Chapter 26: Goodbye

Your cold grey eyes casting me a storm

That shook my heart and swayed my soul

Your suspicious glare that makes my spine brawl

All of them, ugly out, divine inside, I'm ready to fall.

Your cruel sharp touch feels like a smooth caress

That hurt me once but didn't make me love you less

Your pretended cruelty made me shiver like it's snow

Every part of you, hidden as it is, purely shows.

Your growing pain sends disaster to my heart

that torture all of me and left a visible deep scar

Your regression, wrath, morbid mortification, wringing soul

God, forgive me, but why can't I just steal them all?

This terrifying war won't last long for eternity

One of us needs to be defeated eventually

So choose now, where to side, where to go

Lurk in the dark, watch and kill me slowly

or absorb the light; stay.. and perhaps, die with me?

Hermione was woken up with a cold splash of water across her face. Even though the water was ice-cold, she had a hard time to regain her senses. She examined the room, the floor and walls were made of grey stones and above her was an old gold-chained chandelier that looked like a decade old. She blinked her eyes quickly and tried to tuck a loose strand of her brown curly hair in her ear but then a sudden realization hit her that her arms were tied tightly around a wooden chair. Then, the wind blew upon her face making her shiver.

"A-ha, you're awake…My lady" Someone she didn't know spat at her. He was tall, full-bearded, and his voice echoed across the stone-cold room.

"Who are you? Where am I?" She panicked. The man laughed at her reaction as if what she said was the biggest joke of all time.

"Of course you don't know me. I am Master Lucius Malfoy's…uhm…butler" He replied with a satisfaction with his face while stroking his long grey beard.

"Butler who tied a guest in a chair? What are you…Bonkers?" She insulted him. The tall man just laughed at her face as he was pacing the room with his wand behind him.

"Yes, a butler that kills people that stand in my Master's way."

It was late in the evening when Ron heard a banging on his front door. He opened it and was surprised of the person that stood in his front door.

"What does his majesty doing around my porch at this time?" He mockingly asked while rubbing his eyes.

Malfoy, as he observed look worried. His blond platinum hair was wildly disarranged and there were dark circles under his eyes.

"I need your help" He whispered.

Ron didn't quite believe what he just heard and prevented himself from laughing but his heart began to beat loudly when Draco murmured..

"It's Hermione…"

Draco was so sure that he could kill his father once he saw him. He heard the bad news that Hermione was kidnapped by his father when his house-elf apparated in his room. If this was just a dream, he badly wanted to wake up, but he learned it the hard way when he punched the wall of his room and injured his hand.

"Where do you think he brought her?" Ron asked him, almost shouting, that brought him back to the present.

"Our house near the Blue Lake" He whispered.

"Let's go" Ron urged him.

They apparated in front of their gated and abandoned home near Blue Lake. It was eerily silent and that silence made Draco's heart thumped louder. Was Hermione hurt? He didn't know what to do if that ever happens. Maybe he will be a murderer, and worse, of his own father.

Ron kicked the steel gate resulting to a banging sound. They ran across the large garden that looked like cemetery now since the grass turned to dirt and the trees were nothing but branches anymore. They reached the tall wooden front door and slowly opened it. They reached the large, empty, and dusty living room.

"Where can she be?" Ron asked him panicking.

"Upstairs!" He shouted when they saw a black figure moving along the rails of the upper floor. They tried to catch him but then he was quick and disappeared all of the sudden.

They examined each twelve rooms of the upper floor only to not find any trace of Hermione. What could happen to her? What did his father do to her? He was sure that his heart had skipped a beat for a million times that night.

"How sure are you that she's here?" Ron asked him accusingly, his wand tightened around his hand.

"This is where he tortures people" He replied. He was about to go to the upper floor when all of the sudden the person he wanted to kill appeared out of thin air. He fought the urge to cast a killing spell on his father but that urge was very strong it was hard to fight but then his father spoke…

"Son, I knew you were coming." Lucius asked cheerfully.

He violently came closer to his father and tried to choke his father with his collar while pointing his wand on his neck.

"Where is my wife?" He muttered trying not to lose his control and murder his vile father.

"I believe we just had a deal, here's our contract." Lucius replied with a smile sprawled across his face. Draco pushed him violently.

"What deal?" He asked as he tried to examine his father's body language. What could this deal be? He asked himself and why would Hermione fucking consider to be part of it?

"Coffee or Tea?" Lucius asked as if he was teasing him. "But should I say, I don't want to sit in the same table nor breathe the same air with that weasel…" Lucius continued with disgust in his face.

I, Hermione Granger, promises, under oath, that I will stay away from Draco Malfoy for all of my life and in part with this agreement, I will take fifty-million Galleon with me.

My love, for Draco Malfoy is worth fifty-million Gringotts. Can you fucking imagine that?

His eyes were that most beautiful gray orbs I've seen in my life, the way his lashes meet his cheeks when he blinks, the way the curves of his lips resonates that of the sea that crashes the shore whenever he speaks and the way his platinum blond hair dances along with the wind, swaying.

And Draco Malfoy worth is fifty-million? Fuck.

I can't imagine if money can even buy his fingertips or a strand of his hair for when he kisses my back it was as if he was giving me wings to fly, and when he kisses my shoulder it was as if he was removing the burden of mine and carrying it on his and when he kisses my cheeks, my eyes and my eyebrows it was as if he was saying sorry for all the things or people that hurt me or made me cry. He was my love, my home. And whenever he kisses my lips, it was as if…as if, he was marking me as his possession and I wouldn't even hold a single protest, I would give him my all even my happiness…

I will give him my happiness, I will give him my life and my home. I will give them swiftly and not hold back a single piece of any of it…even if my happiness, life and home is him.

Hermione was packing her things as swift as she could when Draco apparated in front of her, looking drastically burdened, he was slouching as if he lost a big battle and the light from his eyes were nowhere to be found. She fought the urge to hug him, to kiss him and to tell him that everything will be alright but then she snapped herself to reality and walk past him with her bags although she wasn't finished packing.

"Where are you going?" Draco asked her with a slight crack in his voice. She inhaled deeply and fought the urge to cry but she needed to be strong. She blinked back the tears forming in her eyes and faced him.

"I'm leaving, we had a deal you know… he said that I can take my fifty million galleon once I leave you! Can you imagine fifty million! What would I do with all that money? I can start my own school and teach there! Or form my own organization against cruelty among elves or I can retire-" She was cut off by Draco. He kissed her hard, urging her soul to stay and to just restart all over again but she, she reminded herself that she needed to stop herself from staying in his arms, in her home, and in this bliss. She pushed him as hard as she could.

"Don't leave me, Hermione. You're not this…" He replied, tears streaming down his face as he brushed his hair from his forehead then he walked slowly to Hermione. She swiftly walked away but Draco embraced him sobbing against her back.

"I am this. Look at you, losing everything you got! Your career and your money for what.. for me? For love? Seeing this happen to you makes me scared that this can happen to myself! I don't believe in love you see! I'm purely logical person who thinks love is for stupid people! Wake up, Malfoy! I'm giving you a chance to regain things that you lost! We are both winning here, you, you get back your career and your money and I get back this hefty amount of money."

"What the fuck did he say to you? And why in earth did you believe him Hermione?" He whispered, not wanting to believe anything she said. This can't be the Hermione Granger that he fell in love with.

"Nothing Draco..." She replied, with tears threatening to escape from her eyes. "It's just that I want this money." She continued as she carried her bags and raced her way to the front door.

"Hermione, please don't.." Draco pleaded weakly not having enough energy to stop her as much as how his heart desired.

Hermione reached for the door knob but then she felt Draco's embrace, once again. She wanted to linger in this moment and just stay with him ,but no, she could not lose with these temptations, she had to hurt Draco for him not be hurt.

"I can do anything I want with him, Mudblood..I can make him a cripple or blind or put his life on the edge and when that happens, I'm very sure that he, himself, will come to me begging for help." Lucius threatened her as he circled her with his arms and his wand behind him. Even in the dark, she could see how deadly those gray orbs of his, unlike Draco, of whom which radiates love, Lucius's radiates wrath. "..and I won't stop until I get what I want. You know me Granger, I can kill anyone…maybe even my son."

She faced Draco as she blinked back all the tears that welled in her eyes back. She pushed him as strong as she could.

"I didn't love you at all, what made you think of that. How can I love someone like you, A Malfoy? Fuck." She replied and opened the door but Draco circled her wrist and pulled him closer to him.

"Liar." He replied with a blank voice and unreadable eyes.

"I don't love you, Draco that's the truth. Now, this is just one thing I ask of you… I never want to see you again so don't bother coming back to my life again." She replied with all her might fighting the urge to cry or to kiss him and reassure him that everything will be alright, but she had to be strong, for him, for her love—her home.

And then she apparated, catching one glimpse of him and of her heart that she left with him.

A/N: Hi all, I'm so sorry that I've just uploaded this now. I was quite busy with life. Can you believe it I'm already a CPA lol. Anyway, I guess you always come back to your love like for me, it is writing. Hope you like this chapter! Hoping for your response via review! I love you all, god bless! J