AN: This is short on purpose

Chapter 5

Draco slowly dragged back to his common room. He couldn't help but wonder what happened to Hermione and why she disappeared from class and never returned. All of a sudden Harry and Ron came rushing around the corner right into Draco.

"Watch where you're going," screamed Draco.

"Why don't you Malfoy?" exclaimed Ron.

"Ron... stop, this isn't the time to fight," said Harry with worry in his voice.

"Looking for Granger are you?" asked Draco with a smirk on his face.

"What did you do to her?" asked Ron.

"Nothing Weasley! I haven't touched her. It would probably surprise you if I said I didn't touch Harry that night either."

"You liar, you did that to him!"

"No he didn't," said Harry confused. "Draco saved me. I don't know what you want in return though Draco. I don't understand why you did it?"

Ron looked aghast at the conversation occurring between Draco and Harry.

"Wait, I'm confused. Draco saved you?" asked Ron. "Why?"

Draco looked down angrily. He had to control his temper. He needed to stop taking out his anger on other people. He clenched his fist to try and control himself.

"It doesn't matter why. What matters is... I know I don't ... NOTHING. Where's that Granger girl?" he asked.

"What do you care?" asked Ron.

"Maybe I'm trying to change," blurted out Draco.

"You aren't doing a good job at it. All I can see is your change caused a few bruises and a blue eye."

Draco grabbed Ron's shirt pulling him towards him.

"What would you know, about a couple of bruises and a blue eye?" he growled before dropping Ron and storming away.

He heard Ron's outbursts but he didn't care. He was sick of this temper he had. No one knew what had happened and everyone probably thought he was going mad.

"You gotta stay cool," thought Draco.

Suddenly the same image caught the corner of his eye.

Hermione was walking right towards him. Her eyes looked completely empty and she looked in a daze and confused. She didn't even seem to notice him there.

"Granger, your friends were looking for you," said Draco.

Hermione turned his way for a second, tears streaming from her eyes.

"Do you want to hurt me Draco? I'm a filthy mud blood isn't that what you want? Why would my friends be looking for me? I don't have any friends, and if I did they wouldn't be the caring type," answered Granger still in a daze.

"Uh, hermione, are you ok?" asked Draco. He felt concern for her suddenly as she brushed past him into an empty classroom. She didn't even seem to know where she was going.

"I'm ok? It should only be a few minutes and then I will be happy," said Hermione calmly.

Draco followed her into the classroom as she sunk to the floor clutching a strange bottle half empty. Hermione took a gasp of air and poured the rest of the potion in her mouth. The bottle disappeared on its own. Hermione suddenly looked scared. Her face twisted as it broke into sweat. Her hands began shaking uncontrollably. The tears in her eyes began pouring again, but she didn't make a sound. Just strange gasps of air as she collapsed to the floor, onto her back.

"What is going on Hermione?" asked Draco. "Should I call a doctor?" he asked approaching her slowly. Her arm reached out and pulled him down to the floor.

"Don't call the doctor, I'm fine. I'm better than I ever was before," she said slowly crawling to the door and closing it.

"Anyway where was I?" began Hermione. "Oh wait that's right. You were going to hit me. Well if you are going to do it, do it now. I don't really feel much pain at the moment."

"What are you talking about?" Draco asked shocked.

Hermione grabbed onto a desk and pulled herself into a standing position. Her knees buckled below her and she slammed into the desk, pushing it over as she fell. Hermione got up again, a bit more steadily and walked towards a different table to find a pair of scissors lying on the desk.

"This should be amusing," she said cheerfully as she grabbed the scissors, opening them and pressing the blade to her wrist.

Before Draco could stop her she tried to slice her wrist but missed and cut just below her elbow. She dropped the scissors in shock.

"That hurt more than I thought it would," she gasped as she tried to grab the scissors again. Draco flung forward, grabbing the scissors and throwing them out of the window before she had time to grab them.

Tears began flooding from her eyes again. The whole room was suddenly spinning around her. Her stomach felt like it was going to hurl. She fell on all fours and began gagging. Suddenly she grabbed her bleeding arm.

"Ow! It hurts! It hurts!" she whispered desperately before her head collided with the ground again.

Draco rushed towards her, ripping a bit of his shirt off to tie her arm to stop the bleeding.

"Why did you do that?" he asked her.

"Well I figured I should get used to pain, cause you'll be inflicting a lot of it. As will Harry and Ron because they hate me. Everyone hates me," she said, trying to wipe a tear from her cheek, but she didn't seem coordinated enough to wipe it.

Draco moved his hand forward, carefully not to scare her and wiped the tear. Hermione's face flinched as Draco's hand toucher her cheek. She looked away in shame.

"You're going to do the same thing as that other guy," she said. "Aren't you?"

"What other guy?" asked Draco moving away from here again.

"Well in the city some guy wanted to rape me, then he called me a bitch and let me go without doing anything to me. But I know you're worse. I know when you want to hurt someone, your mind is set on it, you'll hurt them!" she said.

"I... I wish I wasn't like that," he said quietly.

Hermione gave a weak laugh before she tried to get up again. She tried to support herself using a chair but her head felt so heavy. She didn't want to stay up. She felt herself falling again but she never collided with the ground as someone was holding her up. Someone's strong hands were holding her up from falling. Someone was helping her towards the door; someone was helping her walk through the door; Her body jumped out of his arms and collapsed to the ground. She shook violently as she tried to get back up. Draco looked at her eyes that were turning a strange colour. She began breathing heavily but the shaking stopped. Suddenly everything stopped. Hermione lay motionless on the ground apart from her lungs calmly rising and falling as she breathed. She looked into the distance completely unaware of what was going on around her.

Draco gently picked her up. She was so light. She looked so frail and fragile in his arms as he slowly carried her towards her common room.

"Are you still there?" he asked her.

"Yeah I'm still here unfortunately," she whispered but her body did not move.

A few people stopped to stare at the strange image. Draco ignored them all, cursing under his breath. They could all see now he wasn't as tough as he really seemed. Who cared anymore? He already had bruises all over him to show he was weak. He finally reached the Gryffindor door at the same time as Ron and Harry came running from around the corner. Obviously they had heard from someone about what was going on.

"You've really done it this time," screamed Ron in rage.

"No Ron, can't you see he's helping her?" said Harry angrily.

Draco gently lay her down before the door of the common room.

"I trust she'll be safe with you. Don't take her to the doctor. She doesn't want to go. Oh and be careful, she has a cut on her left shoulder," said Draco gloomily before turning and walking away, trying to avoid eye contact with anyone.

Two senior year voices whispered amongst eachother in the distance. "Woah that girl is hot. And she looks fucking depressed. She'll be perfect!"