Hi there, so this is my second attempt at a Harry Potter fic. I kinda dreamt this one up and decided to write it down and post it and hopefully hear what you readers think of it. Many thanks for taking a look at it.

Summary: What if the war had ended differently? What if Voldemort had survived and so had Snape?

It did, and both men survived. During the war Voldemort ordered all Mudbloods to be caught and taken back to Malfoy manor. Hundreds of them were caught. Muggle students were caught during the Hogwarts battle, and they too were taken to Malfoy manor. From there they soon found themselves taken to another facility. Here they are kept like prisoner's and are forced to battle one another or battle trolls, dragons or Death Eaters and all for Voldemort's pleasure. One of these Mudbloods is Hermione Granger and Snape is the one who is determined to set her free, if she can survive long enough.

Here the Mudbloods are also abused in other ways and Snape is given Hermione as a gift from Voldemort, as reward for being a faithful servant to him. Snape has no intentions of using the girl in such a way but as a relationship begins to from between them it could be something that happens anyway, only making him more determined to save her.

Disclaimer: Not mine.

Chapter 1

She sat there, all alone on the cold stone floor of the holding cell. She had her scrawny legs tucked up in front of her, her scrawny arms wrapped around them holding them in place, her chin resting on top of her knees. She was freezing and this was the only way she could try to keep warm in the tiny holding cell, not much bigger than your standard toilet cubicle.

There was one small window in the cell, but there was no glass in it, just bars. It was much too high up for her to be able to see out of, not that she wanted to. The bars across it offered no resistance against the heavy rain outside that was being blown in by the rough winds. She rested her whole face against her knees in an effort to shield it from the cold drops of rain the poured down onto her.

Her head quickly shot up at the sound of a loud and ferocious roar that came from outside. It was quickly followed by cheers and she knew this meant only one thing… the dragon was winning. It roared again and she ignored the cheers as she ran through her recently acquired knowledge of dragons. Another roar and she immediately knew what breed it was…a Chinese Fireball, also known as a LionDragon.

It was a very vicious breed, not to mention clever and very fast. The smooth scarlet scaled creature had a gold spikes around its face and its short snout resembled a hooked beak of some kind, on the beasts top jaw at least…all the better to crush you with…

The dragon was best known for the mushroom shaped flame it produced from its nostrils and from its mouth. The average length of the beast was twenty five foot, and the females were always bigger, however she had yet to see a small Chinese Fireball. They were as big as they were nasty.

She had only ever known two people who had defeated this particular Dragon. The first was Viktor Krum during the first Triwizard Tournament challenge, the other was herself. She had fought a small adolescent adult Fireball and had won by the skin on her teeth.

Another loud roar was followed by loud energetic cheers. She knew this meant only one thing. The Dragon had now won. Another prisoner here had died, another innocent Muggle.

As if suddenly remembering the room she was sat in she knew what was about to come.

"Bring on the next mudblood!" Cackled Bellatrix Lestrange's voice over a speak system, "The Granger girl!"

The crowd erupted into more cheers. The same way they always did when it was her turn. Hermione looked up as the wall in front of her began to rumble. She watched as the bricks folded in on themselves to create the door in which she had been pushed through what seemed like hours ago now.

"You're up!" a particularly hateful Death Eater said as he stormed in and grabbed a handful of her knotted hair and pulled her to her feet.

Somehow she was able to hold in her whimpers of pain as he pushed her forwards, never loosening his grip on her hair. She could only presume she was getting used to being manhandled in this way. It happened every time she was chosen, also when she wasn't. This was how everyone was treated here.

She saw the familiar tunnel door stood open just up ahead. Another Death Eater was standing by it, holding it open with an amused smirk on his face. The Death Eater who had a hold of her pushed her down onto her knees at the opening of the tunnel. He then stepped behind her and kicked her as hard as he could in the back. She fell forward, flat on her face in the muddy water that lined the bottom of the narrow tunnel.

"Break a leg!" The Death Eater holding the door open yelled right before he slammed the damn thing closed with a loud slam.

"You know he means it!" the other Death Eater shouted to her through the bars of the door.

Hermione took a deep breath before she pushed herself up onto her feet.

"Get a move on!" the Death Eater who was in charge of the tunnel yelled. He didn't give her a second to obey before he hit her in the back with a stinging jinx.

She yelped in pain as she fell back down onto her knees. The Death Eaters burst into laughter. Hermione could only listen to it as it echoed down the tunnel around her, taunting her. She pushed herself back up onto her feet, holding onto both sides of the tunnel in an attempt to keep herself upright.

"Get a move on, Mudblood!" the Death Eater in charge of the tunnel yelled at her.

She didn't give him the chance to hit her with another stinging jinx as she moved down the tunnel, her pumps becoming soaked by the water that splashed around her feet. She got towards the end of the dark tunnel and could see the daylight outside of it. It was a dull day, the sky was full of grey clouds and the rain continued to pound down, bouncing off the hard ground.

The moment the crowds saw her emerge from the tunnel they began to cheer. She looked up at the stands. Hundreds and hundreds of faces glared down at her. Not one person in the crowd liked her and the only reason they had come here was to see her killed in a battle. They were cheering to her death that they hoped they were about to see.

Ignoring the crowds she began to look around the battle arena. It changed every time, depending on what or who she had to fight. Today it would be the Chinese Fireball as her predecessor hadn't defeated it. This was how it worked here -whatever beast, wild animal, deranged Death Eater or other being that was chosen to fight was only changed once and if it was killed.

The battle arena today resembled some sort of rocky mountain side. She couldn't help but think it actually looked a lot like the arena that the contestants of the Triwizard tournament had fought in at Hogwarts. Merlin, she missed that place, she thought sadly.

She took another step forward and began looking around for something, anything she could use as a weapon against the Dragon. Here, they were very rarely given a wand to actually use in a battle and when they were it was one that barely obeyed their orders.

Hermione couldn't help but begin to shiver, she was freezing and the heavy rain that lashed down upon her, soaking her through to the bone only made matters worse. She was only wearing a thin pair of three quarter maroon coloured leggings and a spaghetti strap maroon t-shirt. Her sodden pumps were the same colour, a colour she despised. It was what they were always forced to wear, a kind of prisoners uniform, during a battle…all the better to see you…

She heard the crowds begin to cheer and knew they had seen something she hadn't. She felt the ground begin to practically shake beneath her. She slowly turned to see the Chinese Fireball flying towards her. She gasped the second she laid eyes on it. The average Fireball was twenty five foot long but this one was at least thirty five feet long.

Her sharp shiny white teeth still held remnants of her last meal, the previous prisoner. Hermione couldn't help but think that the Dragon still seemed hungry. Without giving the Dragon another look she turned and ran a few steps and dove behind a large boulder just as a mushroom shaped flame blew past her.

Damn-it she needed a weapon!

Her heart was pounding against her chest as she pushed herself up onto her hands and knees and crawled along behind some more boulders. She tried to ignore the booing crowds. They wanted to see her hurt or killed. This was all for their entertainment after-all.

The majority of the crowd was made up of pure blood families. There was even allocated seating for the VIP purebloods. Hermione had often seen the Malfoy's sitting in that section as well as Voldemort himself. He had his own sodding throne and his snake had one beside him.

Hermione was beginning to lose hope of finding a weapon, and also boulders to hide behind. She checked over the top of the last one she had available to hide behind and had to quickly duck down as flames came soaring at her face. She could feel the heat radiating off them and with the beast distracted, thinking it had caught her, she got up and ran as fast as she could.

The crowd began to yell, giving her escape attempt away. The Dragon swung its tail at her and it slammed into her at full force, sending her flying through the air before she crashed down, hard, on her back against the floor.

She gasped for air as the wind that had been knocked out of her began to very slowly refill her lungs. She managed to push herself up, ignoring the pain she was in. She fell behind another boulder just as the Dragon whipped its tail at her again. It slammed into a rock, shattering it and sending rubble raining down upon and around her.

She took another deep breath and jumped to her feet and began to run across the rocky arena. She had to jump over small boulders as well as keep ducking under the Dragon's flames. Twice, she had to dive over the Dragon's tail as it whipped out at her again.

The second time she landed hard on the rocky ground and went tumbling down into a shallow ravine. She had only fallen a few feet but the icy cold water she had landed in offered her no soft landing. She tried to push herself up but pain shot through her arm. She slowly held it up in front of her to examine the damage and was sickened at the gash that ran from her shoulder right down her arm and onto her hand. The blood was spilling from the wound and she knew the metallic smell would only encourage the Dragon.

She began to climb out of the shallow ravine. It was damn-near impossible with her arm in such a state but somehow she managed it. The crown began to boo upon seeing her still standing. She could only limp and fall behind another boulder as she heard the Dragon running towards where she was.

She was beat and she wondered if this was it? She'd been here for months and had won every battle she had been put into, barely. She knew this fact pissed the crowds off as well as the Death Eaters who helped run this place and of course Voldemort himself. So, each new battle she found herself in was becoming more and more difficult to win. Something she knew was being done on purpose. She wondered if finally the crowd and the others who wanted to see her dead would finally get what they wanted.

She was dizzy and she felt nausea creeping over her. She could only presume this was from the blood loss she was suffering. However, sheer determination to go out with a fight made her pull herself up to her feet, but the second she did the Dragon whipped its tail into her as if it had being lying in wait this opportunity.

She was sent soaring through the air again and landed with a much harder and more painful smack against the floor. Her head was spinning and she knew she was about to lose consciousness. Her arm fell out to the side of her, hitting something as it smacked down. She turned to see what it was and was shocked to see a long and sharp piece of wood beneath her pale hand.

Adrenaline began to pump through her system. She rolled over and grabbed the piece of wood in her hands. She rolled again, onto her back and held the wood upwards just as the Dragons huge jaws came crashing over her.

She was sure she was about to feel its jaws crush her but she was wrong. Instead she heard a sickening piercing sound. She felt like a bucket of warm water had been thrown down on her but as she opened her eyes she knew it wasn't water….

The piece of wood was sticking through the top of the Dragon's jaw which was opened up like an arch above her. She let go of the wood and crawled back, slipping and sliding in the blood of the dragon that had spilled onto her and onto the ground around her.

She tried to push herself up onto her feet but her body was completely drained. She fell back down, flat on her front, grazing her face against the rocky earth. The last thing she remembered was the crowds loud booing before everything went black.

It appeared she would live to try and survive another day of the Muggle Wars.

TBC

Thanks for reading. Please let me know if you like it and if you would like to see more.

Snape wasn't in this chapter but he will certainly be in the next.