Chapter 1: Before the Blackout

"Good morning Sunshine."

Hermione work with a start. She sat up quickly only to lay right back down as she felt an ache in her head that felt as if she had been hit by a hippogriff. She looked to her right side, to see where the voice had come from, to discover Harry sitting at her bedside. He was smiling, but all she could notice was the scars on his face and that his left arm was in a sling.

"Harry, thank Merlin, you're alive."

She sat up again, this time slower than her first attempt. The aching in her head continued but Hermione toughed through it. She had to talk to him. She had to find out what happened.

"No," said Harry, still smiling, "thank Merlin you're alive."

"I don't understand," Hermione said, furrowing her brow, "Bellatrix…the killing curse…Harry…I-I should be—"

"- dead, yeah you should." Harry's smile faded. "That's what I came to talk to you about Hermione- what's the last thing you remember?"

Hermione was afraid she would be asked this. She had been pondering her answer for days now. What did happen? She closed her eyes, hoping to put together her thoughts. She sat like that for a while, then began to speak.

"I remember fighting over near the forbidden forest—me, Kingsley, and a Hufflepuff 7th year. Bellatrix appeared, she noticed me as soon as she arrived, and I could tell she wanted to finish what she started." Hermione opened her eyes and looked at her arm, the same arm that Bellatrix LeStrange had carved "mudblood" into that horrible night at Malfoy Manner. She closed her eyes again, and then continued.

"We began battling, and I was holding my ground. I could tell she was getting more frustrated by the minute. I had to keep focus Harry, but then one of Bellatrix's killing curse missed and hit Kingsley." She felt tears forming in her eyes, but she knew she must continue. "I hesitated at my next spell- all I remember is seeing Kingsley fall to the ground and then a bright green light, and then I was gone. But now I'm here, and I don't understand why Harry."

Harry shifted in his seat. He stared at Hermione, but it looked as if he was looking into her, trying to take in her story while trying to reason with other thoughts. After a few moments, he regained his focus and began to dig through his pocket. Hermione watched him as he pulled out a gold ring with a green emerald in the center.

Hermione recognized the ring immediately, she had been wearing it during the war. Both of them had been wearing it. How did Harry get it?

Harry held the ring in his palm, then he looked into Hermione's deep brown eyes. He then began to speak.

"I was fighting Voldemort—Ron, Tonks, Lupin, Fred and George were holding off Death Eaters so it could just be me and him. It happened so fast—first Tonks, then Lupin, then Fred. Each hit by a killing curse. Order members were falling left and right— and Ron was trying his best to keep the Death Eaters off, and it just looked as if George gave up." Harry stopped, wiping a tear from his eye. He looked at the window, as if to regain his composure. Then, he returned his gaze to Hermione, who was frozen at the spot, tears flowing down her cheeks.

"Then, Malfoy showed up, and I knew it would be over then. But just as soon as he showed up, he began killing Death Eaters. Can you believe it?" Harry tried to force out a laugh, "Malfoy killing his own kind? But he did, he killed dozens of them, giving me enough time to finish Voldemort. When I sent the final blow, I turned around to find Ron and that's when I saw him—Malfoy getting hit with a killing curse and falling on to his back, he wasn't moving."

At those words, Hermione felt a lump in her throat. Draco couldn't be dead, could he? The Ring—The Ring was supposed to protect him. He couldn't be dead.

"Who—who cast the curse? On Draco? Harry who was it?"

She almost sounded angry, but Harry didn't seem to notice the rage she was trying to keep down. The Ring was supposed to protect him! Before she could stop herself, tears were flowing hard down her cheeks, she wanted to fall back on her pillow and sleep her life away, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She had to make sure Draco was ok. He had to be alive.

"Dunno," Harry replied, "all the surrounding Death Eaters were either dead or disapperating from the battle. It was like—like it appeared out of thin air."

"Where is Draco?" Hermione held her breath, waiting for Harry to answer. Bracing herself for the worst. Draco Malfoy was dead. The rings didn't work. She was alone once again.

Harry looked at her and laughed. A genuine laugh. "After being in the hospital for a week, I assumed you would've looked to see who was lying beside you."

Hermione stopped. Gathering the words that Harry just said. Beside me? She slowly turned her head to the left side of her hospital bed, and there he was. Draco Malfoy.

He was lying completely still, as if he were dead, but Hermione could see that he was breathing, the covers of his hospital bed rising and falling in a steady rhythm. His white blond hair was splattered over his face, but Hermione could still see the scars and bruises on it. Why hadn't she thought to look? Maybe because she couldn't bear to see who was beside her, and then to accept the condition they were in. But for it to be Draco, and that he was alive, she seemed unable to breathe.

"How did he—"

"—When he fell, Ron and I ran over to him, he looked like he was dead, but he was still breathing, Ron checked for a pulse, and well it was there. We couldn't leave him there, he had just saved our lives. So we carried him to the Great Hall, where all the other casualties were being kept. We walked in and it was almost like…, "Harry trailed off. "It was almost like it happened at the same time. We walked in with Malfoy, and Ginny and a Hufflepuff 7th year came in carrying you—Ginny spluttering about you being hit by a killing curse from Bellatrix but you were still alive—the same as Malfoy. We laid you both beside each other, and that's when I saw it. The rings."

Harry lifted the ring up for Hermione to see, but she wasn't looking—she kept her gaze on the sleeping Draco beside her. Harry stared at the ring as if he was trying to carefully form the next words that would come out of his mouth. He continued to stare at it as he spoke again.

"I noticed your ring first. Glowing a bright gold and green, and then I noticed Malfoy's doing the same."

Hermione bit her lip. Still staring at Draco. Harry had figured it out. And she had to answer the one question she wasn't prepared to answer yet. Not by herself.

"Hermione, are—are you and Malfoy soul bonded through these rings?"