Time To Tell the Truth
(Ch.16)
-Previously on Ch.15-
"Draco" she whimpered.
There he laid, with bruises and cuts over his wrists, long crimson red lines over his whole back. His clothes now absorbing the blood that is gently crawling its way out of the deep cuts on his wrists. He lay there motionless and unspoken, peaceful and untouched and in the worst condition of his life.
Hermione's body was paralyzed. She knew exactly what has happened to him and there was no way she could ever help.
Tears now rolling down her cheeks, her knees gave away and she slid down the wall of the Head Boys bathroom.
-Now on Ch.16-
"How could this be?" she asked quietly.
"How could this happen to...him?" was the follow up question.
She sat there on the floor, hands hugging her weak knees and head resting on the top of them.
Unspoken, untouched she left him alone and went to her room.
She closed the door to her room and went directly to her drawer. Her uncontrolled hands instantly started to search for something, rather, an object.
Under so many things like make-up, scrolls of parchment, clothes, underwear, there it laid, her most important but not as important as the rest, item of all. She grabbed this mysterious and round looking object and went directly out of her room and right into the bathroom of the Head Boy.
When she entered he had already been awake, just sitting there with his eyes shut like he was still in pain.
When he heard movement he instantly opened his eyes to find Hermione standing there with a bottle in her hands. Instantaneously he grabbed the closest towel on the floor and tried to cover up his body.
"Don't" she whispered.
He looked in her eyes with pain and fear most of all as if asking and pleading with his own eyes.
"It only hurts you" she said a little louder, her eyes locking with his.
Without looking away from him she opened the bottle and took out two pills went over to the sink and filled a cup with water.
She sat right by him.
"Here...it will help" she said in a nice angelic voice.
"How do you—"he started only to be interrupted by her.
"I just—guessed" she said without looking at him.
"Draco...you really scared me yesterday" she said in a lowered voice with a sudden interest of the patterns on the floor.
"I told you to...go" he said.
"And I meant it"
"Why" she said a little louder.
"What would have happened if you got just a little more out of control" now with tears in her eyes.
"I know what's wrong with you, Draco" she said quieter now and with a deep concentration on his eyes.
He looked away, as If trying to think of a reason to cover up.
"You don't have to lie to me" she said.
"Oh yeah?" "And do tell me, why's that?" he said in an angry tone.
"Is it because you just want to 'help me' or what? You want to become some angel that everyone will always remember, huh?" he raised his voice.
"Just like Saint Potter" he whispered under his breath.
"I tried to help you" she said dangerously quietly.
"Hermione I---I didn't mean it ----in that way" he tried to form a sentence.
"Then tell me what's wrong, what's really going on?" she said with pleading eyes.
"Do you, or do you not, use the ---concealment charm?" she said with a worried face almost wanting to hear him say 'yes'.
He immediately looked in her eyes.
"Yes" "But---how did you know" he said with an amazed tone.
For a minute, Hermione tried to look anywhere but his beseeching eyes.
She looked down, as if ashamed of herself and quietly whispered.
"I use it--as well"
Draco's eyes widened in shock and he started to look all over her body, trying to see if she is right.
"But I--"
"I use...the Advanced Concealment...which gets me through 48 hours" she said not looking at him.
"Her—Mione...why do you—why do you...need it?" he asked in an unsure voice, not knowing if it was appropriate.
"Promise if I tell you my story...you'll fess up and tell me yours" she said still avoiding his eyes.
"I don't think you'll want to—"
"Just promise, Draco" she interrupted him.
"Uhh—of course...yeah" he said.
She inhaled a deep breath and closed her eyes for just that second only to open them up again and face him.
"We were all happy and—together until my mother died in a car accident and after that, my—my world came crashing down, I guess" she said with tears forming in her eyes.
"There hasn't been a single day gone by when I haven't thought of what would have happened if she were alive. How I would have turned out, and how...happy I would have been"
"My dad...started to drink and I used to hide it from him...silly girl, right" she said with a fake laugh.
"He would find out and get even more angry" she said with flashes of images running through her head.
IMAGE
"WHERE IS IT, YOU STUPID GIRL" his boisterous voice rang through her tender ears.
END IMAGE
"And then...he'd get away from me and start to look for it" she said now with tears pouring slowly out of her eyes.
IMAGE
"DADDY DON'T!" the little girl screamed. She ran, as far away from him as she could. She went up to her room and locked herself in there.
"OPEN THIS DOOR!" he screamed.
"please...make him go away...make him go away...make him go away...make him go away...make him go away...make him—"the door has been smashed open with his whole body weight put on it.
"I'm gonna teach you NOT to lie to your Daddy" he said coming closer to her.
END IMAGE
"So...that's been going on for a while now" she said avoiding his eyes and getting up quickly, trying to escape his presence.
"No...no—I don't buy that" he said.
"What do you mean—that's the truth...I've told you everything." She said with an awe in her voice.
"Oh really...so I guess your dad's beatings got you this way." He said louder getting up too so she wouldn't have to look down on him.
"I guess all this hatred and coldness you have towards guys is because of him. I'm sorry Hermione but you're going to have to tell me the whole story...if there even is a story" he said looking at her.
"What? You think I made that up just now?" she said getting mad at him.
Draco stood there with arms crossed against his chest looking at her.
"No...I just know that you're still holding onto something...something that may have even been worse than your Dad. Something so far off that maybe you don't ever want to TALK about it again, something that you don't ever want to THINK about. Something that maybe haunts your dreams at night and you even start to see things around school that terrify you---"
"He raped me" she whispered.
Draco's face dropped, his mouth slightly opened, his eye brows formed a straight line, his heart started to race and skip a beat every so often now. Unable to move he spoke.
"Your d—dad" he asked, almost not wanting to hear the truth anymore.
"No...my first boyfriend, the only boyfriend I ever had...until—well" she motioned to him and he nodded.
"That's why sometimes, it scares me what you're thinking, why your touching my hair or smelling it for that matter" she said with a fake laugh.
"Who is he?" Draco didn't hear anything she said after she mentioned that it was her boyfriend who did it.
"Well...he doesn't-"
"WHO IS HE?" He said it much louder this time.
"HE'S A MUGGLE" She screamed back at him.
"He's a –muggle?" he repeated, saying the word muggle with disgust.
"Those fucking twats...What the hell are you doing hanging out with them anyway Hermione?" He said looking at her with a sad expression.
"My parents are also muggles, Draco" she said.
"Yeah...and look at your father" he instantly replied back.
"Im sorry, I didn't—mean it that way"
"I'm just so—what's his name?" he rapidly asked.
"Draco...that's not necessary-"
"What's the twats name Hermione...darling" he said trying to keep his anger low.
"Josh"
"What kind of a normal mother names her child Josh?"
"With a name like that, you know something's wrong with the boy" he said walking around the bathroom room so quickly almost wanting to go out into a bigger room than the bathroom. He took one more step and finally stopped only to follow up with another question.
"When did he—when did it---how did it happen?" he asked.
"He liked me at first but-" she said.
"WHAT? Hermione...all guys 'like' you at first, then they want something from you, well at least HE wanted something from you."
Draco was enraged. He had such feelings mixed up that he didn't even know which was stronger, anger or jealousy. He was jealous of the fact that there even was a boyfriend. He wanted her all to himself but when she said this he just didn't expect to react the way he did. He had many girlfriends so why couldn't she have a boyfriend? This was the selfish thought running through his head.
"Does he know you're a witch?" he asked.
"I don't know...he and Dad used to always talk together...and only until all the way at the end did I find out about their 'secret' relationship." she said now looking on the floor.
"What do you mean?"
"My dad—
IMAGE
"You didn't think I was in on it all alone did you?" Josh whispered in her ear.
END IMAGE
"He sent him" she said in barely a voice.
IMAGE
"How could—It was him" she said looking into the boys eyes. The boy who had just come back to tell her he'd never leave her alone, this lying, abhorrent, and heinous person who she had trusted with all her heart.
She's told him all her miseries, all her troubles, all the problems with her father who was in fact getting the information all along.
He was a disgusting person not to mention a sneak. She could barely look him in the eye. Hermione was not ready for what was about to happen when all of the sudden the bedroom door closed and Josh started edging closer to her.
END IMAGE
With watery eyes, she stood there paralyzed from the painful images that still flash in her mind, she closed her eyes sharply and put her hands on her eyes to wipe away the warm drops of tears that have just emerged from her almond shaped eyes.
"Your own father sent him" he said quietly trying hard not to upset her even more.
"Yes" she put her hands down, giving up on wiping them away. Draco thought it wasn't necessary to go on further so he got straight into the point.
"So he knows you're a witch"
"And he probably knows that you're not 'some' witch, you're a very powerful one as well?" he was more asking himself.
"And of course this whole thing comes down to only one thing...he knows where you go to school, Daddy must have mentioned that somewhere didn't he?" He said lastly and stood there in one spot.
Draco looked around and almost forgot that Hermione was still standing there.
"He knows I'm a witch...and he does know where my school is located." She said not looking at him but out the window and into the deep dark forest.
"And how do you know all this--"
"Because he said he'd never leave me alone---and he hasn't...ever since"
"On the first day of school, I came across a rose on my bed and I know it was from—him" she said quietly still looking into the forest.
"That could have been from any--"
"It was a black rose" she whispered.
"The day he told me 'he's never leave me' he left me a black rose and its as if it was never touched...the same...exact one...it's almost magical"
"Hermione...I'd never let him touch you—ever again. Do you hear me?" he said standing by her now and putting his hand on her shoulder.
FLASHBACK
"I'll never ever let him get you, Hermione....Never....You belong with me....Belong....Me....Never let him get you...You belong with me....with me...with me...Hermione" he stared deeply into her eyes.
She was a foolish girl, believing him, trusting him, and most of all loving him.
END FLASHBACK
These fresh words have chimed through her ears as soon as he had said that line.
"He said the same exact thing...except he meant my dad" she turned on her heel and swiftly went away.
Right before exiting his bathroom, without looking back at him she said in a quiet voice...
"There are some things we shouldn't know in life...I think you should just forget what I have said" and with that final statement she cleared from the view and out of his presence.
"Its kind of hard" he said to himself.
Hermione went into her room locked the door and carried herself to the bed. She laid there thinking over and over about anything but Josh and her father but nothing seems to work.
Only a few hours have gone by until she had noticed something on her desk, a letter.
She went over there and examined it.
-Hermione Granger- Was written on the envelope itself.
She carefully opened it and read...
All is fair in Love and War
-The one you fear
Special thanks to...
Midnite-Goddess: Thank you for the courageous compliment but I do not think I'm worth it. Maybe one day...when I see my name on a hard back cover of a novel. (hehe...hopefully)
PineappleCube: I will definetly write an e-mail back as soon as I can. BTW..why hasn't 'someone' written another chapter????
Glad you loved it...hope you guys will like this one just as much If not more.
It was kinda sad...but bare with me, it will get better and hopefully more interesting.
Write as much reviews as you want, I love to read and I love to hear what you have to say.
marina
