The Lonely Walk

7

November 26th 2007

not much to write today, although I do have something to speak about.

I forgot what I was even writing about, I started writing at eight this morning and it's now just past two o'clock.

I've sat here for that long.

~

August 2nd 2004

His eyes snapped away from hers, an emotion flashed onto his face before his face went back to showing nothing. She kept eyeing the group, Nott nudged her to put the thoughts away in her silly mind.

"Well, what a great chat I've been having with myself, really sweetheart I just don't understand what I've done to get this level of disrespect" A dramatic sigh slipped from his mouth as they stepped onto the tiled floor of the foyer. "Well, seeing you've already been staring my lovely friends down, you'll know who we're going to be playing house with" he had a giddy grin plastered across his face, he let go of the hold on Hermione to clap once again which made the group of Slytherins heads snap over to them.

"Ahhh! How lovely!" Pansy smiled slightly over at Hermione, a clear wave of guilt rested on her face. Maybe Hermione was wrong before about what she said, maybe she didn't understand the thing that happened between her and Pansy.

"Oh, Theodore Nott! I specifically told you to let her change out of whatever clothes she arrived in!" she shook her head at the idiot beside Hermione.

"Oh, but mother! Please don't be mad Mommy!" he joked, pinching Hermione's cheek before continuing, "Isn't she just the cutest in her filthy clothes!" Hermione swatted his hand away, earning a hurt expression from Nott.

"Theo I wouldn't push her if I were you," Astoria spoke up from behind them, Pansy nodded in agreement. "She's hungry" Astoria giggled slightly before walking more forward which made Daphne stand forward as well but her demeanour was different, almost threatened.

"what the hell is a mud blood doing in the manor?" she spat, Hermione would've winced from the small attack a few years ago, but now? nothing hurt her.

"Oh, I'm very sorry for my inconvenience." Hermione scoffed, looking around at the paintings that were hung around the foyer.

The manor was beautiful- oh my fuck. It's the Malfoy fucking Manor, if she could have then she certainly would have smacked herself across the head for not realizing it earlier.

Daphne didn't like Hermione's response, "You can't speak to me like that?" she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Oh please, you're acting like I'm here on my own accord? I don't know if you've not noticed or if you're naturally that dense but I'm kind of a prisoner here." she barked a laugh out of pure disbelief about what was just said to her, earning a laugh from Nott himself.

"Oh my!" he held his stomach while he forced words out between laughter, "Oh she's quite funny, Daphne she just put you in place!" he kept laughing, Hermione wished she could laugh but she was more concerned about the wand now drawn at her.

"Daph no!" Pansy let out a pleading yell, "You can't hurt her!"

"watch me." Daphne flicked her wand towards Hermione with a stinging hex emitting from her wand.

Hermione's knees hit the ground, the pain quickly shot through her body, stinging every inch of her. She kept her head up not letting anyone see that she was in a vulnerable state, she didn't scream nor make any sounds to make them think she was in any pain, she wanted to scream. so bad.

Draco walked through the crowd to get a look at what was happening in his foyer, Blaise trudging just behind him.

"ah. you're a feisty one huh?" Nott bent down to get a better look at Hermione.

"Daphne. The mud blood is not to be touched! She is here under The Dark Lords' wishes. Are you going to be the one to tell him you cast a stinging spell on his newly founded weapon?" Darcos voice growled, it bounced off the walls.

"No." she simply tucked her wand away, turning on her heels to escape the room and the people in it.

The stinging stopped, and Hermione finally felt the air going into her lungs again after holding her breath from the pain. Daphne was more impulsive than Nott, which is saying something.

"Pansy, do what you must with the mud blood, just be back in an hour," Draco said in her direction, ripping his eyes away from Hermione, he made his way out of the room with Blaise trailing right behind him.

"Ooh! May I come, mother?" Nott joked from beside Hermione who was still on the floor trying to reset her breathing pattern.

"ugh, must you always come!" Pansy snapped, she turned to look at Astoria, "What do you think? is he worthy?"

Astoria giggled, "Oh, I think he might be" She nodded slightly, "But he must behave!"

"yes, my beautiful ladies! I will." he sent a wink in their direction before standing back up, "Ah, little filth! are you alright, I forgot you were on the floor panting for a moment."

"Theodore! You cannot call her little filth!" Pansy snapped once again at the child who defensively threw his hands up.

"I'm sorry! I do apologize!" his smirk spread across his face before helping Hermione to her feet, she would have fought him if her bones weren't aching.

The petite girls made their way up the stairs together, chatting about whatever mess they were going to drop onto Hermione. Nott gripped her arm, a bit more gently than before, which caused Hermione's thoughts to scramble for a moment.

Why was a deadly Death Eater being so nice to her or rather just being gentle in how he held her arms? Now being even more gentle after what just happened, this made the cogs in Hermione's brain spin out of order.

"Hello? Little filth?" Nott squeezed her arm softly to get her attention, "is anybody in that big swotty brain of yours?" he waved his large hand in front of her face.

Pulled away from her thoughts she noticed they were at her bedroom door, Hermione didn't realise she was that zoned out.

"Oh" was the only thing she could come up with at the moment, good enough for Nott he pulled her into the room where the girls already were.

"Do you like the room?" Pansy gave her a warm smile "While you were knocked out, the boys had to read the surface of your mind to make sure you weren't carrying anything on you-" Theo cut her off.

"That sounds terrible! We didn't want to touch you, Blaise said he didn't want to be tainted with mud blood, but I just don't particularly like touching sleeping girls!" he said defensively like Hermione was going to judge him more than she already did.

"Anyways, I asked them to show me what things you like, I hope that doesn't offend you! But I wanted you to at least have a nice place to be while you're here." clear guilt flashed on her face again after saying the last part.

Hermione nodded, still confused about why a couple of Death Eaters would ever care about a "mud blood" who was going to be tortured by their friends.

The next hour was spent putting Hermione in silly outfits, forced to act okay with any of this was the only way she was ever going to escape from this hell.