A/N FAVOURITE CHAPTER COMING UP! So she's heading to her dorm in a state, I wonder what her dorm mate will do...

Chapter 7 - An Act of Kindness

Draco paced around his dorm, irritated. It was nine and Hermione still hadn't returned. He had seen her earlier and she had looked - ruined. He knew he hadn't helped by calling her a mudblood and felt bad. For the first time ever, he had felt bad about something he'd done to a mudblood, moreover a Gryffindor mudblood. Muggleborn. A Gryffindor muggleborn. He knew she was perfectly entitled to being out late, but she'd looked so empty. Although he would never admit it to anyone, not even himself, Draco Malfoy was concerned about Hermione.

Hermione had ran the route to her dorm on the third floor, sobbed through clenched, blood stained teeth, 'Spero,' and plunged her hand into the portrait to press the button. The portrait clicked and swung forward, just as Hermione hurled herself through, tumbling into a disheveled heap on the floor.

Draco heard the fall and stood still. "Granger?" he called, uncertainly. There was no reply. He moved closer to his door and listened. Heavy breathing, that was all he could hear. And - a sob? Tentatively, he reached for the handle and turned. She lay there, crumpled in a heap on the common room floor. And then he saw the blood. Lots of it, staining the cream carpet a deep shade of red. "Shit," he muttered, walking towards her. "Granger. Granger!" Hermione tried to lift her head but groaned.

"What was he doing here?" she asked herself in her head. He crouched down next to her, panicking and unsure on what to do. He couldn't leave her like this, but she was a mudblood! Muggleborn, he corrected himself. Sighing, he let his instincts take over and bent slightly to try and pick her up but as soon as he touched her, she jolted. Her eyes widened in panic as she staggered to her feet and whipped out her wand. However, no sooner was she on her feet, her body failed her and she stumbled. Draco dashed forward to help but she stumbled back and transferred her weight onto the kitchen counter half shouting in anguish, "Get away from me!" Draco looked at her, confused. He hadn't done anything. Then his jaw dropped in horror. He'd spotted just how bad she looked. Blood was clotted and matted in her messy hair, her body was plastered in bruises and blood. Little threads of blood had crusted around her cuts and that was only part of it. It was her eyes that scared him though. Big, wide, hazel eyes full to bursting point with tears, terror, fright and - mistrust? Was it possible to see mistrust in someone's eyes?

After a long pause, he spoke calmly and asked, "Who did this to you?" Hermione opened her mouth and shut it, confused at his question. "Granger it's a simple question," Draco said steadily, although his voice started to tremble with anger, " Who did this to you?" Hermione straightened herself and tried to look braver than she felt, and more confident. "Why should you care?" she snarled, not quite knowing why she was being so testy with him. She couldn't trust anyone. Not anymore. Not now she'd just lost the person she'd believed she'd be able to trust forever.

Draco threw his hands in the air and looked to the heavens, crying out, "For Merlin's sake Granger! The last time I saw you you looked fucking depressed and now you come in here covered in blood and can't answer a simple question! Who did this?!" Hermione hung her head and muttered something. "What?" Draco asked.

"RON! Okay it was Ron and Lavender Brown!" Hermione yelled, stubborn tears falling down her bloody cheeks leaving little pink tracks through the red. Draco looked extremely taken aback by this sudden news. He stuttered, "Wha - what? You're... You're boyfriend did this to you?" He couldn't believe that. No boy should hurt a girl physically like that, drunk or not. He'd certainly never, and he couldn't see Weasley doing it either, no matter how much of a twat he was and certainly not to his girlfriend. His fucking girlfriend and best friend for six years and counting. Hermione nodded and lost her grip on the counter, swaying slightly before falling again, only this time Draco caught her and this time Hermione didn't retaliate.

Once he'd sustained a good grip on her, Draco carried Hermione awkwardly over to one of the comfy black sofas and sat her down carefully. He wondered why he was doing all of this, as he perched upon the edge of the coffee table in between the two sofas and rested his hands on his knees, waiting for an explanation. When it was clear he wasn't going to get one, he looked intently into her eyes and asked the one word people hated in these situations. "Why?" Hermione looked down, unwilling to cooperate. Causiously and completely clueless as to why he did it, Draco laid one of his hands against her knee and repeated the question, softer, kinder, "Why?"

Hermione breathed out and said in a barely audible voice, "I don't want to talk about it."

"Please," Draco tried, and that's what threw not only Hermione completely off guard, but Draco too seemed rather shocked. "It's just out of curiosity!" he told himself in his head firmly. Hermione inhaled and began to explain everything, right from after Arithmancy to now. She didn't know why she was explaining herself to Malfoy of all people, but he was being unusually kind and - sensitive towards her. Draco let her let it all out. He didn't say anything or interrupt her for the entire time she was talking, for which Hermione was incredibly grateful for. Once she had started, it was easier for her to just keep going, let it all out. It poured out of her mouth like water, and the very reality of it all washed over her. Stubborn tears fell from her eyes and snaked down her cheeks, leaving little salty paths on her skin.

Draco wasn't a huge fan of hugging. Due to that reason alone did he not hug the silently crying girl in front of him but he did stay with her. "And because she's a mudblood!" his brain roared at him.

"Yes, and that," the brighter part of his brain replied, "and it's muggleborn, not mudblood."

"Why the hell are you being nice to a filthy, worthless mudblood?!" his brain screamed, but the brighter part blocked it out for the duration he spent with her in the common room that evening.

"I will kill him," Draco said, breaking the silence that filled the eerie room after Hermione's speech.

Hermione didn't reply until, "Don't."

"Why the hell not?!"

"Why would you?!

"He hurt you!"

"So what?!"

"He threw you across a fucking ROOM!"

"So?!"

"Don't tell me you're sticking up for him!"

"No, I'm not!"

"Well it fucking looks like it!"

"What's your problem?!"

"YOUR BOYFRIEND WAS CHEATING ON YOU, LET HIS NEW GIRLFRIEND HURT YOU, AND THEN FUCKING ABUSED YOU AND YOU SHOW UP COVERED IN BLOOD! BECAUSE OF HIM!" That shut Hermione up. Draco looked ready to kill. But then -

"Why do you care?!" she spat. And that shut Draco up. He couldn't think of a response. He didn't care. Or did he. As much as he hated to admit it, he'd felt damn nervous when he'd seen her on the floor. "You, Draco self orientated Malfoy, pureblood and muggle born hater, why are you of all people being nice to me?! Why?! I come in here and you should take advantage of my weak state and curse me or whatever. You don't help me! It's not right!" Hermione cried.

"I would never hurt someone who's down! Ever! What honour and pride is there in that? And honestly?" he sighed, defeated, "I don't know. I really don't know Granger, you're fucking with my head." Hermione didn't know how to react. "Come here," he sighed, extending his left arm. Unsure on what he meant, Hermione timidly lifted her arm and laid it onto Draco's outstretched one. He lightly grasped it and raised his wand. Hermione's eyes widened in panic as he brought it up, pointing the long strip of wood at her arm, and tried to move away but he tightened his grip slightly on her arm and didn't allow room for movement. She tugged harder but the boy only glared at her.

But then there was a gold beam of light which engulfed her arm and she felt the blood clearing and her wounds closing. He then did her other arm, her legs, her neck and shoulders, waved his wand a few times over her stomach and back, and finally her face. It wasn't perfect. You could still see the cuts and all the bruises were still there, but the blood had cleared and everything had stopped bleeding. Her hair was then submerged in icy cold water as a gush of it came from Draco's wand. She tried her best not to shiver. The used water seemed to disappear once it hit the floor. When the blood had cleared, he dried her with a further flick of his wand. She let the warm air hug her until she was bone dry. They looked at each other. "Thank you," she whispered. It was so - unexpected.

"Go to bed Granger," Draco spoke quietly, softly, "That'll be one of the only acts of kindness you'll be seeing from me in a long time." Hermione nodded and tried her newly healed legs. They worked a treat.

"Thank you, and night," Hermione smiled at him. He nodded and waited for her to leave. She did so, not looking back. Draco watched her go into her room and heard the click of the magical lock Hermione and Draco used on their doors to stop the other from entering, not that they would.

He too got up and walked over to his room. Upon the click of his door and a silencing charm around the room, the pandemonium kicked off an he kicked his chest of draws aggressively. "What the HELL DRACO?!" screamed his brain at him, the part which now seemed to have taken over the brighter part.

"Damn it Draco she's a fucking mudblood you idiot! There is no room for civilness let alone fucking friendship!" It roared.

"I don't want to be her friend!" He yelled back to it, aloud.

"Then why the act. What stupid part of you went to help a mudblood?!" The annoying hiss in his brain said.

"Muggleborn!" He yelled.

"SAME THING!" His brain roared.

"She prefers muggleborn!" He shouted.

"Oh so now it's what she prefers?" It asked slyly.

"She could have been dying!" He moaned.

"So you decide to contaminate your hands with inferior blood?" He looked down at his hands. They were covered in it. Blood. Not his, but hers. Her blood. But - it looked the same as his blood. No mud or... Anything. It was exactly the same. Slowly, he brought his wand up and pointed it at his left hand. "Aguamenti," he murmured, washing most of the blood off his left hand. Then, with one slicing movement and, "Diffindo," Draco had cut the skin slightly on his left hand. Wincing slightly, he carefully pinched the skin around it and morbidly watched the dark, red substance ooze out of him. Slowly, he brought both his hands next to each other in front of him to compare the blood, and felt a weight thud in his stomach. What had he been expecting though? A difference? Both blood types were exactly the same! He shook his head and opened his door to go to the bathroom. Once inside, he thoroughly washed his hands under the warm tap and watched as the red water gushed away from his hands. It was tricky, but after five minutes, all traces of blood on his hands and under his nails had disappeared. "Episkey," he murmured to his hand and the freshly made wound healed.

For a first day back at term, both head students had been through a lot. Hermione had experienced heart break and a bloody body, not to mention an unusual act of kindness from her enemy. She couldn't trust anyone. She wasn't going through it again. The past few hours had created a hole in her life, a hole she couldn't fill. And the hole didn't just take away her love, it took away her ability to trust. Call it paranoia, but Hermione did not want to create good friendships or relationships if they were all going to end like that.

However, Draco had had to struggle against all his childhood beliefs to do what he thought was the morally right thing. Draco had also realised that their blood was - the same. And that was something he couldn't deal with. And it made him angry. Confused and angry.

A/N Draco I do feel sorry for you. I hope I pulled that chapter off okay, it was fun writing it. There isn't any wifi where I am when I'm away, but there's a possibility I can transfer this onto my phone so that I can use my data to transfer it, but if there's no data either then you'll have to wait a week and a bit for the next update. SORRY!

Next update - either August 2nd OR August 9th