R U N N I N G

Y E A R 7 - Hermione's POV

After our conversation by the bathroom, the train ride back to Hogwarts felt eternal.

Draco and I sat in the compartment along with the rest of our friends as they waited for an explanation.

Ginny spoke first, "You two want to explain to us what's going on? The whole story. Not just the bits and pieces we've heard today. All of it" she demanded softly.

I heard Draco sigh next to me and moved closer to him, "Listen Red. It's an extremely long story and you guys have to promise not to say anything until the end. Okay?"

The group nodded silently waiting for him to continue. Draco sighed once again, "My father has always been abusive. He's hated my mother and me ever since I was conceived. The reason it took me so long to finally ask Hermione to be my girlfriend, is because I was scared of her seeing what would happen behind closed doors, but after what happened with Harry I knew in my heart, that it was my destiny to protect her. So I finally asked her out in 6th year, but that holiday break my father caught us kissing in the library and he was not happy that I was dating her. Until he found out what her last name was. Since then he's been threatening to hurt me or her if she didn't say yes to a marriage proposal so that when she inherits her mother's practice, she can merge with Malfoy & Riddle. He also sprung the news that my mother was dying on me. So that summer, Hermione went home with me and she met my mother. My mother helped us by making sure my trust fund was easily accessed and by giving me a secret bank account she had been saving money in since she found out she was pregnant with me. This, along with Hermione's own trust fund and her own bank account that she had been saving in, helped us buy an apartment and pay for our first year of medical school... in Holyhead. But unbeknownst to me, Lucius decided he wanted to threaten Hermione with my safety. This summer, when I would be spending time with my mother, he'd apparently been assaulting her" he began explaining.

I took over the explanation, "He made me a deal that I couldn't say no to. He'd leave Draco alone, as long as he got what he wanted from me whenever he wanted. It was either I willingly accept and he'd leave Draco alone, or he'd assault me anyways but hurt Draco. That went on for the rest of the summer. Whenever Draco was spending time with his mother, Lucius would sneak into Draco's room or he'd drag me into his office and he'd have his way with me. Then, we went back to school and I thought I was safe. But I was mistaken. On only the second day back he snuck into my room. Then on the second week, he decided to sneak in again but that night it was awful. He had his way with me twice but also inflicted a lot of terrible damage on my body. It took weeks to heal what he had done. After that particular attack, that's when I decided to just start sleeping in Draco's room all the time. When he found out, he was pissed but it's been working. He's only gotten to me once more and he didn't cause any damage like that one time. He still wasn't supposed to hurt Draco though. He promised he wouldn't hurt him..." I explained as I reached for his hand, my tears threatening to spill.

Draco closed his eyes and continued, "The reason he even touched me is because he was drunk and angry. He had been in a bad mood during dinner so I was just hanging out quietly in my room when he barged in and started saying all these horrible things about my mother and I lost my temper. I told him to shut up so he punched me. After he punched me, he did what he did and called his little henchmen to have their way with me. While he was doing it, he taunted me about Hermione and about everything he had been doing to her. He wants his workers to have a turn with Hermione and we need to prevent that at all costs. I can't let him hurt her anymore" he finished as he leaned over and wiped the tears that had started to fall from my eyes.

The group of 4 stared at us while processing everything we had just told them. Ron and Ginny looked sick, Blaise looked pissed to hell and back and Luna looked deep in thought.

I felt Draco watching me and turned to look at him. He had sorrow in his eyes, "Stop looking at me like that, please. I already feel horrible about everything. I'm sorry I didn't tell you about what happened, but I couldn't allow him to keep hurting you..." I told him softly.

He reached out and carefully held my face in both hands, "I am so sorry for everything I've put you through love. I promise I'm going to spend the rest of my life trying to make it up to you. You have no idea how much I love you" he told me before leaning in and kissing me gently.

Our friends continued to stare at us, "Draco... Hermione... how can we help? What can we do to make him pay?" Luna asked boldly.

Draco turned to her and I sat eyeing her, "Well Lovegood, this is going to sound weird but when we get to school, I need someone to take pictures of how I currently look. I'm going to contact Maxwell and ask him to call the police. Since he worked for my family for so long, he'd be a credible witness. He can testify about everything he saw while I was growing up. Hopefully all of that, along with Hermione's side, will be enough to lock him away in Azkaban. I think because we're minors, they'll put a restraining order against him and keep him off the school grounds. Which will mean no more Hogsmead trips until he's behind bars" he finished sadly.

We all sat quietly and nodded in agreement. This would finally be the end of Lucius' reign of terror.