Salt in your wounds

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry potter or any of the other characters or the places or anything this plot is mine but that's about it anything that you recognise is not mine either, although I'm pretty sure there isn't much.

CHAPTER

Falling from great heights

Professor Binns talked about the witch burnings, his dull voiced droned on about numbers and dates and places; putting each student into a half-dead state of mind. The class was either half asleep or completely incapable of thought processing.

Hermione granger sat obediently in class between two couples, to her left sat Harry potter, with his current girlfriend lavender. And to her right Ron sat originally but somehow he had managed to switch with is girlfriend Pavarti. Hermione sat tapping her quill lightly on her parchment and lazily closed her eyes. Without realising she drifted off to a peaceful sleep.

She was woken by a loud voice. "What the hells your problem Malfoy?" the voice of Harry potter shouted across the room.

"Yeah, can't get some yourself so you have to tell others to stop?" Ron's deeper voice shot. Hermione slowly opened her eyes and saw that the professor had left the classroom, and Harry and Ron had their girlfriends on their laps. Lavender and Pavarti seemed quite entertained about their knights in shining armour fighting because of them.

"If you really must give the class a show of your mating habits then could you not do it so bloody loud? Honestly the noises you thick heads make couldn't turn on a donkey" Hermione stifled a laugh when she saw the looks of hatred Draco was receiving from the two girls and the two boys.

"Oh as if! Bet you couldn't get any one to fall for you if you tried!" Harry shot back, grinning broadly seemingly proud of his retort.

"Why? Because I have piercing and black hair no chick would get turned on by me? Try asking your girlfriends if that is how they thought last year" Draco shouted lazily over the class room, and you could almost feel the class hold its breath.

"As if they would waste their time with filth like you" Ron said loudly no longer liking the class's attention on them. The two girls were looking quite unconfutable with their current situation. Finally Hermione thought it wise to intervene.

"Ok I think that's enough" Harry looked like he was going to say more but she placed a firm hand on his shoulder and whispered harshly, "let it go Harry". Lavender fumed at this.

"Don't listen to her! Honestly who do you think you are, this is none of your business so why don't you just butt out of it!" Hermione looked like she had been slapped; she raised her eyebrows slowly and felt anger burn inside her.

"Oh shit" was heard from the other side of the room, but it was ignored, Hermione glared menacingly at the girl in front of her.

"Fuck you" was all she managed to say. Most of the class looked stunned; none of them had heard the pristine head girl swear before, let alone at someone else.

"What?" lavender said looking shocked?

"I said fuck you! Do you need me to spell it for you?! I'm telling your boyfriend leave it, and getting Malfoy off his back and you tell me to get out of it? Well excuse me if I don't want to lose any house points because your boyfriend is to fucking proud to let go of an insult about his dick!" the Slytherin half of the class burst out laughing and the Gryffindor looked in shock at their head girl. Hermione looked towards the Slytherin's and locked eyes with draco, he wasn't laughing with the rest of them, he just was sitting there with a cautious look on his face, but Hermione was to upset to care about anything at the moment, she rounded on lavender again. "Don't you dare tell him to not listen to me and that this is none of my business! I've been their best friends for the past six years! How dare you!" she said loudly trying not to shout, with this last comment lavender got a smug look on her face and sneered superiorly at Hermione.

"Well if you're such a good best friend why didn't you send them any owls over the holidays?" lavender looked like she was a cat that just got extra cream for dinner. Hermione on the other hand looked like this was the funniest thing she had heard all year. There was another mutter of 'shit' from the other end of the class room before Hermione burst into a fit of hysterical laughter that ran through the now silent class room. She laughed loudly frightening lavender and everyone else in the room.

"... You! You have no idea!... none of you do!" she shouted in between hysterical laughs. "None!" she said between laughs before throwing her head back and laughing harder. Everyone in the class could see the tears that rolled down her cheeks.

Suddenly she stopped laughing and pushed her chair back making it scratch on the floor before standing up and glaring coldly at lavender. Harry had his head hidden behind her and was making it very obvious he didn't want to get involved in another fight with Hermione.

"how fucking dare you, you stupid slut" Hermione said in a deadly whisper before stalking towards the door and slamming it behind her not caring that she had walked right though professor Binns.

An hour later Hermione sat silently gazing at a book in the library she heard footsteps coming her way but assumed it was madam prince the librarian. The footsteps stopped right in front of her but she still didn't look up.

"You okay?" Draco's husky voice asked quietly. Hermione looked up at him, she had stopped laughing ages ago and her face was now pale, and she looked exhausted.

"Yeah." She whispered.

"Sorry about class" Draco said taking the seat opposite her. Hermione looked up at him again and stared into her eyes.

"Why are you sorry?" she questioned genuinely confused,

"Well I started all that shit by telling them to shut up and get a room" Hermione smiled at the muggle expression.

"Oh well, it was something interesting." She said in a would-be cheerful voice besides the lump that had made its way to her throat, and the sob that escaped. But she wiped away the tears before they fell and placed her cold hands on her warm face.

"I believe the last thing you want is interesting like that" Draco said smiling at her. She smiled back and let out a laugh, before changing to a serious expression and stared into his eyes.

"what happened to you?" draco shrugged lazily and gazed back into her eyes, he say that she wasn't curious but caring, he sighed and leaned forward on the table and whispered hoarsely.

"A lot of things happened, what do you want to know?" Hermione didn't look away but stared right back into his eyes.

"Everything, tell it to me from the start." Draco nodded and stood up gesturing for her to follow, and she did.

He led her to the astronomy tower and sat down on the old edge like they had so many days before. Hermione joined him leaning her back onto the wall near the end of the landing. Draco and Hermione sat watching the sun slowly set and the wind blow lightly on them. Draco finally spoke and his voice was clear and calm, no hint of fear, or anger, or even sadness was evident in his voice, just bitter humour.

"My father beat me, it started when I was younger, curses, fists, his cane, unforgivable, it made no difference, just as long as it made me hurt. He would yell at me to, 'take the beatings, it'll make you stronger!' along with a couple of his other favourites such as 'shut up and listen to me when I'm talking you stupid brat!' and 'your worst then those filthy mudblood's! Beaten by a mudblood you stupid ingrate, do you have any idea how you put the Malfoy name to shame?!' no matter what I did it was never good enough, he just hated me for existing. Not like it would be any better without him, I had my mother as well, she wasn't strong enough to hurt me with fists and kicks, so she always used her wand. Sometimes I think I preferred my father's kicks and punches to my mothers blow after blow of painful curses. She set me on fire once because she caught me talking to one of the house elves that work at the manor. As I got older, the beatings got worst. I sometimes loved coming to Hogwarts, it meant I was finally away from them, but I could never be truly alone, my last name alone is enough of a reminder. To be a Malfoy, isn't just to belong to the family, but its nearly a whole different race of being, Malfoy's don't give a shit if your smart or nice, they just care about hurting those weaker then them, to be a Malfoy, is to have no soul, it's the most painful thing in the world sometimes, and I wouldn't wish it upon my worst enemy. And to be constantly reminded of it is even worst. You must act properly, or you will be punished, you may not be kind, or you will be punished, you have to be perfect in every single fucking way, or you will be punished. It can be the hardest thing in the world, to belong to a family.

During the simmer, I would be beaten everyday, we had a bunch of death eaters around one night, and I by chance said something that wasn't pleasing enough, like I didn't want to kiss Voldemort's ass like all of them, they didn't like that at all, so once they left I was taken to the dungeons and beaten worst then I had ever been beaten before. Near the end I cracked it, something in me just snapped, so I apperated away to the muggle world, I would be moderately safe there, my father, is big and strong and well known and somewhat feared in the wizarding world but in the muggle world he is nothing, he's just a mad man with some money and no job or history.

I nearly died that night, and the next morning I was found by Natasha," at this point he paused telling the story and let a small smile spread over his face, calming his features and getting rid of the stress lines that had appeared on his forehead as he had been telling his story. He let out a long sigh into the darkening sky. Then continued to talk. "Natasha was a twenty something year old, she worked as a nurse in the local hospital, she found me lying in the gutter about a block from her house. She took me in and healed most of my cuts and wounds the muggle way, I woke somewhere in the middle and stayed watching her. It amazed me that she didn't know who I was but yet she still looked after me with all the care that she could. I had two broken ribs and a whole lot of cuts and bruises, when I had woken up and become a little better she tried to persuade me to go to the police but I wouldn't, I couldn't I mean what would I say to them? 'my father is a well known wizard who likes to beat me as does my mother, don't bother trying to catch them you'd be dead before you say your under arrest' so she just assumed I had done something wrong and I didn't want to go near the police, I said I would leave but she made me stay until I was better. She had a son Tommy, he was two, and he loved anything to do with bug's bunny, he and I became good friends. So did Natasha and me, I sort of told her about where I come from and why I couldn't go to the police and she nodded understandingly and told me I could stay with her, I would help her with the shopping and everything else while I was getting better and afterwards as well, the lady at the check-out in the supermarket kept asking Natasha if we had planned the wedding day yet, and she would easily laugh it off and we would walk over to the kindergarten and pick up Tommy. A lot of the other children there thought I was his long lost daddy, he loved the idea. And I think so did Natasha, she had been looking after Tommy alone for two years and it was good to have some one around to help.

I soon started thinking about Natasha as a sister; they were the family I had always hoped for, always longed for. Natasha would tell me stories about her grandmother, she had loved her grandmother so much, she would tell me stories she had once been told.

I lived with them for about a month before I was found by my father's death eater buddies. They took me away from the only people who ever loved me and back to the manor, I was beaten again and again, wands, fists, medieval weaponry, made no difference, the only thing that kept me alive was the thought that I had to get back to them and see if they where alive. So I did, I ran away again to Natasha's house and opened it with the spare key.

Then I found them, I found Tommy hanging from his ceiling light, the rope around his neck probably strangled him before he was hung, he was hung for knowing me! I found Natasha on her bed, they had raped her and cut her and mutilated her perfect face. I stayed with them for so long, and ran away again, I thought I could hide from them, but I couldn't, they found me and locked me in a cell with the bodies of Natasha and Tommy, I couldn't go to them and keep their bodies warm, they chained me up and made me look at the corpses of the only two people I ever loved. That's how heartless those bastards are. I was in there for three days. And before I knew what was happening I was being beaten again and left in my room for a gonna.

Then I did it, I ran away again, I couldn't bare to stay in that shit hole of a mansion anymore, so I didn't I went and stayed at the leaky cauldron until it was time to go back to school. Dickhead Dumbledore didn't realise I had left home and hadn't sent my mail to me, a house elf bought me my badge and money to buy my school supplies." Draco wiped his eyes free of any tears and turned to face Hermione, she was sitting stock-still gazing intently at him. They had a unspoken understanding for what she meant.

Minutes passes and each seemed like an hour. Hermione watched as the sky went from light to dark, after half an hour of sitting in silence draco stood up on the edge and spread his arms out to the side. Hermione watched as he closed his eyes and swayed with the wind.

"To fly on the winds back, and hear everything it has to tell, that is majesty." He spoke again reciting the words Natasha had once told him. "to hear the secrets of the world and watch as the sky turns from light to dark, and dark to light, that is only majesty" Hermione looked up at him but he kept his eyes tightly closed. "I heard of a spell once, it prevents death from high places, I always wanted to see if it worked." with this he turned to face Hermione opening his eyes, they had a strange glint in them and a seemingly far off gaze. Slowly Draco started to turn around on the ledge in slow moving circles. He produced his wand and with graceful movements he circled it above his head and then above Hermione's. Hermione felt a slow warming sensation sweep through her body like someone was dripping melted butter over her. "Liber cadere nunquam obitus" the Latin words rang through Hermione's body. Hermione watched with fascination as draco placed his wand away. "if it worked as long as your alive, I cant die if I jump or fall of a high place, as with you if I die" then draco rose his hands up again and closed his eyes before stepping backwards off the building.

Hermione lunged forwards holding on to the edge and watched as draco fell towards the ground, he didn't move or scream, he stayed perfectly still and opened his eyes watching as the castle tower became higher and higher before he felt a warming sensation in the pit of his stomach and came to a slowing pace and soon found himself lying on his back looking up at the sky.

Hermione watched with sick fascination as Draco became smaller and smaller quickly heading towards the ground. When she saw him land softly on the ground below she wished silently that she would one day be able to do that.

A/N another chapter gone and done, please review it, they make it a lot easier to write, knowing that people are out there reading it and hopefully enjoying it.