When did you become beautiful?

Any character or place you recognize belongs to J K Rowling


Draco paced back and forth with the boys who had been his enemies for six years pacing right beside him. Where was Hermione? It was well past three in the morning. Suddenly Draco felt a pull at his heart and left so quickly and so silently that Harry and Ron didn't even notice.

Malfoy didn't know what compelled him to walk towards the forbidden forest but he did. He looked about and saw nothing and was about to leave when he heard a small whimper and he quickly moved towards it.

"Hermione?" He asked quietly and he saw a slumped form on the ground and lit his wand, holding it high in case of attack but it fell when he saw what it was on the ground. It was Hermione. But not the Hermione he knew. Not the one that was always studying or laughing or scowling. This Hermione was naked on the ground with no modesty spell and she lay in a patch of snow that had been eaten away by her own burning blood.

He picked up his wand and ran towards her. She didn't move. With some embarassment he assessed her injuries. He let out a yell of fury and outright rage when he saw that the blood came partly from between her legs. Now he saw the semen on her legs and back and face but the blood from her legs wasn't enough to have melted away that much snow. He turned her over and gasped. Hermione's wound on her back gushed blood out in rushes. It seemed almost bigger.

Clear thought returned. His love was bleeding to death on the ground. He whipped off his coat without even shivering and draped it over her. There was no time to dress her. He scooped her up as if she were light as a feather and sprinted at an inhuman speed up to the school. Before he knew it he was pushing open the doors to the infermary and bellowing for Madame Pomfrey.

The matron came running but whatever she had expected it wasn't what she saw. Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy, both soaked in blood, the former unconcious and naked as the day she was born save for a winter cloak in green and silver. She ushered him over to a bed and he lay her down on her front. For a moment the woman wondered why until he lifted the cloak revealing the wound.

"What happened?!" She screeched but didn't wait for an answer before she began running to fetch potions and bandages and the headmistress. Draco sat on a stool a little way off and put his head in his hands and wept. This was not something Draco Malfoy usually did but now was a time that called for it. In a minute when the nurse was out of the room he took a washcloth and wet it and gently wiped the cum from her body. The blood he could not was away but the semen he could and he had to do something. He was shoved out of the way as the headmistress arrived.

"What on earth happened?" She screeched. Madame Pomfrey indicated ignorance and gestured at Draco who sighed. Hermione would not want them to know but they had to.

"She appears to have been raped. By the little of her injuries that I saw i would judge it to be either Crabbe, Goyle, a combination of the two, Andrew Adderson, or Jay Peterson of these five choices I think the Crabbe/Goyle combination to be most likely because a) they never go anywhere without the other and b) because...er..the injuries indicate she was raped by someone with a rather large dick and they have the largest I know of."

The two women had looks of disgust painted on their faces but at that moment Hermione let out a low whimper and they were brought back to their senses as Hermione regained conciousness. The matron made to touch her but she flinched away. McGonagal tried to touch her but she screamed in fright as if she saw demons. The other women looked towards Draco who gently caressed Hermione on the shoulder and she turned to see who it was and fell into his arms sobbing. She didn't say a word just soaked his robes with her salty tears.

Draco had vowed revenge on the spot but Mcgonagal forbade him to go anywhere near the two Slytherins and said she would take care of it but by that time Crabbe and Goyle had left the castle and joined Voldemort's forces. No one knew any more than that.

Draco stayed by Hermione's side night and day. Her wound constantly bled now and she was forced to take blood replenishing potions three times a day. Finally she was allowed back to the head's quarters. Harry and Ron had been unable to come and visit her due to their need for secrecy in their position. Before she even went to the rooms themselves Hermione checked on the potion for the horcruxes. The sooner it was done the sooner acts like what had happened to her would stop.

The potion was almost ready now. Only about nine weeks until it was ready now.

When Ron and Harry saw her they took a step back. The look of sadness she had held since they saw her first during the summer was doubled now and there was a deep red stain on her back although Draco did not seem overly worried. She was unable to smile but instead took her friends' hands in hers.

"Draco has advised me to tell you what has happened to me but I cannot. Not for some time yet." Madame Pomfrey had wanted to check if she was pregnant but Draco had kept her away and her secret was still intact. "Now come, tell me about the horcrux you have found." Harry and Ron gasped at her and Hermione gestured at Malfoy. "He already knows. He read my diary but he promises not to tell."

Harry and Ron nodded reluctantly and told their tale.

The horcrux this time was Hufflepuff's cup and it had taken them a long time to get to it. There had been many traps along the way but none so terrible that either of them needed to go to a hospital. Harry showed her the tiny cup and Hermione took it. She could feel the intense evil radiating off it in waves and it brought the tears. Salty water fell into the cup. Harry made to take it from her but she stopped him.

"It's alright. This is one of the ingredients I needed anyway. Genuine tears."

"What is it Hermione?" Ron asked gently.

"All will be revealed to you soon enough. I cannot bring myself to burden you now. you have enough to deal with." The boys nodded reluctantly and waited as Hermione went to add the tears and lock up the horcrux. One more horcrux until they had to go get Voldemort. Not long now. Not long until it would all be over. The pain. The hate. The loss. And the tears.