Parade of the Sun - Dramione

PART THIRTY-FOUR.

December 15; 1:17am

Hermione had not been able to sleep. Draco had lain down hours ago, but she had been too busy thinking. She had never wished for something with the magic to come more than she did now. She didn't care what it was, as long as they could see if the ring worked when one of them put it on. She had been going through every moment from the beginning, picking everything apart, when she finally realized something she should have realized a long time ago.

She tried to wait on telling Draco until the morning, but it was fighting a war with the tip of her tongue, and her silence was losing. She lay down next to him, figuring she would startle him less than hovering so he wouldn't make a scene or hurt his arm. She also needed to whisper just in case they were around.

She cleared her throat, scooting closer to him, and whispered his name very softly in his ear. A strand of his hair moved, and his face turned slightly towards her, but he remained on his back and sleeping. She reached down to touch his wrist, his knuckles pressing to her bent knee, and said his name a little louder.

She heard his breath suck in, and she took advantage of the small moment of wakefulness. "Draco, I have to tell you something."

He held his breath, and then released it slowly. "Am I on fire?"

"I was thinking--"

He groaned. "Grang--"

"No, it's about my dream - well, my memory, of our past-future. Do you remember it?"

He turned his head towards her, and her mouth had been so close to his ear that his nose brushed hers now. He blinked at her, his eyebrows pulling down. He groaned again, reaching up to rub his eyes. "Waking me up in the middle of the night to talk--"

"This is important, sh." She looked over her shoulder, pretending to stretch. "Draco, you didn't say Valentine's Day. You said Valen, and then your face went blank. I think we had our memories erased, which I've told you before. Me before you, and I think that was the last bit you could say before they Obliviated you. You were counting on me to remember, I think."

She glanced behind her again, and Draco pushed up on his elbow, looking down at her. She looked back at him, and her eyes might have raked over the pull of his shirt against his torso like she wanted to crawl onto him, but it wasn't the time to acknowledge it.

"Valen," he whispered.

"Yes. You said Valen, your face went blank. I bit your fingers, and then I woke up in my living--"

"Valencia." He was staring at her like he was reading the tiny print of the answer on her irises.

She nodded vigorously. "He was the one who did it. I don't know how, but he must have. You said it. It has to be him."

12:13pm

"We must have been past the barrier if they Obliviated us. I wonder if it was because of the plant, or because they knew about the ring."

"I don't know."

"Can you imagine if we knew about the ring this entire time? If we didn't have to deal with any of the--"

He glanced over at her sudden stop. "We would have been home months ago." 

"Did you try your wand? Did--"

"First thing I did when you went up the slope for your bag."

"Nothing?"

"Useless."

December 16; 4:20pm

"Sh."

"Sh, yourself," she whispered harshly.