Pairing: Draco and Hermione

Setting: Eight years after Hogwarts

Rating: PG-13

Author: Vallierie

:: Chapter One: The Dark Lord ::

The rain pounded the pavement creating it's own melancholy song. Hermione was getting pelted with the droplets, flattening everything they came in contact with. Someone placed their hand over her mouth stifling the cry that wanted to spill from her lips. Her heart race quickened, her view was obstructed with the help of a black bandanna, and her captor pushed her erratically. She was captured.

"Have we heard anything from any of our Aurors?" Remus Lupin asked shuffling around the headquarters of the legendary Order of the Phoenix.

"Harry says that the Death Eaters are moving around Europe at a steady pace." Stevie Black, Minister of Magic, said reading it off one of her many unorganized papers.

"I don't know if we should trust her." Chloe Austin, an Auror, said.

"Why not?" Sandy Hawkins, another Auror asked.

"A twenty-nine year old Minister of Magic? Do you trust her?"

"Well it's easy to become the Minister of Magic when your favorite uncle nearly hands you the Ministry on a silver platter. Cornelius Fudge being your uncle has some major advantages."

"The whole Ministry has gone to the gutters. Almost fifty percent is under thirty-five now."

"Thanks to our wonderful Miss Black."

"We have Aurors traveling through out Europe." Lupin said sitting down at the table, a troubled expression on his already worn features. "Why are there still attacks on Muggle-borns then?" He ran his hand over his face.

"Remus, if I may." Albus Dumbledore interrupted. "Perhaps we aren't looking in the right places."

"We have people from the Order and people from the Ministry all over the place. How could we miss?"

"Hermione Granger was kidnapped in London."

Her heartbeat had quickened beneath her clothes. She closed her eyes beneath the blindfold. 'I will not cry.' She told herself fighting off all urges to spill her river of tears. She let out a jagged breath. She couldn't breathe. Air seemed like a distant thing. Air? Her breath was coming in at sharp intervals. 'What are these people going to do to me? Why are they kidnapping me?' Tears threatened to spill onto the blindfold. A loud pop was heard and a stomach-turning feeling caused her to feel nauseated. She was being shoved around and pushed into a chair. Ropes were tired around her wrists and ankles constricting her to her prison of a chair.

"Your watcher will be home in a few hours." An icy voice told her chilling her to the bare bone of her existence. She opened her mouth to say something but her voice refused to cooperate. She just nodded. She heard a door slam. She began struggling in her chair. The ropes cut into her wrists, she winced in pain.

"What are you doing here?" Lucius Malfoy questioned his only son from behind his cell bars in Azkaban.

"Getting you out of here." Draco said in a low voice as to not let anyone hear.

"Why? Not that I mind but you're risking your own life here too."

"No really? Thanks."

"Don't you dare get that lip with me. I am still older and wiser than you."

"Then how come you're the one behind bars and not me?"

"Why do you need to get me out of here? Did you slip up?"

"No, but the Dark Lord did. He's dead. Potter killed him eight years ago, when I was seventeen. Of course you were being thrown in here. But now the Death Eaters have decided that they need someone to take his place. That person is you. We need to overthrow Potter from his moment of glory. Or in this case, eight years of glory."

"Then stop wasting time. How do you plan on getting me out of here?"

"Very quickly." Draco wasted no time in putting his plan into action. Within just moments Lucius was walking around the Azkaban yards as if he was never a prisoner. Evil had escaped the clutches of the Hero once again and little did the protagonist know; it might be his last moments in the limelight.

"Did you kidnap a mudblood like I told you?" Draco asked the captor.

"Of course. She's in your room just where you told me."

"And you're sure she's someone that'll get Potter's attention."

"Positive." The Death Eater smiled.

"My father is taking control now. I'll make sure that the filthy little mudblood, doesn't get away." Draco climbed up the stairs of Malfoy Manor to his bedroom. The house was now his since his father had been sentenced to Azkaban and he had no intention of returning it to him at anytime. He walked into the dark room and sat on his bed watching the girl struggle around in her seat.

"You're only going to hurt yourself that way." She stopped wriggling.

"Why am I here?" Her voice quivered.

"Why do you think you're here?"

"Are you just going to ask me every question I ask you in return?"

"You're here, Mudblood, because you're the key to something I want."

"Which is?"

"Potter. He wants his role as the Hero to stay vibrant, this is his chance."

"Do you actually think he'll come for me? You are defiantly nuts. I haven't seen him in eight years. I doubt he knows anything about me anymore."

"But you two knew each other. Whatever bond you two held it's going to bring him here."

"Bonds fade quickly." Her mind was trying to place his voice to a face. "Why am I still blindfolded? I'm still tied to a chair, I'm not going anywhere." Her voice was strained and tired. Draco got up and untied the blindfold. Hermione blinked a few times adjusting to the light. She looked at the man sitting in front of her. His white-blond hair and crystalline blue eyes struck a familiarity in her.

"I know you." She said. He smiled a little.

"Do you? Who am I?" He was thoroughly curious to find out who she was and how she knew him.

"Draco Malfoy, you've always hated me. But did you have to kidnap me?!" She yelled struggling with the ropes around her wrists. They sliced into her drawing a small amount of blood.

"I've hated many people. You don't stand out to me."

"You don't recognize me do you?"

"No, can't say that I have."

"Hermione Granger ring a bell?"

"Granger? Perfect. Now I know Potter will come."

"You are a fool. Harry won't come."

"You're lying."

"I wish I were. Harry and I got into a rather large argument at Kings Cross in our seventh year. He hates me."

"Awe too bad there's so much history between you. He'll come." Hermione didn't retaliate. She knew he was right.

"Could you please take these stupid ropes off of me?"

"Why? So you can get away."

"Where would I go? I don't even know where I am so how can I get anywhere."

"You could figure something out. Now why did you two fight?"

"I'm not one for small talk, especially when it's about my personal life."

"You're going to be here for awhile. I'm all you got until Potter comes." She sighed disgustedly.

"If you must know I didn't want him to start Auror training because of people like you lurking around. He could have gotten hurt and I told him to go back to his Uncle and Aunt's house. Of course that was a ridiculous thought. Fortunately you people didn't touch him. Left him alone a little too suspiciously if I might add."

"We didn't want to draw attention to ourselves."

"I figured that. But why stay quiet for nearly ten years? Why not attack when he was the most vulnerable? Alone?"

"We needed time to come up with some plan."

"And this is what's taken all these years? How ingenious."

"Don't sass me. You're forgetting I control whether you live or die."

"You're forgetting you're only a bouncing ferret." His pale cheeks turned a light shade of pink.

"I don't have a problem torturing you."

"You won't."

"Why won't I?"

"Because you know how it feels to be tortured." He looked at her confused. "We all knew that your father tortured you."

"Don't talk about my father."

"I'm sorry."

"What have you been doing all of these years?"

"I'm not one for small talk Malfoy."

"Would you rather me just entertain myself by using the Crustacious Curse on you?"

"No, can't we just. not talk at all. You don't like me, and I don't like you."

"Well, Mudblood, You are in my room, in my house. I think I'm in control. I say what goes. We're talking. What have you been up to Granger?"

"If you must know I'm teaching at Hogwarts now. Defense Against the Dark Arts." He laughed slightly.

"Defense Against the Dark Arts? I see you're not doing that well at the defense part, otherwise you wouldn't be here."

"I can handle myself very well in these situations thank you very much."

"Can you? Then why are you the one tied to the chair?"

"Shut up Malfoy. At least I'm not a Death Eater. I'm not a criminal, you are. Who has the better end of the deal?"

"Why Miss Granger, you underestimate my career. Being a Death Eater does not mean that you're a criminal. It only means that you work for your boss no matter what the situations. Be it anything at all."

"Is being an emotionless wreck part of the job criteria?"

"I am not emotionless."

"Do you love anything? Do you feel anything but hate? Malfoy, you're not living. You just, are. You're never going to change, you don't even love your own family."

"I love plenty of things."

"Love of causing pain isn't one of them."

"I've changed."

"Nothing about you is different from Hogwarts is it?"

"Yes. Pansy, Goyle, and Crabbe are no longer apart of my life."

"Harry and Ron are no longer apart of mine."

"Two for two. You're a lot like me."

"I am nothing like you. You are the one thing I could live my life in a wedded bliss without."

"And you mine."

"I'm not like you."