Trial by Fire

Feed the author, and she will feed you. Happy reading I hope this was what you were looking for. ~Ivy


Draco awoke suddenly from a sound sleep the next Sunday to find his bed empty. This was indeed a strange occurrence. Over the past week Hermione had taken to crawling into his bed in the middle of the night to cuddle up next to him. Thinking for once in their relationship she had woken up early. He readied himself for the days events, when he stepped into the common room, his heart fell. She wasn’t there. She wasn’t even in the castle. Draco went barreling through the castle to the Great Hall.

Making a bee-line for Harry and Ron, Draco halted before plowing right into them. They didn’t even get the chance to say hello. “Have you seen Hermione?”

“Not since yesterday. Why what happened.” The panic on Draco’s face had not gone unnoticed.

“She isn’t here. I can’t feel her anywhere, she isn’t on the grounds. There was no reason for her to go anywhere today. We were supposed to be finishing the details on the dance.”

“Go talk to the headmaster. If she really did leave the school then he would have to know. Unless she was taken,” Harry exclaimed jumping from his seat.

“No, she is safe. Well, I should say she isn’t hurt, I can’t feel any physical pain. Maybe I will talk to the headmaster.” Draco got up and walked through the rest of the Great Hall heading straight for the head table. This wasn’t necessarily an uncommon occurrence for the Head Boy to be seen going up to speak with any of the professors.

“Professor Dumbledore, may I have a private word with you?” the respectful young man asked.

“Of course my child, follow me.” The Headmaster took the young man into a room off the side of the Great Hall. “What can I do for you Mr. Malfoy?”

“Hermione is no where to be found. Potter and Weasley haven’t seen her and I know she hasn’t been in the castle for hours.”

“How can you be so sure Draco?”

“I can’t even feel her lingering.”

“Mr. Malfoy, while I assure you that Ms. Granger is fine, you are correct she is no longer in the castle. She was called away on a family emergency. Given her excellent grades and her position as Head Girl I felt she would do better at home during this trying time.”

“What happened?”

“That is for Ms. Granger to explain. Should you need any help while she is away let me to suggest Mr. Potter to help with the extra duties.”

“It’s not the duties I am worried about Professor. You know better then anyone that I can’t live with out her.”

“Yes, but my dear boy it’s not as if you two are on a deadline, you have almost a full year before you would start to feel the effects of her being gone from your life.”

“She started the countdown early.” Draco simply stated.

“Oh dear, when?”

“Right after we got here I was suffering and she thought it would make me feel better. It did for the moment but now we only have until Christmas Eve.”

“That changes very little I don’t foresee her being gone long enough to have any long lasting effects. And I can’t very well send you off after her like a love sick puppy now can I?”

“No, sir I’ll just be on my way then. Thank you for your time Professor.” Draco left through the side door entering one of the lonely corridors. He was in no mood to see anyone, she had left, something had happened in her life and she had up and left without as much as shaking him awake to say good bye.

Draco found Harry and Ron waiting in front of the portrait guarding the heads common room. He supposed he should have known fighting side by side for your lives will forge a friendship out of nothing, even hatred. He allowed them entrance and turning when his name was called.

Pansy saw the crestfallen look even though he recovered quickly. “Harry and Ron told us you might want to talk.”

“I really wish they hadn’t been right,” Draco murmured into the crook of Pansy’s neck as he hugged her. He held her tightly wishing she could make it better, anyone could. “I…”

“Shh, baby lets go in and sit down, then you only have to tell the story once.” He nodded and followed her and Blaise into his common room.

The five students sat strewn across the common room in silence for some time. When the silence was broken it was Harry, not Draco.

“Don’t anyone take this the wrong way, but Pansy what are you doing here? I mean the last time you came near Draco Hermione almost took your head off.”

“That’s because last time I was around I was trying to get into his pants. A mate can sense things like that. It no longer applies to Draco.” Pansy could see the look of confusion on the Gryffindors faces. “Normally I never explain myself however, in light of the situation, I will. I love Draco, not exclusively like a brother, when we have an itch; we scratch it for each other. Since he has found his mate, he has no itch. I’ll always love him but that doesn’t mean I have to sleep with him.”

Draco spoke next, everyone hung on what he was about to say. “Hermione went home. Something happened with her parents. I don’t know what it was or how bad it might be all the headmaster would tell me was that he gave her permission to leave. He also told me there was no way I would be able to leave as well. Not that it really matters; she didn’t even tell me she was leaving.”

“Why can’t you feel her? I thought she was your mate and you could always sense her?” Ron asked sheepishly.

“In extreme cases,” Blaise interrupted. “Like when a Veela’s mate is in sever emotional distress all a mate can tell is that they are alive and not in any danger themselves. If she is upset because her parents are hurt there may be too many things going on with her heart for Draco to get a clear lock on her.”

“She isn’t really mine.” Draco whispered.

“Yes she is. She has only ever been yours. Trust me I know,” Harry replied. When Draco just stared at him blankly he elaborated. “That night when we almost killed you, she didn’t even blink. She wasn’t thinking with her brain she was leading with her heart, part of that was because she had been with me earlier. The other part was because Hermione always knew, in her heart at least, that you were meant for her.”

“Meant for her or not she didn’t think much about waking me up to tell me where she went.”

“She was just upset; did you really expect her to knock on your door on her way out?” Ron asked.

“All she had to do was poke me I was sleeping right next to her.”

“Wait you two are sleeping together?”

“In the most literal terms I promise you that until Christmas. Unless of course she is trying to kill me.”

“So,” Harry asked, “who started the countdown you or her?”

“She did. Listen guys I really appreciate the fact that you guys came down here to talk to me but I really just need to chill out and be by myself.”

Everyone gathered their things and headed to their respective common rooms to leave Draco time to himself.

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Week two pasted along and while the Head Girls absence was duly noted, it didn’t affect anyone’s day to day habits. Except Draco’s of course. He had barley eaten since she left, written her dozens of letters, completed all of his upcoming homework and finished the invitations to the Christmas Ball. He sent the first one to her.

Hermione was fighting her own demons. While her parents were home and for all intents and purposes out of danger she couldn’t leave them yet. She was having the headmaster send all of her assignments. While pouring over her potions work she broke down into tears. She wished for Draco to be there maybe that was what got her. That she was doing all this with out him, and she hated it.

Hermione had been gone for well over three weeks before she even found the personal letters from Hogwarts. The one from her friends had just been piled up with her homework. She answered them one by one; the last one she came upon was Draco’s. She sent the others off wanting to spend more time writing to him, giving him more details and a personal view on what was going on.

With her personal letter she also responded to the invitation to the Christmas Ball. The only problem was that Draco never got to read the letter. By the time it reached him he was on the verge of a coma being watched by Madam Pomfry.

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Three days later Hermione returned to school. It was the middle of November at this point. Nothing had changed. She was greeted by an empty common room, not surprising it was the middle of the day on a Friday. Checking the time she gathered her books and headed for class. She made it to the dungeons just in time to be dismissed. She waited or the students to trickle out, she saw Ron and Harry approaching but not Draco. In fact he was nowhere in sight.

“Hermione your back!” Ron shouted.

“What are you doing here? Have you been to see Draco already? How is he doing? Did he wake up?” she wasn’t sure which of Harry’s questions to answer first. She did however have a few of her own.

“What on earth are you talking about Harry? I have only just barley steeped inside the castle and why would Draco been sleeping in the middle of the day?”

“Oh, Hermione you haven’t heard. Draco is in the hospital wing. He collapsed in the hallway three days ago. No one has been able to wake him. He hadn’t been eating or sleeping. He was almost like a ghost, just sort of gliding through the halls. Hermione I thought you knew.” Harry explained.

Hermione took off running as fast as her legs would carry her towards the hospital wing. She fell through the doors and rushed to his bed. Falling to her knees she grabbed his hand and wept. Dumbledore found her that way. Harry had gone and seen the headmaster when Hermione took off. The old man placed a hand on her shoulder, her tear stained face looking up at him.

“It’s my fault isn’t it? It was because I left him.”

“My child that is not a fair position to put yourself in, you did what needed to be done. There was no way to know that he would have this effect. If I had realized you had started the clock ticking so long ago I would have made arrangements for Draco to visit you while you were away. The fact of the matter is, he never told me he was feeling ill. He probably never knew, pieces of him were just slipping away.” The headmaster pulled out his wand and enlarged the bed so she could fit in it with him. “What he needs most now is you, let him know you are here.” With those words he turned and left them.

Hermione crawled under the covers and into bed with him. She laid his head on her shoulder and resumed weeping. She stopped crying when Madam Pomfry came into check on him. “Thank goodness your back. Maybe that potion will wear off now.”

“What potion?” Hermione asked.

“We had to give him the Draught of the Living Dead. Professor Snape added a little something so it would wear off once you came back, this way his system would cause itself any more injury.” She turned and left them alone.

‘What did I do?’ Hermione snuggled down with Draco wishing him awake. Just before she dosed off she heard him speak, barley. He spoke the words that shattered her heart. “You left me.” Then he was under again.