Parade of the Sun - Dramione

PART FOURTEEN.

7:14pm

Malfoy was still angry over the hit to his stomach, and she was still angry over her pointless search due to his misleading information. They weren't talking to one another, the air around them stiff, but that wasn't anything new. Despite how much the lack of knowing of their future disaster inspired panic and fear inside of her, she wished it would happen soon. Not only would she know then and be able to do something about it, but she also would no longer have to be exposed to the Bag of Bad Things that made up Draco Malfoy's person.

She had contemplated their future nearly every time she thought. She had dreamt about it, tried to remember everything that happened in her 'dream' of Malfoy all those months ago. All she could remember was feeling lost, a pair of trousers, and then Malfoy's face. She was pretty sure he had put part of the plant in his mouth before sticking a piece in hers, and then he had said something about Valentine's Day - the day she had woken up on the floor. No - no, the day she had traveled back to. She couldn't remember anything before that, and considering her deja vu up until she learned of the plant, someone had either erased her memory of anything dealing with the plant, or the plant had done it itself.

She also remembered pain. A deep, burning, tearing her apart sort of pain. If Malfoy had sent them back, they must have needed to change something, or they had been dying - which also meant they had to change something before the past became the future. Or...the future...became the future? The past-future? She was clueless about how to change it, or if they even could. If their future was determined and they didn't know how it had led to that, they were doomed to repeat it again, and again. God, she would be stuck cycling through the same months with Malfoy over, and over, and over! She must have done something horrible in a past life. She must have drowned puppies and slaughtered children.

But, Hermione thought, looking over at Malfoy, if they hadn't seen the scar, surely they would have left the other by now. There was no way they would have stayed partnered up once they reached the city again. So maybe they would change it because they already had. They also had the benefit of knowing something was coming.

She hated it. She hated not having any facts but the one that something bad was going to happen. She felt defenseless - like she was struggling against a predetermined future that could never be changed, but that she had to change. There was no way she was going to go through this with Malfoy for the rest of her life. Them just being together now must be different than the first time, but she didn't know if that would be enough.

She looked over at him as he rubbed some sort of ointment on his burn. Who knew where he had got it from. She remembered him in front of the hotel without his robe bundle, which seemed strange that he would leave it somewhere. Maybe he had helped someone like she had and got money - or someone was helping him. She still didn't know what the man on Vulcano had told him, shown him, or helped him with, but Malfoy had been in a much better mood with him than her, certainly.

June 5; 7:18am

She didn't see Malfoy anywhere when she woke up, but his robe was still there, folded over things. She knew he had some food in there, but after seeing him with the ointment last night, she was curious about what else he had in there. She didn't think it would be anything important if he left it, so it wasn't really an invasion of privacy. It was more like a...checking food supplies thing.

She looked around to make sure he wasn't somewhere close and then got up, staring down the four meters of space between her and his robe. She picked up a stick to open the flaps, as if she were about to poke a dead animal. She'd only taken three steps towards it when she heard the crunching of footsteps and looked up to see a flash of skin through the trees. She hurriedly threw the stick, brushing her hand off on her jeans as he came fully into her line of vision. His eyes narrowed just slightly on hers and then darted over to where the stick had landed.