HERMIONE GRANGER

"Ok so what the hell was all that about?" Ron's eyes glinted with intrigue as The Fat Lady's portrait swung swiftly closed behind us. "-Or am I the only one that doesn't have a bloody clue what's going on?"

"Ron's just jealous you got to hit Malfoy." Smirked George, and Fred added eagerly, "Yeah, we've all been dying to do it for years!"

As much as I tried to I couldn't share their joy, for I knew exactly what this meant. Something had happened between Mara and Malfoy, something bad.
-Bad enough to drive her from the safety of the manor, severe enough that she could no longer bear to face him, not even in Quidditch, so she'd cut off every point of contact she could.
-Bad enough that the one person who's touch she'd once sought after, sneaking from the dorms to go meet him in the dead of night, now repulsed her.

It had pained me to watch the way she'd blanched back at his hand, to see the hatred burning behind her eyes as she looked at him.
-But beyond the hate, there was hurt.

We had all turned when we'd heard her acrid shout echo through the hall, Fred quickly putting me down as we all turned to see Mara tear her hand from his grasp. "Don't touch me!"

"Then fucking talk to me!" He had hissed, eyes pleading with her in all the ways words never could. "You can't keep ignoring me forever Mara."

"-But I sure as hell try." And that's when it had happened, the moment she tried to walk away from him Malfoy had grabbed her, fingers curling tightly around her wrist like a manacle. Mara reacted instantly, her hand flew out and connected with the Slytherin boy's face, a sickening smack ringing out throughout the hall.

"Why don't you understand?" She'd looked as if she were on the verge of tears, her eyes glassy with all the unspoken secrets that echoed in the hollows between them, "I can't stand to even look at you anymore Malfoy, you make me sick... I hate you."

A few rogue strands of her thick raven hair fell over her face, and the flickering candles painted her in a light that was almost ethereal.
They were polar opposites, one Gryffindor, one Slytherin. One soft, one harsh, -cruel even.
One light, one dark, but both plagued by the same blackness that lingered just behind the veil of formality. Deep down they were one and the same, they just didn't know it yet, and if they did they refused to believe it.

Even I couldn't tell yet whether they would be the ones to finally, together, heal each others scars, or whether they'd each be the others undoing.

Malfoy grabbed her wrists at once, and for a moment I had been frozen, as he'd roughly pinned her to the wall, pressing his face so close to hers that I'd almost missed the hissing whisper that had echoed from his lips. "...Be careful Mara. I'm trying my best, but if you lay your hands on me again... God knows what I'll do...."

"Get the fuck away from her!" Parvati yelled, and it was as if my feet had suddenly remembered how to move as we ran over to them, and I wrapped my fists in the back of Malfoy's robes and trying to drag him away from her, but he refused to budge even as I yelled, "Get off her! What is wrong with you!"

A moment later he pushed himself away from her with a darkness in his eyes, a dangerous kind of ferality, a primality I hadn't seen from him before.
-She awoke within him a whole new world of sin, a whole new kind of beast that no one else could, and she was destined to make a sinner of him yet.

Mara Williams was his one true weakness, but in that fragility there was hope. The slightest glimmer of a future of salvation, his redemption. He tried to be gentle for her, he just didn't quite know how yet.

"That boy has some serious issues..." Parvati had growled at his back as Malfoy stormed off down the hall. Mara mumbled under her breath, tucking a stray stand of dark hair behind her ear, "...Tell me about it."

"-Fucking ferret freak!" Parvati yelled after him, but either he hadn't heard her or even if he did he didn't react as the last glimpses of white blonde hair and dark intent had disappeared behind the swell of students on their way back to the dorms.

"So how did it feel?" George said eagerly, his baritone voice pulling me from my thoughts as Mara replied rather sheepishly, sinking down into one of the seats before the fire, "How did what feel?"

"To slap the shit out of Malfoy of course!" Fred grinned devilishly, shooting me a sideways glance that lit my cheeks on fire with heat and I had to look away at once to swiftly stifle the flame. This wasn't right, it wasn't right that I felt this way. It wasn't good, it wasn't pure.

Mara stared down at her open palms, as if reliving the stinging sensation. "-Quite Good actually."

Ron leaned against one of the bookcases as he laughed, "My favourite part was when Parvati called him a freaky ferret."

"-You mean a ferret freak." I corrected instinctively and he rolled his eyes in response.

"Same thing. What was that about anyways?"

Parvati grinned, the scarlet fire reflecting off her dark irises. "Remember last year when Mad-Eye turned him into a ferret for being a dick to Harry."

• • •

Harry, Ron and I stood before the thick mesh of students, Harry clutching the key to the worn looking wooden chest tightly in his fist as he yelled, "Right, listen up you lot!"
-And it took a moment, but eventually the noise dulled to silence as thirty two dimly lit faces stared back at us. "Welcome back, and I hope you all had a good holiday... Today we're working with Boggarts, have any of you seen one before? Can anyone tell me what they look like?"

They remained silent, no one knew the answer or if they did they didn't dare speak. Harry turned to me with a small nod and I began, "No one knows the true form of a Boggart. They're shapeshifters and they take the shape of whatever a particular person fears the most, for instance Ron fears spiders."

Ron grumbled under his breath, probably reliving the time his Boggart had shifted into a giant spider. "Thanks for that." -And then Harry spent the next twenty minutes having the members practice the Boggart counter spell, Reddikulus, without their wands, before eventually he felt they were ready, and he ordered them to stand in an line to face the Boggart as he unlocked the chest.

Cho Chang stepped up first as a dog practically knocked Harry down as it leaped from the newly opened box. The size of a horse, it towered down upon her, pink lips pulled back in a snarl to reveal rows of cruel teeth as a ragged growl ripped from its chest. Fear shining in her dark eyes, she shakily lifted her wand at the snapping beast. "Reddikulus!"

A moment later the dog was gone, and in it's space sat a small green teapot, "Brilliant!" Said Harry, "Who's next?"

Next up was Cedric Diggory, who shot a wink to the crowd of girls behind him, all of which practically fainted at the sight, holding one another up as he stepped forwards, unsheathing his wand from the pocket of his robes. The teapot instantly transformed into a human form, one that I recognised to be Cedric's father, Amos, only now he was pale and flush with tears.

Cedric's fear was clear as he hesitated before before the sullen man. He feared the disappointment he now saw in every aching line of his fathers face, the betrayal, the hurt. "...My boy..." His father whispered taking a step closer, his voice ravaged by sorrow.
"-How... How could you?"

"Reddikulus!" Cedric said, but his words weren't enough. There was no felt behind them, no feeling except the hollow in his heart. Harry shouted him to try again, and this time the spell worked, red sparks erupting from the end of his wand to strike his father down.

He fell to the floor without a cry, his clothes tearing and his body shifting into that of a giant chess piece. A pale porcelain bishop, just like that of the giant chess game Harry, Ron and I had fought in the first year and Cedric's curled upwards into a small smile at the sight of his triumph.

"Well done Cedric!" Harry called, "-Mara? Are you going next?"

She looked up with a jolt as she was shoved forwards by an eager Parvati, "Oh yeah okay, I guess so..."
I could see it in her eyes, clear as the summer sky that she didn't want to do this, even now there was a glimmer of angst at the mere though of what she might see glinting in her emerald irises. What was she so afraid of? I wondered if she already knew the face of what fear would stare back at her.

"You know, you don't have to Mara." I said gently, "Not if you don't want to..."
-But she shook her head, as if trying to convince even herself that this was a good idea, "No, I'm fine. I can do it."

The moment she stepped before the bishop it contorted, writhing, thrashing within itself until all of a sudden it stopped dead, and she stood before her worst fear, a monstrous man, hardly even human. A being bound to the devil by The Dark Mark, sworn to serve through blood and pain and anguish. -Death Eater, Fenrir Greyback.

Mara was frozen, completely paralysed with terror as she stared up at the great mountain of a man. Her fingers trembled as she clutched her wand tightly in her fist, raising it slowly with a shaking hand.
-But when she went to open her mouth no words came out, only a quivering breath echoed from her lips. She didn't need to speak, her fright was written in every line of her devastatingly hallowed face, along with every secret she'd ever held.

Fenrir took a step towards her, cocking his head with a sickening smile. "Come on Mara." I said under my breath, "You can do this..."

But my words fell upon death ears, I could've shouted, screamed even, and she still wouldn't have heard me. A shuddering sob left her lungs as the fear overcame her and she fell to her knees before her worst nightmare.
She gave up, knowing that fighting was futile. What had he done to her? How had she been so beaten down by life, so completely and utterly set in her learned helplessness that even now she'd rather kneel before a servant of The Dark Lord than try to fight. Cruel hands, ones she'd felt the brunt of many times before reached out for her as she gave a small whimper, unable to even look him in the eyes.

"Reddikulus!" I cried, throwing myself before the beast to shield her from his claws, and for a moment I was weightless, for a moment he was no longer the Death Eater Fenrir Greyback, but the ghostly pale countenance of my mother, sullen and lifeless, before the Boggart shifted for the final time into the familiar face of Albus Dumbledore. Only now he wore the muted green robes of Professor McGonagall, even her feathered hat sat perched upon his grey head. The students burst out into deep roars of laughter at the sight of their Headmaster, but I had never felt further from joy.

"Are you okay?" I whispered, wrapping my arms her, holding her tightly to shield her from the other students, and I feared that if I let go she may shatter irreparably.
Mara didn't answer, she couldn't, her voice failed her just as her body had, and she was left with nothing. Only emptiness.

***
🤡RIGHT LADS LISTEN UP🤡
I've been thinking, if I made a Snapchat group chat for all of us would u guys be interested in joining? Literally like a fat fuck off group chat where we could all just chat shit and get previews to the next chapters n all that, if so lmk and add my snap, - mzyofrd (if u know me no u don't)
-TFOA