You Wouldn't Know

"Crucio!" Lucius yelled, his wand tip inches away from Draco's face. Draco felt as if his entire head would break open. His mind was screaming and it took all Draco had not to scream. The pain spread through his body, pausing at each of his body parts, letting the pain sear into every nerve. His legs were on fire and he dropped to his knees. He saw Lucius smirk as he held his wand in his confident hands. The wand was steady and Lucius showed no mercy. Draco knew it would last much longer, but he didn't know how long he could hold in his screams. Every part of him was burning and his small body shook violently as he consumed the pain. He had closed his eyes, trying to concentrate on anything but the pain. He didn't know how long he kneeled there under the Cruciatus but eventually the curse was lifted. Still trembling, he opened his eyes and looked up at the man he called his father.

"I see you've grown slightly stronger since the last time I saw you," Lucius replied, a glint in his eyes. "All the more fun. Since you can handle the Cruciatus Curse, we can more onto bigger and better spells."

Draco, doubled over on the ground, simply sat, not able to do much of anything else. He wondered what new curse his father would cast on him. He knew that it would be painful.

"I know. We can duel. That way, I can try out all my spells and see which one works best. But there is one little catch, to make it interesting. You don't get a wand. Now, stand up like a man. You can begin as a boy and go down a man. After all, any boy who goes down from me, is a man indeed," Lucius said with his usual drawl. Draco closed his eyes. With the last effort he had, he pushed himself into a standing position. He stood slightly unbalanced.

"Ready?" his father asked, not really waiting for an answer. Draco didn't move. He stood as proud as he could. Then the curses were thrown. He couldn't even hear what the curses. First, felt his left arm go numb, then his legs crumbled beneath him. The last thing he felt was the air pressed against his back as he fell back. He felt his head hit something hard.

He could feel himself drifting into unconsciousness but he tried to stay awake. His eyes were closed and his breathing was heavy. He vaguely heard Lucius step towards him and then the footsteps departed. His pushed his eyes open and found dusk upon him. With all his might, he pushed himself up and leaned against the tree trunk. His vision was blurry and he squinted to see the small path ahead. His head was spinning and he was getting a headache. He reached his scraped hand to his head and felt his head. His fingers met a warm liquid and when he pulled his hand away, his fingers were stained crimson.

He staggered out of the clearing. He dragged his feet; each step he took was death to him. He felt as if with every step he took, he was drifting more into unconsciousness. He struggle to keep walking, wanting badly to fall down and lay. But he knew the Forbidden Forest at night was a great threat, so he pushed himself forward. He finally made it the edge of the forest. By that time, he almost doubled over. He blindly ran into a bush but pushed himself further. However, that was the last step he took before the ground broke his fall.

* * *

Hermione stumbled to her feet briskly. She looked over at the still body and took off a run. She knew who it was, but she didn't care. She needed to help him. She skidded to a halt as she arrived at Draco. She threw herself to the ground.

"Draco? Draco! Are you alright?" Hermione asked frantically. She looked over the boy's body. A deep gash bled profusely down the side of his head. His arm was bent in an odd angle and his entire body was littered in scratches. All over his body were bruises and almost his entire body had blood leaking from it. Hermione swept her hand to her mouth and gasped. What the bloody hell happened?

She looked down at his face. His milky white skin was now stained red and his eyes were painfully still. She surveyed his features silently, and let a silent tear run down her cheek. Several more followed until the point where she couldn't stop them. Her first tear slid down her cheek and slowly dripped onto Draco's face. Then, Draco fluttered his eyes open. Hermione wiped her eyes quickly and whispered, "Draco? Draco! You're alive!"

"Hermione?" Draco saw Hermione's face streaked with tears. His vision was still blurry but he could clearly make out her face. It was then he realized his entire body ached. "What are you doing here?"

"I saw you stumbling out of the forest and then you just fainted," Hermione said, hastily trying to wipe the last of her tears away. "What happened? You look like hell!"

"I can't tell you," Draco said, sitting up. It was then some common sense was knocked back into him. It was Granger. He looked down at himself and discovered he did look like hell.

"This what happened last time in the forest, wasn't it?" Hermione said, looking at him with sorrow in her eyes.

"No, just leave me alone," Draco said, looking away from her. Now he was mad at himself for being so nice to her. Or maybe it wasn't so much being nice to her. Every look he stole at her made his heart twinge. But he tried his best to ignore it. He tried to push himself up. He stood up, wobbling. His head began to spin and his vision blurred. Then, as he took his first step, he collapsed again on the ground. He lost control of his body completely, and he couldn't even remember his head striking a rock behind him. Darkness covered his eyelids and his only sights were visions of a certain brown haired Gryffindor.