him, and his smirk was even more unbearable than normal.
It was Lucius Malfoy.
She knew it the minute she felt his breath in her ear. The hands that had caught her by the sides were sleek and artistic. So clean, and so covered in blood. He smelled of richness. He was so deceiving. One would think he'd been sitting, eating dinner at posh restaurants all evening, rather than out at a Battle, killing the innocent and the "impure."
"Miss Granger," he whispered, and turned her towards him. "Why were you crying? What has upset you, so?" His tone was so mocking. She was so close to him, it made her sick.
"Let me go, Malfoy!" she struggled, but to no avail. His grip on her was a grip of steal.
"Why would I do that, Miss Granger? Give me one good reason, and I shall."
She didn't have one, none that she could offer to him. He didn't care about her well fare. He didn't care that she didn't want to die. He didn't care that there was people that loved her, that would suffer at her death. He didn't care that, no matter how lost she was, she didn't think the solution was death. He didn't care that his touch made her sick. he didn't care that she hated him, as much as he hated her.
"You're just a little girl, aren't you? So impure, so filthy. So tainted. The war is in your eyes, girl. And yet..." He pressed himself closer to her, restraining her. "I want to taste you, Granger. I can, you know. I can do it, if you die afterwards. If you die afterwards, I do not have to be ashamed of lowering myself to your level."
He pushed her back on to the bed, and pressed himself on top of her.
"Get off me, Malfoy!" she screamed, but fear affected her volume. He shushed her mockingly and his hand stopped her from screaming again. She was isolated in this room now, so far from Harry or Ron or anyone that cared. How did Malfoy even get in here? How had he done it? No Death Eaters had ever been able to break the wards Dumbledore had up before.
"You sent my son off to jail, Granger," Malfoy said now, his tone suddenly nasty. "I have not forgiven you. Draco's free now, but I don't know where he is. I fear he may blame me. But he won't, Granger. Not if I punish you. Not if I make you pay. Only your pain will make my son forget his own."
He licked her neck, and one of his hands covered her mouth, while the other one roamed roughly. Tears rolled from her eyes, and she found that she was terrified. She couldn't let this happen, but how could she stop it? Maybe he was right... maybe she did deserve to be punished like this. But... not like this... please...not like this.
"I guess you're wondering how I got in here," Malfoy said now, enjoying her fear, drawing it out. "Some one let me in, Granger. Someone who knew exactly what I wanted to do with you..."
Her fear had reached peaking point all of a sudden. She started to fight again, struggling with more power and energy than she remembered having in quite some time. She wouldn't let him do this... she wasn't that sort of girl... she'd never give in...
It was useless and yet Malfoy suddenly stopped. She thought for a minute that he was leaving her go, but then his whole body froze and he fell on top her, no longer able to support himself. Why couldn't he? Because he was dead.
Without him restraining her, she kicked him off her. He was little more than a heavy stiff board. Dead as a door knob. With her new found freedom of movement, she pushed herself up on the bed and looked gratefully at her savoir.
It was Draco Malfoy.
Draco looked upon her. This girl... this stupid, innocent, small girl... had forced him to live in this hell for the last five years. He was angry, angry because he wasn't sure why he wasn't angry at her. Her eyes were wild, brown and full of water. So unlike everyone else's. Everyone he had seen, everyone he had watched all day, were cold and emotionless. The war had changed everyone. There was no laughter. There was no sadness. There was no...anything. All there was were shadows, and people fighting for things they didn't even believe in any more. People fighting for things they couldn't even remember anymore.
But Granger, Hermione, had emotion in her eyes. He hadn't seen emotion in so long. Five years, actually. But here she was...crying...
He didn't want to kill her. Not yet.
He walked towards the bed. She backed away, as far as she could. Oh, so she felt fear too. He inhaled deeply.
She was sensational.
He had nothing now. There was nothing for him left now. He had just killed his father. His mother was in St. Mungo's, after being driven crazy. She was as good as dead. She store blankly at walls all day.
He had nothing now... but Granger.
He would make her pay, for taking everything from him. He still remembered coming to her for comfort, not the hell she gave him. He would have preferred to stay with Voldemort, at least he would have been able to hang on to something resembling happiness. Now, he would never experience happiness again, and it was all her fault. He had blamed his father too, but now he was dead. So, it was all on Granger now. She owed him and he would force her to pay up.
He reached out and took her face into his hand, making her look at him properly. He drank her in. She had changed so much...
"Hello, Hermione..." He said this quietly, testing out her first name for the first time. His voice was cracked, from lack of use.
He had imagined meeting her like this for so long now. It had been what all his unhappiness had focused on. It had let him keep some of his sanity. A little bit of his sanity. He had half a mind to crack her neck now, but then he really would be empty.
She was so small. Had she always looked this young? She had always been rather curvy, he'd always thought. Now she was skinny, scrawny one might say. Malnourished and tired. She was suffering... it made him tingle.
"Malfoy," she breathed, her eyes still on his. "How...?"
How what? She never finished her question and he never would have answered it anyway. He owed her nothing.
"Why...?" A better question, but still one he had no desire to answer.
That emotion she felt... he wanted it.
He shook her head, examining her. He turned her head to the left and to the right. She let him, eyes still on his, staring, in shock. Her chin seemed more pointed. Her hair was no longer wild. It was somewhere between curly and straight, not nice, but not as noticeable. She was pale. Her eyes seemed much more prominent, because of her sunken cheeks and thin lips. She could never be called pretty, even now.
He was confused.
He threw her away from him suddenly, with the hand that had been on her face. It hurt her - he saw the flinch of pain in her face – and he turned from her. He didn't want to look at her anymore. He realised that he should have left his father torture and kill her. She deserved it. Why was he here, looking at her? After five years of imprisonment, didn't he have something better to do?
He caught sight of his reflection in her mirror, while trying to avoid her gaze. It horrified him... he hadn't seen the damage that place, Azkaban, had done. Naturally good looking, now he was nothing more than an insignificant looking manic. He could do nothing, but start laughing. He kept laughing, not looking at her or himself.
"What did Azkaban do to you, Malfoy?" she whispered softly.
He wouldn't have given her an answer even if he had, had one. But he didn't. The question rang in his head, until it was too loud. She said something else, but he couldn't hear it. He realised then that he was in danger here, that she was potentially harmful to him, and that he must go. He turned, walked to her balcony, jumped off of it, landed like a cat, perfect and unharmed, and disappeared into the night.
Hermione watched him go, completely and utterly bewildered. She might have cried, if she had anything left in her. She stayed on her bed for a long time, feeling more lost than ever.
On the floor beside her, Lucius Malfoy lay dead.
I felt mean, having left this story on a cliffie. So I said I'd update quickly! How did you like it? Bet you didn;t think it was Lucius, eh? She was... kind of ...lucky Draco was there, but he might turn out worse!
Anyway, it'll be a bit longer before I update again because, well, I have just realised my exams are barely a week away, and I so did not know that! So I have to cram and stuff!
Please review to cheer me up! Any one up to anything interesting for the summer?
I have a couple of plans, alright. Hopefully it'll be good! I can't believe it's come so soon!