The whip comes next – her choice, not Voldemort's – and Hermione tries to make Malfoy kneel again, but although she manages to wrestle him to his knees he collapses to the ground face first, unable to keep upright. Hermione doubts he can even really comprehend what she is ordering him to do. He is lost in the agony. And then she takes the whip to him, hard and furious, shaking with horror and nausea because when will this end? Please Merlin, please god, let it end soon. The blows split open the fresh scar tissue that criss-crosses Malfoy's back, and the blood trickles down thick and dark. His head twists back and forth as he shakes and tenses beneath the lashes, and the end of the whip snarls across his cheek halfway through and he screams.