A/N: This is my first story that I have written and published to this site, ever! So, please be gentle,

although constructive criticism is, of course, encouraged. Also, anything in italics is Hermione's

thoughts.

Broken

Hermione walked back to the her dorm room in Gryffindor Tower in a confused daze, not entirely grasping what had just happened to her. She arrived at the portrait of the Fat Lady, muttered the password, and walked to her personal bathroom that she was given when she became head girl.

She stripped off her muddy, bloody clothes and stepped into the shower; the water was so hot that it seared her skin, leaving it with red, angry marks as the water trailed down her body (A body that will never be clean, no matter how much soap and water was used to scrub it). After standing in the shower for an indiscernible amount of time, she grabbed her pajamas, crawled into bed, and cried; sleep would not come to comfort her on this night.

He sat in his room after she had left, smiling to himself, replaying the events of tonight in his mind with a sadistic smile on his face. He would highly enjoy his new... affair of sorts that he had developed with one Hermione Granger.

After he was finished cleaning up for bed, he crawled under his covers, and slipped into a deep sleep filled with dreams of what their next session would bring.

The next morning, Hermione rolled out of bed after a sleepless night and dressed for the day. It wouldn't due to have Harry and Ron ask questions about her tired and ragged appearance, so she put a glamour charm on her face, making her appear to be healthy and glowing, when in reality she had bags under her eyes and she looked like she had come down with the flu.

Hermione arrived in the Great Hall for breakfast and sat next to Harry, grabbing a plate and filling it, although the smell of the food was nauseating. She stared down at her food, playing with it rather than eating, although Harry and Ron were so absorbed with the discussion of their next quidditch match to give Hermione's strange behavior a second thought. After breakfast, they walked down to the dungeons for their Potions lesson.

Severus sat at his desk, waiting for his seventh years to arrive for the potions lesson. He stood and began to write the ingredients for the days potion on the chalkboard when the students began to file into the room. He sat back at his desk when he was finished, and the last of them took their seats.

"The ingredients are listed on the board, turn to page 275 of your text for the procedure to brew the potion. You may begin." Severus drawled in a bored sort of way, and sat down to grade essays.

The class went along smoothly for the first 20 minutes or so, and then Severus rose from his desk and began to walk around the room, looking over everyone's shoulder to check their work. When he came to Hermione, not really expecting to need to give direction, he noticed something odd – her shoulders we shaking as though she was crying, and tears were dripping onto her text. Severus rolled his eyes and continued on; he was certainly not in the business of consoling teenage girls who were having boy troubles, or other frivolous problems.

Just as Severus returned to the front of the room, he heard a loud crash behind him; he turned to see Hermione laying in a heap on the floor, her cauldron laying next to her, its contents spilled all over the ground.

Severus swiftly walked to her side, "Continue working", he called to the rest of the class, as he lifted Hermione and began to carry her to the infirmary. He rushed through the halls, holding an unconscious Hermione, when suddenly she began to stir. Before she even opened her eyes, she begin to scream, and flung herself from Severus's grasp. She lay on the ground silently for a few moments, when Severus reached out to grab her again.

"Don't touch me!", she screamed, frantically crawling away from Severus. "Please, don't hurt me!", she cried. Severus realized that whatever had been troubling Hermione was much more serious than the "boy troubles" he initially believed to be the problem.

A/N: I hoped you like the first chapter. Review, review, review!