Prologue
After the Yule Ball
Hermione sat on the main staircase crying as though her world were falling apart. Dramatic? Yes, but then that's exactly how she felt. Her prat of a best friend Ronald Weasley had managed to destroy a perfectly lovely evening and to top it off she'd screamed at her other best friend Harry Potter for absolutely no reason. Oh and did she mention that her date had abandoned her for one of the Beauxbaton girls since she wouldn't do more than hold his hand? One of these would have been easy to shrug off, all of them together however had led to her extremely public emotional display.
Angrily she brushed her tears away and stalked out to the grounds. She supposed she was foolish to think she was safe, especially when you considered the myriad dangerous beasts inhabiting the forest, but it was Hogwarts, she'd almost always felt safe at Hogwarts. Well to be honest, she hadn't felt at all safe since the end of her first year, but school was safer than anywhere else. With faulty reasoning she justified the stupidity of being out on the grounds by herself in the middle of the night.
Slowly, still working on her composure, she walked to the lake and sat, hoping the solitude would help. She'd only been there a few minutes when she heard a noise behind her. Carefully she pulled her wand from the shin holster (the only place she'd been able to hide it under this dress) and stood, turning to face whatever was trying to sneak up on her.
"Oh hello, are you lost?" she asked upon recognizing one of the Durmstrang students. He was staring at her intently, making her a bit nervous before a narrow smile twisted his lips.
"Ah!" He said finally and Hermione's lips twitched at the mental image of a light bulb going off over his head. "You are Viktor's friend no?" He asked with broken English and a reserved smile.
"Um… yes?" She'd meant it to be a statement, yet even she'd caught the question at the end.
His smile deepened as he moved closer to her. "And what is such a beautiful lady doing alone in the dark on such a glorious night?" He gestured to the castle and said, "Why are you not dancing with your many admirers?"
She sighed, her wand arm dropping to her side and her eyes drifting back over the lake. She realized her idiocy at once, but it was too late. By the time she turned back to him, he'd tackled her, knocking the breath from her lungs and her wand from her hand. Before she could recover not only from the impact with the ground but also from his weight on top of her, he'd performed a full body bind on her. She opened her mouth to scream and he muttered, "Silencio!" She tried anyway and he laughed.
"That is much better I am thinking. You Hogwarts girls do not know how a woman should act. Instead of flaunting and teasing then saying no, our woman are taught to care for their men. They do not fight or tease, they submit. I am thinking this is a lesson you need to learn." The whole time he spoke his insane words his voice so calm, he was stripping her clothes off of her, leaving her dress in ragged shreds and her in nothing.
Hermione was screaming in her head even if no one could hear her. She'd rarely been so scared and honestly could think of only one time that came near. Last year, they'd confronted Sirius Black while thinking him a mass murderer, that came close, but at least then she'd had her friends. There was also second year, when the Basilisk had been loose, but then all she'd faced was petrification and death. Death was easy, you didn't feel anything in death. It was pain that she feared. Pain so intense that it drove you to insanity, which she'd heard happened with the cruciatus.
She'd pretty much resigned herself to the fact that she'd be feeling pain tonight; after all he'd said he wanted to teach her a lesson. Yet suddenly he was jerked off of her and she heard a splash. Her eyes shot instantly to the person who'd helped her and true panic set in.
At least with the Durmstrang boy it hadn't been personal. He may have hurt her a bit, but he had nothing vested in her, so anything he did would quickly fade. With Draco Malfoy it was very personal, he hated her with an intensity she'd never felt from anybody else. His eyes lit up with malicious glee anytime he caught her on her own, especially if his cronies surrounded him. He'd spent the last three years tormenting her and here she was, alone, paralyzed and wandless. Why did it have to be him to find her?
That thought may have seemed stupid in the circumstances, but she'd rather face what the Durmstrang boy had planned than whatever Malfoy was planning. How had the smartest witch her age allowed herself to be so bloody stupid! This was her fault; the entire thing had been brought on by her carelessness. He was turning towards her now, having retrieved the Durmstrang from the lake and knocked him out before binding him.
Even the full body bind couldn't stop her instinctive flinch when he turned those cold gray eyes in her direction. He was muttering as he moved closer to her, flicking his wand around and she wondered which curse he'd use on her. She closed her eyes as he stopped over her, unwilling to give him the satisfaction of seeing either fear or tears.
Surprisingly, she wasn't feeling any pain from his continued muttering; instead a warm heat spread through her and her eyes flew open in surprise. "Come on Granger, let's get you back to the castle." He held his hand out to her and for the first time she realized that he'd released her from the magical binds as well as repaired her clothing.
"What?" She asked, gaping stupidly at him.
"The castle? Where we live? Did he hit you on the head Granger?" He knelt beside her, grabbing her chin in gentle fingers and turning her head to check it for damage.
She jerked her head from him, her eyes large, scared and confused. "Why are you helping me Malfoy? You love to see me in pain, why would you help me now?"
He grinned at her and she was surprised at how innocent he looked without his trademark sneer. "I only love to see you in pain when I'm the one inflicting it Granger," he retorted his eyes flashing briefly to the unconscious boy. "And despite everything you think of me I don't condone rape. Sex should be consensual," the last was said quietly and she actually found herself believing him.
"Come on, let's get you back before your idiot friends come looking and jump to the wrong conclusion. Do you want me to go with you to tell Dumbledore?" He sounded a bit nervous, like he actually expected her to say yes.
"No Malfoy. In fact if we could keep this just between the two of us…"
"What? NO! You have to tell Dumbledore, Granger! He needs to be punished." He sounded deadly serious. "If you don't want anyone else to know, then I won't let it slip, but you have to tell Dumbledore. You can't just pretend nothing happened." She turned her head, hoping he wouldn't see her tears. He sighed, "Come on Granger or this time I'm going to leave you here." She followed him up to the castle, though they both took great care not to be seen together.
