A pause, before a resumption of anger in Malfoy's face and voice. "Fine then," he says, with dull resentment at having his hand forced. When he looks up at Hermione her stomach flips with fear-sympathy-sadness at the bleakness in Malfoy's eyes as he gives in to her. "Fine. If you must know, Goyle and Crabbe Sr. caught me trying to slip out to the drop point again. They stopped me, and in the course of escorting me back inside, said they wanted to take a turn at you," he says bluntly, his tone still flat and dull. "I told them that they could go fuck each other because they wouldn't be laying a finger on you, and unsurprisingly, they didn't take to that well."