X.
It was midnight, and he knew he should at least get a nap, but he couldn't sleep. He tossed around for a while, but his confused emotions kept his mind running, and he just couldn't settle down. Ron's bed was empty, of course, and the other three of his roommates had gotten in not long ago and fallen directly asleep, so Harry eventually gave up and reached down to pull on his jeans and t-shirt. He was intending to grab Flying with the Cannons out of the trunk at the end of his bed and go sit by the common room fire to kill some time, but as he rummaged through the trunk he noticed the Marauders' Map sitting off to one side. On an impulse he grabbed it along with the invisibility cloak, figuring they would both come in handy later, and slipping into his trainers, he set off down the tower stairs, quietly closing the door behind him.
He sat down in his favorite chair directly next to the fire, which had burned down quite a bit and was giving out a dim golden light. On an impulse that he stubbornly refused to examine, instead of opening his Quidditch book, he unrolled the map, just to check on Hermione, he told himself. He found the hospital wing, saw the dot labeled "Ron Weasley" on one side of the room, and the dot labeled "Hermione Granger" on the other side, nearly directly across from Ron's dot. Good, he thought, she had found a good place to watch from. A moment later he frowned as he saw the Hermione dot cross the width of the hospital wing and come to a stop next to the Ron dot. He wasn't sure it was a good idea for her to leave her hiding place; he wondered what could have happened to make her do that. Well, he reassured himself, Hermione was the best in the school at Defense, next to him; she wouldn't do anything dangerous. She must have a good reason.
A moment later, though, any reassurance he might have felt left abruptly. Another dot appeared outside the door to the hospital wing, and was slowly making its way through the door. This dot was labeled Draco Malfoy in tiny writing. Harry could see that Hermione had her back to the door- what was she thinking? She knew better than that! She was even expecting Malfoy to turn up at some point. Harry felt a powerful surge of anger and fear- anger at Hermione for being so careless, and fear for her safety. Grabbing the invisibility cloak he tore off at a sprint, crashing through the portrait hole door and tearing off down the steps of Gryffindor Tower. After several minutes of running flat out through twists and turns, made only slightly shorter by his use of a few secret passages, he came up to the hospital wing. Without thinking he tried to open the door, but it was locked.
XI.
Hermione froze, both out of fear and out of fury with herself. Her analytical mind was tempted to give her a list of everything she had done wrong, as though they were analyzing battles in their Advanced Defense class, but the practical side of her told her analytical mind to shut up. There were more serious issues to deal with at the moment. She recognized the drawling whisper breathing in her ear, and Merlin knew she had been called "filthy little Mudblood" by that voice enough times to know it. She had allowed herself to be snuck up on by Malfoy.
"You're such a whore, Granger," Malfoy hissed quietly in her ear, causing shivers of fear and revulsion to go through her. He had been offensive to her before, but even Malfoy had never used language like that. "Can't get enough, can you? You spend all night getting it on with Potter, now you have to have it from Weasley as well? I've heard about you Muggle girls…no brains, no looks, but hot for all you can get."
Hermione felt nauseated but stood still, trying to figure out what to do. Her wand was in her back pocket, but she didn't think that was what was pressing against her backside. If she couldn't get to her wand, or wake Ron up, she was going to be in real trouble. She was starting to get a very clear idea of what Malfoy's intentions were.
Malfoy kept his left hand over her mouth, but loosened his grip on her with his right hand. Carefully he slid his right hand down to his pocket and pulled out his wand. In a soft and somehow more threatening whisper, he got even closer to her ear and said, "Did you catch on, Granger? Did you finally figure out that I had a job to do for the Dark Lord?" And without further explanation, he waved his wand over Ron and muttered an incantation that Hermione didn't recognize. Hermione gasped against Malfoy's sweaty palm. Ron's body glowed faintly with a greenish light, and he gasped and shuddered, but did not wake up. "The Weaslette didn't matter- at least not yet. Right now, my job is to quietly get rid of this one, because nothing would hurt Potter more, would it?"
Tears sprang to Hermione's eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She knew Ron wouldn't wake up now. The best thing she could do was to wait until Malfoy let her turn around, then she could grab her wand. Then he'd be sorry, that filthy evil slimy ferret. But she realized a moment later that Malfoy did not intend to turn her around. He was still talking, though now he was leading her across the aisle to the bed she had been hiding against a moment ago. "Do you know what my reward will be for killing Weasley?" he asked her. "I get to put you in your place. But since Weasley's nearly dead now, and you're so conveniently here, I don't think the Dark Lord will mind if I show you the only thing Muggle girls are good for."
Roughly Malfoy shoved her over the bed, so that she was lying across it and he was standing behind her. She struggled desperately to grab for her wand, but Malfoy grabbed her arm and twisted it violently, making her cry out. He slipped her wand out of her pocket and threw it across the room. Hermione was truly terrified now, but angry as well. There was no way she was going to let him do this. Just then she heard Malfoy mutter, "Diffindo," and felt her jeans and shirt split apart at the seams.
XII.
The door was locked, and Harry quickly said "Alohomora!" expecting it to open up right way, but it didn't. He swore, and then unrolled the Marauder's Map, and saw that the Hermione and Malfoy dots had now moved away from the Ron dot and were nearly on top of each other on the other side of the room. What were they doing? He pressed his ear to the door but didn't hear anything, though he wouldn't be surprised if Madam Pomfrey had put Impervious Charms on the door, her being so big on her patients getting rest. At least he could undo that one, he thought, and he whipped out his wand and did just that. Pressing his hear to the door again, he could hear low-level whispering, but couldn't make out any words. He tried to remember the counter-charms Hermione had used on the door earlier, but he couldn't. He was starting to panic, he had to get himself under control.
Throwing caution to the wind, he started to bang on the door. "Hermione! Hermione! What are the countercharms? Hurry! I need to get in there! Hermione!"
He heard Hermione's voice shriek, but couldn't make out any words before it was abruptly cut off. Malfoy had better not be hurting her, he thought, but somehow he knew that was exactly what was going on. He pressed against the door again, but it stayed firmly locked. There was only one thing left to do. Taking a deep breath he stepped back away from the door.
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