Hermione ran up the stairs as if her life depended on it. Technically, it did. Professor Vector had very unprofessionally thrown a large amount of course on his students in the past two weeks. Hermione was already distracted by all the madness that had taken place that year. Although, every Hogwarts year was full of madness, Hermione knew that well enough. Now that Katie Bell had returned to school at last, Hermione wished she could remember something about the necklace. For all they knew, they could be living with a murderer. Snape was also becoming increasingly difficult to cope with and Hermione was afraid that she wouldn't be able to improve the 'exceeds expectations' level of performance in Defense Against The Dark Arts. The slightest bit of relief only came from the fact that Ron had broken up with Lavender. Of course, not that Hermione cared too much…it was just that he was just happier now. That's all. Between all that and Ron being poisoned and the upcoming Quidditch match (Hermione did care about that), Hermione was sure her head was going to explode.
That must have been the reason she miscalculated the compatibility of Adalbert Waffling with Derwent Shimpling in her Arithmancy essay. Hermione hoped desperately that Professor Vector would dismiss the mistake but she felt sure that he won't. And anyway, a voice in the back of her head told her that even if he did, it would be unfair. If she had made such a careless mistake such as that, the least she could do was pay for it.
So many thoughts ran though Hermione's head that it was hardly surprising for her to accidentally end up in front of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom instead of Professor Vector's classroom. Oh well, they were on the same floor. Hermione was just about to turn around when she heard Moaning Myrtle talking to someone. Hermione knew Moaning Myrtle had a habit of talking to herself loudly but this time, she was whispering. And her voice sounded sympathetic instead of crabby.
Hermione cautiously glanced inside the bathroom. She didn't want to be caught and judged as rude for eavesdropping on someone's conversation with Moaning Myrtle but then again, she didn't want someone to actually have to discuss their problems with Moaning Myrtle in the first place. That was far too pitiful. Suppose it was some gullible first year? As a prefect, Hermione felt strongly that she should rescue the poor child. She slid in closer to one of the stalls but made sure to stay hidden behind it.
"Don't…tell me what's wrong…I can help you," Moaning Myrtle sounded unusually genuine.
Hermione slowly moved closer to the edge of the stall and glanced peeked out. Draco stood in front of the mirror. He was stooping low against the sink and his hair looked tousled.
Draco Malfoy.
Hermione had forgotten that he too, was a part of the gigantic problem that was her life (sorry harry, of course you have it worse). Draco's strange behavior this year did worry Hermione. His confident, cocky, rude and social (at least with his fellow Slytherins) personality was replaced by constant brooding, nervousness, and a lonesome attitude. He was still rude of course, but now he looked as though most of his offenses were some sort of a defense for him. Against what though? Hermione didn't have time to wonder all this. She tried her best to stay as quiet as possible.
"No one can help me," said Malfoy. His whole body was shaking.
"I can't do it…I can't…it won't work…and unless I do it soon…he says he'll kill me…"
Hermione meant to slide back against her stall where she would remain hidden so that she could process this information. But she couldn't. Not when she witnessed Draco Malfoy begin to cry. Actually cry. Tears flowed freely down his face as Hermione stood there perplexed with her face peering out behind the stalls. Malfoy shuddered and looked up into the cracked mirror…straight at Hermione.
In one swift movement, his wand was in his hand and he shot a hex at Hermione's direction. Hermione let out an instinctive scream and managed to dodge Malfoy's hex by inches. The wall lamp blew up behind her and Hermione ducked down and drew her wand. Moaning Myrtle wailed loudly above her as Hermione shouted 'expelliarmus!' with her wand pointed towards the edge of the stall. She had obviously missed because she heard Malfoy yell from the other side of the bathroom 'Cruci-'
"PROTEGO!" Hermione screeched with her hand outstretched in Malfoy's direction.
Her eyes were closed tightly and it wasn't until Moaning Myrtle's bawling replaced the ringing in her ears that she opened them. Hermione half-expected herself to be writhing on the floor in pain. To feel pain. But she didn't. Apart from the shaking in her entire body, the dizziness and her heart pumping too loud for her to hear anything… Hermione felt fine. She slowly walked out from behind the stall and stopped dead in her tracks. Malfoy was uncontrollably jerking on the floor. He was also screaming but Hermione's ears couldn't sense that yet. His face was contorted with pain and his entire body was twitching disturbingly. Hermione's hand clasped her mouth and she let out a shriek. Moaning Myrtle's wailing had surpassed Draco's screams in terms of loudness.
"MURDER! MURDERER IN THE BATHROOM!" she bellowed.
Hermione turned around to see Snape run inside. His face darkened at the sight of Draco and he roughly pushed past Hermione and kneeled next to Malfoy. The bathroom was flooded, Hermione noticed. Snape began performing spells in an inaudible voice and Draco slowly began shaking less and less. His screams died down and soon he was lying on the floor unconscious. Snape turned towards the anxious Hermione.
"I really must say Miss Granger, I wasn't expecting this from you"
His voice sounded grave and was almost too low for her to hear.
"I…I, I didn't…" she began. But what was the point? Would Snape believe that she had only backfired the curse that Malfoy had cast towards her? It was unlikely. Hermione wasn't even sure if she sounded honest to herself. She needed Dumbledore. Or even Professor McGonagall.
Anyone but Snape.