Hermione Granger, age 5 nearly 6, packs as many clothes and essentials (or what she believed to be essentials) into her school bag, she put it on her back picked up her sleeping bag, carefully and quietly made her way out of the house without getting caught. I bet your thinking she's going to her friends' house without permission? You're wrong, she's running away!
She walks until it starts to rain and decides to find shelter, finding herself near a park she seeks shelter and shuffles into a dome where she sees a boy around her age with bright blond hair and blue eyes "Who are you?" they both ask at the same time and just stare at each other.
"I'm Hermione Granger" she says braking the silence and asks "Who are you?"
"Draco, Draco Malfoy" he replied before asking "Why are you in my backyard?"
Hermione eyes widen with fear "I, I'm sorry, I, I didn't know" she stumbled
"Well not my backyard, near to my backyard, sorry. It's just no one ever comes here" he explained causing her to relax abit
"Oh, right. I'm just waiting for my Dad down the road but then it started raining and I didn't want to get cold" she made up
"It seems to have stopped, it happens all the time, rains for a short time and then just stops!" he said getting up and out of the dome.
Hermione followed him "Draco?" she asked as he turned around to face her "How old are you?"
"I've just turned 6" he stated "You?"
"I'll be 6 in 8 days"
"Want to climb a tree?" he asked sceptically
"Sure!" she shinned and followed him to a near by tree
"You should probably leave you bag at the bottom, it'll be harder to climb" He said as he started to climb up the tree
"Right" she whispered and took off the bag and left it beside her sleeping bag on the floor and followed Draco up the tree, although she was quite a bit slower and needed help every now and again.
For the next 20 minutes they spent in tree having fun before deciding they were really hot and needed a swim. As they both got the edge of the pond they removed a few items of clothing and their shoes before jumping in, they played until Draco heard his Dad calling him and they got out
"Draco, what happened to you?" asked his father as he examined him, realising he was fine he turned to the girl next to him and picked her up by the neck to his eye level "What have you been making my son do?" he growled
"Dad, we were just playing!" Draco shouted suddenly scared
"How dare you even talk to my son you filthy human being" he spat at the small girl "Who do you think you are?"
"Hermione" she chocked out
"Don't talk to me you filth, what were you thinking"
This confused Hermione as she was told to shut up and then asked a question, instead of the answering the question she expressed an observation "Your hands must be bigger than my mums, she hurts me more when she grabs my neck"
As soon as the last words left her mouth Lucius suddenly dropped her to the floor with a thud as he gaped at her "What did you say?"
"I said that your hands must be bigger then my hands as she grabs me by the neck it hurts a lot more and I can hardly breathe, I could breathe and talk when you were holding me by the neck" she said hesitantly "Am I in trouble for telling you?" she asked suddenly scared of the consequences realising she might not be safe from her parents after all if they find her
Draco was stood frozen from his dads anger and didn't know how to react, he was just about to see if Hermione was OK when his dad began yelling again but this time louder
"ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT YOUR MUM STRANGLES YOU?" He demanded an answer
She was so shocked she blurted out "Yes but only when I'm bad, I do bad things and My mum and dad punish me. It's not always strangling they usually hit me or throw me around, I just wanted to get away, I sorry" she fell onto her knees crying her eyes out terrified about what would happen to her now, it seemed that all parents were the same. She heard the man tell his son to gather her things and after a second she felt him pick her up, this made her cry even more and struggle abit.
Lucius carried the crying, begging hysterical child into the manor without saying a word, Draco followed obediently scared of seeing his father so angry at someone his age who did nothing wrong, he was brought out of his thoughts when he heard his father say "Get you mother quickly"
Draco ran off quickly to find his Mum, he found her in the kitchen and manically told her "Dad needs you… girls strangled… crying… wet… quickly!" as he ran back to his dad. Narcissa was confused but followed her son anyway to see him holding a hysterical girl who was about the same age as Draco
"What's going on?" she asked
"Can you please get some Childs' calming drought" he asked placing the girl onto the settee, he observed as she grabbed her knees bringing them up to her chin as soon as he let go off her. Narcissa came in with a few vials and placed them on the side before turning to her husband
"What is going on here?" she asked a bit irritated before whispering "Is she a muggle?"
Lucius sighed "All I know is that she is getting abused by her parents" he angrily whispered to her
Narcissa knew more then anything that Lucius hated when children were abused especially before they are able to attend Hogwarts.
They forced Hermione to drink the calming drought after realising she wouldn't take it willingly; they got Draco to sit next to her and Narcissa opposite her while Lucius kept a distance of exactly 2 metres.
"I'm Narcissa, you can call me Cissy if you want" she tried to see if she could get a response but failed, Draco saw this desperation and added
"Or you can call her Mum like I do!" he exclaimed as she looked at him, everyone was looking at her expectantly as she leaned over and whispered something into his ear, his eyes when wide as he answered "Never! She'd never ever do that. The worst I got was a tap on the hand but that was when I was really, really naughty!" he stated worried.
Hermione turned to the women and shyly said "Hello, my name's Hermione, but I don't like it because my Mum and Dad call me it" she looked back at Draco who tried smiling and took his hand "That's all anyone calls me" she looked down
"I know this might be hard for you" she hesitated "but could you tell me what happened to you, what your parents did?" she tried not to sound hopeful, but she did hope that she was making it up and wasn't actually abuse like she told Lucius
She shock her head rapidly and looked at Draco
"Come on, they are nice, they always help me get better and get rid of the pain"
She stood up and started to remove her coat and jumper, then she slowly removed her turtle neck, long-sleeved t-shirt which once removed showed bruised and half healed cuts all over her torso and arms. Narcissa gasped at the beaten girl and looked towards her husband who looked ready to explode. Lucius walked over to Hermione's bag and opened it looking at all of the clothes,
"There all turtle necked long sleeved!" he growled which started to scare Hermione as she jumped back onto the settee and grabbed Dracos hand again, when Lucius walked over towards them to ask her a question she jumped on Draco hiding her face in the crock of his neck hugging him tightly, "I'm not going to hurt you, I just want to help you" he said slowly and softly not moving "I promise I will not touch you"
She looked up still holding onto Draco, "What do you want to know?"
"Do you always wear long-sleeved?" she nodded "Are they always turtle necked?"
"Not until a few weeks ago, they said they hadn't a need to strangle the behaviour out of me until then"
Lucius tried really hard to control his anger
"Sweetie, what happened to you wrists, it' looks like rope burn?" Narcissa asked
"How else would they tie me up?" she asked curiously
"'HOW ELSE WOULD THEY TIE YOU UP'! THEY SHOULDN'T TIE YOU UP, THEY SHOULDN'T EVEN TOUCH YOU, THOSE CREATURES, THEY DESERVE TO BE TORTURED THOSE BLOODY ARGGGGG!" He shouted
"Draco, take Herm… her upstairs and help her get cleaned up in your unsuite please, and do not leave your room until I come up." Narcissa said as she dragged Lucius out the room.
Authors' Note
Thank you for reading x
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