It's Okay
I woke with a start too early in the morning to the sound of a loud bang. It was dark in the room and hard to see. The telly was still on, casting odd shadows on the walls, so I figured that was where the bang had come from. The movie Draco and I had watched last night was playing through again and it was about at the part where the green skinned witch shoots 'magic' out of her finger, which results in loud noises.
We both must have fallen asleep on Draco's bed last night because, obviously that's where I still was. There was a warmth across my stomach and I felt something move. I looked down and saw that Draco's arm was draped over my abdomen. One of us must have pulled the blanket around us some time during the night because the bed was a mess and we were half covered by the light blue comforter.
Draco let out a deep breath that kissed my forehead and rustled through my curls. He wrapped his arm more tightly around me and pulled me even closer. I could feel his body heat radiating off of him and warming me to the core. I looked over at him. Coloured lights danced across his perfect skin and lit up his face just enough for me to make out his features. His long pale lashes, his smooth as cream lips, his light eyebrows, his perfect everything.
I reached up and let my fingers brush his angel hair from his face and then glide down to his cheek and outline his mouth. He was so peaceful, so calm, so different.
Suddenly I was staring into his striking sliver eyes. Embarrassed, I moved my hand quickly from his face, but I didn't look away. He smiled and reached up with his own hand to brush the hair from my face and do just as I had done to him. He looked at me like he was the happiest he'd ever been as he rubbed his finger gently around my lips.
"You're beautiful." He whispered, stroking my cheek with the tips of his fingers.
I retorted in shock. I blinked. I swallowed. My heart raced. My cheeks flushed. My hands shook. Draco Malfoy had just called me beautiful. I felt like I could cry. Ron had called me beautiful, but never like this. Never this sincere. I'd never believed that anyone found me beautiful before now.
I felt a shocked smile curl my lips. Draco looked down at them, smiled himself, and then gave me a peck on the lips, sending little electric shocks to my heart. He wrapped both arms around my waist and pulled me in. He rested his cheek on my head and breathed in my hair. I closed my eyes and felt his wind play through my curls.
Suddenly he bolted up, his eyes wide and scared. "Shit!" He said.
"Draco, what's wrong?" I asked, worried.
He ignored me but kept staring over my head at something in the dark. I timidly followed his gaze to the dark corner to the left of the television. I squinted, trying to see what Draco saw, but I could only see the absence of light.
Then my blood ran cold as an icy voice spoke out of the darkness, "Oh, please continue!" It said almost cheerily. "Don't let us ruin all the fun!"
A dark figure started to emerge from the corner. My face had gone pale by the time I could make out the gruff features of an ex-Deatheater looming over Draco and I.
I looked around. The man had said 'us'. That meant there was more. Sure enough. Three more ex-Deatheaters stalked into view. My hand snapped to my pocket for my wand. With panic heavy in my throat, I realized it wasn't there. Had I left it in my room?
Shit.
They circled around us and moved in closer. I stood up quickly to make myself bigger, I don't know, hoping to intimidate them.
"Hermione..." Draco warned between grit teeth.
I didn't even know what I was going to do. His hand tugged on mine, urging me to stand down, but I shook him off and glared at each of the shadowy men snarling at us.
They just laughed at my stare, fueling my hate.
"Well, well, Draco!" The man with a black goatee snickered. "You've gotten yourself a girlfriend!"
"I'm not his girlfr-" I spat, but I was cut short.
The former Deatheater whipped his wand at me and a shot of blue sparks hit me in the chest and sent me flying back onto the bed. "I wasn't talking to you, was I, Mudblood?" He snarled back.
It didn't hurt, but I was in shock at the suddenness of it.
"HEY!" Draco roared. He stood up and reached for his wand, but the shorter Deatheater disarmed him as soon as it was out of his pocket and caught it effortlessly in his hand.
"Uh ah!" The bearded man teased. "Don't make us kill you yet, Draco!"
He snapped his fingers and two of the men walked to grab Draco. I recognized them from before in the woods.
"What the hell do you want?!" He yelled and batting off the Deatheaters' hands to no avail.
"You know what we want!" The man said. "At least, you know half of it." He added.
I stood up again, ready to fight, as the third ex-Deatheater came into my range. However, before I could throw a punch at him, he took out his wand and pointed it at me.
"Patrificus totalus." He said.
I felt my limbs lock. I strained my muscles against the magic, but all it got me was burning arms. I couldn't even move my face to glare at him. The beefy man caught me by the hair as I started to tip and fall to the ground.
"Should I kill the Mudblood?" He asked the Deatheater with the goatee in a thick German accent.
The other man regarded me quickly. He looked me up and down with disgust on his face. "No." He said slowly. "I have an idea." Smirking, he looked slyly from me to Draco who was watching me carefully. Then he aparated, leaving behind a cloud of black smoke where he had stood.
The Deatheater holding me aparated too, dragging me along. He was no where near as good at aparating as Draco was. I felt my head split as we landed somewhere rocky, I still couldn't move, but I could see we were standing near the edge of a very large cliff.
My body tried to shiver with the sudden coldness, but a twitch in my eye was all it could manage. The beefy Deatheater who was in charge of me, dragged my stiff body over to a dead tree close by. He propped my back against it and then took a few steps back and raised his wand. A rope spun out of the tip and wrapped it self around me and the tree so tightly I could hardly breath. When the end of the rope was reached, my entire abdomen was covered by the wretched thing.
I felt the patrificus totalus curse ware off. As soon as it left my face I let out a shrill scream and I thrashed my head in an effort to escape the bonds.
"That's right, Mudblood! Scream!" A gruff voice shouted at me.
I snapped my mouth shut in defiance and glared at Goatee as he looked at me with a smirk that made my blood boil. Behind him Draco was struggling with the two ex-Deatheaters who were forcing him to the spot. The bigger one swept his hand up quickly and socked Draco right in the nose. I let out a small cry when I heard it crack and blood started to pool down his face.
"Let her go!" Draco yelled between pants. "This has nothing to do with her!"
The man in front of me turned around to face him, most likely smiling widely. "I know." He said calmly and knowingly. "That's why it will hurt you all the more when I do this!"
A burn spread up my legs and through me chest. I clenched my jaw, trying not to scream. My body was on fire! Invisible flames lapped at my legs and scorched my face. I whimpered and pushed my chin in the air as if it would help me escape the pain. I started sweating which only made it worse. The salty solution seemed to flow into invisible sores and burn me that way. My eyes felt dry and irritated. I closed them, hoping to bring moisture there, but it only continued to burn.
"STOP!" I heard Draco yell. "STOP IT!"
Suddenly I felt the coolness rush back to my skin and I welcomed the shivers, with open arms if I could have. The chill caught the beads of sweat on my face and eased my skin of the memories of the burning. I breathed hard. The struggling wore me out, and if I wasn't careful, that's what would hurt me worse than the torture.
"What's the matter, young Malfoy?" The Deatheater amusingly asked him. "Dose it hurt you to watch her writhe?"
Draco simply glared at him. His eyes where wild with anger and the blood running down his face made him look mad. His arms were held to his sides by the two ex-Deatheaters, but he didn't try to struggle. He just clenched his jaw and glared.
This angered Goatee. He stormed over to Draco and got very close to his face so that their noses where almost touching. "I said," He said loudly but calmly although he was shaking with anger. "Does it hurt you to watch the Mudblood writhe?!" His voice rising to a shout.
Then he bawled up his hand and buried his fist into Draco's stomach. I felt sick as Draco let out an 'oof' and he tried to double over, but the men holding his arms wouldn't allow it.
"DOES IT HURT MORE THAN THAT?!" Goatee yelled in Draco's scrunched and bloodied face.
His fist then connected to the side of Draco's left eye and it started to swell almost immediately.
"DOES IT HURT MORE THAN THAT?!" He yelled again.
I wiggled in my bonds, wishing I could do something to stop the crazed man.
"HOW ABOUT THIS?!" His fist clipped Draco's chin and I heard Draco's first moan of pain escape his lips.
It killed me to watch him just dangle between the Deatheaters and not even try to defend himself.
"ANSWER ME, MALFOY!" He split Draco's lip and the blood from that started to mingle with the blood from his nose.
"YES!" Draco finally called out. "YES! IT HURTS!" He admitted.
The Deatheater brought down his fists and grabbed Draco's chin so he would look up at him. "Good." I heard him sneer.
He took a step back from Draco and paced the spot in front of him for a moment. He ran his wand over his bloody knuckles and they healed quickly without the slightest sign that they had been bruised. I looked past him to where Draco stood limp and bleeding. He looked up slightly and our eyes connected. He didn't say a word, but I heard him loud enough.
It's okay.
Goatee stopped pacing and marched to Draco again. I cringed in fear that I would have to watch Draco take another beating.
"Do you know why I'm doing this?" He asked calmly.
Draco didn't answer right away. I sucked in a gasp as I saw the ex-Deatheater coil his fist again.
"Because I killed my father." Draco said quickly.
I shook my head. That wasn't true. He didn't kill his father. He had to tell them that he didn't kill his father! "Draco!" I yelled to tell him.
Goatee flicked his wand at me and a force, like a giant fist smacked me in the face. My head flew back and and connected with the tree trunk I was tied to.
"No." He said to Draco. "When I kill you that will be because you killed your father." He crouched down so he would be more level with Draco's face. "I'm doing this because of what you took away when you killed your father."
"That bastard wasn't worth anything!" Draco growled.
"Oh, but he was! But I suppose you don't know do you?!"
Draco glanced up at him with hate in his eyes.
The ex-Deatheater chuckled. "Your father had a plan, you see. He wouldn't tell us what it was and he wouldn't right it down for fear it would land in the wrong hands. Your father was rather clever! He told us he'd found one last way to bring back The Dark Lord, maybe." He snickered again. "I'm not sure I believed him. I'm not sure most of us did. But there was still this hope among us, you know? For the first time in three years we felt untouchable again. Lucius told us we had to wait for the right conditions to arise. And so we waited patiently for those promised conditions to come. We remained quiet and hidden from traitorous scum like you and we grew more excited with each day that passed. Oh, The Dark Lord was going to be so proud of us when he returned! We would finally be able to walk freely again!" He stopped smiling. "And then we got the news that Lucius was dead. He was killed by his own fucking son!" He spat in Draco's face and growled.
He turned around to face me. My eyes were wide in horror of the news I'd just heard. I realized that bringing back Voldemort must have been what Draco's parents had been fighting about that night. Why would Luscious Malfoy throw himself off a cliff after he had found away to to bring Voldemort back? Had it been out of hate for himself and what he had done to his family? Had he realized he plan wouldn't work? Had he realized he didn't want his plan to work?
Goatee walked to me and grabbed my face with his slimy fingers. He stood to the side so that Draco could see I was at the Deatheater's disposal. "Your father must be rolling in his grave!" He said to Draco laughing. "A mudblood?!" He asked in disbelief.
"Get your filthy hands off me!" I growled.
He laughed again. "Filthy?!" He said amused. "Sorry to break it to you, but your the filthy one!" He squeezed my face tighter. "Speaking of filth, let's see some of that dirty blood, shall we?"
He swiped his wand in front of my face and I gasped feelinf something cut deep into my cheek. Warm, sticky blood poured out and ran down my neck. I kept my head high, like I wasn't hurt.
"Leave her alone!" Draco growled.
"No." The ex-Deatheater simply remarked and he slashed my face again on the bridge of my nose.
Blood leaked from there too and ran down my face and into my mouth. My cold sweat mixed with the cuts for real now and made it burn again. I clenched my teeth and stared forward, determined not to give the man the reaction he wanted.
"Crusio." He said simply.
My head split and my spine contorted even with the bounds. I was back in the forest again. The ropes seemed to tighten. There was fire in my lungs and knives in my sides and hammers were beating the rest of me. I grunted and struggled. Involuntary tears slipped out of my eyes and mixed with the sweat and blood.
"STOP!" Draco yelled.
"Jump off the cliff." The Deatheater said.
I opened my eyes in horror as I watched the other two Deatheaters release Draco and he stumble to stand my himself. He grabbed the one's black jacket to stop himself from hitting the ground. Then he looked at us and ran at the Deatheater and me.
The pain stopped momentarily as Goatee moved his wand to put up and invisible barrier that would stop Draco from coming farther. He ran into it and beat on it with his fists.
The Deatheater raised his wand to me again and I felt needles shoot into my back and stones thrown at my head.
"Jump off the cliff." He said more harshly this time.
Draco stopped moving and stared at me with the saddest eyes I'd ever seen. The eyes that said he was done. The eyes that said he was sorry, there was nothing more he could do.
I did my best to ignore the pain. I needed to tell him to stop. My teeth were being pulled out of my mouth and my fingernails were peeling away.
He turned away from me and headed to the edge of the cliff.
"Draco!" I finally got out. A kitchen peeler skinned my arms.
He didn't turn to look at me. He just looked down to the abyss below him.
"DON'T!" I screamed. Tears streamed out of my eyes. I probably looked like total wreck.
Fire. Ice. Knives. Hammers. Saws. Needles. All of it inside my skin at once.
He turned and gave me one last look. He said nothing, but I could hear his voice load and clear.
It's okay.