Castle Building

A Dramione Fanfic.

[castles-intheair]

a little bit of Ron and Pansy

“Ronald,” said Pansy huffing. “I mean, the way she says your name.. Ronald. Such a mouthful.” Pansy threw her jumper on his bed. 

“Wait,” said Ron. “That’s what you’re upset about? Hermione saying my name?”

“It’s just. She’s so smart and so perfect and I know you all took me in and I’m supposed to play nice or whatever but ..Ronald?” Pansy grimaced. 

“It is my name,” said Ron, offended. 

Pansy shrugged and threw her head back across his quilt, stretching. Ron looked at her, pale skin and transfigured clothes, the top of her hip peaking out from under one of Luna’s old shirts. Pansy threw an arm over her face, embarrassed.

“Come here,” said Ron.

“No,” said Pansy.

“Parks,” said Ron.

“Fuck off,” said Pansy. 

Ron walked around to the other side of his bed, hooked his arms under her and pulled her off the bed. She struggled to her feet. 

“What?” She said, not looking at him. 

Ron slid a hand across the side of her jaw. He lifted her chin with his thumb until she had no choice but to look at him. 

“Listen to me,” he said. He rubbed his thumb against her bottom lip. Her breath hitched. “I have loved Hermione Granger for a long time.” He watched Pansy’s eyes narrow. “Through school, through loosing her in more ways than one, through watching her love someone else.”

“Why are you telling me this,” asked Pansy. She crossed her arms. Ron could see tears in the corners of her eyes. 

“Because when you walked into my room in that oversized bright orange Chuddly Cannon shirt, I forgot all about every single one of those moments with her.” Pansy’s lips parted. “A hundred Veela could have walked in and I wouldn’t have been able to tear my eyes off of you.” He stepped closer to her and dragged his thumb across her lip again. 

“Orange really isn’t my color,” said Pansy quietly against him. 

“Yea,” said Ron. “Sure.” He leaned in and pressed a kiss to her temple. “It’s mine.” He said against her skin. 

Pansy unraveled. He felt a hand on his waist. He leaned down and kissed into her neck.

“I’m not an impatient man,” he said softly. “And I will wait for as long as you need, but when you’re ready to accept that you’re the only person I want in my bed and in my arms, then I’ll show you exactly how much of a mouthful I can be.” 

Pansy’s fingers contracted into his side as he kissed at her jaw line then let her go. 

“You know where to find me,” he said from the door, then he left her alone. 

[castles-intheair]

Thank you 2020, for the resurgence of exceptional fanfiction, fan art, and this birth of new love for our old ghosts. My weary 30 year old heart needed it all.

[castles-intheair]

running, a year into hiding, the forest

When the alarms went off, she was the first thing on his mind, but the last thing he expected to find. No sightings of Harry, Ron, or Hermione had been reported in over 14 months. He hadn’t seen her face in over a year. He hadn’t heard her voice since the night Dumbledore had died. He didn’t know where she was, the length of her hair, if she was well or not, but he knew she was alive. Overwhelming evidence that she had covered her tracks existed. They had searched her family home and it was empty and baited with traps. The burrow was raided and empty. If they were camping, residual evidence of magic had been wiped away. All of the Death Eater’s tracking spells hit resistant, led to nothing, took them to the middle of lakes, or up in the trees. She was the brightest witch of their year and he knew it. They weren’t going to find them, he had been convinced.

So when he saw her, his stomach dropped. She was there in front of him, curls and freckles still dark brown and beautiful. He watched her face whip around and fall, heard the tremor in her voice as she realized where they had landed, who had just joined them. He heard her shout to the other two to run. He watched as she tripped and fell, as Harry scooped her up and kept running. He watched them duck below a purple jinx. She screamed and his pulse tripled in speed and he realized he was running with them, running towards her.

He took a quick poll of how many of his fellow death eaters were around him. Travers was on his heels, a Carrow sibling to his left. Pansy was on the other side of the clearing, but he knew she was a poor aim on the move. Fenrir lumbered behind her, unable to keep up. Belatrix was ahead of him and firing spell after spell towards the three. The trio just had to make it to the outer ring of the ward where they could disapparate. He let Travers pass him then he closed his fist, pulling up a root ahead of Travers. Travers hit the ground and Malfoy leapt over him. Alecto cut in front of him and Malfoy pulled the leaves up from the ground in a spell of wind and heat. He heard Alecto curse as he passed him. Hermione and the boys were throwing spells over their shoulders. He could pass that off on them easily. The spells weren’t summoned through his wand and therefore un trackable. Belatrix however was harder to fool.

He disapparated, because he was the only one that could, having invented the ward himself, and materialized in front of the trio. He knew they had made it from the second his feet hit the ground. The air was cooler now, fresh and green. A look of triumph passed over Hermione’s face as she ran towards him and felt what he felt. He watched her mouth move as she shouted to her friends.

It was beautiful, when he remembered it, the slow turn of the three of their bodies as they hit the perimeter boundary at a run. Ron and Harry spun in mid air, like they had done it before, their momentum wrenching them from the breeze like a feather caught in the wind. He watched Hermione jump too, saw her expression change when her eyes met his, watched as her wand was torn from her hand by a spell she hadn’t anticipated in time. She hit the ground and her knees buckled. She hadn’t made it. She hadn't gone.

They had her, and quite suddenly, he didn’t have another plan. 

[castles-intheair]

battle, stranded, 2 years after school

Her breath was coming in quick shivery gasps. She could feel her heart in her ears, bursting behind her eyes. He didn’t remember her. 

* * * * * * 

“Yes you do Draco. You pulled me in then erased my memory like a coward,” she said shoving him.

“I am NOT a coward,” he shouted at her.

“You were then! I remember everything now, but they got to you. They took me out of your memories so they could continue to use you as a weapon.” Hermione grabbed his wrist. “You taught me this,” she said, flipping her palm open against his. Light flooded the ends of her fingertips and cast a glow on the room they were in. Somewhere in the distance Hermione heard another wall crumble. 

He blinked at her.

“Wandless magic,” she said throwing his hands down. “Much weaker than yours, but the same thing you just used to move that debris back there, the same thing that makes you so valuable to him.” She closed her fingers into a fist and the light went out. “Do you realize what you are to them?” She waited for him to say something, to move. It was darker now, and all she could see was the outline of his face in the half light. She gripped his robes at his waist.

“I love you,” she said in a rush. “I know that you sleep on your stomach. I know you have nightmares. I know that you’d rather drink coffee over tea. I love you,” she said again. “And that’s the only time I’ve told you that, but it’s true. I love you and they took me from you and we planned for this dammit, so fucking dig deep Draco because WE are in there and I need you to remember that..” She griped the sides of his head in her hands. “You’re weren’t supposed to forget me, please just..”

She didn’t get to finish her sentence. He had closed the space between them in a breath and she was once again pressed up against the wall, but this time the strong set of arms had cradled her head in his palm. He held her there, breathing against her lips, pressing his forehead into hers. He consumed her, he had her full attention, and the noise and the smells, and the flashes of light disappeared and it was only him and the breaths he was taking.

“Hermione,” he mumbled against the corner of her lips. She heard the wands fall to the ground behind her.

“I’m in there, I promise,” she said running her hands through his short hair.

[castles-intheair]

Slytherin common room, after tampering with Hermione’s memory again, Hogwarts

He told himself he did it to keep her safe. 

He tore off his jumper and pulled at the collar of his shirt. He should have gone to the room of requirement instead of the common room. He wanted to throw things. He wanted to smash every table and chair and serpent adorned surface in here, but if he did that he would wake up the whole house. In the space of a heartbeat, he realized that he didn’t care. He grabbed the edge of the nearest table and flipped it over. The papers and books fell to the floor. Bottles rolled under tables and shattered where they fell. A vile of ink hit the nearest wall, spewing black liquid across a nearby chess set.

“Oi, what the bloody hell do you think you’re doing?” said a voice from the other end of the room. Theo Knott was sitting at a table in the far corner, studying by the eerie green light cast by the lake. Malfoy spun around. He grabbed a small vile of something from another table and chucked it towards Theo, who didn’t flinch when it exploded at his feet.

“Rough night, Malfoy?” Theo asked. Malfoy advanced on him, pulling a book from one of the chairs and throwing it at Theo who ducked then sat back up. “Guess so,” he said putting his hands behind his head, as if he were watching a slow moving quidditch match. “Secret death eater project not going the way you wanted it to go?”

Malfoy tripped over a rug a few feet in front of Theo, then looked up at him. Theo laughed. Malfoy grabbed another vile of something from an end table next to him and hurled it at Theo again. It smashed on the glass above his head. Furious at his poor aim, Malfoy searched around for something else to throw and found nothing. He looked up at the purple liquid now trickling down the window behind Theo. He watched as he willed the liquid to draw back up into the glass. The vial reformed itself and flew back to him in a blink. Malfoy caught it in his rigid outstretched hand. Theo stopped laughing. Malfoy threw it again. This time, Theo had to jump out of the way to avoid it.

“Ok, mate,” yelled Theo with his hands over his head. “Give it a rest. I’m sorry ok?”

Malfoy had wandlessly summoned the shattered vial back into his hand again and threw it once more at Theo, who had to duck behind a couch to avoid it. Behind him he heard movement from the boys dorms.

“I didn’t mean to have a go at whatever it is you’re working on, ok?” said Theo desperately. “It’s just, you won’t let us help you! My mum is a death eater too! I know the trouble you’re going to be in.”

This apparently was the wrong thing to say because Malfoy had torn his wand from his pocket and was now pointing it at a thoroughly bewildered Theo. The shattered vile flew back to Malfoy, he caught it in his other hand.

“My mother has never taken the mark,” said Draco through gritted teeth. “You’ve never met him, been alone with him Theo. Don’t talk about what you don’t understand!”

“Ok, ok..” said Theo, his hands still over his head. Behind him, Malfoy saw the door to the girls dormitory fly open and a hand full of Slytherin girls flood out to see what the noise was about. Pansy was pushing her way through the girls from the back of the group.  

“Draco!” she shouted running towards him. “What is it? Are you ok?” She reached up and tried pulling down his wand, still trained on Theo. Behind him, he could hear the Slytherin boys moving around also.

“Theo, you prat!” said the voice of Blaise Zabinni. “What did you do this time?” Blaise had walked up to stand next to Malfoy. He pushed Pansy aside and took the wand out of Malfoy’s now shaking hand.

“I didn’t do a damn thing,” said Theo. “He came raging through the dormitory door like a fucking Hippogriff.”

“Yea, and you’re telling me you didn’t provoke him at all?” said Blaise with a nod to Malfoy who's knees had buckled. Malfoy slumped to the floor with his head in his hands.

“There’s nothing to see here,” said Blaise to the staring students. “Go back to bed. GO,” he shouted when nobody moved, and they scattered back down to their rooms, Blaise shooting hexes at anyone who wasn’t moving fast enough. When everyone had gone but Theo, Pansy, and Crabbe, he shoved Malfoy’s wand back into his hand.

“Bloody hell Malfoy,” Theo said under his breath.

“His hand,” said Pansy, dropping to her knees in front of him. The vial that he had caught for a third time had shattered in his left hand. Pansy pulled his bleeding palm into her lap and began pulling out the shards of glass. Malfoy remained silent, swaying slightly, his head bowed to the ground. He heard Theo whispering to Blaise about the last time they had seen him eat anything.

“Let’s get him to bed,” said Blaise. He looked up at Crabbe who hadn’t moved. “Come on, we can’t leave him down here.”

“I’m sick of cleaning him up,” said Crabbe. “So his punishment is going as the Dark Lord intended. Why should we help him?” Pansy drew in a sharp breath and looked up at Crabbe. “He was meant to die doing this,” said Crabbe continuing. Goyle and I are done. We don’t answer to him anymore,” and he walked away from them and down into the dormitory. Blaise looked around at Theo.

“Yea, I’ll help you,” Theo said to Blaise, and together they hoisted Malfoy to his feet. “Did you see what he was doing with that vile?” asked Theo as they left a worried looking Pansy on the floor behind them.

“Yea,” said Blaise. “I don’t know if he’s losing control or getting more powerful the more angry he gets.”

“Well it was fucking cool,” said Theo. “Scary as shit, but fucking cool.”

Blaise smirked.

“Draco,” Blaise said addressing his comatose friend. “What the hell is going on with you? Wandless magic and shit? We’re impressed friend, but you need to pull yourself together. You fall apart like this in front of the Dark Lord and he’ll kill you for sure.” Malfoy didn’t say anything, but leaned a little heavier into Blaise.

“Good ol’ Voldy,” said Theo under his breath. “You gaining weight, Malfoy?” he said sarcastically. “You’re getting harder and harder to carry, mate.”

“Enough, Knott.” said Blaise. “He’s had enough for one day. Let’s just get him to bed.”

Malfoy lay awake for hours still after his friends had pulled closed their four poster curtains. In the morning, he woke up to nightmares of Hermione screaming and his father laughing in his crying face.

[castles-intheair]

late, Ravenclaw tower corridor, Hogwarts

“Hey, wait,” Hermione said. “We’re not done yet.”

“I am,” he said, not turning around.

“No you’re not!” said Hermione. “Professor McGonagall wanted both of us to do this.”

“I bloody know what McGonagall said,” shouted Malfoy turning around. “There’s no one out here. Everyone is in bed. This is a waste of my time and I have better things to do.”

“It’s just 30 more minutes. You seriously can’t hold out for a half hour?” Hermione threw her hands in the air and started to walk away from him. “What is so bleeding important that you can’t stand to be around me for 30 more minutes?”

“I didn’t say it was because of you,” he said more quietly from behind her. “I just..” he hesitated. “I just have something I need to work on.”

“At midnight? On a Tuesday?” she said turning back to him.

“It’s none of your damn business, Granger!” he shouted, now walking towards her. “Why are you like this? All pushy and bookish and so bloody noble? Why can’t you just keep that muggle nose out of my business? What I do with my time is for me to decide.” He was in her face now, slowly backing her towards a tapestry on the wall. “We aren’t friends. We don’t even have the decency to be cordial to each other. We’re enemies. We’ve always been that and we’ll always be that.” Hermione could see flecks of blue in his eyes. He stopped. She was almost against the tapestry now. “I can’t handle being around you.” He said forcefully, but softer. All the malice had gone from his eyes. He bowed his head and lifted his arm to brace himself against the wall when several things happened very quickly.

His arm did not hit tapestry or wall like he had expected. He had meant to lean heavily against it but instead found himself leaning right into a bewildered Hermione. His hand slid right through the fabric and stone as if it weren’t there at all and he felt Hermione tumble backwards with him. She screamed and locked her fingers around his sweater at his waist. Stumbling he caught the back of her head with one hand and braced himself for the fall with the other. They hit the ground with a lurch and he crushed her beneath him. He dropped his head next to hers, breathing heavily. She was still clutching his sweater, her breath coming in short pants. He did not immediately let her go.

“Dear god Malfoy,” she panted. “What the hell did you just do?” She was blinking and staring up at the ceiling above them.

“I didn’t do anything,” he spat, lifting his head and looking around squinting. Whatever they had fallen into, it was brighter and and a golden blue haze seemed to pulse from the source of the light. “What are you laughing for?” he asked, looking down into her face. Her nose was scrunched up and she had begun to shake with silent giggles. “This isn’t funny, Granger. You could have been seriously hurt!”

“There you go again,” she said through her laughs. “Worrying about my safety. And I thought we weren’t friends.” She fixed him with a serious expression, then burst into laughter again. Malfoy felt her hands twist up in his sweater some more. He pulled his hand out from under her hair swiftly and smirked in satisfaction at the crack that was her head hitting the floor. She stopped laughing. He pulled her hand off his sweater and stood up looking around.

“What is this place,” he said. Hermione pushed herself up into a sitting position.

“Ow, you prick,” she said, rubbing the back of her head.

She began looking around and her eyes got wider and wider the more she saw. They were in a narrow tower, three stories high. In the middle of the room was a small circular desk, surrounded at the opposite end by a half circle bench covered in fluffy blue and gold pillows. Rising on the walls all around them were shelves and shelves of small cylindrical objects, each with a colored jewel set into the round wooden end. At each floor level, there was a narrow balcony and a dusty old ladder that stretched up to the next level. The ceiling of the tower was a deep blue and upon it were hundreds of twinkling stars. A small glassy orb hung on a thin chain from the middle of the bundle of stars. Inside of the orb, glittering smoke rotated casting thin wintery light against the adorned ends of the objects.

“Scrolls,” Hermione breathed from the floor.

“What?” Malfoy asked staring down at her.

“Those are scrolls,” she said pointing and getting to her feet. She walked to the closest wall and ran her fingers down the colored jewels, finally landing on deep red one. She pulled it from the shelf with awe. “This is a library,” she said in a hushed voice, not looking at Malfoy.

Malfoy looked back up at the tower walls. Every now and then, between each bundle of scrolls, there was a solid gold plaque. He followed his eyes to the nearest one that he could read and saw a thin letter ‘D’ etched into it. It was a library. He looked back to Hermione. She had unfurled the scroll and was chewing on her lip as her eyes sped across the page. She looked back up at him. 

“These are centuries old,” she said, her eyes alight with joy. “I didn’t know this was here. I mean, did you know this was here?” she asked him.

“No, I didn’t,” he said looking at her, torn between anger and amusement. He was reminded suddenly of her in the first floor cove and of the knight in the stained glass that she couldn’t take her eyes off of. Magic was first nature to him. He had grown up in it, experienced it all his life, and while all of this was impressive and ancient and beautiful, he just didn’t share the wonder that she so clearly felt. Something else altogether was erupting inside of him as he watched her walk slowly along the edge of the tower, and it was new to him. 

[castles-intheair]

study alcove, mid day, hogwarts

“Malfoy, if you just..” she reached a timid hand towards his wrist. He wasn’t looking at her. “I can keep a secret, whatever you’re going through. I can help you.” Her small hand closed around his wrist.

“Fucking hell, Granger!” he spat at her and shook her hand off. “You’re fingers are bloody cold.” He looked down at her with an odd sort of shocked expression. “I..” he faltered, “don’t touch me, you filth.” He watched the color rise in her cheeks.

“Oh, come on!” She threw her hands up and rolled her eyes. “That was pathetic! Isn’t it about time you get over that shit? I’m a bloody person, not a disease. I’ve beat you in every class and exam this school has to offer and if I weren’t so afraid of heights, I’m sure I could kick your arse at quidditich too,” she was angry again. “Why am I even investing any of my time or worry into you? You’re a jerk. A bigoted, selfish, cocky git.” She stood and pulled out her wand. “Get out of my way. I’m going to class.” He didn’t move. He just looked down at her with that same strange expression. She pressed her wand tip into his chest. “Move,” she said as the tip of her wand flared orange. Smoke rose from the spot on his grey sweater and he raised his hands slowly and moved aside.

“Don’t tell anyone,” he said quietly as she slid past him.

She paused and turned back towards him. “Why the bloody hell would I want people to know I’ve been consorting with you to any extent. You are the worst of our kind, and I have no idea what’s been going on with you, but I hope it destroys you. ..whatever it is.” She looked up into his face. He had a wry thought to reach out and touch the back of her hair. He suddenly wanted to touch the curls there, but as soon as the impulse hit him, she was moving and gone and he was standing in the bright room with his hand in midair and his heart in knots. The knight in the stained glass next to him saluted him.

[castles-intheair]

room of requirement, late night, hogwarts

‘The magic was palpable. He could feel it rolling off her in waves, and the truth of who and what he was holding hit him in that moment. It felt like a stunning jinx. He crushed his fingers even tighter to her. Holding her was like holding a spell, cradling a wild light around him and knowing all the while that the darkness was coming and that he wouldn’t be able to contain her for long. She would slip from his fingers like morning light in the trees. She would illuminate him, then fade away. He couldn’t keep her.’

[castles-intheair]

infirmary, early morning, hogwarts

“You know Malfoy, when the war begins and the fighting actually starts,” she began in a low voice, “we’re all going to bleed red. You, me, our friends, our families. Everyone. Dirty blood or not it’s getting spilled just the same. You were raised to believe that your veins run gold, that it’s clean and pure and better than everyone else's, but guess what, Malfoy, I saw it just hours ago. It spilled from you like a damn broken open, and in the end it was my dirty blood, running through my muggle veins, that managed to keep yours in your body.” She paused, her heartbeat quickened in rage. She pushed herself away from him. “It’s all going to be red, you git, and we’re all going to bleed. Pureblood, muggle and mudblood alike.”