FicWad

She was walking by the lake alone, taking a break from studying, when she saw him striding brusquely through the sparse trees at one side of the shore. He was wearing a long black cloak, with his family coat of arms pinned over his heart. She knew he got like this near the end of the school year – school ending meant he had to go back to his father and be a proud representative for the family Malfoy.

She hated it. She walked after him, and he tried to avoid her, but she headed him off behind one of the bigger trees in the small thicket. "I—I don't want to see you right now," he looked down at her small hands curled into fists on his chest, and brought a hand up to his forehead, rubbing his temple.

"You've gotten stronger in this past year, I know you have!" She pounded her fists against him, and she knew she was right: he could barely feel her. "You can face…him without worrying that you'll get hurt. I won't have to worry…"

"No, you won't. I don't want you anymore, Granger." The use of her last name stung, and she stepped back from him – how dare he go against her now? She had helped him, helped him get better…

"Will it be better for us, then?" She looked up at him through narrowed eyes, her arms now folded stiffly. She wouldn't cry in front of him.

"It will be better for my family and I," he stated, his pale eyebrows lowered in one of his more trademark expressions. Trademark to the public. Hermione knew much different expressions, and would slap him repeatedly right now to get them back.

"I'm talking about you and I, Draco, you know I am!" In a fit of desperation, she drew her wand.

He wordlessly Disarmed her with a lazy flick of his wrist, wand in hand. He'd had it hidden in his cloak.

"I just know it would be best if you stayed away from me from now on."

His face was now expressionless, and he turned on his heel to head back to the castle. He left her standing there, alone, and she backed up against the tree behind her and slumped against it in disbelief.

She watched his black cloak flow in the breeze until he strode through the great doors of the Entrance Hall and into the castle.

She hated it. Tears surfaced at the corners of her eyes and she angrily brushed them away with her sleeve, mad at herself, mad at him, mad at his father and his family…

She spent a good hour running through a list of people he associated himself with, and found reasons to blame them all for his current state.

What killed her was she knew he wasn't like this. He hated his father with a passion, and would do anything to get him off his back. She knew he had been abused as a child, worn down until he was physically and emotionally weak.

This past year, she had helped him build up his true personality, making him stronger – he even openly defied his father at Christmastime. It hadn't ended well, though, and he had come back to school with multiple healing bruises. No one else could see them, but Hermione was different; she had seen them all, and tended to them as maternally as she could.

She was a smart girl, and soon she had Harry Potter, of all people, teaching Draco self-defence in the Room of Requirement. It was slow starting, but as soon as Draco got past his father's prejudices, he found that Harry and he had more in common than previously thought. It became a good friendship, just as Draco's relationship with Hermione had become a steady, nurturing one. Ron had found it hard to take, though he had accepted himself as Hermione's second best friend, but not after a lot of juvenile fights and soul-searching.

And now, after building all this up, Draco was just going to walk away. She knew why, of course, as after she got through blaming multiple people, her cooler head took over and she begin to think the situation through.

The most obvious reason for leaving her behind was that he was afraid. Afraid of his father, and afraid of his own instability. All of her efforts all year hadn't been enough. It pained her that it had been in vain, but if she had taught him anything, this façade would be easy to break.

Therefore, she had to try. She'd been trying and succeeding all year. She had to fight to succeed now, when he was so close to being happy; he was also so close to returning loyally to his father and his family.

She had to talk to his mother. She knew, as Draco had told her, that Narcissa was as afraid of Lucius as he was. She was also afraid of her terrible sister, Bellatrix.

There were two days of school left – one and a half now – and then Hermione had an entire summer to continue mending her beloved. The biggest challenge now was getting him away from the venomous influence of his father, who was going to be close to him throughout the two months.

She had to try, and keep trying. She wouldn't let his fear turn him into something he feared above all: the duplicate of his father.

I hate this, she thought as she stood up, not caring that the back of her sweater was covered in moss and little twigs. She grabbed her wand out of the grass and made her way back to Hogwarts as the twilight fell around her.

Underneath the lake, Draco was crying.