Stay Away From Me

By the enchanted kneazle

Chapter 1

It was Tuesday night and, as usual, Hermione was doing patrols on her own while Blaise was off snogging some fifth-year in the Astronomy Tower. She knew he was taking advantage of her good nature and seeing how much he could get away with, but they had just started to develop a civil relationship and she didn't want to lose the progress she'd made with her fellow head.

She sighed as she realized she would have to have a stern talk with him about it. He might not be worried about Voldemort and his minions, some of whom were Hogwarts students themselves, but Hermione knew that the Dark Lord could attack at any moment.

She had diligently patrolled the whole castle starting at the top and, after being told by Blaise to "sod off" between the groans of his slutty companion, the night had been rather uneventful. The last area left to patrol was Hermione's least favorite by far and, in her rush to get out of the cold, dark corridors she almost didn't see the figure standing stock still in the shadows a few hallways past the Slytherin dormitories.

"Who's there?" she called as she took a few cautious steps forward.

As she got closer, Hermione could make out a tall, rather muscular looking figure just standing there as if he had been stopped dead in his tracks. Curiosity and concern urged her forward, while her past experience within this very castle warned her against approaching an unknown figure alone in the middle of the night. She pulled her wand out and took a few cautious steps forward until she could make out who it was.

"Malfoy!" she gasped.

No response. No snarky comment or vicious insult about her blood status. Not even a flicker of recognition that someone was standing right in front of him. He continued to stand there completely motionless, his posture almost unnaturally rigid.

The second thing she immediately noticed was a large gash starting just underneath outside of his left eye and curving down his cheek. There was a slight bruising underneath the smeared blood and it occurred to Hermione that he had been punched, probably by someone with a jeweled ring on, which would explain the deep cut.

Her confusion deepened. Malfoy was by far the most intimidating person at their school. Sure there were plenty of people that hated him, even some of his so-called followers, but he had such a frightening air of power and danger that even his friends and the pathetic girls that mooned over him in the halls were smart enough to respect him. She couldn't imagine anyone having the nerve to actually attack him.

She tried getting his attention again, "Malfoy?"

Again, nothing. Hermione didn't know what to do. As Head Girl she should be able to handle pretty much any non-threatening situation herself without having to wake up a teacher. She stared at him for a moment before slowly raising her wand to heal his wound. He made no move the stop her. In fact, he hadn't made any moves at all.

She quietly cast the healing spell and watched as the cut sewed itself up, leaving behind no proof at all of the cruel-looking slash. Hermione was shocked that he hadn't shouted some vile hex at her along with a nasty name for even daring to raise her wand in his direction.

She silently deliberated on what she should do next. Even if he was the most despicable person she had ever had the displeasure of knowing, she couldn't just leave him there. He could have had any number of things happen to him, the most obvious being some kind of curse.

It went against her better judgement, but Hermione didn't really see any other way to determine what had happened to him. "Legilimens," she whispered as she slipped into his mind. She gasped as she was violently thrown out of his mind. She didn't have much practice with Legilimency, only what she could teach herself. But she had never come across that reaction in the few times she had tried it on her friends.

Hermione had only caught a flash of his most recent memories and she flinched as she remembered seeing Lucius Malfoy standing over her with his wand raised and Crucio falling from his smirking lips, almost as if in delight as he tortured his only son. Her mouth fell open in shock as she looked up at his unmoving face.

"Malfoy, are you okay?" Comprehension dawned on her as she looked again at his stiff posture. His muscles were probably locking up in pain and Merlin knew where his mind was. Hermione had never been subject to that curse before but she knew if it was used enough it could literally drive someone crazy. She shuddered at the thought of how long it had been used on Malfoy tonight.

Hermione's brow softened in concern as she gently reached a hand up and laid it on his shoulder. He still didn't move. She let her hand slowly slide down his arm till their hands were joined and she lifted his arm and laid it across her shoulder. He offered no resistance as she slowly began walking, trying to take as much of his weight as she could.

They made their way toward the Slytherin dorm and Hermione silently thanked Merlin that she had access to all the House passwords as Head Girl. She pulled him through the doorway and struggled into the common room, leveraging his body onto the nearest couch as gently as possible. She grabbed a blanket from the chair next to it and laid it over him.

With one last glance at him, Hermione quietly left the common room and slowly made her way up to the Heads dormitory. As she lay in bed that night, Hermione contemplated how he would react the next time they saw each other. Would he even remember any of it? She fell asleep with the image of his lifeless eyes in her thoughts.

The next morning Hermione groggily remembered what had happened the night before. She shuddered at the thought that anyone, even Malfoy, would be tortured so mercilessly by their own father. She knew that even if she told someone about it there was nothing they could really do. Nevertheless, she was proud of herself for helping out her enemy last night, even if he would probably not remember it. She resolved to keep a more watchful eye on Malfoy.

As she walked into the Great Hall, she surreptiously glanced over at the Slytherin table, looking for any sign that Malfoy was aware of what had happened between them last night, but he was eating his breakfast, vaguely smirking at something Pansy Parkinson said to him and turning back to the conversation he was having with Theo Nott. Hermione shrugged and sat down in her usual seat at the Gryffindor table.

"Ugh, double potions with Slytherin first thing? This sucks." Ron grumbled around a mouthful of eggs as he glanced at his schedule. Hermione inwardly cringed at the thought of being around Malfoy so soon and having to act like nothing had happened last night. She steeled herself for the day ahead and resolved to just ignore him.

As they arrived at the Potions classroom in the dungeons, Hermione glanced around, rememering the last time she was there only hours ago. Class hadn't started yet and everyone was gathered outside the door, huddled together in their own little groups. Malfoy was holding court in the corner and Hermione caught a snippet of the conversation they were having.

"I heard you slept on the couch last night, Drake, what's that all about? You too good to sleep in the dorms like the rest of us?" Crabbe jokingly questioned.

"I was studying for the bloody Potions test and fell asleep. Plus, I can't stand the deafening roar of your snoring Crabbe!" The group dissolved in sniggers at Malfoy's joke, effectively changing the subject. Hermione was amazed at how effortlessly he lied and manuipulated all of them.

Hermione was distracted all throughout Potions and though she managed to stumble her way through the written portion of the exam, she made a huge mistake on the hands-on portion when she added one too many unicorn hairs to her potion resulting in a small explosion at her table.

"Miss Granger, twenty points from Gryffindor for your foolishness! See me after class." Snape bellowed as she hurried to clean up the mess she had made. The rest of the class completed their potions and bottled them for grading. She had finished cleaning up by that point and sat sullenly at her table as the class filed out, Harry and Ron whispering that they would see her at lunch.

"Miss Granger, you will come back here tonight at 7pm to retake this portion of the exam. You will receive 50% credit. That is all." Snape promptly looked back down to the tests he was grading in dismissal. She sighed and slung her bag over her shoulder as she left the room. As she headed up to the Great Hall for lunch, she was grabbed by the arm and yanked into an empty bathroom and shoved up against the wall.

Hermione looked up and was shocked to see those same eyes that had been so dead last night glaring at her with such searing emotion. Malfoy stood there looking down at her, his chest heaving. He had a look of pure hatred on his face and all of it was focused on her.

"You!" he growled, "Stay…the fuck," his voice was so quiet that she jumped when he punched the wall next to her head making a couple of the tiles fall to the ground, "away…from me." He turned on his heel and stalked out of the room, not looking back.

So what do you guys think? I'm super excited to write this story for you all and I appreciate any reviews!