Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or the places or anything else you recognise... three guesses to who does own it though! I suppose I own the plot.

A/N: Thanks to everyone who took time to REVIEW my story, it makes me really happy that someone bothered to read it! Thankyou! Nubia/RadcliffeRox24/dragonbabe37981/FlameEyes7/BlazeofHeart1/Areeka Holt/hottennispro88/cc-draco. I would especially like to thank Nubia, RadcliffeRox24 and BlazeofHeart1 because they have followed my story since the beginning... they deserve a glow stick.

Chapter 4

"What the fuck happened here?" Malfoy said this in barely whisper, not being able to control his actions. Even Hermione had her hand up to her mouth in shock.

In front of them were the other carriages with students in them, but one of the carriages that took them by surprise was the first one. Unlike the rest, the colour on back was not the normal velvet purple. Instead, in certain places it was a deep shade of crimson, the colour of blood. The door was partly open and occupants could be heard shouting to each other using worried tones.

They advanced towards the noise, picking up the pace every second. Opening the door, a gruesome site was laid out before them. Lying on the floor of the carriage was Harry Potter the boy who lived, next to him was Ron, Ginny and Neville all with pale faces.

"Hermione I'm glad you're here-

"We couldn't protect him-

"It's all my fault-

"Why's Malfoy behind you-

"I'm scared-

"Tell Malfoy to piss off-

"We couldn't do anything about it-

"Harry's hurt!

It took Hermione a good five minutes to calm down her companions and to stop them from ranting on and on, Malfoy however stood impatiently waiting to find out what had happened, occasionally giving dirty looks to Ron. Once everyone was silent she managed to ask Ron exactly what had occurred.

"Well a man had come and he had a white mask on and was wearing a long black cloak. He started knocking on the door running along side whilst the carriage was moving, so Neville opened the door and let him in," at this point Ron glared at Neville then continued, "The man then made Harry unconscious then stunned us so I can't really remember what happened afterwards. I only regained conscious when I heard Ginny scream. But when we went to look to see if Harry was alright... It was dreadful." Ron broke down then stepped away from Harry.

She walked towards where Harry lay with Malfoy following behind her. Ron glared at him but he ignored it and kept walking anyway. They reached Harry and as he was lying on his stomach she rolled him over. It had been a sickening site so she ran out of the carriage feeling as if she was going to be sick. Curiously Malfoy took Hermione's place and looked at the site before him. It was gory. There was blood everywhere and Potter was right in the middle of it. It was like a pool, except red. This was nothing to Malfoy compared to other things he had seen in his life time. Potter also had his shirt of, then after inspecting the cuts on his chest, he made a horrific discovery. The lines of blood he thought were cuts, were actually words that had been etched onto the skin, (rather deeply as well by the looks of it.) It said:

Muggles, mudbloods, all shall perish

For the Dark Lord is back

Death shall reign again.

At the bottom it had a little mark that looked oddly like his father's Death Eater signature. Malfoy's faced paled when he saw this as he knew that it was his father's doings. He stood up, and then told Ron to carefully pick up Potter and to take him to the Heads carriage. Ron disagreed at first but then reluctantly did as he was told. Ron followed Malfoy who was leading the way as did Hermione.

How could his father have done this? Yes he was an evil man and hurting people was his form of fun but it was cruel to take these actions. It was cruel to hurt people for the sake of it. It was cruel to torment people for another person. Even if it was Potter, the boy who lived, the boy to whom people would say: Let's praise Harry because he defeated you-know-who! And a whole lot of other crap along those lines. Pushing these thoughts out of his head he reached the carriage then told Ron to piss off back to their carriage. This made Ron furious but after saying that if he wouldn't go he would leave Pothead to die, he reconsidered and left.

Hermione came inside then took care of Harry for the remaining journey, Malfoy sat to the side resuming once again to staring out the window. All throughout his life, since he was a Malfoy, he had been taught not to show any emotion except anger and hatred to anyone. But wait, did he really want to continue being the arrogant person he was? Screw his father; it wasn't up to him how he turned out anyway. Staring at Hermione he admired how she could be so caring yet firm when she had had to.

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Once they arrived at the school grounds, they got off their carriage (with Malfoy carrying Draco) and ran inside towards the hospital wing. All throughout their journey, Hermione noticed things that were different. Malfoy hadn't taunted her as much, in fact he didn't talk as much at all, he didn't refuse to carry Harry and he seemed to be cooperating with her.

They reached the hospital wing in no time at all, puffing and panting. Thrusting open the doors the called out for madam Promfrey, she then came bustling in muttering to herself. It seemed that they had interrupted her. None the less she took him in and healed him instantly. Few moments passed then she turned around and questioned them. Taking in turns to retell the story to her, everything was said except the fact that it was Malfoy's father who had committed the crime. Eventually she was satisfied then sent them off for the remainder of the Start of Year feast.

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Professor McGonagall tapped her wine glass graciously enquiring for everyone to be silent. Dumbledore strode to the podium, his magnificent beard swaying with his movements. He began his usual speech, at this point Draco had tuned out, and although he was no Malfoy inside, nothing was going to stop him from loathing this great wizard that he referred to constantly as the 'old bastard'.

Minutes passed then at the words of head boy, Malfoy snapped back to reality suddenly all aware of what was going. It appeared that he was to report to the old bastard after the speech to go to their new dormitories.

Meanwhile at Gryffindor table Hermione wasn't enjoying herself at all. She frequently worried about the state of Harry and how she was going to cope through the year without parents to support her and without her so called 'friends'. Ron didn't look a bit worried about his best friend but was actually quite the opposite. He had a wide smile on his face and was flirting with Lavander Brown, the Gryffindor pretty girl. Sighing to herself, she continued to stare at the podium.

Dumbledore had finally reached the end of the speech, so she went up to him like she was told. Malfoy arrived seconds after her with a blank look on his face, not even acknowledging her presence. Waiting for what seemed like hours, Dumbledore finally spoke.

"Welcome back Miss Granger and Mr Malfoy, our new head boy and girl. I would like to congratulate you on receiving these important titles Hogwarts will now recognise you by. As for now, there is no time for a chit chat, I must now go and take you to where your new dormitories that you will be staying in for the rest of the year are." With that he turned on his heel leading the way.

It's about bloody time we started moving, God he never shuts up! Malfoy thought to himself muttering angrily about his headmaster. Reaching the top of the stairs, a portrait of Gilderoy Lockhart with his merry face hung beaming at them. Oh great, we get a portrait that is obsessed with itself as our Portrait hole, thought Malfoy, but wait, hadn't he too had been obsessed with himself at some point? This was all frustrating him so he focussed his attention the old bastard again.

"We have arrived at your common room and the password is Harry Potter. I hope you have a pleasant sleep, your duties will begin on the first school day and what you have to do has been kindly pinned up onto the notice board inside. Enjoy your stay." Dumbledore left without saying anymore so they went inside.

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Entering the common room, they inspected it without a word, not even a glance at each other was made. It was as if no one was in the room except for themselves. Hermione looked around and was quite impressed with her new lodgings. The carpet was a dazzling green with different patterns on it coloured with silver. The walls were pale red whilst on the windows; the curtains were velvet blue and black. Deciding that she would look around the rest of the place tomorrow, she sat down on the couch and took out her Discman again. Before she had the chance to turn it on, Malfoy sat opposite her then stared.

"Greetings mudblood Granger. Think you can just get away with me having to carry Pothead all the way to the hospital wing. He's like a fucken elephant. All that hard labour I had to do just to go up all those flights of stairs." He continued with a mock voice, "Poor old potty, he got a little cutty on his chesty. It must have hurwt."

"Shut up Malfoy, now's not the time to piss me off. I'm not in the mood and plus I'm worried sick over Harry so just piss off!"

"Ooooooh, Granger's playing tough. I never knew she had it in her." He said this shaking his head and holding his fist to where his heart was, "And why do you care about what happened to Harry. It's not like Weasel did anyway. For all you know they probably don't even care about you, in fact nobody cares about you!" He knew he had gone too far with his last comment; tears had sprung from her eyes which were filled with hurt.

"You immature, unloved, arrogant, dick headed prick!" Holding her head up high so to hold back the tears, she walked to the furthest corner of the room and plopped herself on a bean bag. How dare he do what he just did! If that's how he thought about her life, that's what he's going to get. Little git! Taking out her Discman again, she played a song by Evanescence.

Perfect by nature

Icons of self indulgence

Just what we all need

More lies about a world that

Never was and never will be

Have you no shame don't you see me

You know you've got everybody fooled

Look here she comes now

Bow down and stare in wonder

Oh how we love you

No flaws when you're pretending

But now I now she...

Hermione fell into an uneasy sleep. Meanwhile on the other side of the room Malfoy had been quite hurt with her departing words. He stretched out on the couch then decided to forget about his problems for the meantime.

So what did you think about that chapter? Please tell me by reviewing! I like reviews because they make me feel special! LOL! Tell me if you want the chapters longer and I will attempt to make it longer. I have been trying. I think this chapter was about 2000 words. Should I have more? Please review.

Love ya all!

Michelle

PS Hey Samantha, if you are reading this, though I highly doubt it, Uncle Andrew bought you glow sticks! I'll bring it with me to the Philippines if you review my story. But there's a catch, in the review, you have to summarise each chapter in just one review. That's just so I know you actually read it. Too bad if you don't see this part of the story... I'll have to keep them for myself. Mwahahahaha. By the way, Robert said Hi and so did Adam!