A/N – Thank you all for such wonderful responses so far. Here is another chapter beta'ed by the wonderful Dramionelurver.
I'm Running And I'm Crying
Draco did not sleep well. His mind haunted by images of his father and what he'd been known to do when 'disappointed,' Draco awoke with a gasp, clawing at his covers. He worked so violently to free his limbs that he fell from the bed. As soon as he hit the floor, he scrambled to the nearest wall, sitting placing his back against it in a protective gesture. Breathing hard, only then did he take the time to look around him.
As he recognized the dimly lit infirmary, he relaxed. Then, a moment later, he choked back a sob that threatened to escape. Pulling his knees to his chest, he let his head fall forward and rest upon them. The images from his dream were still sharp in his mind. He couldn't take it anymore… he just wanted it to end.
Feeling like he couldn't breathe, Draco bolted to his feet and ran out the infirmary doors, not even registering that it was still night out. Nor did he notice that he was barefoot and only wearing his wrinkled black slacks and white dress shirt. He ran out the castle doors and kept running for a while before he stopped, looking wildly around. Then, he heard a voice behind him. "Looks like a lot of choices, but really there aren't any..."
Draco spun around to come face to face with Potter. "What are you doing following me, Potter?" Inside, Draco was trying desperately to shove down his panic and fear so to present Potter with a cold, uncaring face.
Harry shook his head. "I wasn't following you, I was just headed back from my walk and saw you running."
"Oh, I see. You saw me leave the castle and decided to see what evils I was up to?" Draco sneered.
Instead of answering the question, Potter continued with what he'd been saying before. "The front gates are locked, and even if you managed to get one of the boats, the Squid would stop you since there is no adult with you. As for the forest... Well, if you did survive, at some point you would have to go through Centaur territory. Let me tell you, they don't like uninvited guests, even if they are children."
Draco swallowed hard, but tried to look uncaring as he again took in his surroundings. Potter was right: there was nowhere to go. Even if he did get away from Hogwarts, there was nowhere he could go where his father would not find him.
Facing away from Potter, Draco bit his lip. He wanted to scream with the unfairness of it all. He wanted to kick and rage and cry... but he just stood there like stone, holding every emotion tightly within. Releasing his lip when he finally turned back to Potter, his face and eyes were devoid of emotion. More so then ever before. There was absolutely nothing showing: no anger, no cold, nothing. His eyes were hollow and his face was blank. Draco didn't even speak as he brushed by Potter on his way back in to the castle. Returning to his infirmary bed, he lied down and closed his eyes.
***Nothings All Right, Nothing is Fine***
Hermione didn't know how to react. True, Malfoy said some awful things to her. But then again, it wasn't anything he hadn't said to her before. And she had been the one being pushy. Did she really think the boy would just spill his guts to her and thank her for caring? That was a bit of stupidity on her part. Even she could admit that to herself.
Still, something deep inside her couldn't just walk away either. Maybe it was the fact that she already had one person in a similar situation that she couldn't help. Sure, as far as she knew Harry's family only went as far as verbal and emotional abuse, but part of her couldn't help but think that sometimes it went farther than that. Not that any abuse wasn't bad enough, but she wouldn't put physical abuse past them from what she'd heard.
Her mind darted back to Malfoy. Yeah, he was an ass of the highest order, but now she thought that maybe there was a reason for it beyond being a spoiled prick. Besides, no one should live in a fear so great they go catatonic because of it. And that fear should never come from one's parent. No one deserved something like that.
That was part of the reason she was so irritated with Ron at the moment. Part of her hoped that it was just a case of Ron being too innocent about these kinds of things, that he really didn't understand what it was they were seeing in Malfoy's Boggart. On the other hand, she got tired of trying to explain it to him. In his mind, Malfoy was the enemy and deserved everything bad that could possibly happen to him.
She let out a frustrated sigh right as she felt a hand descend onto her shoulder. She turned to look in to a pair of understanding green eyes and said, "Oh, good morning, Harry. Did you sleep all right?"
"I had a little trouble, so I went for a walk and that seemed to do the trick. And before you start, I was careful. I used my dad's cloak."
Hermione's eyes went from chastising to sympathetic. "You know I just worry about you."
Harry nodded and gave her a quick hug. "I know and I don't thank you enough for it."
Right then, Ron came down the stairs from the boy's dormitories, still looking half asleep. Hermione and Harry rolled their eyes and shared a snicker over their friend's resistance to awakening. With that, the three of them headed out to the Great Hall. Along the way, they picked up Ginny and Luna from just outside the Ravenclaw territory, where Ginny had spent the night with Luna. Technically, they were not supposed to go into the other houses, but as long as no trouble was caused and no opposite genders shared a room, the teachers didn't enforce the rule that much. As they neared the large doors, Ron grew more awake, his stomach growling.
As they were talking, they almost ran into another group coming around the corner from the dungeons. To their disgust, it was Malfoy and his goons, Goyle and Crabbe, along with Parkinson and Zabini. The two groups merely looked at each other, waiting for their 'leaders' to start their normal verbal sparring.
But Harry said nothing, and neither did Draco. Instead, Draco just stepped around the group and kept walking towards the Great Hall like nothing was amiss. The others in his group watched him in shock for a moment before quickly following him. Ron looked really confused.
"Did I miss something?" he asked. "That was bloody Malfoy, right?"
Harry didn't say anything as he continued on his way, leaving the rest to follow. They entered the Great Hall and sat at their usual spots at the Gryffindor table as Luna headed over to her fellow Ravenclaws. Hermione peeked over at the Slytherin table, seeing something that made her catch her breath. There was Draco, sitting there laughing and chatting with his fellow Slytherins. Of course, that wasn't what was so unusual. What had caught her eye that instead of his trademark smirk, his face held a genuine smile. She looked at the other Slytherins to note that some looked as puzzled as she was. Blaise looked rather upset until he noticed that he was being watched. Like someone flicked a switch, his face went blank and he raised his eyebrow to Hermione, as if asking her if she wanted something. It was a look all Slytherins seem to get down by the end of their first year that somehow seemed to make the person looking at them feel like they had no right to be doing so, which was partly why Hermione's eyes flew to her plate.
She then looked at the people around her. Ron was stuffing his face while talking with a full mouth to his sister and Seamus, neither of whom seemed dazed by this. Neville was talking with Dean, and Harry was looking at his plate. But every so often, his eyes would flick up and look across the room. She followed the direction in which they headed and saw that he had picked up on Malfoy's strange behavior, too. Unfortunately, his face remained neutral, so she couldn't tell what he thought about it.
All too soon, Draco rose with his entourage to head to class, leaving her to ponder exactly what she saw until they too left for class. The entire day was surreal. Luckily, since they didn't have Potions or DADA that day, their classes together were minimal, but during the classes that they did have with the Slytherins, not once did Draco search out for conflict. He just stayed surrounded by his friends, chatting like any other person in any other group. Even at lunch, they were ignored in favor of joking and laughing with his fellow house mates. All day, he acted like the Gryffindors didn't even exist. And to add to the strangeness of the day's events, when she had flicked a glance to the Slytherin head of house she thought she saw a look of worry flash across the man's face right before it became a calculatingly blank stare once again.
Later that day, Hermione had the last period before dinner free. So, being herself, she decided to spend it in the library. Although she did feel pained knowing her restricted section privileges were revoked, she knew it would be quieter here than in the common room where the guys decided to spend their time playing Exploding Snap. Instead of laying the book flat on the table like she usually did, she propped up the large tomb to block her sight of the Restricted Section, hoping for that old saying – out of sight, out of mind – to do its magic. Due to the size of this particular book, the site was hidden rather well. However, this also meant that she did not know that Pansy and Millicent set up their study area at a nearby table until she heard Blaise speak to Pansy as he approached.
"We have to do something about Draco," he remarked, his voice showing that he was clearly upset.
Pansy frowned. "What do you mean? There is nothing wrong with him."
Blaise frowned in turn, responding, "Yes, there is! Haven't you seen the changes in him since he got back from the infirmary? Surely you're not that clueless. He's acting like Sheridan did before he..."
"Don't!" Pansy cut him off. "Don't even suggest that Draco is as weak as that pathetic brother of yours was!"
"Pathetic?! Why..." Blaise whipped out his wand and cast a curse so quick that Pansy had no chance to block it or even move out of the way. Hit with the light, where Pansy once sat now stood a little pug. It started barking and growling up a storm, but Zabini just smirked at it.
"Well, Pansy," he drawled. "Now you have a reason to act like a bitch." The smirk slipped off as he became deadly serious. "If you ever insult my brother again, I will make sure you're eating doggy kibble for the rest of your pathetic life!"
With a flick of his wand Pansy was back to her normal state. He then flicked his eyes to Millicent before returning them to Pansy. "If either of you cared about Draco at all, you may want to get your heads out of the ground and face reality before we're attending our friend's funeral!" With that, Blaise stormed out of the Library.
Hermione had waited until Pansy and Millicent left before coming out behind her book. She checked the time and discovered it was already time for dinner. Leaving for the Great Hall, she walked slowly as she mentally went over what she heard in the Library. Surely Zabini couldn't be right. Draco would never... She walked in to find Harry and Ron already there, well on the way to filling up their plates. She slipped into an empty seat beside Harry and greeted them, but her eyes were focused elsewhere. Just as before, Draco started out joyful and smiling, but as dinner wore on he got quieter and quieter, seemingly retreating into his own thoughts. Finally, he whispered something to his fellow Slytherins before rising. As he left the room alone, several pairs of worried eyes followed him.
Hermione went back to her common room after dinner and sat with a book on her lap as Harry and Ron started a game of chess. As the evening wore on, she was still on the same page she had been on when sitting down. For some reason, she couldn't get her mind off of Draco and what she had heard in the Library. Finally, the boys announced they were headed to bed. Before Harry could disappear, she grabbed his arm.
"Harry, I... I need to borrow something and I need you to lend it to me without asking any questions."
Before she could say anything else, Harry pulled out a folded parchment from his back pocket and handed it to her. "I've been watching all day. Maybe we're wrong..."
She should have known Harry would piece this together. Not only was he more insightful than many gave him credit for, but he also understood some things others couldn't begin to imagine. That part made her worry a bit. He must have seen the worry in her eyes, because he gave her a heartfelt smile. "I could never leave you and Ron behind. Besides, I have a whole world counting on me."
She hugged him tightly, whispering, "You know if it ever becomes too much, I'm here to share the burden... if you'll let me."
Harry hugged her back just as hard. "I know," he whispered back. Then, as pulled away, he said, "Oh! Before you go! Wait here!" He disappeared up stairs for a few moments, returning with his invisibility cloak in hand. "Take this if you... well, you may just find you need it."
Hermione nodded and thanked him. She watched Harry go back up to his dormitory before she opened the parchment. Pulling out her wand, she tapped it, mumbling, "I solemnly swear I'm up to no good."
As soon as the ink appeared, she searched the map until she found what she was looking for: there was Malfoy, safe and sound in his dormitory with all his roommates around him. Relieved, she went back to her book.
Next thing she remembered, she was waking up as the book tumbled from her lap and smacked on the floor. She quickly checked the time, and to her alarm, 3 hours had passed! She looked at the map, and groaned out loud. Draco was gone. She searched frantically until she found him in an abandoned classroom deep within the dungeons. Slipping on the invisibility cloak, she quickly made her way there.
A/N – I'm sorry about the cliffie but it really was the best place to end it. But I'll make you a deal; the next chapter is already written and ready to go. I usually wait five days between postings but if I get nine reviews before the five days I will put up the next chapter as soon as I get the ninth review, even if it's the same day! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'm not sure how it was going to be received so please let me know what you think. Thanks…
