Alone Together

"Drowning is Dreadfully Boring"

Sorry for not updating last week guys. I was up in the mountains where there was no wifi. 

Pain.

Pain and hate.

That was all Hermione could feel. And perhaps a small glint of satisfaction from Draco's response to her offering the blood on her hands to him. It made at least some of the pain worth it.

But the hate.

It consumed her. The hate for Alecto Carrow, the rest of the Death Eaters, herself for not coming up with a better escape plan.

But most of all, the collar.

The cold metal encircled her neck, trapping her, making her feel small, like the animal they saw her as. She felt powerless, broken, ashamed. Exactly the way they wanted her to feel. Hermione knew Muggle history, and it was the same. The more you treat someone as lesser than human, the more they feel that way.

It had only been on for a matter of minutes, but everything it stood for filled Hermione to the brim with loathing.

In that moment, she decided that she would do whatever it took to keep herself afloat above the less than human line.

She would never give in.

She was not an animal.

She was not lesser than Purebloods.

And neither was any of the majority of the world population.

The amount of contempt she felt towards the "most elite" was limitless. If they so declared themselves the "superior race," then they should be the ones protecting the weakest race, and each one in between, not suppressing them and treating them like animals. Hermione hated that she was being made an example of, chained to Malfoy like a pet poodle.

The words of Professor Trelawney taunted her,

"Your life is about to get very hard."

"Anyone could've guessed that," she thought bitterly, unwilling to admit that even a piece of Trelawney's prediction had come true.

Already, she could feel the shame, the sideways-looks, and the isolation piling onto her shoulders. But Hermione would not bow, she would hold her head high, and make it seem as if the pale Slytherin was the one chained to her.

Unfortunately, at the moment she was too weak from pain to do so. Hermione wasn't really sure where they were headed, and she didn't think Draco knew either, but when she had to grab onto him for the fourth time to maintain her balance, he made up his mind.

"We're going to Madam Pomfrey's." he snapped, "I'm not going to half drag you wherever I go."

"We go." she corrected.

"I said that," Malfoy snarled, being in her presence for more than two minutes obviously getting on his nerves.

"Whoever thought this was a good idea was mad." she thought not for the first time in the short period she had had this abomination around her neck, and knew for a fact that Alecto Carrow was the only person sick enough to think this would actually work. There were so many things that Hermione could think of that they had to do but couldn't with the chain on.

Go to the bathroom, change, take a bath, sleep, go into their own common rooms. It was bloody awful. Hermione desperately hoped that they weren't supposed to keep it on at all times. It would be impossible.

They made awkward progress, towards the infirmary, the chain between them stretched as far as it could go, pulling on her neck ever so slightly, taunting her with its presence. Up the stairs Hermione had to stop several times as shooting pains raced through her body. Draco said nothing and didn't even look her way.