Disclaimer: I don't own anything at all in the Harry Potter universe.

Courage to Find the Strength

Chapter 14

"RON! STOP IT!" Hermione screamed and pushed him off of her. If she'd done it just two seconds earlier, Draco would have been in earshot. But he wasn't, and she didn't know it.

"But, 'Mione!" Ron protested.

"Listen to me very carefully, Ron Weasley. I don't know WHO wrote you that letter, but it wasn't me. You and Harry are like brothers to me. Do you get it?! BROTHERS!" Hermione jumped up crying and raced out of the park leaving a rejected and miserable young man behind who was too speechless to even call after her.

What she didn't realize was that she was following a straight path from one heartbroken wizard to another.

"Draco!" Hermione called as she slammed shut the front door. "Draco, there's something I've got....to....tell....you," she trailed off as soon as she saw him standing there with the most terrible look on his face. It was way beyond anger or rage. It was an unspeakable hatred, and it was solely directed at her. She skidded to stop and felt all the blood rush from her face.

"You bitch," Malfoy whispered.

"What?" Hermione heard herself ask, but she knew her ears hadn't deceived her. Her heart started to pound in her chest as a wave of overwhelming panic hit her so hard she couldn't think.

"You FUCKING mudblood bitch!" he said much louder.

Hermione flinched and thought momentarily she would pass out, but he was suddenly gripping her arms so tightly she was sure he would leave a bruise.

"You played me for a fool! You only pretended to want me so you could make my humiliation complete! You've always wanted revenge! Haven't you?! HAVEN'T YOU?!" He was screaming now and shaking her violently.

"Draco, stop. You're hurting me!" She desperately pleaded.

He slapped her hard. "Hurting you?! Hurting YOU?! You little whore! How DARE you speak to me of hurting you!"

"Draco, I don't know what happened. I can explain."

He shoved her down on the floor where she burst into tears. "You don't need to explain, Hermione, sweetheart." His voice was dripping with sarcasm. He paced around her with an animalistic savagery as if any moment he would rip her to shreds. "I saw it all! I saw EVERYTHING!"

"What are you talking about?" she sobbed.

"I'm talking about you and Weasel, you pathetic excuse for a witch."

"NO! You have it all wrong. Somebody tricked him. Somebody," but she was cut off when he bent down and slapped her again.

"No, YOU have it all wrong. I should have never come here. I should have never trusted you. All you wanted was information about the Death Eaters and my father. You never cared for me. GOD! How could I have been so STUPID!"

He left her there and went upstairs. In a few minutes, Hermione was through the door to his bedroom and tried to hold him, but he just shoved her roughly onto the bed and returned to his task of packing. Hermione again launched herself at him in a desperate attempt to make him understand, but he wheeled on her with his wand pointed in her face.

"Stay the hell away from me, mudblood, or so help me there will be one less witch attending Hogwarts." His voice was ice, and his eyes were deadly. In another minute, he and his things were gone, leaving Hermione to roll off the bed onto the floor unable to control her hysterical sobbing.

***

Twenty-four hours passed, and Lucius was going over some documents in his grand study. He set the documents down and looked up in surprise to see his son standing there.

"Draco! You look like hell, boy!" His father said with real concern in his voice. It wasn't so much the great shadows under his eyes, but the expression in them. His son's very soul was clearly visible, and it looked like it'd been to hell and back.

Draco strode carefully and purposefully into the office, his eyes never left his father's. With a deadly calm, he announced, "I want in."

***

Harry held the shaking girl's sobbing form and smoothed her hair down. He was sitting on her bed in her bedroom, trying his best to comfort his best friend. Harry had arrived not very long after Mrs. Granger had called. No power on earth, not even his horrible relatives had been able to stop him from coming here.

"Ron, that stupid idiot!" he swore silently. "What on earth was he thinking!"

But secretly he blamed himself. "I should seen this coming and told him! And DAMN that hothead Malfoy! If he'd only use his brain once in a while, he would have seen through this deception! Someone must have sent that letter to Ron knowing what would happen."

"What?" Hermione groggily asked. "What did you just say?"

"I'm sorry, 'Mione. I didn't realize that I'd been speaking out loud."

"It's all right, but what did you say about Ron?"

"I think someone set him up. Someone must have sent that letter to Ron then arranged for Malfoy to see the results."

"You mean, someone did this to us on purpose?" She asked, finally feeling the first waves of outrage fill the new hole in her heart.

"I can't think of any other logical excuse. I don't think it was coincidence that things were going so very well, then he just somehow appears in the park at the exact moment Ron would kiss you."

"Harry, you don't think that Ron would, you know, have willingly played a part in this?"

"What! Lord, no! Ron's completely in love with you. He would rather kill himself than harm a hair on your body. He was downstairs this morning, but I wouldn't let him come up because if he saw the swelling or the bruises, he'd head straight to Malfoy Manor, and most assuredly, someone would end up dead. No, Ron's been played, and I bet I know who's plucking the strings."

"Who?" Hermione asked savagely.

"Who would have the most to gain by destroying the one thing Malfoy had left?"

"Lucius Malfoy," she answered, and a look of unending hate that spelled only doom for the insufferable Death Eater darkly glittered from the bottom of her soul.

***

It was New Year's Eve, and Draco Malfoy stood in the green robes of Slytherin house on the balcony of his father's manor. His mother was standing beside him not knowing what to say to ease the pain her only child was in. After awhile, she silently when indoors unnoticed and unmissed. Clutched tightly in his hand was the picture of Hermione had given to him for Christmas. He continued to stare at it as if he couldn't believe the person in the frame was really him.

Fifteen minutes passed, and his father came out to find him. "Are you ready, son?"

The ceremony would be held tonight on the last night of the old year. The dawn would herald a new beginning for the young wizard and a new purpose. "Just a minute, Dad."

Lucius nodded and returned to the waiting participants inside. With one last look, Draco heaved the cursed picture into the night air and waited to hear the shattering of glass far below. Satisfied, he grimly turned to go inside.