I'm sorry! My usual apology for being terrible about updating. This one was hard to write though. I really love reviews so PLEASE keep them coming! And as a warning, there is rape in this chapter. So be warned! Again, I'm sorry about the chapter delay, I'll try to get the next one up way faster!
Using her wand, Hermione kept the trail of blood off of the floor until she reached the Gryffindor Common Room. But once she had reached the entrance, she allowed her blood to flow freely. She smeared it over the stones of the flood, and on one of the walls. Silently, she cast a spell to mask the wounds all over her body and all of her blood. Once everything was hidden but her broken hand, she knocked on the Fat Lady's portrait. It was a first year who eased open the portrait and peered out.
"Get me Ronald Weasley please. Only him, understand?"
Wide-eyed at the sight of the outcasted Hermione Granger, the first year slammed the portrait closed. Her head swam as she waited for Ron to come outside. She leaned her forehead against the nearest wall, feeling her blood still running down her face beneath the spells. Finally, the portrait swung open and Ron came out with a suspicious look on his face.
"I...I didn't think you would come," she said shakily, straightening and moving toward the center of the hallway.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Ron growled, crossing his arms. "I don't want you here. Harry doesn't want you here. Go back to your precious Slytherin cave."
"It was all them! I couldn't control myself! I'm so sorry Ron. I only just got away from there. Please don't shove me away, you know me better than that."
"Why should I believe you?"
"I'm just asking your forgiveness! I can't prove anything to you. Please Ron!"
"I don't know...I think I should get Harry."
"No!" She yelled.
Ron pulled his wand out immediately. "Something isn't right here."
And she began smirking at him. "But Ron..." Hermione whispered in a sickly sweet voice as she drew her own wand.
"EXPELLIARMUS!" Ron yelled, but before her wand slid from her hand, Hermione released all her spells.
As she began sobbing, there Ron stood in shock at the sight before him, with her bloody wand in his hand. Hermione allowed herself to finally collapse to the ground as her vision began to blacken. But she forced the blackness back. She needed to see this all through.
"No Ron! Stop! Please!" She screamed out suddenly.
The portrait flew open and there stood Harry and a crowd of Gryffindors at his back, all of whom stared in shock at the scene before them. Hermione was covered in scrapes, gashes, and bruises and she lay in a huge puddle of her own blood. But to top it all off, there stood Ron holding Hermione's wand in his hand. A hand covered in blood. He had attacked her while she was defenseless again? "Ron...what have you done?" Harry said slowly, completely floored by what was obviously in front of him.
"I...don't..." Ron was too confused to know what to say.
"I just came for forgiveness." Hermione breathed, just barely loud enough for the front row of people straining to see through the portrait hole to hear. Those in the back immediately began whispering to each other, trying to figure out what she said.
"Fuck Ron. This is bad." Harry was panicking, but he quickly cast spells to clean up the area and levitated her body into the air. "Everyone. Back the bloody hell up!"
When very few people moved, Harry started shoving people out of the way, much to their annoyance, and quickly moved her through the portrait hole and towards the stairs. Ron followed him, still looking dazed.
"What are you doing Harry?" Ginny cried, coming forward from the back. "She needs to see Pomfrey now! She's losing too much blood."
"Shut up Ginny," he said in a harsh tone. Ginny reeled as though he had slapped her. "No one, and I mean none of you, are going to anyone. I will handle this." And with those final words, he hurried with Hermione floating along in front of him up the stairs.
They floated her straight up to their dormitory. Just as Hermione had hoped they'd do. She had her eyes shoot open as they set her down and she looked everywhere as though she were terrified. What they didn't understand was that she was organizing her surroundings in her mind. Nothing had changed since she'd been up there when things had all been normal. She found the trunk at the foot of Harry's bed. The place where the map had always been stored.
They didn't say anything to calm her, just stared for a minute. She was ready when Harry nudged Ron and they went outside the door arguing about what to do with her. Hermione leapt from the bed ignoring the pain that went shooting through her limbs. She had the map within moments and stuffed it into her shirt, leaving everything else where she had found it. Climbing back into her place on the bed, she waited.
Finally the two boys entered the room again. Harry looked directly into her eyes. Ron however, wouldn't even look in her direction. There was an incredible tension in the air. Days ago they had laughed together, been the best of friends, now anger and mistrust colored the air.
"Hermione, I don't know what you're doing here, or why. But I've talked to Ron, and I don't think he did this to you. For one, he doesn't even remember doing it."
"But then who did this to me Harry? I couldn't have done this to myself," Hermione whispered.
"I don't know and frankly I don't care." She looked up at him in shock at the harshness in his tone and his lack of feeling. "What I don't like is that you tried to pin it on Ron for whatever reason. I think you should just get out of here and we'll pretend this never happened."
"But Harry..."
"Go."
And so she left, slowly, shakily, reaching out and grabbing her wand from Harry's outstretched palm. Once through the door, she fled. Inwardly congratulating herself, Hermione went down the stairs and met the Common Room of stares. Making a perfect show of sobbing and hugging herself, she fled out of the portrait hole and straight into the arms of Madam Pomfrey.
"Oh my dear! What happened to you?" Madam Pomfrey cried out in alarm.
Taking advantage of the situation, Hermione continued crying onto Madam Pomfrey's shoulder. "Ron and Harry believe lies about me! I didn't do anything on purpose I swear! So I came to ask Ron to forgive me and he attacked me!"
"You poor child! When I was informed that someone was hurt I didn't imagine that it was his bad. I can't believe he did this too you! I'll fix you right up and Dumbledore will hear about this. Here, let's get you downstairs."
After just a few minutes with Madam Pomfrey, Hermione felt better than she had in a long time.
"Ms. Granger, you lost a lot of blood, I really must insist you stay overnight."
What would Draco think? She couldn't stay out overnight! "No, Madam, I'm sure I will be alright now. I just need to stay away from...from..."
"I already contacted Professor Dumbledore about those two dear. He'll deal with this problem right away I'm sure. But you need to stay here tonight."
As if on cue, Professor Dumbledore swept in, soon followed by Professor McGonnagal. The latter looked furious. But Dumbledore looked almost exactly as calm as he always did. But what Hermione saw in his eyes was unnerving. While she saw sadness, she also saw a glint of something else. She would have understood disappointment, annoyance, anger, disapproval, or a mix of all of them, but the look in his eyes was unidentifiable. She lowered her eyes to the bedsheets.
"Well Ms. Granger, I'm sorry to hear the state you've been in, but I am not surprised that this is where you have ended up. There are strange stories encircling Hogwarts about you currently. But what does surprise me is the current story. You asked Ron for forgiveness, not Harry? Ron left you in such a terrifying state in mere minutes? And he has no recollection of causing you any harm? But alas, I have never pegged you for a liar and there were witnesses. I have no choice but to punish them accordingly. But I must advise you to choose your allies carefully, but be careful of who you trust. Those you trust may be dangerous."
"Thank you sir," she whispered, still staring adamantly at the bed before her. She jumped when a door slammed. Looking up, she saw that McGonnagal had left the room and Dumbledore had paused near the doorway.
"And Ms. Granger, head back to your room, but do be careful. I believe you are going to be judt as important in your current role as you always have been to our cause. Stay strong."
Hermione left, and immediately realized her position. Right now she could leave. She could get away from Hogwarts. Away from Harry and Ron. Away from Draco and Blaise. Away from this mess and the fear and the pain. She could hide somewhere. Not with her family, but she could hide alone and no one would ever find her. She could survive on her own. Carefully she pulled out the Marauder's Map.
"I solemnly swear I am up to no good."
Lines bloomed in all directions. It was mesmerizing as usual, seeing the place she had always seen as her home away from home form before her eyes. Her eyes were drawn to Gryffindor tower as the dots of Harry and Ron popped into existence. She dragged her eyes away and they fell on another dot. It belonged to Draco, and it was right on top of some girl named Megan's dot. She could only imagine what was going on there. Dumbledore was in his office with Professor McGonnagal. Everyone was exactly where she expected they would be, and no one was between her and where she wanted to be.
Stuffing the map inside her shirt, she turned down the hallway to her right. Few portraits lined the walls this way, but their eyes followed her silently. Almost accusingly. She wasn't surprised. These were all ancient purebloods and probably viewed her as as much of an abomination as their descendants did, if not more so. She lowered her eyes from their hateful stares and continued on her way. Though she had never travelled this way before, she had seen this path on the map many times. It led to a hidden tunnel leading out of the castle.
When she arrived at a dead end, she stopped. Pulling out the map, she saw that the image had changed. Now there was an image of herself tapping 6 of the stones and then the words "Subturlabor ut libertas," in a bubble extending from her mouth. Hermione copied everything she saw to perfection. As soon as the last word exited her mouth, the wall split in the center. Fascinated, she watched as the solid stone wall began to fold like a set of blinds toward each side. Slowly she walked inside, and as soon as she was past what she could only term as the threshold of the newly exposed doorway, the walls began to fold closed again.
In a moment she was enclosed in darkness. She sighed as the weight of everything that had happened momentarily lifted from her shoulders. She lit a light at the end of her wand and examined her surroundings. She could tell that this tunnel was ancient, and that it hadn't been used for a very long time. Unfortunately, as she'd half expected, this was one of the tunnels that Fred and George had said was sealed and impassable. The area directly in front of her was sealed with both large and small stones that had obviously fallen when the roof of the tunnel had caved in. But that was ok. She just needed to wait here a few hours until everyone went to bed and then she could escape out of the front of the castle. Again she sighed, this time as she lowered herself to the ground. Exhausted, she allowed her eyes to close.
She had no idea how long she sat there, but when light began shining into her hiding place, her eyes shot open. Staring down at her was the last person she wanted to see right now.
"Well well well look who I found here. When my great great grandfather told me a mudblood had run down this hallway I didn't think it was you."
"I...I..." she stuttered, fear starting to build up within her.
"You made this too easy Granger. Do you know what time it is? What day it is?"
"N-no." But she knew and she scooted as far back against the rocks as she could.
Blaise smirked down at her and she knew what would happen. He grabbed her arm and dragged her to her feet before slamming her back into the stones of the wall. Hermione whimpered, feeling the cold hard stones dig into her spine. The feeling that proved there was no escape now. In trying to escape, she had insured that there was no one who could save her, and so she withdrew within herself as Blaise began running his hands down her body.
His hands grabbed the hem of her tattered blouse and he tore it apart. The buttons flew in all directions. Hermione didn't fight him. She knew it was inevitable and that thought alone nearly made her gag. His hands slid beneath her bra, and he violently pinched her nipples. Gasping at the pain, Hermione arched forward. Twisting his hand, he grabbed the center of her bra and yanked it off of her body. The back snapped apart, the hooks scraping her skin. She attempted to cover her breasts from his sight as she was exposed to him, but of course he wouldn't allow that. His nails dug into her wrists as he dragged her arms above her head. He began to kiss along her jawline.
Hermione couldn't help but remember the first time he had kissed her, back on the first day this mess had all started. With the thought of that kiss in her head, she felt a heat begin to build within her stomach. A heat that brought feelings of shame and disgust. Hermione angled her head as far from Blaise as she could, but he didn't stop. His lips trailed down her throat and then back up. She sighed as her body reacted to the feelings he was causing.
"You're enjoying this aren't you," Blaise whispered into his ear. He paused. "Answer me!"
Hermione slightly nodded her head.
"Well we can't have that now, can we?" He lightly bit her earlobe and she couldn't contain a quiet moan, but she cried out when he bit down harder. Letting go with one of his hands, he pulled out his wand and bound her hands together above her head. With his hands completely free now, he reached up her skirt and dragged her underwear down to her knees and then tore those off of her body as well. She closed her eyes a he shoved himself inside of her, but she wasn't able to hold in a whimper of pain.
"Fuck Granger, I haven't fucked a virgin in so long," he said as he continued thrusting into her, ignoring her obvious pain. He drove into her with more and more force, ramming her back into the wall behind her. She could feel the bruises already forming. There was no enjoyment now. There was not even a little bit of a response from her body. She felt as though he was slowly tearing her apart. She wanted to scream, but she didn't want to give him the satisfaction.
It was as though he read her mind. "Scream for me to stop," Blaise practically growled at her. "Bitch I want you to beg."
And the screams rose from her throat and echoed back at her in the short tunnel. Once she began screaming she couldn't stop. All of her pain, all of her frustration, everything came out with it. And though he still had her hands bound, she started to struggle. She kicked out toward him. Anything to get him off of her. Blaise's hand immediately struck her across the face, hard. Hermione's face stung with the impact, but she didn't stop struggling. To her horror, Blaise seemed to enjoy it more the more she fought him. But after a few minutes, he seemed to tire of it.
"Stop."
Hermione froze.
"Lay on your back and spread your legs."
Of course she had to comply, but it was humiliating, and as he got on top of her she again closed her eyes.
"Open your eyes and watch me shove my cock into you again and again. Moan for me like the whore you really are Granger. I know you enjoy me hurting you. You enjoy the pain."
Much later, Hermione limped back to Draco's room, clutching at her clothes that were now completely in tatters and grasping the map in her bruised fist. Tear stains ran down her cheeks and she was shaking like a leaf. Draco woke up when she entered the room and watched silently as she laid the map at the foot of his bed and as she curled up into a tight ball on her bed on the floor. She knew he watched her as she began quietly sobbing into the pillow and she knew he saw the blood and bruises and even the few remaining rocks ground into her back. But he said nothing.
Hermione heard the crinkling of paper as he picked up the Marauder's Map. She was sure he was looking puzzled at the blank piece of parchment. But she didn't care. If she had glanced back, she might have seen Draco look at her as though a ghost had entered the room before he avoided looking at her altogether. But she fell asleep with her back to him, and when she woke the next morning, her back was dirty, but healed, and Draco Malfoy was gone.