AN:I AM SO SORRY!!! I have been super busy because, we had this huge project that was due. I waslike rushing...I hope this is what you waited for. Don't worry, I don't plan to abandon this story. I have too many ideas just no time to actually get down to writing. Well without further ado, the next chapter.
Malfoy clutched at his throbbing region and sank to his knees. He was in pain. So much pain that it was almost worse than the cruciatus curse. He shut his eyes concentrating on something else. It was something that he always did whenever his father Crucioed him.
His thoughts turned to his father and a hate so strong that it scared him consumed him. Lucius Malfoy was the worst father one would probably get. He stopped squeezing his eyes shut as the pain slowly ebbed away. He pushed away all memories that were rising from the depths back to the back of his mind.
He got up and brushed his robes, scanning the room to make sure that no one had caught him in his moment of weakness. Satisfied that he was alone, he straightened his robes and ran his hand through his hair. Then he started moving slowly as he was still in much pain.
During his slow and torturous walk to the head room in the deserted hallways. He let himself revisit the memories that he kept so tightly locked back. His father crucioing him when on his fifteenth birthday he refused to join his father as a death eater. Malfoy knew that he would be forced to. He had no choice, being a Malfoy but at the same time he hated than man.
Ever since then, every disobedience was met with a punishment sometimes so brutal that he would have to be sent to the emergency ward at St. Mungos. His mother once had stood up for him and his father had slapped her, telling her to not to meddle in issues she knew nothing of.
Finally he reached Ella to find her in deep sleep. "Um...Ella?" he stated. She winced in her sleep but did not wake up. "Let me in...Inky Quills," Malfoy ended up shouting that last bit as his other tactics were not working.
"Wh...what?" Ella said stupidly as she was rudely awakened by Malfoy. Malfoy said the password again and she allowed the door to enlarge muttering to herself disgruntled at being awoken at such an ungodly hour.
Malfoy stormed into the common room and realized that it was no more a mess. He had in a fit of rage thrown things around to vent his frustration. Thankfully he didn't have to clean up the mess and also he hadn't gotten into any trouble.
Walking into the common room he saw Hermione fast asleep on the couch. He felt his anger return double fold and he raised his hand to strike her sleeping form when he was suddenly thrown backwards by an unknown force. The air around Hermione shimmered slightly and formed an orb around her, cocooning her and keeping her safe.
He landed hard, his back slamming against the wall. Yet again, Hermione had thwarted him. He would have to get revenge...then a perfect idea struck him. He would be sickly honey gooey sweet to Hermione that she would be so sick of him. He would play a mind game with her and win. Then hopefully she would leave him alone and maybe after they got married, take on different paths.
He knew that there would be no chance for annulment of his marriage as if there was then his parents would have gotten divorced long long ago. Also he had asked his father if he could divorce his bride after his marriage and he had been Crucioed for even asking. Shaking his head, he stalked into his room slamming the door shut behind him.
The next day, Hermione was rudely awoken by a strange tapping noise. She pushed herself off her bed and landed on the floor with a loud thump. She looked around and realized that she had fallen asleep in the common room after clearing up the mess.
She got up and padded over to the window where a snowy white owl was tapping the glass. She pushed open the glass and it flew in. Landing neatly on the table, the owl stuck out its leg onto which a note was attached. Rubbing her eyes trying to get the sleep out of her system, Hermione looked over and realized that it was Hedwig.
Her parents...no foster parents had written back! She reached over and pulled the rolled script off Hedwig's leg and offered the bird an owl treat which she found somewhere on the table.
Hedwig accepted it, hooted a thanks and flew off disappearing into the still dark sky. Before Hermione could even unroll the script, a black animal swooped into her room through the window.
It landed on the table in one swift moment. It wasn't an owl but something like a phoenix, only black in color. It held itself proudly and looked at her up and down as though she had disappointed her. It had no scrolls attached to it but instead a tag around its neck.
"Happy Birthday darling! I love you and this is your birthday present. It's a pure bred draconian. Love mum & Dad," Hermione read out the short message and looked at the bird curiously. It was immensely proud and seemed to think that she was not worth its attention.
Deciding that she may as well name it, she thought hard but nothing came up. "I don't even know if it's male or female yet," Hermione thought and decided that she would bother about it later. "Be good," she warned it and walked out of the common room to get her clothes.
She suddenly realized something. How was it that her birthday was the same to both her muggle parents who didn't truly know about her birthday and her real parents? "I must have been adopted on my birthday. What a coincidence," Hermione realized smiling to herself.
She sat down on her bed and opened the letter she had received earlier.
Her eyes scanned over the familiar words. The ones she had written to her adopted parents just the day before last. "But Hedwig has never failed to deliver anything..." she wondered to herself. She wondered what she was going to do to contact her parents if they refused to talk back to her.
She closed her eyes and dismissed her thoughts telling herself that it was her birthday and that she would make an effort to enjoy it.
She decided that she would go see Ron and Harry at the Gryffindor tower and was ready to bet that they had forgotten all about her birthday. She walked into the bathroom and took a long shower. Letting the water hit her body, she turned up the temperature until steam was rising and her body turned red from the heat.
Hermione closed her eyes as she toweled herself off. Slipping into a black T-shirt and jeans, she pulled her robes over them and walked out of the bathroom. Reaching for her wand, she magically dried her hair and pulled it into a loose pony tail.
I wish I could get there faster rather than wasting time walking. Hermione closed her eyes and imagined herself at the Gryffindor common room. She felt her molecular structure start to break apart but suddenly she felt like she couldn't move at all.
She remembered that when she was staying with the Weasley's, someone had mentioned splinching. She wondered if that was what she had done to herself. Suddenly she felt her muscles relax and the ability to move returned to her.
She looked around in search of what had caused her disability to move but found nothing. It was strange as though she felt someone watching her earlier and the feeling had just disappeared once she could move.
She wondered what it could have been. "Remember that you promised yourself not to worry?" Hermione chided herself. She shrugged and gave up trying to shimmer knowing that it was insensible as she had no training.
Pushing open the door, she left the head common room, happy that it didn't look like the mess it had been before she cleaned it up. She had been wiped from the days happening only to return to a filthy room and her being the perfectionist that she was she couldn't resist cleaning up.
She walked down the near deserted corridors, as not many students were awake at the ungodly hour.
Her thoughts claimed her as she wondered about her marriage to Malfoy and how the hell she could get out of it. She wondered why he was being so possessive over her last night and only one reason came to mind. He was trying to ruin her life.
She hated him. Arrghh...why me? She wondered and then footsteps behind her caused her to come into an abrupt stop. Grasping her wand in one hand she turned suddenly only to come face to face with Ron. He grinned at her sheepishly and ran his hand through his flaming red hair which was visible even in the darkness.
She grinned back at him. "What are you doing up so early. Oh call the Guinness world record book administrators. This has to be recorded down," she said with mock astonishment, raising a dramatic hand to her head. Ron rolled his eyes and then shrugged.
"I don't know why...I guess I just had a lot on my mind," Ron replied with a rather lopsided grin adding silently to himself, "Mostly which circled around the angel in front of me." Hermione smiled sympathetically at him and draped an arm around his shoulder.
She knew that feeling all too well but couldn't help but wonder what it was that had Ron in such a state. They stood there looking around. The place was completely deserted. Suddenly Hermione shivered as a cold blast of wind whipped in through the window. She suddenly remembered the last night.
"Ron...about last night...umm...I'm sorry you had to find out that way. That I'm bethroed to Draco that is," Hermione said stuttering as she was worried how he would react this time. Ron shrugged and the twinkle in his eyes was lost.
"And you're just going to accept it? Aren't you going to do anything about it? Where's the Hermione that was my best friend?" Ron asked suddenly enraged that Hermione was being such a doormat, allowing everyone to step all over her.
Hermione hung her head and looked at her feet in embarrassment. Ron was extremely angry that the girl, the girl that managed to make him feel like the luckiest man in the world was being ripped away from him. He hated that she was to be wed to Malfoy, his worst enemy.
"How can you just be such a doormat...you're such an idiot Hermione! How can you let your 'parents' just come back and rule your life? Do you realized how much Harry and I have to go though?" Ron said insensitively.
"You have to go through? YOU HAVE TO GO THROUGH? What the hell Ron? How can you be so insensitive? I just found out that I'm adopted and that I have to marry a ferret for my Graduation present. How much do you think I have to go through? You think that you are the one that has problems? How does in concern you anyway. You weren't even there when I needed you, why would you need to care about my marriage anyway?" Hermione screamed. She felt all the bottled up anger in her escape as the words came out of her mouth.
She took a deep breath about to continue her tirade but looked up to see that Ron wasn't even looking at her but behind her. "What the hell? You see, you can't even listen to how I feel, why would you care?" she started again but Ron simply glanced at her and looked back behind her. Hermione feeling extremely angry, turned around and looked at what it was that was behind her.
"Ahh...my fiancé. How are you this fine morning?" Malfoy drawled looking at her intently. His smirked at her evilly and turned to look at Ron. "Now Weasel, what did I say about leaving my fiancé alone? You will have to be punished for not listening," Malfoy said twirling his wand.
"What are you going to do Malfoy? You don't own me," Hermione said heatedly.
"You shut up. Another thing to know is never speak against your husband in public, 'silencio'...there that's much better don't you thing darling?" Malfoy drawled making the simple word of endearment seem full of sarcasm.
Hermione opened and closed her mouth trying to unleash another tirade of words not to be heard by the gentle hearted when she realized that she didn't have a voice. Malfoy smiled maliciously at her and whipped his wand out in an attack stance before Ron could even react.
He murmured a string of strange Latinish words and suddenly Ron fell to the ground defenselessly. Ron was feeling helpless as though he was falling endlessly never reaching the bottom and the apprehension kept growing. Darkness engulfed him as he continued falling.
Malfoy smirked. "That is what will happen to anyone who dares lay a finger on you. Don't think for a second that I'm pleased with the situation but stop being such a baby about it! It will have to happen and you are not going to bring down the Malfoy pride so learn how to behave in our society!" he whispered maliciously.
Hermione stared at Ron emotionlessly and then finally what happened registered. She opened her mouth in a noiseless screech and rushed to his side. She kneeled beside his limp body and shook him trying to get him to come around.
"What the hell did you do to him you ferret?" Hermione mouthed at Malfoy who just smirked and walked away, leaving Hermione alone with the unconscious Ron. Hermione knew it was useless trying to use her wand as she could not actually say the spell, then she remembered her levitation abilities.
"How do I levitate him?" she wondered to herself as she knew she was not strong enough to actually carry him to the hospital wing. She put her hands on his chest and clamped her eyes shut, trying her best to clear her mind of all thoughts.
She imagined Ron levitating, weightless as a feather. She opened her eyes to find that it hadn't worked at all. All she had managed to do was make's Ron hair catch fire. Wait a minute! Oh no...
"What do I do...?" Hermione mouthed out in frustration. She could feel the heat of flames burning her hand but she couldn't let Ron be burned to ciders. Suddenly she felt the heat die out. Ron's hair was back to normal if not a bit charred and more flaming red than ever but it was no longer on fire.
She told herself that she would try once more. This time she didn't close her eyes fearing she would do further damage to poor Ron. She forced all thoughts out of her mind and concentrated but she was having a hard time doing so as she was so aggravated by Malfoy.
Suddenly she came back to her senses when she bumped her head against something hard. Looking around, Hermione realized that she was levitating. Ron was in front of her, his head lolling back dangerously and his legs and arms hanging limply down as he lay in a weird twisted "u" shape.
Hermione dared not look down knowing that her fear of heights would make her throw up. She had not meant for herself to levitate but just Ron. Unfortunately her magic was not cooperating with her.
She then wondered how to move in her levitating form and put a step forward. Immediately she fell, though Ron remained suspended in the air.
Malfoy was walking down the corridor when he realized that he had not lifted the silencing charm and even though he believed that she deserved it, he knew that there would be hell to pay for if his parents found out. Doubling back he was speechless to see Hermione levitating in the air as though weightless with Ron hanging limply in front of her.
Suddenly he saw her take a tentative step forward and as though there was a huge vacuum sucking at her, she started falling at a tremendous speed. With his reflexes that came as seeker, he rushed under her and raised his arms to catch her.
Hermione fell, the wind bite at her cheek when she started falling from the extremely high ceiling. She shut her eyes as they stung from the cold wind. She was worried that she would fall and remain there unconscious until someone came looking for her.
Hermione felt someone catching her in their strong arms. Was it an angel? She turned to see her savior whose arms she was still in when she saw Malfoy looking at her intently. He was holding her gently as though afraid he would hurt her.
They just stared at each other for what seemed like eons, Hermione still being carried by Malfoy. Suddenly he set her down on her feet but still had an arm around her waist to keep her from running off.
"How did you do that?" he whispered, knowing that she couldn't have said a spell and levitated both herself and Ron.
Hermione noticed the difference in his voice, it held no hate or anything but rather a begrudging respect. She contemplated actually telling him then came to her senses. This was Malfoy in front of her. He had his hands all over her. She planted both her palms firmly on his chest and pushed him away.
"Remove the spell," she mouthed at Malfoy. Malfoy sighed dramatically and rolled his eyes before lazily waving his wand to lift the spell.
"Who the hell do you think you are huh? What did you do to Ron? Don't just stand there lift the curse," Hermione said unleashing the tirade of words that had been forced to stay down.
Malfoy knew that she being the tattletale that she was would report him immediately if he didn't undo his spell right away. He waved his wand in a strange cross like motion and said another string of words that Hermione could remember from the back of her mind but couldn't place.
Ron looked around himself only to see a window. "Am I dead?" he wondered as he looked around again bewildered at his surrounding. Hermione pulled her wand out of her pocket and muttered a soft, "Finite Incantem," and Ron floated safely to the floor.
"Mione' what happened?" Ron asked rather disorientated by everything that had happened. Hermione cast a sidelong glance at Malfoy and decided against ratting him out as he had saved her even though her life being in danger was his fault.
"You slipped on something and blanked out," Hermione said and from the corner of her eyes caught Malfoy giving her a skeptical look.
Malfoy was shocked to say the least. Why Granger was lying to her best friend to save his life strangely eluded him. He had caught the look she had given him and had expected her to rat him out and thus he had steeled himself for Weasley's attack.
"Oh never mind. Mione' come on let's go to the Gryffindor common room," Ron said completely disregarding Malfoy, treating him like he didn't exist. Hermione nodded formally at Malfoy before following Ron, having to run to catch up with his strides.
They reached the portrait in companiable silence as both of them were completely occupied with their own thoughts. Ron wondered if he should confess his new found feelings to Hermione and Hermione thought...she couldn't help but think about Malfoy. He had changed, not that much but enough for her to notice.
He was as arrogant as ever but Hermione realized that all those moments that she had been alone with him; he had acted like a perfect gentleman. It had at first astounded her but then she accepted the fact that he had grown up being a gentleman to everyone except mudbloods.
"Strange fetishes," Ron said the password out loud and Hermione arched an eyebrow in question at the rather unapt password. Ron shrugged before muttering a soft, "The fat lady has gone mad I tell you; going on about love and the likes. Strange fetishes indeed."
Hermione grinned at his statement and looked up to see the fat lady being serenaded by ballads sung quite badly by none other than Sir Cadeogan. The portrait swung open and Hermione was taken aback by the darkness in the room. The fire wasn't lit and none of the torches were lighted.
It was as though the room was plunged in darkness. Hermione climbed in after Ron, bumping into him in the darkness and after the portrait swung closed, shutting off their only light source, Hermione had a strange feeling of being watched by many pairs of eyes.
AN:Ooooohhh...What's going to happen? Guesses anyone??? Hahaha...I don't know what you are thinking and please give me some constructive critism as I really have to pick up on my strength and improve on my weaknesses. Yeah, that's about it. I'm so sleepy...G'nite