Purely Mudblood (Dramione FanFic)

The Fight

If Draco had said that he hadn't almost soiled his pants, he'd be lying.

Draco sprinted as fast as he physically could, leaping over the rubbish in the room, dodging tables that had been laid seemingly randomly about the room, coughing from dust inhalation. He didn't concern himself with any of that, though, because he saw the familiar hand-me-down clothes and choppy brown hair of Cammie Amitie.

Her tiny body was sprawled at the far end of the room. Draco fell to his knees beside her, desperate to get a good look at her. She was unconcious, and appeared to have been for quite some time. The way she landed, face down, made it look like she had been thrown against the wall. Draco turned her over and placed a hand on her chest; a weak heartbeat sputtered inside her, fragile like the wings of an ill butterfly. The skin visible beneath the oversized, torn robes was pale, spotted with bruises the size of apples. Her leg was bent at a disgusting angle, and her shoulder appeared to be out of socket. Draco felt his eyes get hot with an oncoming hurricane of tears.

Hermione set her hand on Draco's shoulders. "I know a spell that can fix her injuries."

Draco looked up to her, suddenly determined not to cry. "Will she wake up if you do?"

"Well," Hermione grimaced, "that depends on the severity of her injuries."

Draco stood up and grabbed Hermione's shoulders, gently, but urgently. "Please," he whispered. "Please help her."

When Hermione had said "a spell," she actually meant "a few thousand spells." Or at least more spells than Ron could count.

"Tergeo. Ferula. Episky."

Hermione uttered spell after spell and Cammie slowly began to stir. Her cuts and bruises slowly started to fade. The rosy color was beginning to return to her freckled cheeks.

Ron felt a tap at his shoulders. He turned around to his least favorite person of the moment. His blonde hair hung limply on his forehead, and he looked genuinely distraught. "Can we talk a moment?" he muttered. Ron nodded, though he wasn't exactly thrilled to go and spend "alone time" with Mr. Granger.

Draco was on edge. His eyes had a distant and crazed look, and it was obvious that he was unhinged. He'd seemed like that since he found Cammie. He looked around, his eyes stopping on Harry. Harry had been examining the room ever since they'd arrived. Dust floated up from the ground wherever his footsteps fell. He flipped through yellowing pages of leather bound books, deep in thought. Draco flickered his gaze back to Ron. Draco anxiously lifted up his arm and rubbed the back of his neck. His shirt came up a bit when he did that. A pale strip of his stomach was revealed. He had ab muscles, but his entire body was so thin. You could see his hip bones on his side, so prominant that it was actually disgusting. Draco had gone pretty unnoticed after the battle; Ron had just assumed that he was still as arrogant as he was before. Maybe he's feeling guilty about siding with the Dark Lord. And if he is, then the pain is eating him alive.

"Weas- er, Ron," he stammered. "I, er, well, now I'm, eh, you know, with Hermione." His voice sounded as if he had rehearsed what he was planning to say. "And I, er, eh, I don't want to make things awkward, but, er, I want to, er." He cleared his throat. "Look," he finally said. "I know you and Hermione fancied each other. But I don't want that to affect how you see me." He shuffled his foot and continued. "I'm trying to change. I really am. And I apologize for all the snide comments I've made about you in the past. You don't have to like me. I just hope we can be civil around each other." He stuck his hand out, abruptly, awkwardly, expecting a handshake. But Ron wasn't ready for that.

"Where do you think you get off coming over here, miraculously changing over to the good side, and taking the girl I fancy, huh?" Ron burst out unintentionally. He'd said it louder than he meant to. Hermione stopped muttering spells. Harry stopped flipping through an ancient book. They both looked up at Ron. Harry was curious, wondering what the pair was up to. Hermione, however, looked terrified.

But Ron was too livid, too furious, to stop then. He'd bottled up a lot of anger since he'd suspected that Hermione and Draco were together and he had just unscrewed the cork a tiny, microscopic, little bit but all the built up pressure finally exploded from its container.

"Do you honestly think that I could just forgive you for all the rubbish you've put me through?" Ron's voice trembled with rage, echoing throughout the corridor. He felt awful for acting this irrational, but he was beyond the point of return, so he continued to rant. "The very first thing you ever said to me was not only an insult about, but about my entire family! Ever since then, every word you spoke, every thing you did to me, you only did to bring me down and to make me feel worthless! And now because you fancy the only girl I've ever truly loved, you think you can give me a weak apology and everything will be perfectly fine? Bloody hell, people!"

"I know I was terrible! You think I didn't?" Draco screamed in reply. "I was a bloody awful person to you all these years! For something that didn't even matter! You don't realize how genuinely horrible I feel for putting you through that! I tried to sincerely apologize for everything I'd done, for all the trouble I caused you, and I knew it wasn't enough. I knew that it wasn't a big enough compensation to make up for all of that, but I was hoping it was a start!"

Draco probably could have continued raging, but Ron didn't give him the chance. One solid strike, clear to his jaw, was all Ron needed to release all the anger he'd been keeping bottled up. But Draco wouldn't take that sitting down. He quickly returned the punch.

And the fight began.