I don't own anything.
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"Hermione, will you please run to the store for some more milk?" Hermione, who had been reading in the living room of her aunt's house, gave a sigh.
"Sure." She was leaving first thing tomorrow morning, her birthday was yesterday and she was now her own boss. As much as she liked spending time with her family, it only served as a painful reminder of her parents. Not to mention, she had been extremely bored since being apart from Draco. As she got the milk from the store down the road, she wondered for a moment, if he was missing her.
'Don't be silly, why would he miss you?' She was about to answer herself, when a grimy hand snatched out and wrapped itself around her mouth. It muffled her scream of surprise as she was pulled into the alleyway.
"Shut up you stupid bitch!" The breath coming from the man's mouth was enough to make Hermione want to gag. "Pretty thing aren't we," he sneered as his hands ran up and down over her curves. Her wiggling seemed only to serve to make the man angrier, because he yelled at her to stay still as he backhanded her hard enough to knock her to the ground.
Hermione's mind was racing, panic continued to flood her senses as the man started to undo his pants. Why had she agreed to go to the store at night, why had her parents died, why did she suddenly feel horrible about never seeing Draco again? Her thoughts about Draco switched the light on in her head. 'Draco, Hogwarts, magic…my wand.' She frantically pulled out her wand and brandished it at the vulgar man in front of her, as he was making to pull his pants down.
"Get back, leave me alone, I'm warning you!" Her attempts made the evil man cackle with laughter.
"What are you gonna to? Poke me with your-" He never got to finish he sentence as Hermione cut him off.
"Expelliarmus!" She roared, sending the man into the opposite wall where he was knocked unconscious. Her dazed stupor lasted all of half a second and she was running away from the alley with all her remaining strength. Milk jug in hand.
Her decision to keep her incident a secret came as a surprise to her. Once she stepped into the house her aunt questioned what took her so long, and why was her face purple. A quick glance in the mirror showed the beginnings of a black eye, and some serious swelling.
"Oh, that. I fell off the curb on the way home, took me a minutes to get my head to stop spinning." She had never lied like that before, not about something so important anyway. The lie was bought though and Hermione used a glamour charm to cover the mess. Her night was filled with haunting faces, green lights, the final scream of her mother, and smelly breath.
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Knock, knock
"Please come in Mr. Malfoy." Draco poked his head inside the headmaster's office.
"Sorry to bother you, but I was wondering, if maybe, you knew…"
"Ms. Granger should be in the great hall by now, please help her to find the rooms, if you don't mind that is." The sparkle in Dumbledore's eye was merrily twinkling away.
"No, of course I don't mind, I'll just, I'll go see if I can find her. Bye." Draco made it to the great hall as Hermione was sitting down her trunk. She turned to the sound of running footsteps in time to be crushed to Draco in a bear hug.
"Thank god you're back. It's been the pits since you left. Come on let me show you our new rooms, they're brilliant. You'll love them, we share a common room, a bathroom, and," he paused for dramatic effect, "we are all by ourselves." He went on rambling even after Hermione's awe of the rooms wore off. He made her tell him everything she did while away. Although she did keep him in the dark on her 'incident'.
They stayed up talking about how much fun this summer would be, and how jealous Harry and Ron must be of them right now.
It was dark wherever she was. She whispered lumos to her wand, and the familiar shadows that adorned the walls made her shriek in terror. Her house looked as if it had been hit by a tornado. Pictures, clothes, books, were all strewn around the place, giving it a deserted feel. Cackling could be heard from down the hall, in her parent's room. Slowly approaching the door, more words could be heard. "Let this be a lesson to all of you. Lord Voldemort does not tolerate disobedience! Avada Kedavra!" Hermione tuned to look into the room just in time to see a flash of green light.
"Hermione! Hermione! Wake up, wake up!" Draco sat next to her on her bed, shaking her shoulders in an attempt to rouse her. When he heard her scream, it was only seconds before he was at her side. He might have left her too, for waking him up, had it not been for the distressed look on her face. So here he sat as she slowly started to come back to the real world.
"Hey there, are you ok?" She blinked a few times trying to realize where she was, when she heard Draco's voice it dawned on her it was only a dream. No matter how horrific it was, it was only a dream, and now she felt stupid for having woke Draco up.
"Yeah, sorry. Just had a bad dream that's all, I didn't mean to wake you." He assured her it was quite alright, and went back to his room to sleep. Hermione, however, did not fall back asleep.
Halfway into the summer, the nightly terrors were starting to take their toll on the two. Much to Hermione's surprise, it was Draco who had the next nightmare. Although it took a few slaps to wake him. After that at least three times a week nightmares haunted the head's tower.
The dreams were normal enough to anyone who had suffered through the things these two had been through. For the most part Draco's dreams revolved around his fathers escape from prison, or the countless nameless faces he saw murdered. At first, Draco was positive Hermione's dreams were about her parent's death, which seemed logical enough. But when he came to her room to wake her one night and found her squirming on the bed, pleading to her imagination to "please don't hurt me, no, get off", he became a tad bit suspicious.
It was early July when the truth decided to rear its ugly head.
Returning from a trip to the kitchens, Draco quietly entered the sitting room to find the head girl immersed in a seventh year text. He held in his chuckle as he snuck up behind her and wrapped his hand around her mouth. Before he got the chance to say "Boo", she had reacted in an unexpected way.
The scream she emitted was not the joyously surprised one Draco had been expecting, instead he received a scream filled with pain and utmost fear. She jerked away and instantaneously pointed her wand at a speechless Draco. This was not right, up until then Draco had been suspicious, but now he wanted to know what was going on.
"Hermione, what is wrong with you! Tell me what happened to make you flinch or jump every time I touch you!" Her face was crumpling at every word, and she finally broke down.
"I'm sorry, I never meant to be mean to you, or lie to you. I-," she stopped to let more tears slide down her face. Draco jumped over the couch in order to be closer to her.
"Shhh. It's okay. Come on, lets go sit on your bed and you can tell me all about it." He hoped maybe getting her more relaxed would make the story come easier, he was too curious to know to wait any longer. He led her to her bed where she let him put his arm over her shoulder and lean them back into a comfortable reclining position. He gave her an expectant look and she started her story with a sigh.
"And then I ran home, and told them some story about how I fell." He looked at her incredulously, not believing she would keep something like that from him.
"Hermione, why didn't you just tell me? Don't you trust me?"
"Of course I do, I was just so worried you would think I'm some weak stupid girl who couldn't take care of herself."
"Of all the people in the world, you are the last person I'd ever consider weak." He gave her a genuine smile, which she returned as she rested her head on his chest, his arms still around her. The silence permeated the room as the two continued to lean on each other. When the silence began to make Draco uncomfortable he made up his mind that he had stayed long enough.
"Hermione, Her-are you awake?" He chanced a peek at her face to find her sound asleep on him. A wonderful feeling of satisfaction enveloped him, strong enough to persuade him that maybe he could stay a few…more…minutes… He was asleep even before he had fully decided to stay a mere moment longer.
Dawn broke bright and early in the heads tower. As the steady stream of sunlight continued to fill her room Hermione awoke from one of the best sleeps she had had in, well, an extremely long time. Something was odd though. A pressure of some sort was making it difficult to breath. Something was on her chest, and it was not light. Her mouth opened in a silent 'oh' to the sight that awaited her bleary eyes.
Lying on top of her, as she had figured something was, turned out not to be a something at all, but a someone, more specifically Draco. Using her breasts as pillows his head turned out to be the weight constricting her breath. His arms, she now noticed, were wrapped around her waist, gripping her in a firm but loose hold.
Her senses were coming back rapidly now, and it was a matter of seconds until she found her hands both on him. One buried in his hair, and the other lay casually on his back.
'Oh shit, what do I do now?' From somewhere in the back of her consciousness a voice answered, 'why do anything when this feels so good, and so right?' It was a hard question to answer, but was soon forgotten as Draco's eyes fluttered open.
Similar to Hermione, Draco had also experienced a wonderful sleep, although he became curious as to why his pillow was moving. He raised his head to find his pillow was in fact Hermione, and their eyes locked as he discovered she was awake as well.
The look of confusion on Hermione's face must have passed as fear to Draco. As his weight left her body, Hermione felt the loss of warmth, and security as well. A mumbled apology was all that escaped his lips as he quickly exited the room, leaving an even more confused and embarrassed Hermione in his wake.
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As usual I would be grateful if you would review. It's a little sad to see no reviews, but it appears people are reading, so I'll keep posting.