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

Cascades of truth and water

The melodramatic droll of teenage girls filled the room. The girls seemed unbothered by the sticky warmth of the bathroom.

It had been a long time since Hermione had feared showering, but now she looked down at her body and saw the bites and scratches that covered her breasts and stomach, they were beginning to fade but they where still evident especially when it was warm.

The warm water cascaded down Hermione's body soaking into her skin. She closed her eyes and placed her face under the constant stream of water that fell from the shower head above. The water kept coming endlessly with no pauses between giving Hermione time to breath.

Her lungs started to scream for oxygen, but se kept her face under the water. She could feel herself becoming light from lack of air and the water seemed to come down harder. After a few minutes Hermione pulled her face from the deafening silence and back into the world of girl talk and loud squeals of laughter.

Hermione breathed deeply filling her lungs with the much needed substance. Deep breath after deep breath echoed in her head. Slowly she sunk to her knees on defeat letting her salty tears mingle with the warm calming flow of water coming from above. 'Why did I have to stop? Why couldn't I just drown?' she tried to suppress the sobs as the tears kept coming mixing with the water that was there to clean. She pulled away from the wall and leaned forward so her head was once again covered by the stream of water, she placed her forehead on the tiles on the cubical floor, letting the sobs come and the tears to drown.

After ten minutes of sitting like that Hermione slowly pulled herself off the ground and turned off the taps, before slowly wrapping herself in a warm clean dressing gown that covered her body from prying eyes.

She opened the cubical door and headed towards the door, she caught a glance of herself in one of the mirrors that lined the walls and let out a barely audible groan and approached the forsaken mirror.

Her face was pale and seemed pinched and red from the heat. Her large brown eyes looked like pools of nothing that went on forever and her hair was sticking to her face and neck. She raised a hand mechanically and ran her fingers though her long curls and sighed softly and closed her eyes. Stopping her senseless attempts to tame her hair in mid stroke ending up with her hand at the back of her head and she pressed them into her skull as hard as she could soaking in the pain.

"Are you alright?" Hermione opened her eyes and saw the caring face of a sixth year, one of Ginny's few friends. Hermione didn't even attempt a smile.

"I'm fine" 'fine the meaningless answer to a question that you don't want to answer. If I told you the true answer to that question I would be digging you into a grave and take away the bubble of ignorance that surrounds you and replace it with worries and wonders that will fill your head and drave you crazy that would make you me, all because I answered a stupid meaningless question that is asked when your curious but you never get the real answer.' Hermione turned and walked away towards the door that would lead her back to the girls dorms.

c",)

Draco watched the ceiling above as he lay on his back in professor Snape's dungeon. He was lying on a desk in the middle of the room watching the shadows flicker on the ceiling. The torches made just enough light to make the ceiling seem like a river with light splayed across it, it seemed to shiver and shake with the flicks of the torches.

It looked like it was made of liquid and not the strong stones that had been there since the building was made he wanted to reach out and touch it, he was nearly sure that his hand slip right through to another world instead of hitting solid stone. Its amazing how something that looks so fragile in the candle light holds up the rest of the building.

The door to the potions classroom opened and Snape's footsteps were heard. Draco lazily looked away from the ceiling and towards the front of the classroom where he knew Snape would be in a matter of seconds.

"Get the bloody hell off the table" Draco didn't move, but made sure his bored arrogant appearance was at its greatest. "Don't be a twat. Now get off the table." still Draco didn't move, Snape gave up and placed the parchment on the desk at the front of the room. "Do you know why you're here?" 'Always the same questions when at detention, its like counselling, establish the reason why there here, then make them feel guilty. Always the same, never differ, quite dull really'

"No sir, I'm sorry but I don't entirely know would you care to enlighten me?" a muscle twitched in Snape's jaw.

"You're here, Mr Malfoy because you were in a fight during class. Potter and Weasley are also attending detentions with their head of house." Draco nodded slowly and looked back at the ceiling. The torch flames where making strange shadows like in a story book, he could see a dragon and a knight, oh and look at how the knight falls. Draco wanted to laugh out aloud at the strange show that was being played for him and him alone on the stage that was a theatre.

"Does it make you feel big?" Draco said not looking away from the flickering lights. The candles in his room didn't flicker; some stupid spell put on them so they are perfectly still and can't be extinguished unless wanted to. Stupid spell, stupid cause, probably because ickle first years get scared by moving shadows in the dead of the night in the cold dark dungeons.

"Does what make me fell big Mr Malfoy?" Draco let a small smile creep onto his face.

"playing the big man, yelling at the student and forcing them to do things they don't want to do, all because you can, because you are a teacher, a higher being" the muscle in Snape's jaw twitched again, 'good'

"No Mr Malfoy, I don't punish students because I can, I punish them because I have to." Draco rolled his eyes at the ceiling.

"But it must make you feel good, always the target of the school yard pranks, always teased and sneered at, and now you can do it all, with all the other teachers behind you. I suppose that's why you joined Voldemort isn't it? Make others feel bad. But then again I bet it makes you feel real good, the fact that your double crossing one of the meanest wizards around. A spy for the light side, now that is a laugh." Snape was completely still looking at Draco with a hint of fear in his eyes. Before turning swiftly towards the door.

"You have no idea. You're nothing but a spoilt rich kid who knows nothing of loyalty or redemption. You get by on your looks and a couple of smarts but you have no idea what pain is and what it can do to you." Snape closed the door behind him and paused outside the door wondering why he had told Draco that.

Draco let out a laugh as he lay on the table, he laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world, but it was like Hermione's was during class, hysterical and only there to hide his pain.

"you have no idea what I know" he whispered before slowly getting off the table and walking towards the door. Before closing the door behind him as he entered the cold corridor.

A/N sorry it was kinda short but it's done and the next chapter is on the way. Hope you liked it.

Thanks to my reviewers, it takes me longer to list all of my reviewers then to write the chapter, I'll write all my thanks and responses to your questions on the next chapter.