4.1 | Draconian ✓

02 | rennervate

  

0 2

r e n n e r v a t e

Awakens victim.

THE NIGHTMARES BEGAN that night.

Draco had just allowed his eyes to fall shut when Hermione's grip tightened on his shirt. Killer senses alert, he surged up and grabbed his wand. It was just in time too - Hermione awoke with a gasp, and he had a split second to cast a Muffliato before he was engulfed by screaming.

He'd heard a lot of screams before. But none had ever sounded as terrifying as hers did.

Still shrieking, Hermione thrashed against an invisible attacker. Her hands swung out to defend herself, and some of her healed wounds ripped in her struggle. Draco swore under his breath when she kicked him. Setting his wand aside, he reached forward to grab her arms.

"Granger. Granger, shut up!"

She didn't hear him. She choked and sobbed hysterically. And when her arm rose, he caught a glimpse of a familiar scar that had plagued him for nights back when the war had first begun.

M U D B L O O D

He couldn't stop the shiver that ran down his spine. That Bella-fucking-trix. She always knew how to hit where it hurt most. The words on Hermione's arm were faded but forever there. He hated himself for having watched it happen, and hated himself even more now that he'd seen it again.

But then her screams shook him out of his guilt-ridden reverie and he gazed down at her, flinching when one of her nails caught his cheek, her nail slicing clean off a bit of flesh. Where had she learnt to fight like that? And under what circumstances was she in to be forced to fight like that?

He dragged her arms down to her side and shook her by the shoulders. "Granger, wake up!"

She froze, then blinked. Her wide eyes landed on him, recognition dawning in them. "Draco?"

"Yes, it's me."

Her face crumpled with relief. "I-I – "

"You had a nightmare. It's over now," he said quietly, before letting go of her. He grabbed his wand to heal her ripped wounds, and tried not to react when she reached for him again.

"I'm so sorry," she choked, gazing up at him with familiar brown eyes. The eyes he'd always had haunting visions of, the eyes that had quickly become a fixture of his every nightmare and every pleasant dream. She reached up with the other hand for his face. "I-I'm so sorry I hurt you. I didn't – I didn't mean to."

He almost leaned into her palm - her warmth like gravity, pulling him down to her. But he caught himself before he could and flinched away, settling back into the safety of his armchair. "It's fine," he muttered. "Go back to sleep. I'll get sleeping draughts for you tomorrow."

She nodded, staring up at him with all the apology in the world when it should've been him staring at her that way. Sliding her fingers past the sleeve of his jumper, she slipped them onto his palm instead, curling round and gripping his hand tight. Then she turned on her side – towards him, always towards him –tucked their hands just next to her cheek, and closed her eyes.

Draco tried not to jump away. Instead, he spent the rest of the night relishing the pain she'd given him – the scratch on his cheek, the kick in his gut – and trying his best to tune out her soft sobs, and the way her tears left unforgiving stains on his hand.