Mistaken Love

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Harry stared hard at the sight of Bethany in the arms of Draco. A rush of jealously erupted in his stomach as he watched Draco pull Bethany closer to him. His body was telling him to run towards Bethany and pull her away from Draco, but from the state he was in, he was not even able to stand on his own. His arm was around Ron, who was his only support of being held upright. Harry wanted to move closer into talking range with Bethany, wanting to ask her what the hell was going on between her and Draco. Surely, Draco was not the ex-boyfriend she was talking about and comparing Harry to him. It was impossible, but yet there in front of him was the proof that it was not impossible at all.

Before Harry was able to say a word, he heard Draco speak.

"He is the Dark Lord. You are his flesh and blood. We couldn't have kept this from him any longer than we already have. He's your grandfather, Bethany. Your blood lines connect with his."

Harry could not believe what heard. 'Bethany is the granddaughter of Voldemort and Dumbledore? She carries his blood in her veins. How could I be so stupid to trust her?' This thought of anger flowed throughout his body, giving him the strength to walk forward towards Bethany. Ron had a shocked expression on his face as he watched Harry move further away from him. Sounds of voices and footsteps came up behind Ron, but Harry did not notice. He was still making his way towards Bethany, not knowing what he would say or do when he approached her.

He was only a few yards from her when he stepped on a branch, creating a soft, echoing crack. Harry saw Bethany turn her head and face him with unsteady eyes. Her face held a somewhat scared expression with her eyes full of guilt.

"Harry?" Bethany said with a tremble in her voice. "What are you doing here?"

Harry gazed at her in silence. He felt that if he said anything now, he would muster up more anger and begin screaming at Bethany. Bottling up his anger was a horrible thing to do and Harry knew it, but he did not want to say anything he would regret.

He stood still, watching Bethany pull herself away from Draco's arms. Harry assumed she did not want him to see her with Draco. It humoured him for a few seconds before he snapped back to reality. Bethany was still standing in front of him, and he knew Ron was somewhere behind him. He felt like an idiot not being able to respond to Bethany, although she did not deserve to be responded to.

"Harry, it's not what you think. I can explain every -" Bethany began to assure Harry, but he interrupted her.

"You have no idea what I'm thinking right now, Bethany." Harry's tone was harsh and furious. "How could you not tell me Voldemort is your grandfather or the fact that your boyfriend is the murderer of Dumbledore?"

"Draco is not my boyfriend nor is he the murderer of Dumbledore. I admit he has done unforgivable things, Harry, but he did not kill my grandfather."

"Are you serious?" Ron exclaimed from behind Harry, causing everyone to turn and face him. "Dumbledore and Voldemort are your grandfathers?"

"Ron!" Hermione cried, having come just in that moment with Ginny next to her. "That is a rude thing to ask!"

"Well, we have no idea who she is," Ginny whispered to Hermione.

"Still, her grandfather just died, it is a ghastly thing to say to her," Hermione answered back.

"Whoa, just wait a minute. The Weasel and his sister, plus the Mudblood and you, Potter, have no reason to be even asking Bethany anything. It is none of you guys' business," Draco spat at all of them.

"Shut your mouth, Malfoy. You act as if it is your fucking business," Harry argued back.

Harry shifted his eyes at Bethany and saw she was quite pale and slightly shivering. Her eyes were watery and her lips were turning a light purplish blue. He knew something was wrong with her and she needed to be in the hospital wing. All his anger and fury turned to concern and worry. Before he was able to attempt to help Bethany, a dizziness over came him. His vision blurred and his legs became unstable. He fell to his knees.

"Harry!" Ginny, Hermione, and Ron exclaimed.

Harry saw his friends gather and hover around him, but he looked passed them. He saw Bethany on the ground with her eyes closed. Draco was crouched over her and trying to revive her consciousness. Harry watched Draco's facial expression fill with fear, which surprised him significantly.

A sound of thudding footsteps was coming towards them, becoming louder and heavier as they came closer. Within seconds, the source of the footsteps stood in front of several trees and near a path that leads back to Hogwarts.

"Merlin's beard, what the bloody hell is goin' on?"

Harry heard Hagrid's voice not far from where he was. He saw Hagrid's giant shadow close in on him, but he was not able to make out his face. His eyesight began to blur once again, and Harry was not able to recollect his vision. The muscles in his body began to strain, creating an unbelievable pain he was powerless to resist. Harry then collapsed into unconsciousness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Draco sat alone on the top of the roof in a small room with steel bars as a door. He never imagined he would be sitting in a room where prisoners were held. It was unmistakably the worst day of his life. The person he loves most in the world is in the hospital wing, and he is locked up for a crime he did not commit.

The sun was still gleaming, visible over the treetops of the forest. Sunlight streaked through the bars of Draco's cell, flickering now and then with shifting clouds in the sky. It was mid-morning; in only a couple of hours students would be filing onto the Hogwarts Express and traveling back to platform nine and three-quarters to go home. Even though Draco didn't have a home to go back to, he still did not want to stay in a prison at an empty Hogwarts. He would rather be next to Bethany's bedside, holding her hand and waiting for her eyes to open, but that was a slim to none chance.

Draco let out a heavy sigh and buried his face in his hands. The only thing left to do before the Professors figured out what to do with him was to sit alone and think. He began to try to recall what happened after Hagrid appeared. It was hard since there had been so much commotion everywhere. His focus was only on Bethany after she had lost her balance and fallen to the ground. He had heard Harry's name being screamed, but he did not care enough to see what had happened to him. The last thing Draco remembered was being bound together with vines by a spell and shoved into a cell by Hagrid as Harry and Bethany were surrounded by Hogwarts professors and taken to the hospital wing.

The last words Bethany had said before she lost consciousness were still echoing in Draco's mind. 'Draco is not my boyfriend ...' Those words stung his heart with great pain, and he hoped it was not true. He knew his mistakes were unforgivable, but for Bethany to leave him ... he just did not want to believe it. The night he had chosen to allow the Death Eaters into Hogwarts was the night Draco had to decide whether it was the right thing to do. He did not know Dumbledore would end up dead or that Bethany would leave him. At that time, it was just a choice that only affected him and whether or not he would die.

Every memory seemed to haunt Draco as he sat there alone with his thoughts. Reality came back to him when he heard clanking caused by someone hitting the bars of his cell with their wand. Draco looked up and saw, not a professor or a Ministry personnel, but Ginny Weasley staring at him with sympathy in her eyes.

"Came to gloat? I'm surprised your weasel of a brother didn't come by himself," Draco scowled.

"No, I didn't come to gloat, and people are forbidden to visit prisoners that are being held," Ginny replied coldly.

"If no one is allowed to talk to me, then why are you here, Weasley?" Draco asked in a bitter manner.

"Well, I thought you would like some company," Ginny snapped. "In my opinion, I don't think you should even be in here, like the others do. It was my mistake then, to think you were worth standing up for, even against Harry."

Draco felt as if he had been slapped in the face. He was left speechless as he watched Ginny turn away and move towards the stairs that descended back down into the school. Half of him wanted to call her name and stop Ginny from leaving him alone once again, and the other half was too proud to admit he was lonely. But his loneliness overpowered him, and wanting to figure out what made Ginny different from the others, he found himself calling out after her, which surprised himself more than it surprised Ginny.

"Wait, Weasley, come back," Draco hollered, just before Ginny began to descend the steps. Ginny stopped and turned to face him. As Draco let out a sigh, he began to apologise unwillingly. "Look, I'm... I'm s-sorry I was a ... a -"

"An arse," Ginny finished brightly.

Draco shot her a grim stare. "I was going to say I was a bit rude, but saying I'm an arse pretty much sums it up."

"Yes, well you are that times a hundred. I'm just trying to be nice if I wasn't I would have called you a fu−"

"Okay, no need to explain," Draco interposed, not allowing Ginny to finish.

Ginny shrugged her shoulders and walked back over to Draco. She sat herself down on the ground next to Draco's cell and brought her legs close her body. Draco stared at Ginny, watching her hug her knees tightly and rest her chin on top of her folded arms.

"So ..." Draco started uneasily, trying to make conversation.

Ginny turned to look at him. "So ..." she replied, mocking Draco's tone of awkwardness.

"You know, mocking is the same thing as gloating," Draco emphasised. "I thought you were trying to make me feel better."

"Fine, I'll start us on a topic. How do you know Bethany?" Ginny asked flatly.

Draco stared at her crossly. He refused to answer that question or any question concerning Bethany. He wanted to forget about Bethany, and he had for the first few minutes when Ginny distracted him. After the mentioning of her name, Draco's heart began to fill with sorrow and pain, but he hid it from Ginny. His face was still expressionless and he fought hard to keep it that way.

"I don't know Bethany," Draco lied, horribly.

"Oh, so you were just holding a complete stranger in your arms and gazing helplessly into her eyes?" Ginny said, amused.

"Okay, now we are done. You can go back to Weasel and Mudblood now."

"Why can't you just call them by their names? It's not difficult. It seems as though you only called them that so you can make yourself feel superior. You should wake up to the real world, Draco, not everything revolves around you," Ginny ended acidly.

"I don't care about them and how they feel. I mean, why should I? Why should I care about anyone but myself? It's an unfair world we're living in. You say I'm not awake, but I am. I'm awake, and all I see is nothingness," Draco responded in an unusually civil way.

"People can't live without someone to care about. It's a part of human nature we all have: caring. You lied to me when you said you didn't care about anyone back in the forest. You told me that 'fear was born from caring,' and you do care, you care about her. I saw the way you looked at her, the way you acted when she collapsed. You were scared."

Draco turned away. He was tired of talking to Ginny. The way she made him feel, the way she talked, the way she told the truth, made him want to bury himself inside a hole and live in it forever.

"Bethany is your something and after she left, all you saw was nothingness. You love her, don't you?" Ginny lifted herself from the ground and wrapped her hands around two of the steel bars that caged Draco in his cell.

"I told you to go away. Don't you have anyone to bother?" Draco retorted, ignoring the question Ginny asked him.

"Ron and Hermione are together in Neverland currently, and Harry is in the hospital wing, unconscious," Ginny replied meekly. "You still didn't answer my question."

"They ditched you to be together? Some friends they are," Draco admonished.

"I understand. They love each other and want to be together. Is that such a bad thing?"

"Love is a fake, it cuts and burns and makes wounds that don't ever heal. Do you think it's a good thing?" Draco shot back in an irritable voice.

"Well, you can't expect it to be perfect. There's nothing perfect in this world, Draco. There's only life."

Draco said nothing in return. He remained silent for a few minutes before he heard Ginny's walking away. He knew she was tired of trying to convince him the world wasn't against him. Before Ginny was able to reach the top of the stairs that would take her back inside Hogwarts, Draco turned around.

"How did you get up here?" he asked, curious of how Ginny got passed the guards which were positioned near the door entrance to the rooftop.

Ginny stopped and turned to face Draco. "I used Harry's Invisibility Cloak. Hermione, Ron and I took it with us when we went to go search for him in the forest."

"In other words, you stole it," Draco elaborated.

"We more like borrowed it," Ginny corrected. "The way Bethany took your heart is considered stealing."

Draco shifted his eyes away from Ginny's before he answered her. "She didn't steal it. I gave it to her as she gave hers to me. I do love her. The question is; does she still love me?"

Ginny sighed and began to descend the stairs. "Don't make it a question, Draco. Make it a fact."

Then she was gone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bethany awoke to find herself in an uncomfortable bed with plain white sheets. She knew exactly where she was: the hospital wing. As she propped herself up with her elbows, her eyes wandered around the room. All of the beds around her were empty except for the one on her right. Harry was lying in that bed; his eyes fixed on the ceiling above him, causing him to appear lost in thought.

The window above Bethany's head was open, letting in the air that smelled of grass and the faint sound of winds rushing pass the frame of the window. The rays of the sun shone through the glass, lighting the room a bright yellow. Heat from the sun mixed with the harsh winds, creating a warm breeze for a beautiful day. Clouds hovered in the sky, rearranging here and there from the force of the winds.

Bethany did not know whether to talk to Harry or not. She knew he had to be angry with her still. Everything she had kept a secret all her life came pouring out that moment they all stood in the forest. She could not have prevented it from happening after what Draco had said. Bethany hoped Harry hadn't heard what he had said, but Harry did, and it gone downhill from there. She had felt herself slowly losing consciousness, but was helpless when trying to fight it. Before she knew it, she had fallen to the ground as everything around her disappeared into blackness. And now here she was, at Hogwarts, in the hospital wing with Harry beside her.

She looked over at Harry once again, trying to see if he showed any sign of movement. Nothing. Harry didn't move a centimetre. Bethany wasn't sure he even blinked. His eyes were still wide open, staring into oblivion. She began to fear he was brain dead or some such thing. Bethany shifted to her side and held herself up with her arm, facing Harry.

"Psst, Harry," Bethany whispered violently, trying to get his attention. "Harry? Are you okay? Talk to me."

Harry kept still for a few seconds before he blinked and turned his head slightly towards Bethany. "I'm okay," he said dully.

Bethany wanted to reply, but as she watched him turn his head back and stare at the ceiling again, she decided not to. She feared that Harry wouldn't ever want to speak to her. The way he answered her seemed dispassionate and heartless, causing her to feel a bit of hurt. Bethany was left clueless, not knowing what else to do. She had already tried talking to him; doing anything rash would just make Harry even angrier.

"I don't hate you," Harry said after minutes of silence passed. "I mean, forgive me for not being cheerful and all, but you do deserve the cold shoulder."

Harry's voice surprised Bethany. She gazed at him as he continued to stare into nothingness, still speaking to her.

"I know what I did was horrible, but you have to understand, Harry, it isn't easy telling people that your grandfather is Voldemort. The way you handled the news about Dumbledore being my grandfather was shocking enough. How was I supposed to tell you the darkest wizard in the world, who's trying to kill you, is my grandfather?" Bethany asked firmly.

Harry swiftly turned his head and faced her. "I understand why you would be scared. It's the lying part that got to me. Okay, well, you weren't actually lying, but you weren't telling the whole truth either. I wouldn't have judged you based on who your grandfather is."

"You'd be surprised how many people do," Bethany responded glumly. "I'm so sorry you had to find out the way you did, Harry. By Draco, I mean."

"Don't get me started on him," Harry warned. "You said you'd explain everything. Start explaining."

Bethany sighed and turned away. She chose not to look at Harry as she began her story about her past. "My parents were both Death Eaters. And when I mean both, I mean my mother, Rachelle, who was Dumbledore's daughter."

"So, Dumbledore had a daughter no one knew about?"

"People knew about her, but only the bad things. My grandfather - Dumbledore, not Voldemort - forced too much pressure on my mother to be someone she wasn't. He wanted her to be his prodigy because everyone expected her to be. My mother fought him with hatred and refused to be someone she wasn't. Finally, she was so angry she wanted to hurt my grandfather the way he hurt her."

"She became a Death Eater," Harry said, thinking aloud.

Bethany shook her head. "She ran away from him and the life she was meant to live. Along the way, she met Lex - or rather, Alexander. He was Voldemort's son, his heir, his only child."

"Okay, this is too unreal. Voldemort having a son? You got to be kidding me."

"This is my past, Harry. It may sound unrealistic, but it's not, no matter how much I wish it were." Bethany paused few a few seconds before continuing. "My mother didn't know Lex was Voldemort's son. If she knew, I doubt it would have made a difference in her decision. She fell in love with him, and like most Shakespearean love stories, there was a tragic ending. Once my mother found out who my dad really was, she was already pregnant with me. She had no other choice than to stay with him and become a Death Eater."

"So, your mum was just another person Voldemort wanted recruited to his side?"

"Somewhat, I guess," Bethany said unsurely. "What I do know is that Voldemort didn't know my mother was Dumbledore's daughter until Lex told him, which was after I was born. Voldemort would have killed my mum if my dad didn't tell him."

"Your dad, Lex, was he anything like his father?" Harry asked curiously.

"To tell you the truth, I don't know. He had my mum; he loved my mum. Don't you see, this thing between my dad choosing to be with my mum was not planned. My dad loved her. He really loved her, and to me, that is one thing Voldemort never was able to do - love."

Bethany fumbled with her hands, still avoiding Harry's glances at her, as she took a few seconds to recollect her past. "After I was born and Voldemort acknowledged I was the granddaughter of Dumbledore and the daughter of his own son, I was to be his heir."

"You, you're meant to be his heir? I'm sorry, Bethany, but it is hard to believe Voldemort wants a girl to be his heir. No offence to you or anything." Harry said amusedly.

"Yeah, well, you're right. He doesn't want a girl to be his heir. He wants my son to be his heir."

Bethany finally looked over at Harry. She saw his eyes full of disbelief and astonishment. He was upright, sitting and staring at her as if he waited for a "just kidding" from Bethany.

"Wait, wait, hold on a minute. Are you telling me you're p-pregnant... with Draco's son?"

Bethany smiled and began to laugh. "No, no, no, I'm not pregnant, nor is Draco ever going to be the father of my child. I told you, he's not my boyfriend."

"Anymore," Harry added. "He's not your boyfriend anymore."

Bethany's smile faded and she turned away from Harry. She didn't want to linger on thoughts of Draco. Thinking about him only made pain strike her heart and made her eyes water. Bethany didn't want to cry, not in front of Harry, anyhow. In order to take her mind off Draco, she decided to continue with her story before Harry starts to ask more question about Draco.

"Anyway," Bethany said as she turned back to face Harry. "Voldemort wanted to brand me with his Dark Mark, but my parents refused. They wanted me to be out of his control. They loved me. They wanted me to be able to choose what I wanted when both of them were never able to. My parents betrayed Voldemort and left to find Dumbledore. They knew that it would be only a matter of hours before Voldemort would find them and kill them. When my parents found Dumbledore, they left me with him. Dumbledore promised to protect me and give me the freedom of choices he didn't give to my mum.

"My parents left Dumbledore and ran as far away as possible for my safety. When Voldemort found them, nothing stopped him from killing them. Dumbledore tried to convince them to stay and allow him to protect them, but they refused. They didn't want me to grow up looking over my shoulder. So in the end, I grew up with my grandfather, went to muggle school for a couple of years and when he decided to take the freedom of being at a regular school from me, he home schooled me, and kept my life a secret so I could be safe."

Bethany saw Harry's reaction when she finally ended her story. He seemed confused, but yet able to accept her past. Minutes of silence passed, and Harry said nothing. Bethany began to believe that he didn't want to be nosy and ask questions even though she was perfectly fine with it.

"Harry, are you freaked out about me now?" Bethany asked, breaking the stillness.

Harry didn't respond. Instead, he rose up from his bed and walked over the Bethany. "No, I still think you're stubborn and a bit of a brat," Harry assured, taking a seat next to Bethany on her bed.

"Good to know," Bethany smiled. "I don't want you to feel sorry for me just because I lost everyone in my life. I'm like you, Harry. I lost my parents the same way you did, and I don't like feel sorry for people, so I treat you the way that I want you to treat me. "

"You want me to treat you like crap?"

"I do not treat you like crap!" Bethany said in a surprised tone. "I'm just not too concerned about your feelings."

"It's the same thing," Harry emphasised

Bethany smiled at Harry as he returned a grin back. For the first time, in a very long time, Bethany felt happy. Her laughter with Harry and her smiles created feelings she always longed for, feelings she hadn't experienced in a long time. The only time she had ever felt this way was when she was with Draco. Draco always made her laugh and smile just by saying the simplest things. Bethany's happiness from being with Harry was one of the things that led her to believe Harry had more in common with Draco than he realised.

Bethany turned towards the window and stared out onto the courtyard of Hogwarts. The fields of grass were filled with students filing out of the school and making their way towards the Hogsmeade station to ride the train back home. As she watched them, Bethany felt lost and slightly lonely. Now that her grandfather was gone, she had no one to go home to, no family, nothing but emptiness. Her eyes began to water, and she tried hard to stop her tears from releasing. Bethany began to think about what she had said to Harry, and crying in front of him would only result in him feeling sorry for her. She didn't want that, nor did she want to think about the future.

"You okay?" Harry asked. "You're kind of quiet."

Bethany didn't realise that minutes had passed as she thought to herself. She snapped back to reality and faced Harry.

"I'm fine, just thinking. I really don't remember what happened in the forest," Bethany said, trying to change the subject. "How are your friends?"

"Ron and Hermione are okay, and they're wandering around school together. I don't think they went to the Hogsmeade station with the other students. They should be waiting for me, and now that I think about it, I have no idea where Ginny is," Harry replied.

"Well, it's good to know your friends are okay. So, is Draco... I mean, how is he, or where is he?" Bethany asked reluctantly. "You know what, don't answer that."

"Okay, I won't. Only because I don't know where he is or how he is. It's okay to still care, Bethany. Care about Draco."

Bethany stared into Harry's eyes and saw he was being serious. She knew Harry hated him, but something had made him say those things about Draco. Maybe it was because Harry knew she had a past relationship with him or that she still loves him in some way. Bethany had never spoken about Draco to anyone, not even her own grandfather. And now she had an urge to tell Harry -the worst person in the world to talk to about Draco.

"Can I ask you something?" Harry's voice held a stern tone that caught Bethany's attention. "How do you know Draco?"

"Well, where do you think I lived all my life when Dumbledore was at Hogwarts?"

"Uh, in a homeless shelter?" Harry humoured.

"No," Bethany replied tensely. "I was living here, at Hogwarts, with my grandfather. No one knew it except Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape, and Hagrid."

"You were at Hogwarts, and no student ever saw you?"

"I didn't attend any classes because my grandfather didn't want me to, but other students saw me. I just looked like another student. No one came up to me and asked 'Hey, are you Dumbledore's granddaughter?' So, I just pretended I belonged," Bethany said. "I met Draco at Hogwarts during his fourth year."

"So, that explains a lot. That's why you said you were home schooled. Hogwarts is your home," Harry concluded.

"Basically, it is my home, but now that it's closing, there is no such thing as a home for me. I have nowhere to go, and Draco is out of my life by my choice."

The feeling of despair crept back into Bethany's heart again. She closed her eyes and brought her hands to her face. Tears didn't form, but her body language told Harry she was more than alone. Bethany rubbed her eyes and began to take her hands away from her face. She felt Harry's arm resting on her shoulder, enclosing her and pulling her closer to him. As she leaned her head onto his shoulder, Harry comforted her.

"You can come with me," Harry offered gently. "I'm going with Ron, Ginny, and Hermione to the Burrow -the Weasleys' house. Ron's brother, Bill, is getting married. You're welcomed to come, if you have nowhere else to go. I know that you're busy and all," he ended sarcastically.

"I don't want to be a burden with my stubbornness," Bethany responded in a humourous manner.

Harry laughed. "Just say you'll come."

"Alright, I'll come, but only if Draco isn't there."

"Don't worry, Bethany. Draco won't be anywhere near the Burrow. Trust me," Harry assured her confidently.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------