Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. (Or his various friends and enemies.)

He wasn't stupid. He knew he was being used - a punishment, if you will, for failing the task set to him the previous year. But that didn't stop the horror of what he was forced to watch, what he was forced to do. They mostly blended together, now, in his memories, with the Dark Lord or Aunt Bellatrix or even him raising the wand and shouting. Never anyone who could defend themselves, no, always Muggles or Death Eaters who volunteered themselves for punishment. But this was the worst one yet.

Later in life, when he crossed paths with a Dementor, along with the vision of the Fiendfyre claiming Goyle's life, he would hear her screams. Somehow it hadn't seemed real before this, watching the unfortunate faceless writhe in pain and scream out in agony. All of the sudden, though, now that he had a name attached to the face, and a history...it was very, very real.

He had never liked Granger much. She'd been outperforming him in classes ever since the first day, something that wasn't supposed to happen to a Malfoy. Add that to the fact that she was a Mudblood, and his loathing increased tenfold. Add that to the fact that she was constantly hanging onto Potter, and his loathing was almost indescribable. But seeing her thrash about on the ground... Before last year he wouldn't have had any objections. He may have even enjoyed the spectacle. But, now, somehow, it seemed wrong.

He felt like he should be doing something. Even if Slytherins weren't idiotically noble and brave, they weren't completely callous. Even to Mudbloods. But he wasn't stupid either, and saying anything now, in the presence of his mad aunt, would go against the strong sense of self preservation he had also developed in Slytherin House. So he stayed quiet and watched Granger suffer, watched Bellatrix threaten her, listened to Weasley scream in the basement.

It was a scene that he remembered with disgusting clarity for the rest of his life.