When Hermione woke up, Malfoy was staring right at her. His eyes red rimmed and expression stark.
"You." He stared into her soul.
"You're alive." She acknowledged.
He shook his head, "Of all the people in the fucking world, of course I'm stuck with you."
"Believe me, the feeling is mutual."
Pain stole his attention and he looked down at his arm. A muscle spasmed and he clenched his fist. The wound had stopped bleeding and had scabbed. It seemed Pansy's healing charms could only do so much.
"What are you doing here?"
"What does it fucking look like Mudblood?" He glared at her, eyes wild, "Maybe I'm here to kill you?"
She tried not to flinch, "Maybe you're here to die?"
He looked down at his arm again.
"I didn't know the Dark Mark could be removed." She confessed.
Draco hopelessly surveyed his cell, "Neither did I."
He looked like a renaissance painting. His porcelain skin unblemished beneath the blood, a fallen angel, with his robes draping from his body and the candle light reflecting in his eyes.
She stared at his face, desperate to know why he was there. She wanted to split his head open and scoop his thoughts out, "What did you do?"
Malfoy scoffed, "Wouldn't you like to know."
"Did you betray You-Know-Who?"
"Never." He gritted out.
"Then why are you here?"
He looked past her at the condition of her cell, turning his nose up in disgust, "This place is a shithole. Even my dungeon is cleaner than this."
Hermione took in the state of the prison, it looked like a massacre had occured, "It looked better before you came and bled everywhere."
"I doubt that," He looked her up and down, grimacing at the state of her, "Are they washing you?"
She glared, "I'm a prisoner of war."
"Your hair is a bloody rat's nest."
Hermione resisted the urge to smooth down her matting curls, "And your arm is about to fall off."
"It's just a scratch."
"Your Dark Mark was removed! You should be dead."
"Don't worry Granger, if my arm doesn't kill me, the sight of you will."
He could see her. He could see all of her. The blood, the brusing, the dirty clothes, she was beaten and laid before him and he had a front row seat. She looked at the wall, needing to hide, needing to breath.
It was one thing to be broken in the dark. It was another, to be exposed to eyes that had seen her before all this.
Did he see a Mublood when he looked at her? With the filthy clothes and grotesque wound on her arm. Did she resemble a monster, hiding in the dark? Tears threatened to spill. She would not break in front of him.
Carefully, she got to her feet, joints crying in agony and hobbled to the shadows at the back of her cell. Sliding down the wall and hugging her knees.
She needed to think, to reassess the situation, but her mind was not how it was. She had been tortured too much, starved and mentally exhausted. She watched him like hawk, and consided with herself that watching him, observing her enemy, was the best she could do for now.
He lifted his arm towards the candle light, trying to get a better look. Hermione watched as it light hit it, and gasped. Whatever Dark Magic the Dark Lord had used was unlike anything she had ever seen before. The skin wasn't just gone, it had been melted off. Taking flesh and tissue with it.
Malfoy inspected the wound carefully, staring at it with a chased expression. He rested it on his lap and tested moving his fingers, immediately stopping and biting his tongue.
It looked agony. The more she watched the more she noticed his pain. His body was rigid, his lips peeled back and a cold sweat breaking out on his forehead.
Yet despite his obvious pain, he remained completely silent.
It was unreasonable, she knew that, but she couldn't deny the anger that stabbed her. Everything had been taken from her. Her freedom, her dignity, her family and loved ones. Every aspect of her life had been stripped, yet here he was, sitting before, and he had the nerve to hide.
Hermione got to her feet, crossing the length of her cell, needing to be closer. She did not want him to be a painting. She wanted him present. She wanted his agony, to hear him scream. Just so she knew she was not the only person left in the world that still felt pain.
She watched him without shame. Sitting down in her previous spot against the wall. Malfoy lifted his head and gave her a dirty look.
"Does is hurt?" She asked.
Malfoy didn't respond.
"You must have done something terrible." She questioned, "What does you Father have to say about all this? Or you Mother?"
"I'm going to kill you." He told her with such intensity that she believed him.
"If you hadn't noticed, there are bars seperating us."
"I'll find a way."
She regarded him, and wondered if he would be the last face she saw, not Cassius's nor the Dark Lord's, but his.
His hatred for her was older than the others. The Dark Lord wanted her dead, Cassius wanted to beat her but Malfoy... Malfoy wanted to destroy her.
"Not if I kill you first." She wondered if she would recognise herself if she ever escaped.
He held her gaze. A promise hanging between them.
The oak door began scrapping open. Hermione got to her feet and retreated to the back of her cell. Malfoy watched her go, straightening his back as Cassius walked inside.
"Parkinson!" Draco grabbed the bars, "You need to listen, it's a misunderstanding-"
"You fucker!" Cassius stormed into the prison, sporting a black eye and disgruntled robes, "I gave you a second chance! I vouched for you! You disgraced me!"
"They took my wand, I couldn't —"
"You're legs still worked!" Cassius shouted, his face blotched red.
"Speak to the Dark Lord, make him understand—"
"You betrayed him! You're a traitor!" Cassius kicked the bars, startling Draco, "You should feel right at home beside the Mudblood."
"I want to see my Father!"
Cassius laughed, "What makes you think he still considers you his son?"
Draco smacked the bars, "I am a Malfoy!"
Cassius stepped back, sneering down at him, "You're a dead man! The second you Father comes back from America, I'm going to kill you!"
"You can't kill me!"
"You're a traitor!"
Cassius backed away, loosing his patience and started towards the oak door, "This is where you belong." He said, shutting the door behind him.
"Come back here! Come back here!" Draco shouted at the top of his lungs. He stood up, taking hold of the bars, violently trying to rattle them. They didn't budge. Draco pounded his fists, "Parkinson! Parkinson! Parkinson!" He screamed, lost in a fit of rage, "You bastard!" He slammed the bars again and again, then abruptly turned away, out of breath and paced back and forth. He kept his eyes on the oak door exploding and slaming the bars again, that was, until he noticed Hermione watching him.
Like the snake before it bites, "What are you looking at?"
Draco's arm cramped, the muscles spasming. He tore his gaze away, awkwardly stretched it out, trying to relieve the cramping. Just then, the candle burned out and they were basked in darkness. Swallowing them whole. Taking everything but Draco's ragged breathing.
She wrapped her arms around herself and tucking her knees into her chest.
She listened to Draco's breathing, it was the only sound in the world and it reminded her she was not alone. If the darkness took her, then let it take him too.
After an eternity of silence, Hermione began to dose off. The days spectacle exhausting her more than she initially realized. But right before the she fell asleep, the oak door creaked open, light flooding the prison as Pansy snuck inside.
"Draco?" She went to his cell, still in her pajamas and missing a slipper. The blood was gone from her clothes.
"Pans?" Draco carefully lifted himself off the floor, twisting around to see her, "Pansy!" He exclaimed with relief, "Get me out of here!"
Pansy crouched down, lightly shaking her head, "I can't do that." She whispered, glancing behind her to see if Hermione was listening, but she couldn't see her clearly amidst the darkness.
"I'll die here."
Pansy wrapped her hands around the bars, steadying herself, "There's nothing I can do."
"It's me."
"My family needs me. I can't leave them."
"You're Dad is a bastard and your Mum is a lunatic."
"Shut up!"
"So you're going to leave me here? And turn a blind eye when Cassius burns my corpse in the garden?"
"You put yourself in this situation!"
"I'm innocent!" Draco gritted out like he had said it a million times.
"Not from what I've heard."
Neither one spoke and Pansy looked at the floor. Then turned her head to try and make Hermione out again.
Pansy whipped her head back around, "How could you have been so careless?" She had a lump in her throat, "How could you Draco?"
Draco lowered his face, ashamed, "I'm innocent."
"I have helped you." Pansy reminded him.
"When?"
"I healed your arm- I saved your life!"
"You patched me up for me to die!"
"I did more for you," Pansy's voice wobbled, "Than you deserve!"
"What I deserve," Draco corrected her, "Is to be freed!"
"What do you expect me to do?" Pansy was at a loss, she gestured with her hands, "I refuse to abandon my Mother and throw my life away just because you fucked up!"
"You're Mum is a nightmare-"
"She's my Mum!"
"You're better off without her!"
"Don't you," Pansy spoke through angry tears, "Dare, try and tare down my family just because you ruined yours!"
"You're just as bad as him."
Pansy blanched. She gaped at him, shaking her head, she stood, pointing down at him, "I came here to make sure you were still alive." She hissed.
"How generous of you."
Pansy bristled, "You've made your bed, now you can fucking lie in it!" She threw two potions into his cell, they landed by his feet.
Hermione stood, slowly stepping into the light.
Pansy turned away from him, wiping her eyes. She saw Hermione then, and gave her a quick once over, checking for fatal injuries. She have Hermione a look of hopelessness and mouthed, "I'm sorry."
Hermione pulled her blood stainer slipper from under her jumper and handed her it through the bars. Pansy hesitated, lifting her hand to take it, she studied Hermione's face, trying to discern her reasoning.
"Thought you might want that back." Hermione explained.
Pansy took it and lifted her bare foot to slip it on. The sole of her foot was covered in dirt.
"Thank you." Pansy gave her a gentle smile, then left the prison.