Frog: Your spelling gets worse and worse by the day. Ron and Harry kissing voluntarily you say? Well... we'll have to see. Hope you enjoy this chapter!

Shadow: I know you loved Sirius. I'll try not to mention him too much, I know it must be a sensitive issue for you. I think what I meant was the Malfoy got enough sex not to have to worry too much about having extra of it, but still didn't mind getting flashed at. I can promise you he'll get laid soon enough. Malfoy coming out the shower all wet with only boxers on with those grey eyes and that fine body.... sorry what?

Chapter Three

Rape and Rubbish

Harry's eyes blurred with the effort. He sat back and threw the letter down on the common room floor. "What does it say then Harry?" Hermione asked now slightly worried. She had had to wait through the entire day's classes before she had an opportunity to ask in peace. Ron had picked it up for himself and started reading it.

"Remus. He mentions some murders." Hermione blinked and crawled along the couch closer to Harry, who was sat slumped in a corner. "He said. He said that a family of wizards was wiped out, a dark mark sent up above their house last week. The ministry is saying it was a hoax. The order are saying they refused to join Voldemort." Ron flinched. Hermione sat next to him looking up at Ron who had forgotten he held the letter in his hand.

"Anything else?" Hermione asked. Harry paused.

"No." He said taking the letter back from Ron who was staring at Harry with suspicion in his eyes. "Better not start a panic should anyone find it." He put the letter to the flame. Hermione was off in her own world again anyway. "Hermione." He said waking her up from her dozing. She blinked and managed a half smile up at him. "Dinner will be soon." He didn't have anything else to say to just collapsed back down on the sofa next to her. He felt the sofa bounce as Ron collapsed next to him.

"And I thought OWLs were hard." Ron muttered and Harry laughed. Harry sighed at the silence from Hermione not wanting to look at her, but already knowing she'd be back off thinking about whatever it was that was troubling her. And he bet whatever it was it was to do with Malfoy.

"Miss Granger?" McGonagall's voice came across the common room. All three looked up sharply and rose as one. After many years of troubles they worked together in panic situations like clockwork. McGonagall spotted them and hurried over. "Ahh, Miss Granger. You are required immediately."

"Why?" Harry and Hermione said at the same time.

"Uh, it is a delicate matter." McGonagall said blinking and looking at the floor, sadness showing in her eyes. "Come on then." She turned and walked briskly out of the Griffindor common room. Hermione shrugged at Harry and Ron before running to catch up with the professor.

--

"Yes, Granger." Draco said his eyes glinting in the firelight. Lithliya smiled.

"You'd make a front cover couple." She commented lightly turning away from him and sitting on the couch opposite. He just smiled, his face half in shadow, as was hers. "Now tell me, Draco, what was all that bullshit about protection?"

"And I thought women liked to have a man look after them." Draco replied tilting his head into the shadows.

"That's as maybe, but what makes you think that if Voldemort came to Hogswarts he'd attack the girls via rape?" She leant back also casting her face into shadow.

Draco's face lost the smirk. He leant forwards into the light. "It's not a matter to play games with. Demoralising rape is. Inspires fear. Oh so much fear. Even Muggles use it as a weapon of war. Makes you feel like their playing games with you, having a taster before they come in with their final blow. I don't want my enemy to have that power over me."

Lithliya aptly noted Draco included everyone in Slytherin as himself. "But can they not rape the men?"

Draco's eyes glinted. "I think that would be harder. And I don't think Old Voldie swings that way."

"Physical strength has nothing to do with wands, Draco." Lithliya answered looking up at him as he rose from his seat. The only sound was the firewood burning.

"But it has everything to do with the mind, Liya." Draco said looking down at her from his grand height. She closed her eyes and realised she'd proved his point by not rising herself, not challenging him. Bloody games.

She remained silent searching her mind for another one of her protests against the scheme. He spoke before she could find one. "You're also on my list, Dremae. You be careful where and what you do." She looked up sharply glaring at him. She opened her mouth to retort but as she did so the portal door opened and Snape slithered in.

He smirked at what he saw before him. Draco sneered back before collapsing into his chair facing the fire. Lithliya turned away from Draco impatiently wringing her hands to think of a protest, she had had so many earlier. "Dremae, you are to come with me." Snape said lazily looking at her. She was not what he would have wanted for a head girl. She may have been Slytherin but she was full of too much bravery for him. He was surprised when Malfoy turned round to look at him with a weary gaze then stood as if to come with them. "Only Dremae needs to come, Mr Malfoy."

Malfoy looked Snape up and down as if judging him. He then sent, what looked like an I-told-you-so sneer, to Lithliya. To Malfoy it was a warning intermixed with an I-told-you-so sneer. Lithliya ignored Malfoy and walked out the common room head held high.

She was dropped off outside the Prefects common room with the instruction to go straight in. She did and met the sound of sobbing.

In a chair by the fire sat a girl. Lithliya recognised her as being in Lithliya's own year, 5th year and Ravenclaw, though Lithliya had few lessons with her so her name did not come to mind. The girl's blonde/brown hair was rumpled and matted, her face blotched from tears and her eyes red. Her breathing was in gasps to match the sobs.

The other occupants of the room were the 7th year Hufflepuff prefect Hannah Abbot, the Ravenclaw Padma Patil and Hermione. Hermione looked up when the head girl came in. To Hermione, the cold and calculating Lithliya looked almost upset. "What's happened?" Lithliya asked, her eyes taking in the Ravenclaw student.

"McGonagall said that this girl stumbled into the infirmary an hour after lunch, bleeding. She wouldn't tell anybody what happened. When eventually she had calmed down, she agreed to tell somebody but only someone her own age and female. So they suggested us." Hermione explained nodding to Lithliya who absently nodded back examining the child.

Lithliya looked to Abbot then nodded in the direction of the girl. Abbot rose hastily and hugged the girl murmuring comforting words in her ear. Lithliya then gestured for Padma to help her lift one of the Griffindor coloured couches so it sat next to the fire. Hermione carried her own one person chair over there and they formed a circle.

"Are you able to tell us what happened now?" Hannah asked quietly. The girl nodded slowly and took a shaky breath. They all leaned in.

"I was avoiding lunch. My brother, he and his friends were teasing me. I was a little distracted," She paused for a sob, "I was thinking about my potions essay, you see? And so I got lost. It was an accident. I didn't mean to go to anywhere where no one was about. I-" She caught her breath and sniffed hard. "I was walking about trying to find an end to the corridors. But I couldn't. And then there was this thing. I could hear him moving and breathing, I thought I was imagining it, you see. I told myself not to be such a coward."

"And if there was anything to be found 'arry Potter would have found it years ago. But... then it was breathin' faster and faster, so I ran and he followed me. And this thing jumped on my back, and turned me over and it wasn't invisible anymore. It was real. I couldn't see anything of 'im, but his black coat. And he... he... held me down." Realisation came over Hermione in a second and she felt like being sick.

"He didn't! Not at Hogwarts!" Padma denied forcefully. It only made the poor girl sob harder. "You can't rape at Hogwarts can you, Hermione?" Hermione just looked into the fire, a lump in her throat and tingling sensations like cold water all over her body.

"May all the gods in high heaven damn that bastard." Lithliya didn't know who she was referring to. The bastard who did it or Malfoy for predicting it. "Did you see anything of him? At all?" She asked, climbing out of the circle so she was protected from their gazes by the shadows the couches formed.

"He had a dark mark." The girl burst out before falling sobbing into Hannah's arms. Hannah herself had tears in her eyes. "On his forearm." She choked out from Hannah's shoulder.

Hermione closed her eyes. "Hannah would you like to take..." Hermione stopped realising she didn't know the girl's name. "Tell Madame Pomfrey what happened. You don't mind do you?" The only reply was sobbing. Hermione smiled sympathetically at Hannah before moving her chair out the circle so that Hannah and her charge could get out.

"Do you mind if I tell Dumbledore. I'm gonna give him hell for not warning us. He must have known about it. Barmy old man." And Padma stormed out before the head girl or deputy head girl could do anything to stop her. They were rather glad she did. Neither wanted to tell Dumbledore what had transpired.

"Bloody bastards. The lot of them." Lithliya commented thinking of only two bastards. Hermione nodded. "I suppose we should get back." She glanced at the clock. It was ten o'clock. They had missed dinner. "Or do you want to head to the kitchens for food." Hermione's mind was in a turmoil.

"I don't know. I'm not hungry." Hermione answered vaguely ringing her hands through her already messy hair.

"Nor am I –"

"But we don't want to be alone." Hermione finished smiling worriedly at the head girl who turned to her and nodded.

"I do want to get out of here though. Bad. The whole place just feels... bad." Hermione nodded trying to swallow the bile that rose every time she thought of the girl, or the man. Lithliya was the first to clamber out into the corridor. It was so cold they could see their breath. They both glanced at each other and grimaced. They were both only wearing their white shirts and short skirts. However on some occasion it was advantage to be moderately attractive wearing skimpy schoolgirl outfit now was certainly not one of them. For one there was a rapist wondering about the school. For two it was bloody cold.

"Die!"

The shout came from behind them. Hermione jumped out her skin, whilst Lithliya turned round, one arm protections her solar plexus, the other in front ready to jab. Neither had a wand with them. Hermione's body literally sunk when she realised it was only the prefect portrait door knights charging at one another again.

Lithliya was examining them as if for the first time. She cocked an eyebrow when the both threw away their weapons and dived on each other, hands disappearing. She mouthed the word 'Gay' with a questioning expression and giggled when a nod was returned.

They mutually decided to leave the knights alone and hurried down the corridor giggling. When they reached the end of it they stopped not knowing which way to turn. "Hermione!" Harry's voice echoed from the corridor. They both jumped and looked up to the head boy who was jogging down the corridor. "Where on earth have you been?"

Hermione froze. What could she tell him? He had to know. But she did not want to tell him out in the middle of the corridor at night. She was scared already, thinking about it more would just inspire paranoia, she was cold and did not want to go to bed. A sudden instinct of a cat caught in a trap came up on her. She wanted to run.

Hermione glanced over at Lithliya who was glancing hungrily down the empty corridor. When Lithliya turned back to Hermione they shared a look of understanding. Men. No. Bad. Runaway. Midnight madness gripped them, as they both turned tail and ran.

It was exhilarating to be free. Running was freedom. Running you never had to stop. With running there was no problems, no worries, no insecurities. They both ran silently with bare feet through the corridors, ignoring the sounds of their names being shouted from behind by a rather pissed off head boy.

"Ha, got you." Harry was grabbed by an unseen force and hurled round, smashing into a wall, his back pressed firmly to the stone wall behind. He bent forward into the pale moonlight that cast blue beams through a grand window above. Two identical close as could be to screams when the screamers had deep voices screams echoed through the corridor. "Potter?"

"Malfoy?" Harry said at the same time. Malfoy backed away into the centre of the hallway. Harry came down from by the wall, but kept an ample distance away, not wanting anymore rumours about his sexuality.

"Who were you chasing?" Malfoy asked after shaking off bad thoughts about molesting Potter. He was looking down the corridor which split into two a couple of metres down from where they were standing.

"Hermione and Lithliya." Harry answered looking also down the corridor. Malfoy looked up sharply.

"What did you do?" He asked coming forwards towards Harry, venom in his voice.

"I saw them at the corridor." Harry answered glaring into the black shadow of Malfoy's face. "I asked Hermione where she had been. And they just ran." Confusion flickered across Malfoy's face. He didn't think Harry was lying, perhaps not telling the whole truth but not lying.

"Women" He muttered cursing. "You take that corridor, I'll take this." He dived off down the left hand corridor. Harry had no time to argue.

Harry jogged down the corridor, still slightly breathless from his jogging and then sprinting. He padded as slowly as he could, wondering if the corridor ever ended. He came round a corner to see a girl crouched up against a suit of armour breathing heavily. She looked up as she saw the movement, he saw for the moment a gleam in her eye, before she bolted.

He sighed and began running as fast as he could after her. She wouldn't keep it up for long, he consoled himself. And he'd be fitter for it. Bloody hell she was fast, he rounded another corner and saw a grand flight of stairs leading upwards. He recognised it vaguely. He jumped up two stairs at a time wondering if the girl, whichever it was, was mad. And if the other one was alone with Malfoy at this moment.

A cry of terror arose from the head of the stairs. Harry did not know he could go any faster than he was. But it appeared he could. He bounded up to the next flight where he saw the silhouette of a girl flying down the stairs towards him. He registered shock before trying to stop her. He could see nothing to cause her such an alarm. He caught her, noticing vaguely it was Lithliya he had captured, some part of his brain wondering if Hermione would survive another confrontation with Malfoy.

"Don't stop, don't stop you idiot. Run, run, run." She was beating against him with her entire body and he didn't feel quite stable on the steps.

"What the hell is wrong? There's nothing here." He said in a calm slow voice. This just seemed to infuriate her further. For she had heard him. His voice against her ear, his breath against her cheek. The thing that had raped the Ravenclaw. But he was invisible. And she hadn't realised that she'd run right to him. The Death Eater.

"Let me go! Please, for Merlin's sake, let me go!" She wrenched herself away, but in her unbalance she tripped and fell headfirst onto the stairs. She rolled a few steps down before she put out a hand to stop herself. She was shaking and when she looked up there was a neat red line across her forehead from the impact.

Harry was annoyed at her for fighting with him and even more annoyed at himself for letting her go. He stomped down the stairs told her to "Stop being so bloody ridiculous" Picked her up in his arms and started off down the stairs.

"Agh, Potter let me down, I'm fine."

"What so you can run off again?" He asked her, wondering if Hermione would become head girl as this one was certifiably insane. That was if Hermione escaped unscathed from her run in with Malfoy. If Malfoy caught her that was.

"No. Yes. I just wanted to be on my own. Agh, I can't explain it to you." Perhaps there was some logic behind this exercise.

"Try me." Harry said popping her down in the middle of the corridor. She glared up at him, trying to pull down her skirt which had ripped at a most convenient point.

"Not out here." She said with as much impact as possible. Harry looked about desperately before picking her up and chucking her into an empty classroom. Well chucking was what he wanted to do to her what he really did was pull her up, toss her over his shoulder, walk into an open door, and place her on her feet, standing in front of the door arms crossed.

Lithliya rolled her eyes at him before kicking the door shut, and scanning the dust on the floor by the door. There were two sets of footprints none else. Evidently this room wasn't used much. "He's not in here." She said to herself, noticing Harry's exasperation at this comment. "I suppose by telling you this, I'm doing Hermione a favour. I know she wouldn't want to tell you herself." Just like I'm absolutely dreading telling Draco.

"There was a rape done at lunchtime today. The girl involved was a fifth year, my year, Ravenclaw. The rapist was using some sort of spell that made him invisible." She pointedly stared at him. "He became visible to do the deed," She repressed a shudder, "and he had a dark mark on his arm." She looked up at him examining his face. He was looking to the door now, and then back at her, his eyes intense. Lithliya cocked her head sideways and smiled... before realising this was not the time nor the person. Malfoy may well be liberal with other houses for the moment but hatred burns for years.

"You thought you saw him?" Harry asked then shook his head, "thought you heard him?" He examined her perplexed by the smile that had flashed across her face temporarily. He thought she was going to say 'April Fools' for a moment but the smile vanished a second later.

"Yes. His voice in my ear."

"What did he say?" She grimaced and turned away. Harry sighed heavily. Malfoy was right about something. "Women..." he muttered under his breath. Somehow she heard it and scowled at him.

"He maybe a rouge Death Eater, working alone. Or he maybe a spy." Lithliya commented from where she was perched on the edge of the table leaning with her hands on her knees.

"Interested in the reforms in Slytherin?" Harry suggested coldly. He was looking deep into her eyes and trying to keep his mind off the fact that she was leaning forward too much and that she had a rip in her skirt exposing black underwear... He looked away. She was younger than Ginny! And a Slytherin.

"Things in Slytherin have changed. For the better maybe. They've stopped caring about blood. Muggle born, pure blood doesn't matter anymore. Did you notice there was a half blood sorted into Slytherin for the first time ever this year? Since Voldemort." She corrected herself. Harry hadn't but the news intrigued him. In truth he'd be too concerned with Voldemort to worry about Slytherin... until this morning. "Malfoy's got a new aim. Probably something to do with what happened at Malfoy manor this past summer. I think our Draco from last year died this summer. We've got a new one now. Stronger, more determined, with his own ideas."

Harry looked at her sharply, studying her face, with only the occasional glance downwards. "What happened?" He asked. The head girl merely looked at her feet. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "So Malfoy's reformed. Brilliant." He spat onto the floor. "And his father's sent a minion to spy on him."

"Malfoy has reformed. Perhaps not for the better." She was barely coherent. Lithliya gazed up at the ceiling. She was tired and her head was throbbing. She was bruised as well. But she didn't want to sleep. She was still too scared. She stifled a yawn.

Harry noticed her yawn. "I think we'd better be heading back." He glanced at his watch, it read quarter past eleven. She nodded from where she sat and jumped down, not noticing the back of her skirt catching on the table. He, himself, stifled a groan at this and walked towards the door. "Take my arm." He instructed as he reached the door peering out. When he felt no contact he looked back to see her leaning against the table slightly dreamily. And this is the girl who is the terror of Slytherin?

He held the door open with one foot whilst he looped his arm around her waist, pulling her arm around his shoulders. She grimaced and protested by pulling her arm back and stalking out the room. He rolled his eyes and followed her out, letting the door slam behind them. Not a sound from the corridors. At least Mrs Norris would come at that sound? But apparently the Death Eater was keeping Mrs Norris well clear.

He followed her in the direction of the dungeons, keeping her only a few steps in front of him, glancing round for the slightest movement. When they reached the suit of armour Harry stopped and nodded to her. She smiled lightly back at him, trying to convey the word 'thanks' with a look. He raised his eyebrows with a smile and she glowered. This just made him smile more. She advanced on him and he stopped smiling. But then she was smiling. Hmmm a pretty pickle... Harry thought... Only one way to solve it. And he kissed her.

On the cheek. Now she was in shock and he was smiling. A nice way to leave it, he thought as he idly turned away and swaggered down the dungeon corridor. He heard the door in the stone wall slide close as he reached the end of the corridor....

--

Dum de dum dum!!!! Rebiew! Rebiew! Mwhahahahaa! Otherwise Nearly Headless Nick will be after you with some Vomit flavoured Bertie's Beans!

Join us next time to find out if; Malfoy has killed Hermione, Harry regrets that kiss (no not the one with Ron), someone else gets raped, someone in this chapter gets raped, Lithliya thinks of another argument?