Thursday 11:17 pm
Hermione sat up in her bed in the girls dormitory. It was her first night out of the hospital wing. She pushed open the curtains from the bed, bringing them all the around to tuck behind the bed. Around her were the sounds of soft breathing, and beyond that silence. The windows let bright moon light shine in. Hermione decided she hated the dark. It was too much like being in the cell again, the curtains around her bed had not helped. This time though, there was a soft mattress instead of straw, and no awful smells, no occasional moans or distant screams. She jumped slightly at a small noise, her brain immediately thinking a intruder, but of course, it was nothing. Then suddenly a sound like a very distant scream, outside, after it went on for another few seconds she realized it was one of the unicorns or pegasi down by Hagrid's hut whinnying. She mentally slapped herself, she had to calm down. Hogwarts was safe, it was only the Forbidden Forest that was not.
Yet, she was not going to get any sleep this way. She eased herself out of bed and slipped on a bathrobe wishing Draco was here. Walking softly on the carpeted floor she headed down to the common room and pointed her wand at the fire place, it burst into flame filling the room with a soft red glow. Beyond the glow though the room was even darker than it had been when she'd entered. A soft meow made her jump again until Crookshanks came up purring noisily and rubbed his head against her legs. She laughed softly relieved to have some other living creature with her, that was awake. Hermione leaned down and picked him up putting him on her lap as she sat down on a chair, stroking his soft fur.
"Miss me boy?" she asked him, he gazed back up at her continuously purring. His eyes narrowed to slits and his mouth seemed to be turned up in a smile.
"I'll take that as a yes," Hermione said then asked, "Harry and Ron take good care of you?"
Crookshanks made no reply except to shift slightly, making himself more comfortable.
Friday 7:45 am
Dumbledore stood up at breakfast to announce about You-Know-Who possessing people. The news had previously been flying around the school, and there had been the 8:00 curfew for a long time, but it hadn't really been publicly announced until now.
From now you had to travel in groups of at least two, three if possible, everyone had to know the full body bind that was to be cast if you were sure someone was actually possessed. Everyone was also to know how to take off the charm.
Harry walked down the hallway silently with Ginny, pondering over what the announcement meant. Had Dumbledore not been able to find a way to stop You-Know-Who? Was he waiting for something?
Hermione had eaten breakfast with him and Ron, but then once again left early. She seemed to be wanting to catch up as quickly as possible. He remembered sitting with Malfoy hoping she would wake up. It was strange, thinking of Malfoy has her friend, Hermione hadn't said too much about him, and Harry figured it was because she knew that he wasn't really friends with Malfoy. Throughout his whole time at Hogwarts Malfoy had been an enemy, of his and Hermione's. It gave him a weird feeling to think otherwise.
Harry looked at Ginny who also seemed lost in thought. He took her hand and she glanced at him and smiled.
Friday 10:15 am
"Potter, you shall be paired with Crabbe," Snape said, seemingly taking joy in pairing the Gryfindors with Slytherins. Hermione frowned, if there weren't such house rivalry and there were inter-house friendships this wouldn't be a problem. It was so damn racist. Dumbledore was supposed to be smart, couldn't he see this?
"Weasley with Goyle," Snape drawled on. Everyone started getting up and shuffling around to tables with their partners, most of them looking disgusted.
"Granger and Malfoy," he announced. Well, that wasn't so bad. Apparently Snape knew nothing of Draco's changes. Of course, his personality itself hadn't really changed, just the meanness to niceness.
Draco walked over to Hermione's table as Ron and Harry got up to head over to where Goyle was. She smiled at him as he sat down and he grinned then glanced around the classroom.
"Wonder what they'll all think when we don't start bickering," he said just loudly enough for her to hear.
"Probably that we're simply ignoring each other," Hermione said as she pulled the slugs over to slice them up into smaller pieces. They lay there limply, already dead, helpless to whatever might be done to them. A soft buzzing filled her ears. She took out the knife, but found she couldn't lower it to the slug. Hermione grit her teeth as an onrush of memories she'd been trying hard not to think about flooded her vision. She tried to yell out, to tell them to stay away, but she couldn't. Roaring filled her ears as she found the world going black.
Hermione woke up on the cold floor of the potions room. Faces crowded around, she blinked a few times then managed to pick out Harry, Ron, and Draco kneeling by her, identical expressions of worry. Snape's greasy head stood over the other students.
"Why doesn't one of you escort Ms. Granger to the infirmary," he said. Hermione felt uncomfortable under the stares of the other students and her head hurt from where it had hit the floor.
"I will," Draco said quickly, Harry had just opened his mouth to volunteer himself and looked a bit ruffled with the idea that Draco wanted to.
"Professor Snape"- Harry started, but Snape interrupted him.
"Thank-you Mr. Malfoy," he said without a glance at Harry.
Draco reached out a hand to pull Hermione to her feet, which she gratefully took. She leaned on him for a moment before she could catch her balance then blinked a few times to clear her sight.
"Are you okay?" Harry asked as Snape started shooing everyone back to their seats. Hermione nodded and said, "I'm fine."
Harry obviously didn't believe her and neither did Draco. He led Hermione outside leaving Harry behind.
"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked once they started walking down the hallway.
Hermione shrugged and bit her lip then said, "Memories. I just suddenly- couldn't take it."
Draco put an arm around her comfortingly and hugged her close, "You'll be alright. Tell me about it."
"It was awful," Hermione said frowning, "I don't see how anyone, could be so vile. I was helpless."
"I think we should sign up for counseling," Draco said stating his earlier thoughts, "People always say its good to talk about it, that you need to get it out It'll be good for us."
Hermione made a face then said, "I'm not sure I want to talk about it."
"It's good for you whether or not you want to talk about it," Draco told her, "To confront it and put it behind you."
"I don't want to confront it," Hermione said narrowing her eyes then looking at Draco her eyes afraid, "I can't. You saw what happened just now. Why me? Why did this have to happen to me? What did it have to happen at all?"
Draco stopped walking and pulled her into a tight hug as she buried her face against his chest and silent sobs wracked her body.
"Shhh, shhh, its okay," he whisper stroking her hair, "I've gone through things also, I'm not over it, I don't sleep at night. These things just happen. If anyone's to blame it's You-Know-Who, and we're gonna defeat him by the end of this year."
Soon Hermione looked up at him and took a deep breath and mumbled something.
"Hm?" Draco asked.
"Just telling myself I can get through this," Hermione said with a slight smile then added, "We'll get through it."
"That's the spirit," Draco said also smiling as they started walking again.
A/N: Anyone ever read "Speak"? I kinda realized this story's similar to that book in some ways. This story, like Dungeon, is ending too quickly, there was a lot of other stuff I was thinking of including, which makes me start thinking about a third one. This one's plot is more about Voldemort and not about the houses and stuff, so if I did write a third one it'd be about that, and Hermione fully recovering and where their relationship ends up and whether or not they take another year at Hogwarts and what Harry and Ginny and Ron and Sen all do. What do you guys think?
Dedications To:
Princess Rinoa
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Marissa03
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CrazyPoet
Balsam
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