I present chapter 6. School is out for the summer guys. That means: No more essays of 5-6 pages in length. No more essays of 15 pages in length. No more oral reports or presentations.

Only simple, blissful summertime.

And Dramione.

Don't hate me too much 3

PS this chapter gets a little violent, just so you know.

Chapter 6: Flashbulb

Present…

Hermione did not return to the bookshop once her session with Dr. Connelly had ended.

Nor did she go back to her apartment.

She did not go somewhere that Connelly would never find her. In fact, this would be the first place that the frigid witch would look.

But Hermione did not care who saw her in that moment. She needed solace…needed to see…

She regarded the high, wrought gate in front of her. It loomed over her just like it had on the first night she ever laid eyes on it. Not even against the crisp, blue sky did its evil diminish.

She sucked in a breath and marched forward, determined to get as far as she could before whoever she knew was watching her put a stop to it. She stopped a foot in front of the gate. Through the bars she could see her intended destination, somewhat hidden by the weeping willows swaying in the breeze.

The Manor was still grand, despite its lack of upkeep.

Hermione stared at the overgrown hedges and the leaves piling up around the pathways. Ivy was creeping under the lower windows. The house looked dusty.

Hermione reached out slowly, praying that there were no spells protecting the gate. As her skin brushed the cold metal, Hermione felt an electric shock as memories flashed into her mind. This wasn't magic though, it was her doing…

Two years earlier…

"No!" Hermione was screaming. Her throat was on fire. She was coughing up blood from the amount of shrieking she had been doing for the past three hours.

Another Death Eater appeared and joined the tustle. Hermione gasped as someone punched her stomach. She fell to her knees. Someone spat on her and knocked her all the way down. Struggling, Hermione continued screaming. She called names, hoping for help that wasn't going to come. She cried out for friends who had already died, causing the Death Eaters around her to laugh.

"They're all dead sweetheart. Why don't you just stop screaming and we can have fun."

A hot, excited hand slipped beneath her shirt. Hermione instinctively lashed out with her hand, delighting when her nails found flesh. The offending Death Eater yelped and pulled away, clutching his arm.

"You little bitch!"

He kicked her face. Blood poured from her broken nose.

Another Death Eater ripped his mask off and grapsed a fistful of her hair. She was sobbing now, sure she was going to suffocate as she gulped down what air she could.

"You see this?" He asked haughtily, shoving the mask in her face. "This means we own you, Mudblood."

He pushed her away. "Someone pick 'er up and shut 'er up."

"Silencio!"

Hermione's screaming stopped but she could still feel her throat reacting. Someone hauled her to her feet. "On you get."

Hermione whipped around and smacked the man holding her arm. Blinded by fear, rage, and tears, she began limping away, momentarily forgetful of the wands pointed at her. She hit the ground again before she made it three feet.

"Enough of this." A pair of feet appeared before her eyes where she lay, prostrate on the ground. She flailed only when he started dragging her by the hair.

In this manner, they began to march.

Soon it dawned on Hermione that the less she flailed, the less it hurt. But the less she flailed, the less she wanted to fight altogether. The pain of her entire body was demanding for release and her eyelids were trying to oblige. Thankfully, the man switched his grasp from her hair to the collar of her shirt. A lot less painful.

When she stopped struggling completely and hung deadweight in his grip, the man laughed down at her. "Bout time you gave up." He dropped her and she leaned against his leg, gazing through half-lidded eyes at the ground. She cringed only slightly when his hand brushed gently over her head.

"How 'dya manage that one?" The Death Eater she had smacked earlier was back. She recognized his shoes.

"Just had to wait it out," the second one replied.

Death Eater one grunted. Then he stooped down and lifted her chin to look her right in the eye. "Where she goin'?"

"Malfoy wanted her."

Something stirred in Hermione's head.

"Lucius wanted her?"

"No, idiot, Draco did. Lucius fled, remember?"

"Oh yeah…prat."

Hermione linked the names and implications. She was going back to the Manor. Where she had been tortured by Bellatrix. Where the Malfoys had looked on greedily.

The fight came back.

She was on her feet faster than even she realized, running faster than she physically should have been able to. A spell ricocheted into her back, and on the ground she went again. This time, the Death Eater picked her up and put her over his shoulder. She kicked, screamed in silence, punched, bit, and clawed.

Nothing stopped the troupe as they carted her up a dirt path.

Then: The Gates.

Hermione gasped as they unlocked it and filed through. She felt the man carrying her tighten his grip around her bruised waist. She pulled and pulled, wanting to kill each of them, raising objections no one could hear. And then the gate, that had been becoming smaller and smaller as they moved away from it, slammed shut. The resounding clang echoing in her ears as they approached the doors.

One of the Death Eaters free of her constant pummeling knocked twice on the massive doors.

Hermione heard them open, watched the dirt path beneath her become marble floors, and saw the doors close. Then her body met the floor and her former captor made sure to tread on her fingers as he stepped over her. She listened as their footsteps faded away into a distant portion of the Manor, letting the cold marble sooth her battered form.

She went unconscious.

Present…

Hermione jerked her hand back from the gate. Sighing she inched as close to it as she could without touching it, peering through the bars, searching for a sign of life.

Several minutes ticked by as she gazed at the door of the Manor. She didn't realize that her hands had found their way back to the gate. Her knuckles were turning white as she clenched the bars, her face pressed as far between two as it would go.

She desperately wanted to call out his name, anything that would make him at least look outside. She wanted to, but her mouth wouldn't work.

Instead she stood silent vigil, entreating with the house to let Draco walk outside, look outside, see her, come to her.

Her heart lurched as the door began to open. She pushed closer to the gate, holding her breath, willing the person on the other side to come all the way out.

He did.

She couldn't help the moan of longing that escaped her lips as Draco walked out onto the terrace of his Manor. He looked fine, just bored.

Meanwhile she was all but digging a tunnel under the gate to be with him.

Suddenly, a hand slammed over her mouth and she felt herself being Apparated away.

When her head stopped spinning, Hermione saw that she had landed outside her apartment. A note floated through the air where her unknown abductor had been only three seconds ago.

She held out a shaky hand and caught it.

Dear Miss Granger,

This is your first warning. If you return to the Malfoy Manor anymore, my supervising staff on site will take more drastic measures to ensure you do not continue to do so. You will report to my office tomorrow at three rather than the day after. We will discuss this then.

Best,

Dr. Connelly

Hermione wasn't sure which hurt more: her phantom bruises or her bleeding heart.