would be doing it for all the right reasons. The save Dumbledore, to help me, because she was a good person. She believed in the good in people, she was optimistic despite everything, she believed there was always loopholes. She wouldn't accept that there wasn't, there simply wasn't here. This was a power stronger than she'd dealt with before.

I stood up and left the Great Hall quickly, heading straight for the library. I searched through spell book after spell book trying to find a suitable spell. It seemed simple when I got the idea: find a spell that would erase Hermione's memory of my task, erase her memory of all my time around her this year and then it would be fine. Of course it would never be that simple. Erasing selective memories would be simple enough, there were spells and potions for that, but Hermione was too smart for that. She'd be aware that memories were missing, her friends would think it strange if she suddenly went back to chasing Ron and question her, which would then cause her to question me. It was a vicious circle, I could see anyway out of it. Everything solution ran into another problem. On and on and on with no stopping, no way out. And it was all my own stupid fault.

I knew I needed to speak to Hermione. This conversation would be make or break. It would either find some sort of solution or mess everything up completely. Either way I had to speak to her. I headed back to the Great Hall and caught her just as she was coming out.

'We need to talk'