Strawberry Beatings Midnight

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything associated with it.

Chapter 1 : Learn to Crawl

Hermione's POV

Hermione woke up with a headache. The light was burning through her eyelids, so she pulled the covers up over her head. Once she was covered up she opened her eyes a crack. She quickly pulled the covers off of her head. She didn't have black silk sheets.

She slowly lifted herself so she was sitting and viewed her surroundings. She was lying in a canopy bed with gauzy silver curtain all around her. Her first thought was maybe she was still dreaming. She stretched big then crawled to the foot of the bed and slowly pulled back the curtain. When she looked up she was staring into icy silver eyes.

She gasped and fell back onto the bed. Draco neatly tied the curtain to the bedpost then gave Hermione a sly smile. He had frightened her and her breasts were heaving. He looked at her and basically said "morning" to her chest.

Hermione was panicking and she needed to calm down. She had no idea where her wand was and the only way she would be able to work her magic was if she were calm. Or incredibly angry. She was teetering on the edge of anger but chose to try and calm herself instead. She couldn't control her abilities in anger and things could get terribly out of hand.

Draco just stood there, his head cocked to the side. She was a conundrum indeed. He had been absolutely positive the first thing she would do was look for her wand. That's why he had taken such precaution before even entering her room. She knew powerful magic, and while he was positive he was stronger than her that wouldn't keep her spells from maiming him.

He looked at her eyes. They were huge and seemed dilated but he couldn't tell because her eyes were such a dark brown that they looked black naturally. He leaned so far forward that he was leaning on the bed. Soon he was crawling across it too stare deeply into Hermione's eyes. Hermione didn't seem to take any notice to his presence; she was locked too far inside herself, gathering her magic.

She seemed like she was looking at something just to the left of Draco but her eyes were out of focus. Then she turned her head not more than an inch was mere centimeters from Draco's face. Both stared at each other for a short moment, not totally understanding what was happening, then all at once brilliant white light shot out from all around Hermione and Draco was thrown backwards off the bed. He hit the wall with a thud and a crash as a vase fell to the ground.

Narcissa rushed in as soon as she heard all the noise. "What is going on here!" she near screamed as she entered.

Hermione's eyes widened at the presence of Narcissa. She was already bewildered by what had taken place a few seconds ago, but now she was so freaked out she was slowly crawling backwards on the bed until she was backed up against a wall. Her heart thudded loudly in her chest. Why the hell was she at the Malfoy mansion?

Draco was on his feet a few seconds after Narcissa had rushed in and was now watching with slight fascination as Hermione bolted towards the door. With a carelessly tossed word Hermione was immobilized. However as Draco was walking towards Hermione, Narcissa left behind fussing over her broken vase, Hermione broke free of the spell and continued to sprint through the doorway, down the staircase and headed towards the huge double doors of the entryway. But just as she had her hands on the heavy gold handle a black cane thrown painfully down on her shoulder stopped her. 3 Months Later

"Hermione!" Harry and Ron yelled as they dashed towards her. Her face lit up and she called out to her friends. She hadn't seen them all summer and was so happy to finally be going back to school.

"Hermione we do not 'holler'." Luscius scolded Hermione for her behavior.

"But I haven't seen them all summer, sir." Hermione replied, pleading in her eyes. Luscius placed his cane ever so gently against Hermione's back in warning. The look in her eyes went from pleading to one of fear. She looked down and mumbled, "Yes sir."

"Nor do we mumble."

"Yes sir." Hermione said a little clearer this time. Harry and Ron who had both hugged her at the same time, and nearly lifted her off the ground in their enthusiasm suddenly jostled Hermione.

"Come Draco. I don't want you consorting with these two, Hermione."

"But sir! These are my best friends!" Hermione said in indignation.

"Yeah, who are you to tell Hermione what she can and can't do!" Ron yelled.

Luscius' grip on his cane tightened and Hermione flinched. If anything Hermione knew to stay out of the way of Luscius' cane. "I am her godfather and legal guardian." He replied with a sneer.

Ron would have laughed if anyone other than Malfoy had said that. He didn't know what to do or say, so he looked at Harry for guidance. Harry was as befuddled as he.

"You…Hermione's godfather. Do you really expect us to believe something that ludicrous?" Harry asked.

"You may believe what you wish, Mr. Potter. Come along now children." And with that Hermione gave a huge sigh and mouthed "I'll talk to you later" at Harry and Ron, then followed Luscius and Draco towards the train. The night before he had beat it into Hermione that she would do everything that Draco said, and she would report her proceedings at school to him every week.

Hermione knew better than to disobey Luscius. She had tried twice before. The day that she woke up to find that her parents were dead and she was left in the care of the Malfoy's she had back-talked Luscius. The beatings had started from day one.

It turns out Hermione's mother had come from a long pureblood family, and that Hermione was the last living heir. Mr. Granger apparently wasn't her real father; he had taken Hermione's mother in while she was pregnant. Her husband had been opposed to Voldemort and was murdered. Hermione's mother barely escaped. After that she assumed the role of a muggle to keep herself hidden.

Hermione had denied it all at first. But then she came to realize that the Malfoy's wouldn't have taken her in had the story not been true.

A few weeks after that she had tried to run away, but Luscius caught her. She still had bruises from that night.

Thinking about that made her roll up her sleeve and look at the bruise still healing on her shoulder. Luscius saw her and gave her a death look. She immediately unrolled her sleeve and braced herself for Luscius blow. But he wouldn't hit her here, in public.

At least that's what Draco had said. They barely talked, but that first night after Luscius was done with her Draco had cleaned her up. He couldn't heal her wounds or Luscius would have gone after both of them. But he brought soothing balms and gauze. She respected him just a little bit after that.

The sound of the train whistle pulled Hermione out of her reverie. Draco was dragging her towards the train. She let him. "Hermione! Goodbye darling." Luscius said as they left. Hermione just stared at him dumbfounded. Draco stopped dead in his tracks then pulled on Hermione with renewed strength.

Draco's POV

"Draco, you're hurting me!" Hermione was scratching at his hand, trying to break free of his grip. He hadn't quite realized how hard he was pulling on her. He hadn't meant to hurt her. He just got a little jealous. Hermione had been at his house only three months and Luscius already wanted to give the girl anything she asked for. But Hermione didn't know Luscius well enough to realize that he was infatuated with the child. Hermione was simply afraid of him, and well she should be.

Many a night Draco would wake to hear Hermione screaming in the dungeons. He felt awful for her because he knew what it was like down there. When he knew for sure that Luscius was done with her, he would bring her up to her room and clean her up a bit.

When it was Draco's turn, Hermione would do the same for him. He still didn't know much about her, but they had bonded because of Luscius' cruelty. They helped keep each other out of trouble, each lying for the other. But just because they had connected a little didn't mean that Draco liked her. She got on his nerves a lot. And right now she was really bugging him. Actually, it was what Luscius said that bugged him. Luscius had never said anything like that to Draco. And as little as Draco respected his father he still felt a stab of jealousy at his obvious love of Hermione.

But he would have to dwell on his thoughts another time, because right now they needed to board the train.

As he looked for the compartment Blaise was staying in, they passed by Potter and Weasley. Hermione right away ran and hugged them. His father had specifically told Draco not to let Hermione consort with the likes of them.

"Hermione, we've gotta go." He said in a stern voice. Hermione just ignored him. So then he grabbed her by the waist from behind and whispered in her ear, "Luscius is just outside."

Hermione spun around, eyes wide. "You wouldn't dare!" In all actuality he wouldn't, but he was having fun controlling Hermione.

"In a heartbeat." He said without hesitation.

The way Hermione looked at Draco then was so heart-wrenching Draco thought for an instant that maybe he did like her. But then she yelled, "Fine!" and stamped out, and the cold, heartless Draco was back.

He winked at Potter and Weasley and followed Hermione out.

A/N: How was it? Please review, I wanna know how you liked it! Tell me what else you wanna see in the story. Special Note I have started like 20 million stories. But I only ever write one chapter, so if you need a starter for a story either leave a note in a review or email me and I'll send you a starter! I promise I won't send any two people the same one.