Malfoy watched Hermione's silhouette disappear into the night. The fight had been so quick and she was gone before he knew it. And he felt awful. Why did he tell her about the bet? Why did he just prance around with the damn Dark Mark on his arm for all to see? Because he was an idiot. He looked down at the skull on his arm and felt hopeless. He wasn't sure why he cared so much. She didn't mean anything to him. No, no he was lying to himself. She meant a lot to him and he had no idea why. He was a Slytherin, she was a Gryffindor. He worked for the Dark Lord, she was best friends with the guy who was meant to kill the Dark Lord. He was pureblood and she was a mudblood. He was a coward and she was brave. But he cared for her nonetheless.
He pulled his shirt over his head and put on his damp robe. Maybe he could catch up to her. Tell her that he never meant to hurt her. But he had. At least at first. He ran up to the castle doors and opened them as quietly as possible. He listened carefully, hoping to hear distant footsteps. But it was silent. He hung his head and walked towards the Slytherin common room. He couldn't figure out these feelings. What if she told someone? There would be nothing he could do. The only thing that would destroy her would destroy him, too. And he didn't even want to destroy her. He walked into the common room quietly and headed up to the boys dormitory. He felt so guilty for hurting her and he needed to figure out a way to explain to her that he was so sorry for hurting her.
Hermione told the fat lady the password and stormed through the portal, forgetting that it was so late. The common room was lit only by the crackling fire, which made the room cozy and inviting. But Hermione didn't want to be cozy right now. She was so angry at Malfoy and at herself. She couldn't understand why she had been so stupid, so gullible. It wasn't like her and she felt so idiotic that she blamed herself equally, if not more, than Malfoy himself. She honestly couldn't figure it out. He had been awful to her, Ron and Harry for six years. Six years! And in what? Five days? In five days all of her hate, all of her loathing toward the excuse for a human being just vanished? How was that possible? He could actually be evil. She always thought that he had acted in the way he did partly because of his awful family, but maybe it was all him. Maybe he sociopathic like his father. There was no way that someone would do the things he did. He was a Death Eater. She felt like a fool for not believing Harry. Harry must've felt awful when no one believed him. She deserved this. She deserved it for being so stupid.
She made her way into the bathroom, closing and locking the door behind her. She turned on the shower and undressed, stepped in, and let the water wash over her. The hot water felt great against her cold skin and she began to scrub her body, feeling contaminated from his touch.
She felt so violated and embarrassed, almost as if Malfoy had forced himself on her. She hated him so much and she was so angry at him she couldn't even stand it. She had never in her whole entire life been this angry before. It felt like her sternum was being pried open and boiling water was being poured in. Her fists were clenched, her fingernails digging into her palms as if to maybe somehow feel something, anything at all, since her nerves had gone numb from the rage radiating throughout her body. Tears stung her eyes and she bit down on her lip. She wanted to just scream. Scream at him. She want to scream at the top of her lungs, louder than possible, and then she wanted to just pound a nail into his fucking ferret head to get how unbelievably, unbearably livid she was through his fucking thick skull. Just cause him so much pain and just get it through his head of what he had done to her and how he was just the most evil person that ever was. She began to cry and she hated herself for crying over someone so cowardly and stupid.
She took deep breaths, trying to stifle the sobs that were becoming uncontrollable. Her tears flooded down her cheeks, joining the stream of water from the shower jet. She leaned against the wall, her chest heaving rapidly from the raw emotion flooding from her. She felt lightheaded and dizzy and she lowered herself on the floor in fear she might faint. She could barely breathe from the sobs and her whole body was numb. She felt as if a thousand knives were being shoved into her heart. Her throat hurt and she couldn't catch her breath, but she couldn't stop crying.
It seemed like hours before Hermione could pull herself together. The shower had turned tepid and she quickly turned it off. She stepped out of the shower and went over to the mirror and wiped the condensation off of it. Her face was red and puffy with blotchy white marks everywhere. Her eyes seemed almost swollen shut. She splashed some cold water from the sink onto her face and wrapped herself in a towel. She didn't know why she cried so much over Malfoy. Was she overreacting? She had trusted him and given herself to him and it had been a façade. She grabbed her clothes and left the bathroom. As she dressed in her PJs by her bed, she realized it was nearly three in the morning. She slipped into bed and fell asleep quickly.
Draco nervously walked into Transfiguration, immediately seeing Hermione sitting at their desk. He gulped and walked over to the desk, placing his books down and sitting. Hermione didn't look up or even appear to have noticed his arrival.
"Hermione" he whispered. She ignored him. He looked at her face. Her eyes were slightly puffy and her nose was pinker than usual. She had been crying. Draco's heart sank a little. "Hermione, please talk to me. I need to explain."
"Mr. Malfoy, please talk to Ms. Granger after class" Professor McGonagall's voice echoed through the room.
Draco avoiding a few glances from other students and took out his parchment. He looked back at Hermione, hoping she'd at least look at him, if nothing else. She wouldn't however, and so he glanced over at Potter and Weasley. Weasley was eyeing Draco suspiciously and Harry was writing something. Draco gave Weasley a dirty look and then began to take notes, hoping Weasley would stop looking him.
"You're assignment today is for you and your partner to turn these paperclips into grasshoppers. It doesn't seem difficult compared to other assignments, but it's harder than you may think" Professor McGonagall said. She handed a paperclip to each desk and then sat down at her desk. Immediately people began to chat away and flicking their wands. Draco turned to Hermione again.
"Let's get started"
Hermione picked up the paperclip and examined it. She then put it down, flicked her wand and the paperclip transformed into a large grasshopper.
"Done" she said nonchalantly, and went back to taking notes.
"I think we're supposed to do it together. I don't want you to do all the work"
Hermione turned to face Draco. "I think you've done enough already, Malfoy" she said coolly.
Hermione sat under a tree near the lake on the castle grounds. It was a free period and she needed to relax. She had a book in her hand and she was feeling more content then she had all day. The lake looked completely different in daylight, and she found it hard to imagine she had been swimming only a few hours ago. She began to read her book again until she heard her name. She looked up to see Malfoy.
"Hermione, I really need to talk to you" he said, playing with his watch nervously.
"Stop calling me by my first name" Hermione said, trying to sound calm.
"Please, I really want to explain. I'm sorry that I hurt you—"
Hermione stood up. "Oh! You're sorry! Okay, well, now I forgive you" she said sarcastically. "I'm leaving"
She walked away briskly. Part of her wanted to stay and hear what he wanted to stay, but the majority of her didn't give a damn. She looked back to see him standing with his hands in his pockets, looking upset. Did you actually care or did he just want her to not tell anyone about the Dark Mark? She wasn't sure if she was going to or not, but she wasn't going to be persuaded by him.
"Hermione!" Harry exclaimed, running over to her. "What's wrong? You looked like you had been crying in Transfiguration. And why was Malfoy just talking to you?"
"Oh, um, Crookshanks. I thought he was missing and I cried a little, but it turns out he wasn't, you know, missing. And Malfoy was just ragging on me like usual" Hermione felt bad lying to Harry.
"Malfoy" Theodore Nott called out from behind Draco.
Draco turned around. "Oh, hey" Theodore and Blaise Zabini stood in front of him, arms crossed.
"Just talking to Granger, I see" Theodore said, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah" Draco replied.
"So, did you fuck her?" Blaise laughed mockingly.
"Yeah" Draco said, forcing a smirk.
Blaise stopped smiling. "What?"
"Yeah, I did. In the Room of Requirements. Yesterday."
Theodore rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right"
"I'm in there trying to fix that damn cabinet when Granger comes in. She starts yelling so I kiss her to shut her up, and then we shagged."
"I don't believe you" Theodore scoffed.
"Why do you think we were both absent for Runes?"
"He's got a point, Nott" Blaise said, scratching his head.
"Okay, say you're telling the truth. How was she?"
Draco shrugged. "I'm not going to tell you anything about it. All that matters is that I did it"
"Nice try" Theodore said. "We're not stupid."
"Whatever" Draco said. He turned and walked towards the castle. He didn't care about that stupid bet anymore. He just wanted to talk to Hermione.
Hermione watched from afar as Malfoy talked to Zabini and Nott. They must be talking about the bet. What else would they be talking about? She saw them laughing and she could spot Malfoy's signature sneer from a mile away. She was in a major funk and she didn't know how to get out of it. Maybe she just needed to talk to him. But she really didn't want to. She just wanted to forget this whole week and never remember again. And she felt so bad that this was all over that stupid coward. He wasn't worth crying over. Although then again, it probably wouldn't have mattered who it was. It was the fact she felt used and cheap and easy. She had let it happen, and she was to blame, but that didn't make it any better. She felt tears sneaking up on her and she closed her eyes, trying to get a hold of herself. She was sick of this emotion. She just wanted it to go back to normal.
Hermione soon realized that she had been standing motionless in the same spot for a few minutes. People were starting to go to their next class. She straightened up and walked into the castle with her fellow students. It seemed that no more than a minute inside she heard the familiar voice calling her name. She tried to ignore him, but she felt someone grab her arm.
"Let go of me" she said angrily, pulling her arm from Malfoy's grasp.
"Please, I really need to talk to you" Malfoy exclaimed, looking desperate.
"Don't you get it? I'm not going to talk to you so you might as well just leave me alone!" Hermione snapped. She turned around and kept walking. In the corner of her eye she saw Malfoy walking behind her.
" I'm sorry –"
Hermione stopped in her tracks and swung around. "Leave me alone! Just leave me alone! Please!" she barked, feeling tears in her eyes again. Not now, this is just not the time to cry. She turned around again and walked away quickly, this time knowing that he was no longer following her. He didn't try to talk to her for the rest of the day, much to Hermione's relief. Every time he spoke to her, her anger was refreshed.
Authors Note: Sorry if the first few paragraphs seem overly intense. I wrote them in what I thought she might have been feeling at the moment. In the big picture it may seem slightly overdramatic, but at the time she was overcome with emotion. (I personally don't think it was that much of an overreaction, but some people might think it was).
