Broken Mirror

xoXOXox

Harry waited until Snape was completely gone, and everyone had stopped shifting in place. Letting his eyes run over Hermione's bent head, he reached to take her hand in his before looking over at Malfoy.

"Explain…"

Realizing the pureblood might be the only one with answers, he swallowed with a dry click of his throat and a deep breath before adding quietly,

"...please."

There was no outward change to any of the Slytherins, but he felt the shift of surprise in the air. Malfoy stared at him for a moment before leaning back and letting his head drop to the back of his seat in utter defeat.

"She's marked by Black magic. Usually, it only happens through a ritual and consensual adoption of someone into the family, such as a wife or child of someone whose parents have died, and they need a guardian. I've never seen or heard of it happening in the way it seems Granger acquired it."

Ron beat him to his next question and in a much softer tone than he would have used, filled the space with their shared inquiry.

"Then how did you know what you tried would work and not get you killed?"

The look Malfoy turned on Ron was so hollow Harry could feel it echo in the numb cavern of his chest.

"I didn't."

Suspicion finally filled Ron's tone at that answer.

"Then why would you just walk right up and grab her if you didn't know the outcome?"

Hermione answered for the blonde, her voice cracking from the power she had to keep swallowing over and over again.

"He didn't care because if he helped, he was right. And if he was wrong, he may have died… which is what he wants."

Harry felt the shock hit him as his eyes snapped from Hermione back to Malfoy. He could feel his head shaking without his permission, rejection of the very idea.

"That can't happen again. You are not allowed to just die, Malfoy."

Those grey eyes tipped down to look at him, a frown forming on his face.

"You don't really get to decide that, Potter."

Harry pushed to his feet, that rare spark of rage that lay dormant under all his lack of fucks to give rearing its head.

"The fuck I don't! I did not, did not die and get dragged back just to watch you give up, ferret! We won. No matter what side you were on, you survived, and you have a chance to do something to fix what's broken. I can't anymore. Hermione can't anymore. But you four, gods-dammit, you can!"

Harry looked around at all of them before settling on Malfoy's startled face once more.

"I did my part. I played the boy who can't just have a normal life and die. I was the hero while you were forced to be the villain. Time to reverse the roles, Malfoy. Time for you all to be the damn heroes and let Mione and me be the fucking villains."

Before anything more could be said, Ron stood and wrapped his arms around him, pulling him back down to sit beside Hermione.

"Can she be fixed? Hermione. Can you fix it, Draco?"

The tension in the room skyrocketed as everyone turned their eyes to the blonde.

"Yes. But it would require her trusting people she has no reason to trust."

Hermione listened, eyes closed, breathing through the burning pain. That one touch had not only settled the inferno in her mind and body but set it into complete chaos once he let go. What had become a constant but tolerable agony was now tearing at the seams of her body. She bit her lip to stop the whimper from making its way passed.

"People like who?"

Ron's voice wasn't even enough to pull her out of the searing pain. She couldn't do this. She couldn't take a new level to her personal hell. She was going to spiral into madness. Trying to stand, her knees gave out and the ground sent sharp pain radiating up her legs. She tipped her eyes up and open, the room dulled by a black film that made her feel like she was wearing the darkest possible sunglasses.

"Mal…."

Her words lodged in her throat, a scream working its way up with her plea and choking them into silence. Those hollowed grey eyes snapped to her and widened. Before she could try again, ask, beg, plead for his help, he was up and moving. Without any regard for his own knees or his pureblood persona, he dropped beside her and pulled her into his arms.

The relief was instantaneous. Tears formed in her eyes and fell like acid down her cheeks as she sobbed into his chest, arms wrapping around him to hold him tightly against her.

"Shite! What happened? What's wrong?"

Ron and Harry both kneeled beside them, hands hovering just above her as if they weren't sure where it was safe to touch her. Malfoy gently rocked her as she finally let all the anguish and rage and fear pour from her body through her eyes. She was so tired. So fucking tired. 

It felt like another lifetime passed before her tears finally dried up and she dropped into a numb sort of quiet. She could feel Malfoy's magic against hers. Steady and strong, like a river current pushing through her own and washing her clean.

Taking a moment to clear her face with her own magic so she could focus on him, she tilted her head and waited until he adjusted to look down at her. Her voice was scratchy as she spoke but at least it didn't feel like she was fighting to hold in a scream as well.

"Who would I have to trust?"

He shifted and she grabbed tightly to his shirt, suddenly terrified he'd let her go. As he settled more comfortably on his arse, he arranged her between his legs until she was leaning into him before speaking.

"My mother and my aunt. It's Aunt Bella's madness that is haunting you. The best chance you have of it settling is for mum and Aunt Dromeda to do the ritual and add their cold logic and calm to it. It won't fix all of it. Some of that anger and madness is all your own now, Granger, and Black magic is darker than yours ever was. There will always be more inside you now than there would have been. But if my theory is correct, it would stop the pain and give you some control back so you have a better chance of healing and learning the rest on your own."

Hermione closed her eyes as she nodded. Of course that was the damn solution. Put her well being in the hands of yet more Purebloods. At least she trusted Andromeda not to hurt her. She wasn't so sure about Narcissa Malfoy. But really, did she have a choice?

"You've all had a long day. I think some rest would be a good idea."

Snape's voice pulled her back to the present time, and she let out a broken sigh. Rest. The one thing she couldn't find anymore. She heard rather than saw people start to move, sofas creaking as they stood and headed on silent feet to their rooms. What horrors must they have lived with to all be so silent when they walked? 

Harry and Ron started to help her to her feet but the moment she separated from Malfoy, the burning tumbled back along her veins and ran inside her brain. Rest wasn't going to come. Not for her. She bit back the noise building in her throat and let them lead her to her room. Her clothes were transfigured to soft pajamas, and she crawled into bed with not a single sound to give away her pain.

"Mione, do you want us to stay?"

She gave them a tired smile and shook her head.

"No. I'm okay. Night boys."

With a worried expression from Ron and a doubtful one from Harry, both nodded and went to their own rooms. She waved her wand and the lights went dark. Closing her eyes, she focused on boxing in the magic, keeping it inside her skin so she couldn't destroy anything else.

Draco lay awake several hours after everyone else had retired to their rooms. He could still feel her against him. Still hear that laugh that wasn't hers echoing in his mind. Taste the madness of her magic on his tongue. There was no way she was sleeping. It wouldn't let her. He knew that on some level. 

However Bellatrix marked her, Draco knew that Granger was being tortured as he lay here in his warm bed against soft sheets. Though he wanted to not care, wanted to fall back into his hollow wait for death, Potter's words twisted inside his chest like some form of devil's snare, constricting his heart and squeezing guilt like blood into his veins.

Giving up on fighting it, he quietly rose and left his room. On silent feet, he made his way down the hall to Granger's door. Knowing she would hear him; he opened it quietly and slipped inside. The moment he shut it again, she sat up in bed, her breath held, and the shadowed outline of her body tensed to strike. He took a step in, arms out to his side to give her some sense of comfort.

"It's just me. Can't sleep. Figured neither could you. I can…"

His hushed words faltered as she let the air whoosh out of her lungs, and she sagged into herself.

"...if you want, I can help. At least until you decide what you want to do."

He moved to the side of the bed slowly then paused, waiting on her to decide. After a few moments of her staring at him through the dark, she shifted, pulling the covers back on the side he was standing near. Not waiting or leaning on his own doubts in himself, Draco crawled into the bed and settled under the covers with her. For a moment, they both lay there in awkward silence before shifting at the same time.

He reached his arms out at the same time that she rolled towards him, and he was suddenly surrounded by all that chaotic magic with his arms filled with the Gryffindor Princess. They shifted until her head lay on his chest, one of her small hands over his heart and the other tucked up by her face. Wrapping his arms firmly around her, one hand settling on her hip and the other in her hair, they breathed out in unison before everything inside him seemed to melt into relaxation.

Burying his nose in her hair, he only had to wait a couple of minutes before her entire being seemed to grow heavy and her breaths evened out into sleep. He wondered how many nights of little to no sleep she had endured to fall so fast while being held by one of her enemies. He wasn't sure he wanted an answer to that question.

Closing his eyes, he pushed all other thoughts of what the morning was going to bring when Potter and Weasley found them like this from his mind. Potter demanded he be the hero this time. He was only doing what the savior of the wizarding word commanded him to do. And he could admit, sleep was a welcome thing right now when he felt like for once it would find him.

xoXOXox