Reminiscences

Chapter 4:

Réconciliation

Hermione brushed a stray tendril of hair off her forehead as she blindly ran across the school's immense meadow, located just south of the Forbidden Forest.

It was a dark night, and the absence of the moon caused an aching void in the sky, mirroring the deep chasm with Hermione's own heart, though the chill wind dried the tears spilling down her cheeks, bringing her some measure of comfort.

Replaying the evening's events once again in her mind, she realised she'd been foolish to expect anything else; it had been all wrong to start with, anyway. Yet she couldn't quell the bitter sense of loneliness that Snape's rejection had engulfed her in.

The sudden rustling of the grass some distance ahead caused Hermione to instinctively glance around, one hand automatically tightening on the wand within her robe. Out of the corner of her eye she detected a faint movement amongst the bushes nearest the southern buildings.

She quickened her pace even more, feeling a sense of release in running to the rhythm of the wind, but as she did so, she felt her right foot hit something. She tripped, and in the next instant, she was sprawling on the ground, her limbs frozen by the frost gathering on the grass blades.

She picked up her Potion vial and anxiously stared into its depths; miraculously it had fallen upright and not much liquid was lost.

She was about to get up and brush herself off when she heard a familiar voice.

"Hermione? You OK?"

Turning around, she saw herself looking into the eyes of Draco Malfoy, his face taking on a strangely angelic concerned expression. Yet what surprised her most was the fact that, in his left hand. he too clutched a crimson Iridescent vial.

* * *

Instead of extending a hand to Hermione to help her up, Draco sat down beside her, an unreadable expression clouding his blue eyes. Flummoxed, Hermione initiated conversation.

"Fancy meeting you here."

Draco looked up at her, his expression unchanging. "So did you manage to get Snape to help?" Before Hermione could answer, he rambled on, "I was about to ask Snape too, which is why I walked all the way here, but I changed my mind at the last instant... because I realised there is someone whom I am more committed to. Hermione, will you be my Helper?"

Hermione stared at him, her mind whirling. Draco Malfoy, of all people. Yet the sincerity and hope in his eyes moved her as they had never before, and Hermione lowered her head for an instant, then raised her eyes to meet his again, a silent nod.

"Yes, if you will be mine," she found herself saying.

* * *

When they had each put a drop of blood into their own vials, and repeated the process in the other's vial, Draco and Hermione settled back, in the middle of the frozen meadow, and watched their Iridescent Crystals take shape under the faint starlight. Draco's glowed a cerulean blue; Hermione's radiated a warm orange.

Across the sky, a shooting star seemed to fall, for the merest second.

It seemed almost natural, then, for Draco to slide his arm round Hermione's slim waist and ask her to make a wish. In response, she tilted her face up towards his and caught his lips in a deep, passionate kiss.

Only then did Hermione realise that she was finally free.

* * *

A short distance away Severus Snape watched in horror as his Iridescent Crystal glowed and pulsed with a life of its own, signalling Voldemort's request for assistance.

And Severus knew that if he helped Voldemort any longer, he'd have had to compromise the security of the wizarding world and all it stood for, and the people he cared most about would be in grave danger. He shuddered as he recounted the various tortures Voldemort had meted out to Mudbloods.

Concentrating all his will and energy, Severus pointed at the Crystal, wand outstretched, muttering a convoluted string of spells. It trembled violently, then exploded into smithereens, sharp shards of diamond which shot in all directions at great force.

Severus himself was severely wounded, and knew that he had just moments to live. But in spite of himself, he knew that he would not die in vain. For as the Crystal which contained Voldemort's blood was destroyed, so he would be, utterly and completely.

And Severus smiled, peacefully and contentedly, as he drifted off into eternal slumber.

-fin-