A/N- The last chapter was an authors note, which I DELETED! I posted the last chapter where the author's note was! So if you haven't read the part about CALDON, please scroll back to the last chapter! Thanks.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hermione woke up with her face lying on wet pavement in the dark. She started to get up but a bolt of immense pain throughout her body stopped her. She glanced at her arms and legs to find that they were heavily bruised, swelling, and bleeding. Looking down at her body, Hermione found that she was no longer wearing the clothes she had worn to the club and couldn't remember when she had changed. Now she was clothed in a simple white robe and her pumps. As a matter of fact, she couldn't even remember anything that had happened between entering the club and waking up where she was currently sprawled. Too tired to give the matter any more thought, she slowly pulled out her wand in order to surpass as much pain as possible and apparated into her room. (A/N- ermione is WAY ahead of her class, and is therefore allowed to do magic outside of school) Hermione flopped on her bed and let the sleep take her.
A throb in her left arm woke Hermione up the next morning. An owl was constantly pecking at her arm with a letter tied to its leg. Hermione slowly untied the letter, and recognized it to be the Hogwarts supply list and information. Normally Hermione would have opened the letter with anticipation and excitement, but Hermione was not normally lying in her bed, bruised, scarred and tired. Throwing the letter aside, Hermione fell back asleep.
Two weeks later, Hermione was almost back to her usual self. She could move around normally now, and everything was healed except for some scars that would have to be healed by magic. Hermione set about doing that now until her skin was unmarred in any way whatsoever. She had told the gaurds not to let anybody in; Hermione felt like she had to be alone these past two weeks. But now that she was feeling better, she decided to clean her act up and get something done. "First things first," Hermione said as she reached over to her Hogwarts letter. This year the letter was not opened with the same enthusiasm, and for what reason Hermione had no idea. As Hermione threw the letter aside, she retrieved her school list. Apparently, she hadn't been crowned Head Girl, but she really didn't care. Sighing, Hermione apparated to Diagon Alley.
She decided to first head over to get her books. As she was walking over to the store where she normally retrieved her books, she saw a flash of platinum blond hair and silver eyes. Hermione gasped. It was all coming back to her. Platinum blond hair. Green eyes. Not silver, because it wasn't Draco. It was Caldon. Plush seats. Handcuffs. Struggle. Scream. Pain. The tears were flowing down her face now. Hermione turned to run and SMACK! She stumbled back to regain her footing. In front of her were Ron and Harry. "I can't deal with them right now," she thought.
"Hermione! What's wrong," Harry looked troubled to see her this way.
"Was it Malfoy? God, I'll kill that ferret!" Ron seethed.
"I haave to go," Hermione choked out through her tears as she bolted past them. She was running now, past the stores, past everything, it was all a blur. Collapsing against a wall, she broke down into tears.
After about an hour, Hermione fell silent. She wiped off her eyes with the back of her hands and apparated to the only place she could think of. Surprisingly, it wasn't her house. It was the mall in which Hermione had met Lauren. Lauren. "I can't tell her," Hermione thought. "I can't tell anyone. I'll just express myself through something else just to show them how hurt I am."
With that, Hermione turned around and walked into the store that would help her do exactly that. The sign above her head said "Hot Topic". Before, Hermione had always been afraid to walk under that sign, but today she felt at home here, with other people that were expressing themselves the way she was about to. Hermione bought black. Everything was black. It didn't matter if it had the logo of a band she had never heard of, as long as it was black. The color of mourning. The color of darkness. The color of death and rebirth at the same time. Black was Hermione's new color, and it would be until someone or something helped her get over how hurt she was.
Upon leaving the store, Hermione went to M.A.C. She bought the darkest colors of make-up she could find. Black shadow and black liner. Black mascara. She even got her hair permanently straightened, permanent until it grew out anyway, and dyed black at the same salon she had first transformed in. Finally, after getting her nails painted black, Hermione set off back home. "From now on," Hermione thought, "I'm staying away from everyone. That way I'll never get hurt."