Beauty and the Beast (Dramione)

Chapter 7 I'm Not A Princess

   After the snowball fight, Draco and Hermione sat on a bench out in the grounds of the Manor. Both of them were really quiet, but Hermione decided to break the silence. "It just occurred to me that I didn't thank you for saving my life. You could've left me to those snatchers, but you didn't. Thank you. I guess you're not completely heartless to let me die that easily."

  "Glad that you know my true values, Granger", said Draco with a beastly chuckle. "Thanks for not leaving me to be eaten by Greyback."

  "Anytime." They both laughed for a moment before hearing Theo, Blaise and Pansy having a good time in snow a few yards away from them. "Looks like they know how to have fun."

   Draco sighed. "Yet, when I enter a room, all that joy seems to magically disappear."

   Hermione's smile quickly turned into a frown when she thought about his words. "Me too." Draco was quite confused by her sudden statement. 'How could the Gryffindor Princess make everyone around her miserable?', he thought to himself. "All the people in my village say that I'm different, and I can guarantee that it's not a compliment. My own two best friends don't want to be around me anymore. They've moved on with their lives and pushed my away in the process."

   Draco was surprised to hear that Potter and Weasel had ditched the brightest witch of her age. She did everything she could to save their lives and they tossed her aside like a piece of garbage. Now he fully understood why she cared about her father so much.

  "He's my father, he's all I have left."

   The words sank into his head like an anchor of guilt. "We could escape for awhile."

   Hermione was curious as to what the Beast meant by "we could escape". 'Why would he want to escape his own manor?', she thought to herself. He didn't give a better answer to her curiosity until they were back in the library. Hermione stayed quiet as the beast inspected one of the bookshelves in the far corner. "Which book is it", he asked himself. He kept searching through every book until the words 'The Great Escape' caught his attention. He pulled the book out a bit, then placed it back.

Hermione was rather confused by his actions until the whole bookshelf slid out of view. Behind it stood a huge black and gold cabinet. She recognized it immediately, however, it was much bigger than the one at Hogwarts. "A Vanishing Cabinet", whispered Hermione."

"A gift from Borgin himself, or as I like to call it, another person feeling sorry for me." Draco stared at the cabinet with a bit o fury. "A creature like me doesn't belong in a world full of people like you."

Hermione knew that he didn't mean that last part as a bad thing. She opened up the door, and stepped inside, followed by the beast. Hermione knew exactly where she wanted to go. She felt like she was transporting through thin air, but staying completely still at the same time.

When that feeling stopped, she opened the door, but what she saw was something that she wasn't expecting.

There was a castle in ruins, and most of the ground was covered in rubble. "Hogwarts", Hermione heard from the beast. "I remember this place like it was yesterday."

"What happened to it?" Her voice was very shaky as she asked her question. Something so precious to her seemed to be destroyed so easily.

"After the second wizarding war, parents didn't want to send their children here. They assumed it was such a dangerous place, so it was closed forever." Draco was currently clearing a path to the door while Hermione hadn't taken a single step since her eyes fell upon the destroyed castle.

"But this was my home! Everything from my childhood is gone." She suddenly lost control of her emotions. She sat down on a stone and let the tears fall. Hermione finally realized that she had been living in a fantasy. Hogwarts was gone. Her heart was breaking right then and there. "It's like it never even happened."