On Borrowed Time

On Borrowed Time

Chapter 03 Borrowing A Few Minutes from Time (September 1, 1996 continued)

When Hermione clicked on the Time-Turner, she felt like she was being pulled her backwards, as though an invisible hook was piercing into her stomach, as flashes of the events that just happened reminded her what not to do. When the sensation stopped, she found herself back in her room, her things already there. She was holding both the Time-Turner and her class schedule on her hand.

She glanced towards her clock. It was a quarter past eight. That gives her less than an hour to get to Draco.

"Where were we at that time?" she asked herself loudly. "The sorting started at a quarter past seven, ended at about a quarter before eight. Then Dumbledore spoke and we ate. We should still be eating. It should be safe for me to go."

As quickly as she could, she stealthily ran down the stairs and up towards Harry's bedroom. Quickly, she rummaged through his items, making sure not to misplace anything, and gathered his Invisibility Cloak.

After covering herself with the cloak, Hermione felt like she was trying to run for the Olympics as she ran as fast as she could to the room where Draco will be at. Or where he already is if she had already wasted enough time. She was panting by the time she reached the corner but she did not care. She had a mission and she was going to accomplish it.

She stealthily walked towards the room, making sure not to make any noise at all. When she realized that the piece of cloth she saw before was not there, she sighed in relief. That meant that Draco was not in the room yet.

She then hurriedly ran into the room and hid by the curtains near the door and readied herself for what was to come. Just as Hermione pulled the wand out of her pocket, as if on cue, Draco walked into the room. He was sniffling as he headed towards the window.

"The old moon laughed and sang a song," he said as he stared out into the moonlit sky. "As they rocked in the wooden shoe. And the wind that sped them all night long ruffled the waves of dew---"

Hermione mouthed the rest of the poem with him, for she also knew this poem by heart.

"Wynken, Blynken, and Nod."

However, she had accidentally said the last lines loudly, and Draco obviously heard it.

"Who's there?" he shouted as he walked towards the middle of the room. "Show yourself, NOW! OW!"

Hermione pointed her wand at him as she quickly got out from behind the curtains.

"Granger!" he said in a quite detested voice. "What are you doing here?"

Hermione took a deep breath at the sight of the dagger and the vial of poison that Draco had on either hand. She then stared at his grey eyes, still visible even under the poor lighting of the moonlight.

"Are you deaf? What are you doing here? Never mind. Just get out of here and leave me be, Mudblood."

Hermione calmly took a few deep breaths in before pointing her wand towards the hand in which he carried the vial with.

"Put the vial down, Malfoy."

"Just leave!"

"Don't even think of committing suicide by drinking the Draught of the Living Dead and slashing your wrists, Malfoy. Hand them both over."

"How did you---"

"I said put it down or I will place you under an Imperio Curse and make you act like a very hyper Chihuahua!"

"You are not allowed to do that! Besides, you don't have the skills to do that."

"And I can make sure you twitch whenever I say the word, Draco. Do you dare test me?"

Draco slowly walked towards her and bent down to place the vial on the ground. However, before he could stand up, Hermione gave him another order.

"The dagger beside the vial, please."

He glared up at her but surrendered the other items anyway. He stood up, took two steps back and glared at her angrily.

"You are making such a big mistake."

"The one making the biggest mistake here is you," she said, still pointing her wand at him. "You should not be trying to commit suicide."

"How did you know I was heading this way to do that? What are you, some kind of psychic?"

"Just consider me as your guardian angel," she said as she reached for the vial and pouring its the contents onto the floor. But when she was about to kick the dagger towards the dark side of the room, she noticed something red glimmering at its tip. She looked up at him and noticed that blood was already trickling down his left arm. She hurriedly got up and walked towards him.

"You're bleeding, Draco. Let's get you to Madame Pomfrey."

"Are you serious? I can't."

"Why not?"

"Are you blind?" he muttered in a panicked voice.

"I can see that you are bleeding---"

"Not that you twat! It's...it's---"

"It's because you do not want anyone seeing your Dark Mark?" she answered surely. "Fine, then stay still so I can at least stop the bleeding."

"Leave me alone! It's bad enough that you foiled my plans for tonight. Forcing me to take help from a Muggleborn like you... OW!"

Hermione, frustrated, took her wand out again and pressed it against his chin.

"If you don't stay still, I will make you believe you are a five year old girl and have all the Slytherin girls see you with girlish plaits on your hair. Be a good boy and stay still!" Draco nodded and let Hermione tend to him. But as she was about to tie her handkerchief on his cut, she quivered at the thought of how close her hand was to his Dark Mark.

"I could be sent to Azkaban just for having this thing on my arm. I... I don't want to---"

It was the first time she ever saw Draco that close to her and it was also the first time she saw him shake in fear.

"Please don't tell anyone."

"You're a Death Eater, Malfoy. Your kind tried to kill my boyfriend and was successful with a close friend of mine. Why should I do you any favours?"

"I tried to get out of it, I swear! Did you think I have a choice not to become one? I was forced to!"

"I think you're a filthy liar. You are evil to the core."

"I think you're the liar. You do believe me."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because you would not have stopped me from killing myself and you would have been more careful with me. If you believed I was naturally evil, you would not have come this close to me knowing that I might have my wand in one of my pockets."

Hermione just realized her vulnerability at that moment. She did overlook the fact that Draco could have a wand his pocket and she wanted to kick herself for even forgetting about it.

"Don't worry," answered Draco. "I left my wand. I thought I had no use for it since I am killing myself."

"Now, you are not. I will make you a deal, Malfoy," she said as she leaned by the window sill. "How about you sit here with me, tell my why you planned to do this, and I promise not to tell anyone that you have the Dark Mark?"

"How do I know a Mudblood---" Draco bit his lip and hang his head. "How do I know you would keep your word?"

"For someone asking a favour, you sure were a rude one. You're lucky I feel guilty about kicking you in the shins this morning. I'll let that slip of the tongue pass and as long as you promise not cause anyone including yourself any harm, I won't say anything about your Dark Mark."

Draco looked down on his arm and lightly touched the handkerchief, which was now covering his cut and his Dark Mark.

"Why did you let me call you what I called you and then accept my apology?" he asked emotionally as he looked into Hermione's eyes. "Why are keeping the secret? Why did you not just leave me here to bleed to death? Why are you doing these things for me? WHY?"

"To answer your first question, it is because I am a forgiving person. If I were to be mean, I would either leave you as you had imagined I would do or I would have ran to Pomfrey and tell her what you did to yourself."

"You're lying."

"To answer the second of the previous questions, I just think you're human, just like every single one of us. We all make mistakes, and yours was choosing to be who you are. Why you joined the Death Eaters is beyond me, especially after what happened to your father."

"You really thought I wanted to be Death Eater, Hermione?" he half-shouted. "You thought I enjoy being me, arrogant as all hell and the pain in everyone's butt? Well I don't! I was trained... no, I was forced to be who I am! I was trained to take my father's place as His follower if anything were to happen to Him. Father made sure I become his same exact sickening replica. I thought there would be a chance I would not have to become a Death Eater because Voldemort was before our day. But no! He was revived, my father was sent to Azkaban and I had to take my father's place!

"Even now that Voldemort is dead, He is still haunts my dreams, I can't sleep! He's haunts me. His voice, it's menacing and hearing it repeat the same platitudes night after night is driving me insane. I just... I can't take it anymore. I can't do what he asks me to do. Not anymore!"

A steady teardrop streamed down Draco's cheek. He turned away from her, as if to hide what had just happened. He tried not to look at her as he held in his tears but Hermione held his chin and made him look at her directly.

"Don't be ashamed of what you've done. You seem to be sorry about your actions and that's what matters. You do regret your actions, am I right?"

"I do. And I am willing to prove that I can turn a new leaf."

"If you wanted to prove that, tell me how that is possible if you are to kill yourself? How are you going to ask for salvation if you are dead?"

"I guess I can't. But people won't accept my change anyway, I know it."

"Not everyone is against you. People can be forgiving. People can accept the new you. But killing yourself is like passing off a chance."

He sniffled as he wiped away his tears.

"Thank you for knocking some sense into me."

"As long as I see some improvement in you in the future, I just might forgive all the things you did and said about me in due time."

"Thank you very much, Hermione," he said as offered his hand to her. "My name is Draco Malfoy, by the way. The new Draco Malfoy."

"Very pleased to meet you, Draco Malfoy," she said as she smiled at him.

"Yeah... Hermione? Can I ask you one more favour?" he suddenly asked.

"As long as it is not too big for me to handle, I'll do it for you."

"Can I talk to you sometimes, like how Ron and Harry talk to you? Can I confide in you?"

"I suppose we can do that."

"And I will no longer treat you like dirt like I did before. I'll treat you like I would any person. I meant I would treat you properly, like how a good-natured person treats another. Not like how I used to be. That was the old me---"

Within moments, Draco collapsed in front of her. She was able to catch him right on time. Unfortunately, a rustling came from outside the door.

Without even thinking twice, she let Draco down gently on the ground and hid herself under the Invisibility Cloak.

"What the---" she heard herself say as the other Hermione ran towards Draco. "Draco? DRACO! HELP! Someone help!!!"

When her double ran out of the room to get help, she headed straight for her bedroom and waited patiently for her, Harry and Dumbledore to appear.

While she waited, she paced in her room worriedly.

'Now that the circumstances are different, will Dumbledore still send me back in time to save Draco? What if he does not? I am going to be stuck in this time with another Hermione.'

As she continued contemplating of what could happen to her, the sound of stifling sobs echoed from outside her bedroom door. Again she hid under the cloak and listened in on their conversation.

"It was all so sudden. I saw this piece of torn cloth on the floor and heard a voice. I followed it and ended up in the room. I heard him shuffling, told him to come out and then when he did, he fainted in front of me. I screamed for help but when no one came, I ran to library and then... and then---"

"Mr. Potter, I would like to speak with Miss Granger privately, please."

The other Hermione nodded her head weakly towards Harry and gave him a big hug before he left the room.

"The loss of Mr. Malfoy seems to have affected you greatly, Miss Granger," incline Dumbledore.

"Seeing someone just die like that, thinking that you could have done something, could still stir the emotion of one's mortal enemy or friend."

"I am apologizing right now for what I am about to say, Miss Granger. I would really hate to ask you to do something especially since you still seem to shaken up about what had just happened."

"What is it, Professor?"

'Do I really sniffle that loudly?' Hermione asked herself. 'Oh, that's disgraceful.'

"You know that I would not normally do anything with the Time-Turner that would change the events of history. Mr. Malfoy may not be the best of people but I think he was just a lost boy. But that does not mean he should have been a lost cause. He was torn between himself and the path that his father had chosen for him. I know he is not an evil boy, as many of you would think. He deserves a second chance and I think we should give him that. What I am proposing you do, Miss Granger, is to prevent Mr. Malfoy from killing myself."

"Professor, do you mean you are asking me to turn back time and get to Draco before he tried to commit suicide?"

"Yes, Miss Granger. I would like you to go back in time a few minutes before he drinks the poison."

"I don't think I am the best person for the job, Professor. I think someone else would do a much better job. And Malfoy will not listen to me. He detests me."

"Let not looks deceive you, Miss Granger. Draco will hear you out, I am sure of it."

"But Professor---"

"I can't think of anyone else who could prevent this from happening, Miss Granger. But if you prefer to keep things the way they are or someone else to do the task, I will respect your decision."

"I will do it, Professor."

"Thank you, Miss Granger. A two clicks will do it," he said. "You know what to do."

When the other Hermione disappeared, Hermione came out from under the Invisibility Cloak and went over to Dumbledore.

"Do you think I did it correctly, sir?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Miss Granger."

After a quick wink, Dumbledore left the room.

"Hermione?" whispered Harry from behind the door. "Are you alright?"

"I am fine, Harry," she said. "I will be fine."