Harry Potter: The Price of Silence.

And then there was Malfoy himself. Fuck - Hermione had vowed to never feel an ounce of sympathy for him. But how could she not pity him? How could she stop her heart from twisting painfully when she saw him crumpled and hunched on the floor, with his mother's broken body in his arms?

Narcissa's chest heaved with every shallow breath she took. She looked as though she were just clinging onto her last threads of life. Every inch of her body was covered in blood - whether it was hers, or her husbands, Hermione wasn't sure. Although she remained largely intact, there were small pieces of her missing; a couple of fingers, a large chunk of flesh from her shoulder, her left leg.

Hermione crouched down beside Malfoy to get a better look at the damage. He looked so young. Sixteen, maybe seventeen. His features were still sharp and angled like they were now, but the youthful roundness that Hermione remembered was there.

She thought that this memory couldn't have been more than a few months after the battle of Hogwarts, until she saw his suit. It was the same black, tailored suit he'd worn in the Room of Requirement that day. This wasn't months after the battle, it was days.

Malfoy's entire body trembled as he held his mother in his arms. Tears streamed down his face, and his breath shook with each low sob.

"It's alright," Narcissa hushed. She reached up with bony fingers to cup Malfoy's face and wiped some of the tears from his cheek, smiling weakly at her son while he quietly sobbed above her. "It's alright, sweetheart. It's m-my ... time."

"No! No, I can fix this!" young Malfoy stammered. Hermione's chest tightened when he lifted his head. He was frantic, his eyes swam with tears as they darted around the room. "I... I-I can fix this... just hold on. I'll get my wand and -"

"Shhhhhh." Narcissa took hold of his face and forced him to look at her. "It's too ... late." Her breath grew laboured as she choked each word out, as if it was becoming painful for her to even speak.

Malfoy choked on another sob. "T-this is all my fault... I-I'm sorry... I-I-"

"No. This.... is not ... your fault... D-don't you ever... think that..."

Narcissa was quiet for several moments. She stared up at Malfoy and caressed his face, as though she were soaking up every last moment with him before she closed her eyes for the final time.

"Draco, you need to listen... to me v-very carefully... Do you understand?"

Malfoy sniffed, but nodded his head.

"If you're.... going to survive Voldemort's reign... you need to be strong... and never let him know.... what you're thinking." Narcissa paused when a dry cough tore its way up her throat, colouring her pale lips and chin red. Malfoy wiped it away with shaky fingers.

"Do you... remember what I taught you ... about Occlumency?"

He nodded feebly in response.

Narcissa's hand left Draco's face, and Hermione watched as she weakly rested it over her son's heart. "We'll ... do it together.. alright?"

Again, Malfoy nodded, just one sharp jerk of his chin.

"Just listen ... to my voice," Narcissa whispered, weak, her end growing closer. "Close your eyes."

Malfoy pinched his eyes closed. It only made him look more vulnerable. More broken.

"There's nothing else here ... nothing is going on around us ... It's just me ... and you."

A sob started to burn Hermione's throat, dying to break free. She'd never seen Malfoy like this. So vulnerable. So ... scared.

"Now, take a ... deep b-breath."

They both inhaled deeply, together.

"I want you to ... release it s-slowly, can you d-do that?"

Malfoy nodded, and his trembling seemed to ease a fraction when he released the breath.

"Now imagine a s-small piece of.... glass... hold that glass ... in your hand..... I-imagine the weight.... of it." Hermione swore she heard Narcissa's lungs rattle. "Now I w-want you to picture ... that shard of glass expanding ... P-picture it reaching out." Another pause to cough. "C-covering your body ... like a shield."

Malfoy nodded. A deep crease formed between his brows when Narcissa choked again.

"N-nothing can get in, a-alright?.... Nothing... Not if you... don't want ... it to."

When Malfoy didn't answer her, Narcissa shifted in his arms, and rested her hand against his cheek. He opened his eyes slowly and took a deep breath. Hermione didn't think she'd ever be able to get the desperate way he sobbed his next word out of her head. They would be buried there forever.

"Don't leave me mum... p-please... please don't leave me-"

Suddenly, nails dug into Hermione's arm, and she whirled around just in time to catch a pair of familiar, murderous grey-blue eyes before the room faded out of existence.

Malfoy slammed Hermione into the wall the second they reappeared in her bedroom. "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!?"

The rage in his eyes made her forget how to speak. "I... I don't know... Malfoy I- don't even know how I-"

His fingers left her arms, only to curl painfully around her throat. Hard. "IF YOU DO THAT AGAIN I WILL KILL YOU! DO YOU HEAR ME?!"

Hermione instinctually tried to pry him off, but he squeezed harder.

He jolted her against the wall, causing her head to smack against the plaster. "DARK LORDS ORDERS OR NOT, IF YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU!"

Hermione didn't get the opportunity to argue with him, or point out the thin line of blood that streaked from his left nostril. Before her brain had caught up, Malfoy released her and charged out the room.

The walls shook when he slammed the door behind him, and Hermione slid down her wall into a heap on the floor, her mind filled with familiar screams, flaming torches, and a fractured voice from someone she hadn't realised was so utterly broken underneath those blood-soaked robes.