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You're Not Alone
Hermione's heart pounded as she reached the school, her throat was dry and fear clogged up her thoughts like a fog. She stumbled through the door and sprinted towards Matron's office, ignoring all the calls behind her of, 'Harry's looking for you' and, 'Ron needs to talk to you' . She ignored all the calls as she hit the door to Matron's room at full speed and burst through before freezing at the sight of Draco on the bed in front of her. Her heart thudded against her chest and she felt her knees shake, she couldn't comprehend what the teachers were saying.
Draco looked a mess...blood stained his blond hair and covered his pale cheeks, he was grey and looked like death was about to take him from this Earth. She barely even noticed as she was gently led out of the office and outside. She fell to her knees....everything starting to fade around her.
What had happened?
Who had done this?
Would Draco live?
The questions swirled through her skull and she tried to swallow the feeling of dread arising in her stomach and suddenly the reality of the situation caught up with her, she reached the nearest bin in time to vomit. She crumpled back to the floor, shaking uncontrollably from cold and fear and anger and pain. The words Ginny had said came rushing back to her,
"It's nothing...I mean there was a scuffle and Draco got pushed off the balcony but...",
Her heart threatened to break her chest as she slowly caught on to what had happened....Harry and Ron had done this. She felt the rage burn her blood and she clenched her fists until blood started to seep through her skin.
How could they? They could have killed him and they didn't even care enough to wait and see if he was okay. But then what had she expected from them? Deep inside she knew they couldn't possibly expect them to accept that her friendship with Draco was realer than the friendship she had with them. She tried to forget the image of Draco on the bed but it hit her again as she heard the sirens of the incoming doctors arriving. She looked up and watched as they sped through the school doors, towards Matron's office.
"Please let him get better", she mumbled, not sure whether she wanted to say it for fear of jinxing everything. Her mind started to drift back to a night nearly 2 months ago...
.
Hermione dodged past the kids in the common room, her arm was screaming in agony and the warm life liquid was seeping out of it. She couldn't let anyone see...not now....not ever. They just wouldn't understand. Not even Ginny could understand why she did this to herself..hell even she didn't understand it!
She darted through the door leading to the corridor and threw herself into the nearest corner she could find and curled herself up into a ball and broke down. Why did she feel like this? It couldn't possibly be normal could it?
"What's a nice girl like you doing all alone?", Draco drawled, walking over to stand in front of her. He slowly crouched down in front of her and met her eyes, his eyes were a tumbling mass of emotions but concern was flashing most of all. Hermione blinked back the tears and wiped away the fallen tears which had settle on her cheeks.
"What do you want Draco?", she asked, she knew that she should probably hate him but he was so charming and his eyes drew her in...there was something deep about him and something that made her treat him differently to what was 'expected' of her.
"Show me your arm......I know it's in a mess", Draco said softly, Hermioen froze in fear and looked at Draco in horror.
"You....you...", she stammered, Draco nodded.
"I know....I just don't know why....care to explain it to me?", he asked, sitting down in front of her and watching her with keen and concerned eyes. Hermione shrugged and looked away, not wanting to look at him...she knew she'd tell all if she did.
"No.....not really", she mumbled, Draco nodded and reached out and squeezed her shoulder.
"Well...when you're ready....or if you just wanna talk....or hang out....I'll still be here", he offered, "If you want me to be". Hermione nodded and dissolved into tears, all she remembered from the rest of that night was being held in Draco's arms as she sobbed away all her heart.
She smiled weakly....that had been it. Since then the two had spent as much time with each other as possible....but it was hard. No-one wanted a friendship between Draco and Hermione...least of all Harry and Ron.
And look what had happened there.....