Harry Potter

And the Fight for Dramione

Chapter 25: Dementors and Happy Memories

Harry and Draco were on a mission to find food. Neither of them were speaking much as they cautiously made their way through the trees. Slowly a feeling of hopelessness and dread began to settle over them, Harry's face paling even more than Draco's and he swore the locket sitting against his chest was getting colder.

Draco looked at Harry quickly, his eyes widening. "Do you feel that?" he hissed, fear coating his hushed voice.

Harry's heart was pounding in his chest, cold sweat beaded his brow. He nodded, staring around anxiously, expecting to see a long, rotted hand appear from around a tree followed by it's the cloaked creature it belonged to.

Then he spotted them. A long way down the hill in a field. At least ten eerily gliding over the grass heading straight toward them.

Draco had spotted them too, he stumbled backwards, eyes wide and Harry quickly pointed his wand down the hill. Think of something happy! He told himself, but as he tried every thought seemed to become muffled and hidden behind some mist before it faded from his mind.

"Expecto Patronum!" he said, his voice weak.

Nothing happened.

"Expecto Patronum!" He said with a note of panic in his voice this time. He couldn't do it! He looked at Draco, dread almost over whelming him. "Can you cast a patronus?" he asked wildly, still desperately trying to think of happy thoughts.

Draco shook his head in fear; he'd never learnt how!

"We need to get out of here!" Hissed Draco, pulling Harry by the sleeve. He'd never seen Harry look so hopeless before.

Harry nodded vaguely, feeling as though he was looking at Draco through a long, black tunnel, his voice seeming to come from far away.

Finally Draco managed to drag Harry with him, away from the Dementors and they rushed back into the tent, both breathing heavily, their faces white.

"What happened?" gushed Hermione, quickly rushing over to them. Without thinking she placed her hand on Draco's forearm. He looked at her, his face covered in freezing cold sweat.

"Dementors…" breathed Harry, falling into a chair.

Draco followed suit, just listening as they discussed why Harry couldn't produce a Patronus. Hermione took the Horcrux off him, and his face visually showed his relief. She slid the locket around her own neck, deciding they should all take turns wearing it.

"Great," snarled Ron angrily. He had been grumpy and miserable ever since the decline in food. But, the lack of food did not bother Draco so much – he had practically starved himself for the majority of last year. "So we still have no food." Ron was still saying, then he looked at Draco. "And what use were you?" he growled. "You don't even know how to cast a Patronus?!"

Draco glared at him. "No, Weasley, I don't." He snarled through his teeth. "But I know some other interesting spells, want me to try them on you?"

"I can teach you, Malfoy." Harry cut in quickly, still looking worn out.

Draco's head snapped around to look at Harry. "I don't need you to teach me anything," he snarled angrily, embarrassed by the thought of Harry Potter teaching him spells.

"Draco," snapped Hermione sharply, "The Patronus Charm is a very important spell, especially now days with Dementors roaming around everywhere…And Harry is the best at it –" She paused, "well, when he isn't wearing the Horcrux."

Ron scoffed angrily, crossing his arms over his chest. "Like he'd even be able to learn it…" he muttered grumpily.

"Oh really, Weasley?" Draco sneered, "And you learned it easily did you? What's your Patronus? A weasel?"

"Both of you stop arguing!" cried Hermione, getting angry very quickly. Everyone looked at her. "Harry, you're going to teach Draco how to cast a Patronus. And in return, Draco, you are going to teach Harry Occlumency. No arguments."

She glared at all of them for a moment before continuing. "Now," she said, breathing a little heavily, "There's no point in staying here while there are Dementors roaming around, so I say we pack up and find somewhere else to stay for the night."

With that she spun around and began shoving things into her little beaded purse.

"Hermione, for the last time: it's not stealing!" Draco almost sighed as Hermione debated once more over taking some eggs from a little farm. She was leaving muggle money in place, yet still had qualms about it. He couldn't believe she was actually leaving money for them; they were just eggs!

"Oh, what if they had plans for these eggs, Draco?" Hermione said mournfully. "I'd feel terrible."

"Plans?" spluttered Draco in exasperation. "What kind of plans? They get dozens of eggs per day, I'm sure they have more!"

"They could have been planning to make a large cake, or maybe they are having people for breakfast, or maybe they were going to sell them tomorrow." Hermione reeled off, still not summoning the eggs.

Draco rolled his eyes. "Like I said, they probably have more. And if they were going to sell them, they just sold them a little sooner! You're leaving more money than they're worth!"

Hermione sighed, "Oh OK," she said finally. "I hope you're happy about this."

Draco smirked a little and Hermione summoned the eggs, sending the money as a replacement.

They began walking back toward the others and Draco grabbed her spare hand.

She looked at him and he shrugged. "Felt right," he mumbled. They walked in a happy silence for a moment then Draco said, "You know we could just take those eggs and leave."

Hermione's head snapped round to look at him in anger. "Draco Malfoy!" she hissed, "How dare you suggest-"

Draco snickered. "I'm joking, I'm joking!"

Hermione glared at him through the dull light.

Draco sighed. "I mean it would be a lot easier if we left…"

"If you want to leave, you feel free!" Hermione pulled her hand out of his, glaring furiously ahead.

"You didn't let me finish!" defended Draco, still smirking, "I said it would be easier. Not that I want to. I'm all for defeating… You-Know-Who."

Hermione huffed.

"I wouldn't get my inheritance if we just ran away." He added, picking her hand up again.

Hermione didn't drop his hand, but gave him a dry look. "And you think your dad will still give it to you if you stay with us the whole way through? And we succeed?"

Draco shrugged. "You never know what will happen."

The walked in silence for a moment, both thinking of where the future would take them.

Then Draco said, "Really though… you guys have more of a plan, right?"

Hermione stopped and looked at him through the slowly dulling light of the sunset. "What do you mean?" she said, though she didn't seem to be asking a question.

"You know what I mean," frowned Draco. "We're just stumbling around in the dark here. There must be something else. You can't just expect to just walk round the corner and magically find another Horcrux."

"Well of course not," snapped Hermione. "But, you know as much as we do. We will just have to work it out."

A dull feeling of dread settled in the pit of Draco's stomach. He stayed silent for a moment, the unbelievable improbability of their mission hovering over his head. He debated on what to say, then, surprising himself, he decided to say something that was the complete opposite to what he was thinking.

"Well," he shrugged in an almost light hearted fashion, a slight drawl entering his voice. "You guys have me now, so I'm sure we will work it out." He smirked and Hermione's eyes brightened happily.

He didn't think they would work this out. He didn't know what was going to happen. But, he had nowhere else to go. And besides… he actually didn't want to go.

Suddenly, Hermione placed their bag of food on the ground and threw her arms around Draco's neck, kissing any part of his face she could reach.

"You've changed so much!" she was saying happily as Draco stumbled back in surprise. "I can't believe you used to be such a prick! Why did you have to be so stupid? I mean we could have been friends ages ago and-"

Draco grinned into her hair, placing his arms around her waist. "Hermione," he cut in and she pulled back a little to look at him. "That's actually where you're wrong."

Hermione stared at him in confusion.

"I never could have been your friend," he explained. Hermione looked taken aback, a little hurt shining in her eyes and then Draco smirked. "Only because I wouldn't have been able to resist you. It's not right having those sorts of thoughts about a friend."

If Hermione had looked taken aback before, she was even more so now. However this time her face was also flushing a furious shade of red. "Draco that's-"

"Inappropriate?" Draco prompted in a low voice, smirking even more. He ran a finger down the curve of her waist, thoroughly enjoying this brief moment of privacy.

Hermione cleared her throat a little. "Well, I'm not sure," she said innocently. "That depends on exactly what sort of thoughts you're talking about."

Draco felt a thrill of excitement run down his spine and he leant his head in to the side of Hermione's neck. Softly, he placed a small kiss just below her ear at the end of her jaw. She breathed in quickly, her eyes fluttering shut. "I could show you, if you like…" he whispered softly.

Hermione's hands gripped his back and her heart was thudding so loudly in her chest she almost didn't hear him. "I'd like that…" she whispered back, her voice coming out a lot huskier than she expected.

Draco's heart sped up erratically at these words and a familiar warm heat spread through his body. Hungrily he raised a hand to grasp her cheek before placing a searing kiss to her lips. There was no holding back to this kiss. The moment Draco's lips crashed against hers, Hermione couldn't help but moan out loud at the heat of his lips and tongue, brushing out against her own. She kissed him back fervently and blind desire drew a haze over Draco's mind.

His hands desperately moved over her back and up her waist yet he so badly wanted to touch her more. He needed to. With no privacy in the tent there was never really a time to… calm his hormones down alone. And with Hermione in the bunk below him his imagination would run wild. He was driving himself crazy!

His hand stopped finally just under Hermione's breast. He could feel her heart thumping under his fingers, and his thumb was resting against the upward curve of her breast. Hermione's fingers moved to drag through his hair, clutching it tightly and she didn't make any motion to move his hand back to her waist. Draco moaned almost desperately and slanted his mouth over hers, pushing himself closer to her body.

He held her tightly, still keeping his hand still and he broke away from her lips, yet didn't stop kissing her. His mouth traveled quickly along her jaw and down her neck, kissing and tasting her sensitive skin and Hermione gasped pleasurably. Draco had to bite his own lip as this sound caused the heat below his stomach to blaze with desire and he began to suck gently, yet hungrily at the nape of Hermione's neck. Finally, his trapped hand slid up her chest and cupped itself around her breast. She gasped again in surprised pleasure having never had anyone touch her there in her life.

Draco groaned and wished his hand was two layers beneath where it currently lay. At this thought, he knew he was letting his body get carried away. He moved his mouth back to Hermione's lips once more and kissed her again, this time slowly, his breathing particularly ragged. He pulled back, moving his hand back down to her waist.

Breathing heavily, Draco leant his forehead against Hermione's and she peered at him through the now very dim, evening light. Her eyes were lustful and her own breathing very erratic. "So that was one of the thoughts?" she asked quietly, a small smile playing around her mouth.

Draco smirked slowly, opening his eyes to look at her and his heart skipped a beat. Her lips were swollen and by the look in her eyes she was unmistakably aroused. Draco licked his lips, "Mmm," he agreed softly, staring at her mouth and struggling not to just start kissing her again. "One of them."

Suddenly Draco realised with their incredibly close proximity and the raging heat that was emanating below his stomach there was no way Hermione couldn't have noticed what was firmly pressed against her thigh. Draco separated himself quickly, part of him seriously liking the thought of her feeling that, the other half embarrassed.

He cleared his throat when she looked at him in surprise. "We should probably get the food back to the tent…"

Hermione looked down at the bag. "Probably," she smiled.

"Otherwise Ron might have actually killed Harry and eaten him."

Hermione laughed, but raised her eyebrows. "Ron and Harry, hmm?"

Draco blanched. "Weasley and Potter. Whatever, I'm just used to all of you guys saying that…"

Hermione smiled. "You're allowed to use their first names too."

Draco grimaced. "I don't think we're there yet."

Hermione rolled her eyes and picked up the bag. She ran her eyes over Draco's body, her cheeks flushing a little. "You should probably straighten yourself out a little," she said quietly. "You look a little… flustered."

Draco scowled. Flustered? Excuse me? "I do not look flustered," he snarled.

Hermione shrugged. "Ok then," she said innocently, a smile flickering about the corner of her mouth. "You look aroused."

Draco's pale cheeks flushed pink for a moment. "So do you," he smirked.

Hermione smiled at him in a very cheeky way that was quite uncharacteristic. "I was never denying it."

Draco continued to eye her up and down, "You're not helping."

Hermione blushed, but smiled wider. "Good," she said simply. "Maybe you'd like to show me more of those 'thoughts' you were talking about."

That was all Draco wanted to do right now. He bit his lip. "Maybe I would," he said huskily. Then he had a thought, "But, about before…" he said, forcing himself to look off into the trees as he was finding Hermione very distracting right now. "Sorry for if… for being so uh…"

Hermione raised her eyebrows. "For being so what?"

That pink tinge had returned to Draco's cheeks. "So…forward." Normally, he wouldn't have said something like that. Normally he would have just been stoked at what had happened. But Hermione was different. He didn't want to mess up with her…

Hermione's heart skipped a beat and she smiled softly. "You weren't," she said quietly.

Draco looked back at her, her warm hazel eyes meeting his grey ones. "I… really like you, Hermione." He blurted out suddenly, his cheeks burning. He liked her more than that though. He could honestly say he had never felt like this in his life.

Hermione's whole face was a sweet colour of crimson. "I um, I really like you too," she said very quietly, looking at her feet.

Draco peered at her and lifted a hand up to her chin so to lightly tilt her face up to look at him again.

"I really mean that," he said softly, an unfamiliar tone of fondness in his voice. "I mean… more than that. I-"

"Hermione?!" Called Ron's voice from afar. "Malfoy?"

Both Hermione and Draco looked up the hill to see two figures in the distance. Ron and Harry had clearly gotten worried and were searching for them. Harry seemed to be shushing Ron (thankfully) as he went to call out again and Hermione sighed.

"I guess we should go back now," she said, watching the two look around as they clearly hadn't spotted them yet.

"Yeah…" muttered Draco halfheartedly, unable to look at Hermione's face again.

They wandered up the hill, apologising when they met Harry and Ron for worrying them. Draco couldn't help but feel regretful at their terrible timing for searching for them...

"Why can't we start with Occlumency?" demanded Draco angrily. "Isn't that a little more important than a stupid Patronus?"

Harry shook his head, pulling out his wand. "There are a lot of Dementors out there and everyone else knows the spell. Do you really want to be the only one who doesn't?"

Draco snarled, but didn't reply.

"Alright," continued Harry. "So basically, you have to concentrate on a single, happy memory."

Draco muttered angrily under his breath. Harry catching the words, 'lame' and 'stupid'.

"Ok," Harry said, rolling his eyes. "And the incantation is-"

"Expecto Patronum, yeah, I know."

Harry looked at Draco curiously. He wondered what Draco's happiest memory was. "Alright," he said again, "let's give it a go then. Have you got a memory?"

"Yep, the time you fell off your broom when the Dementors came onto the Quidditch pitch."

Harry stared at him.

"I'm kidding, geeze!" defended Draco, smirking. "There was nothing funny about that… Sort of."

"Yeah, you know what? I don't think that you can do this spell," said Harry airily. "I mean, I learnt it in third year, but I think it's just too complicated for you."

Draco frowned. "Maybe I just don't need it because I don't faint when I see Dementors."

Harry debated for a moment, ignoring his jibe, then smirked. "You know what was funny? The time you pretended to be a Dementor and my Patronus ran you down."

Draco narrowed his eyes, though the corner of his mouth was curled up in a smirk. "You know what else is funny?" he drawled.

But Harry cut in grinning. "Every time I beat you at Quidditch?"

"This does not seem like Patronus practise." Hermione's voice cut it sternly. She came and sat down on a log near the two boys, ready to watch the learning commence.

"We're just working on finding Malfoy a happy memory," Harry told her.

"It's proving difficult," Draco added.

Hermione nodded thoughtfully. "Well, when were the happiest years of your life?"

Draco frowned, feeling uncomfortable. "I don't know… I wouldn't say I had happy years."

"Anything during school?"

"Look, I can think of this myself. Potter and I were just kidding around." He didn't like discussing this with both Harry and Hermione there. If he was honest his happiest memories were with Hermione, so there was no way he was going to say that.

"Do you want to try casting it yet?" Harry asked seriously.

Draco opened his mouth to reply, but then Ron came over to join them too saying, "Wait! I don't want to miss this."

Draco scowled and Harry sighed. He turned to look at his two best friend. "Ok you two," he said, "clear off. He'll never learn with an audience peering in."

Ron blanched. "Come on, Harry," he said, "It'd be great entertainment…"

Hermione stood up and grabbed Ron's arm. "Oh Ron," she sighed, pulling him with her toward the tent. Draco watched them go, now wanting them to stay as he felt jealous that Ron got time with her alone now.

"Malfoy."

Draco glanced at Harry, "Huh?"

"The patronus?"

"Agh…" muttered Draco. "Fine… uh," he thought for a moment. His happiest memory? The first time he kissed Hermione perhaps? "Ok…" he said. "Let's try it." He took a breath, thinking of the way it had felt when he kissed her: exhilarating… exciting…

"Expecto Patronum!"

Nothing happened. Draco stared in disappointment.

"Don't worry," said Harry and Draco was surprised he hadn't thrown a jibe at him. "Happens to everyone on the first time. First few times actually. Want to try again? Perhaps a different memory?"

Draco frowned. Maybe the memory of Hermione first kissing him. That was nice…

"Expecto Patronum!" He cried again and this time a tiny wisp of silver shot out of his wand.

Harry raised his eyebrows. "You're getting it," he said impressed.

Draco nodded in determination. "I want to try it again," he said. He had an idea; those memories weren't happy enough. They all happened before he'd chosen sides… He needed something more recent…

Then, just before he cast the spell another thought struck him. What would his Patronus look like? He wasn't so sure he wanted Potter to see it the first time he cast one…

"Expecto Patronum!" He cried. A strong burst of silver light burst from his wand, forming a large, protective shield before him. He frowned, he had a feeling that may have worked had he not felt the unease at sharing his Patronus. "I think… I'd like to practise this alone for a bit…" he muttered, not looking at Harry.

Harry frowned. "Why? You've nearly got it, if-"

"I just want to, OK?" Draco snapped, cutting across Harry. This was a very personal thing really. And what if…what if his Patronus was a weasel?

A/N So sorry for the late update everyone! There are a lot of reasons why... the main ones being that I've been really sick, managed to get myself massively dehydrated and ended up in hospital for a bit (I had swine flu.. eugh..) and I also own a small business (that's still very new) that has recently picked up a lot and we have had to hire three new staff members so I've been exceptionally busy after getting better... Anyway, I should be getting those frequent updates out again now. Thank you for your patience! And sorry again :( Also thank you for the wonderful and lovely reviews :) I'm seriously so glad you are all really liking this story. I promise I'll make sure I finish it :)