Disclaimer: All characters belong to J.K Rowling

P.S: This chapter will be kind of short since it's only the prologue, but my normal chapters will probably be anywhere between 3000-5000 words. I'll try to update at least 3 or 4 times a month, but no promises.

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Prologue

It was the beginning of Hermione's 7th year and she was border-lining ecstatic. Voldemort had been defeated by Harry the previous year and all finally seemed well in the wizarding world. There had been a few losses of course, including Moody, Sirius, Fred, Lupin and Tonks, but Hermione felt as though everyone had been handling things rather well considering the circumstances. Harry was the most torn up about everything out of the lot of them, but that was understandable, and Ginny helped him deal with a lot of it, even if she was fighting her own inner demons as well. Hermione still hadn't been able to locate her parents after sending them to Australia, but she wasn't losing hope, and she most certainly didn't regret her decision considering all the muggle killings that had taken place during the war. Ron was handling himself well… at least 'well' in his standards. The brunette witch had begun to notice some changes in her boyfriend's behavior during the summer following the final battle. He was constantly angry and he would consistently try to blame Hermione for certain situations they had been put into. The youngest Weasley brother had also begun the habit of getting himself pissed, Hermione let him do it though because she felt as though it was a part of his grieving process. That was one of the reasons she was so happy to be back at Hogwarts, she was hoping Ron would begin to return to his usual happy, goofy self.

She was now standing on platform 9 ¾ with Harry, Ginny and Ron. They were lugging their trunks towards the train when Hermione felt herself run into something hard and solid, she was falling quickly to the ground before a pale arm reached out and grabbed her at the last second.

"Watch where you're going yo-oh it's you." Hermione looked up to see who was addressing her and found herself shocked to be staring into the silver eyes of a certain Draco Malfoy. She could see Harry, Ron and Ginny from behind his shoulder, they hadn't even noticed she was missing. The Gryffindor witch cleared her throat before gingerly removing herself from Malfoy's arms.

"Yes, it's me. Now if you'll excuse me…" she was about to maneuver herself around him when she felt his familiar grip on her arm once again. He looked just as shocked as she was.

"I umm…nevermind. See you around, Granger." He gave her semi-wave before turning and hurriedly rushing away.

Hermione shrugged, for a moment there he seemed almost guilty…was he going to apologize? The brunette witch didn't really blame him for the whole incident at Malfoy Manor, he hadn't turned them in even when his father threatened him to do so, and yet Hermione still felt rather uncomfortable around him. It didn't really make much sense, he was her childhood tormentor and she was used to his belittling, but she felt as though if he continued to harass her now, she would simply snap. She had thus come to the conclusion that even though he hadn't turned them in, he was still a rotten prat. He had stood there and watched her getting tortured, the selfish git hadn't even looked at her as she scanned the room in hopes of finding a pair of eyes that weren't cold as ice to help her hang on. The one moment she thought she saw him shift, as though to rescue her from his insane aunt, was when Bellatrix had taken out her enchanted dagger and began carving the word 'Mudblood' on her forearm. How ironic, Hermione thought, that the one thing that made him flinch happened to be a word that he had introduced her to when she was only 12 years old, the audacity of that boy!

She was interrupted from her internal rant when she saw Ron approaching her, it seemed as though he finally noticed she was missing, and he looked furious, but Hermione couldn't piece together why. He came towards her and grabbed her wrist, silently huffing as he dragged her towards the train.

Once they were inside she expected that he would lead her to their usual compartment that they shared with Harry and Ginny, but she was confused as he strode right past it, hauling her with him. 30 seconds later and Hermione had enough.

"Ron? What's wrong?" she tried to maneuver her arm out of his grasp, but he only clenched it tighter.

"Shut up! Just shut-" he didn't finish the word, but shoved Hermione into the empty compartment that they had been passing by. The curly-haired witch didn't have the time to brace herself before she tumbled to the floor, so she hit her head with a resounding thud on the ground. Ron was standing over her, peering at her with a mixture of anger and disgust.

"Ron, what's the meaning of this?!" the brunette attempted to sit herself up, but winced as the bump on her head throbbed.

"You don't have the right to question me 'Mione!" He knelt down in front of her place on the ground and grabbed her chin, tilting it up so that she was forced to look at him. He examined her face for a moment, as though deciding something. "Especially not when you've just been consorting with the ferret of all people." He hissed menacingly. Hermione's eyes widened as the red-head drew back his hand before it slammed into her face full force.

Hermione blinked. Once. Twice. Warm tears were building up behind her eyelids, and she heaved breaths in choked gasps. He had hit her, actually hit her! She had noticed the sudden change in his behavior, but she had never suspected that it would lead to this! Hermione supressed a whimper as she looked up at the boy she loved. He was staring at his hand curiously, but not a hint of remorse or guilt was shown on his face, even his eyes seemed like ice. As if he felt her stare, he hauled her to her feet before shoving her against the compartment door. She tried struggling for a moment, but he soon had both her hands pinned above her head by her wrists. Not once had she thought to use her wand, she thought in humiliation.

"Listen, you traitorous slut. I don't know what that was with Malfoy on the platform, but it ends got it?" Ron demanded harshly.

"Ron, it wasn't like that! I bumped-" she was interrupted by a violent slap, once again directed at her face. She cried out, but upon seeing his warning expression, she bit her lip to stop any more noise from escaping her mouth.

"Don't interrupt me." He said coldly. "Now, we're going back to the compartment with Ginny and Harry. Don't bother telling them about this, you know they won't believe you. They don't care about you, Hermione; only I care for you. And that's why things are going to be different from now on…are you going to act like a submissive girlfriend or will I have to punish you again?" he emphasized this by tightening his grip on her pinned wrists. Hermione realized she'd probably have many bruises to cover up tomorrow.

"I…I'll b-behave." Hermione's voice shook in fright. She didn't know what else to do, she loved Ron and would do anything to please him…she just wished he wouldn't hurt her and if that meant listening to his obscure paranoia then so be it.

"Good girl." He now had a goofy smile on his face, it was as though his whole demeanor had changed. He eased his grip on her arms and she rubbed them tenderly; there would definitely be bruising. Ron pulled the petite witch into his arms and placed a sloppy kiss on her lips-one she didn't return- and began feeling her up underneath her clothes. When he decided it was enough, he tightened his hold on her and began leading her back towards the compartment.

"Ron…I umm…may I go fix my face?" she gestured towards the large purple bruise that had already formed on her jaw. He pulled her towards him and hissed in her ear,

"Concealment charms only, if I find out you healed them you'll be punished"

Hermione nodded before rushing to the washroom, keeping her head down to cover the bruise. She hardly noticed when she ran into a certain 7th year Slytherin.

"Woah, Granger, you're really making a habit of this…" he trailed off as she looked up at him and he spotted the large welt near her mouth. That definitely wasn't there before, he thought. "Hey, are you-"

"I'm fine, Malfoy. Just took a spill in the compartment." She hurried past him before he could get a word in edge-wise.

When she got to the bathroom she looked at her reflection and gasped at what she saw. She had expected the bruise, but she'd never have guessed how large and brutal it would appear on her pale complexion. Hermione touched her damaged skin and winced. This was only the beginning.