DISCLAIMER: Nope, not mine. J.K Rowling's.
Hermione stood in the Headmaster's office, her mouth still dry from what she had witnessed. After she had heard the screams, she had just run into the bathroom as fast as she could, not stopping to care what the boy would think.
When she saw the porcelain body lying on the floor, with blood dripping slowly from his ears and pooling out of a cut on the back of his head, things had gone hazy. She used all of her will power to gather herself, and had shouted at the nearest portrait she saw to quickly get Dumbledore and Madame Poppy. She dropped to her knees and put his head in her lap, the past six years shoved to the back of her mind. She combed her finger through his hair, wiping away the blood as tears ran down her face. Seeing him like this, completely helpless instead of cocky and arrogant left her not knowing what to think. Their relationship had always been defined by him tormenting her and her lecturing back at him, but now she was left alone.
She lifted up her eyes to check if she could see what had done this to him, if something was lurking in the shadows of the foggy bathroom, but in doing so she just saw the rest of his body lying like a marble statue in front of her. She tore her eyes away, feeling indecent and not wanting to debase the body anymore than it already was. She grabbed the dark green towel lying over the sink and draped it over him.
She was right in time, as Dumbledore rushed in at that very moment with Snape by his side. The old man looked at Hermione's tear-stained face, and gently guided her out of the way. The two wizards had then elevated and concealed the dormant boy, and brought him to Madame Poppy.
"It's his father. The ties between them are so strong, Lucius wants to control his son completely, but the boy hasn't let him in at all yet. Rather skilled at Occlumency, Draco is. I'm afraid it's my fault – if I hadn't let him make up his mind today, none of this would have happened. He was weakened," Dumbledore was murmuring this to himself as he paced in front of Hermione.
"Headmaster…what did he make up his mind about?" Hermione tentatively took a step towards the distressed man, but he just looked at her with a faraway expression and asked if she wanted a lemon drop. When she declined, he politely sent her back to her apartments, leaving the poor girl more confused than ever.
When she arrived back at her room, she opened the door and stopped, shocked to see the back of Draco's head already sitting in the couch he had adopted as his own. She quietly said hello and the head turned to reveal not the face she hated but had learned to cope with, but one she would never be able to feel any sympathy for – Lucius Malfoy's.
"Well, well, well…look at who my son is boarding with. Hermione Granger, the know-it-all Mudblood. It is delightful to know that my distrust in this institution's caliber has been proved correct."
Hermione winced at the hateful words the cold man spit at her, but didn't say anything and just tried to walk past him, knowing full well what damage he could do.
"Are you simply in the habit of ignoring your superiors Mudblood? Look at me, you disgusting piece of filth!" Lucius grabbed Hermione's face and forced it up at him, tracing her lips with the edge of his wand. "Well, I see that the dirty little thing isn't quite so ugly anymore – are you, girl? If your lineage wasn't so repulsive, I wouldn't put it past myself to… get to know your body a little better." At this, he ran an icy-cold finger down her arm and pulled her closer.
Hermione, horrified, tried to pull away and shot out at the intimidating man, "Remind me to thank my parents for being Muggles then."
Immediately, she regretted the words, as Lucius' eyes, so unlike Draco in as many ways as they were similar, clouded over and turned the orbs into almost jet-black pools of cruelty. She felt his hand tighten on her robes, and closed her eyes; waiting for the blow she knew was coming. Pain shot through her body as the hand collided with her temple, and she collapsed onto the ground.
As she lifted her eyes to stare defiantly at Lucius, she saw his head turn sharply towards the door, an expression of fear flickering briefly across it. She looked where his eyes landed, and saw what seemed like a supernatural vision. Dumbledore was standing in the entrance, his robes billowing around him and a light seeming to emit from his wiry body. His wand was out in front of him, pointed at Lucius' heart.
"How dare you touch a student like that, Lucius Malfoy?" Dumbledore's voice was low, but was the most powerful sound Hermione had ever heard. Lucius opened his mouth to reply, but at that moment, Hermione started to fall into the ground sosoftitmustbesosoftwherewasherbed and as she blacked out, Dumbledore's figure shined above her hewasherangelanglesarelikediamondswhereisherfireangel.
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