CHAPTER 1

"After her! Do not let that filth get away!" A woman shrieked, and she recognized it at once. She felt sick knowing that if the woman ever caught up with her, she would be worse than dead.

From behind her, she could only make out the shadow of a hooded figure sprinting towards her, throwing curse after curse her way. Her legs slightly trembled as she had been running for a very long time, trying to escape. But she wouldn't let that get her caught. She was running for her life.

"Get back here! Avada Kedavra!" He screamed desperately, knowing that if he didn't catch up to her, he would probably die, his new leader thinking him not worthy of still carrying the Dark Mark. As soon as she heard the curse fly out of the masked mans mouth, she threw herself to the side, not bothering to check whether it was going in that direction since she knew that if she turned around to check, she would not have time to move out of the way. She could feel the force of the curse as it flew past her ear, missing her by inches.

She was running through Knockturn Alley, shooting stunning spells at the unidentified shadow behind her. She took her chances, pointed her 10¾" vine wood, with a dragon heartstring core wand at the Death Eater and screamed "Stupefy!" and hit him squarely at the center of his chest. She stopped running and panted, putting her hands on her knees and catching her breath when a green flash illuminated the alley way, temporarily blinding her before her eyes regained focus. Once again, using the reflexes she had gotten from running from Death Eaters with Harry and Ron a couple of months ago, she jumped to the side, watching a slither of green running past her eyes. She quickly looked at her attacker, and terror quickly filled up in her body, leaving her heart pounding with fear. In her long black robes, wild and stringy black hair, grinning like a madman and her hungry, hollow black eyes stood the figure of Bellatrix Lestrange.

"You won't run away from me this time! Crucio!" she cackled, her laugh a sick, malicious ring that was hidden behind joy. "You deserve what you get, you filthy Mudblood!"

Again, she started running, her wild brown hair bouncing on her back. Her chocolate eyes were wide open and eager, looking for a place to hide. "Stupefy! Expelliarmus!" she screamed as she turned back around, running into a road with three paths. Quickly deciding, she went down the third one, making an abrupt turn which nearly made Bellatrix run into the brick wall. "Get back you Mudblood! Crucio! CRUCIO!" Bellatrix grew impatient. She wanted to watch the little Mudblood squirm underneath her, getting what she deserved. The spells had completely missed her, so she kept on running down the path. Bellatrix screamed in fury, raging as she ran after the girl. She turned to point her wand at Bellatrix again, trying to scream out more curses. "Petrificus Totalus! Locomotor Mortis!" With the latter spell, she hit Bellatrix Lestrange on her right upper thigh. It instantly locked, which caused her to trip and fall on the stone floor with a loud thud. Her wand was knocked out of her hands, landing only inches away from her hand.

Bellatrix looked up, to see that the Mudblood had stopped to stare at her. Bellatrix looked around, her eyes setting down greedily on her wand. If she reached for it, she could finally take the Mudblood and torture her for hours on end, with not a care in the world. She grinned at the thought, and went to retrieve it. She noticed that she could easily reach it; she only needed to stretch out and maybe push a bit on her knees, to move across the concrete.

Realizing that Bellatrix was about to grab her wand, she pointed her own at the bony woman, aiming to knock it further away so that she couldn't do anything to harm Hermione. Once she caught Bellatrix, she'd paralyze her and apparate near Grimmauld Place, hoping the Order would finally bring justice to the madwoman. But before she could put her plan to action, a strong and wide hand reached over her mouth, pulling her into another alley way.

She felt a small kiss down her spine as the hand that had grabbed her was cold. She squirmed as she was slammed into a tall wall of flesh, trying to uncover the hand from her mouth. Her wand was taken out of her hand roughly as she felt herself getting pulled to a strong, masculine body.

"Granger, stop moving this instant!" she felt the hot breath trickle down from her ear to her neck as she was getting pulled further and further down the alley. She was sure she had heard this voice before, but now it was a huskier, deeper voice. Even though she slightly recognized the voice, she couldn't quite put a face to it. Where had she heard it before? And how had he known her name?

She still squirmed, frightened of the person who had grabbed her and pulled her away from the alley where Bellatrix had lay.

She felt the hand move away from her mouth, but before she could move, another one slithered around her waist. She looked down at it as she looked for a way to free herself from it. She took his arm and tried to push it away from her body, but it wouldn't budge. He tilted his head and put his mouth near her ear, making her shiver as a light sensation ran through her body. Why was she feeling like this in a situation that might be her death? She had always felt this when she was with Ron, and it always made her feel like she was near pure bliss.

"Granger, if you don't stop now your going to get us both killed. I would let you go but you might run away. But if you really want to die, I'd take the pleasure in killing you myself. So, are you going to stay here and be a good girl?" he hissed into her ear, feeling her shiver under him whenever his breath tickled her ear. Good.

"Who are you?" she retorted, her Gryffindor courage trying to cover the fact that she was scared of the intentions of the man who held her captive.

Typical. Even in the scariest situations, she still put on a brave face. But then again, that was one of the things he liked about her. She didn't show her fear for the minor things. She acted brave.

Groaning, he pulled her closer to him. He loved teasing her like this, even if it wasn't much, he knew that she would be flipping out.

"I think you know who I am, Granger. Don't tell me you've forgotten? Now that's too bad. How about I teach you?"

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw his pale blonde hair whisk out infront of him as he moved, then fall back. That hair was unmistakable, and could only belong to one person. Finally realizing who he was, she gasped and a hand flew to her mouth.

"Granger, I take it you finally figured out who I am. Now if you're good, you're going to listen to everything that I say, okay?" He sneered, kissing the sensitive spot near the back of her ear.

"Get off of me, you stupid git!"

"Mmmm….No" He chuckled, breathing back into her ear. A tingle shivered throughtout her body and she shivered.

She snapped back to reality. She was very happy where she was with Ron, and he was her best friend and boyfriend in one. He treated her like a princess, and satisfied her like one as well. He was also loyal, so she never had to worry about him running off with anybody else. Speaking of which, where was he?

"Ron! Come here for a second, I think I see… what is that?" Her voice shook at the latter part, dread quickly filling her body.

"Hermione, run. Now," he whispered back, slowly taking out his wand as he looked closer to inspect the shadows.

"Ron, stop! It's dangerous!"She whispered, now frantic.

"Hello? Who's there?" Ron called out, leaning down and moving slightly forward to see what the faint outline was, when a shriek echoed through Knockturn Alley.

"HELP ME PLEASE, I'VE BEEN KIDNA-"The rest off the woman's sentence was drowned out by her scream, and a hoarse laugh that rang through their ears.

They both started running towards the sound, eager to help the person who was being held captive. As they ran through Diagon Alley to get to Knockturn Alley, they didn't even notice that they didn't run into or see anybody on the way there.

As soon as they entered Knockturn Alley, they could see the drastic change. Instead of the clean, bright surroundings of Diagon Alley, they were surrounded by dark and high brick walls that caved in, making you feel claustrophobic.

As they rounded a corner, they started to hear the faint voice of a man, gradually becoming louder as they got closer to the source of the dying down screams.

Hermione and Ron froze when they saw him. The man to the far right stood pointing his wand at something they couldn't see, cackling. He wore a black cloak with a hood covering his face. He shifted his gaze off of the woman in pain, and turned instead to Hermione and Ron. His face covered by a mask. But that could only mean…

No. I mean they were all supposed to be in Azkaban! There was no way this man could possibly be a...a... Death Eater, could he?

"Oh, I see I have a bit of an audience. Enjoying yourselves, Granger and Weasley?" he had already stopped torturing the woman. "Well then, I think that this should keep you on the edge of your seat. Avad-" but before he could continue, Hermione had disarmed him and Ron snapped out of his trance and caught his wand.

"You don't want to do anything, girly" he sneered.

Hermione was boiling with rage. Who the hell did he think he was? He opened his mouth for the second time, but Hermione didn't want to hear it. She yelled "Stupefy!" before the man flew back into the air and slammed against an old shop.

Hermione looked around, checking there was no one else, then glanced at Ron. He turned to look at her too, before they turned around, running, to get out of Knockturn Alley, before coming face to face with more than a dozen Death Eaters. How had they gotten out of Azkaban? Weren't they supposed to be gone after the fall of the Dark Lord?

Before Hermione knew what was happening, Ron had pulled her away, sprinting as far as possible from the Death Eaters.

"Hermione! Come on, can you Apparate us out of here?" Ron panted, but still ran at full speed with Hermione, around the corners and down the paths from the dark alleys.

She turned on the spot, but found she couldn't Apparate. What the hell was going on?

"Ron, I can't! They've placed protective charms around here, so they're the only ones who can. How do we get out?"

"Hermione, run as fast as you can and don't turn back"

"Ron, what do you-"

"GO! NOW!" He bellowed, as Hermione whimpered slightly.

As soon as Ron said this, 5 Death Eaters appeared out of the corner, and Hermione ran down the nearest path, throwing curses down at the 3 Death Eaters that followed her. She knocked two of them down with two stunning spells, leaving one chasing after her. Then she heard the scream that wouldn't ever leave her thoughts in peace.

"After her! Do not let that filth get away!"