Author's Notes: Yes I know I disappeared off the face of the planet. But I haven't forgotten this story. It's always been deep here with me. The only thing is I went away to a new University and it ATE MY SOUL! I just never...I dunno...ANYWAY...I have a week and half left before I head home and I wanted to start this up again. Don't ditch it because I still have A LOT of story left in me. Thanks to all that have written and reviewed throughout this Work In Progress...KEEP IT UP!! It's been a while for me and I KNOW it has for you as well...so enjoy
"Harry! Just the man I was looking for!" Hermione yelled as she raced up to her oldest and dearest friend. He was standing just outside the door to the Head's common room, hand poised to knock.
"Hermione!" He gasped turning around, he couldn't help but smile and her flushed face as she jogged up to him. "I was just coming to see how you were. I had to wait until Ron went off to play Neville in Wizard's Chess, didn't want it to seem like I was taking sides." He watched her brow furor at this. Raising his hands up in defense he continued, "But just so you know, I'm on your side." He said with a lopsided grin.
"Well," Hermione began not knowing exactly what to say. Harry was often caught in the middle of the latest Hermione/Ron row. And it wasn't often that he came to see how she was doing. That was twice in one day and she couldn't help but wonder exactly what was up with her friend. But unfortunately she didn't have time for that. Draco was waiting for her and right now she needed Harry's help. "Thanks for that Harry." She said tilting her head to the side in appreciation. "I hate to do this to you, but could I be a bother?"
"You always are." He responded cheekily, his face blushing slightly at his joke. Seeing his face she let out a soft chuckle that just deepened the colour of his face.
"Do you think it would be possible for me to borrow your invisibility cloak and the Marauder's Map?" She stumbled out quickly, she hoped he didn't question her much over this. But by the look on his face and by how well she knew Harry, Hermione knew that this would be a long-winded conversation. But unfortunately she had to meet Draco in less than ten minutes. He had reluctantly agreed to accompany her to Hogsmeade in what Hermione called a "recon" mission. She would return to the scene of the crime in hopes of finding something to help her catch whoever had done this to her. After much prodding and pleading the Slytherin had agreed, probably in hopes to see Hermione fall into the depths of despair. But at this point she didn't care. She couldn't go alone, she needed someone there for support even if they wouldn't hold her hand in. And right now the only person that could do that for her was Draco Malfoy.
"Why Hermione?" Harry asked raising an eyebrow. Hermione had never deliberately sought out to break rules and right now she was asking for the two instruments that would help her to break nearly half a dozen Hogwarts rules. She was Head Girl, she didn't need to sneak around.
"It's just that I missed class earlier Harry, and I want to head to the library and try to catch myself up." She lied with ease. The thought alone disgusted her, that she was beginning to become so good at lying to her best friends. She watched as his face slowly began to fall, but before he could begin to sulk she jumped in, knowing exactly why he reverted back to his normally brooding mode. "Your notes were fabulous Harry, and I thank you greatly for them. But, you know me. I have to still double and triple check everything myself. So, I have a feeling I will be in the Library until very late. I still don't feel well enough to argue with Madame Pince to allow me to stay there all night, so it's just easier to sneak in now and allow myself all the time in the world. Understand?" She asked hoping her continuing pile of lies would sate his questioning appetite.
"Would you like me to go with you?" Harry asked hopefully having bought her story completely. This was Hermione, she would never lie to him.
"No, Harry." She said a little too quickly, but immediately rectified it. "I don't want to get you into too much trouble, you have enough on your own to worry about other than me. Besides, I think we're getting a little too big to fit both of us under your cloak."
Ducking his head Harry tried not to show how red his face was getting at the thought of he and Hermione stuck underneath the cloak. Taking a deep breath he stepped away from Hermione and off into the direction of Gryffindor Tower. "It's no problem Hermione, I'll be right back with it."
"An invisibility cloak. That's how he's been doing it all these years." Draco scoffed disbelievingly as he and Hermione huddled under the cloak, wand and map in her hands, through the tunnels to Hogsmeade.
"Would you shut up?" Hermione hissed. Granted they were in the series of tunnels between the school and local wizarding village, tunnels which no one knew of, but Hermione Granger didn't want to risk it. Not when she was already risking so much.
After Harry had dropped off the cloak and map, Hermione immediately picked them up and ran off to meet Draco, using the Marauder's map the whole while so not to get caught. Besides, they were Head Boy and Girl, so most people would not question what they were doing out. "Rounds", is what they would respond. But Hermione Granger didn't want to take any chances. She was already chancing it but revealing some of Harry's deepest secrets to his enemy by allowing him to use the invisibility cloak. "I can deduct SO many points for this." Draco mumbled under his breath, only to receive a swift elbow to his ribs from the petite girl in front of him.
He could tell that she was uncomfortable by his closeness. She nearly cringed every time their bodies came into contact. But there wasn't much he could do considering the lack of space beneath the shimmering cloak. The thought alone of being so close to the Mudblood disgusted him, but he couldn't help but breathe in the intoxicating scent of her hair. It smelled of mint. All of her did. But his rage over the fact that Harry Potter had once again outsmarted him intoxicated him more strongly.
"Shhh." She said as she came to an abrupt stop. Pushing her hand in front of her she opened a door, which led into what Draco immediately recognized by the barrels of merchandise, as Honeydukes. "We're here."
"Bloody hell." He gulped as they swiftly made their way through the shop hopping and praying to whatever higher power that there were no security charms in effect and that they would get out safely without being caught, as it was hours after closing. Seeing the door ahead of them, the headed out with the flick of Hermione's wand and a simple "Alohamora."
Turning off of the main street the headed towards the park where only the night before Draco had found the bleeding form of one Hermione Granger, Gryffindor's very own lioness. As they approached the open gated entrance to the park, Draco could feel the cloak slip from off of his form, and down into Hermione's left hand, her right still clutching that dumb old map and her wand.
Breaking the deafening silence Draco asked, "Where did he get that map anyway? What's its purpose?" In the dark he never did get a good look at the details of the Maurauder's map, as he never saw the moving names on the map as various people walked the halls of Hogwarts. Thankful for that, Hermione stuffed the map into the pocket of her corduroys as well as ducking down to place her wand within her boot.
"Just to find our way through the tunnel." She said looking over her shoulder. Not to look at the young man behind her, but to make sure they were alone. Although it had only been a day, she couldn't help but look over her shoulder at all times.
"And just how did you know about that tunnel?" He asked her, but knew he would not get an answer as she walked away, her eyes settling on the same bench she had sat on the night previous. Slinking back further, Draco could only help but observe.
She walked over to the bench across from the fountain as Draco sat on the edge of the fountain itself. The moonlight poured over her alabaster skin as if it were the shimmering cloak wrapping itself around her small frame. But it's not her cloak, the cloak that had once covered them both lay in the cold wet snow. Does she realize that she has lost it? Or is this moonlight cloak providing her the warmth she doesn't realize she needs.
Her hands reach up, crossing her chest to lie on her shoulders, rubbing them mechanically. Perhaps she does realize. She rubs her shoulders as if they were bare, as if there wasn't a brown jumper covering them. Her honey coloured eyes gazed off into the park: through Draco, through the fountain, through the trees. What does she remember? A she sits there on the bench one cannot help but see how she has become a shell of her former self. She was no longer the bright, brilliant girl she used to be. She was as dead as the leaves that lay crushed within the snow.
She pulls her right hand off of her shoulder as it snakes down her body. Down past the brown jumper. Down past the corduroy pants. She gripes her ankle, she can feel the broken strap of the red shoe that once rested on her slender ankle. It's not broken now, a pair of boots cover her feet. Does she realize? She pulls her right hand away once more and places it in her lap, as her left hand frees itself from the grip on her shoulder and folds into her lap as well.
Draco watched as her left hand encircles her right's wrist as she rubs her thumb over it repeatedly. Something there is missing, just like the spark from her eyes. A bracelet. Her grandmother's. Gold with a small clasp, broken on that night. Lost. Like her innocence. Watching her eyes cloud over, Draco watches as she remembers and lives that night over and over again as she sits on that bench. It seems as though she has forgotten that he was ever there at all. That night or now. It's as if she doesn't realize that he saved her that night and he would save her once more tonight.
Draco's gray eyes soften as they look upon her, a ghost of her former self. She has become a specter and in that moment there was nothing anyone could do to change it.
He watches as she gets up slowly, her frame shivering slightly as she does so, and turns around, still never paying him any heed. Pushing the mass of her bushy, chocolate coloured curls out of her face, she walks past the bench into the bushes behind, no sound but the soft crunch of snow under her boots. She is gone, but emotionally and physically and in the moment as Draco sat there, he had to wonder if she was ever truly there at all or if this whole ordeal had been one long nightmare.
Shaking his head, Draco once more regained his senses, watching as the bushes ahead of him shook from the movement of her body, just as they had the night previous. Walking up to the bushes, he pushed some of the branches aside and found her on her hands and knees once more. His mind couldn't help but flash back to her reddened flesh as she crawled through the snow.
"There's nothing here!" Hermione nearly screeched, but maintaining her tone only out of fear. "No marks, no impressions, nothing. Almost as if it didn't happen." Pausing she looked up at the older wizard and couldn't help but wonder if it did.
"Maybe whoever backtracked to cover up what happened, in case you decided to bring back someone to help you." He said thoughtfully, trying not to dampen her spirits at the fact that they might be able to catch the son of a bitch. But the truth is they wouldn't. She hadn't done what they should have. She hadn't gone to Dumbledore or Madame Pomfrey. She had covered up what had happened just as her rapist had. There was no evidence at all, only her memories and those of her most hated enemy.
Draco knew that it had occurred, for the site of her crawling from the bushes would never leave his mind, but right now he knew he had to get her out of there, just as he had last night. There was nothing they could do now. Someone had raped her deliberately. It wasn't just some random act. They sought her out and made sure that no one would believe her. And Draco couldn't help but feel the dread building inside of him that perhaps it was someone they knew, or even worse, someone that his father knew.
"The bracelet. Do you see it anywhere?" She asked as she began to crawl around again, just as she had the night before. Pulling her wand from her boot she cried "Lumos", shining the light it emitted around the area. As the light traced shadows across the snow, Draco knew that it was gone, for had it been there the gold would have shined out against the white of the snow.
"He probably took it Hermione. Just like he cleared everything else." Draco explained to her as though she were a child. Once more he saw that broken look appear on her face. Reaching his hand out to her, Draco hefted her out of the snow once more and back to the bench to retrieve the invisibility cloak. They would go back to Hogwarts for there was nothing more they could do tonight. What started out as a mission for retribution turned into one of defeat as the two of them slipped underneath the cloak and walked back to Honeydukes.
Gazing down as the man fingered the small golden chain between his fingers he couldn't help but smile. Placing the jewelry back into the pocket of his pants, he whispered "Perfect."