Entanglement: A Dramione Fanfiction

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Thank you guys for your patience with me while so much has been going on.

So, so much love goes out to my incredible alpha/beta team, shestoolazytogin and RESimon. I love you both more than words can express.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Hermione woke in the middle of the night to find herself still lying on the kitchen floor. The night was still dark, but what light the bright moonlight gave showed her the outline of where Draco lay beside her. His arms were wrapped around her tightly, half of his form holding her up from lying completely against the hard wooden floor. His eyes were slitted open and he was watching her carefully.

She reached out and ran her thumb under his eye. "You haven't slept," she said softly.

"Are you alright?" he asked, ignoring her statement.

She gave him a soft nod as her fingers trailed up his face, tracing along the dried blood that crusted along his hairline. "You didn't heal yourself either," she said, watching a muscle in his eye jump as she pressed a tender spot.

His hand pressed against her rib cage, and she found herself mirroring his pained cringe. "Still hurts, then." His voice was flat.

"What happened?" she asked, watching him roll up her shirt to expose her rib cage. The skin was tender as he pressed on it and she winced again.

"You were hit," he said, sliding his wand in gentle movements across the area. "Several times. The curse is healed but the discoloration will last for a bit."

Hermione nodded, watching him roll back down her shirt. He vanished his own shirt a moment later, and she watched him press his wand into his own bruised ribcage, hearing the snap of his bones mending under the spell he muttered. Her hand traced after where the bruising slowly faded, feeling every ridge of tight muscle under warm skin as her hand explored him.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I'm so sorry."

He watched her quietly for a moment before nodding, the movement was nearly imperceptible in the darkness.

"I didn't mean—" She swallowed thickly, thinking of the spells that had lit up the air in the night around them, forcing herself to fold away the memories before worse ones could assault her, too. "I never intended to put us in danger. I just— I just needed to breathe, and it was the first place I thought of—"

"You saved him," Draco said, cutting her off.

Hermione exhaled, remembering the wizard with the kindly face, the burning pharmacy...

"Not all of them, though," she said softly.

"The Snatchers would have killed them all if we hadn't been there," he said. "They might have taken one or two to the Manor, at most. Death is preferable." There was a faraway look in his eyes, speaking to the trauma that he kept so carefully hidden away. "We can't save everyone, Granger. This is war."

Hermione nodded, folding away the pain of the memory of the burning pharmacy into the deepest recesses of her mind as she reminded herself of what they fought for — who they fought for.

She pressed closer into him. She couldn't place when he'd become more pliant to her touch, but now the way he seemed to soften under her fingers was evident. He was lying on his back, his face turned toward her as he spoke. He was still looking at some faraway place beyond her, and she found herself trailing a finger up the slope of his neck and along his sharp jaw.