Draco’s Remorse

AN: This is the Re-Betaed form of Draco’s Remorse… Hope you like it!


Chapter 1


It had been one of those days.

At breakfast Weasel had joked about Draco's father rotting in Azkaban, making the great hall ring with laughter, even the Headmistress had smiled widely. After his return to school his Slytherin classmates avoided him. Crabbe and Goyle had been told to keep away from him, “because he can’t be trusted,” as Crabbe’s father pointed out. So that meant that he didn’t have any friends or support from his house.

He left. What else could he do? Words of insult hit him in the back. He should have stayed away and taken the chance with the Dark Lord's anger. But when Snape had taken him to his mother, the two of them had persuaded him to seek shelter under the protection of the Order of the Phoenix. His mother had practically begged him saying that she couldn’t bear to lose him, too. He had always shared a special bond with his mother and the one thing that could break him was her tears, so he caved in.

As he walked up the stairs, heading for his hide-away, he met Granger. She smiled and looked down, her arm touching his as she passed. It was not on purpose, but still it sent a wave of shock through him. He had become use to the fact that no one touched him. Well, only if they pushed him, hit him or otherwise reminded him that he was now at the bottom of the pecking order. So the gentle stroke of Granger's arm against his made him jump. If she noticed she didn’t let him know. She just continued on her path to the great hall.

He felt hollow. Empty. He began to spend more and more time in the library. With no one to talk to he found comfort in the books. He had even started to read books written by muggles. He really fancied a poem by Maya Angelou called “Alone” since that was how he felt. Alone!

As the morning passed and he got ready for the day’s classes he prayed that for once he could sit through a potions class without rude comments from the professor. He knew he had been spoiled in that class, Snape was his Godfather after all, but he was good at potions. Only Granger could beat him in tests. The professor clearly hated him for letting the Death Eaters into Hogwarts which led to Dumbledore’s death. His stomach contracted every time he thought of that night. It haunted his dreams. He had been about to take Dumbledore up on his offer. If the Death Eaters had
come just 5 minutes later…

He stood there, starring out of the window, lost in his own thoughts when something hard hit him in the back head. “Oy, Ferret… Professor Slughorn sent me to remind you not to be late for Potions… It’s test day!” Weasel just laughed as Draco looked back at him in rage. As Weasel walked away down the corridor his laughter bounced off the walls. Draco picked up his bag, took a deep breath and headed to the dungeon.

As he entered the classroom the only free desk was at the very front. “Great,” he muttered and dropped his things next to the desk. Slughorn stood behind his desk and growled in contempt. “Is my class not worthy of you presence, Malfoy?” Slughorn hissed as Draco sat down. Some girls giggled and a loud “Ha!” was heard. Draco didn’t answer and just looked at the professor tiredly. “You are just as rotten as your decaying father,” Slughorn said in the most patronizing voice. Draco’s light grey eyes went black and he pushed himself up from the desk and jumped at the professor, hitting his clenched fist on Slughorn’s chin, sending the professor to the floor; eyes wide open in shock.

That was the last straw. Draco’s mind went blank as he hit the professor again and again, until someone paralysed him with a Petrificus Totalus. He was ripped away from the professor and stared up into Potter’s eyes. Draco didn’t even care that hot tears ran down his face. He wished he was dead. Anything was better that the look of pity that was present in Potter’s eyes. “Someone please get Headmistress McGonagall.” Potter said in a hushed voice as some other students helped Slughorn to his feet. “If I end the spell, you’ll behave?” Potter asked. Draco blinked. “Finite.” As the spell wore off Draco sat up and pushed himself into a corner staring into space.

“Bloody ‘ell, Harry. He snapped!” Ron whispered as Hermione sat down beside Draco and put her hand on his arm. “Think we’ve been too hard on him?” Ron wondered. “Well what do you think?!” Hermione snapped, not even looking at her friends. She had tried to convince the two boys that Malfoy wasn’t as bad as they made him out to be and that he only did what he did because of the Dark Lord’s threat of killing his parents. It wasn’t like Draco had believed that he had a choice and Harry himself had told Ron and Hermione that Draco couldn’t kill Dumbledore when he had the chance.

Draco didn’t want to face anyone right now. He knew he had stepped over the line and knew that he would be punished for it. When Granger placed her hand on his arm, his first thoughts had been to pull away, but he needed the touch of comfort. The warmth from her hand felt nice. He slowly turned his face to hers and looked into a couple of worried brown eyes. “Sorry…!” he whispered. And he meant it. He had been a prick and he knew it and now when he was all alone, she was the one to comfort him. He felt so ashamed. “It’s all right… You didn’t know better,” she smiled back at him then looked up as McGonagall joined them.


“Draco Malfoy! How dare you hit a professor?” McGonagall’s voice trembled with fury as she stared at the young man hiding in the corner. “It wasn’t his fault, Headmistress. Professor Slughorn made a rude comment about his father. And with the incident this morning, Malfoy just snapped.” Hermione said in a determined voice. “Everybody has a point where enough is enough and we haven’t exactly been friendly towards him recently.” Hermione stood up. “If he is to be punished I want to join him!” McGonagall looked at her favourite student in disbelief. The headmistress knew that Hermione and Draco had been sworn enemies for the last 6 years and to see Hermione stand up for her nemesis confused McGonagall. As Headmistress she had no choice but to punish a student who attacked a professor. But it seemed that in this case it was the professor's own fault, so young Mr. Malfoy wouldn’t be expelled. “Very well, Miss Granger. When exams come you will be tested on the full syllabus and serve detention every day cleaning the dungeons. And when you are through cleaning the dungeons, you’ll work your way up to the astronomy tower.”

Hermione’s jaw dropped. The full syllabus was not a problem for either one of them, but to clean the whole castle! The sound of Draco rising from the floor made Hermione turn her head. He had a look of disbelief on his face. Hermione thought that it was because of the punishment, but it was for a totally different reason. He didn’t believe what he had heard. Hermione Granger, his long time archenemy was willing, nay, demanding to share his punishment! He was speechless and didn’t know what else to do. He placed his hand on her shoulder and gave it a light squeeze and just shook his head.

“It’s not fair!” Ron grunted “’Mione hasn’t done anything. She’s the only one that hasn’t been a jerk towards Fer…Malfoy.” He glared at Malfoy, even if Hermione wasn’t his girlfriend anymore, he didn’t like Malfoy’s hand on her shoulder. Even if he WAS innocent, Malfoy had still been prick and caused Mione to cry on more that one occasion. “It was her own choice, Mr. Weasley,” McGonagall pointed out, “too late to back out now. Class dismissed!”

Hermione waved for her friends to go on without her and then turned to face Malfoy. “Hope I’m doing the right thing, Malfoy!” she said in a tone that was just a little too harsh and she looked down before she continued. “Not even you deserve to be lonely and fair game for anyone.” She looked up into a pair of light grey eyes full of wonder. “I’ll be good… Promise.” Draco’s voice sounded strange, hushed and soft and a little shaken. Hermione hadn’t seen Draco like this ever before; he had grown up over the last 4 months, of course all of them had in one way or another. But Draco had changed to such a degree that he wasn’t recognisable. Hermione’s thoughts went back to four months ago.


It had been a hectic summer. The Golden Trio had searched for the remaining Horcruxes and with the help of Dumbledore’s Pensieve and the Order members; they had destroyed them one by one as other members kept Voldemort and his Death Eaters busy. The fact that Harry had some sort of connection with the Dark Lord had made it much easier to find the Horcruxes. It was almost like Harry knew where they were and how to get them. And at the same time they found and destroyed the last Horcrux, the Order of the Phoenix and the Ministry were ready for the final battle. It had been one hell of a battle. DA-members had joined OotP-members, battling side by side against the Death Eaters. Voldemort, believing that his Horcruxes was intact, went looking for Harry to kill him. For as the Prophesy said, only one of them would survive the fight and Voldemort knew he had to slay Potter soon or Potter might become too strong.

With his Death Eaters falling like flies around him, he scanned the crowd for the boy and found him in a fierce battle with Greyback. As fun as it was to watch, Voldemort wanted to kill the boy himself. And as he approached he hissed an order to Greyback to go kill somebody else. Greyback wasn’t keen on obeying and snapped once more at Harry, a big mistake. The Dark Lord didn’t need the werewolf after the battle so he cast a silent curse and the big, lanky man fell where as he was, making Harry gasp in disbelief, but he quickly shook it of.

What Voldemort didn’t know was that Harry could hear his every thought. Voldemort, a brilliant Occlumens, thought himself invincible and that was what led to his fall. For every spell, hex or curse Voldemort sent flying towards Harry, Harry blocked, ducked or counter-cursed. This made the Serpent Lord more and more irritated and frustrated, making him more and more reckless.
The two circled each other, not even noticing the ferocious battle taking place around them. Both concentrated on finding a weak spot in the other. Harry didn’t try to curse Voldemort; he just defended himself, trying to drive Voldemort mad or exhaust him, whichever came first. But after over an hour of battle he was growing tired himself and when a stinging hex hit him, Harry knew he had to start fighting back with all he had left. The first spell that popped into his mind was Langlock, and to his own astonishment it hit Voldemort causing his tongue to stick to the top of his mouth. He stared at the sight for a moment then, with a thought that this was too easy, cried Sectumsempra.

At the same time the exact same spell was heard from 3 other voices. Snape, Ron and Hermione had seen what had happened and with one voice from different places around the scene yelled out the only spell they thought strong enough to help Harry defeat the Serpent Lord. Hermione had screamed then looked away in horror. Voldemort was ripped apart by the 4 combined spells. Legs shredded from the torso, deep gapping cuts over the stomach where blood and gore poured out. It was a sight that haunted many after. And with a final shudder Voldemort stopped breathing.
It felt somewhat anti-climatic that the greatest evil wizard that had ever lived was killed by his own stupidity. In the belief that he was invincible, he was brought down by a simple hex and a curse one of his most trusted servants had made.


“Granger? Hey Granger…” Malfoy’s voice called her back to the present. “Huh? Oh, sorry my mind drifted off.” Hermione shook her head and sighed “Well, guess I’ll see you tonight for detention.” She smiled a sad smile and went over to her desk and started to pack her things. Draco followed her example and they packed in silence. As they left Draco had a feeling of tranquillity that he hadn’t experienced in a long time. So maybe he had to clean the castle and maybe he was being tested on the full syllabus, but if that meant that people began to speak to him again and stopped bullying him, he would gladly polish every piece of silver and clean every window until the whole castle sparkled. And if he could, he’d try to make amends for bullying Granger. After he had been on the receiving end, he knew how much words could hurt. Again the feeling of shame made his stomach constrict.


Draco sat on the stone stairs waiting for Granger; there was about 10 minutes until their detention started. Word of his attack on Slughorn had spread through the castle like fire and at dinner time not a single insult was thrown in his direction. Blaise had sat down next to him and started talking like the last 4 months hadn’t happened. It sounds weird, but that was about the closest to an apology one could expect from Zabini. They had been sort of friends, but mostly they had competed in who was the best Slytherin in their year, who could play the meanest tricks on the other houses and who was the biggest girl-magnet. It was kind of silly and childish, but they had had a lot of fun with it. One time Blaise had asked Pansy if she preferred Chocolate or Vanilla making her giggle in a most unbecoming way. In spite of what many people thought Draco had never really been her boyfriend. They had just had some fun; he had better taste for a potential girlfriend than that. Pansy did fancy chocolate as it turned out and now she was always in Zabini's presence, clinging to him as she had done to Draco the past 5 years. As he sat there smiling, he saw a shadow fall though the doorway to the dungeon and looked up.

Hermione walked down the stairs caring a bucket of water, a mop and wearing yellow rubber gloves on her hands. Draco looked confused. “You are planning to do this the muggle way?!” He looked bewildered and when she nodded and smiled back, he couldn’t help it. He busted into laughter. She flushed bright red and stuttered that she thought it would be nice for him to learn this for his Muggle studies. How she knew that he had started Muggle studies by himself, he didn’t know, but she was right. He smiled and walked up to her and picked up a sponge. “Well, teach me then!” The sparkle in his eyes sent an unexpected jolt through Hermione’s body making her blush even deeper and in a very quiet voice she said, “Only if you stop calling me Granger!” Draco pretended to think about it then smiled. “That’s a deal… Hermione.” And the two began to wash the dungeon corridor in silence as they didn’t know what to talk about.

They worked their way down the corridor, each one taking care of one side of the dungeon. Draco watched Hermione in quick glances as she dipped her sponge in the water. A lose piece of hair slid in front of her eyes and she automatically tucked it back behind her ear. Had she always moved so gracefully? Her hair had been a mess of wild brown curls in the first couple of years, but now it looked soft and wavy. She had become quite a fine looking girl, he thought to himself and then he focused on the task of cleaning. He wasn’t used to hard manual labour and sweat poured down his face and back. He unbuttoned his shirt to make himself more comfortable, even considered pouring some of the cold water over him, but thought it too dirty.

Hermione stood on her toes trying to reach a stone ornament on the end wall, but she just couldn’t reach. “Draco, will you please help me?” She turned her head in his direction and watched as he walked towards her. His shirt was unbuttoned, his hair a mess and his face was a light crimson shade from the work. As he walked the unbuttoned shirt revealed a perfect, sculptured body; muscular, but not excessive. His ivory complexion and his semi long blond hair that shone in the dimly lit dungeon made him look like something out of this world. She trembled as he lifted her up so she could reach.

With a cry of surprise they tumbled down a trapdoor and hit the ground with a thump. Draco moaned in pain as he broke the fall for Hermione. The stone ornament had been a switch and now they lay in total darkness. “Where the hell are we?” Draco asked.