Chapter 20
Hermione stood outside, along with the majority of Hogwarts school, and she waved to the carriages that were rolling away down the dusty road. Hermione hadn't been told where they were going, and she didn't want to know, because she would be reminded of what she was missing, and it didn't make any sense that she was missing it in the first place, all because she was a Hogwarts prefect.
She waved at Harry and Ron along with the majority of the fifth years as she watched her peers rumbling down the road, happy smiles on their faces, all going to the train station to meet the people that were taking them to wherever they were going. She still thought it was unfair that she wasn`t going, and she suspected that it had something to do with Dumbledore's preferences, but she couldn't be sure.
She didn't even know where they were going, but she knew that she wanted to go, she didn't want to be stuck here in Hogwarts, doing the same old thing day after day week after week. She wanted something interesting and exciting to happen, and she wanted it to happen soon.
As the carriages rolled out of sight, Hermione stood to the side and observed who was left in her year, because they were going to be her classmates for the time being, even if she hated them, as she did Draco Malfoy.
She wished that she had been allowed to go, or that he had been allowed to go, she didn't want to be in the same place as him, and she was sure that she was going to have the worst time of her life and it wasn't even her choice.
She saw Draco Malfoy, Pansy Parkinson, and some other girl in Slytherin for the Slytherins, all of the Hufflepuffs, her "wonderful friends" from Ravenclaw that had left the Advanced Transfiguration classes and dormitory and as far as she could see, she was the only student from Gryffindor that was left at the castle.
"All students, please make your way into the castle, the remainder of the day will be free from classes and schedules, please feel free to roam the Hogwarts grounds, first five floors or go to the Quiddich pitch to play a scrimmage which will be refereed by Madam Hooch." A clear voice rang out over the students, and she didn't know whose voice it was, nor did she particularly care.
Hermione decided that she was going to go do some research on the time reversal spells and things, but she made a silent promise to herself that she was, on no accounts and for no reason in the world, going into the room that she had found. She had decided that she wasn't going to go in there ever. All she knew about it was that it appeared to be possessed and knives flew, and that was a good enough reason for her to not go inside of the room.
Hermione took a detour down to the Advanced Transfiguration dormitory to grab her things and then the began the long walk to the library, wondering whether she would make it there anytime soon.
~+~
"Hey, Mudblood why-" Malfoy began, but he never got any words out past 'why' seeing as Hermione completely lost control of all of her temper that she had been holding in for a while.
"LET ME DO YOU A FAVOR AND TELL YOU TO SHUT UP ALREADY, ALRIGHT? JUST. SHUT. UP. S-H-U-T U-P, ALRIGHT NOW? SHUT YOUR BIG PIE HOLE AND SHUT THE HELL UP, ALRIGHT MORON? SHUT UP! SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!" Hermione then walked away, completely composed and was in the library in no time at all.
~+~
Hermione sat down at the table and pulled a rather large pile of books toward her. She flipped open the first book and skimmed it mindlessly while she was thinking of other things.
Why couldn't Dumbledore have let her go on the exchange program. If what he said about her and Malfoy was true, then he should be powerful enough alone to go and find the information himself, why did she need to be there too? He would have jumped at the chance of working alone, why didn't Dumbledore agree?
Hermione still hadn't been TOLD that it was him that had decided that she and Malfoy were to stay behind, but she was almost certain that it was him because there seemed to be no other reason that made sense in her mind or from any point of view that she "tried".
She was indignant because her privileges seemed to have been stripped from her, one after the other, she was losing everything that made Hogwarts worth coming for - friends, trips, regular classes.
On top of it all, Malfoy seemed to think that this was an invitation to be a complete ass, so he was worse than normal, and she had sent him to the hospital wing five times in the last three hours.
Sighing, Hermione turned back to her work.
~+~
Seven hours after she had begun studying, Hermione found that she couldn't think anymore, her mind was jammed with useless information and she felt like she was going to explode.
She slammed her boook shut and stared in front of her. The answer she needed had to be right in front of her, it just HAD to.
How could you go back in time if it was past, done, over? There wasn't a way to reverse time, because there was no record of it, it made absolutely no sense, and how could people CHANGE the future, but if they went back again, it was normal again?
Hermione whacked her head on the table a good few times trying to clear her mind but it didn't work.
She had gone back in time herself, but she still was no closer to understanding it than anyone else was, and that disturbed her. It was like saying you had eaten a Popsicle but you didn't know what it tasted like.
Hermione sighed. She NEEDED to understand this, it was something that was dragging the corner of her stomach, tying her mind in knots, twisting her thoughts. (no rhyme intended)
Hermione whacked her head on the table one more time before she got up and stormed down the corridor.
~+~
Hermione threw her bag forward and walked over to the couch where she collapsed onto it, but immediately jumped up, yelping.
She whipped around and saw that she had allowed herself to collapse on none other than Draco Malfoy.
"Why did you sit on me, Granger?" he asked her, spite on his every feature and a smirk all over his face.
"Because you're so ugly I thought you were a cushion." Hermione said sarcastically and she rolled her eyes. She kicked angrily at the couch and didn't give him the satisfaction of knowing how much it hurt when she did, that would only broaden his smirk and she didn't need that now or ever.
"You couldn't see me?"
"Is it my fault that you MATCH the STINKIN' COUCH, Moron?" Hermione asked indignantly and she scowled back at him.
"Why do you always call me moron?" he asked her, and to anyone else this would have seemed like an innocent question, but she had had much experience in this particular field of Malfoy.
"Because it starts with an "m"."
Malfoy rolled his eyes and glared at her.
"I'm not sorry that your father died. He probably deserved it, didn't he? What did he do, trip over his shoelace?" He asked her, his smirk could have never been bigger and she felt angry and she could feel herself trembling with anger.
As she examined her feelings she realized that she wasn't trembling with anger, she was shivering. Shivering, but she didn't know why.
She turned away from him, feeling tears stinging in her eyes, her arms hugged to her chest tightly, her entire body shivering and her breathing becoming erratic and shaky. She couldn't stand here, she couldn't take this from him.
She didn't even throw an insult at him, she just began to run toward the dormitory where she planned to lock the door and stay away from people. She couldn't be around anyone anymore.
She had just begun healing, she had just become used to knowing that her father wasn't coming back, but then he had reopened her wounds, cut her along her scars, ripped her soul a little more.
She seemed to be watching her soul unravel while she lived, her feelings, emotions and thoughts slowly becoming nothingness, flowing away from her, leaving her grasp.
How could he watch her have this pain? How could he stand to know that he caused her this hurt? She didn't understand how he didn't see how he ruined people's lives and shred their beliefs, slit their understanding of everything and opened wounds.
Pure hatred coursed through her and she whipped around. Her wand was in her hand and she had no memory of reaching for it or feeling her fingers grasp around it. All she knew was that she wanted to cause him pain.
Give him pain. Cause him pain that he would never forget. She was going to show him that he was never again going to mess with Hermione Granger.
Hermione strode over to him, her wand pointed at his chest. She had to cause him excruciating pain, pain beyond his wildest dreams. Pain that could rival the pain that was erupting in her heart.
"You like causing pain?" she asked in a deathly cold whisper that was accompanied by a steely glare. "You like watching people in pain? Well I can give you some."
Malfoy, for the first time in his life, showed genuine fear on every feature in his face. She could see the pained expression on his face, he was obviously trying to decide what to do. Should he retaliate or let her beat him. His face also showed that he was registering what she had just said. How much pain was she going to cause him?
Hermione's wand was mere inches from Malfoy's chest and she was trembling with complete and utter anger.
"Crucio." She whispered, and she watched, in what she thought was glee, as he crumpled immediately to the ground in pain, howling and rolling. Seconds later, though, he seemed to be out of pain, and he stood up, shakily, and stared at her, disbelief written across his face plainer than any other emotion.
Hermione dropped her wand and the scene seemed to play out in front of her eyes over and over and over again.
She had used an unforgivable curse. . .
On Malfoy. . .
The Crutacious Curse. . .
The only curses worse were the Imperious Curse and the Killing Curse. . .
Hermione dropped her wand and ran in a dead run out the door, down the stairs, through the hall, down the entrance stairs, through the entrance doors.
She didn't know anything. All she knew at the moment was that she needed to be as far away from people as she could. She needed to run. Away. Far away.
Something told her that as long as she ran she wouldn't be in trouble. She couldn't get caught. Never.
~+~
Hermione thought that she had been running for hours, all though it may have only been minutes, it may as well have been years, she didn't know where she was. She was somewhere.
Seconds later her mind told her that she was in the Forbidden Forest.
Sounds filled the clearing, and she whipped around, watching the trees expectantly. Something was coming.
~+~
A/N: Sorry this is a short chapter, I have to go camping and I had 1 hr to write. I will update ASAP, RIGHT when I get back.
R/R!!!
Hermione stood outside, along with the majority of Hogwarts school, and she waved to the carriages that were rolling away down the dusty road. Hermione hadn't been told where they were going, and she didn't want to know, because she would be reminded of what she was missing, and it didn't make any sense that she was missing it in the first place, all because she was a Hogwarts prefect.
She waved at Harry and Ron along with the majority of the fifth years as she watched her peers rumbling down the road, happy smiles on their faces, all going to the train station to meet the people that were taking them to wherever they were going. She still thought it was unfair that she wasn`t going, and she suspected that it had something to do with Dumbledore's preferences, but she couldn't be sure.
She didn't even know where they were going, but she knew that she wanted to go, she didn't want to be stuck here in Hogwarts, doing the same old thing day after day week after week. She wanted something interesting and exciting to happen, and she wanted it to happen soon.
As the carriages rolled out of sight, Hermione stood to the side and observed who was left in her year, because they were going to be her classmates for the time being, even if she hated them, as she did Draco Malfoy.
She wished that she had been allowed to go, or that he had been allowed to go, she didn't want to be in the same place as him, and she was sure that she was going to have the worst time of her life and it wasn't even her choice.
She saw Draco Malfoy, Pansy Parkinson, and some other girl in Slytherin for the Slytherins, all of the Hufflepuffs, her "wonderful friends" from Ravenclaw that had left the Advanced Transfiguration classes and dormitory and as far as she could see, she was the only student from Gryffindor that was left at the castle.
"All students, please make your way into the castle, the remainder of the day will be free from classes and schedules, please feel free to roam the Hogwarts grounds, first five floors or go to the Quiddich pitch to play a scrimmage which will be refereed by Madam Hooch." A clear voice rang out over the students, and she didn't know whose voice it was, nor did she particularly care.
Hermione decided that she was going to go do some research on the time reversal spells and things, but she made a silent promise to herself that she was, on no accounts and for no reason in the world, going into the room that she had found. She had decided that she wasn't going to go in there ever. All she knew about it was that it appeared to be possessed and knives flew, and that was a good enough reason for her to not go inside of the room.
Hermione took a detour down to the Advanced Transfiguration dormitory to grab her things and then the began the long walk to the library, wondering whether she would make it there anytime soon.
~+~
"Hey, Mudblood why-" Malfoy began, but he never got any words out past 'why' seeing as Hermione completely lost control of all of her temper that she had been holding in for a while.
"LET ME DO YOU A FAVOR AND TELL YOU TO SHUT UP ALREADY, ALRIGHT? JUST. SHUT. UP. S-H-U-T U-P, ALRIGHT NOW? SHUT YOUR BIG PIE HOLE AND SHUT THE HELL UP, ALRIGHT MORON? SHUT UP! SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!" Hermione then walked away, completely composed and was in the library in no time at all.
~+~
Hermione sat down at the table and pulled a rather large pile of books toward her. She flipped open the first book and skimmed it mindlessly while she was thinking of other things.
Why couldn't Dumbledore have let her go on the exchange program. If what he said about her and Malfoy was true, then he should be powerful enough alone to go and find the information himself, why did she need to be there too? He would have jumped at the chance of working alone, why didn't Dumbledore agree?
Hermione still hadn't been TOLD that it was him that had decided that she and Malfoy were to stay behind, but she was almost certain that it was him because there seemed to be no other reason that made sense in her mind or from any point of view that she "tried".
She was indignant because her privileges seemed to have been stripped from her, one after the other, she was losing everything that made Hogwarts worth coming for - friends, trips, regular classes.
On top of it all, Malfoy seemed to think that this was an invitation to be a complete ass, so he was worse than normal, and she had sent him to the hospital wing five times in the last three hours.
Sighing, Hermione turned back to her work.
~+~
Seven hours after she had begun studying, Hermione found that she couldn't think anymore, her mind was jammed with useless information and she felt like she was going to explode.
She slammed her boook shut and stared in front of her. The answer she needed had to be right in front of her, it just HAD to.
How could you go back in time if it was past, done, over? There wasn't a way to reverse time, because there was no record of it, it made absolutely no sense, and how could people CHANGE the future, but if they went back again, it was normal again?
Hermione whacked her head on the table a good few times trying to clear her mind but it didn't work.
She had gone back in time herself, but she still was no closer to understanding it than anyone else was, and that disturbed her. It was like saying you had eaten a Popsicle but you didn't know what it tasted like.
Hermione sighed. She NEEDED to understand this, it was something that was dragging the corner of her stomach, tying her mind in knots, twisting her thoughts. (no rhyme intended)
Hermione whacked her head on the table one more time before she got up and stormed down the corridor.
~+~
Hermione threw her bag forward and walked over to the couch where she collapsed onto it, but immediately jumped up, yelping.
She whipped around and saw that she had allowed herself to collapse on none other than Draco Malfoy.
"Why did you sit on me, Granger?" he asked her, spite on his every feature and a smirk all over his face.
"Because you're so ugly I thought you were a cushion." Hermione said sarcastically and she rolled her eyes. She kicked angrily at the couch and didn't give him the satisfaction of knowing how much it hurt when she did, that would only broaden his smirk and she didn't need that now or ever.
"You couldn't see me?"
"Is it my fault that you MATCH the STINKIN' COUCH, Moron?" Hermione asked indignantly and she scowled back at him.
"Why do you always call me moron?" he asked her, and to anyone else this would have seemed like an innocent question, but she had had much experience in this particular field of Malfoy.
"Because it starts with an "m"."
Malfoy rolled his eyes and glared at her.
"I'm not sorry that your father died. He probably deserved it, didn't he? What did he do, trip over his shoelace?" He asked her, his smirk could have never been bigger and she felt angry and she could feel herself trembling with anger.
As she examined her feelings she realized that she wasn't trembling with anger, she was shivering. Shivering, but she didn't know why.
She turned away from him, feeling tears stinging in her eyes, her arms hugged to her chest tightly, her entire body shivering and her breathing becoming erratic and shaky. She couldn't stand here, she couldn't take this from him.
She didn't even throw an insult at him, she just began to run toward the dormitory where she planned to lock the door and stay away from people. She couldn't be around anyone anymore.
She had just begun healing, she had just become used to knowing that her father wasn't coming back, but then he had reopened her wounds, cut her along her scars, ripped her soul a little more.
She seemed to be watching her soul unravel while she lived, her feelings, emotions and thoughts slowly becoming nothingness, flowing away from her, leaving her grasp.
How could he watch her have this pain? How could he stand to know that he caused her this hurt? She didn't understand how he didn't see how he ruined people's lives and shred their beliefs, slit their understanding of everything and opened wounds.
Pure hatred coursed through her and she whipped around. Her wand was in her hand and she had no memory of reaching for it or feeling her fingers grasp around it. All she knew was that she wanted to cause him pain.
Give him pain. Cause him pain that he would never forget. She was going to show him that he was never again going to mess with Hermione Granger.
Hermione strode over to him, her wand pointed at his chest. She had to cause him excruciating pain, pain beyond his wildest dreams. Pain that could rival the pain that was erupting in her heart.
"You like causing pain?" she asked in a deathly cold whisper that was accompanied by a steely glare. "You like watching people in pain? Well I can give you some."
Malfoy, for the first time in his life, showed genuine fear on every feature in his face. She could see the pained expression on his face, he was obviously trying to decide what to do. Should he retaliate or let her beat him. His face also showed that he was registering what she had just said. How much pain was she going to cause him?
Hermione's wand was mere inches from Malfoy's chest and she was trembling with complete and utter anger.
"Crucio." She whispered, and she watched, in what she thought was glee, as he crumpled immediately to the ground in pain, howling and rolling. Seconds later, though, he seemed to be out of pain, and he stood up, shakily, and stared at her, disbelief written across his face plainer than any other emotion.
Hermione dropped her wand and the scene seemed to play out in front of her eyes over and over and over again.
She had used an unforgivable curse. . .
On Malfoy. . .
The Crutacious Curse. . .
The only curses worse were the Imperious Curse and the Killing Curse. . .
Hermione dropped her wand and ran in a dead run out the door, down the stairs, through the hall, down the entrance stairs, through the entrance doors.
She didn't know anything. All she knew at the moment was that she needed to be as far away from people as she could. She needed to run. Away. Far away.
Something told her that as long as she ran she wouldn't be in trouble. She couldn't get caught. Never.
~+~
Hermione thought that she had been running for hours, all though it may have only been minutes, it may as well have been years, she didn't know where she was. She was somewhere.
Seconds later her mind told her that she was in the Forbidden Forest.
Sounds filled the clearing, and she whipped around, watching the trees expectantly. Something was coming.
~+~
A/N: Sorry this is a short chapter, I have to go camping and I had 1 hr to write. I will update ASAP, RIGHT when I get back.
R/R!!!