Marked

The Supplication

He sighed. "Hermione - "

"No," she said frantically, whipping around to face him. "There's no way I can face them - I'm just - " she broke off. "I'm not ready - "

"This is Harry and Ron we're talking about," Draco insisted, walking over to look her in the eye. "How can you doubt them?"

Well. It wasn't really them she was worried about, was it? If she were being honest, she might have managed to admit that she didn't want to see herself through their eyes.

Unfortunately, the more she thought about the prospect of doing so, the more she felt an insurmountable fear pulse through her.

"We have to go," she said abruptly, feeling her heart pound as she increased the speed of her pacing. "We have to leave."

He gaped at her, and from the way he was agitatedly clenching his white-knuckled fists, she guessed he was frustrated yet again by his inability to grasp her by the shoulders and physically force her to confront her apprehension.

"What is this?" Draco demanded, moving to follow her around the room. "Is this fear?"

She shook her head furiously. "It doesn't matter - "

"Yes, it matters," he growled in frustration, his grey eyes narrowed. "Of course it matters."

She huffed impatiently, wishing he would leave it alone. "Don't psychoanalyze me right now, Draco," she snapped, pausing to face him with both hands on her hips.

He blatantly ignored her.

"If you're afraid, you need to just confront this," he admonished her, grimacing. "You need to face them, Granger, and you should do it now."

"I can't," she replied, and she cut him off briskly when his mouth opened again to argue. "I can't!"

He, in turn, looked unspeakably frustrated. "Hermione - "

"I'm leaving," she repeated, cutting him off. Whatever his argument was, she didn't want to hear it. "We're leaving."

"Where?" he asked helplessly, his shoulders limp. "Where are you going to go?"

"I don't know," she retorted angrily. Did it matter? "Just - somewhere." She bent to gather her notes, tossing them onto the bed. "Somewhere that's not in this house."

"Don't run," Draco chided her, his temper rising. "Do not run - "

"I'm not running!" she shouted, letting the scattered handwritten pages fall from her grasp as she fell limply against the bed, burying her face in her hands.

She heard a voice come from behind her in the open doorframe.

"Yes you are," Theo said drily, and Draco jumped, startled.

Great, she thought furiously, dreading another lecture.

"I'm not," she whimpered back, a flagrant lie.

"You are," Theo corrected again, coming over to where she sat on the bed. "Move," he said brusquely, gesturing with his chin.

Draco, for his part, settled himself across the room, watching.

"I'm not ready," she told Theo, the words muffled behind her hands. She purposefully avoided making eye contact with him. "I can't see them yet."

"That's all well and good," Theo replied loftily, and she felt him lean back against his elbows beside her. "But you have to see them sometime, Hermione."