Blame It On Me - Dramione

Are You Alright?

Hermione waved goodbye as her friends walked away from the train and towards the carriages that pulled the carriages.

"Alright firs' years, come with me! This way!" Hagrid's booming voice called as he walked towards the lake, groups of small first years trailing behind him as he led the way.

Hermione smiled to herself, at least some things hadn't changed.

Hermione waited until the mob of students began to thin before she walked back onto the train, starting at the front car before moving through the train to where she would eventually meet up with Malfoy.

When Hermione was about half way through the train when she spotted a small lump pressed against the side of the train car. Hermione frowned, someone left their luggage behind.

It wasn't until she moved closer that she saw the luggage was moving, up and down. It was when she finally saw the black hair curled into tiny loops around the boys head that she realized it wasn't luggage that she was staring at after all, it was a small boy.

She hurried to drop next to him, trying to gently coax him awake.

He barely even flinched.

Hermione huffed, putting a hand on his shoulder and jostling it slightly, "Come on, wake up."

Nothing.

"OI! GET YOUR ARSE OUT OFF THE TRAIN AND INTO THE CARRIAGE BEFORE I TAKE POINTS AWAY FROM HUFFLEPUFF!" A voice belted from across the train car.

The boy woke with a yell and sprinted out of the car in fear.

Hermione stood slowly, glaring at Draco so hard her face began to ache, "Do you always have to be a bloody arsehole?"

"Would it make you feel better if I told you I was being sarcastic?" Draco asked drily as he strutted up to her side.

Hermione shook her head at him, "No, because then you'd be lying."

Draco shrugged nonchalantly, "Suit yourself."

"Let's just get back to the castle, are you done with your half?" Hermione asked, already leading the way off the train.

"Yes, as well as part of yours because you decided to play Mother with that second year," Draco raised his eyebrow at her pointedly.

Hermione scoffed at him, brushing him off.

"I forgot to get my luggage from the train, I'll meet you at the carriage," Draco suddenly remembered, turning away from her and walking back towards the train.

Hermione had grabbed her luggage and dragged it to the side first thing. She went there now to retrieve it and levitated the luggage behind her after she realized there would be too much to carry with her two hands.

She turned the corner into the trees, where the last carriage for the heads was parked.

Hermione stumbled when she saw it.

The thestrals.

She hadn't been able to see them before. Not before the war. Not before she witnessed hundreds of children and adults die before her very own eyes.

Her chest heaved as she struggled to take in a deep breath, but it wasn't working.

Images flickered in her brain, her eyes closed at the pain, but that only made the images more vivid.

Her chest was tightening, as if her insides were being crushed by an imaginary weight shoved against her chest. Her heart was ramming against body now, as if it were trying to escape.