Chapter 3
Petrificus Totalus
Hermione and Malfoy followed Filch out of the Potions classroom, down the dungeons corridor, and up into the Entrance Hall, where they crossed it and went through the main doors out into the grounds.
Hermione stared at the ground the entire journey, closing her eyes and trying to silently calm herself down. She hadn't been outside the castle once since it had happened, let alone to the Forbidden Forest itself. She could feel her body begin to shake as her mind constantly flashed back to that night, to running for her life, to feeling as though all life was being taken from her …
SMACK!
Hermione stumbled backwards a few steps, a look of shock taking over her pretty features as she realized she had just bumped into a halted Filch. Looking past him, she was suddenly face to face with the Forbidden Forest, only feet away from where it had happened. She shuddered, resisting the urge to cry.
"Here's your buckets," Filch spat, shoving a bucket into both Malfoy and Hermione's hands. He grinned maliciously and said, "Have fun", before turning and limping back towards the castle.
Hermione stood where she was, staring into the blackness of the Forest. Malfoy stood only a couple feet from her, staring at her.
"Well?" he said, expectantly.
Hermione did not look at him. It was as though the dark, eeriness of the Forest had, for the first time, caused fear to overtake her. "Well what?" she said, still staring into the forest.
"How did you fall?"
Hermione broke her concentration and instead turned to face Malfoy. "Can you let it go, please?! I fell getting out of bed!"
"I don't believe you." said Malfoy bluntly.
"I really don't give a damn if you believe me or not." retorted Hermione. "We have a job to do, and I'd prefer to get it done as quickly as possible so I'm not stuck with you for longer than necessary."
Bucket in hand, Hermione held her shoulders high as she took a step past the trees and into the Forest, her eyes glued to the floor, hoping to catch a sudden sight of a nest of Flobberworms without having to scan too large of an area.
"You won't find them in a clearing, you have to look on trees, or around the bases." said Malfoy.
Hermione looked at him with disbelief.
"What?" he said defensively. "I do listen to that oaf sometimes, you know."
"Hagrid is not an oaf!" retorted Hermione angrily.
"Said the Mudblood." muttered Malfoy.
It happened in the blink of an eye; Hermione withdrew her wand, aiming it directly at Malfoy, whose eyes opened wide as his hands raised partway into the air, showing his defenselessness.
A sudden power had risen in Hermione, a power that she had not had on the night of the incident. She could speak now, she could move, she could curse, she could curse Malfoy for all of the attacks he had made her and her friends endure over the years …
But, just as she had done two nights ago, she could not utter a curse; not because she was physically incapable, but because her wits warned her not to. She lowered her wand, staring fiercely into Malfoy's eyes. Malfoy took advantage of this moment of weakness, withdrawing his own wand and pointing it at Hermione's chest, whose arm rose in an instant, the tip of her wand only feet away from Malfoy's.
"I've called you Mudblood several times before and you've never let it bother you." said Malfoy. "It's always been your sidekicks, your devoted dimwits who jumped to your aid, while you foolishly hushed them as though it didn't bother you in the slightest. Why now, Granger? What's changed in you?"
"I will curse you, don't think I won't!" spat Hermione, her hand trembling with the anger that stole through her entire body.
Malfoy smirked. "If you had the guts to curse me, you would have done it by now."
"Stup-"
"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!"
Hermione was too slow. Malfoy's spell hit her squarely in the chest, causing her arms and legs to bind together and her body to go rigid. She did not fall over, but instead stood as though rooted to the spot, unable to move even the smallest limb.
Malfoy grinned with triumph as he polished his wand with his robes.
Hermione, however, felt sick to her stomach. Her eyes widened as she realized her position, paralyzed, unable to move, just as she had been before. Her wide eyes stared at Malfoy, registered his glee at her compromising position, imagined the things that he could do to her, right now, with no one around to see and herself left once again completely defenseless …
Tears began to slide down her cheeks, gliding to the corners of her mouth where she could not wipe them away. Malfoy, who had been polishing his wand, looked up to relish his victory and instead caught sight of Hermione silently crying.
"Why in the devil's name are you crying?" he cried, flabbergasted. This was Hermione Granger, the smartest witch of their year! Surely the loss of one minor duel could not be this devastating?
Confused, Malfoy released her from her full body-bind. "You're bound to lose sometimes, you can't be perfect in everything you do. Would you like a redo? You will lose again, you are facing a Malfoy, but perhaps if the duel began fairly then you'd have no reason to whine-"
But still, Hermione continued to cry as she dropped to her knees, unable to look Malfoy in the eye. Her heart was pounding faster than usual and her breaths were becoming more rapid with each exhale, as images of her trauma flashed madly before her eyes.
Malfoy did not know what to do. He did not understand what was going on, but from the state of her, it seemed as though she was having a panic attack.
"It was just the body-bind curse, it wasn't an Unforgivable Curse!" cried Malfoy desperately. "If I'd known you were so weak, I would've called Parkinson on you to give you a fair battle!"
But his attempt at comforting words went unnoticed, as Hermione's attack seemed only to get worse. His initial thought was to leave her, leave her in the Woods, let her recover on her own. It was not his place to help her, to help a Mudblood, who looked so weak and pathetic, barely able to breath as she lay bent over on the ground …
But the sight of her stirred an emotion inside Malfoy that he had not foreseen; could it have been sympathy? Hermione Granger was the smartest witch of the year, not to mention the bravest and strongest by far. She had never faced a challenge that she could not conquer, which had always pained Malfoy to admit to, and angered him beyond belief. But now, she was crying, barely able to breath, and because of what? Petrificus Totalus? No, there had to be more to it. Cautiously, Malfoy approached her, crouching down in front of her.
"Granger?" he said, quietly. "Granger, stop that."
Hermione's hands covered her face as she lowered her head, breathing rough, harsh breaths into her hands. Malfoy took hold of her hands and pushed them away, taking her face roughly into his own hands and forcing her head and her eyes to look directly into his own.
"Granger, you are okay." he said, slowly and calmly, staring deep into her brown eyes without so much as a blink. "You're okay. You're fine. We're here, in the Forest, by ourselves. My wand is down, I'm not going to perform any more magic, and neither are you. We're both safe; at least, you are. Just relax, okay? Relax."
Hermione held Malfoy's gaze, saw the reassurance in his eyes, felt, somehow, protected by him, and soon enough her breathing slowed as her heart rate very slowly returned to normal. Her tears, however, did not stop immediately. She continued to shake with tears at the feeling of Malfoy's body-bind curse, at being paralyzed like she had been two nights prior. It was like claustrophobia; she could not stand being stripped of power, of freewill. To be defenseless was to submit herself to any horrors wishing to inflict themselves upon her, and the thought and feeling was terrifying.
It was only when the last tear fell from her eye that Malfoy released her face, then moved back a few feet so as to give Hermione her space.
"What was that about?" ask Malfoy, the moment he deemed it safe to question her without her being thrown into a fit again.
"I … I don't know." lied Hermione, wiping the last of her tears away before lifting herself up, picking up her bucket and searching the bases of trees for Flobberworms.
"You don't know?" replied Malfoy skeptically. "You just had a fit of some sort and you have no idea what caused it?"
"Yes, that's what I said." said Hermione, still shaking slightly. "And I don't wish to discuss it."
She tried desperately to close her mind to the night of her attack, to push the images out of her mind, to pretend as though she had only imagined them …
"You're lying to me." said Malfoy. "You've been acting strangely all day. First I catch you skiving off lessons, then you start crying like a child, then you agree to come to the Slytherin Dungeons, then you've suddenly got a black eye, and now you're crying again!"
"Crying like a child, was I?" retorted Hermione angrily. "Why would you bother with a child, then? Why offer to help me?"
"I told you, I didn't want to be seen with a Mudblood in the corridors, nor did I want to be caught by Filch and handed a weeks worth of detention!"
"Then why not leave me?" demanded Hermione. "Why take me to a place where we so easily could have been found together?"
To this, Malfoy seemed to have no words. He contemplated her question, trying to find a reasonable response, but none came to him.
"Perhaps you have a soft spot for children." said Hermione, glaring at him with contempt.
Malfoy studied her, trying to imagine what could have happened to her to make her act this way. Bitter, resentful, and, however much she tried to hide it, scared. Scared of something. Not scared of him, surely?
"Do I scare you, Granger?" he asked, looking her in the eyes.
Hermione let out a shrill laugh. "You? Scare me? Hardly! You have never scared me, Malfoy, never hurt me, never penetrated me with your words or your actions! You are beneath me, I will never see you as my equal and therefore will never cower to you like you so arrogantly believe that I should!"
"Then why did you just now?" said Malfoy quietly. "What was that?"
Hermione glared at him, feeling a hatred that she had never felt before. "That was nothing to do with you, don't be fooled into flattering yourself."
"Oh no, my flattery comes from successfully cursing you; you, the witch who thinks that she's impenetrable, who believes that no harm can come to her. And yet, look at you! Something must have happened, and at the first sign of defeat you show weakness to match the likes of a coward! You are not as great as you think you are, Granger. You are weak, you are frail, and you are foolish to try and convince yourself otherwise."
Hermione opened her mouth to retort, but at that moment, Filch was limping towards them, grinning menacingly.
Malfoy smirked at her, victorious once more, as he turned and muttered "Reducto" towards the ground around the base of a thick tree, where the dirt blasted apart to reveal a nest of Flobberworms, crawling blindly on top of one another. Using a summoning charm, Malfoy magicked the Flobberworms into not only his bucket, but Hermione's as well.
"It's about time you maggots finished." spat Filch nastily as he arrived on the outskirts of the Forest. "I was beginning to think you were enjoying the task. Perhaps fetching another four bucketfuls would tickle your fancy?"
Malfoy laughed, though he found no humor in the suggestion. "I think not. There are your buckets, I suggest you bring them to Hagrid's now before he recognizes your incompetence and has you fired. We all know how close he is with Dumbledore."
Filch glared menacingly at Malfoy. "Don't you tell me how to do my job, you foul little ingrate! If I had my way, I'd have you hanging by your ankles and beating you with a wooden stick until I've knocked some respect into you-"
"The Flobberworms, Filch." reminded Malfoy as he headed towards the castle.
Filch released a string of nasty words as he picked up the buckets of Flobberworms and headed towards Hagrid's hut, muttering about the lack of respect that the students of Hogwarts seemed to show.
Hermione, not wanting to be left there alone, hurried her pace to catch up with Malfoy. They walked in silence towards the castle, their last words fresh in their minds, though the anger was slowly dying away.
"Had it been a real duel," said Hermione, breaking the silence as they approached the front doors, "You wouldn't have stood a chance."
Malfoy smirked. "Perhaps we'll put your theory to a test one day, Granger."
He pulled the doors to the Entrance Hall open and disappeared amongst the crowd of students, leaving Hermione feeling more alone than she had ever felt in her life.