Draco looked up immediately, seeing a figure in the glass nearing him.
"Malfoy?" she asked again.
He tensed instantly, ashamed of being caught. "Get out of here, GRANGER!" He whipped around, and pointed his wand at her.
She faltered, taking a step back. "I- I'm sorry..." He was quite beautiful, really. Despite the tears running down his face, and the confused anger in his silvery eyes. Despite the malice in his voice. Despite the mark branded into his pale, fragile skin.
"Wait." He said. "How much did you hear?" He trembled slightly, losing grip of his wand.
"Malfoy...we can help you. We can all help you. Dumbledore can—"
"YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!" he screamed at her.
"I was chosen. He'll...he'll kill my mother..."
Her eyes instinctively shifted down to his arm, looking for the mark hidden by his white shirt-sleeve. She gasped when she saw his bloody hands, and the gaping hole in his blouse.
"You're bleeding." She said quietly.
He looked at his wounds for a moment, as if he'd forgotten why they were there.
She took the opportunity to walk over to him and gently lift his hands away from his chest.
"I can heal it, you know." She glanced at him.
Draco nodded imperceptibly.
"Tergeo." She whispered to his hands, which began to cleanse themselves of his blood.
She moved her fingers to his shirt, which she began to unbutton slowly.
He flinched at her touch. "What are you doing?"
"I'm healing you." She said, annoyed.
"Vulnera Sanentur..." she said, moving her wand closer to the gash. "Vulnera Sanentur...Vulnera Sanentur..."
Draco watched as the blood from his shirt and the wound, traveled back to his body.
"Is it better now?" she asked him.
He glanced at her.
She moved her fingers to the closed wound, feeling his muscles recoil again.
"I'm sorry." She whispered.
He looked at her doubtfully.
Slowly, she pressed her lips to his broken skin. He groaned. "Hermione..."
She stood up again, embarrassedly. "Sorry..."
He stared incredulously at her.
"Do you want me to go?" she started for the door.
Draco pulled her back, gently bringing his own lips to meet hers. He grabbed the edge of the sink for support, as Hermione leaned into him. Her warm lips spread heat throughout his body as soon as she touched his cold skin, and he trembled into her. "Malfoy." she mumbled, grasping his arms.
He smirked. "That's not my name." He felt her reach for his hair, and tug at the nape of his neck, wandering back to his arm. "Draco..." she muttered, as he began to kiss her harder.
He stopped, suddenly, pulling away. He looked stiffly at the mark on his arm, ashamed. "I don't need your pity kisses, Granger." He said coldly.
She stared back at him, her cheeks still flushed from the heat of the kiss. "Excuse me?"
He softened his voice, tears threatening to leave his eyes. "Don't pity me, Hermione. Don't help me." He picked his shirt up from off the floor, and buttoned it back up, grimacing once he reached his cut.
Hermione pulled him by his arm. The arm with the mark. "I don't pity you for the mark, Draco." She touched his skin softly. "I feel sorry that your childhood was ripped from you. I feel sorry that you're alone...I feel sorry that you've been forced to make the wrong choices. I feel..." She stopped, sharply, a flush rising in her cheeks again.
"Don't you understand?" Draco shouted. "No one can help me! No one!" He lowered his voice. "I shouldn't have let myself go, Granger. I shouldn't have touched you. You won't see me like this! You're not supposed to know. Don't tell...anyone!" His voice rose again, quickly, and at the force of it, she stumbled backwards.
"Not even Potter and Weasley." He spat, as though the names betrayed his lips.
Hermione glared at him fiercely. "Have it your way, Malfoy."
She stepped forward. "You didn't seem to be thinking about that particular detail, when you were snogging me!" She crossed her arms over her chest.
Draco's breath hitched in his throat. He walked over to Hermione and remained at her side for just a moment...and then walked swiftly away, his face clouded with fear.
"Draco." A deep voice called out to him, as he turned around the corridor.
He paused for a moment, blinking away his tears several times. "Professor."
Snape looked him over slowly, as if he were stringing his next words together in his mind. "Look at me."
Draco's grey eyes met Snape's black stare.
"Draco...I would...advise you...to...take your utmost care..."
"Professor, would you care to elaborate?" Draco asked sardonically.
"You...and Miss Granger...you must be very...vigilant, Draco..." he replied slowly.
"Er...why would you ask me about that filthy Mudblood, Professor?" Draco stuttered.
Snape's face contorted into a hint of a smile...or quite possibly a smirk. "I saw you...in the girl's bathroom...Don't...attempt to fool me."
Draco paled. "It was nothing!"
Snape sighed remorsefully, thinking back to his own pensieve of thoughts. "Don't...lie to yourself."
He stepped away from Draco, silently ending their prior conversation. "Head back to the Slytherin dormitories, Draco...now!" Snape walked away, down the corridor, his black robes billowing behind him.
For once, Draco refused to comply, heading towards the dormitories, under Snape's watch, and later heading back to Moaning Myrtle's lavatory.
"Granger?" he called out, pushing open the door.
Yet, he was only greeted with silence.