Songstress - HP Fanfic - DMHG
A/N: This has been sitting on my flash drive since last July. I don't think it's that great (can anyone say "cliche" with me?), so I won't post in on my FF acount, and I don't feel like it belongs on my DA either. So here it is, even if it's not that great.
Edited 7/10/08
Songstress
AU (from what book I don't know)
Draco Malfoy/ Hermione Granger
PG-13, T
When Malfoy placed the ad in the paper, he never expected Hermione Granger would be the one to propel his band to stardom.
- - -
She looks at the wanted ad in the paper. It’s a simple blurb really, nothing special, but her gaze lingers on the words.
“Wanted: Songwriter/lyricist for band, no prior experience required. Please send an owl to. . .” and then the ad led on to the proper conduct information.
She can’t tear her gaze away from it. She doesn’t know it, but her next decision will shape the rest of her life.
She chooses to reply. She dips her quill in the inkwell and begins to write her reply. Alongside her reply she includes a sample of some of her songs. She’d always wanted to hear her songs sung; she’d never been one to sing anyway, what was the harm in helping someone else anyway?
- - -
He watches an unknown owl alight on his windowsill wondering if someone has finally replied to his wanted ad. He knows the ad wasn’t really that great; for being a song-writer/singer he really didn’t have a way with formally written words. From paper to mouth, words didn’t sound the same.
He takes the parchment from the extended talon and unfurls it cautiously. He doesn’t bother to read the formal niceties, but flips the page over and sees in elegant script the lyrics he’s been looking for.
He grins wickedly. He’s found what he wanted. His band has found their new lyricist.
Malfoys always did get what they want.
- - -
Their correspondence is always by owl. He gives her a song half finished and then she owls back with some input. Eventually, he grows tired of this. He is a Malfoy, and Malfoys are never patient unless absolutely necessary--usually to keep up appearances. And there are no pretenses to keep with his nameless correspondent.
He sends her (he knows it’s a her, she wrote that in her letter) an enchanted scroll. The scroll is magicked to allow two people to instantaneously write to one another without owls. The moment he writes on his scroll, the words appear on her matching one, and vice versa.
This is how they communicate for a while. And then his inspiration runs dry and asks her for a song. She sends him a song called “Over my Head.” Liking it immediately, he sends it to his fellow band members and they like the change of style.
They play the song at their next gig and the crowd loves it.
- - -
She wonders who she’s writing to. He’s intellectual, that she knows, he’s also a splendid writer; why ever did he need her? But she is content.
The first song they write together is entitled “I Hate Everything About You.” It makes her think of Draco Malfoy and his damnable smirks. She hates the song but can’t rid herself of the pride she gets when she hears people on the streets talking about her song.
She soon realizes that the band she’s writing for is Draco Malfoy’s.
Needless to say, she screams quite loudly upon discovering this.
- - -
So, Hermione continues her letters to Malfoy. She is sure she has entered some bizarre realm of reality and Malfoy is about to pop out of the bushes yelling it’s all a grand joke. But it never comes. She can only assume he doesn’t know who he’s corresponding with.
Of course, Malfoy is trying to figure out who the hell he’s writing to as well. But Malfoy just can’t figure it out.
- - -
He’s in a wretched mood. Pansy quit the band. Bitch. Prima donna. Bitch. Left the band right when things were getting good. Without her there isn’t proper balance. The band’s lost something only a--he hates to say it, but his band needed a woman’s touch.
So he’s walking down the corridors when he hears a piano playing. He dimly thinks that he’s a good player. And then he decides what the hell, he needs another player, and Pansy was the only one able to play the piano with a decent amount of sensitivity.
He enters the room and sees Granger pouring over the keys. He glides up to her and asks if he’ll join the band. He doesn’t care about blood and all that shit, it meant nothing to him personally, it was just something to keep Lucius happy anyway. If his father didn’t want a Mudblood in the band, oh well. He could just go to fucking hell.
Surprisingly, she says yes.
- - -
The band takes off to even higher heights as Hermione joins the band. Everyone loves her, she’s the little sister and mother figure they never had all rolled up into one adorable package. Even Draco reluctantly admits it, but never to her face.
He learns she’s a good singer, too. He’s late for a gig one night, and to his surprise she’s on stage in his stead singing “Over my Head.” The next thing he knows he’s in a-the word seems downright wrong--duet with her screaming out “I Hate Everything About You.”
He’s so stunned he doesn’t even realize she knows the lyrics his correspondent had added on last minute that no one else knows about.
- - -
Draco takes her to a field one day. It’s almost summer and the field is quiet. Her hair comes down in the wind and she smiles at him. He thinks she looks like an angel.
He wants time to stop.
And for once, he doesn’t get what he wants.
- - -
The war is closing in on Hermione. With Harry and Ron to look after, her gigs are becoming something she can barely afford to do anymore. So far she’s been able to keep it from them, but she knows they won’t be happy with her for it. They don’t need to worry about her-not when there is so much wrong already.
She almost tells Draco she’s going to quit, but she can’t bring herself to. She wonders what’s wrong with herself when she loses her nerve after he smiles at her.
She never stops to think that Hermione Granger has time to fall in love.
- - -
The next thing Hermione knows she’s been asked by the Order to do special work. She has a special power for empathy, Dumbledore says, and they want her to use it while singing to undo the creeping poison of fear and hate spread by Voldemort with peace and hope. She wonders if it’s propaganda, but decides it’s not. She’d only suggest the idea peace, the people she’d sing to would have to decide for themselves.
She wonders whether she should or not. But Draco forces her decision. He asks his unknown lyricist what he thinks of a song he wrote. Then he talks about how he loves this girl and doesn’t know how to tell her. For some reason, Hermione feels like the world just socked her in the stomach. She replies about unrequited love and wishes he wrote that song for her. She tells him any girl would be thrilled to hear such a song.
And she knows she won’t be able to hear that song and bear it. Because she’s in love with Draco Malfoy.
So, she drops her entire life and takes to the streets. She sings on the subways, at the train stations, on the streets. No one recognizes her, because no one wants to believe Hermione Granger is peddling songs on the street.
- - -
Draco ends up finding a part of himself he never knew existed. He starts writing songs just for acoustic guitar and piano. No more hard rock, nor metal and screaming. He’s discovering he can sing quite well without the yelling.
Blaise wrote a song for Ginny once. He called it “She’s Like the Wind.” Draco, never to be outdone decided to write one himself.
Or so he told himself. He knows he’s writing the song for Hermione, just for her and no one else. He thinks about her all the time now. He thinks he’s in love. He’s never been in love and asks his mysterious lyricist about it. He finishes writing the song and asks the girl her opinion.
She replies quite fluently about unrequited love and says the girl will love the song.
He tells Hermione that he has something to give her at the next performance and that’s the song he wrote all on his own.
Draco wonders where Hermione has gone. His band mates miss her and he’s going to ask Dumbledore where she is for the good of the band. He knows he misses her as well, but he’s not going to tell him that.
So he does, and Dumbledore raises an eyebrow. No answer.
So the band goes on without Hermione.
His new song, “Fields of Gold,” shoots straight to number one on the underground charts.
- - -
Hermione has no problem getting by on the streets. She’s always been smart and she garners enough money in her guitar case. Yes, guitar case. She brought her keyboard with her and would often Transfigure it into Draco’s guitar. People would often remark it bore a strong resemblance to Draco’s. She beamed when people told her this, saying she had made it herself.
Hermione taught herself to play guitar and continued to write songs, trying to convince people that fighting (for and against Voldemort) isn’t the only thing out there.
She tries to forget Draco. And fails miserably. She sees a sign saying the band’s performing tonight and decides to go in and see.
She climbs the balcony and finds a dark corner to sit down. The band’s almost done performing when the crowd goes crazy when someone shouts “Fields of Gold is next.”
She recognizes Draco’s voice and wants to sigh with relief. It’s good to hear his voice again.
And he sings.
She wants to cry, then. Hearing the song was so much different than reading it. She wishes with all her heart she was the girl he wrote it for. She promises herself she’ll find him after the show and tell him everything she should have said.
But she never gets to, a Death Eater grabs her from behind and they Apparate with a crack barely audible over the cheers of the crowd.
- - -
Hermione doesn’t know how long it’s been since she’s been in this prison. All she knows is another day of kicking, beating, holding back screams, sleeping in her own refuse, and eating stale and occasionally rotten food. She hates this place. She hates the torture; they actually branded her with the Dark Mark to break her. But she’s not broken yet.
She can’t escape; she knows she has to wait for the Order to liberate her. But she can’t wait any longer.
She knows she’s going to be killed tomorrow, and she wishes she could see Draco just once more. She remembers an old spell she found in the library one day and whispers the old words into the cold air.
- - -
The house is full and Draco is announcing he’ll sing Fields of Gold. He doesn’t always sing that song-- only when he thinks of her. He grabs his acoustic guitar and strums the opening. He starts singing when he realizes someone is playing piano.
He turns his head and there she is. His dazzling angel is sitting down playing the piano left behind by the last band playing. She looks. . . perfect.
He sings the rest of the song without letting his eyes stray from her. As the song ends he wonders if she liked it. The song is everything he wants and ever hopes for. It’s his heart laid out to the world that only she could pick up.
The tears in her eyes and the smile on her face is answer enough for him.
She stands in front the piano and turns towards him. She smiles and starts to walk towards him. But then. . . Her eyes widen and she curls in on herself as if in pain. She looks up at him in painful apology.
He rushes towards her and she wards him away with her hand. As she does this he sees the Dark Mark on her arm. He tries to grab her, but she’s gone before he can do anything.
There’s a pregnant pause and then Blaise says, “That’s Old Magic. Draco, she wasn’t here, I mean really here. That was her soul. She separated her soul from her body to be here. She probably won’t survive. She must have been desperate to resort to that spell.” To see you again.
Draco looks at him, a broken man.
- - -
About half a year after Hermione’s death “Be My Last” rockets to the top of the charts.
- - -
Draco walks the streets. He may be broken, but he certainly hasn’t stopped trying to live. He just hasn’t succeeded yet. Yet, he keeps telling himself. Today, he’s trying to find the elusive singer everybody is talking about.
The mysterious chanteuse everyone keeps talking about and won’t shut up about. He has to know who it is. What can he say, some of Hermione’s curiosity rubbed off on him. The song she’s so well known for is “Be My Last,” but they say she rarely ever sings it. There’re rumors she’ll be singing tonight (it’s the anniversary of Hermione’s death he notes).
He enters the club and looks up on the stage, seeing a young woman up there.
She strums a guitar that looks just like his. He can’t see the rest of her, the crowd blocks his view. He hears the words she’s singing.
“Rather than seeing you again, someday, somewhere,
I’d rather see you for an hour tonight.”
He hears that and thinks of Hermione. If she’d only waited. . . The Order had liberated the cell she’d been kept in the next day, but she was nowhere to be found. And Draco could only assume she died and the Death Eaters had carted her away into a mass grave.
As the woman lets the last chord go, he finally makes his way to the front of the crowd.
“Hermione.”
She looks at him in awe and amazement. She drops the guitar and jumps down the stage and into his arms.
- - -
“Where have you been?”
“The streets.”
“Where were you?”
“Work for the Order.”
“How did you survive?”
“. . . Having a Phoenix as an Animagus is quite helpful.”
“Why do you still have the Dark Mark?”
”I chose to keep it, as a reminder of all I have to lose.”
“Did you like my song?”
“Of course. Did you like mine?”
“Yes, but you’re an idiot. ‘Rather than being united someday. . .’ You’re an idiot for using that spell!”
“I never said I wasn’t.”
“I love you, you know that, right?”
Silence.
And she takes his hand in his.
“I know.”
And he doesn’t need to hear anything else.
- - -
Songs:
Over My Head by the Fray
I Hate (Everything About You) by Three Days' Grace
Fields of Gold by Sting (Live version from All This Time)
Be My Last by Utada Hikaru (some liberties with translation taken)