"I'msorry," Malfoy says in a rush anyway – as if he couldn't help himself, as if he had to say it for the sake of his sanity, and Hermione clenches her jaw, and bites back her hysteria and blind rage. It is not his fault, she tells herself, over and over. He is sorry because he didn't want to either, because he didn't want to hurt her; she understands that in her head, but it doesn't change how she feels. It didn't change how it felt. How...how everything is ruined and wrong and she feels filthy now, so filthy she'll never be clean again. How could she be? After that, after what he did. A woman swathed in an apron rounds a corner toward them, head down and scurrying and Hermione shrinks back behind Malfoy in a pointless search for protection.