"Well," Draco thought, "I didn't see that coming."
Hermione rushed out of the Ministry of Magic's phone booth into the streets. She knew her uncle expected her to pass, so he didn't mind to pick her up. "Great," she thought. Now she had no way to get home and it was all Draco Malfoy's fault. Hermione walked through one of the nearby alleys. Relying on what she knew, there was a town on the other side. She was a little in the ally when someone hollered, "Hey sweet stuff, come over here," said a man, who looked he was no younger then 20. She turned, over looking his shoulders where two of what she could only assume was his cronies lurked in the darkness.
"No thanks," she said with a look of disgust.
"What? Do you think your better then us?"
"No," she said frankly. "I don't know who you are and I don't want to know." Hermione proceeded walking when she could feel their presence behind her. Hermione began walking faster. They caught up. Then she started running. She tried to run around them to go back to the Ministry, but one of the young men pinned her to a wall.
"Let go of me! Let go of me! Please, someone, help!"
Draco finally had finished his paper and was now waiting for it to get checked for a grade.
"Well done Mr.Malfoy. I think you'll be happy to know that you've passed. Here is your test paper, and have a pleasant day. You may now apparate when ever you wish."
Draco was pleased. He couldn't wait to do it again. Since you couldn't do it within the Ministry walls, he decided to get some fresh air outside, to apparate home. Once he was out of the Ministry phone booth, he was about to disaparate, when he remembered.
"Blend in and do it secretly."
Draco noticed that it had started to rain. If anything he wanted to get out of this weather fast before it ruined his clothes. Draco found shelter in the nearby alley. Draco walked into the middle of the alley to apparate, when he saw a weird setting in front of him. A clump of clothes, or at least that's what it looked like, was sprawled on the floor, not to far away. What he could see though was a bunch of bushy brown hair. His curiosity got the better of him when he looked to examine what he assumed was a body.
"Who would be sleeping in the rain?" he thought to himself.
Obviously not one of his brightest moments, he slowly grazed the ground with each step he took towards what he assumed was a sleeping body.
"Hello?" he called. No answer.
"Hello?" he exclaim again. Although he didn't have the biggest heart, he was concerned for this body that lay discarded in the cold and rain. He kneeled down to shake the person awake. During his efforts, every bushy brown streak of hair brushed away in the wind.
It was Hermione.
Draco stepped back out of shock. He looked at her unconscious, bruised face. She had bruises all over her. "Enervate!" he yelled, pointing his wand at her. She suddenly woke up. She wasn't shore where she was. The pain though, it was clear.
She hadn't noticed Draco there but she did call for help.
"Someone please help me," she kept whispering, thrashing as though she were being attacked. Draco brushed two hands on each of her shoulders.
"You," she whispered again. Her voice didn't seem to be working right.
"Yes me Granger. What happened?" he said with worry."
"Some men… attacked me, and raped me," she replied, her tear streaked faced beet red. She could feel the cuts, the bruises…they were all over her. Even the embrace Malfoy gave her had a small sense of pain. Through all of this, she kept asking herself two questions: "Why me? Why did this happen to me?" and "Malfoy cares. Why does Malfoy care?" But at that point, she was in too much pain to give it a second thought.
Hermione again, pleaded for help. She really hadn't expected Draco to help her, but for him to just let her lie there in the rain, to die.
"Please, help me. I can't feel my legs. He broke my pelvis. I heard it break when he… he…" Hermione couldn't speak anymore because all she could do was cry.
Draco didn't know what to do. It was a battle between two sides of him. What should he do? Should he help her? What would his father say?
"Fuck my father," he thought to himself. He finally decided what he was going to do. Picking her easily off the ground, Draco made his way out of the alley.
Hermione couldn't believe what was happening. But it didn't matter. Draco's bold chin, and grim worried face was the last thing she could remember before darkness enveloped her.
Saint Mungo's Hospital
Intensive Care Unit
Draco sat outside Hermione's patient room, waiting for the doctor to return with her diagnoses.
"Mr. Malfoy?" he heard her call in a deep Irish accent, but for some reason his mind couldn't function. The doctor had to wave her hand in front of his face before she could receive a response.
"Dr. Connelly? How is she?" he asked. Connelly opened her report notebook.
"Ms. Granger had been raped: Heavily bruised, she's been beaten, her pelvic bone had been crushed so we had to re-grow it, and she was stabbed by what our experts can tell a butterfly knife." She finished. Draco nodded his head slowly.
"Butterfly knife… what's that?"
"It's a muggle weapon. The blade is closed as though it was a pocket knife when not in use. I've only usually known people to carry it to defend oneself, not offend."
"Oh. May I see her?"
The doctor smiled. "Of course you can." She opened the door to reveal a deep sleeping Hermione.
"We sedated her a while ago. For now she won't be waking, but you can stay with her if you like," she whispered, opening the door to leave. Be fore she did, she said lastly.
"You must really care for her," then she left.
Draco looked back at the closed door. 'What did she just say?' Draco took an empty seat beside Hermione's bed. He never took his eyes off of Hermione the entire time. Her face was heavily bruised, and she had a cut just below her eye. Her hair, which he assumed they washed because of the dirt and mud, lay heavenly around her, framing her face. She had a serene look on her face, but every once in a while, her twitched, as though she was reliving the horrific event all over again. "Fuck," Draco whispered. He kept saying in his head, "I don't care for her… she's a mud-blood. Just a stupid, well, not stupid, but…" his mind kept racing for excuses. 'I mean, this is what my father does all time to muggles. I hear him brag about it, and there's nothing new. He does this…this. He does this to unsuspecting girls, and women. He does this fun. He does this…' his face flushed with anger… 'He does this…'
"I don't want to be a death eater," he said quietly. He stared at his hands for a while, before lifting his gaze back to Hermione.
"I don't want to be a death eater, Granger. I don't want to be like him: I'm an ass, and I'm sometimes heartless… But I'm not soulless." He lifted Hermione's limp hand, holding it in his. 'What am I doing here,' he suddenly thought. 'I shouldn't be here.'
Draco let go of her hand, placing it at her side. He got up to leave. At the same time, Dr. Connelly came back with a glass of water.
"Mr. Malfoy, I thought you might like…" she stopped abruptly, seeing him stand.
"Are you leaving?" she asked. Draco spotted a plea for stay in her words.
"Yes."
"But, why?"
"Look," Draco began, shuffling his feet and moving side to side. "Miss Granger and I have never been pleasant toward each other. I've verbally hurt her feelings over the last six years. I don't think seeing me here would make things better for her."
Dr. Connelly searched for a rebuttal. "But you cared enough to bring her in. Without you, she could have died. Please stay?"
"Do you know who my father is Dr. Connelly? Do you know what he would have done to me if he knew I was here helping a- Ms. Granger?"
"I certainly am aware of who your father is. He's the cause for half of our patients here. Him and all those other death eaters…" Draco's face turned somber.
"And what makes you think I'm not a death eater. Everyone thinks I'm a death eater," he said quietly.
"But you're not a death eater, because if you were a death eater, you wouldn't have saved her. Please, stay?"
Draco looked away.
"I can tell that you're not like your father. Stay."
Draco turned and sat back next to Hermione.
"I'll stay."
The doctor smiled with glee. "I'm glad you decided to do so. I'm sure Ms. Granger will be pleased also," she finished, before leaving.
Draco sighed, "Yeah, right…"
