A/N: I'm not dead!
I had holidays, then some personal issues to work out. My lovely slavedriver, Darksaber3434, was kind enough to beta this chapter while chrissytingting is busy with school.
Thank you to my lovely reviewers, Sauerkirsche, Darksaber3434, Dark Angel of Sorrow returns, Ginnyx34eva, Eisette, ChrissyTingTing, HaileyDelacour101, & Katie-Lyn Della Robia.
Disclaimer: As much as I begged and pleaded, I did not get Draco Malfoy for Christmas, therefore I do not own him or any of the other wonderful characters or settings. If I missed anything: recognizable = not mine.
Hermione Granger was furious. She waited impatiently in the Slytherin common room until she knew that the headmistress had returned to her office. She stormed through the corridors almost running over a Gryffindor first year. She stopped briefly to make sure he was alright, before continuing her trek.
She cursed at the statue blocking her way for several minutes before it jumped aside revealing Professor McGonagall looking rather unimpressed.
"Harry Potter! Really?" she raged. "He's going to recognize me!"
"Then perhaps you should tell him who you are, Hermione," replied the aging professor, knowingly.
"He wouldn't understand..."
Over the weeks at Hogwarts Draco was catching glares from almost every student that had been on the opposite side of the war as his family - even from those who had stayed neutral. He hated thinking that so many people he had barely met hated the very ground he walked on. Some of them did have a reason to hate him, as he had played an active part in making their lives miserable. By the end of October the students were even less welcoming, he found scathing notes attached to his bed, charmed library books were missing their shelves and hitting him in the head - he suspected the Muggle-bornMadam Pince was responsible for that trick - and his classroom chair always tried to dump him out. Compared to how the death eaters treated his family after he failed to kill Dumbledore and identify Harry Potter, this was nothing, but he was still lonely. Even Pansy and Blaise had stopped associating with him, Blaise entirely and Pansy in public.
"Draco, you okay?" a soft voice rang from behind his seat on the plush green couch.
Draco spun around and saw the one person who still treated him as an equal and a friend, his mysterious blonde witch. Over the weeks, the man had grown fond of her; she was intelligent, sweet and had a way of tapping her quill on the table and scrunching up her nose when she was studying. Not that he watched. She intrigued the wizard, and Draco always loved puzzles.
"Not really, just debating whether or not I should return after Christmas. No one seems to want me here and I'm sick of trying to study for class and have a book poke me in the eye," the blonde wizard replied.
"Don't destroy your education because of a few nasty immature kids. Whatever you've done in the past is irrelevant now. Were all survivors trying to rebuild our lives, right?"
Draco nodded sadly, happy to have at least one friend. The friend in question had sat down next to him and grabbed his hand tenderly. His heart skipped a beat and he chalked it up to the fact that no one had done something so sweet and caring since his mother had died. Not even his girlfriend. Draco didn't believe it was because he liked her, because he didn't.
Sure, she's beautiful and kind, and so bloody smart, and that body, no...I don't like her, he thought, but as he looked into her clear emerald eyes.
He muttered a single word under his breath, "Fuck."
Hermione Granger had come back to school for two reasons: her education and Draco Malfoy. Her studies were the easy part, it paid to spend hours with a book glued to her nose. She may have changed her appearance but she was still mostly the shy bookworm she had always been - with a few battle scars. Draco on the other hand was a more difficult feat. She was trying to fulfill her promise to his mother but the torment the students were dishing out were probably hurting him more than he was letting on.
Hermione would never admit this to anyone, but she had always admired Malfoy's confidence and the way he effortlessly sailed through class work. She rarely saw him in the library, but he was always near the top of the class, especially in potions and Arithmancy. He would have been Head Boy if not for the events of their sixth year.
The witch glanced up into the man's stormy silver eyes and their gaze met for a few seconds, an unreadable expression in the depths of the pureblood's stare. Hermione would give her right arm to be able to dig through his brain and learn what had broken this boy beyond repair. His posture was no longer regal, there were faint lines forming on his once flawless ivory forehead. He had deep bags under his brilliant eyes and always seemed to be trying to blend into the walls and furniture. Maybe his mother wanted her to piece him back together.
No matter how much Hermione told herself that this was all for Narcissa, she knew deep down that she had kicked him ever since she had seen him break down and become human to her.
"Fuck," she whispered at her realization, not realizing that he had done the exact same thing.
The object of her affections made an excuse to leave that she didn't truly hear. She was just happy to be alone to sort out her feelings.
Draco made his way upstairs and found a note on his bed in Pansy's overly-feminine cursive.
Draco,
Meet me in the common room after curfew tonight. I've missed you.
Pansy
Draco chuckled at the idea that an eighteen year old still dotted her 'i's with hearts. He could scarcely believe that that the girl panicked when they were seen together, ever since he had become a social pariah, but she still wanted to sleep with him. Draco supposed her prospects were pretty slim, as well as money he had inherited from his mother. There was also the wealth and property he would receive once his father received the kiss. He would never have to work a day in his life, and neither would his wife - a fact Pansy knew quite well. While doubtful of her intentions, the man decided to take Pansy up on her offer, he needed the distraction.
Distraction was the reason he padded out of bed wearing only boxers at two in the morning and crept down to the common room. Pansy was lounging on the couch in a silk slip attempting to look seductive, but really just came off looking like a fish. Draco found himself thinking about what Lily would look like in the same outfit and groaned at the image. Pansy mistook the sound for appreciation of her efforts and stood up to close the gap between them. His lips met hers hungrily, grabbing her hips out of impatience. Pansy assumed that her boyfriend's enthusiasm was completely attributed to her and she allowed him to slide the straps of the green slip off her shoulders, leaving her completely exposed.
The girl whimpered at the loss of contact and he happily returned to her lips, fully believing he was with a certain French woman. He pinned her against the wall with his lean body.
"Draco, please..." the pure-blood witch moaned, feeling the silk of his shorts on her naked form.
The man never needed to be asked anything twice, so in one motion his only article of clothing was laying on the floor. He picked up the witch, wrapping her legs around his waist before deftly entering her. Using the wall and his own strength he supported her while thrusting into her. He smiled as the cold wall forced her to press even closer to him.
His arms grew tired from supporting the woman and he walked them over to the sofa, refusing to lose contact with her. To Draco's chagrin, he called out the name of his blonde woman as his reached his peak. The slip of the tongue caused Pansy to shove him off of her in anger, leaving the man in a heap on the floor.
"Fuck," the man muttered, grabbing his shorts from the floor, unaware that the owner of the name he had called had entered the room in time to hear what he had said and had passed out on the floor.
He turned around as he heard the thump. He saw the object of his affections in a heap on the cold stone floor. Fearing the worst he scooped her up and ran to the hospital wing, completely unconcerned with his lack of clothing.
"Honestly, Mr. Malfoy stop hovering, she just fainted," a mediwitch said for probably the fourth time, but Draco refused to leave her side. It didn't feel right.
Hermione was embarrassed, she had passed out from seeing two people having sex. She thought she had gotten over her fourth year. Keeping her eyes closed so not to alert the man seated by her bed to her consciousness.
No matter how hard she tried to push it back, her most painful memory flooded into the forefront of her mind.
Hermione Granger peeled off her dress from the Yule ball smiling at the fact that she had effectively ruined Ron's night by showing up with Viktor. She was happy that she had made him jealous, it made her feel like a woman rather than just someone he copied homework off of. Viktor had asked her out for drinks after the ball and she had accepted, loving the attention he was showering her with. She intended to take advantage of the lack of curfew and the fact someone had noticed her.
The Bulgarian a more casually dressed Hermione to Hogsmeade, still in his dress robes. He seemed less happy than he was when he was dancing with her at the ball. She was about to ask him what was wrong but he grabbed her arm roughly and pulled her into the Hog's Head pub. She started to get nervous as he immediately walked up to the bar and began to take shots of a liquor she couldn't identify. He told her that a child should not be beating someone like him, spitting on the dirty hard wood floors as he spoke Harry's name.
Hermione grew increasingly more uncomfortable as the night went on, and Viktor moved closer and closer to inebriation. She begged him to take her back to the school, but all he told her was that she should loosen up and have some fun. She tried to leave on her own after he was falling out of his chair chatting up the bartender, but he grabbed her arm and forcefully sat her back down.
Hermione started to get scared when he had decided it was time to leave and he led her in the opposite direction of the castle. Getting out from his grip would be a futile effort, he was far too strong for her.
The Bulgarian wizard dragged her into the shrieking shack, and shoved her roughly into the main room. She recognized the dingy bed Sirius Black had slept on the previous year and some of Ron's blood was still dried in a puddle on the floor from the Animagi's teeth sinking into his flesh. She let out a small sob, wishing she hadn't tried to make Ron jealous.
The crying witch looked over at her 'date' and her eyes widened when she saw him removing his cloak. He grabbed her shoulders and pressed her into the bed. She was powerless as he unbuttoned her Muggle jeans and roughly pulled them down. Hermione Granger searched for her wand, hoping to extract herself from the situation. She sobbed harder when she saw it laying on the floor; it must have slid out of her boot when she was thrown to the floor. Viktor laughed at her desperation and sat up on her legs as he pulled her trousers down.
Hermione screamed, forcing the memory out of her head. She would not allow herself to see the night Krum had taken her, she didn't want him to be her first, she wanted it to be Ron. Ron didn't even get to be her second, because of the fear and pain the Bulgarian had imposed on her.
Draco's eyes shot up to the tear stained face of his only friend. She was panting heavily and had let out the most terrified scream he had ever heard. The mediwitch had returned and was checking the blonde for injuries.
"What did you do to her!" the nurse shouted at him.
"N-nothing. I d-didn't touch her," he stammered, searching Lily's face for pain.
The woman had seemed to have calmed down, and was insisting that she was alright. The mediwitch finally seemed to accept that her patient had just had a nightmare and returned to her office.
"She may have believed it, but I don't," Draco said, looking at her with curiosity and concern.
"It wasn't a nightmare, it was a memory."
"What happened?"
A/N: So there you have it, chapter four.
I'm off on a mini-vacation for a couple days, so I gave you a longer update this time. There's also the fact that I seem to have an erratic update schedule as is…hmm, I'll try to sort that out. From now on I'm trying to have this story updated once a week – work permitting.
