Seven Minutes | dramione

Chapter 18

"If you want to get to Dumbledore, Draco, you're going to have to kill me first."

The words filled the air between them, choking him and fixing his feet to the ground. There were no words he could muster as the deafening silence became absolute. His heart might have stopped for all he knew. It was frozen at the very least. The two of them were suspended in this moment, waiting, waiting, waiting for someone to speak. To scream. To do anything.

That moment of relief came too soon and too late. With her fiery gaze pinned to him, she spoke.

"Didn't expect to see me here, did you?"

He shook his head mutely. She smirked in response, but he could see her slight trembles. The wand pointed directly at him was shaking.

"Nothing to say, Draco?" she asked, her voice venomous. "No explanation to offer? No defense for yourself?"

"I don't have anything to say," he whispered, keeping his wand up but casting his eyes down.

"Look at me!" she commanded. His eyes snapped back up to meet her blazing ones. "Draco Malfoy, you are going to look me in the eye when you try to kill me. You're going to watch. You're not going to be able to hide in shadows and hurt people like you did with Ron and Katie. No. You're going to watch the light leave my eyes and you are going to hear me scream. You can't hide from the pain you're causing. You have to see it. And you have to live with it. You will not go gentle. I will not let you go gentle."

Her words pounded into his ears, drowning out everything else. The battle raging several corridors and floors below felt miles away. It was only him, and it was only her. They were it.

He took a few deep breaths. "I'm not going to kill you, Hermione."

She shrugged, her body still shaking. "What's the difference, really? You nearly killed Ron and Katie. You're on your way to kill Dumbledore. What does it matter if you add another body to your list?"

Now he was shaking. "I could never hurt you. I couldn't do it."

"I guess we have a problem then, Draco. Because you've already hurt me. And the only way for you to complete your goddamn task is to hurt me again."

The silence descended again. They were at a stalemate. Hermione, refusing to move without force. Draco, refusing to move her with force.

A low, watery chuckle burst from her throat. The sound of it shattered his frozen heart. "Did you ever mean it? That you weren't going to do it, I mean. Or were you just saying that to string me along?"

He shook his head vigorously. "Of course I meant it! I wouldn't...I mean I didn't.... it wasn't a lie."

"Then what changed?" Her trembling voice was gone, replaced by cold, dark fury. "Did you just wake up today and decide it was perfect weather for murder?"

"No!" He shouted. "I just...I figured out how to fix the cabinet and I realized that I could still...I could still do it... I could still save my family. It was still possible."

"Oh I see," she spat. "You weren't going to do it only because you couldn't figure out how. Can't be evil without methods."

"Don't act so damn superior!" he barked. "I don't have a choice. You know that."

"No, I don't know that, Draco," she retorted. "I can't know that, in fact. Because it's not fucking true. There's always a choice! You're just too much of a coward to accept that! You chose the easiest route for you. It's hard to defect from your chosen life path. It's hard to ask for help and protection. But it's not hard, apparently, to murder a man you've known for six years."