Quick actually important thing, in chapter four I described one of Hermione's bruises as going down her left arm. That should be right arm so I fixed it in the chapter but just to clarify. I realized her scar from Bellatrix is on the left so my bad. Sorry!
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I'm really looking forward to this chapter, I hope it's as good as I think it is. It is a bit longer than my usual chapters so I hope it was worth the wait.
I had thought, like Malfoy, that once I knew Harry and Ron were alive my nightmares would just go away. And they did, at least the ones about my best friends dying did. They were replaced with a new terror that in some ways was worse than before.
Ron and Harry didn't make an appearance but Malfoy did. If I had to venture a guess the same dream was going to haunt me for days to come, and months after that.
Malfoy stood over me, holding his wand and a knife.
"You thought I actually cared? Filthy little mudblood!" He snarled taking a step towards me.
I shrunk back into the corner of the dungeon, "You promised! Malfoy please! You said you wouldn't hurt me!"
"You thought I was telling the truth? I was a Slytherin remember!? You we're supposed to be the brightest witch of our age, but I suppose even a mudblood can fake it for a while," he laughed, taking another step forward. "Crucio!"
"MALFOY!" I screamed as agony ripped through the whole of my being. "Please!"
"Granger! Granger, for god's sake wake up!"
Reality came crashing back and I sat up suddenly, bouncing my head off of something. Something dripped onto my face, blood I realized. Malfoy spewed a stream of obscenities at me that I couldn't make out because he was clutching his face.
My eyes started to burn with tears, and they streamed down my face. Last night I had no fear of the blond boy, but my fearlessness had disappeared with the arrival of my nightmares. Lights flicked on and burned my eyes and I realized I wasn't on the couch anymore. At some point I had been moved back up to Malfoy's room.
Speak of the devil, Malfoy glared at me and I shot him a sad, and angry, and questioning look. I'm not sure how I managed that in one look, but I did. In response he pulled his hand away from his face. Blood glistened on his face and hand, and more dripped from his nose.
I must have hit him in the face when I sat up,
"You have done so much damage to my face! Third year and now this!" He sounded angry.
I cowered deeper into my corner while he pulled out his wand and fixed his face. What a drama queen! His nose wasn't even broken, it was just bleeding all over both of us. Of course I didn't voice my opinion, but at least I thought it.
"Why... what... why'd you bring me back up here? I thought you couldn't stand my screaming?" I snapped, but my voice wavered.
He sat on the corner of his bed and gazed at me. "When you scream from down there I still can hear it so then I have to walk all the way down the stairs and shut you up. At least if you're up here I only have to walk across the room."
I wiped the blood and tears off my face. Malfoy pointed his wand at my face and I flinched, hitting my head against a wall.
"Hold still!" He hissed and I froze.
Nonverbally, he cleaned off my face.
"Thanks," I whispered and came out of the corner, not the whole way, but a little. "And sorry for hitting you... just now. Not for third year."
He laughed sourly and flopped back.
"Go to bed Granger, and try to keep your mouth shut."
He threw a pillow at me, the same one I threw at him earlier tonight. Everything had transpired in just one night I realized with a shock. The blanket was already in my corner and I curled back up and fell into a mercifully peaceful sleep.
"Rise and shine! It's a beautiful day! And also well after noon," Malfoy hissed, sarcasm dripping from his words.
I heard thunder boom outside and sighed, a habit that I was picking up from him unfortunately. Wincing, I stood and followed him slowly down the stairs. The floor was not the most comfortable place I had ever slept, it also wasn't the least comfortable. The Weasley's house could get crowded fast, and sleeping in a tent in the forest, no matter how magically enhanced, took its toll after a while. I broke into a wide smile remembering that they were alive. Ron and Harry are alive!
"What's wrong with you?" Malfoy snapped.
"They're alive," I grinned.
"And somehow you still managed to keep me up most of the night."
My smile faded. Malfoy glanced over at me as I sat down, across the table from him.
He was about to say something when two house elves appeared holding plates of food and set them in front of us. They were gone as quickly as they had come and so were Malfoy's words. He set about buttering a piece of toast, making a point not to look at me.
After a few pieces of toast he was forced to look up, unable to find another excuse to keep his eyes down. Luckily I didn't need a reason to not look at him, so I kept my eyes fixed on my plate, trying to make my bacon as interesting as possible.
"What's on your neck Granger?" Malfoy asked, breaking the tension filled silence.
I'd forgotten to cover the bruise. Hastily, I brushed my hair over it.
"Nothing," I answered quickly, too quickly.
"What is it?"
I shook my head. He couldn't see them. I didn't want him seeing them. There was no logic behind my thoughts, I just didn't want him seeing them.
"Granger," he warned.
"No!" I snapped at him.
"Oh... does the Gryffindor princess have a hickey?" He asked mockingly. "Not sure how you would have gotten it since I would never, but you never know. It could be-"
"Shut the hell up Malfoy!" I screamed. How could he possibly not know what he had done to me?
"I have a first name you know."
"At least you get to hear yours occasionally. I haven't heard mine in a month!"
Malfoy pushed his chair back and walked over to me. He seemed to have missed the point of my words. I stood too. Every step he took towards I took another step back. Then I hit the wall with my back and I had no where else to go. Malfoy rested his left hand on the wall and leaned against it, caging me into a corner.
His hand brushed my hair away and I pushed myself against the wall as much as I could.
"Granger... what is this?" His voice sounded choked.
Fingers deftly unbuttoned the top two buttons of the shirt and tenderly slid it over my shoulder. I turned my head to the corner, terrified and not wanting to meet Malfoy's eyes. My body shook uncontrollably and I squeezed my eyes shut. He gasped and I felt a tear trickling down my cheek, he'd seen.
Cold fingers ran along my neck and I flinched. They traveled over my shoulder, lightly brushing all of the bruise. He left his hand resting on my collarbone and I slowly turned my head back to face him.
"Malfoy," I whimpered.
"Are there more?" He asked, not lifting his gaze from my neck.
I nodded yes and he finally met my eyes.
"Can I see them?"
I didn't want him to see them, any of them, but he had seen one. What harm could showing him the rest possibly do? I buttoned one button of the shirt and he removed his hand, no need to hide my neck with the collar anymore, then slowly, with shaking hands, I lifted my shirt to just past my belly button. Three new bruises were exposed now.
I waited anxiously for his response. With one arm he swept my legs out from underneath me and with the other caught me as I fell backwards so he was carrying me. I didn't protest, something told me I shouldn't.
He carried me to the room with the fireplace and set me on the couch, kneeling down and lifting my shirt back to where it was before. His hands slowly traced the two bruises on my stomach and the exposed part of the one along my side. By this point I was shaking as if Bellatrix had walked through the door.
"Please don't tell me there's more," he begged and pulled my shirt back down.
My eyes flicked to my right arm and he unbuttoned it and rolled up the sleeve. The bruise stretched from mid forearm to mid bicep on the outer arm. He sighed and looked at me. I held back a sob.
"Hermione... did... did I do this?" He murmured.
"What did you just call me?" I looked at him, as the strangest look filled his gray eyes.
"Did I do it?" Malfoy repeated, more insistently this time.
"Yes."
"I... god I didn't realize. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to... Why didn't you tell me?" He stuttered.
If it wasn't Malfoy I was sitting in front of I would say his eyes looked pained to see me like this.
"What about your left arm?" he asked.
As I pulled my arm back he caught my wrist and unbuttoned the sleeve.
"Don't look!" I cried but it was too late.
'Mudblood' shone pale against my skin. Malfoy's mouth widened as he stared down at the hideous scar. He pulled the sleeve back down and dropped my hand.
He pulled out his wand and I backed away from him, as much as the couch would allow.
"I will never, ever hurt you again. Just let me heal them," Malfoy said. "I can't heal your cheek, or your... arm, but I can at least do the bruises."
I relaxed a little but shook my head.
"You can't."
"Why not?"
"Remember how I said I had a potion in my water?" When he nodded I continued. "I don't remember what it's called, but I read about it in Moste Potente Potions during second year. It's designed to prevent internal injuries but the side effect is that all external injuries cannot be healed with magic. Most witches and wizards use it as a way of keeping a victim alive by preventing internal bleeding and such but in constant pain because their external wounds can't be healed by magic."
I felt almost like my old self, spewing out facts I had read in a book.
Malfoy tucked his wand away again and left for a moment. When he returned, he was carrying a bowl.
"It won't make them disappear but it will at least soothe them," he showed me the translucent paste that the bowl was full of.
I recognized it immediately of course. Madam Pomfrey used it to soothe patients that didn't need attention right away so she could focus on more critical injuries.
"I can do-," I started.
"I will," he insisted.
I lay on my back and exposed my shoulder again. As Malfoy rubbed the paste on the bruise a cool sensation spread through my shoulder. It didn't take all the pain away, but most of it.
"Why are you doing this? And please just tell me," I pleaded.
"I guess I have to now."
I wasn't sure what he meant but I let him talk.
"I had hoped the only damage I had done was to your face. Of course, I wish now that I had never cut you in the first place, and especially not with one of Bellatrix's enchanted knives. But if there had to be something I hoped that was it." He moved on to my arm, rubbing the soothing paste along it gently. "I never realized what I had done. And all those times I wasn't so gentle with you just makes it worse. Grabbing your arm, throwing you over my shoulder the other day, the tumble down the stairs."
So it wasn't actually what I meant, I had wanted an explanation about the tears, but this was something. He wished he had never hurt me. Malfoy finished with the paste and put the bowl off to the side.
Something wet dripped onto my shirt and soaked through to my skin, and then something else. I looked up at Malfoy. He was crying. I reached up to brush the tears away instinctively, but he stood up and walked hurriedly from the room.
The moment was gone, but I would remember it.
Well I hope you guys enjoyed reading that as much as I enjoyed writing it. I like to think of it as the turning point for the two of them but you are free to have your own interpretation.
Please keep following, favoriting, and especially reviewing this story. I already have more follows and favorites on this story than my other one that is two chapters longer than this so hooray! Have a great day/night everyone!
TONY STARK AND PEPPER POTTS (PEPPERONI) FANS: My friend, kissmyquiver, is writing an amazing fanfiction about the two of them. It is called Rescue and it is only two chapters so far but she is good at updating on time. It would mean a lot to her if you read it!