As Draco leaned forward to pick Hermione up away from the mess that surrounded her, she tried to sit up bracing her weight on her hands which only caused splinters of glass to hurt her palms causing her to bleed.

"Granger, for Merlin's sake! Will you stop thinking for yourself? Every time you do this you seem to only make things worse!" Draco tried his best to control the rage in his voice.

What was wrong with this girl? And they call her the smartest witch of her age! Every time she decides to move on her own she just adds a new injury to herself…a new injury which he will have to deal with. One last time, he thought to himself, I'll try to lift her up one last time and if she fights I'll let her enjoy her current status on the floor. As he started to lift her to the couch, he was surprised to receive no resistance from her side.

When the pain was too much to handle Hermione finally gave up, what was the worse that could happen? Would he kill her? No, Malfoy doesn't have it in him to kill somebody even if his life depended on it. But something was telling her the boy in front of her has changed since the last time she had seen him. A dark shade of purple now underlines his eyes, his brows furrowed and his usual snobbish look was replaced with a cold stare.
And what if he did try to kill her? It seemed like her life was going from bad to worse with full speed anyway. Trying to recall the events of the day, she found her memory full of random distorted scenes and she wasn't able to form a clear story of what happened.

"What happened?" she asked weakly.

"A lot has happened lately, Granger, if you could be more specific?" Draco replied, for once not pausing to smirk at his own sarcastic comment.

Looking down at him she saw him crouched over a box full of tiny flasks and potion ingredients. When he turned to her he had a flask that contained a clear purple liquid, he dropped a few drops over the wounds on her palms, thin lines of smoke evaporated into the air as the liquid touched Hermione's hand. It stung and a sense of panic took over, what was she thinking when she let Malfoy use a potion on her! Hermione pulled her hand from Draco's frantically.

"What are you trying to do? Let go of me, Malfoy!" She barked at him

"Yes, it is very sensible to think I'm trying to harm or kill you using a potion...on your hands, because I couldn't do it when you were half conscious." Draco mocked dryly. "However, unlike you Granger, I am actually smart. This is a wound cleaning potion, it will sting at first but it's only to clean your wounds" he added. Looking up at her, Draco noticed her eyes were glistening with tears.

"Merlin, Granger!" he exclaimed "I know it hurts, I had first hand experience with it, but it doesn't hurt that much…I could stop now but the sooner your wounds are clean, the better." he advised. "And believe me when I say that the fact that this is making you cry gives me a thrill I haven't had in a while." he added, his usual smirk finally returning.

Hermione felt ashamed of her weakness, she had endured worse,what happened to her now? Looking at the flask in Malfoy's hand she realized that it was exactly what he said. She scolded herself in her head, hell would freeze before she lets Malfoy enjoy her misery.

"It's okay, seems like my pain tolerance has betrayed me, thanks to my pleasant time with your aunt" She answered bitterly "but I'll be damned if I let you enjoy this" she added, lifting her chin up in defiance.

Draco knew describing his aunt as a sadistic maniac would be putting it mildly. Granger thinks she had seen it all but, truthfully, he was the one who saw it all. The only thing worse than having Bellatrix Lestrange torture you, is having her mentor you.

"So what do you want to know about what happened?" he tried to make his change of subject subtle.

Hermione found herself chuckling involuntarily at the fact that he used the "Muggle" way of distracting her from the pain. It reminded her of her parents, how her father used to chat with his patients so they won't concentrate on their pain. At the memory of her parents she felt a cold grip squeeze her heart and what started as a good memory of her parents ended as a reminder of what she had lost for now and -judging by the way things were going- forever.

"What's wrong now?" Draco asked, interrupting her thoughts. Everything, she thought, "Nothing" she replied.

"Everything." he scoffed catching her off guard, Harry had told her once that Malfoy was practicing Legilimency but she would know if he was breaking into her mind, wouldn't she?

An alarm bell rang in her head, she can't afford giving him any information, she started thinking that her situation was actually getting worse. Bellatrix's torture was something she tried so hard to put up with but having her own mind invaded? How could she stop that when she had never practiced Occlumency?

"Listen, Malfoy, I know you're practicing Legilimency; Harry told me. But I swear if you ever try breaking through my mind again I will make sure you don't live to make use of the information you get." she threatened using every ounce of power that was left in her.

Again? What did she mean again, when was the first time? Draco found himself for the fourth or fifth time this day wondering what the hell was wrong with Hermione Granger! And how on earth did Potter know he practiced Legilimency?

"Hold on just a second, Granger_" he raised his hand in a motion to stop her "_What do you mean again? I never came near your thoughts before, I didn't do it now and I don't plan on doing it in the near future, either. You don't need Legilimency to put one and one together. You have two broken legs, so many cuts I can't even start counting them, my lunatic aunt had spent quite a while torturing you, you're alone with no idea where your pathetic excuses for friends are or whether they're still alive or not, and this is just the top of the list, a toddler can tell you're a liar when you say nothing is wrong." Draco stated matter-of-factly looking at her superciliously.
"Also, how does Potter know what I do and don't practice? Which is more, why were you and Potter discussing me?" He asked quizzically raising an eyebrow, his expression confused before a ghost of a smirk started playing on his lips.

"Oh wipe that smug look off your face Malfoy! We weren't discussing you, you flatter yourself way too much. And I will not answer your questions I don't have to and you can't make me."Hermione retorted jerking her head to face away from him.

"Can't I? Think again about that last part, Granger, you really don't want me to start displaying the many ways I have to make you answer me."Draco warned, his signature smirk provoking Hermione more and more.

"Is that a threat Malfoy? Because it sounds very much like you, threatening your opponent when they're at their weakest. You're a pathetic excuse of a man, born a coward and you will die as one." She bit out her voice dripping contempt.

All the time Draco was talking to her while mixing what seemed like potion ingredients, at her last remark he paused for a fleeting second and she could see his hand shake slightly before going back to normal as if nothing happened.

"That was a statement, Granger. And you would do well to keep in mind you're not my opponent; because if you were, you wouldn't be sitting in my room insulting me, you'd still be enjoying my aunt's pleasant company." Draco threw her words back at her.

Hermione shuddered at the mention of Bellatrix, no matter what Malfoy was going to do to her, she was positive it would be nothing compared to what Bellatrix would do, he was by far the lesser of two evils.