Beauty and the Unexpected Beast

The Nightmare

I stare up at my attacker as he walks closer to me. His shoes clicked against the stone floor as he walked. Clean and expensive robes flow behind him as he makes his way towards me and I try to move away. I kick the space in front of me to move since my hands were tied behind my pack with robe; I hit against the wall and watch as my attacker comes closer, wand raised at my heart. The shadows kept his face out of the light, but his blonde hair was as recognizable as his name.

A spell hits me in the chest and my head hits the solid wall behind me. Blood trickles down my neck from a new wound as blood still flows down my arm from the word forever engraved on my arm. The blood coming out of the cut is dirty and outlines the word 'mudblood' on my arm.

"This is all your fault." Lucius Malfoy spat, staring down at my broken and sobbing figure. "You deserve to be tortured and then left for death, you filthy little mudblood. Crucio" I hold my scream in but fall to the floor, thrashing around in pain. I don't give him the satisfaction of hearing me and he lifts the spell when I don't react.

He looks away from me, towards the two boys that were tied down and bloody in the corner. Both were trying to get to me but couldn't. "Torturing you doesn't work, but when its your friends..."

I watch in horror as Harry and Ron stumble forward, both badly injured. Ron was only barely conscious, his leg bent behind him and a large gash in his right arm he was caring with his left. Harry was wide awake, his hair covered in blood and blood leaking out his nose, his arm seemed to be bent the wrong way too. Harry stared at me looking scared and betrayed at the same time. I wail when I saw them, but Lucius shoots a spell at me, forcing me to stay where I was, frozen in place.

"HARRY! Ron! I'm so sorry!" My voice was raspy and I could hear the pain in my own voice. I didn't know what I was apologizing for, but I knew them being here had to have been all my fault.

"Crucio."

Right in front of my eyes, my best friends, my brothers, the people I loved, kneeled over in agony, screaming for their lives. They were in so much pain, and I couldn't do anything, I was powerless. Frozen in place I screamed their names trying my hardest to break free of this wretched spell. Soon there names faded from my voice and all I was doing was screaming. "Avada Kedavra." I watch as Ron falls over first, his screams fading away and his eyes staring into mine. Harry follows soon after his eyes closed as he welcomes death and those he had lost. They both lie down dead in front of me.

"NO!" I throw my head back and sob screaming the word over and over again.

"Hermione." Malfoy says, turning towards me. Except it wasn't Lucius anymore, it was Draco.

The nightmare dissolves around me.

"Hermione, please, everything is alright. Just wake up and you'll see your safe here. Here with me."

I could feel my back arched in bed like I was screaming with everything I had. After a moment I could feel Draco shaking me, but not roughly. Slowly, I open my eyes seeing first the ceiling above me. I stare at it for a few seconds. At the call of my name again, I turn to see a distressed Draco staring at me with wide eyes. When he sees my open eyes, he pulls me to his bare chest and holds me close to him.

Before I could even think about what was going on, the tears fall and I was soon sobbing and being comforted by Draco. He held me close, and I found we fit together perfectly, even in this awkward position. I leaned my head against his chest, and he placed his head on top of mine, his face buried in a nest of tangled hair. The tears stopped after a good hour, and my tear tracks dried not long after. Soon the only sound was the sound of our breathing.