Chapter 7: The Past Cont.
AN: can you believe this? 2 chapters in 2 days!? It's incredible and a miracle.
"How does it feel, Bella? How does it feel to be in the position of your countless victims for a countless number of years?" When Bellatrix gave no response to but to gasp desperately, Hermione picked up the knife and brought it to land, bluntly, in Bellatrix's cheek.
Harry and Ron were now both thoroughly frightened. This woman was not the one they knew, she bore no resemblance to the eager bushy haired girl that bounced up and down in the classroom and longed for acceptance. This woman was in control and seemed frighteningly aware of the situation she was in. The boys had remained in silence for the last ten minutes but, as Hermione pulled the knife slowly out of Bellatrix's face, Ron cried out,
"Hermione!"
"Ron, no!" cried Harry when Ron dashed into the classroom. However, it was too late. Ron had already untied Bellatrix and had her in handcuffs.
"Harry! I'm taking her down to the order. She needs to be in Azkaban or locked up or something…" Harry stood in the middle of the classroom, looking at the bloodstains on the floor and on the wall. He gazed around in wonder until his gaze fell upon Hermione, cowering in the corner. He rushed over to her and squatted down to look at her.
"Hermione?" he said softly.
"H…H…Harry?" she whispered.
"Yeah…you okay?" he sat down next to her.
"What….what…what just happened?" she lay his head on his.
"I don't know,
Hermione you tell me." "Did you see what happened?" "Some
of it…"
"I don't know what came over me…"
"It'll be alright Hermione….It'll be alright…"
Hermione now found herself in a very similar situation with Ron. He was hugging her and whispering, "It'll be alright."
"I hope so, Ron…I hope so."
"Do you have any idea about who might have done this to you?"
"What? Provided Bagman with the information? I've no idea. It could have been anybody, couldn't it? I kind of lost track of myself for a while there…I don't know what came over me in the Great Hall."
"You shouldn't have come running after us."
"I know."
"Did Harry actually let you go?"
"No, of course not. I attacked him…"
Hermione was still learning the consequences of her terrible actions.
"You attacked Harry?"
"Ever wonder where the scare on his left hand came from?"
"Oh…"
"Yeah…I don't know what I was thinking." For one time in her life Hermione Granger had stopped thinking and that was what had become of it. She never dared lose control ever again.
"But you've still got to marry Malfoy," Ron's nose crinkled in disgust.
"It's going to be hell for him too, you know," she said, quietly, her head pressed into his standing body. He merely snorted.
"It is! It won't be
easy for him or his friends to accept his being married to a
mudblood."
Suddenly, Ron stiffened.
"You promised me you'd never call yourself that."
"I'm going to be called that for the rest of my life, Ron. Nothing's going to change in our lifetime, you should know that."
"Hermione…I'm sorry for you, I really am…but I need to go." He pulled himself out of her tight embrace and headed for the door, not even bothering to pick up his jacket.