DISCLAIMER: Nothing belongs to me, don't sue. I own nothing. Actually, I do have some lovely chocolates a friend sent me that I am enjoying as I type this, but by the time you sue me, they will be long gone.
SUMMARY: Hermione is attacked in a school hallway, and learns that Draco can relate to her more than she ever would have thought. Bonds are formed in this first chapter, where both children realize that as different as they are, they can- and should- help each other.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: First off, this is the first time I have written fan fiction, so bear with me and please review.. thanks! I know the topic is a little…unhappy, but this is the sort of thing that I think is interesting because it will never be in a real HP book.
When we learned that Draco actually does talk to Moaning Myrtle in the bathroom in Book 6, I was like, yes!! Because I started this story a long time before Book 6 and I had an idea to make Myrtle into Draco's confidante. So it was really awesome to see that play out in the real books as well.
Also, in case you are wondering, I don't believe I will have any romance between Hermione and Draco. It just doesn't feel right. Maybe some will develop that I didn't intend, but I doubt it. I mostly have the entire story planned out and many parts are written already. So I am not planning on romance, but they definitely have a unique relationship building. They are not friends and never will be. The hate-bond is too deep. But here they will learn to care for each other in a new way.
By the way, I do use the Mud-word here, sorry about that, but in keeping Draco's character I thought it necessary. I hated to do it, but I hope you understood why I had to.
For Natalie, who knows why.
CHAPTER 1- BONDS FORMED
Draco found her in the abandoned girl's lavatory, which was haunted by Moaning Myrtle, an annoying ghost Draco sometimes came to talk to. That's what he was doing now, on his way to confide in Moaning Myrtle. He always felt dumb doing it, but she listened. And it wasn't as if he had anyone else.
But when he walked into the bathroom, someone else already had Myrtle's attention.
"She's crying," Moaning Myrtle called happily as she flew past him. Moaning Myrtle tended to like when other people were upset. Well, misery loves company.
"Who's crying?" Draco asked, not out of concern but out of curiosity. He walked further in and could recognize the hiccupping sobs as Granger's.
"All right, Mudblood," he said sarcastically, "Can't you go cry about your teeth somewhere else? Or is your hair you're crying over-"
But he stopped short when he saw her.
She was sitting on the floor of a stall, which she hadn't bothered to close the door to, and her head was hanging over the toilet bowl. Draco's first instinct was to make a joke out of her, but he sensed that something was really wrong.
"Uh, should I get Madam Pomfrey?" he asked, his voice faltering.
"No," Hermione choked out. "I'm not sick. Just go, please!"
And then Draco noticed the rip in her blouse, the way the buttons had been matched up wrong, and the stain on her skirt, which was unzipped and hanging loose around her hips. And he knew, without a doubt, what had happened.
"She hasn't said a word to me," Myrtle announced, "But she's positively miserable!"
"Myrtle, why don't you go haunt some other bathroom for a while?" Draco said irritably, still staring at Hermione.
"Fine then, I will- and you can bet it'll be the Slytherin boys bathroom then!" She sopped down into the U-bend and disappeared. Hermione didn't notice.
"Granger," Draco said, moving closer. Hermione whipped out her wand, pointed it at him, and wiped her nose on her sleeve.
"Don't come any closer! Leave me alone!"
Draco stayed where he was, not out of fear for the wand (he noticed it had been broken in half) but because she needed the space. If Hermione hadn't been so distraught, she's have noticed that Draco wasn't being his usual self, the self he presented to others. He'd dropped that identity the moment he saw the state of her uniform.
He wasn't moving, but Hermione kept her wand pointed, glaring at him and hiccupping.
"Who did it?" He asked very softly. So softly, so gently, that it didn't sound like him at all and Hermione was so surprised that she lowered her wand.
"What do you mean?" she asked, her voice unnaturally high.
"Who did this to you? I know someone did." He took a step closer.
Hermione shook her head. "Please, leave me alone. Just go. Please."
Draco took another step closer. "Your wand is broken?" he asked, seeing that the half she wasn't holding was lying on the floor next to her. Hermione looked at it, gathered it up and held it close to her.
"Who broke it?" he asked, again stepping closer. But this was one question too many.
Hermione said angrily, "What are you doing in here anyway? This is a girl's bathroom!"
Draco decided to be honest. "I come here sometimes. Quite a bit, actually. I talk to Moaning Myrtle about things." Draco stopped talking and looked at her, waiting to see her reaction. He thought she might laugh at him, but she didn't.
Instead, she asked quietly, as if to distract herself, "What do you talk about?"
"Lots of things", Draco answered. "Feelings. The past. Nightmares. Wishes." Draco took another step closer.
"Hermione," he said. The name felt strange on his lips. He couldn't ever remember calling her that before. To him, she had always been 'Granger' or 'Mudblood'. But he hoped that in using her first name, he would somehow relay a message to her that she was safe with him.
"Hermione," he continued, "I've uh- got some spells that might help you. I've used them plenty of times myself, and they make it easier…to get through the first couple of days…"
He looked down. Hermione was watching him intently.
"You?" she asked, her voice hoarse. "But you- you're the bully- who would…?"
Draco didn't answer her. The question hung in the air until the truth dawned on Hermione and suddenly she could see it- cold, distant Mr. Malfoy, who had always demanded perfection from his son, and often been seen prodding Draco with the silver cane he always carried. For the first time, Hermione could see something beyond arrogance or hate in his eyes. She saw pain. A young boy being abused.
"I- I'm right, aren't I? It's him, isn't it?" she asked tentatively.
Draco slowly nodded, his eyes growing moist. He looked down to avoid her gaze. He'd never talked about this to anybody but an old ghost.
Hermione paused. "Does your mother know?"
Draco shrugged. "I think so. I've never told her, but I think she knows. She ignores it."
"And you've never told anybody else?"
Draco shook his head. "Some thing are just…too hard to talk about. But they're hard to bear alone, too." He looked at her.
There was a moment of silence between them, and then Draco walked up slowly and offered his hand to her. A few seconds passed before she took it, but when she did, he helped her up. She winced in pain as she stood, and Draco noticed. Once she was up, he looked her over, which made her tug nervously at her shirt.
"Nothing too bad. A cleansing charm and a few potions should bring you back to normal. Well, not…not normal, but…as normal as you're going to feel right now." Hermione nodded, not looking at him.
"Come over here by the sink," Draco told her. "I always think it helps a little just to wash my face first." He turned on the warm water and wet a couple paper towels. Hermione took them, but winced in pain when Draco's hand brushed hers.
"It's my wrist. I think I've sprained it," she explained.
"We can probably get that taken care of too," Draco said softly, taking the paper towels from her. He reached up and began wiping her face clean with a tenderness Hermione did not know he possessed. She could feel the tension leaving her body as the warm cloth made smooth strokes over her cheeks and forehead.
When Draco finished, he threw the paper towels away and took out his wand. Hermione visibly tensed at the sight of it.
"I won't hurt you," Draco told her. "I don't want to. I couldn't, not after this." He looked grim, but he said it so simply that Hermione believed him at once.
Draco positioned his wand. "This is the cleansing charm I always use on myself, after…you'll still want to shower, but it gets rid of anything that doesn't belong to you."
"On the inside, too?" Hermione asked, her face burning.
"No, you'll need a potion for that. A different kind of potion…we, uh, haven't learned how to make it in class." Hermione knew that he meant something from the one section of the library she'd never ventured into- wizard sex ed.
As Draco did the cleansing charm, Hermione stood stiffly, keeping her eyes on his wand, not entirely trustful. When he finished, Hermione let out a big shiver. Draco mistook it for cold.
"Here," he said, taking off his Slytherin House robes. He pulled it warmly around Hermione, being careful not to touch her. Hermione pulled the robe more tightly around herself. She didn't care that they were Malfoy's. All of a sudden it felt like they shared something, something big enough to bring them together.
Now Draco took her wrist, but he did so slowly, and before touching her, asked, "May I?". He turned her wrist over in his hands and pressed on it in a couple different places. Hermione held her breath to keep from crying out.
"It's not broken at least. Just a sprain, you were right. You'll still have to keep it tied up, but I think I can do something about the pain." He tapped her wrist once and recited a spell. Immediately the sharp, shooting pain was gone, but the dull ache was still there. "If it still hurts, I'll find you some potions for it."
"Uh, could I use your wand for a minute?" Hermione asked. "I want to see if that spell will work anywhere else."
"Oh, did you hurt your ankle or-" Draco cut off, realizing where her pain would have originated. "No," he explained, "I've tried the spell for that, too. It doesn't work very well; it's not strong enough. You need a combination of potion applied to the skin and a variety of spells. I have some potion left over from summer break. It's in my trunk. I'll go get it once we're finished here."
But Hermione was struck by something he had said. "Your summer breaks? And Christmases too? That's what you have to go home to?" Hermione looked at him, horrified. To be attacked once was bad enough; she couldn't imagine being in his shoes. To have it happen in your own home, to know it was going to happen, to expect it! It was too much.
"Draco," she said, using his first name. "I'm sorry. I never knew."
Draco shrugged. "It's not so bad. It could be worse. I mean, we're only home twice a year, right? Coming away to school was the best thing that ever happened to me." He stopped suddenly, feeling he'd said too much. He focused his attention back on Hermione.
"I can do a quick spell for cuts and bruises," he told her. "They'll heal a lot faster that way,"
Hermione nodded, and he went to work. Her smaller scrapes vanished completely, but even the bigger ones looked slightly improved once he'd finished.
"Any more?" he asked after he'd stopped. Hermione hesitated. She had a large bruise on the back of her thigh from where she'd been pushed to the floor, but she didn't want to tell Draco this.
"Can I use your wand for a minute?" she asked. Draco nodded, gave it to her, and turned away discreetly. Hermione pointed the wand behind her, but nothing happened. She tried again. She bit her lip in frustration, but again nothing happened.
"Is it a big bruise?" Draco asked, seeming to know what the problem was. "Because you know another person's wand won't work as well as your own. My wand probably just isn't suited for you."
He turned around then. "Where is it, Hermione, I'll help you."
She shook her head and handed back the wand. Draco looked her in the eye. "Hermione," he said, again using her first name as a signal to her, "You have nothing to be embarrassed about. Now where is it?"
Hermione's face burned as she put a hand on her bruised thigh. It wasn't her behind, but it was close enough to cause her embarrassment. Draco pointed the wand at her backside in the most dignified way possible and muttered the incantation. The huge bruise immediately began to lose its swelling until it had gone down to about half its size.
"You want to fix your buttons?" he went on, "And we'll go to Snape's classroom. I want to get those potions."
Hermione nodded. Draco waited outside the bathroom while Hermione fixed the buttons on her blouse so that they all matched up correctly, straightened her skirt as best she could, and closed her robe over it. She brushed off Draco's robe and carried it over her arm as she joined him outside. They walked together, surprisingly comfortable in each other's presence, and quickly found the empty Potion's classroom.
"This is better than Madam Pomfrey. She'll ask questions." Draco explained. He pulled out a chair, and Hermione sat down gingerly. She sighed and rubbed her temples. Draco went to get the ingredients form the cabinet. He started mixing right away. "It'll take a while, Hermione. But eventually you'll feel better. I promise."
Hermione looked over at him. "Why are you being so nice to me?" she asked.
Draco knew that he had been too soft. So he put on his old face, the one she was accustomed to. "Look, Granger, you're a bossy little know-it-all with bushy hair and big teeth. You're a show-off, you talk too much, and on top of everything else, you're a Mudblood. I've never liked you and I never will." He didn't look at Hermione as he said all of this.
"But," he went on, more slowly, "What happened to you- what's happened to us- well, it just shouldn't happen to anyone. Nobody should have to go through that."
He brought the finished potion over for her to drink. "This should help the other pain. You'll need to take it once ever four hours." He watched her take a few sips.
"That's enough," he said. "It'll take effect soon. Save the rest for later."
Hermione nodded, feeling the bitter potion slide down her throat. She made a face.
Draco laughed. "Yeah, I've been trying to find a way to make that taste better for years."
Hermione didn't laugh. Instead, she asked him, "When did you learn how to do all this stuff?"
Draco's grin faded. "When I was little. Eight, nine maybe. After…after it started, I looked for something to make myself feel better, and little by little I discovered which spells and potions I'd need to heal whatever was wrong."
Hermione's head was spinning. No wonder Draco was good at Potions! She'd always dismissed him as the Potion teacher's pet, but maybe he did have more talent than she'd realized. Draco went back over to the cabinet, to avoid further discussion. He pulled out a few bottles and pocketed them.
"Won't Snape be mad you're taking his stuff?" Hermione asked.
Draco shook his head. "I'm allowed to take whatever I want from here."
"Oh," Hermione said. Then a thought occurred to her. "Does Professor Snape know? I mean, he and your father are friends, aren't they?"
Draco shook his head. "He doesn't know. Nobody does, except maybe my mother- but she doesn't do anything about it- and you."
Hermione looked at him. "I think you should tell someone. Besides me, I mean. Someone who could really do something about it. Like a teacher."
"Nobody can do anything about it," Draco told her. "You know who my father is. You know how he is."
"But somebody could!" Hermione pleaded. "Like Professor Dumbledore!"
"No!" Draco snapped. Hermione flinched. "I'm sixteen! You think I want anyone to know that this has been going on? You think I want anyone to know what my father's done to me? And that I let him?!"
"Draco," she said softly, "You didn't let him. I mean, he's a grown up, and you're his son, and- and it's not your fault he's hurting you like this. He shouldn't be allowed to keep this up-"
"I told you, I'm sixteen. Next year I'll be of age and I can get my own place. It doesn't matter." He looked at her gravely. "But you- you should tell someone."
"What?" Hermione exclaimed. "How can you have a double standard like that?"
He shrugged. "Your situation is different than mine. But anyway, let's get out of here."
He walked to the door, and Hermione followed him. "Hey, I don't hurt anymore," she said.
Draco actually gave a small smile. "That's good. See, you'll be okay."
Draco and Hermione walked together in silence. Draco had nothing to say to her, but figured she wouldn't want to walk the halls alone so soon after being attacked. As they passed the bathroom, Draco motioned for her to stop. He poked his head in, but the bathroom was quiet and empty. Moaning Myrtle still had not returned.
"I guess I offended her," Draco said regretfully. "Oh well, she'll turn back up sooner or later. Let's go."
As they continued down the hall, Hermione thought about Draco. It was amazing what he had revealed to her. No wonder he was such an angry person. He'd been violated by the one person he was supposed to trust the most- his own father- for half of his young life. And his mother! Narcissa Malfoy put on a good exterior- she was a beautiful woman, a devoted wife, a doting mother. She sent Draco sweets, made sure he always had the best looking clothes, and tried to help him be successful in sports and school. But underneath it all she was just trying to keep up the picture of a distinguished family. She had spent the last seven or eight years ignoring the abuse of her child. It was disgusting.
"All right, Granger, you'd better keep this," Draco said, handing her the potion he'd nicked from Snape's classroom. "Be sure to tie up your arm as soon as you can; tell me if you need help with it. And remember to drink a few sips of that potion about every four hours so you'll start to heal."
"Okay, I will."
Draco reached into his pocket and took Hermione's other hand. He dropped several small, sticky objects into her palm. Seeing that Hermione's face looked like a question mark, he explained, "Carmels. I learned how to enchant them with cheering charms when I was young. You can eat them if…if things get really bad and you need a lift."
"Thanks," Hermione said, touched. She couldn't believe how kind he was being. Of course, the kindness came from shared pain.
More of Chapter 1 later…I have office hours now…gotta go!