CHAPTER 7~ Undisclosed Information
Draco writhed on the ground in pain. The dark figure stepped out of the shadows, and Hermione could make out the man's long, blonde hair. She knew immediately that it was Lucius Malfoy. Tears began forming in her eyes as she begged Lucius to take the curse off of Draco. He ignored her pleas as he stepped up next to the seventeen year old he called his son.
"Well, well, well," he drawled lazily. "It seems I was right about you all along. My son is nothing more than a stupid Muggle-lover, as I knew he would turn out to be. I am disappointed in you, Draco. I cannot believe you would stoop so low as to actually consider this.Mudblood."
Draco's body was twitching. He was in so much pain that his eyes wouldn't water and he couldn't scream. His fingers were digging into his palms and blood was seeping from his pale skin. The bones in his body were crunching together, and he knew that he definitely had broken something.
"Let him go!" Hermione screeched.
"I don't think I will. I rather enjoy seeing this kind of pain inflicted on him. He deserves it, and if you don't step away from him, I can assure you that you will no longer be a threat to my cause."
"And what cause is that?" she questioned. "Do you want him to become a Death Eater as you are? He is much too good for that."
"How dare you talk back to me, girl? Step aside and let me take care of him."
"No!" Before Lucius could say any more, Hermione pulled her wand swiftly from her robes and yelled, "Petrificus Totalus!"
Lucius' body became stiff as he fell to the floor and his wand slipped from his hand and Draco was released from the horrid curse that had been fixed onto him.
Hermione bent over Draco and pulled him close to her. She ran a hand over his pale cheek and he demanded to be taken to the hospital wing. "Can you walk?" she asked.
"With help I might be able to get there safely."
She helped him to his feet and they began to walk slowly back to the castle.
"It seems I was right about you all along," a voice sounded from behind them. Hermione immediately recognized it as Jeremy's, so she didn't bother answering him, but continued walking. "You will face me when I speak to you!" he said sharply as he stepped in front of them.
"Go away, Jeremy!" Hermione demanded.
"Why should I? I knew he would betray me, so I betrayed him."
"What are you talking about?" Draco muttered although it took a lot out of him.
"I loved her Draco. The both of you are obviously too blind to see it. Hermione, the reason I'm so desperate to be with you is because you're the only person that matters to me. I want no other woman. There is no one who can compare to you, and he doesn't deserve you. That's why I told Lucius. I knew he would be able to take care of you, and he will. He will destroy you, Draco. I'm so glad my father is dead. It's good to not have to worry about who you can date."
"Fuck, Jeremy, get out of my goddamn way!" Hermione screamed. "Can't you see he's hurt? He needs to get to the fucking hospital wing now!"
"No he doesn't. I know for a fact that he has been through worse pain than a Cruciatus Curse."
Hermione looked from Draco to Jeremy and from Jeremy back to Draco. Draco's head was spinning and everything around him was becoming black. "I need to get there," he managed to say. "I can't see."
At this, Jeremy did move, although reluctantly and followed them at a distance.
As they entered the hospital wing, Madame Pomfrey came bustling over to them. She didn't ask questions yet. She knew that Draco was seriously injured, and she would wait until he woke up to ask any questions because she figured that Hermione was too distraught to answer anything at the moment. She gave Draco a few healing potions and a sleeping potion, and laid him down on one of the beds to sleep.
Hermione didn't leave Draco's bedside. She held his bloody palm in her hand as she watched his sleeping form. Even though she couldn't see anybody else in the room, she could feel the presence of another being watching her carefully. She tore her eyes from Draco's pale body and searched around the vast, white room. There she saw it, a person lurking in the shadows on the other side.
"Why are you still here, Jeremy? Have you come to admire what you have done to your best friend?" she asked, her voice dripping with venom.
He stepped out of the shadows and sat down to the left of her. "Why did you choose him over me?"
"I haven't chosen anyone yet. He asked me, but was attacked before I could answer. Thanks to you, I won't get to answer him for a while. What do you have against him anyway? You two have been best friends for years."
"I have nothing against him, besides the fact that he likes you. He never admitted it, but I could see it in his eyes. The day we went to Hogsmeade and I started talking to him about you, his eyes clouded over with jealousy, and that's when I knew. And then when he followed you out of the town, I knew that it wasn't just me reading him wrong." He looked away from her penetrating gaze and stared down at Hermione's hand, which was still gripping onto Draco's. "I still love you, Hermione. I never lost the feelings I had for you. None of the other girls I've been with have ever made me feel like you did, and I miss that."
"It would never work. You want what I can't give you. I'm not ready for that kind of relationship, and I don't know how much I can trust you." She looked back to Draco's sleeping form. He looked so peaceful when he wasn't throwing insults at people left and right. He looked almost-she hated to think it-angelic.
"Hermione, I would never hurt you purposely."
"Jeremy, we haven't spoken since we broke up two years ago. There's so much that you've missed in my life, and that's time we could never get back."
"I will always have all the time in the world for you."
Hermione looked back up into his deep blue eyes. "I don't feel for you like I used to. I've changed. I need someone who can protect me, and I don't know if you can be that person."
"But he can be?" His voice was harsh again and he looked at Draco in disgust.
"I don't know that yet, but it sure seems like he can be," she answered just as coldly.
"You don't know him, 'Mione. You don't know what you're getting yourself into. What about all he's done to you over the years? Are you just gunna let all that slip by without a second thought? He will never love you like I will. When you get hurt, don't come crying your big, brown eyes back to me, 'cause I don't think I'd take you back."
She began laughing, a cruel, mirthless laugh, that was not a characteristic of her. "I wouldn't come back to you anyway. With what you just said, you lost all hope of ever having me back. I can't believe I ever said I loved you. You are the most self-centered person I have ever met. You only think about yourself, and you would have your best friend killed because of jealousy. You're not a true friend, and you will amount to nothing during your long, brutal life under Voldemort." A surprised look crossed his angered face. "Don't look so surprised. I know more about you than you think I do. I'm not blind, you know. That mark on your arm is as clear as day. I also happen to know that the only reason you're feeding me all this bullshit about your true and undying love for me is so that you can get closer to Harry and turn him over to that worthless half-blood you worship."
His shocked face changed back to anger. "You know nothing about me. Don't talk of matters in which you don't understand!"
Her eyes had a malicious glint in them. "I understand perfectly well, Riddle. Yes, I do know that you are Voldemort's son, but not his heir. I happen to know whom his heir really is and that he wants no part in that piece of shit father of yours. Now that neither of you are worthy to fill this position, who will the next heir be? I believe that your father mentioned something about how if you wanted to prove yourself to him, you had to get the-what was it-'Stupid, Mudblood bitch' to carry your child that would be the new heir?"
His eyes grew wide and his face became pale. "H-how d-d-do you know all that?" he stuttered.
"I wouldn't tell you that if we were the last people on Earth and we needed that information to survive on."
He got up and stormed out of the room once again leaving Hermione alone with a sleeping dragon.
~
Draco woke up the next morning in a room that was much too bright for his liking. The walls were all white and the sun was seeping through the windows onto his pale face. Needless to say, he didn't like it. Another thing that felt awkward was that his bed was dipping slightly to one side. He looked over and noticed the sleeping figure of Hermione with her arms on the bed and her head placed gently on top of them.
**Why the hell am I here? And with her of all people?** he wondered. The events of the previous day all came flooding back into his mind like a baby chick returns to its mother. He let out a small groan, and Hermione's eyes popped open.
"You're up!" she said happily.
"Yeah, yeah. What are you doing here? I figured you'd be off somewhere with Jeremy by now."
"Um, no actually. Where'd you get a crazy idea like that?"
"I subconsciously heard some of your conversation last night. You two seemed kinda ready to start a full make out session."
"Malfoy, I despise that sad excuse for a wizard! He's a worthless scumbag with a sad excuse for a father. I don't know why I ever dated him."
"'Mione, his father's dead. I thought you knew that."
"Oh, he's far from dead. His father is Voldemort. His adopted father is dead, yes. Voldemort killed him years back."
"How come he never told me about this?" Draco asked sounding a little disappointed that he had informed her but not him.
"He didn't tell anyone about it. I happened to know already."
"How? If he didn't tell you." he trailed off.
"I really cannot tell you how I know of this. You're just gunna have to understand the fact that I know a lot more about some people than I should."
Draco looked thoughtful for a moment and stared out the large windows. "If I guess correctly, will you tell me?"
She looked down at the floor and thought about it. There was no way she wanted to lie to Draco, but she could be killed if anyone else found out about her secret. "Um, yeah, but you have to swear on your life that you will never tell a single soul for as long as you live, and if I do, I have the right to Avanda you."
"I swear on my life that I will never tell anyone." She nodded and looked at him expectantly as if waiting for him to continue. "I have two guesses. The first is that you are secretly part of Voldemort's inner circle because you share a blood-line with one of he more powerful pureblooded families." When she shook her head no, he said, "I didn't think so. My second guess is that you're a seer-a true seer, not like that old bat, Professor Trelawny."
She looked into his grey eyes. "How'd you figure that out?"
"I just figured that if you didn't have blood connections to any of the other Death Eaters, then the only way you could know information about the inner circle is because only a seer can know things of that sort."
"And how do you know that?"
"My mother is also a seer. Father doesn't know, and she won't tell him because she knows it will put her life in danger." Hermione nodded and stared off into oblivion. "What about the answer to my question?"
"What question?" she asked not remembering him asking her any question that she hadn't already answered.
"Yesterday on the Quidditch field before my father rudely interrupted."
"Oh that question!" She looked away and then back at him. "Well, I um- yeah. Yeah, I'll go out with you."
"I was hoping you'd say that." He pulled her down to him and wrapped his arms around her.
"Cant-breathe," she choked out. "No-oxygen-in-lungs."
"Oh, right, sorry." He let go of her and she sat down on the bed next to him.
"I'm still not changing just because I'm going out with you now. I don't change for anyone, especially not a pureblooded Slytherin who thinks he's better than everybody else that walks the Earth."
"Ditto. Well, except the part about the pureblooded Slytherin thing.yeah."
Hermione laughed a little and Draco joined in with her. All of a sudden, the doors to the hospital wing opened and Harry and Ron came through. They hadn't noticed Hermione sitting on Draco's bed, so she quickly jumped off into the nearest chair.
"Hermione, where were you at dinner and breakfast?" Ron bellowed. "We haven't seen you since he took you away yesterday. Why the hell are you in here?"
"Calm down, Ron. He was attacked when we left you guys yesterday, so I brought him up here, and did the kind thing and stayed with him even though he doesn't enjoy my company."
"You stupid git!" Harry said sharply. "It was probably a set-up or something. You better watch your back around him."
"Come off it, Potter. Do you think I would actually plan to have someone just pop out of nowhere during a private conversation and attack me. I don't know about you, but to me it sounds like a pretty fucked up idea."
"Well how am I supposed to know how a Death Eater's mind works?"
"I. Am. Not. A. Death. Eater," he said slowly and annunciated every word.
"And how can you prove it?" Ron asked.
Draco rolled up the sleeves of his shirt and showed them that there was no trace of a Dark Mark anywhere on either of his arms. Hermione looked closely at his arms, though, and she didn't know why. Instead of seeing a Dark Mark, she found a bunch of small scars along his wrists. She figured she'd ask him about it when Harry and Ron left.
Noticing Hermione's eyes, he quickly pulled his sleeves back down and glared menacingly at the two Gryffindor boys. "Well, are you happy? There's no trace that I belong to the band of foolish idiots."
"Hermione are you gunna come?" Ron asked turning his gaze back to his female friend.
"Um, no. I'll catch up to you guys later. I still hafta talk to Malfoy about something."
"Do you want us to stick around to make sure you'll be alright?"
"No! No, this is kinda just between the two of us and it's-confidential." She looked at them pleadingly and hoped they would get the hint. They did and left with a quick goodbye. She turned her glance back to Draco, who was purposely avoiding her gaze since he knew what was coming. "What the hell are those?"
"What?"
"Draco Malfoy, roll up your sleeves this instant!" she demanded sounding a bit motherly. He did as he was told and showed her his wrists once again. Her eyes had not been failing her before; his wrists had dozens of slash marks on them that showed he had cut himself numerous times. "Why?" was all she could say. "Why Draco?"
He looked back at her soft face. Her eyes were becoming wet, and he could tell that she was straining to hold back the tears that were threatening to fall. "It was the only way to deal with the pain. My mother sent me to therapy and that didn't work, so I stopped going. Every time my father hit me, I would make a new cut. It took my mind away from everything except the moment. I loved to watch the blood run down my arm, it was comforting, in a twisted sort of way. Eventually, it got so bad that I would cut so deep that I would black out and a house elf would have to come up and make me better. I stopped when we came back to school. You being around helped the pain I was feeling and I didn't need to resort to my dagger anymore."
The tears did fall from her brown eyes, and she leaned into Draco's strong chest. "Promise me you won't do it anymore. Please, Draco? I'm begging you. Please? Never again."
"I promise," he said and kissed her forehead gently.
Draco writhed on the ground in pain. The dark figure stepped out of the shadows, and Hermione could make out the man's long, blonde hair. She knew immediately that it was Lucius Malfoy. Tears began forming in her eyes as she begged Lucius to take the curse off of Draco. He ignored her pleas as he stepped up next to the seventeen year old he called his son.
"Well, well, well," he drawled lazily. "It seems I was right about you all along. My son is nothing more than a stupid Muggle-lover, as I knew he would turn out to be. I am disappointed in you, Draco. I cannot believe you would stoop so low as to actually consider this.Mudblood."
Draco's body was twitching. He was in so much pain that his eyes wouldn't water and he couldn't scream. His fingers were digging into his palms and blood was seeping from his pale skin. The bones in his body were crunching together, and he knew that he definitely had broken something.
"Let him go!" Hermione screeched.
"I don't think I will. I rather enjoy seeing this kind of pain inflicted on him. He deserves it, and if you don't step away from him, I can assure you that you will no longer be a threat to my cause."
"And what cause is that?" she questioned. "Do you want him to become a Death Eater as you are? He is much too good for that."
"How dare you talk back to me, girl? Step aside and let me take care of him."
"No!" Before Lucius could say any more, Hermione pulled her wand swiftly from her robes and yelled, "Petrificus Totalus!"
Lucius' body became stiff as he fell to the floor and his wand slipped from his hand and Draco was released from the horrid curse that had been fixed onto him.
Hermione bent over Draco and pulled him close to her. She ran a hand over his pale cheek and he demanded to be taken to the hospital wing. "Can you walk?" she asked.
"With help I might be able to get there safely."
She helped him to his feet and they began to walk slowly back to the castle.
"It seems I was right about you all along," a voice sounded from behind them. Hermione immediately recognized it as Jeremy's, so she didn't bother answering him, but continued walking. "You will face me when I speak to you!" he said sharply as he stepped in front of them.
"Go away, Jeremy!" Hermione demanded.
"Why should I? I knew he would betray me, so I betrayed him."
"What are you talking about?" Draco muttered although it took a lot out of him.
"I loved her Draco. The both of you are obviously too blind to see it. Hermione, the reason I'm so desperate to be with you is because you're the only person that matters to me. I want no other woman. There is no one who can compare to you, and he doesn't deserve you. That's why I told Lucius. I knew he would be able to take care of you, and he will. He will destroy you, Draco. I'm so glad my father is dead. It's good to not have to worry about who you can date."
"Fuck, Jeremy, get out of my goddamn way!" Hermione screamed. "Can't you see he's hurt? He needs to get to the fucking hospital wing now!"
"No he doesn't. I know for a fact that he has been through worse pain than a Cruciatus Curse."
Hermione looked from Draco to Jeremy and from Jeremy back to Draco. Draco's head was spinning and everything around him was becoming black. "I need to get there," he managed to say. "I can't see."
At this, Jeremy did move, although reluctantly and followed them at a distance.
As they entered the hospital wing, Madame Pomfrey came bustling over to them. She didn't ask questions yet. She knew that Draco was seriously injured, and she would wait until he woke up to ask any questions because she figured that Hermione was too distraught to answer anything at the moment. She gave Draco a few healing potions and a sleeping potion, and laid him down on one of the beds to sleep.
Hermione didn't leave Draco's bedside. She held his bloody palm in her hand as she watched his sleeping form. Even though she couldn't see anybody else in the room, she could feel the presence of another being watching her carefully. She tore her eyes from Draco's pale body and searched around the vast, white room. There she saw it, a person lurking in the shadows on the other side.
"Why are you still here, Jeremy? Have you come to admire what you have done to your best friend?" she asked, her voice dripping with venom.
He stepped out of the shadows and sat down to the left of her. "Why did you choose him over me?"
"I haven't chosen anyone yet. He asked me, but was attacked before I could answer. Thanks to you, I won't get to answer him for a while. What do you have against him anyway? You two have been best friends for years."
"I have nothing against him, besides the fact that he likes you. He never admitted it, but I could see it in his eyes. The day we went to Hogsmeade and I started talking to him about you, his eyes clouded over with jealousy, and that's when I knew. And then when he followed you out of the town, I knew that it wasn't just me reading him wrong." He looked away from her penetrating gaze and stared down at Hermione's hand, which was still gripping onto Draco's. "I still love you, Hermione. I never lost the feelings I had for you. None of the other girls I've been with have ever made me feel like you did, and I miss that."
"It would never work. You want what I can't give you. I'm not ready for that kind of relationship, and I don't know how much I can trust you." She looked back to Draco's sleeping form. He looked so peaceful when he wasn't throwing insults at people left and right. He looked almost-she hated to think it-angelic.
"Hermione, I would never hurt you purposely."
"Jeremy, we haven't spoken since we broke up two years ago. There's so much that you've missed in my life, and that's time we could never get back."
"I will always have all the time in the world for you."
Hermione looked back up into his deep blue eyes. "I don't feel for you like I used to. I've changed. I need someone who can protect me, and I don't know if you can be that person."
"But he can be?" His voice was harsh again and he looked at Draco in disgust.
"I don't know that yet, but it sure seems like he can be," she answered just as coldly.
"You don't know him, 'Mione. You don't know what you're getting yourself into. What about all he's done to you over the years? Are you just gunna let all that slip by without a second thought? He will never love you like I will. When you get hurt, don't come crying your big, brown eyes back to me, 'cause I don't think I'd take you back."
She began laughing, a cruel, mirthless laugh, that was not a characteristic of her. "I wouldn't come back to you anyway. With what you just said, you lost all hope of ever having me back. I can't believe I ever said I loved you. You are the most self-centered person I have ever met. You only think about yourself, and you would have your best friend killed because of jealousy. You're not a true friend, and you will amount to nothing during your long, brutal life under Voldemort." A surprised look crossed his angered face. "Don't look so surprised. I know more about you than you think I do. I'm not blind, you know. That mark on your arm is as clear as day. I also happen to know that the only reason you're feeding me all this bullshit about your true and undying love for me is so that you can get closer to Harry and turn him over to that worthless half-blood you worship."
His shocked face changed back to anger. "You know nothing about me. Don't talk of matters in which you don't understand!"
Her eyes had a malicious glint in them. "I understand perfectly well, Riddle. Yes, I do know that you are Voldemort's son, but not his heir. I happen to know whom his heir really is and that he wants no part in that piece of shit father of yours. Now that neither of you are worthy to fill this position, who will the next heir be? I believe that your father mentioned something about how if you wanted to prove yourself to him, you had to get the-what was it-'Stupid, Mudblood bitch' to carry your child that would be the new heir?"
His eyes grew wide and his face became pale. "H-how d-d-do you know all that?" he stuttered.
"I wouldn't tell you that if we were the last people on Earth and we needed that information to survive on."
He got up and stormed out of the room once again leaving Hermione alone with a sleeping dragon.
~
Draco woke up the next morning in a room that was much too bright for his liking. The walls were all white and the sun was seeping through the windows onto his pale face. Needless to say, he didn't like it. Another thing that felt awkward was that his bed was dipping slightly to one side. He looked over and noticed the sleeping figure of Hermione with her arms on the bed and her head placed gently on top of them.
**Why the hell am I here? And with her of all people?** he wondered. The events of the previous day all came flooding back into his mind like a baby chick returns to its mother. He let out a small groan, and Hermione's eyes popped open.
"You're up!" she said happily.
"Yeah, yeah. What are you doing here? I figured you'd be off somewhere with Jeremy by now."
"Um, no actually. Where'd you get a crazy idea like that?"
"I subconsciously heard some of your conversation last night. You two seemed kinda ready to start a full make out session."
"Malfoy, I despise that sad excuse for a wizard! He's a worthless scumbag with a sad excuse for a father. I don't know why I ever dated him."
"'Mione, his father's dead. I thought you knew that."
"Oh, he's far from dead. His father is Voldemort. His adopted father is dead, yes. Voldemort killed him years back."
"How come he never told me about this?" Draco asked sounding a little disappointed that he had informed her but not him.
"He didn't tell anyone about it. I happened to know already."
"How? If he didn't tell you." he trailed off.
"I really cannot tell you how I know of this. You're just gunna have to understand the fact that I know a lot more about some people than I should."
Draco looked thoughtful for a moment and stared out the large windows. "If I guess correctly, will you tell me?"
She looked down at the floor and thought about it. There was no way she wanted to lie to Draco, but she could be killed if anyone else found out about her secret. "Um, yeah, but you have to swear on your life that you will never tell a single soul for as long as you live, and if I do, I have the right to Avanda you."
"I swear on my life that I will never tell anyone." She nodded and looked at him expectantly as if waiting for him to continue. "I have two guesses. The first is that you are secretly part of Voldemort's inner circle because you share a blood-line with one of he more powerful pureblooded families." When she shook her head no, he said, "I didn't think so. My second guess is that you're a seer-a true seer, not like that old bat, Professor Trelawny."
She looked into his grey eyes. "How'd you figure that out?"
"I just figured that if you didn't have blood connections to any of the other Death Eaters, then the only way you could know information about the inner circle is because only a seer can know things of that sort."
"And how do you know that?"
"My mother is also a seer. Father doesn't know, and she won't tell him because she knows it will put her life in danger." Hermione nodded and stared off into oblivion. "What about the answer to my question?"
"What question?" she asked not remembering him asking her any question that she hadn't already answered.
"Yesterday on the Quidditch field before my father rudely interrupted."
"Oh that question!" She looked away and then back at him. "Well, I um- yeah. Yeah, I'll go out with you."
"I was hoping you'd say that." He pulled her down to him and wrapped his arms around her.
"Cant-breathe," she choked out. "No-oxygen-in-lungs."
"Oh, right, sorry." He let go of her and she sat down on the bed next to him.
"I'm still not changing just because I'm going out with you now. I don't change for anyone, especially not a pureblooded Slytherin who thinks he's better than everybody else that walks the Earth."
"Ditto. Well, except the part about the pureblooded Slytherin thing.yeah."
Hermione laughed a little and Draco joined in with her. All of a sudden, the doors to the hospital wing opened and Harry and Ron came through. They hadn't noticed Hermione sitting on Draco's bed, so she quickly jumped off into the nearest chair.
"Hermione, where were you at dinner and breakfast?" Ron bellowed. "We haven't seen you since he took you away yesterday. Why the hell are you in here?"
"Calm down, Ron. He was attacked when we left you guys yesterday, so I brought him up here, and did the kind thing and stayed with him even though he doesn't enjoy my company."
"You stupid git!" Harry said sharply. "It was probably a set-up or something. You better watch your back around him."
"Come off it, Potter. Do you think I would actually plan to have someone just pop out of nowhere during a private conversation and attack me. I don't know about you, but to me it sounds like a pretty fucked up idea."
"Well how am I supposed to know how a Death Eater's mind works?"
"I. Am. Not. A. Death. Eater," he said slowly and annunciated every word.
"And how can you prove it?" Ron asked.
Draco rolled up the sleeves of his shirt and showed them that there was no trace of a Dark Mark anywhere on either of his arms. Hermione looked closely at his arms, though, and she didn't know why. Instead of seeing a Dark Mark, she found a bunch of small scars along his wrists. She figured she'd ask him about it when Harry and Ron left.
Noticing Hermione's eyes, he quickly pulled his sleeves back down and glared menacingly at the two Gryffindor boys. "Well, are you happy? There's no trace that I belong to the band of foolish idiots."
"Hermione are you gunna come?" Ron asked turning his gaze back to his female friend.
"Um, no. I'll catch up to you guys later. I still hafta talk to Malfoy about something."
"Do you want us to stick around to make sure you'll be alright?"
"No! No, this is kinda just between the two of us and it's-confidential." She looked at them pleadingly and hoped they would get the hint. They did and left with a quick goodbye. She turned her glance back to Draco, who was purposely avoiding her gaze since he knew what was coming. "What the hell are those?"
"What?"
"Draco Malfoy, roll up your sleeves this instant!" she demanded sounding a bit motherly. He did as he was told and showed her his wrists once again. Her eyes had not been failing her before; his wrists had dozens of slash marks on them that showed he had cut himself numerous times. "Why?" was all she could say. "Why Draco?"
He looked back at her soft face. Her eyes were becoming wet, and he could tell that she was straining to hold back the tears that were threatening to fall. "It was the only way to deal with the pain. My mother sent me to therapy and that didn't work, so I stopped going. Every time my father hit me, I would make a new cut. It took my mind away from everything except the moment. I loved to watch the blood run down my arm, it was comforting, in a twisted sort of way. Eventually, it got so bad that I would cut so deep that I would black out and a house elf would have to come up and make me better. I stopped when we came back to school. You being around helped the pain I was feeling and I didn't need to resort to my dagger anymore."
The tears did fall from her brown eyes, and she leaned into Draco's strong chest. "Promise me you won't do it anymore. Please, Draco? I'm begging you. Please? Never again."
"I promise," he said and kissed her forehead gently.