Chasing Reality

This Feeling

Draco was writhing in pain.
"Crucio!" His father yelled again.
"Such a shame I have to dispose of you. I did love you once, Draco." Lucius said darkly and then turned smug again.
"Is that all you've got?" Draco taunted.
He hung weakly from the chains that shackled him in a kneeling position, to the metal poles on either sides.
He hit him with the curse again.
Draco let out an agonising cry.
"Where's Hermione? You psychopath!" He yelled.
"Now now, my boy. Don't worry. She's safe. She's probably with Fred Weasley and that werewolf scum Remus Lupin and Sirius Black and....." he trailed off as Draco tried to break free of the chains, fear clouding his better judgment.
No.
"Ready to meet her?" He grinned evilly.
Draco dropped his head and wept.
"Avada Ke.."
"Expelliarmus!" Harry yelled.
Draco looked up when he heard the many pairs of footsteps.
He saw and Potter and Weaslette and Blaise. Theo and Daphne came up behind them. Then he saw Hermione, literally hanging from Weaslette's arms. There was lots of blood.
She smiled softly at him.
"If you children think you've won, you've got another thing coming.
And hence, the battle began.
Coils of green light rose around him and he launched it at the group.
Hermione tiptoed over to Draco, who was in horrible shape.
"Are you alright?" She asked.
"I could ask you the same thing." Draco coughed. Blood splatted across the floor.
"Hold on. I'll get you out of here." She said and reached out to inspect the shackles.
"Hermione, your wrist!" Draco exclaimed.
"Ritualistic sacrifice. I'll explain later." Hermione too was losing a lot of blood. She scarcely had energy to take out her wand, which she found discarded among the corpses.
She tried a few spells and the chains fell off. Draco fell forward but Hermione caught him.
Just then, Ron came in with Pansy.
"I've called the Aurors." Ron yelled.
Lucius who'd taken this as his cue to leave made to apparate.
Hermione was quick to cast a spell around the room.
"You!" He narrowed his eyes at Hermione.
He ran over to Hermione and held his wand against her neck.
"No!" Ginny yelled.
Draco started in horror. He knew that his father was too weak to perform an unforgivable curse on Hermione. But any lethal spell was enough to drain her of the little amount of blood she had left, in her body.
The Aurors blasted through the door just as Lucius brought the wand over her heart and blasted her into the wall with Sectumsempra.
The Aurors shot several spells at Lucius until he lay unconscious on the floor.
Draco ran over and knelt down beside Hermione, followed by Ginny.
"No no no. 'Minor wake up." Ginny sobbed.
Draco cradled her head on his lap and tears rolled down his cheeks.
Harry and Ron came rushing and Harry almost collapsed when he saw her.

Daphne, Theo, Pansy and Blaise stood at a distance, silently. They saw the Aurors carrying Hannah Abbot away and burning the copy of the Necronomican and the decaying bodies.
One of the Minsitry officials, Titus Tirsten came up to the group.
"Mr.Potter, I would suggest rushing her to St.Mungo's." He said grimly.
The Aurors took down the wards.
Draco apparated with Hermione in his hands. The others followed suite.

Ginny and Harry sat crying. Ron looked like he was in shock. Draco kept punching the wall until his knuckles bled. Narcissa was brought to calm her son.
"I feel....I feel so..." Draco could t complete the sentence. He hadn't let the healers finish on his wounds. Instead, he joined the others outside Hermione's room.
"Hush, my son. Some emotions cannot be explained." Narcissa sad neside her son and hugged him.
"She didn't deserve it, Mother. She didn't deserve any of the horrible things she'd had to endure." Draco said and the others looked at her.
"Why do I feel so miserable?" He looked into his mother's eyes.
"Because you're in love with her. Slowly, but surely, during the span of this one month, you fell in love with her." Ginny rose from her seat on the floor and stared at him, red eyes brimming with fresh tears.
Love? No, it couldn't be. Draco didn't possess a heart big enough for such a feeling. But seeing her lying limply in his arms made him go numb all over. He thought of her.
He liked even littlest things about her.
The way she scrunches her nose when she concentrates.
The soft snores that echo throughout the room when she sleeps.
The annoyed face she makes when they argue. She was the only one who matched his intellect when it came to a decently competitive argument.
He smiled sadly.

A nurse walked out of the room she was laid in and looked at the crowd.
They stood up and stared at them.
He let out a heavy breath.