Chapter Six

She collapsed on her bed in a fit of tears. Cursing her life repeatedly, she beat the bedspread with her fist whilst covering the pillowcase in tears.

She felt like she'd cried for at least a half an hour, though probably it was only about ten minutes.

Sitting up, she realized she was allowing herself to be trodden on. "They won't walk on me," she promised herself aloud. "They won't."

She leapt from her bed and smoothed her wrinkled dress. She knew what she had to do.

She rushed about her room, packing a few essentials hurriedly into a bag. She would go to the Burrow; The Weasleys would still be awake at this hour. She would go and she would never return to the Black Manor.

Just because Callidora was her grandmother didn't give her the right to…!

There was a knock on the door. Hermione stopped and stood completely still; Perhaps if she made no noise, whoever it was would assume she was gone.

No luck. The door swung open.

The first thing Hermione saw was platinum blond hair and a pointed nose. Draco. Draco Malfoy was in her bedroom. What the FUCK?!

It seemed that no one really wanted to give her any privacy.

He took his time looking around the room. In fact, the very last thing he looked at was Hermione herself and to be honest, Hermione didn't think it really counted, since it seemed more like he was looking at the wall behind her rather than actually AT her.

"Nice place."

Hermione raised one eyebrow. Of all the things for Malfoy to say at this moment!

"I'm leaving," she informed him. She expected him to react to this.

His expression didn't change. "They sent me after you."

Hermione crossed her arms and put her weight on one hip, taking a stance. "You can't stop me from leaving."

"By all means, leave," he drawled. He sunk onto her bedspread, looking surprisingly very much in place with the zebra pattern as a backdrop. "They'll just go get you and then things will be worse."

"They won't find me. There are wizarding laws against this. Hell, there are MUGGLE laws against this. Forcing someone to marry someone else is ILLEGAL, I can fight them for my rights!"

Draco considered this and knew she was probably right. He shrugged, "Give it your best shot."

Hermione paused, considering his indifference. Then she gave up and stuffed a pair of jeans into the bag. The bag was too small, so she enlarged it.

"Where are you going to go?"

Hermione rolled her eyes, "As if I would tell you."

"Malfoy honor. I can try to defer my father, for what it's worth."

"Why the hell would you do THAT?" Hermione demanded. She was in a bad mood and her retorts were downright poisonous.

"You think I want to marry YOU?"

That stung Hermione more than she'd thought it would. Correction: The unexpectedness of the comment and the volatility in his voice downright HURT.

"I'm not THAT bad," she murmured in a tiny voice, more to herself than to him.

"Maybe you're not. It's probably best if we don't find out…" he thought aloud. "Though knowing my father, if you DO run away now, he'll have found you by the end of the night anyway. And he's far more dangerous and unpredictable now that he's been to Azkaban."

Hermione sighed. "What are you proposing?"

The statement seemed quite awkward given their current situation. Directly after she uttered it, Hermione regretted wording things that way.

"I say we go back down and pretend like you've come to your senses and changed your mind. Then, we can plan out a way to do the whole escape thing properly." He still wasn't looking at her.

Hermione turned this thought over in her mind. She hated to admit it, but Draco's suggestion made a lot of sense. More than that though, she hated that she hadn't thought of it.

She sighed and with some difficulty, she replied, "You're right… let's go."

She had admitted his idea what better than hers! Her answer surprised him, so much so that he accidentally did what he knew he could not do. Her looked at her – right at her.

Just looking at her – just looking made him remember. He would never, ever for the rest of his life forget her that day in the woods.

He and Yaxley heard the screams. They'd exchanged glances and in a moment's second realized they were obligated to do something… even if she was only a wretched Mudblood.

But by Merlin, where the hell had they hidden? It took them fifteen minutes to find her, and by then he had gone. That disgusting Muggle, whoever the hell he was.

Draco had not known the boy was a Muggle when he'd seen him. To see Hermione, her body twisted and bent, her hair matted with her own blood, lines from a knife riddling her body… naked. Draco had known from that moment that Muggles weren't as powerless as his father made them out to be. He was glad they'd healed her wounds before she woke.

He often wondered, when he allowed himself to wonder, why Hermione hadn't defended herself. It was such an un-Hermione thing to do; Usually someone of her level of intelligence would have been on top of that, surely.

She'd looked so helpless, so dead. For a moment he'd thought she was dead and was surprised how the thought made him angry. Not that it was because of her – but because no one should ever have to go through what Hermione had gone though.

The idea of violating someone in that way made him absolutely sick. Draco had thrown up quietly in the bushes after he was sure Yaxley had Disapparated to St. Mungo's. He couldn't bring himself to look away, somehow. She was so – something.

"Malfoy?" Her voice came like the reverie of a trumpet during a nightmarish dream.

He grunted. He hated when she looked at him with those soft brown eyes… like a doe, beautiful and earthly. He remembered those eyes opened wide and staring at the sky, making the rest of her body that much more eerie and wrong.

"Shall we go back down, then?"

"Yeah, I guess, Granger."

Hermione paused. "If we're going to be working together to get out of this mess, I suggest we call a temporary truce."

Draco rolled his eyes: Trust a Gryffindor to come up with that concept! But all the same, he had to admit it was probably for the better.

"Yeah, probably," he muttered.

Awkwardly, Hermione extended her hand, "Truce?"

Draco stared at her hand and then took it. "Truce," he agreed, but let go fairly quickly, as though afraid someone could see.

"Can I ask you something, Malfoy?"

"Shoot," he answered. She turned her head away so as not to face him directly; He was able to look at her again.

"Last year, when Harry, Ron and I were taken prisoner in your mansion, you were asked to identify us. It was pretty obvious it was us… but you just said, 'It might be.' Why did you say that? You could have outed us."

Draco shrugged, "It seemed like the right thing to do at the time."

She paused a moment. "That's it? That's the reason why?" He could tell he'd disappointed her.

"For Merlin's sake, do you think I'm as evil as my father?" he demanded, suddenly angry. "I'm really not all THAT bad, Granger. Not that you would know."

In a small voice Hermione retorted, "You never gave me reason to think otherwise, Malfoy. What about that time you gave me those huge teeth, or all the years you called me that horrible word, or in sixth year when you let all those Death Eaters into Hogwarts?"

"Yeah, well they would have killed my family if I hadn't done the last one."

"Oh," was all Hermione managed to say.

There was a ridiculously long pause that could very well have been called the end of the conversation.

Finally, "Shall we go back downstairs and pretend we've worked it out?"

"They're probably in the parlor by now," Hermione answered.

Draco rose from the edge of the bed and offered her his arm, still not looking her in the face.

Reluctantly she took it, and the two Disapparated arm and arm to the parlor to do some damage control, all the while both minds occupied on the other and how they could possibly fool everyone.

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Author's Note: I like this chapter, I don't know why. It's kind of blunt.

Thanks so much to ReaderforLife, reader101, WinnieThaPoo92, AerintheWhiteKnight, oreo69not96, RIPJameSiriusLupinTrueMarauder, and xxDrAcO'sBaby4EvErxx for the reviews! Reviewers are awesome!

xxDrAcO'sBaby4EvErxx - I am not generally very humorous, but I will attempt. Later on though... this part of the story doesn't really warrant it quite yet. But I will keep your suggestion in mind as I continue to write this fic, thank you. Comments and criticism together are the best kind!