Burden of the Enemy's Baby

CHAPTER TWO: Closed of the Open Door

The nurse that had cleaned up Hermione's arm - Violet, stood outside the door of Hermione's room, with a tear-stained face as she stared at the red, bloody mark on the wall above Hermione's bed. Hermione Granger's condition hadn't improved in two years but Violet vowed to help her. All, Hermione ever did was harm herself as if, she should be punished and because no one punished here and never would...Hermione punished herself. She seemed to live in a realm of torture and suffering. And, it hurt, Violet to see her so.

Hermione was so young, she was only coming on to twenty years old and she had the World to live and experience. Plus, Hermione was extremely pretty, if she had bothered to take more care with her appearance and she also seemed highly intelligent. For, when Hermione had been first admitted, she talked to everyone in a chirpy voice and use to challenge everyone's views and Hermione always won the arguments, as she was always right. But, a month later, all which had disappeared for Hermione refused to leave her room and refused to talk to anyone, withdrawing into a world of her own.

Except, Violet knew the only way to help Hermione was to get her to leave her room, talk to others and open up more instead of been locked 24/7 in her room, Violet would force Hermione out of her room if that was what she needed to do. After that, Violet would listen and encourage Hermione to open up and tell her what had happened in her past or tell anyone for that matter. As, no one strangely knew her case just some random girl turned up having gone crazy. Subsequently, Hermione could relieve herself of the torture she caused herself. Violet would help Hermione recover even if it caused her, her life.

Violet was forty-six years old; she could afford to die for she had no husband or family of her own. Whereas, young Hermione had everything still going for her even if it took five years, but Hermione still had five years of youth left to enjoy there, she could study and meet a handsome, young man and settle down and finally be happy and content in life.

What Violet didn't know was that Hermione did have a man in her life. The same man, Hermione fell in love with three years ago, the same man who shared her happiness, the same man who showered her with love and affection, the same man who had prepared to give up his family for her and the same man who had raped her. And, his name was Draco Malfoy.

The only way for Hermione Granger to recover was to see Draco again, for him to see what he had caused her, all the pain and all the suffering and the constant guilt of her never born baby... Yes, there was a baby in all of this. Hermione never meant to kill her baby but she did. She never meant to fall in love, but she did. Hermione never meant to leave her family or her friends, but she did. And, she never meant to go crazy and be admitted into a hospital, but she did. There were several things, Hermione never meant to happen in her life but life's has its mistakes. Everyone has to learn from them but Hermione didn't, instead she dug herself a deeper hole in her troubles and had buried her soul in it. Hermione had never let hold of grudges easily but indeed the biggest grudge she held against was herself.

Only, Draco Malfoy could help Hermione Granger, if only Hermione could see him and the reunion went the way she wanted, and then she would recover. However, if Draco saw her again and he screamed and laughed in her face then Hermione would have rather she has never seen him again. For the reason that, Hermione didn't know what she would do or happened if he did snigger at her. But, Hermione would never know until she faced Draco Malfoy again and then her life would be divided. Hermione Granger then, would ultimately have to decide whether she wanted to carry on living...in the path of life and death...

Hermione jolted awake, her heartbeat raced and she panted as if she had been running a marathon and she had been her whole life. Running away from the problems and Hermione knew she couldn't go on like this forever. For her dream had caused her to see life in a different view. Draco Malfoy. Hermione Granger needed to see Draco Malfoy; she needed to face her problems. Draco was no longer going to rule her life; Hermione Granger was going to recover and she was going to experience the World again.

For, the first time in a year, the voices in Hermione's head took on a positive note, "Hermione Granger, if you recover then, I'll stop bothering you... Understand?" Hermione nodded to herself. She was no longer going to hear voices, she was going to recover and she was going to start today. Hermione Granger is going to leave her room and she is going to make friends and talk to everyone, she thought to herself instead of muttering to herself. Hermione knew she had to tell someone her problems and she would one day when everyone felt comfortable with her and she felt comfortable with herself and was ready to tell her story. Plus, she was already beginning to feel ready and then, they would Draco Malfoy for her. And, the next time, Hermione Granger saw Draco Malfoy, she would be ready to face him and the World that surrounded her!

Hermione leapt up off her bed, punched her fist in the air and yelled at the top of voice, "I, Hermione Granger am going to recover and leave this hospital once and for all!"

Outside, Violet smiled to herself as she saw the young girl full of smiles for the first time since two years. It was the start of recovery for Hermione Granger!

Draco Malfoy stood up abruptly as his old, wooden chair fell over as he did so. Draco marched over to the dusty window and wiped a circle patch through the steam and stared down at the busy, crowded streets of Surrey down below. His right hand clenched and unclenched as his thoughts whirled around his head. Draco nibbled his bottom lip in apprehension. He was in such a fury with himself for letting his mind wander back to his past...the past he'd managed so long to forget buried at the back of his mind. But, life had a way of digging up those horrible memories you had once buried deeply hoping never to be found again...the past that had happened once so long ago.

Draco turned around and trudged over to his wine cabinet at the back of his sandy room. He poured himself a glass of sherry and closed his eyes as he downed it all in one gulp as if in hope into wash away all the thoughts ploughing through his head. Draco walked back over to the window and stared once again down the street. He pursed his lips as a wave of emotions passed over him, emotions that he hadn't felt in such a long time...feelings he'd wished that he would never feel again. Because, in bringing all the feelings and the memories back up hurt...yes, Draco Malfoy felt hurt. People believed that he was such a cold-heartened person gone numb who had no capability of feeling any emotion except anger let along feeling hurt. Except, Draco Malfoy did feel hurt and not because of himself but because of all the pain he had caused to so many others... Unexpectedly, a single tear rolled down his face and he brushed it angrily away, the last time he'd cried was when his father had beaten him up when he was six and that was nearly over fourteen years ago and he vowed from that day no matter how much pain everyone gave him he would never cry or show his emotion ever again. No matter how much torture he went through, no matter the pain or how much his skin was scarred or how emotional, physically or verbally he was abused and harmed, through neglect or love. Especially, not through love.

Draco hurled his empty glass furiously across the room watching it hit the stonewall with a striking, splintering sound and splitting into a thousand pieces of broken glass.

He cursed and screamed in his most vociferous voice into the empty space, "Damn you, damn you to hell!"

Draco slumped down onto the floor and he stared glassy-eyed and vacantly up at the ceiling, clenching his fists as tightly as he could till his knuckles went white. The broken glass on the floor wasn't the only thing that had broken into a thousand pieces of glass. Once upon a time many years ago, there had been an involvement with somebody and if however so they were ever discovered then, their relationship would splinter. Yet, no one ever discovered their relationship, not even to this day, yet it was still destroyed and was broken because of Draco. Because of Draco's own stupid fault, he had sneered at the girl when she had asked him to tell her that he loved her and had left her outside in the cold and then he did the most emotionally abusing thing to her that anyone could do and it was worse because she'd loved him and trusted him. Draco had lived with the glee, the guilt and the pain of what he'd done and finally it'd been buried but the past was now creeping back up to face him.

Now, the young girl was only seventeen she could have succeeded so much more in life, she could have become the first female Minister of Magic, but, no...because Draco had destroyed her, her self-esteem, her self-confidence and her self-being till she existed no longer. Draco had pushed her to the limit. At this point in time, she no longer lived, having died so many years ago. And, now, she was back to haunt him because Draco had destroyed her to irk him of the past of the day he'd left her and thoroughly hurt her beyond the pain imaginable. This ghost of a girl's name was Hermione Granger... Draco loathed that name with colossal amount of abhorrence! With the exception of that Draco knew that deep inside of him...he truly, honestly didn't hate her. He never had, never will and never could. Deep inside.

Hermione sat on the windowsill looking at the mountains in the far distance and stared at the millions of tress cascaded in front of them swaying gently in the cold wind, closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

It was in the middle of the November night and a scatter of stars twinkled once or twice in a blink of light and the moon was held above them smiling down at the World.

Hermione couldn't describe the hurt she was going through, she couldn't put them into words or explain them to anyone, though she was slowly recovering gently, she still couldn't the past behind her and speak openly about it.

She let out a gasp of emotion and stared unhappily up at the sky as a single tear rolled unhurriedly down her face. Her throat was caught in a swept of sentiment and she choked loudly against it. Hermione bit her lip as several streams of tears continued to fall down her face.

Her heart closed up and her shoulders tensed as images of Draco Malfoy rushed through her thoughts. She wrung her hands as Draco's voice came into mind promising her that he would never ever hurt her. Well, Draco, you were wrong. Very wrong. You weren't bothered with me at all. You didn't care a single thing about my feelings, Hermione thought painfully to herself. She hated him and yet she still liked and cared for him. He hated him for hurting her...she hated every person who'd hurt her but she'd learn to erase the hatred as she slowly learnt to trust him or her again. Every person who'd hurt Hermione Granger earned a place of hatred in her heart the time they hurt her. You couldn't blame her. Why did she ever trust them in the first place? Each time, she thought that they would be different but each year history repeated itself, no matter how much she vowed never for them to hurt her. And, each year it hurt all over again, wasn't Hermione immune to hurtfulness? You would have thought she'd be able to handle rejection after the many times it happened to her.

Hermione heaved another sigh and rested her head against the window as another tear trickled down her pale, lily face. There was no one to brush away the tears, to tell her that she'd get through everything or tell her that everything would be over soon and she would be fine. No one for her to confide in. No one there to comfort her.