Tainted White

A_N/ The following chapter is a short one....but I hope you'll like it....

Thank you for your loyalty and kind reviews...Thanks to Lala for beta_ing this chapter, and hey to Cassie, if she's reading it. ^__^


CHAPTER TEN

Was it relief?

Happiness?

Joy?

Or was it grief that you felt Hermione?

How will you ever explain yourself to them? Maybe you'll say that you thought they were dead....Maybe you'll say that you didn't know what you were doing because the pain lead you.....Maybe you'll say that you saw him changed.....Maybe you'll say that you were broken....Maybe you'll say it was a mistake, everyone makes them.

Maybe you'll lie.

Maybe you'll just stay silent.

Because there are no words to justify it.

Why are you crying?

There are no tears to drown the guilt...no tears to materialize the remorse.

Hermione.

It's even harder now, isn't it? Now that you know.......The world outside these walls is no longer yours. Did you ever think that a world full of stone, wood, sun, water....grass...people could disappear soooo easily? With a kiss. Did you?

The girl...broken. Left alone....with no one to tell her it will be ok...it will be over one day...With no hope of finding her peace...her strength....Who can she ask for forgiveness?

When they come and see her here, they will be blind for her tears....they will only see their angel, once so pure, now tainted. Their greatest possession, taken away....That's why she won't cry....until they turn their backs to her. Then she would break. Then she would scream. She would die, knowing that she killed them both. She would cry all the tears she had left.

It made no difference that he was the one that revealed Voldemort's hiding place. No difference at all. Because she didn't know it then. That night, he was the same Draco Malfoy that killed Seamus, the same Draco Malfoy that wore the Mark... not the Draco Malfoy who betrayed Voldemort. And to Harry, she will not lie. She couldn't.

Nice to see you admit it. You knew what you were doing. And who with, but it didn't stop you.......................you let him anyway.

Somehow, it was easier to live in a world where there was no light. Where her friends were dead, her life shattered....It was easier to exist in a world from ten minutes ago. This new world.... this new one was ripping her apart.

The happy life they'd fought for was waiting for her outside these walls, and now she will never be a part of it. She will never experience the happiness they'd longed for for so long. She will never be welcome there....never forgiven.

This prison will be her shelter. This is where she'll hide her face ....this is where she'll burry her heart. She can live without it. She has to. Because the pain that was crushing her chest was too much to bare and stay alive.

Hermione made her decision.

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When Martha closed the door to Hermione's room, she found her Master waiting for her in the hall...He looked at her and knew. She could tell he knew.

'I'm so sorry, Master....I couldn't stand to watch her like that...anymore. I can't stand to watch you like this anymore. It has to stop ...this....has to stop.'

' So you figured you would help? Merlin himself could not help...he could not fix it, but you figured you could...'

He was calm....but Martha knew him well enough to know that on the inside, there was a storm raging.. She could see the fire burning with anger in his eyes. She deserved it....

' I love you too much to watch you suffer like this....ever since your mother died...'

'SHUT UP!' he yelled and pointed at her....his index finger threatening. That subject was forbidden. She was afraid....but knew he would never hurt her so she continued, ' You have been dying since that day....and I can watch it no longer....'

'I SAID SHUT UP WOMAN!'

' I thought that a young woman in this house would fix you....I thought she would heal you....but she only ruined you more....'

Draco headed towards her, ready to make her silent....but the tears in her eyes made him turn around and walk away....

There was one place he needed to be...only one place that would make it better......

A place he neglected...a place he was afraid of........

He ran to her grave....and when the first daffodils bent under his feet, he slowed down....hesitating....

There in the middle, a black, marble tombstone seemed like a shadow. The moonlight was so bright, and it made the silver letters shine and stab into his heart; it reminded him that she was gone, and he was furious for not being able to bring her back...so furious, so helpless...

Draco let his love and sorrow pull him closer to the stone...closer to her....

He touched the shadow...kneeled down and, with his palms pressing at his closed eyelids, twined his fingers into his hair.....................

This is where his love was buried...

Here rested the reason he hated sunshine...and his heart shrunk....the air became so heavy that he could not stand to inhale it anymore.....

He pressed his forehead to the clod stone in front of him....


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She went after him.....Martha asked her to......there was something about that place that made her want to come back....

She thought she would confront him...yell and scream at him, but when she arrived, protected in a shadow...she watched him...frozen mid-step.

Hermione never knew that tears on Draco Malfoy's face would ever make him look that beautiful.


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A_N...review please