Hermione stared down into the grey eyes of the boy kneeling at her feet. Her mouth was dry, she felt like; if she tried to speak nothing would come out. Her palms were sweating and her feet itching to run.

"I…I…" she tried to speak, her throat was closing, and she couldn't breathe. "I can't!" she finally choked. She turned on her heels and ran back down the stairs and out of the shrieking shack.

Hermione woke in a cold sweat. Was it a dream? She looked around her for any clue that it had been real. Her head was spinning. Once she was dressed she decided to go and find Draco, just to confirm if it had been real or not. As she walked along the corridors, everything seemed to be a blur; her mind was not focused on what she was doing. The next thing she knew was that she was falling, she hit her head hard. Faces above her began to fade and everything went black.

Draco emerged for the dungeons, his pride hurt, and callousness back in his blood. As he walked towards the grand staircase he noticed a commotion. There were people crowded around the foot of the stairs and calls for people to get a professor. Draco used his supposed superiority to push his was through the crowd, this superiority mainly first years who were scared of him. When Draco reached the front his stomach lurched. His eyes were might by the sight of Hermione lying sprawled at an awkward angle at the bottom of the stairs, and a pool of blood forming on the floor underneath her head.

Just then Madame Pomfrey appeared, she let out a cry and then ordered the crowd to move away. The crowed parted as the nurse levitated Hermione's body and floated it to the hospital wing.

Draco watched as Madame Pomfrey disappeared out of view. He found a Gryffindor first year and grabbed hold of him by the collar, lifting him up against the wall. "What happened?" he snarled.

"She…fell. I heard her hit the floor and then I turned around and… and…"
"Find Ron Weasley and tell him to get to the hospital wing, and don't say I told you." He again snarled at the frightened boy. Draco let his grip of the boy loosen, he then brushed his own robes down and turned to look at Filch who was now mopping up the blood, he was telling the students go away, and there was nothing to see.