Anchor and Rose | Dramione

Five.

Hermione's hands begun to shake.

She caught Draco staring down at them, like he was worried she was going to explode any second.

"A Death-Eater, Malfoy?" Her voice was strained, barely audible. His hands were still on her shoulders absentmindedly, not like neither of them paid it much attention. "I-I have to get out of here."

"You need to get out of here?" Draco scoffed, finally releasing her shoulders. He stepped back to lean against the wall. "He's probably here for me, fuck Granger, fuck, he's here for me."

Trepidation rumbled through Draco's body like poison.

Hermione could see his muscles tense, his fists curl and a trickle of worry itching at his brow. For a moment, she almost pitied him. Almost.

"Calm down!" Hermione didn't mean to yell so loud. But she did. "What did you do, Malfoy?"

He looked rather confused, so she continued. "What did you do for them to come after you? Why are you so worried?"

Hermione's chest was hammering with the pulse of her heart, because so much dread and fear had begun to leak through her veins, but she had to remain calm, she had to.

Not only for her but for him too.

As much as she didn't want to-she was still Hermione. A Gryffindor with Gryffindor tendencies. Always help this around you-no matter what.

"What do you fucking think I did, Granger? You really are thick." His words were like toxin. "I disobeyed the Dark Lord, that's enough reason for him to get my head perched on a stick with a snap of his fingers."

Bile filled Hermione's stomach at the thought.

"Many Death-Eaters are under the Imperius Curse, am I right?" Hermione stopped pacing, not even noticing her feet had been moving in the first place.

Draco stepped away from the wall, so he can hear her better, because her voice was so quiet it was hardly perceptible.

"What? Why is that relevan-"

Hermione slapped his arm. Again. He really was frustrating, most of all, selfish. He was too busy panicking about his looming struggle that he couldn't even stop for one minute to listen to what she had to say.

"Because if he's under the curse, maybe we can question him. To talk some sense into him." Blood was rushing to her head, trying to work out all the possible safe scenarios. "Therefore we can retrieve your wand, then we can find somewhere else to run to."

He gulps. "We?"

Naive Draco, always so Naive.

"What, you think you can run from Death-Eaters alone? You can't even protect your own wand from getting stolen." She regretted her words because he stepped towards her again. Again. And Jesus christ she was getting sick and tired of him coercing her back against the wall and she was getting sick and tired of the sickly smell of his shampoo wafting through her nostrils when he was this close.

"And why aren't you letting them take me? The Granger I knew would've let them rip me to shreds in front of her very eyes." His finger taunted her, trailing down her cheek.

The Draco Malfoy she remembered from school would have never even placed a finger on her skin.

He was confused, she reminded herself as she coughed out a breath lodged in her throat. She was also confused, she reminded herself. You're just doing this to stay alive, she tells herself.

"I'm not helping you, you inconsiderable twat." She tried to push him away again, but like each and every-time she found herself sandwiched between his chest and the wall, he didn't budge. "I'm doing what I have to do to stay alive and that might mean making sure you keep that stupid head of yours attached to your neck."