Disclaimer:Only the story idea is mine. The characters you recognize and Hogwarts and such are all J. K Rowling's. Thanks to my beta ashash52009!

Though the Marks on Your Dress

The blond was wandering down the hall, wondering what had happened to his brunette roommate. She had not been at dinner, but then, neither had the redhead. He was beginning to wonder why that was, and what exactly Weasley had done now. He had to of done something, right, or else Granger may have actually paid attention in class. She had been completely out of it in Transfiguration.

"Miss Granger? Miss Granger!" The teacher wrapped her wand against the bookworm's desk, even though Hermione already had the entire classroom's attention. Hermione Granger, not listening in class? That was new!

She looked up. "Erm- yes, professor?"

The woman glared. McGonagall's replacement was far more annoying then the old Gryffindor head-of-house had been. "Could you kindly tell me what I just asked?"

"Um... no mam."

"That's what I thought."

Yes, something had to be bothering Granger. She was not herself, and he intended to figure out what Weasley had said to her in their first hour to her. Knocking Weasley into the floor had stopped his ever-annoying attention towards the girl, but Malfoy was certain the action had only flared up his famous temper. I hope we didn't send off Granger to deal with an angrier Weasel. Then I'll really have a mess of a roommate.

Rounding the corner, he frowned as a head of ginger hair came into his vision. Ron Weasley was standing angrily outside of his dorm room, tapping his foot impatiently- but silently. The blond rolled his eyes. So, neither had been at dinner because Weasley had her hiding in their dorm- or perhaps it was the opposite situation; Granger simply refused to open the door and allow him inside.

"Weasley," he drawled, stopping outside of the dorm room as well, "whatever you are doing here isn't welcome, so kindly leave." He crossed his arms, waiting for the ginger to step away, but he didn't.

"Fuck off Malfoy," he replied dryly, "I'm only waiting to talk to Hermione-"

"I doubt you know how to talk to her anymore," he cut in, eyebrows drawing together. "From what I remember, you either rape her or scream at her, but you don't seem to do an awful lot of talking anymore, do you?" He had leaned in a bit closer, getting in the Gryffindor's face.

Ron turned his head in disgust, taking a step back. "We talked in class today Malfoy, in case you missed it," he hissed in return, "We were partners, since you kindly stayed out of the way this time."

He chuckled. "Ah yes, how could I forget? You fell, right?"

The boy's cheeks turned red. "And I'm pretty fucking certain that's your fault there Malfoy!"

Draco clicked his tongue, "No need to be so testy Weasley; I was just stating a fact. Besides, you have no proof that it was even my fault."

"I know it was though," Weasley said accusingly.

"Of course you do," the blond drawled, "but you still lack the evidence you need. Perhaps you should watch your back more, aye Weasel? You never know what may sneak up behind you."

Ron narrowed his eyes. "Is that a threat ferret?"

"Only if you make it into one," he replied, keeping his cool. The blond placed his hands in his pockets, waiting to see what the redhead would try next. The argument was getting them nowhere, but he couldn't help but press Weasley's buttons a bit.

"I'll-" He cut off as the portrait opened and the head of Hermione Granger peered out, clad in some sort of ivory cloak.

"Stop arguing," she scolded, although it came off with less vindication then one would normally expect. "Come in Malfoy." She continued, avoiding Ron's eyes. Although it was nice that someone was willing to get under Ron's skin like that instead of being mad at her for hexing him. She didn't want the redhead outside the door anymore. He had screamed enough profanities at her to make the people in nearby photos leave.

"Granger-"

"Ordering him around now," Ron cut in, seething. Both teens looked up, and Malfoy quickly placed himself between the two Gryffindor's, but no one paid the action much mind. "Or are you just worried about the bastard? Come on Hermione- you're supposed to hate him."

"He didn't hurt me," she replied, leveling her head as her hand reached out to grab the back of Malfoy's school robes, trying to pull him into the room. From Ron's standpoint, he couldn't see this, just the slight turn of Draco's head, "But you have."

"It was never meant to hurt you," the oblivious redhead said, and both teens facing him raised their eyebrows nearly into their hairlines, "I figured you would end up liking it once the pain began to subside."

"Subside?" she asked, pushing past Malfoy to stand in front of her ex. Draco supposed the sudden courage must come from the knowledge that she was not alone, but he couldn't be sure, she is a Gryffindor after all. Her hands were fisted tight, and he wondered why the Weasel never learned to hold his tongue; he just hoped Granger would hit the idiot in front of them and stop feeling so sorry for herself. It had only been a few days, but the terrified looks in her eyes were enough to cause him worry for her health.

"Yes," Ron said, as though it were obvious.

"When did you think it would start getting better for me!" she screamed, shoving him. Ron's hands came out and locked around her upper arms, but Draco had the boy shoved back from her again almost instantly. Neither teen spoke a word to the blond.

"Well usually-"

"I don't care what you think is usual! Nothing about that situation was usual; in fact, it should've never happened!" She moved to shove him again, but Malfoy held her back as the redhead walked forwards instead, fists balled up. The moment she noticed, he felt her stiffen against him. Despite her sudden spurt of confidence, the sight of her angry ex sent her running. Draco observed this, but said nothing.

"Watch it," Ron growled, "you've been asking for it for months."

"What kind of delusional world do you live in," she asked, shaking her head as she moved from Malfoy's grasp, "I've never once hinted anywhere near wanting something like that! You really are crazy," she continued, taking a step back. "I wish I had known just how much before we got together."

"What does that mean?" he snarled, reaching out to grab her, but both opposing teens stopped him. Draco reached his arm first and shoved, and half a second later Hermione's hand connected with his cheek as he fell back. The two watched him hit the floor, and both waited silently for the uproar that was sure to follow.

The redhead stood, brushing himself off, eyes locked on the brunette the entire time, staring her down and daring her to try something else. She remained by the blond's side, but never once looked away from his eyes; it felt good to stand up to him for hurting her.

Ron's eyes danced between the two people in front of him, before he turned and stormed away- not before he tried to shove her again, however. As the two watched him go, Draco couldn't resist the urge to pull his wand out and throw a Bat Boogey Hex towards the ginger. Hermione did not wait to see what happened after that, just grabbed the Slytherin's hand and pulled him into the still open dorm room, slamming the portrait closed behind her.

She immediately dropped his hand and hugged herself, walking to the couch. The girl sat down and pulled her knees to her chest, resting her arms around them. He half expected her to bury her face into them and cry, but she didn't. He dropped his schoolbag off right there at the door and went to sit beside her.

"What gives Granger?" She glanced over at him, blond fringe littering his eyes. He looked rather annoyed, but then, he only ever seemed annoyed- except outside earlier, when he had been acting nothing but strange. He was still annoyed… but there was something else there that I just can't place…

"Nothing," she replied, not meeting his eyes.

He chuckled darkly, and grabbed her chin, forcing her to look up. She was surprised by his forwardness, but said nothing. "That's a lie. Somehow, you ended up in this situation with the Weasel waiting outside our dorm for you, so how did that happen?"

She pulled away from him, uninterested in telling him what had happened now. He was a prick, and she didn't need to go around telling a Slytherin her fears; he had been nice before, but he had just as much of a temper as Ron if you asked her. Besides, what would he say now? Malfoy was charming when he chose to be, but she was certain he would be rather unhappy with the words on the note. He had bothered to save her, after all, so he couldn't completely hate her. Therefore, he probably wouldn't like it, and she didn't want to see anymore angry reactions from anyone.

He probed her with a finger, and the action caused her head to whip back around. He had not been flinching lately when touching her, and that was very unusual for Malfoy standards. But then again, he cradled you against his body the night Ron first hurt you. She shuddered, and Malfoy pulled his hand back.

Her eyes shyly moved up to look into his grey ones, and the concern she saw there was terrifying. When Malfoy cares more then anyone seems to there has to be a problem, right? Granted, no one else knew what happened, but she had still never expected the whirlwind of emotions to appear in his eyes. She was very well aware that he had been helping her here and there with the ginger, but she didn't understand why he kept helping. He could always be his usual, cowardly self and step back from a complicated situation, but he had not.

"Ron gave me a message," she stated while looking down at her knees again. It felt silly to be telling Malfoy about another incident, but she had found him to be the only one to indulge these things on. Harry and Ginny would think she was just lying.

The blond inclined an eyebrow. "What kind of message Granger?" he asked, folding his arms now.

She unwrapped her arms from her legs and moved to sit correctly on the sofa, legs over the edge and fingers fiddling with each other. He watched the odd movement but said nothing, deciding he would rather wait and see what she would say.

After a few seconds, she spoke again. "He threatened me."

The blond scoffed, "Well I assumed that much. Something a little less vague is what I was looking for Granger."

Her eyes dropped. She wasn't sure details were something she wanted to go into, but now she had started the conversation, so she probably needed to finish it. He was waiting patiently beside her, not daring to interrupt her thoughts.

Instead of replying, she stood and left the room to find her bag. Pulling out a slip of paper, she turned and was surprised to see that he had followed and now was waiting in the doorway. She hadn't expected him to even move, and perhaps lose interest and leave, but following her was something else. Maybe he did care about what was happening to her more then she liked to admit. Bottling up some courage, she marched over and handed him the paper, holding his gaze. Long fingers reached over and took the parchment from her, watching her closely.

He finally broke the staring contest to inspect the paper in his hand. It was only folded once, and rather short. Obviously, this was a very to-the-point type of threat, he glanced back at Granger as he unfolded the letter, but dropped it entirely as something else caught his attention.

"Where the fuck did that come from?" he asked sharply, reaching over to touch the new mark on her face, revealed now that her hair had shifted. It took several seconds for her to realize what he was looking at, but the moment that she did she jumped away from his touch.

"Nothing... nowhere," she replied, turning away to rub the sensitive area. Why couldn't he just read the damn letter and get it out of the way, instead of noticing things like that. She moved away from him but he caught her arm.

"That's not nothing Granger," he growled from behind her, the letter completely forgotten in his mind. "Where did that mark come from? When did you last have a violent encounter with Weasley, hmm?"

Her body tightened. Now it sounded like he really cared, and that was disorienting. "It doesn't matter."

"You need to get that out of your head," he said, forcing her to turn around. She could see the anger in his eyes, "The longer you keep believing that it doesn't matter the more likely you are to take the abuse. The faster you learn to accept what he has done, and that you cannot allow him to do things like that to you again, the better your life will be." His jaw tightened. "You need to tell someone-"

"No," she said quickly, shaking her head. It was humiliating enough to know Malfoy had seen what happened to her. "No, I refuse to tell anyone."

He scoffed. "Then you better expect lots of marks like that," he replied, tapping the spot on her face, "because if you don't learn how to accept this, and tell someone so he's out of your life, then there will be lots more of those- unless you decide to never be alone again, which sounds a bit difficult to do." He leaned a bit closer. "I just hope that big brain of yours starts working soon Granger."

She opened her mouth to say something, anything, but he had apparently had enough of this. Snatching the note off the ground, he made his way out of the room. She watched him go, feeling the pain explode in her chest. The moment he was out, she slammed the door shut and slid down the wood.

He had a point; they needed to tell someone, but not just for her sake; for everyone's. Ron could never be given the chance to do something like that again, and it would be up to her about whether or not he got the chance. Malfoy could tell whoever he wanted, but the Ministry would need a confession or evidence or something to know the truth, and that came from her.

Looks like I have a lot to get over then, she thought, before burying her head into her knees and feeling the tears escape. The problem was, she didn't want to do anything about it yet.

A/n: No note this chapter, but it plays a big part in the next one! I planned to put it here originally, but it didn't fit in quite right. Sorry! I'll have the next chapter up ASAP. Oh, and this story only has like seven chapters left- maybe.