Inside Your Mind

breathe

!! TRIGGER WARNING: Eating Disorders !! This chapter has references to being sick after eating and losing weight that could potentially be triggering for some people. I'm not sure if this warning is completely necessary because it isn't directly in reference to any eating disorders but better safe than sorry! You should be able to simply skip this chapter if you want and not miss out on too much information - if anyone does want to skip but would like me to leave a short summary at the end just leave a comment here :)

Breathe (2AM) - Anna Nalick

15th October 1998

'Eat, Granger.' Draco said to her with a grumble after watching her play with a roast potato for ten minutes.

'I'm not hungry.' She replied in a faraway tone as she picked at the roast potato on her plate.

'When was the last time you ate?' Draco asked with a raised eyebrow.

'I had breakfast.' Hermione muttered.

'Eat.' Draco hissed.

Not wanting to cause a scene in the middle of the Great Hall Hermione put the roast potato, that she had been rolling around her plate, into her mouth and chewed. She could feel Draco's eyes on her as she did and, before he could say anything else, she swallowed the potato and ate a carrot too.

Somewhat satisfied Draco turned his eyes back to the conversation that Ginny and Blaise were having. Out of the corner of her eye Hermione noticed Draco sending glances her way every minute or so and she ate a bit more so that he wouldn't bring up the subject again.

Hermione knew that he'd noticed how thin she was and despite doing her best the last couple of months to put all the weight she'd lost during the war back on, and almost being able to fit in her uniform properly, her appetite had vanished over the past few weeks. Whenever she had eaten a full meal she'd soon felt unbearably sick, most of the time had vomitted everything right back up, so now all of her hard work had gone down the toilet - literally.

She hadn't wanted to worry the other three so most mealtimes she ate a few bites and then proceeded to play with her food so they wouldn't notice. Mostly for Draco's sake, as she knew it would bother him, and she didn't want him to ask questions. If he knew this had started after their duel he would probably feel guilty and she didn't want him to, it wasn't his fault, so she kept it to herself.

As she swallowed another bite of her dinner the familiar pain in her stomach returned.

'I'll meet you back at the dormitory.' She muttered to the other three, not wanting them to know that she was about to be sick for the second time that day, and quickly stood up from the table so she could rush out of the Great Hall.

Once she was clear of the Great Hall Hermione broke out into a run, which was a huge mistake, and she almost stumbled when the pain quickly got worse. Instead of going all the way back to their dormitory she hurried into the nearest Girl's bathroom and fell to her knees in one of the stalls.

As she lifted her head and opened her eyes so that she could flush away the evidence she noticed, and proceeded to ignore with the pull of the chain, the spots of blood staining the white porcelain.

When Hermione arrived back at the dormitory, with shaking fingers and black spots clouding her vision, she was met by three concerned faces.

'What?' She asked, feigning innocence.

'What's wrong, Mione?' Ginny asked, crossing her arms over her chest. The gesture told Hermione that the red head was not going to take any bullshit and she let out a sigh.