Chapter 1 – Not Safe, A Bad Night in Hogwarts
"Oh God I hate late night patrol" Hermione muttered to herself as she walked through the corridors of Hogwarts. You see, Hermione had just started her last year at Hogwarts and although it wasn't yet winter you could still feel the light chill in the air.
The war was over and won and Hermione and her year group were all invited to retake their final year. Hermione took this opportunity with arms open wide however, Harry and Ron had not. After their triumph and bravery during their hunt for horcruxes and the final battle, they had been given the opportunity to go straight into Auror training and they had taken that offer.
Although Hermione still spoke with them often, she couldn't help but feel a bit lonely without them and often thought of how much fun they would have had together especially with her having her own room and all. Oh yes, that's another thing, Hermione had been elected Head Girl this year opposite Draco Malfoy who had been cleared of all charges after the war. Hermione and Draco still strongly disliked each other however, they had come to an agreement that they would be somewhat civil to each other in close quarters to keep the peace and to have as stress free as possible school year as they could.
Hermione still face some discrimination here and there, mainly from the Slytherin's, but she was so used to it that it hardly bothered her anymore. The only problem was that she had the scar along her arm that would forever remind her that no matter what you do, there will always be people that are trying to get to you, you just have to try and make this as painless as possible. So as Hermione wondered down the corridors of Hogwarts she couldn't help but think to herself that she had been weak at Malfoy Manor and that she could have prevented what had happened if she had just been stronger and –
There was a faint shuffling noise coming from somewhere close by and Hermione found herself rolling her eyes in exasperation.
"You'd think that they'd learn to not be out late on their own in dark corridors" she thought to herself only momentarily pondering over the fact that she was doing the exact same thing however, she immediately shook off this thought.
"At least I have the authorisation to be out wondering the corridors this late at night" she mumbled to herself.
The shuffling was getting louder as if getting closer so she paused and held her breath before she spoke out loud to the darkness.
"Hello? You know you're not supposed to be out here so late. What are you doing?" but as the person who the shuffling footsteps belonged to remained silent, Hermione felt her heartbeat speed up, adrenaline rushed through her body. Something was not right here, not right at all. As she waited, anticipating the possibilities, a shadow began to emerge from the darkness.
"Well, well Mudblood" The male voice spoke dark, hollow, empty.
"I've been following you around for weeks now, waiting for the chance to be alone with the Golden Girl of the Wizarding World, you don't know how long I have waited for this, to give you Mudblood what you deserve" the voice continued.
Hermione was shaking at this point still unsure if this was a nightmare or if this was actually happening. She raised her wand to prepare to defend herself however, as she was fighting what seemed like a shadow, it was difficult to determine whether or not she was pointing in the right direction.
"Expelliarmus" she was a little too late and her wand flew from her grasp into what presumably was the hand of another student.
"What do you want?" she tried to not let her voice waver and managed this fairly successful. The shadow just chuckled.
"Ha, ha, ha, didn't I make it clear Mudblood? I want you, only you, to teach you a lesson as to not mess with your superior" the shadow started moving towards her again and she could definitely tell it was a student now because she could make out the school robes. But she was beyond caring about that, the student had now disarmed and immobilised her so she couldn't move but she could feel herself being dragged towards a doorway of what looked like a classroom. She had many scenarios of what could happen from here on out running through her mind and she didn't like any of the possibilities or outcomes she was imagining.
She snapped back into reality, her captor had now stripped so that he was wearing only his standard school shirt and he suddenly turned and started towards Hermione. He looked like the cat that caught the canary, a crazy wild look in his eyes. Hermione could now feel the captors body against hers, she tried to scream, shout, anything that could gain attention to the situation that she was currently in but found that he had silenced her. He chuckled darkly.
"Couldn't have you running your mouth now could I Granger?" he said sarcastically.
He moved closer and started touching her lightly; from head to toe he felt her body firstly through her clothes and then again, this time, taking the items of clothing off as he passed them. Hermione had now completely shut down, she couldn't think, she couldn't breathe and more importantly, she knew exactly what was going to happen next but it was beyond her power and her strength to stop it. She thought.
"Give me Malfoy Manor, give me the war, give me Voldemort, and give me anything, anything but this" she was desperately grasping at thin straws and even though she was terrified and crying and praying mercifully that help would come in any way, shape or form to get her out of this, she knew the reality. No help was coming for her. She could feel as he roughly caressed her, how he roughly bit her and bruised her skin and finally how he tore through the most intimate part of her body, a place that no one else but her had ever gone before. Though all of this disaster and all of this hell she hadn't realised that he had removed the silencing charm off of her and instead had placed the charm on the room itself.
"That's it Mudblood, scream for me, I love to hear your screams of agony, I love to hear how much you hate this but most of all, I am so satisfied to know that after all of this I know how much you are going to hate yourself" he was smiling an evil, wicked smile that only a murder or rapist could produce.
"But that's what he is" Hermione thought to herself. After a few more painful thrusts and a couple of powerful grunts, Hermione could feel the man come and she could feel it filling her up inside and made her fell sicker and sicker. Once he had finished and looked thoroughly pleased with himself, he hastened to get dressed, cleaned the room of any evidence and leaned once more down to Hermione and whispered to her.
"Remember your place Mudblood, this is what you deserve, you will never be higher than this and I can't wait to sit around and watch you blame and hate yourself for all of this" and with that Hermione's faceless and nameless rapist left the room and walked off into the darkness of the night.
Hermione remained still, motionless, not able to comprehend what had just happened to her but as reality crept in she finally broke down and sobbed for what she had lost, sobbed for what had happened and again sobbed at the fact she was weak. After a while Hermione attempted to move so that she could begin to get dressed but it was painful and was difficult until she came across her wand tossed to the side of the classroom. After finding her wand dressing became easier as she could summon her clothes to her and have light to see what she was doing.
All she wanted to do was go back to her common room, find some painkillers, take a long bath or shower and crawl under her bedcovers and never emerge again and do all of this whilst hopefully avoiding Malfoy who she shared the common room and bathroom with.
As she made the long and excruciatingly painful walk back towards her accommodation, she noticed lightly that it was now very cold in the castle and that she knew from this exact moment, the old Hermione was dead, buried, long gone and forgotten. She would never be able to look at the castle and walk its corridors feeling the happy, safe feeling that she had felt over the last few years.
"No, it will never be the same again" she thought sadly to herself.
Hermione could now feel the blood running down her legs, evidence of what had occurred tonight and she could feel all her skin tighten from where she was starting to bruise and swell up from the brutality of her captor. It saddened Hermione to know that she didn't even know who her attacker was but that he must have been pureblood due to the racial language that was used against her. She sighed wanting nothing more than to get her time turner and go back an hour. However, she knew that it wouldn't have made a difference, what happened tonight would always happen. She couldn't erase it, she couldn't delete it, she will always carry the memories and the scars as proof of what had happened to her.
As she approached her common room and whispered the password, which earned her a sympathetic look from the painting, she entered and was somewhat relieved to find it empty. She wasn't surprised though, it was rather late and anyone who was still up at this time was mad.
"Or evil" she added to her thought. She quickly, as she could without causing too much pain and discomfort, climbed the staircase to her room and immediately headed for the bathroom locking both the door that led to Malfoy's room and the door that led to her own and stripped her clothes for the second time that night and climbed into the shower and just sat under it letting the water work its own magic, ridding her of the grime, blood and evidence of tonight's events.
"I'm so dirty" she sobbed brokenly to herself.
However, whilst she was in this state, in the room next door Draco Malfoy had woken to the sound of the shower running. He thought it was odd that the infamous Head Girl should be washing at this time of night. He tried to drown out the noise of the shower and go back to sleep.
"AHHHHHHHHHHH" he screamed impatiently 10 minutes later when the shower had failed to stop and he could hear no movement from the bathroom. Malfoy was starting to get really pissed off now, he liked his sleep and if he didn't get it he was a grumpy pain in the arse, even though that's how he was most of the time.
"For fuck sake Granger, are you taking a shit in there?" he yelled out angrily whilst banging on the bathroom door. When he got no reply he was more furious than ever and shouted in a warning tone.
"Granger, if you are not out of there in the next two minutes then I'm coming in and don't give a shit if I'm invading your privacy or whatever" however, two minutes passed by and Malfoy had been officially pushed over the edge of patience and without hesitation, grabbed his wand, cast a basic unlocking spell and barged into the bathroom.
He froze mid-step.
"Granger" He murmured angrily but softly at the same time. He couldn't believe what he was seeing.
Hermione Granger, golden girl, one-third of the golden trio was sat cowering in the very far corner of the shower, naked, beaten and bruised. From where he stood, Draco, could see that the poor girl had suffered greatly tonight and it was in that moment that a tiny piece of ice, that surrounded his heart, started to melt off.
"Granger" he said again, this time all anger removed from his voice, he very slowly walked towards her trying to seem as least threatening as he could and reached to turn the shower off.
"Jesus Christ" he yelped quietly, the water was bloody freezing. How long had she been in here? Draco knelt down in front of her but gave her space so she didn't feel so surrounded. He felt like a muggle zookeeper trying to keep calm a wild lion that could explode at any second.
"Granger look at me" he stated softly but with a hint of authority in his voice as if trying to give her an order and encouragement at the same time. After some coaxing, she finally began to raise her head.
"Malfoy" she whispered quietly and brokenly and promptly burst into tears.
Draco, not having much experience in crying, hysterical women was at a loss for what to do.
"Here, let me help you stand and get you back into your room" he offered holding out his hands and letting her make her own choice and so he didn't scare her further. Finally after what felt like an eternity she put her hands in his and he slowly helped her to stand.
"There we go" he encouraged.
In that moment he could finally see through her strong walls and that underneath all the determination, bravery and loyalty that this girl held, was a young girl who had lost so much was slowly falling apart.
It was also in that moment that the golden girl, from exhaustion as the events of tonight began to take its toll on her passed out in the arms of her former childhood enemy. Draco Malfoy.
He wrapped her up in a night robe and placed her lightly in her bed, leaving a small light on in her room, just in case the night terrors returned which they often did, and walked out leaving her door open just a crack and then proceeded to walk into his room also leaving his door open a bit just in case she needed him. Even if Draco Malfoy didn't know it yet, he would forever go to her if she called.