A/N: So I was rewatching HBP and I got major inspo for this little ficlet. Honestly, I've been imagining this scenario for YEARS, but I finally was able to write it down and I'm so stoked to share it with you all! It was supposed to be a one-shot with just this part, but it ended up being damn near 20k so there will be 6 parts in total.

Updates will be on Tuesdays.

The song that I used for the title is The Real You by Three Days Grace and it embodies the mood I'm going for perfectly.

Enjoy!

Ron didn't remember.

He didn't know that he had broken up with his obsessive girlfriend while being hospitalized. He didn't know that he had called for Hermione in his hour of need. He didn't know it was she who sat by his side at all hours of the night and held his hand until his blue eyes had opened for the first time.

The relief that flooded her system had been a shock. So much so, that when Harry noticed Katie Bell's return, she took the opportunity seek some solitude, in desperate need to assess her thoughts. The emotional hurricane streaming down her cheeks as she went.

She gasped for air as she ripped open the door to the second-floor girl's bathroom. Nothing but bad memories lingered here, but she was glad for the solace it provided. She only rested briefly against the door before she threw herself into the first stall. She didn't bother closing the door as she sat, furiously swiping tears from her eyes. This bathroom had been out of order since Myrtle died in it years ago.

Her reprieve was cut short as the door to the bathroom opened and closed with a bang. She jumped and clamped a hand over her mouth. She didn't want Ron or Harry to see her here; not like this. She climbed onto the tank and rested her feet on the seat.

She heard footsteps and loud intakes of breath. Whoever the person was, they were in distress. She heard the tap turn on after a moment followed by choking sobs. She lowered her hand from her mouth and closed her eyes. She tried her best to block out the sound; feeling guilty at the intrusion of this person's privacy.

As a snivel interrupted the sobs, Hermione's eyes went wide with recognition. Her curiosity propelled her forward and she slipped on the toilet. She landed on unsteady feet and fell out the open stall door, landing on all fours on the floor.

Malfoy turned to her with eyes wide in both fear and anger. One of his hands clenched the sink while the other reached for his wand. He pointed it at her with a trembling arm. His hair stuck out from having been pulled in frustration. Water droplets ran down his face and wet the collar of his white button down from where he had splashed it.

"Spying on me, Granger?" His voice was full of the usual sneers in which he spoke to her, but there was a rawness she had never heard before.

She held her hands out in front of her as she slowly rose to her feet. "I was in here first, Malfoy," she whispered. She winced as pain radiated up her elbow. "This is the girl's bathroom."

His eyes flickered around the room as he decided what to do with her. His fingers tightened on his wand, but his arm lowered from the trembling. "I could kill you right now," he spat. "No witnesses. I would be doing the Dark Lord a favor."

"You won't kill me, Malfoy," she said, her own voice wavering as she tried her best to be brave in the face of danger. While, deep down, she didn't think him capable of actually killing, he wasn't exactly stable at the moment.

He took a menacing step forward and Hermione let out a small gasp of fright at the way he brandished his wand. "I can do it!" Another step. "Without his Mudblood, Potter doesn't stand a chance against the Dark Lord."

Hermione winced more at the volume of his voice rather than the words. She refused to take another step backwards despite her feet itching to do so. Instead, she took a small one forward, arms still raised in surrender.

His eyes flashed at the action and his spine straightened. He watched her in frozen fright as she continued taking small steps forward. When she got an arm's length from him, he realized her intention, he snapped out of his daze.

"Do not touch me!" he demanded.

"Malfoy…" she breathed, her eyes misting with tears. He stepped back from her, his hip colliding with another sink. The action caused him to stumble and his wand arm lowered. "We can help you."

His gaze snapped up to hers and she saw right away that it had been the wrong thing to say.

"Help me?" he sneered. "I don't need anyone's help!"

His outburst caused a wave of accidental magic. A bright flash of blue light burst forth from the tip of his wand. It had been pointed at the floor and ricocheted off the tile to blast one of the sinks from the wall. Water from the pipes fountained and splashed around them.

Hermione turned as debris from the sink flew through the air. A shriek tore from her throat as a shard of it sliced her bicep. Her right arm rose to cover it and looked down as blood flowed down her arm and through her fingers.

She reached for her wand, but stopped with her hand halfway to her pocket as she watched Malfoy lose grip of his. The sound of the wood clattering against the ground was louder than the spray of the water. She swallowed over the lump of fear in throat and took a gentle step forward.

He noticed her when she was just out of arm's reach again. He stared at her with a clenched jaw and tears running down his face. Her eyes fluttered against her own tears as she took another half step; her hand reaching out of him. His eyes widened and she noticed the shallow rise and fall of his chest. He glanced at her hand before his grey eyes locked with her chocolate ones once more. "Let us help you," she whispered, her voice barely audible. Her hand fell on his forearm; his skin searing her beneath the sleeve of his shirt.

Her chin lifted as his free hand rose. She kept her eyes on his as he laid his hand on her forearm. Slowly, his fingers trailed up her arm, ghosting over the cut. He hesitated at her shoulder before it rested there. "It's too late," he whispered.

Her eyes went wide as he spun her. Her back hit the wall with enough force to make her gasp. His fingers wrapped around her throat, pressing against her air supply. She brought both of her hands up to claw at him, but his pressure only increased.

Her magic lashed out in her panic. Every sink and toilet exploded behind them. Water and debris rained down around them as the ground shook. Malfoy released his hold on her throat after a moment and she sucked in a greedy breath of air; one that was stolen again from her a moment later as the blast pushed his body flush against hers. His hands scraped at the wall to keep him from falling, effectively caging her in. She gripped at his clothes and ducked her head.

The air sizzled with magic and when she lifted her head, their eyes connecting once more, a different kind of hell broke loose.

Their lips collided in a punishing manner. Her hands that had used his hips to steady herself were now pulling his shirt from the waistband of his trousers. His hands had left the wall in favor of sinking into her somewhat wet hair, tugging it back to angle her more to his liking. A gasp parted her lips and his tongue chased hers in a battle of dominance.

When she had his shirt freed, she fumbled with the first button. With a moan at the taste of Malfoy's tongue sliding across hers, she found the divide in the material of his shirt and tugged. Buttons popped off at her action and her fingers dove straight to his abdomen. She explored the hard planes of a physique she knew was due to his involvement in Quidditch.

Malfoy's hips slammed into hers; his arousal prodding at her. She whimpered and pulled her head back sharply, desperately in need of air. He growled low in his throat from the break of their kiss, but his lips immediately reattached to the soft skin of her jaw. His tongue traced the shell of her ear before nipping her lobe and dropping to her throat.

Her nails dug into his skin as she shuddered with pleasure. His hands left her hair to pull at her top layers in the same manner she had. The moment he was able, his hands pulled at the cups of her bra, raising them above her breasts. His palms cupped her roughly and she bit her bottom lip as he pinched her nipples.

Her hands dropped to his trousers at the same time his left her breasts in favor of pulling up her skirts. As she worked on his belt and fly, he tore her stockings. Her hips bucked wantonly when he pushed her kickers to the side to allow his fingers to brush through her folds. She cried out as he pulled away, but was only gone long enough to roll her knickers down her legs and then push his own bottom layers down.

She yelped when he stood up again. His lips captured hers roughly as his hands gripped her thighs hard enough to bruise. He lifted her up and she wrapped her legs around his instinctively. He used one hand to brace himself against the wall while the other firmly grasped his cock. She shuddered against him and sucked at his bottom lip as he coated himself in her slick.

She bit down on his lip hard enough to draw blood as he pushed his cock into her core. They groaned in unison and she threw her head back, not caring that it bounced off the tiled wall behind her. Her vision blurred for a moment, but when it stabilized, Malfoy was pounding relentlessly in and out of her. Her fingers dug into whatever part of him she could grasp for purchase as he used lips, teeth, and tongue to mark up her throat.

Her eyes squeezed shut as she felt a foreign tension stemming from her core. It rolled through her body and forced a scream of ecstasy from her lips. Her hips bucked uncontrollably against him as she climaxed. She came hard, throwing them off balance. Malfoy stumbled and his arm came away from the wall to keep her in place.

Her cry of surprise from being slammed against the edge of the closest sink quickly turned into a moan as he resumed impaling her with his cock. With one hand, she thread her fingers through his hair while the other grasped at the remaining portion of the sink to keep from slipping off of it.

Her eyes rolled as she felt that tension building again. Malfoy's body began to spasm. She tugged at his hair, drawing his head back with the intention of capturing his lips again, but the moment their eyes connected, the heat of the moment came to a head and they came together. Malfoy's hips gave a few final jerks and she cried out.

Realization hit them before they even came down from their high.

He let go of her as if touching her burned him. He tripped over his trousers still pooled at his ankles. She slid off the sink and used the wall for support when her legs threatened to buckle. With trembling hands, she pulled her bra back down.

"Fuck!" he hissed, reaching down to pull up his lower layers. He had barely pulled them up over his hips when her hand slid on the tile and she fell forward. He caught her before she could hit the ground and they just stared at each other. His lips parted to say something, but the door to the bathroom opened, cutting him off.

"What have you- Hermione?"

She pulled herself from Malfoy's grip and held her front layers closed with her hands at the sound of Harry's voice behind her. She felt Malfoy tense from beside her and dared a fleeting glance at her friend. He had his wand out and aimed at Malfoy; a murderous look in his emerald eyes as he took in their state of undress.

"Harry, wait!" she cried, but the spell crashed into the wall where Malfoy had been before she even finished speaking.

The blonde dove for his wand on the floor and fired back at Harry. The two of them hurled spell after spell at the other while Hermione begged and pleaded for them to stop. She screamed as a rogue spell narrowly missed her feet by jumping away from it as it crashed into the floor.

Malfoy looked at her, panicked that she might have been hit. Harry seized the opportunity of his opponent's distraction and shouted, "Sectumsempra!"

The spell hit Malfoy square in the stomach. He was lifted from the ground and landed on his back several feet from where he had stood. Hermione lifted a hand to her mouth in terror as Malfoy stopped moving. Her eyes widened as one deep gash appeared from his collarbone to his hip. Blood welled up and poured out, turning his flesh paler than ever.

"What did you do!?" she yelled at Harry as she rushed forward. She landed on her knees next to Malfoy and grasped his head in her shaking hands. She put his head in her lap and looked up at Harry; her vision blurred with tears.

Harry had taken a step back, gaze flickering back and forth between his friend and his rival. The water on the floor was now pink with blood and Malfoy's breathing was dangerously shallow. Hermione looked down to see Malfoy's eyes closed and his lips quivering. She could barely hear his moans of pain as his body twitched on the ground.

"What have you done?"

Hermione looked up to see Professor Snape entering the bathroom. He took one look at Harry before the raven-haired wizard ran away in fright. Hermione blinked at the spot he had vacated before looking at Snape. Tears cascaded down her cheeks. "It was a curse. Sectum… Sect…"

Her voice was shaking too badly to get the full word out, but Snape seemed to have enough to go on. He knelt in the water and aimed his wand at Malfoy's chest. "Vulnera Sanetur," he said. The blood flow began to ease from the wounds. "Vulnera Sanetur," he repeated. Hermione sucked in a breath as she watched Malfoy's pale flesh knit together in the first stages of healing. "Vulnera Sanetur," Snape said a third time, but whatever it did, the results were not visual.

Snape stood and Malfoy's body rose from the ground with a flick of the professor's wand. He said nothing about where he was going, but she was sure it was the infirmary. She pushed herself to her feet and stuck out her hand for her wand to fly into. She pointed it at her shirt to replace the missing buttons and then slip them into the loops. She then followed Snape into the hall all the way to the infirmary.

She watched from a distance as Madame Pomfrey worked quickly to administer blood replenishing potions and what she was sure was dittany. "What happened, Severus?" the healer asked under her breath as she administered a second potion. Hermione sensed the urgency for treatment was over, but her heart continued to hammer against her ribs.

"I do not know," he replied, his gaze flickering to Hermione as she took a step towards them. "But I will find out."

"Is he… Will he…" Hermione asked, voice still shaking.

"He'll be fine, dear," Pomfrey replied without looking at her.

Snape filled her vision, breaking her fixation of Malfoy. "Are you injured, Miss Granger?" he asked.

"No, I-"

"Follow me," he demanded and began to leave.

Hermione's lips parted to protest as she looked back at Malfoy again, but then thought better of it and turned to follow Snape. He led her through the throng of people who had crowded the halls in search of the latest gossip. She kept her head down and arms crossed in front of her until they were in his office away from prying eyes.

"Professor, I-"

His wand was out and aimed at her face before she started speaking. "Legilimens." The spell was followed by a strange sensation at the back of her mind. She stood there in shocked silence as the encounter in the bathroom replayed in her mind. Snape watched it happen; from the moment she entered the bathroom to when she followed him out of it.

He saw everything.

She swayed on her feet when his mind retreated from hers. He was staring at her with an unreadable expression on his face. She let her eyes drop to the floor as shame flushed her cheeks. "Where did Potter learn that spell?" he asked.

Not wanting him to invade her mind again, she answered him. "His potion's book. It's an old copy he found in the storage closet when he joined Potions the first day of term."

"Miss Granger, do you understand the gravity of the situation that has transpired?"

"Yes," she breathed, wanting nothing more than to run from his office and back to the safety of Gryffindor Tower.

"Then I suggest you do well to heed my advice," he said. Her gaze flickered up to his. "Stay away from him."

She nodded and gave in to her desire to flee. She breathed a sigh of relief when Snape didn't block her path or chase after her. She ran through the halls and up the stairs, stopping only at the portrait long enough to give the current password. She didn't even look to see who was in the common room or seek the voices calling her name. She just pushed past everyone until she was in her dorm. She curled up on her bed and stared off into space as she tried to come to grips with what had happened.