Left Behind (A Dramione Romance)

Cruelty and Comfort

Hermione lay on her pallet unable to move.

She had heard everything.

Everything that Snape and Draco had said in the kitchen...

Everything that Draco had said to her just now thinking that she was out cold.

She had felt him healing her...

And had felt just now the hot drop of a tear falling from his eyes on to her face.

Snape had told Draco to keep his feelings in check.

Snape had said that Draco had only used superficial attacks.

Draco had hurt her to keep the Dark Lord from hacking her to pieces and sending those pieces to her friends.

He still tortured you, her mind argued back.

He did it to protect me, the thought came unbidden into her mind and she knew without a doubt that it was the truth.

Draco Malfoy, however messed up his methods, wanted to save her.

Why?

Draco had said he would rather be beaten and tortured by her friends than let her loose a limb. Hermione had no doubt that if Draco hadn't offered the idea of a photo she that a loss of limbs was exactly what would have happened.

She had the urge to rub her hands together but could not lift them to do so.

Inside she was reeling.

Draco cared about her... had feelings for her.

Hermione lay on her pallet, thoughts keeping her awake.

Why?

Why did Draco have feelings for her? And since when? Was protecting her what had been doing on since the start? Had everything he had done to hurt her so far been to keep her from greater harm?

Hermione began replaying every event since she had arrived back through her head through the lens of protective action.

Her stomach grew tighter. Through that lens Draco's actions made sense. Draco and Snape's conversation in the kitchen made everything line up to the answer...the truth: Draco cared for her and what trying to protect her because he had feelings for her.

He was crying for you...

Her mind mulled over things.

How could she hate him?

How could she not?

Hermione's mind drifted to the days before when he had avoided her after the silencio in the bathroom. He cared... that was why he had looked so horrified at the spell her head to hit the wall. That moment was the only time Draco had caused her any harm without witness or cause. It was an accident... It had been an accident.

She needed to tell him that she knew...that he didn't have to keep avoiding her because of that or holding on to that moment.

You can't, she answered herself. You can't let him know that you know either. He's trying to protect you and it will undo everything if you do.

He has other moments he deserves to feel bad for, her mind countered. Like the one where he just tortured you.

Rational thought told her not to be mad at him for hurting her when he was only trying to protect, but the memory...the pain prevented her from distancing herself from what he had done.

You shouldn't hate him, one side of her said.

Yes, you really should, the other side answered.