WOW! I got so many reviews last chapter!! ::faints:: I can't believe it! I love u guys! So here's some more story!
**~FAÇADE~**
Keeping Secrets
Draco rolled over in his bed, something had woken him up. He wasn't sure what it was, but now he was finding it quite impossible to sleep. Clear bluish-white light poured into his room through the window; it must be a full moon, he thought. Now he was fully conscious and rather put out about being up. He rolled over again and his gaze fell on the night stand. Why wait, he thought as half of a smirk appeared on his face.
For a moment he debated about whether to read it chronologically or flip to any random page, but then her noticed that the dates were all from this summer, and so it wouldn't be that hard to get through them all relatively soon. As he opened to the first page he began to think of all the ways he would be able to taunt Granger now. The diary gave him power over her. This thought led him to think of black mail, and making Granger do what ever her want least he spill her secret crush to the whole school. The first entry was dated mid-July, he began to read.
Dear Diary,
I don't understand, life has gotten so confusing in only a few weeks. My friend used to keep a diary when she was younger and she always told me it helped to write her feelings down, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I never thought that it would ever be possible to feel, like this. I was so happy once. I was a prefect at school, I excelled in all my classes, I had the best of friends, and I had the perfect loving parents. But when my mom died, my dad was never the same. When I came home to school, I found him drunk. He drank constantly and he started to boss me around. He hit me, beat me. I have a bruise that spans the width of my back from where he pushed me backwards into the kitchen counter this morning. It hurts. Every where hurts. I don't think that there is one part of me that isn't bruised. But I don't understand why, why does he want to hurt me? What happened to my father. The man who used to take me to the park on the weekends. The man who would read me stories at night. The man who I could always count on. He's gone. And I'm stuck here now with this fiend! The father I loved would never have hit me. So why does he now. I can't take this, and I can't stop it. I don't know what hurts worse, my body, or my heart. It hurts so much, I can barely breathe. Oh no! I hear footsteps! He's coming! He'll hurt me for sure if he finds me up! That's all for now.
Draco shut the book in horror, he knew that he had intruded on something private that Hermione would have never told a soul. He couldn't believe that was true. Her father hurt her like that? Did people really do that? He had never known anything like that to happen before. Even his own father, the heartless beast that he was never beat him. He had pushed him around a little, yes, but never done anything that would cause damage. Draco swallowed hard, he was stuck between a rock and a hard place. He knew he shouldn't read more, but he wanted to know badly what happened. In the end he opened the book again, the next entry was from a few days later.
Dear Diary,
I'm so scared! I don't know what he is going to do next. This morning was truly horrible. The phone rang while I was in the middle of cooking my father's breakfast. I answered it, but when I came back to the breakfast, it was burnt. My father was angry, real angry. He picked up a knife and pressed it hard to the side of my face, I can still feel the cold metal on my skin. He was yelling, I was to scared to move, he pulled the knife away, and there was blood on it a little bit. He looked at the blood on the end of the blade, then he brought the blade hard and fast across the outside of my arm. "That'll teach you to ruin my breakfast!" he screamed. It didn't cut too deeply, but it still hurt. It took forever to stop bleeding. I'm afraid of what he'll do next, I'm afraid he'll kill me. Why? Why did this have to happen? Why? What have I done to deserve this?
The disgust that had filled Draco at the end of the last entry had now turned into two very different things. The first one was anger, he wanted to hurt this mad badly that could do that to his daughter. The second thing was compassion. He felt sorry for the girl that he spent six years torturing. There was no way he could put the book down, he had to finish reading it. Unfortunately, the sun had now come up and Draco had classes to go to, plus he didn't shower last night, so he would have to now. Slowly he put the book back in the drawer and left his room and headed for the shower.
His shower wasn't very enjoyable, so he hurried through it. He had been so absent-minded on his way there that he forgot to bring clothes. The towel would have to do, he told himself as he opened the door. It just so happened that Hermione had come up to the bathroom at that second, and they ran into each other. He looked down, and now that she had no make up on, he could see a bruise on her cheek. Her face was the only thing not covered, she was wearing long sleeves and pants. "Sorry," Draco muttered, and he walked off down the hall.
Hermione was rather stunned, this was the first time in passing that Draco hadn't made a rude comment or a snide remark. When she walked into the bathroom, she was reminded of the bruise that was on her cheek. It was an old one, and she could hide it, but without make-up on it stuck out like a sore thumb. This wasn't going to be easy to explain.
She put on her make-up and fixed her hair which she wore straight and down to hide the bruises on her neck. Thank the gods for straightening charms, she thought. When she was presentable, she walked to her room and got dressed. I hope we have pancakes! Hermione loved pancakes and hadn't had them since last year. Listening to the growling sound her stomach made, she hurried off to the Great Hall.
Draco went down to breakfast and forced himself to eat a roll, but it was all that he could eat. He didn't have much of an appetite that morning. He was distracted all day in fact. It was rather unfortunate for him that he had potions with the Gryffindors first that day.
Snape never missed a chance to pick on his least favorite student, Harry Potter. After telling the class what the potion they would be brewing that day was, he asked Potter if he cared to explain to the class what it did.
"Uh, I can't do that sir."
"And why not Mr. Potter?"
"Because sir, I don't know what it does."
"So you haven't bothered to read ahead in my class have you Potter?"
"N-no sir."
"Ah, ten points from Gryffindor for your stupidity." Here, Harry shot his professor a death look, but it went unnoticed. "Now, perhaps someone of intelligence can tell us what it does. How about Mr. Malfoy?" he smiled now because he was giving his favorite student a chance to show up Potter.
However, Draco had not heard one word of this conversation. He had been busy watching Granger. From all appearances, one would suspect that there was nothing wrong with this child. But Draco's stare noticed her smile was slightly forced, and that when people touched her especially on her back, she would squirm away uncomfortably. Still, if Draco had never read the diary, he would never suspect that something was wrong. Hermione was being quite the little actress, and Draco was wondering how she was capable of acting so happy and so normal, when clearly he diary told that she was falling apart.
"Mr. Malfoy?" Snape repeated.
Draco looked up, oh no! He had missed something and had no idea what he was supposed to say. "Yes professor?" he inquired.
Snape began to get agitated, "The potion Malfoy, tell us what the potion does."
What potion? Draco didn't know what potion they were even brewing. He hung his head sheepishly and said, "I don't know sir."
Many of the Gryffindors burst into giggles, and now Snape was Furious. He could not believe that Draco Malfoy did not know what the potion did; Malfoy was his best student, he was even better than Granger. "And why do you not know Mr. Malfoy?"
"Because I don't know what potion you're talking about." He said the words so low one would have thought he was whispering.
"You don't know what potion I am talking about?!" he was shocked and now yelling. "Weren't you even paying the least bit of attention?"
When Draco didn't reply, Snape walked behind his desk and sighed; he hated doing this, but, "Five points from Slytherin, and a detention for Mr. Malfoy. You will all write me a three and a half foot essay on this potion, what it does, its side effects, and anything you can find on the subject. Any essay that I feel is missing information, will receive a zero. Put your cauldrons away and take out your books and quills, there is to be no talking." He finished spitting out his harsh words, and his class got right to work not wanting to cross him farther.
Draco didn't even know what the potion was! How was he supposed to write three and a half feet about it? He would have groaned had there been any other sound in the room besides the scratching of quills. He looked around the room. Snape was using the time to grade some papers, most of the students were scribbling furiously, but there were two girls who like him, were not attempting the assignment. Pansy and Blasie sat at the table behind Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom. It was easy to see that the girls were planning something to amuse themselves. Pansy had a crumpled up wad of parchment in one hand a quill in the other, she pulled her arm back and released the ball clearly hoping to hit either Gryffindor. The blow hit Hermione in the back, and while it usually wouldn't have hurt anyone too badly, Granger let out a low moan of pain. Draco took this to mean that it hit her square in one of her many bruises.
"Ms. Granger! Would you like explain the meaning of your disturbing my class?"
"Sorry professor, but I,"
"But? No buts Ms. Granger, you disturbed my class! Detention for talking back! And five points from Gryffindor."
Hermione wore a defeated expression that Draco was surprised to see. In all his time of knowing her, granted they hadn't been all that close, Draco had never seen anything get the better of Hermione Granger; and she certainly never gave up without a fight. What was even more surprising was that her two knuckle head friends didn't see it! Well, they didn't know what he knew did they? He thought of something else now, no one knew except him, and Hermione didn't know he knew.
If he acted differently towards her, then she'd figure out something was wrong. He couldn't let that happen, but could he treat her the same now, knowing what she went through? There was no other choice was there. He couldn't simply go up to her and say, "Look Granger, I read your diary, only you didn't notice it was missing because I made a copy of it, because I'm just a bastard like that, and well, I read all about your scum of a father, and I thought you needed a break so I'm not going to call you Mudblood anymore. Sound good?" Yeah right! First she would be so embarrassed, and then she would kill him, or maybe she would kill him first and then go crying to Potter and Weasley, "Guess what the stupid Ferrets done now!" No, he couldn't let her know he knew; there was nothing he could do to except act normal.
The class ended and Draco started to leave the room as he passed an interesting conversation…
"Oh, Mione! It's bad enough having detention, but having to serve it with Malfoy too!" Harry was saying to Hermione.
"Ugh, don't remind me," she groaned.
Malfoy turned to her and spat out, "I'm not exactly happy about sharing my detention with you either Mudblood!" he noted the look of sorrow that was deep inside her chestnut eyes, and felt horrible. She made no immediate reply, and he walked away before one of her two defenders could step in and play the hero.
Draco walked down the hallways and stopped when he found and empty corridor, and leaned his head against the wall, the cold stone biting his forehead.
You asshole! He said to himself.
I know.
*~%~*
And that's the end of another chapter. So what do u guys think? Is it evil enough yet? No? ok, I will make it more evil!! it will be so evil ::laughs well, evilly:: I just thought of a great idea for the ending! I can't wait to get there. Now, I did my part and wrote the chapter, you do yours and review! Please? If you don't I am prepared to make the puppy dog eyes!
Once again if you would like me to e-mail you when I update, just say so in your review.
And many thanks to my oh so wonderful reviewers: Elven Ice Angel, Lady Mastu, Mizz Chilli, Twisted Crimson, Avery, Yehsreh, Kate, Einahpets, Cutie Kat, The Simon Cowell of Fanfiction.net, Fiery-chan, sweetstar, Kayla, bondgirl, crazyginnygirl, Roxy Surfer, Saquoia, Meena, Moon Goddess, Feline Fire, LP Draconis, Mariah, GameOfLove, and Manic Agnst.
U guys are Wonderful! I am so glad you like this!
Yea, so I fell in love with this whole angst business, and I had to write another fic, and I thought it was going to be a one-shot, but it turns out, that it will be a full fledged story too! If u like my writing, and u like angst, then u might wanna check it out! Its called Into the Abyss. If u read it, I hope u like it!
~Atiannala