Author's note: Hello again :) Thank you for your review, RuneDragon! I was REALLY excited last night because I got my Cambridge English results! I was so happy with my result that I decided I would post up a chapter earlier than I was originally planning for you guys. Also, there was weird stuff going on the last chapter I posted up- the spaces between the different scenes and stuff were a bit weird- okay I lied- they weren't there at all, which was SUPER ANNOYING AND FRUSTRATING. It would've been annoying and confusing to read too, so like I said, I'll try sorting it out this time :) Enjoy!
Disclaimer: No, I don't own Harry Potter. If I did, I would make sure that somewhere, sometime, Dudley realised he was a squib. Now that would be funny. Or just very weird... *shrug*
I don't own this poem either, jus' sayin'. Matthew Arnold does.
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"Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in."
~Dover Beach, Matthew Arnold
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Chapter 2: Pain
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Draco bolted for his door, twisting the handle unnecessarily hard and slamming it open, rushing down the stairs two at a time. Another scream, this one long and drawn out, and Draco whipped his head around to the source of the sound. The dungeons...? But... He turned on his heel and started jogging in the opposite direction, passing his mother. She put a hand on his retreating shoulder.
"Draco?" She said softly, turning him around and peering up at his face. "Draco, are you okay?"
He put his hand over hers on his shoulder, letting a small and gentle smile emerge on his face; only his mother saw his real self, his 'soft' side. "I'm fine Mother, just wondering where the screaming is coming from and what's going on."
She nodded, looking very distressed and distant all of a sudden. "Oh. Be very careful around Lucius." She tilted her head to the side a little. "I love you Draco. Don't ever forget it."
Another scream pierced their moment.
"I love you too, Mother."
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Draco was shaking, his wand trembling and nearly slipping out of his sweaty palm.
"Do it Draco." Ordered Lucius, an arrogant smirk on his face. "Torture the girl, make her suffer! She doesn't deserve to live, let alone be in our house, if she doesn't serve the Dark Lord! She-"
Draco tuned him out, instead focussing on Granger, who was on the floor, whimpering, curled into the fetal position. His father had tortured her again and again, and Draco didn't want to hurt her. He'd never hurt anything, never tortured or killed. And he wasn't going to start now. "Father," He said, glancing over at Lucius. "I can, uh, teach her a better lesson upstairs in my room." He smirked appropriately, but felt like heaving inside.
Lucius' smile was sickly. "Of course."
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"Malfoy! Malfoy what are you doing?!"
"Shut up, Mudblood." Malfoy said, rolling his eyes and dumping Hermione unceremoniously on his bed. She whimpered, and he looked at her. Hermione's eyes were full of fear and anxiety, though she tried to mask it with anger. Unfortunately, Slytherins were good at acting and even better at picking out lies. He listened carefully, ducking his head out of the door to make sure there was no-one outside his room, then said to her in a whisper so quiet she thought she'd misheard him, "I'm not going to hurt you, Granger."
He didn't know why he'd said it. Why would he want to comfort her? She meant nothing to him, nothing.
Hermione scoffed. "How can I trust you?" She said acidly. "You're a Death Eater, you're one of them."
She saw Malfoy's eyes widen in shock and hurt, then the emotion was gone, instantly masked by a sneering smirk. "So I am." He said nonchalantly, starting to put clothes and things in a bag, his thoughts turned suddenly to the much resented Dark Mark that burned on his left forearm.
Wait... what? First he was hurt because I called him a Death Eater, and now he's packing...what is he... no...
"Your hair and eyes are returning to normal." Malfoy said casually, doing the bag up with a flick of his wrist and slinging it onto his back. "A pity, I liked it when your hair didn't look like a bloody bird's nest."
Now it was Hermione's turn to look upset. "For your inf-"
"We should go in a few hours." Interrupted Malfoy quietly, checking the clock on his wall. "When everyone's asleep."
"W...what...?" Hermione was taken aback. "What do mean 'go'?"
"Go, leave, depart, set off, exit-" He rattled off boredly, raising an eyebrow. "Granger, I thought you were a walking dictionary-"
"Yes I know what 'go' means," She said irritably. "but-"
"We're leaving this hellhole." Said Malfoy. "I am so sick of..." His eyes darted to Hermione and then back at his bag. A seed of curiosity settled in Hermione. "I- why am I even trying to explain this to you of all people? You're a Mudblood." He wondered aloud. Back to his old self again, she sighed inwardly. There were flashes of a different Malfoy, but they were so rare... and then he was always a massive git afterwards. But she didn't care about that now; the prospect of escaping was too great.
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"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Lucius Malfoy screamed from the Manor steps. "DRACO! Why are you helping- IT IS THE GRANGER GIRL! YOU LIED TO ME! You'll pay for this!"
Thunder roared it's approval as rain cascaded down, filling both Hermione and Draco with a numbing cold that had nothing to do with temperature. Lightning lit the sky again, and suddenly Lucius was up close and personal, his face livid and wild with fury and loathing.
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"Draco, you are truly a traitorous piece of filth, I am disgusted to call you my son. You're almost as bad as this Mudblood here."
Draco felt fear, hurt and panic well up in his chest. "Father, I-"
"Draco, shut-"
"Please Father, don't-" He pleaded, panic filling him as he fumbled for something else to say. "Father-"
"You cannot tell me what I can and can't d-"
"Please Father! Please! Please don't do this to me-"
"Don't you dare tell me what to do, you insufferable brat! I am disowning you! You have failed not only me, but the Dark Lord too! He is merciful, but I-" He sneered. "-I am not. You are going where nobody will ever find you. And you'll be stuck with the Granger girl too."
Draco felt grief tear at his heart, and he let out a single, tortured sound before reigning himself in. "Father..." He said, his voice cracking with grief. "Please..."
"That is my final word. And I am no longer your father." At those words, Draco felt his chest throb painfully. His father was his role model, or at least had been for his whole life. He was everything to Draco, even if Lucius did torture him with his words and beatings. Draco was like a puppy that is treated cruelly by its owner, but always returns for more, hoping that next time will be different. But it never was. The only time it would be different is the time the owner kills the dog, destroys it.
Lucius beat Draco. First, the Cruciatus curse, very strong and powerful, streaming from Lucius' wand. So many, that by the end Draco was lying on the ground in a pool of his own vomit, nearly scratching the skin from his face in complete and utter agony. And then Lucius began to physically beat him.
A punch to the face. An exceptionally hard kick to the ribs, and Draco felt (and heard) a sickening snap that had him convulsing once more in agony. More kicks, in his back and a stamp on each kneecap. Finally, Lucius stood on Draco's right hand, twisting his foot like a Muggle would stamp out a cigarette on the street. A bone broke. Draco hissed in pain, the first time he'd made real noise while he was being beaten.
"Get up." Said Lucius venomously, pulling Draco up by his shirt collar. "You're almost worse than that filthy Mudblood." He pointed to Hermione, who'd been standing and watching the entire ordeal, tears in her eyes and hands over her mouth, not making a sound. Draco struggled to meet her eyes, flitting in and out of consciousness, and his wand slipped from his sweaty hand, clattering to the floor. Lucius didn't seem to notice, as his hate-filled eyes were solely for his broken and bloody disowned son. Hermione thought quickly, then sunk to the floor slowly in what appeared to be shock. Really, she was just picking up Malfoy's wand from the floor. Just in case.
And so down they travelled, Lucius none-too-carefully dragging an unconscious Draco behind him, his wand pointed constantly at Hermione's back. "Faster, you filth." He said disdainfully, prodding her in the back. She directed a look of pure loathing at him before speeding up her steps.
The corridors were a labyrinth; so many passages lead in and out, and they took so many twists and turns, Hermione could no long tell where they were or how they'd gotten there. Suddenly Lucius shoved Hermione to the side at the end of a passage while he opened the door. "In." He growled at Hermione, who quickly complied and stepped inside, feeling rather claustrophobic. Lucius threw Draco and without another word shut the door and locked it.
After Lucius had locked it, the door seemed to melt into the wall, so it looked like they were buried alive, except for the small worn door to her left. Hermione shivered and walked over to Draco, whose chest was only just rising and falling with his erratic breathing. She pulled her wand from the bag she had concealed in her sock- how stupid were they? She thought smugly- and gazed down with a pitying expression. He'd tried to help her and now... now he was-
His lids fluttered, and suddenly he tensed and let out an agonized moan. Hermione knew what she had to do.
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Author's note: This was originally going to be slightly longer, but I thought it was a good place to end it. :) I had written chapters three and four already, but the file on my computer corrupted, and even though I have parents in the IT industry, neither of them could save my writing D': This saddens me greatly, mostly because it'll take a while for me to figure out what I had written. Anyway, let me know what you think of this chapter. I was intending to make the romance rather slow, but I'm an impatient person so... yeah. I don't think there'll be any in the next chapter though. Also, how are the chapter lengths so far? (I know there's only 2 chapters, but still.) Too long or too short? Or just right? Thanks guys :)
~Chongy