To Die For

To Die For

Chapter 5-Attacked

Draco jumped up instantly, pulling Hermione up behind him, squeezing her hand for assurance. He didn't dare look back at her for taking his eyes off of Voldemort. If he had been facing Hermione, though, he would have seen that her eyes were widened with wild fear and her face was as pale as the sky on a dreary cloudy day. She stared blankly ahead at Voldemort. She was shaking in fright and Draco felt about the same that she looked. Both she and Draco had their wands at the ready, clutched tightly in front of them, though what damage could they possibly do to Voldemort?

"Don't touch her," Draco said darkly, eyes squinted toward Voldemort, clearly speaking about Hermione, "You have to get by me before you attempt to do anything to her." Draco's hands were balled up into fists, his knuckles white. He looked as if he was going to bite Voldemort's head off.

Hermione gasped. Being brave was one thing, but this was Voldemort that Draco was talking to!

It hadn't ever occurred to Hermione that anything could be this fearful, this frightening. Voldemort's long white fingers, and his dreadful, bony face with high skeletal cheekbones loomed out at her. His lips were blood red, stretched into an awful sneer, much worse than Draco's had ever been. Like most wizards, Voldemort wore a black robe, but for some reason, probably because it was Voldemort and that he was so pale, it looked scary on him, more intimidating and dark. As Hermione looked even closer she noticed a curvy fringe, encircling the bottom of the robe. It was constructed of a design of long, slithering snakes. Each and every one of them seemed to move in its own way and swirled with the movements of the robe. Hermione opened and closed her eyes to see if she as hallucinating, and upon opening them she realized with surprise that she wasn't.

But Voldemort's eyes were the worst. Little slits cut into his face, showing eyes of a color red that no muggle, witch, or wizard would ever in their entire life see. They were almost like a cat's eye, consisting of a skinny beetle black pupil stretched from top to bottom in sharp points. They gleamed out at Hermione in the most terrifying manner. They shone as if the could kill, and as Hermione looked up at them she knew that in some way this was true. Most likely she wouldn't be alive to finish the rest of the year off as Head girl.

Voldemort chuckled softly, fingering his wand.

"Idiot boy." Lucius Malfoy stepped out from behind Voldemort, scowling slightly and dressed in the same kind of robe as Voldemort's, except that his robe's snakes were solitary. Hermione realized with a jolt that the writing paper must've belonged to him! How could she have been so foolish?

"Expelliarmus!" Lucius shouted with relish.

Draco and Hermione's wands were whisked out from their hands and into Lucius' in an instant. Lucius sneered, satisfied. Voldemort shot Hermione a dangerous look and she closed her eyes in fear.

"That's it, Lucius," Hermione heard him prompt, "he's your son, and if you had been capable of bringing him up correctly, he would've been able to keep himself together when this, this girl, this nuisance came along. He would have known who was right to mix with and who with not to. He wouldn't have even had to think about it." He said, scornfully. "Your son was just a good one gone bad." He paused a moment to let this sink in, then finished with, "Well, I'll let you do the dirty work, since it was you who messed this up. I'll just sit back and relax."

Hermione's eyes flashed open at this deplorable speech. Draco's hand twitched and both him and his father sent Voldemort equal scowls, apparently for about the same reason. Hermione could clearly sense their similarities as father and son, although Draco definitely had a better heart. Both of them had a flickering dimple in their left cheek and the same shady color of gray eyes. They both, also, had the same persistence and fight in them that would help them in times like these. She knew how determined Draco could become, how he would go on and on about something and continuously come up with even more awesome comebacks like in their earlier years...wait, she wanted to think happy thoughts right before her life concluded to an end. She tried to remember the beginning of their kiss...

Draco took a defending step forward. "You filthy b-"

Hermione grabbed his arm on an impulse. Draco looked over his shoulder at her with pleading eyes and Hermione stared back determinedly. Things would only go worse if they interfered, same as always, just ignore them.

But there was no ignoring this.

They both jumped at the voice of Voldemort. Why had nothing happened to them yet?

"Tsk, tsk," he scolded, "Lucius, you're going to slow, I didn't bring you for nothing. Hurry up and separate them. Go ahead and finish the girl off. Maybe you could think of something to do with the boy." He eyed Draco thoughtfully, exactly as if he thought of him as something to use. Draco stared back angrily, though was still being restrained by Hermione.

Draco could feel Hermione trembling and was terrified at what was about to come.

"Crucio!"

Draco was suddenly on the floor, crouched up in a ball, rolling back and forth his arms wrapped around his head. It was the most piercing pain that went right to the core of you, much worse than anything that Lucius had ever done to him had been. His eyes watered and he found himself telling himself not to cry. He knew that all his life his father had told him to always keep his emotions hidden. He wasn't about to have anyone laughing at him at the moment.

Horrorstruck, Hermione took a step back as Lucius took a step toward her. She knew she had absolutely no chance and stared in horror at the man towering over her. What could matter now...Draco's face popped into her head, this was all too painful to think about. Draco...

Without realizing it, Hermione had backed up against the far wall as Lucius had advanced. It was too horrible to be true. Draco was still rolling in pain and Lucius was now only a pace from Hermione. Time seemed to be going in slow motion. As Lucius raised his wand Hermione reached out her hand and grabbed the closest thing to her, which happened to be the Slytherin representative, off of the mantle. She threw it with all her might at Lucius' face. He saw it coming and ducked right in time; it grazed right across his hair and shattered into pieces behind him. He looked up with triumph.

"Stupid brat," he muttered venomously. Hermione stared back, even more scared than before. She had practically attacked him! What could she do now? He raised his hand and smashed her against the wall with his palm. With his other hand he slapped her hard across the cheek, leaving a stinging sensation. She struggled, but he kept her hard against the wall.

"Don't ever try to get away with that," Lucius warned slowly. Hermione breathed in deeply and stared into eyes that were very familiar but much more full of evil and hate.

Voldemort watched with interest, also keeping vulture eyes on Draco, who seemed to still be in great pain. He was breathing in difficult gasps.

Then Hermione saw something so impossible, so magnificent, that she let a little hope fly into her heart and became determined to win this thing over; she would not be defeated. It looked as if Draco had winked in her direction! But that was, that was just absurd! Lucius hadn't used the counter-curse yet. It couldn't have happened! But maybe, just maybe, Draco wasn't in pain anymore and was only faking it. Maybe he was going to do something sudden. But without his wand what could he do. And surely Voldemort knew, he was the most powerful dark wizard of all time. At any rate he would know soon. Hermione hoped not and felt her soul lift at the thought that maybe they could survive this.

She was thrown out of thought as Lucius grabbed her wrists and pressed them roughly against the wall behind her. He had a wand, why wouldn't he just finish her off? Hermione thought wildly and turned pages in her mind searching for something, anything to do. How to get out of this? Surely, out of all her years at Hogwarts, she must've learned something to do when not equipped with a wand? Then, suddenly, she had an idea.

She quickly brought her knee straight up toward Lucius' crotch. She wrenched her hands out of his grip as it loosened. He groaned in pain. Voldemort yelped out in protest. He jumped up to help, but Draco came to the rescue, blocked him, and then punched him fiercely in the face. Blood started to fall and things started to get much more violent. Not knowing where his wand had ended up, Lucius lunged again for Hermione with a set face. She sidled out of the way, and, thinking fast, followed Draco's example by punching Lucius. Her aim was true and she heard a satisfying crack as his nose broke. One of his hands came up to his face, smudging the blood, but he stayed in the fight. Lucius fumbled for his wand and came up with a sneer, pointing it straight toward her heart. Surprising even herself, she acted quickly and grabbed the wand as soon as it was up and snapped it in two. Yes, she could've used his wand on him, but it didn't feel right to her, using a wand belonging to someone that evil. He cried out and again went for her. In his rage from losing his wand he was successful. Hermione's face was hit and she went flying backward, blood flowing freely from a spot on her chin. She pushed up with one arm, but Lucius' foot made contact with the side of her head.

"Hermione!" Draco yelled in panic, though stayed dueling Voldemort.

Blackness swirled, but she jumped up in a fury. In his confusion she punched Lucius in the stomach, and he went sprawling. Before he was able to get up again she kicked him, and he stayed put; knocked out. Finally, something had gone right. Breathing jaggedly, Hermione spun around.

Draco and Voldemort were still going full force at each other. Both were sending curses at each other a mile a minute. Red sparks were shooting out of the end of Draco's wand. He had a gruesome cut on his arm and his foot looked disangled, though he quickly fixed his foot with a flick of his wand while Voldemort was preoccupied with a particularly violent curse that Draco had sent at him moments before. Hermione wanted to help, but Draco had yelled, "Stay out of this!" Voldemort figured she was no threat without a wand and continued with Draco. She heard him cry out, but he was soon on yet another curse.

Hermione looked around frantically for her wand. Where could it be? She spotted it alone in a corner, waited till Voldemort's back was toward her and hurried over to get it. Running back with her wand in hand she took a deep final breath and started to say the worst of the three unforgivable curses.

"Avada K-

"DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!"

Hermione stumbled backward, and, before she even had time to blink, Voldemort had sent a curse toward her that she had never heard of before.

"Kilneo!"

Draco sprung forward and was hit full force by the curse. He flew backward and landed harshly on the floor.

He was still.

Hermione screamed. In a violent storm of delirium she flew at Voldemort, scratching and biting, not even remembering that she had a wand. She was in such a craze and she didn't even care what happened to her anymore. This damn wizard had to go ahead and-she just couldn't think about it. He had KILLED him! Tears streamed down Hermione's face and she didn't even care when Voldemort threw her down. She didn't care about anything at the moment except this-

"STOP!" A loud, strong voice echoed throughout the room.

It was enough to stop both Hermione and Voldemort. They looked over to the entrance of the common room to see who had issued the command. Hermione felt Voldemort stiffen beside her. She felt a wave of relief. It was Dumbledore.

Voldemort and Dumbledore stared at each other unblinking. Dumbledore opened his mouth to speak and Voldemort disappeared with a small pop before Dumbledore could even start.

Hermione sank down next to Draco's limp body. She took his hand in hers and a tear fell from her onto his cheek. It stayed, glistening there.

"No..." Hermione cried softly.

"I'm afraid there's nothing that can be done." Hermione turned around to face Dumbledore and saw that his eyes were clouded over.

"He could have become an honorable head boy." Dumbledore bowed his head.

Hermione looked down once more at Draco, unable of speech. She bit her lip to keep from sobbing.

And then, one small breath escaped from between Draco's pale, purplish lips.