The Other Story

Chapter 1: The Starting point

Hermione Granger was walking down the Hogwarts school corridor. She was in deep thought and was thinking about how Ron had said her name when he was unconscious. Okay, he was not exactly awake but still! She couldn't help but feel slightly flattered, considering that he was still together with Lavender Brown. As a result, Ron and Hermione had been nicer to each other ever since he got out of hospital.

As she was walking, Hermione watched the stain glass windows shine brightly coloured shapes onto the stone walls. She felt so calm and for the first time in weeks, she had no worries on her mind.

Or at least until the second she heard a scream. Hermione felt a cold shiver go down her spine. Her instincts were telling her that what she was hearing were the shouts of someone dying.

She looked around to see if anyone else had heard it, but Hermione appeared to be the only one in the corridor. Before she even had time to think things through, her feet pulled her along towards the source of the sound, her shoes making squeaky noises on the polished floor. The screams seemed to be coming from the boy's bathroom.

When she was getting nearer, she saw a student with brown hair and Gryffindor robes bolting out of the very same bathroom. Hermione recognised him immediately; it was Harry.

"Harry!" Hermione shouted at the top of her voice.

Harry turned around, but only briefly. "Hermione, don't go in there, just get a teacher here to help...and say it's an emergency!" he said loudly in a panicked voice. After finishing his sentence he was off again, going as fast as his legs could take him.

Hermione's heart skipped a beat. What could possibly have happened?

She thought no more and pushed the boys bathroom door open with such a force that it made her stagger. To her horror, she saw a body, surrounded by blood, lying on the wet tiles next to the sinks. She forced herself forward and let out a short gasp. She had arrived at a sudden realisation that it was Malfoy who was lying right beneath her shiny black shoes.

He was bleeding heavily in his whole upper torso. Even though Malfoy was a Slytherin and a son of a Death Eater, Hermione could not possibly leave him here to die.

She quickly snatched her wand from a pocket in her robes.

"Vulnera Sanentur," she whispered, as she bent down and traced her wand over Malfoy's deep wounds which were oozing red liquid. To her relief, the blood flow came to an abrupt halt, like a train rapidly stopping on its tracks. The cuts slowly disappeared as if they were being erased by an invisible rubber.

All this time Hermione was healing Malfoy, he was still screaming, but the more she muttered the spell, the softer his shouts became. When the wounds had finally stitched themselves, Malfoy's body stopped shaking. He lay perfectly still, as if he were dead but Hermione knew better than that; she could see his chest rising and falling.

Hermione stayed kneeled next to him, her ankles getting wet due to the enormous puddles of water surrounding them. She watched Malfoy's pale grey eyes take one quick glance at her and then flutter shut of exhaustion.

Hermione remained where she was, she couldn't get herself to stand up. She was thinking of all the times Malfoy had called her a Mudblood. All the times that he had a nasty sneer on his face. Now, however, his face looked so peaceful. There were no ugly lines of disgust on his forehead. His eyes were not flickering with hatred whenever he looked at someone. But how Hermione hated him, could not be described. His whole family followed Voldemort, making him an enemy of her ever since the very first time they met.

Suddenly, Hermione heard two pairs of footsteps outside the bathroom, echoing loudly across the walls. She quickly stood up from next to Malfoy and ran into the nearest toilet stall. Just as she closed the door, she heard voices coming nearer. They were Harry's and Snape's.

"Sir, I didn't mean for it to happen! I swear!" Harry shouted in panic.

"Potter, how dare you use such Dark Magic, especially on a fellow student! Detention with me every Saturday until the end of term!" Snape said with fury, his voice rising with every word as he glanced down at Malfoy, who was helplessly lying on the ground, unconscious.

"You are lucky someone came here before I did. Draco would have been dead if it were not thanks to his anonymous rescuer," Snape said, as he picked the limp Malfoy up into his arms.

"Where, may I ask, did you hear of such a Dark spell like Sectumsempra? Surely not from a school textbook?" he continued, glaring at Harry with his black beady eyes, as if he knew that Harry was about to lie.

"No sir, I guess I must have read about it somewhere outside of Hogwarts. Even so, I did not know the true significance of the curse," Harry replied, meeting Snape's eyes with an intense stare. The two men looked at each other for several moments.

Hermione grabbed this chance to run straight out of the horrible bathroom, where such a horrendous event had occurred.

She sprinted away to the Gryffindor tower. She was trying to put as much distance as possible between her, Harry and Snape.

On her way, she passed by a group of Gryffindors who were going to their next class. Ginny was there as well, close to Dean.

"Hermione, what are you in such a hurry for? You look as though you've seen a ghost" she said, the worry in her tone rising, " And...oh my god... why are you drenched in blood as well?"

"It's all right Ginny. Just in a hurry. Sorry, but I've got to go. See you at dinner!" Hermione said as she pushed past Ron's ginger haired sister, with whom she had become good friends with throughout the past years.

She hurried up the moving staircase to the Fat Lady's portrait. As if on queue, the Fat Lady glanced at Hermione and said, "Password please," in a very annoyed voice, her head piece bobbing slightly on her wig.

"Baubles."

The Fat Lady's portrait swung open and revealed the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. Hermione rushed inside and then hurried up to the girls dormitories. When she finally got into her room, she dropped onto her bed, making it creak.

What had just happened? Hermione thought. She saved Draco Malfoy's life and Harry was the reason why he nearly died. When she overheard Snape and Harry in their heated discussion, Snape had said something about Sectumsempra. It was a spell from the Half Blood Prince's book, she was certain of it. Hermione knew Harry should have handed it in straight away. The book was bound to include Dark magic and get Harry into serious trouble.

Despite herself, Hermione couldn't stop thinking about the scarlet stains all across Malfoy's white shirt. Had she not been there, would he really have died? Amazingly, Hermione felt a strange sensation cross her when she thought of it, as if she felt slightly sad thinking about it. Why in Merlin's beard would it be sad if Malfoy died? Sure, it would be unfortunate, but not something to think deeply about. Malfoy himself would have been delighted to see a Muggle born like herself lying dead underneath his feet.

Thank god Malfoy would forget all about her saving him, Hermione thought quietly to herself, as she pulled out her Ancient Runes book from her bag.