Hermione again awoke to the tones of a medi witch, this one however, was far from soothing.
"What on earth happened! Quickly, put her on the bed, no, yes- get out of the way Mr. Malfoy!"
Weakly, Hermione realised she must be in the hospital wing. The flurry of movement around her seemed incredibly loud, and through the haze of pain surrounding her, she was pretty sure she heard someone crying. Quickly though, darkness returned to her vision, and an exhausted sleep took her.
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It turned out that the curse Neville had hit her with was one the Gryffindors had found in the restricted section of the library, probably with the use of Harry's invisibility cloak. The book they had found it in had been one preaching defense against the dark arts, when in actual fact the spells inside were darker than those the book sought to defend against.
Just after Hermione had fallen, Professors Flitwick and Snape had come across the fight. In amongst the chaos, Malfoy had recognized the curse and screamed to his head of house what had happened.
No one had ever seen the usually uncaring professor pale so drastically, nor move so fast.
The curse itself had blasted its way through Hermione, from back to front, and set to work burning away all skin that it had touched on the way through. By the time the potions master had managed to get her to the hospital wing, her vital organs were in serious danger.
Thankfully, help had been reached just in time.
Now Hermione lay pale in her hospital bed, dosed up on very powerful pain potions and currently asleep. Beside her, her lovers sat wrapped around each other. Although Malfoy had initially been the one who had recognized the curse, Blaise had soon realized and had gone into a fit of spectacular hysterics, crying and exhausting himself with worry. He was asleep now, with Malfoy holding him and keeping watch on Hermione.
"Mr. Malfoy, any progress?"
With a tired sigh, Malfoy looked up at his professor. The man had saved Hermiones life, providing all the specialist potions her recovery entailed. She had been in the hospital wing for almost a week, and he doubted the man had slept much during it.
"No Sir, although she is expected to wake up in the next few hours or so"
Nodding, Snape took the chair on the other side of his student's bed and regarded her thoughtfully.
"How do you think she will react to her friends attack?"
"I don't really know, to be honest. Before, she sometimes seemed to truly hate them, but then other times she seemed really… sad, that they weren't friends anymore. During the fight, she was torn, I think. She didn't want to hurt them, but she wanted to protect Blaise and I"
Snape continued to watch the young Gryffindor on the bed, frowning slightly.
"It would seem that she was fighting it. Now however… I wonder if that will change. I believe she will take the attack on herself either one way or the other, which will dictate her future behavior."
Standing, the potions professor looked down at the young Malfoy with a dark look in his eyes.
"I would advise, Mr. Malfoy that you and Mr. Zambini hasten to encourage her to make the correct choice. I would be sorely disappointed to have this opportunity wasted due to your incompetence. I want her ready soon, you know what to do."
With a sharp nod, he strode from the hospital wing, leaving the blonde boy to return to his thoughts.
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Hermione came round 3 hours later, gasping at the pain radiating from her stomach. 4 pain potions later and she was able to prop herself up slightly against her pillows without passing out. Her lovers sat together by her side, Zambini now awake but fretting silently.
"W-what happened?"
Zambini handed her some water, hovering like an over anxious mother hen.
"You were hit with a dark arts curse by Longbottom. It's commonly called the burrowers curse"
At her horrified gasp, it was obvious she recognized it. Grimly, Malfoy watched her closely.
Hermione didn't know what to think. Neville? Of all the people… and the way Harry had just watched…
Suddenly, Hermione found herself so angry, she couldn't catch her breath. They- those so called people, had nearly killed her! The hypocritical, self richous bastards! She could feel the red haze come over her mind, and everything seemed to click into place. They weren't her friends, they didn't care about her, they didn't even know her. Hell, she didn't want them to know her! Furious, she reflected on every time she felt unwanted, every time she was shunned, or laughed at. It made her so angry, she wanted them to hurt, wanted them to feel how she felt, suffer like she suffered, and more!
Looking up at Malfoy, Hermione knew she was probably acting strange. Hardly the Gryffindor book worm now. It felt good though, to finally throw away her fears. She embraced the darkness which called to her, the shadows which lingered at the corners of her mind. She wasn't going to play fair any more. She wasn't going to sit back and let them do this to her.
Things were going to change.
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