"What?!" I asked completely confused. The Spenda family was known for their magical developments, particularly in the area of potions.

"Calm down." She asked getting a kick out of my startle.

"Don't you know the Spenda's are a magic family?"

"Yea." She nodded indifferent to the situation it seemed.

"All those years I called you mudblood and you didn't correct me ever?!" At this Hermione looked at me and smirked. Hey, she is even adopting my smirk.

"My mother is a muggle, but my father is a wizard. He even attended Hogwarts. Big deal. You're just a prat." I had to smile at her attitude towards me.

"What a compliment."

"Yea well coming from me, it's a lot."

"It didn't use to be." She looked hurt at my statement.

"I've changed." Hermione seemed to lose her confidence. I wanted so badly to tell her that she shouldn't let the beatings run her life. I wanted to hold her and tell her that she would be just fine for the rest of her life, if only she opened up and became the Hermione most people knew and loved. But what good would it do, she would counter my statements with the fact that she was Hermione, she was fine and then all of this happened, what would be stopping it from happening again? And at this she would walk away from me and not look back.

And I didn't want that. I found comfort in her company and I'm surprised I never noticed before how elegant she was.

"How is it that you're so cold." I whispered. She had heard me.

"I'm cold because it takes away the pain." She said and stood from the hot tub and grabbed a towel from the shelf. As she walked away I saw the actual extent of her bruising. All along the back of her arms there was tiny round ones, hands that had grabbed her too harshly. The upper part of her neck seemed to have already healed, and by next week those bruises lower on her back would be gone also. Leaving her with only the memory of pain. Like me.

"Hermione?" I asked wanting her to turn around and she did, her eyebrows raised expecting my question. "That letter was to your real father wasn't it." She nodded slightly actually showing me the sadness in her eyes. "Is he coming for you?"

"I hope so." She shivered. I can imagine what just went through her head. What if he doesn't get out of jail, what if she is stuck with Tom Granger? What if she has to endure beatings every summer until she is forced to run away or do something drastic? Yes we all assume that every child is an innocent, that they couldn't hurt a fly. But put under such horrid situations a child can be more vicious than an adult can.

I stood up from the water and walked to her. I lifted the towel from her shivering hands and wrapped it around her, rubbing the towel gently over her shoulders.

"You can't stay numb forever," I whispered to her.

"Have you ever tried?" She said finally looking at me.

"Plenty of times." I still had my hands on her shoulders, she realized this the same time as I had and shrugged them off.

"See you in the morning...Draco." And she walked out.