Chapter 3

The next morning, Hermione woke up early and was ready, dressed and leaving the common room when Draco came out of his room, still in his pajamas.

"Good morning," he said.

She stopped and turned to look at him, he looked gorgeous with his hair tousled from sleep and wearing just black silk pants, 'Oh good lord he looks sexy. How did I not notice that last night? Wait did I just say sexy? Oh, no.' "G'morning," she replied then left for breakfast, despite the fact that she wasn't hungry.

Harry and Ron were waiting for her at the entrance to the Great Hall, "Hi", she greeted her two best friends with a big smile and a hug.

"Ah, there's our girl", Ron said as Harry and he each slipped an arm around her waist while she put her's on their shoulders.

They sat at the end of the table with Hermione across from them, as usual. No one mentioned the letter from the previous day. They just talked, with the usual misgivings about school, classes, SNAPE.

"How are you doing with Malfoy as your room mate?" Ron asked.

"Oh yeah that reminds me I made a truce with him he wont mess with us if we don't mess with him." she said.

"What? How could you do that?" Harry asked.

"If I'm going to be stuck with him for the rest of the year I'm not going to have you guys fighting all the time, got it?"

"All right", the boys mumbled together.

"Good." she said, "Come on we have to get to class, and you know Snape likes to punish us for anything he can."

Reluctantly the trio left the Great Hall for the dungeons. When they got there the only other person there was Draco. "I think the headmaster has a very twisted sense of humor to keep putting the Slytherins and Gryffindors together for potions." Hermione said to a very tense trio of boys.

"Potter, Weasley, Granger." Draco acknowledged but said nothing more.

"Malfoy", Harry said, the two glared at each other for a minute but one look to both of them from Hermione and they looked away.

They all sat back down Draco on one side of the room, Hermione, Ron, and Harry on the other. Slowly, the rest of the class begin to filter in everyone took a seat away from the opposing house.

"Today", Snape said walking towards the front, robe flowing behind him, "we will be starting a new potion in which I will be picking you partners."

At the last statement there was a loud groan of protest from the entire class, as it was common knowledge Snape like to do Slytherin/Gryffindor pairings just to see happens.

"Quiet! Now Potter and Malfoy, Granger and Parkinson, Weasley and Crabbe..." Once he had everyone paired up with someone he was sure they would hate, "Partners get together and get ready to write."

Hermione looked up and Snape and was sure she saw and amused glint in his eyes as Harry and Malfoy sat together, while she went to sit by Park'n'slut.

Snape started in on his instructions but Hermione was finding it difficult to concentrate because Parkinson was going on and on about something.

"You room with him what do you think is wrong with my Drakie? Has he been acting weird or anything?"

Hermione continued to try and ignore the other girl and pay attention to Snape but it was becoming increasingly difficult.

Suddenly her questions became accusations, "It's you isn't it that's why he doesn't like me any more you little slut."

"Huh?" Hermione said as she wasn't really paying attention to Pansy.

"It is", then Pansy slapped her.

Hermione looked at her still not sure what was going on but didn't really care, someone had hit her, and now she had a reason to beat the crap out of someone. In the next second Hermione had Pansy pinned to floor repeatedly punching her in the face.

Harry looked up when he heard the first slap. By the time he turned around Pansy was on the ground with Hermione on top of her. He jumped up at almost the same instant as Ron and they started pulling Hermione off and away from Pansy.

"Calm down", Harry and Ron instructed as Hermione tried to twist out of their grasp.

"Let me go", Hermione cried, her eyes still locked on Pansy.

Pansy was lying on the floor her face and part of her robes covered in blood. She was shaking uncontrollably.

Finally Snape stood up, "Mrs. Malfoy please escort Mrs. Parkinson to the infirmary. Mrs. Granger please report to Professor McGonagall, I shall inform her that you are coming. As for the rest of you get back to your potion."

Outside the door, "I think you know where the infirmary is by now", Draco said.

"But I want you to come with me", Pansy pleaded.

"Just go."

"Fine," she turned around and started stomping her way to the infirmary.

Draco stood outside the door and waited for Hermione to come out. "Hey", he caught her arm as she came out.

She turned and at first looked like she was going to punch him then her face softened, "What?"

"What happened in there?" he asked loosening his grip on her arm.

"She hit me and I beat the crap out of her." she replied and started walking.

"Well the last part was obvious, but why?"

She spun around to face him, "I'll tell you later", she said mainly to make him go away as she doubted whether she would.

But he left it at that, "Ok", then he turned and went back to class.

Hermione continued walking, when she got to McGonagall's office, she wasn't there yet so Hermione sat down to wait.

"Hermione, I'm very disappointed in you." McGonagall said, "What made you do such a thing."

Hermione looked up, slightly startled, "I don't know professor, she slapped me and I just starting hitting her." Hermione looked down as she said it, knowing that it was no excuse.

"Well given the circumstances, and what's been going on at you house, I think this will get by with a weeks detention."

"How did you know?"

"Ah very few things go on in the world concerning students that Dumbledore doesn't know about. Now I think you had best get back to class."

"Thank you professor." with that Hermione got up and went back to the last hour of potions.

Hermione skipped lunch and opted to spend the time in the library studying, but not getting very far because she had just received another letter from her father. A few minutes before lunch ended, Draco joined Hermione in the library.

"Hi", he said sliding into the seat across from her.

"Huh? Oh hi", she replied but then looked back down at the letter in her hands.

"You ok?" he asked, "you look like you're about to cry."

"Oh no I'm fine", she answered, not very convincingly.

"Oh yeah everyone who looks like they just lost there best friend is fine, right?"

"You wouldn't understand", she replied then stood up and slipped out of the library before he could reply.

Draco sighed and shook his head then left for his next class.

The remainder of the day, up until after dinner, was uneventful.

Hermione was the first to arrive in the room after dinner. She fingered the note in her pocket, then went into the bathroom, and locked the door. When she was sure the door was locked tightly, she leaned against it and slid down to the floor and cried.

After a few minutes, her tears stopped and she started looking around for something sharp. She found it, under the sink in the back of a draw, a pair of scissors. Slowly she opened them up and ran the blade down her leg starting at the top of her leg and running it almost half way to her knee all the while, putting a generous amount of pressure on it. Where the blade had touched a thin line of blood appeared then grew wider. She just watched then she dipped one finger into the blood and brought it to her lips. It had a metallic taste but it wasn't all bad, in a way it was, comforting. She repeated the action several more times before it started to hurt then she stopped. She cleaned it up enough that there wasn't any blood running down her leg before she left the bathroom and went to her own room.

She had already thrown on a nightshirt and was pulling on a pair of light blue flannel pj pants when she heard a knock on her door. "Just a second," she called then finished putting her pants on and opened the door. "Yes?"

"You said you would tell me later what happened in potions today. It's later.", Draco said.

Hermione sighed, "You aren't going to let me get out of telling you this, are you?"

"Not a chance." He said with a smirk.

"Alright," she shut her door and went to one of the chairs where she tucked her legs under herself as she sat down. Draco sat in the chair across from her and started intently at her. "Pansy was going on about how you weren't paying attention to her or something, I'm not sure because I wasn't really paying attention. Eventually I guess she talked herself into thinking that your were ignoring her because of me and after calling a slut she slapped me. I didn't have the best summer so when presented with an opportunity to release some stress I hit her back and I guess I just didn't think to stop."

"What happened this summer?"

"Nothing," she said realizing too late that she shouldn't have said anything about it to him.

"Is that 'nothing' as you put it what you were having nightmares about last night?" He asked with one eyebrow raised and a trace of sarcasm in his voice.

"No," she answered too quickly.

"Nope, wrong answer."

"Look," she said standing up, "what I dream or don't dream about is none of your business so I'm going to my room."

Draco hadn't heard anything past 'look' because when she stood up he could see the growing blood stain on her pant leg. He looked her in the eyes, "What happened to your leg?"

Her eyes went wide and she looked at her leg, 'shit I should have known better why didn't I put something on it,' she thought. She looked back at him: "I fell."

He stood up and crossed to stand in front of her forcing her to look up at him to accommodate for their height difference, "Bullshit," he whispered, "you don't get that much blood from a fall. What happened?"

"None of your god damn business, Malfoy. Now get out of my way!"

He grabbed her arm and threw her back in the chair, "Not until-" but the rest of his sentence was cut off when he saw the look of pure terror in her eyes. He stepped back, "Hermione, I-"

Before he could finish she jumped up and ran to her room where she put a powerful locking charm on the door.

'Damnit', Draco cursed himself, 'Good job scare the shit out of her that will help.' He went to her door and knocked softly, "Hermione?" He called.

"Go away!" she yelled with her voice breaking.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to do that, please tell me what's wrong."

"You wouldn't understand."

"You'd be surprised what I understand just please tell me."

Silence then: "You swear not to tell anyone?"

"Yes."

A moment of silence then: "At the beginning of the summer my mother left my dad with my younger brother. After that my dad started acting weird but I thought it was just because mom had left, which I guess that was part of the reason. A few weeks later he started coming in to my room at night. He didn't do anything but I could tell he was there sitting at my desk watching me when he thought I was asleep. I don't know if he did it every night but it was often enough that I noticed. Anyways one night he came and sat on my bed and started stroking my hair I didn't think much of it because he used to do that tome when I was a little girl and had had a bad dream. The next night he-", she stopped because her voice got caught in her throat and she had to hold back a sob, "He sat down next to me and started running his hands under my shirt then down between my legs. I tried to stop him I did." She said pleading with Draco to believe her.

"I know you did." He said with tears running down his cheeks not wanting to hear the next part of the story but knowing she needed to tell it.

"He said, 'Your mother left that means you have to be the woman of the house now. That means you have to fill that void that she left.' Then he left for that night. I didn't know what to do I couldn't tell anyone because no one would believe me he's well respected where I live." She had to stop for a minute and try to get herself together enough to finish the story, "The next night he-he came in to my room and sat down next to me and st- he pulled my pants off and he-" she started sobbing so badly that Draco almost didn't hear what she said next, "He raped me." She said softly, "My own father raped me." Then she started sobbing to hard to talk anymore.

'How could anyone do that to such a beautiful girl', he thought as he listened to her broken sobbing. "Hermione please that the charm off so I can come in."

She reached up and took the charm off and Draco entered the room to find her sitting on the floor with her knees pulled up to her chest and her face buried in her knees rocking back and forth still crying.

He knelt next to her and placed his hand on her shoulder; she stiffened at first then leaned into him. He put his arms around her and pulled her into his lap where he rocked her back and forth whispering soothing words to her.

Eventually he asked, "Why did you tell me this?"

"You were the only one who noticed and cared enough to ask." She said softly then continued to cry silently against his chest.

After a few minutes Draco realized she had cried herself to sleep so he stood up and carried her to her bed where he tucked her in then went to sit in their common room but left her door open.

A/N: please review 