Stolen magic

Insomnia

The events of the last night awoke Hermione's former nightmare. Yet again, she was trapped on the cold, marble floor in the huge room, surrounded by pale wizards. The body of another witch was pinning her to the ground.
Hermione could feel the hot tears crawling from her eyes. She was helpless, desperate and scared. Unable to move due to the previous torture.

Even though her mind was still numb from the Cruciatus curse, she felt the stabbing pain piercing her forearm and woman's curls brushing her face.

The dream was so vivid, that she could smell her own blood and Bellatrix's rotten breath.

Another stab of the dagger to her forearm brought Hermione back to reality. She quickly sat up on the bed she was sleeping in. Her pyjama glued to her body by her own sweat.

She lay back on the mattress. Her breaths were heavy and her eyes were trying to adapt to the darkness in the room. It was still the night.

She looked at the ceiling. She could hear Malfoy's heavy footsteps over her head. His pacing indicated, that he wasn't sleeping as well. Again. She could often hear him creeping around his room in the middle of the night. She wondered what kept him up tonight. Was it a bad dream? Remorse? Regrets? Were the lifeless faces of his victims haunting his sleep?

Hermione gently slipped from her bed and sailed to her bathroom. She hoped that a hot shower would calm her shaking body.

The hot water worked like a calming drug. The steam infiltrated every pore of her skin. For a second, Hermione forgot about her nightmares and enjoyed the magic of the hot streams pouring down over her body.

She slipped into a clean pyjama set and brought herself back to bed. Hopefully she would be able to doze off for another couple of hours. She tucked herself between the sheets and closed her eyes.

Thud..thud..thud..thud
Malfoy's heavy boots were violently thudding over her head. She could hear every step loud and clear. Like someone was hammering nails right next to her ear.

Hermione scoffed and threw a pillow over her head. She pressed it against her ear with as much force as possible. It didn't help.

Thud..thud..thud
Every step made her jump a little. She would swear that those steps come from an actual dragon. She felt like the ceiling dropped lower and lower with every step, pushing her to the mattress, until there wasn't any space left.

Her heart was pounding violently in her chest. She tossed a few times in the bed again. Her mind was working in a full speed. Fucking Malfoy and his fucking leather boots. What a loud bastard he was. Could he be even more annoying? He must had been doing it on purpose. To piss her off. How typical of him.

She pressed her hands over her ears.
Thud..thud..thud..

She groaned. Stop it! Fucking stop it! Her blood started to boil. She tried to focus on her breathing, in and out, in and out. But the loud noise was too distracting, the walls were suddenly too close and she couldn't hear her own thoughts. It felt like her brain stopped functioning. Her eyes followed the direction of Malfoy's steps.

It stopped. The footsteps stopped. Fucking finally. Thank god. Hermione took a deep breath and relaxed onto her pillows and enjoyed the sound of silence around her. Sometimes the silence in the huge manor could be mind wrecking, but tonight? It was like a blessing.

Thud..thud..thud..
In a second Hermione was on her feet. That's it. She couldn't bear another second of his bloody pacing. Without thinking she pulled the gun from the drawer and stood in the middle of her room. Each step was like a nail to the coffin. Her heart was racing. She was spinning around, covering her ears with her palms, the gun in her right hand. She was growling, swearing, almost crying with anger like a mad woman.