SEVENTEEN

Tuesday, 16 September 1944

Sunday had come and gone in the blink of an eye. They had gone to the Room of Requirement after breakfast where Malfoy helped her with Occlumency again. She had picked things that she didn't care if he saw or not. It was only an accident when her mind thought of Slughorn's Christmas party in Sixth Year and the way Cormac McLaggen was all hands and tongue. After that, Malfoy refused to see anymore and it took Hermione a moment to realize just why he was so upset.

He was jealous.

After lunch they stuck to the library where they settled into a table off the beaten path and finished up the assignments they had been working on. She had even gotten a pretty decent head start on the ones that were coming up the following week. After dinner, they just stuck to the common room where they spent time with their other housemates until it was time to go to bed.

Not wanting to pressure her, Malfoy had dropped a quick kiss on her cheek and disappeared down the corridor before she could draw her next breath.

Monday had gone by just as quickly. As much as Hermione had adored having Dumbledore as her teacher for this subject, his methods weren't as cut and dry as McGonagall's and she found herself missing her head of house. Charms had been fun for her when Malfoy flicked his wrist left instead of right, causing the spell they were working on to cover him in a cloud of dust. Her laughter had brought tears to her eyes and instead of snapping at her like she thought he might, Malfoy surprised her by retaliating in a friendly way.

They had nearly gotten detention for their disruptive faux duel.

In Potions, Hermione knew Slughorn was planning some larger group project from the way he spoke. However, he would only tell them to research Healing Potions and think of the most common trio used in triage. When class had ended, he told them they would revisit the topic on Wednesday and give them the assignment that would finish off the week.

It was Tuesday during Defense that Hermione felt her fear of Riddle finally return.

Merrythought had them sitting at their desks for a bit of a practical lesson. She had them practicing nonverbal magic after that, furiously taking notes as she observed. When she had them line up on either side of the room and cleared the desks and chairs out of the way.

"I know nonverbal magic is hard to do, but when you're in a fight, it's your best advantage. Just by shouting out the spell you cast gives your opponent a split second to counter it correctly. Sometimes that second is enough to get you killed."

She paused and looked around the room until her eyes settled on Hermione. She smiled warmly and beckoned her forward. She swallowed hard and stepped to the middle of the room next to her professor.

"Unless it was to berate Mister Malory, I don't believe I heard a peep from you all day, Harmony," Merrythought said, her voice light with humor. The class erupted into snickers and Hermione dropped her head to hide the fact that her cheeks were burning. She knew Malfoy's were too, but she refused to look at him.

"I daresay she's even better than you, Tom," she added, waving Riddle over to them as well.

"She is quite good, Professor," Riddle said as he approached, giving Hermione a slight nod of his head as his lips quirked into a barely there smirk.

Hermione realized what was about to happen before Merrythought even said it aloud. Her eyes lifted to Malfoy's and watched as realization darkened the grey of his eyes.

"Harmony, Tom, I would like the two of you to duel for the class. Non-verbal magic only. It goes without saying, Unforgiveables will get you expelled. Everything else is fair game." She stepped aside and waved her wand to create a bubble over the two of them, preventing the rest of the class from rogue spells. "Begin when ready and you will stop when I tell you to. Winner gets extra credit."

Hermione stared at Riddle, her hand flexing on the handle of her wand. She had never faced him directly in battle; that had all been Harry. Truthfully, she hadn't actually seen Voldemort in action at all. Every look she had been afforded had been from photographs and Prophet article clippings.

The only thing she found reassuring about their upcoming duel was that he was inexperienced now. Powerful and versed in Dark, but inexperienced in magic nonetheless. They both had had the same amount of schooling up until this point in their lives.

She fired the first spell. Her go-to. Stupefy.

She wasn't really surprised when he blocked it. His spell was quick to follow her own and she barely got a shield charm up in time. She fired Stupefy twice more in rapid succession, zig-zagging out of his way as he returned her spells.

"Did you not say you were in combat before?" he asked.

She deflected his hex. "We're not supposed to talk." Expelliarmus.

His brow lifted as he almost lost hold of his wand, but he managed to keep it in hand. They began circling each other, stalking their prey, firing off spell after spell.

"We are only supposed to refrain from saying the spell we are using. Professor Merrythought said nothing-"

Both of them went still for a moment as her Stinging Jinx hit his kneecap, making him stumble backwards. She smirked at him as he inclined his head. "The villain always loses by talking too much."

"Am I the villain in this scenario, Miss Granger?"

She was fast enough to dodge most of his spell, but it caught her heal before smashing into the floor and she yelped. "You'll always be the villain, Riddle."

She wiped the smirk off his face by sending a series of jinxes and hexes his way. She saw something flicker in his gaze as he tried to volley, but could only defend himself against one before another was right there. "Keep that up and you will exhaust your core."

"My core and I can outlast you any day," she returned.

His brow furrowed in concentration as she increased the amount of spells she hurled at him. She barely registered that he had cast a shield charm and pushed outwards with magic, sending her spells back at her. She paused to dodge them, but one of them caught her in the thigh and she stumbled.

"You should open yourself up to more than Stupefy and other childish antics. When it is between life or death, those will surely get you killed," he taunted.

She dove out of the way from his Bombarda, raising her hands over her head as debris from the hole it made in the floor came after her. She fired blindly and heard him grunt in pain. Using the small advantage it granted her, she got up and moved out of his way again. "It's worked for me so far."

"It will not work forever," he warned her. "And you would be a fool to believe otherwise."

As if to prove his point, a spark of orange left his wand and struck her stomach. She remembered casting a shield charm, but the spell he'd sent had either eaten right through it or she hadn't cast it in time. She cried out and nearly staggered to her knees. She lifted her wand to retaliate, but he was faster. He mimicked her by firing one after another, only he was able to land his.

Diffindo!

He grunted as blood seeped down a long cut from his wand arm. She could see the slash she'd made in the sleeve of his robe. She could hear the collective hiss of the students around them at the sight of blood dropping onto the partially destroyed floor at his feet.

"There you go," he said, smiling at her as if it were Christmas Morning and she was the very thing he asked for. "Stop holding back."

They both fired a spell at the same time and their magic connected in the middle. An arc of orange and purple clashed, lighting strange shadows across the other students watching them. She was the one to release her hold on the spell first, throwing herself to the side and firing off more spells in rapid succession. She landed a few and he hissed in pain at her.

For a brief moment, she thought she might be able to win. She had him cornered against the ward and was channeling all her fear into rage and her rage into her magic. But she took too wide a step and lost her balance. A spell struck her wrist and her wand went flying from her hand. Riddle used his wand to lift her into the air and smirked at her.

"You fought well, Miss Granger."

She narrowed her eyes at him as her magic surged inside her body, sparking at her fingertips. His eyes flickered down to the sight and back up to her eyes, completely astonished. "Who says I'm done?" she asked and lashed out at him.

For a split second, surprise filled his eyes, and a moment later he was flying backwards, landing hard against the ward. She thought hard at him, her magic flowing through every pore of her skin. It curled around him and tightened. He struggled against her hold, unable to break free. She took a deep breath, finding the Dark traces of magic on the fringes of her core that called out to her like a siren. She beckoned it forward and it obeyed. It coiled around her wrists, begging to be used.

He smiled at her when he saw her hesitation. Challenge flashed in his eyes, daring her to push harder, to do the unthinkable. And had he just yielded, she would have let him go. But no, he had to goad her.

So she let him have it.

The harrowing laughter that pierced through the air was sickening. Somewhere, far in the background, students were gasping and crying in shock as Riddle writhed in pain. The Dark magic struck him again and again as she ignored Merrythought's insistence that she stop. She lashed out at Riddle until she her vision blurred and her magic began to sputter. Only when she had nothing left, did her hold on Riddle cease.

She stumbled back, blinking as if waking up from a trance. Most of the students were either staring at Riddle and sobbing or staring at her and cowering in fear. Either way, they were giving her a wide berth. Merrythought had withdrawn the wards and had rushed to Riddle's side, assessing him for damage.

And when her eyes landed on Malfoy, she knew she'd done something horrible. The way he was staring at her made it seem as though, of all the people in the room, she was the one that needed to be feared most.

She swallowed hard and ran from the room without a second thought.

Draco stood there in a stunned silence as Granger tore past him. He had seen plenty disturbing things, but nothing could have prepared him for the sight of Granger just a few moments before. The pair had dueled as if they were in some sort of elaborate dance only they knew. Spells hurled around them in a flurry. He had seen both of them in action to some extent in the past and now that he had seen them duel together, he never wanted to see it again.

Riddle had been holding back. That much was clear to everyone. He was testing her to see how far she would go. It wasn't until their magic had clashed between them that he saw Riddle's true power come out to play.

And when he thought he might tear down those godforsaken wards Merrythought had placed to free Granger from Riddle's hold, she had gone and done it herself.

He shuddered from head to toe as he recalled the look on her face. There was that smug determination in her eyes that he had seen a million times before. The one that he had been on the receiving end of many times over the years. It was a look that said her limits had been pushed and she had been underestimated.

And whatever source of power she had tapped into had wrapped around Riddle like his own fucking snake and nearly crushed him.

He, like the rest of the class, had set his gaze to Riddle. Watching as he struggled and writhed in silence from her assault. But after a moment, he looked at Granger. His blood had turned to ice in his veins once he saw the look on her face. It was cold; completely devoid of all emotions. She was just staring as if she were doing some sort of mundane Muggle task that wasn't even worthy of an emotion.

For a moment, he was reminded of Bellatrix. And much like the time his crazy aunt had tortured her on his Drawing Room floor, completely in her element, Granger looked as though she was right at home.

And when it ended, when the confusion and panic had settled in, she bolted.

He dropped his gaze to Riddle, expecting to see him hopefully dead or at least in pain, but no. The smug bastard was staring at him with a smirk that said, I told you so. Draco's stomach flipped as his mind fluttered as a distant, unattainable memory floated just out of reach. When the moment passed, he turned on his heal and ran after Granger.

He found her in the Room of Requirement; the first place he looked. She was in the iteration they always found themselves in. He could hear her sobs the moment he stepped inside, but she wasn't in sight. He followed her cries and found her sitting amongst toppled bookcases with books scattered and torn around her. She had her back propped against one, hugging her knees to her chest, and her face pressed against her lap as she rocked back and forth. Her wand was discarded on the floor where he guessed she had either dropped it or threw it.

He knew better than to touch her at this moment, but when he got as close as he dared, he sank down to the ground slowly, sitting opposite her. He rested against a small wooden chest and stretched one leg out, the other raised so he could rest his laced fingers on his knee.

He wasn't sure if it was that she was just out of tears or if it was his presence, but after a moment of situating himself, her sobs dulled to the occasional sniffle.

"You should go," she whispered, her voice raw and cracked.

"Unless it's back to the future, I'm good right here, thanks."

She snorted and lifted her head slightly, wiping her eyes on the sleeve of her robe. "I hate that movie."

Draco froze for a moment and then canted his head. "Did I make a Muggle reference?"

She nodded and tried to find a dry spot on her sleeve. He used his wand to conjure a box of tissues and then sent it through the air towards her. The box nudged her softly until she took it and set it down at her side. She used a handful of the tissues and he vanished each one the moment she discarded them.

"I made him bleed," she croaked.

"Good."

Her eyes flickered to his and then lowered again.

"He wouldn't stop goading me. Telling me my spells were childish." Her face darkened and he tried not to let his fear show on his face. "That I needed to stop holding back. He just kept p-pushing and I…"

"You spoke to him during the duel?" Draco questioned with a frown.

Her plucking of her robes ceased as she stilled for a moment. Slowly, her eyes came up again and locked with his. This time, she kept her gaze on him. "We had a whole conversation during our duel."

Draco wet his lips and gave a slow shake of his head. "Granger, neither one of your lips moved. Not even once."

Her entire body started to tremble and she bit her lip to keep it steady. Her eyes misted with a fresh wave of tears. "B-but we talked…" She sucked in a gasping breath and held it for a second. "When I lashed out at him at the end… H-he started laughing at me. Did you hear that?"

Draco shook his head again and he could tell when the realization hit her.

"He was in my head the whole time. What if… What if he saw something?"

Draco got off of the floor and didn't hesitate as he dropped to sit at her side; not even when she tried to flinch away from him. "Who cares if he saw something, Granger? Right now, you have to pull yourself together and go back to Merrythought. Apologize to her if you need to and show Riddle that despite the fact that he fucked with you, you bested him in a fight."

She nodded and wiped her tears away again. Slowly, she pushed herself to her feet despite her trembling. Draco reached out to hold her steady and she flinched away from his touch. Playing it off, he reached down for her wand and handed it to her.

"You were scared of me."

He gave a slight nod as she took her wand and stowed it inside her robes. "Just thinking about how much worse I could have had it all those times I pissed you off. I would gladly take another broken nose."

He kept his voice light to mask the true terror underneath. Riddle had goaded her into using some form or another of Dark magic. And now that he knew what she was capable of, whatever sort of obsession the young Dark Lord already had for her was bound to increase. Draco knew he would stop at nothing to get her.

Granger smiled softly and squared her shoulders. "I drained a fair bit of my magic," she said as they started walking towards the exit.

"You don't say," Draco teased and reached for her hand before they opened the door.