Silencio

Chapter 1

Hermione was walking fast, almost running. She was late and curfew had set in, but she had been unable to resist going to the library to look up a minor detail that had been nagging her, and then, as usual, she had lost track of time. Muttering under her breath, she rushed along the corridors, doing her best to remember everything she read, word by word.

"Pickled Murtlap will help resistance to curses, while—" She walked head-first into a body that seemed to be appearing out of nowhere.

"Ow! Watch where you're going, Malfoy!" she crossly said, while she unsuccessfully tried to walk around him to be on her way.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't Potter's little sidekick, out on her own. After curfew, I might add." Draco Malfoy smirked unpleasantly, his grey eyes filled with malice. "I think I might have to report that."

Hermione gave an exasperated and annoyed grunt. "Yeah? And how will you explain being here yourself, then? Just give it up already—you're even less scary than usual without your cronies."

There was a flash of anger in his eyes, but then he smirked. "Better to have cronies than to be a sidekick, I should think. Besides, I'm out on an errand for Professor Snape. What's your excuse? Out saving the world again?" He laughed, clearly thinking this to be a great joke.

Hermione rolled her eyes and tried to get past him again, only to be slammed into a wall by physical force. Incensed, she reached for her wand, but he smoothly grabbed hold of her wrists and wrenched them above her head. "Not afraid of me, are you?" he sneered. "If you had any sense at all, Mudblood, you would be. I don't need Crabbe or Goyle, I don't even need magic, I can easily kill you if I want."

Hermione stopped struggling for a second to give him a bored, disgusted look. "Then get it over with or let me go. I don't have time for this!" On the last word, she jerked up her knee, only narrowly missing her target, his precious pure-blooded jewels, as he shifted a leg to protect himself.

Malfoy uttered an oath that would surely have made his mother scrub out his mouth with soap, and, shifting both her wrists into one hand, he flung open the nearest door and almost threw her inside, sending her stumbling for half the length of the room. Before she could gain her footing, he had pulled out his wand and said, "Accio wand!" taking her only means of defense.

Despite her earlier swagger, Hermione was rapidly becoming nervous. But he wouldn't actually hurt her, would he? He'd abuse her verbally for sure, even push her about a bit, but he wouldn't use an Unforgivable Curse right here at Hogwarts... right?

He laughed, seeing her unease. "Not so cocky now, are you, Mudblood?" he said with his usual sneer and slowly began walking towards her, clearly savoring his advantage.

Hermione looked about her for some means of protecting herself or bringing him off-balance, but nothing was readily available. They were in what appeared to be an old classroom with bolted down tables and benches. It would have been completely dark if not for the moonlight streaming in through the large windows occupying the one wall. Swiftly, she ran a few steps, putting a table between them, resulting in Malfoy laughing even harder.

"Oh yes, that's right, Mugglespawn," he said sweetly. "That low wooden table will surely repel any curses I might throw at you. Good thinking!"

Hermione felt her face heat up. She knew, of course, that the table wouldn't help against any curses; she just didn't want to be within physical distance of him. The way he had so easily overpowered and disarmed her was making her belatedly cautious. She silently sent up a prayer that Harry or Ron would come looking for her, but she knew that they wouldn't. They would assume, correctly, that she had lost track of time, and they would probably go to bed before looking for her. She considered screaming instead and, upon deeming that a good idea, she opened her mouth to do so.