Wow, I'm actually doing a fanfic that's not SS/HG. I almost can't believe it. It's going to be fun. : )
Chapter 1
There was noise. The crack of firing spells mixed with pain strangled cries and shouts pervaded the night air. The neon light of curses was so bright against the dark of the night that it was painful to look across the school grounds. The spells were surely brighter than they ought to have been. Hermione fought the urge to close her eyes as blast after blast assaulted her retinas. Her eyes burned and began to water, but she ran past the jets of color, knowing that if she stopped, she would die.
She wasn't sure what she was doing. On some level she was aware she was now operating on basic survival instinct. She had gotten separated from the group of Aurors and 7th year students defending the castle as the battle had spread across the entire expanse of the Hogwarts grounds. For awhile the two sides of the battle had been clearly distinguished, almost as you might see in a proper war, but now the fighting was fractured into dozens of smaller groups. There was still a larger group of Order members and their allies fighting on the steps. Hermione had to get back there. Good as she was with a wand, she wasn't daft enough to think she could survive for long on her own whilst in a veritable sea of robed Death Eaters.
So this was what true chaos was like. How many people were here? Five hundred? More? There was so much noise. And while it was deafening, the loudest sound Hermione was aware of was the beating of her own heart. Strange, the way human perception worked in life threatening situations. Hermione didn't have long to think about it, she felt the presence of something descending down on her and whirled around to see a group of Dementors swiftly approaching. It was as if she were a young antelope singled out by a pride of hungry lions because she had accidentally strayed from the safety of the herd.
"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" she shrieked, hoping against hope that her spell was enough to get rid of the five soul-sucking creatures. She had about half a second to think of a potent happy thought. Would the end of the year feast after Harry stopped Voldemort from getting the Philosopher's Stone do the trick? She really hoped it would. Sure enough, a bright and vaporous otter sprang to life and shot towards the Dementors. With bone chilling screams of rage the creatures flew away. Hermione's Patronus went after them and she didn't stick around to watch it fade.
Hermione continued towards the castle, trying her best to stay away from the flashes of spells. Neither side was holding back. Every witch and wizard was fighting with a no holds barred attitude that was truly frightening to behold. The power behind each spell was incredible as every person battled with every ounce of strength they possessed and then some. Hermione tried to look for a path that would take her to the front of the castle and she cursed herself for not being a few inches taller. It was hard enough to see in the dark, without having to be on a hair-trigger alert for fatal curses coming in her direction. And who knew how much time she had before the Dementors found their friends and returned to finish what they had started? She didn't think she'd be able to fight them off a second time, certainly not so soon after the first attack.
She had to get back to the castle.
But it seemed so far away.
She ran. Cold fear fueled her body and she visualized herself rejoining the main group. She had to believe that there was safety in numbers. Putting on a sudden burst of speed Hermione sprinted towards the school.
She was perhaps a dozen feet from her desired destination when a female figure stepped into her path. Hermione's heart clenched in sudden terror as she realized who the woman was. Bellatrix Lestrange.
Bellatrix smiled smugly. Her wand was aimed at Hermione's chest.
It was then that Hermione understood her mistake. She was severely winded. In her mad attempt at getting back to the castle she hadn't considered what would happen if she got caught in a duel. She had been running as hard as she possibly could and it had weakened her strength. What was worse was that Bellatrix knew damn well Hermione wasn't able to properly defend herself.
Hermione sucked air into her lungs, her chest heaving with exhaustion and more than a little fear. Especially after the woman had so recently tortured her.
Narrowing her eyes in determination Hermione forced herself to steady her wand hand.
"Crucio!" Bellatrix screamed triumphantly.
"Expelliarmus!" Hermione shouted as clearly and loudly as she could, desperately trying to block Bellatrix's curse. Her voice wasn't as strong as it would have been if she hadn't been so stupidly depleting almost all of her physical energy. She hadn't even realized how tired she was making herself. Somehow she'd thought the adrenaline in her system would be enough to get back to the safety of the group.
She was about to pay for that error with her life. Her spell was deflected by Bellatrix's curse, which given Hermione's current state had been the stronger spell of the two.
Hermione screamed in pain and nearly dropped her wand. While she was almost certainly dead anyway, she knew that to do so would be tantamount to actually giving the evil bitch permission to kill her. She clenched her hand around her wand and forced herself to keep her eyes locked on Bellatrix as pain assaulted her every nerve.
"What a lost little lamb you are, Granger!" Bellatrix exclaimed and laughed maniacally. "You won't be getting away this time."
Hermione glared at Bellatrix through her pain. And suddenly something was set free deep within the most primal part of her soul. It was rage so powerful and searing that it drowned out everything else with unbridled force. Even her pain.
Hermione straightened her spine and curled her lips in a feral snarl.
She was back in the fight. It wasn't going to be so easy to take her out.
Bellatrix's eyes widened a considerable degree at Hermione's sudden recovery.
"INCENDIARO!" Hermione cried, her eyes blazing with intent.
Bellatrix saw the roaring jet of flame come out of Hermione's wand and she quickly threw up a protective shield around herself. It went into place just as Hermione's fire hit it with a blast so strong it actually made Bellatrix stumble backward.
Then something happened Hermione hadn't expected.
A growing ball of light sprung from where her spell made contact with Bellatrix's and rocketed back towards her with such speed Hermione barely had time to run in the other direction. Although it didn't look like it was her spell firing back on her, she didn't want to take the chance and find out.
Unfortunately she didn't get much of a choice. She tried to dodge out of the light's path but in her haste she knocked into someone. Together, she and the mystery person fell to the ground just as the ball of light enveloped the two of them.
A second later the light was gone.
And she was on top of a very surprised looking Lucius Malfoy.
Her knee was digging into his right hip. It took her brain a second to process what was going on. She was more than a little shocked. Even more so when Lucius put his hands on her and moved her to the side.
She was lying on soft green grass on a hillside. Malfoy sat up and looked around. There was a big tree nearby and a steady breeze blew through its leaves. The sky was mixture of varying shades of grey. Sunlight seemed to be trying to poke through the clouds, but wasn't making very good headway.
Hermione's heart leapt all the way to her mouth as she saw that she had somehow dropped her wand when she'd landed. It rested in the grass a good seven feet away from where she was.
Lucius sighed and gave her a look.
"You won't be needing that here," he said, indicating Hermione's prone wand with his eyes. "Wands never work properly in Spell Pockets."
Hermione stared at him warily. Lucius rolled his eyes.
"Here, I'll just bloody show you, all right?" he asked, raising his wand for her to see. He pointed it at Hermione's wand.
"Accio Hermione Granger's wand," he said and did the appropriate elegant flick.
A dozen orange butterflies flew out of his wand and rose into the air towards the tree.
"See?"
"It could be a trick," Hermione said pointedly.
"Fine," he told her and reached across the grass to retrieve her wand. He held it out to her calmly. "Try a spell then."
Hermione closed her fingers around her wand and he let go, waiting for her to proceed.
"Lumos," she said clearly. Absolutely nothing happened. She even went as far as to try the spell a second time. The result, or more appropriately the lack thereof was the same.
Lucius gave her a perfect haughty I-told-you-so look.
"Do you know what a Spell Pocket is?" he asked her.
Hermione scowled, not entirely pleased to admit that there was something she didn't know about magic.
"I have a feeling that you're going to tell me," she said.
"Not such a Know-It-All after all, are you, Miss Granger?" he asked smoothly.
Hermione gave him an arch stare.
"You know I can't know everything."
"A Spell Pocket, Miss Granger, is a temporary rift in time and space created by two very powerful spells clashing together. There are two types, the common kind, which is what we're in, and the kind that hold alternate realities. As a rule, the common Spell Pockets are very unstable, as demonstrated by the irregularity of magic within them. Not much is known about those that are able to generate alternate realities. The Ministry has a whole Department whose job is to actually create Spell Pockets and study them. At any rate, for the moment, you and I are trapped here. Spell Pockets dissipate once the energies that created them settle closer to equilibrium. I suspect it will release us once the battle has cooled down and strong spell energies are no longer flooding the area surrounding the pocket."
Hermione took a half a minute to think about what he'd said.
"We're on precisely on Earth anymore, are we?"
"Technically no. We're in a pocket dimension that opens out onto the school grounds."
"A pocket dimension. You said it's unstable. Can it be dangerous?"
"The only Spell Pocket I've ever encountered was in a duel my second year of University. My opponent was an old Slytherin rival and we got a little carried away. The duel itself lasted over an hour and the Spell Pocket lasted only five or ten minutes."
"What did you see?" Hermione couldn't quite hold back from asking the question.
"A dome of rainbow light. It was more simple than this."
There was a stretch of a minute's silence.
"So we might be stuck here for hours?" Hermione asked.
Lucius leveled an icy stare at her.
"Forgive me if I don't thank you."
Hermione swallowed hard. He may not be able to do magic, but she was willing to bet that should he chose to he could damn well strangle her or snap her neck.
"I'm sorry," she said.
Lucius snorted. His expression remained hard. Hermione backed away, feeling horribly vulnerable under his cold gaze.
He looked at her and there was something in her eyes that made him soften his expression a degree.
"Be thankful you weren't trapped in here with Bellatrix."
Hermione's eyes widened at the thought. Lucius continued to study her curiously.
"Please," she said imploringly. "Don't hurt me."
Lucius arched an aristocratic brow.
"Do you think that's my intention?"
"Somehow I think you'd hate to pass up the opportunity to hurt Harry Potter's Muggleborn friend."
"Fortunately for you, I can't perform a killing curse right now."
Hermione didn't respond. It was evident that she was still very much afraid.
"You're not going to try to kill me without magic?"
"No." He sounded tired.
Not quite sure whether she should believe him, Hermione was just beginning to realize how exhausted she was from the battle. This place was pleasantly peaceful and she dearly wished she could bring herself to close her eyes, even if just for a few minutes.
If she weren't six feet from Lucius Malfoy, she would have considered taking a bit of a nap. But as it was she just didn't feel comfortable letting her guard down around the man, even if he couldn't do magic.
Evidently he had no qualms about settling down to rest. She watched as he stretched out on his back and actually closed his eyes.
Watching him only made Hermione more acutely aware of how tired she was. She stifled a yawn with her hand.
She would not let herself go to sleep in front of Lucius Malfoy.
If she did, it would surely be the most foolish thing she'd ever done.
She tried to stop herself from yawning again. She failed.
Maybe she just close her eyes for one minute . . .
Within ten minutes Hermione was sleeping next to Lucius. He glanced over and saw that she was next to him. He should have been disgusted by her presence. She had on Muggle clothing-blue jeans no less!-and her hair was in an abysmal state of disarray. Yet, oddly enough he couldn't quite summon the energy to feel repulsed at the moment. Perhaps later he'd be awake enough for Granger loathing. As it was he merely closed his eyes and let himself fall into a light sleep beside her.