Summary: When Hermione Granger is captured by Lord Voldemort's Death Eaters she is shown the other side of the war, hidden away in the Lestrange manor she finds herself facing fears she never knew she had.

Pairing: Hermione/Bellatrix

Disclaimer: I am merely borrowing from the amazing J.K. Rowling, I don't own anything other than what my wicked little mind comes up with. ;)

Timeline: So this story begins the day that Hermione erases herself from her parents mind, but instead of leaving right away she spent the night in the now empty house one last time before heading off with Harry and Ron (which leads her into this predicament.) So basically everything after that is what I'm going to be molding and playing with. :)

Authors note: Don't like femslash? Don't read! Please review if you'd like, and I am looking for a beta reader so if you're interested shoot me a note! So please stick around with me and enjoy!

"When written in Chinese, the word "crisis" is composed of two characters.

One represents danger and the other represents opportunity."

John F. Kennedy

Hermione Granger awoke with a start. Looking around her dark bedroom she didn't know what roused her from her slumber, but she was on immediately on edge. She sat up slowly, grabbing her wand from beneath her pillow as she did so and quietly made her way from beneath the false security the warm blankets created.

Moving silently towards the door she found herself remembering when she was a little girl, running into her parent's bedroom on dark moonless nights. Hermione's imagination would be running with the scary stories her playmates had told her on the playground the day before. Her father's strong arms and mother's comforting words would quickly make the fear go away and as she would snuggle down in between the two of them she would feel safe and protected. But on this night there was no running across the dark hallway into loving arms. No, her parents were now living down in Australia, completely unaware that they even had a daughter. A lump caught in her throat as she recalled the last moments she shared with her parents just hours earlier, unsure if she would ever see them again. As her slightly trembling hand reached out for the doorknob she pushed away the thoughts of her parents and opened the door.

Silence.

Peering out into the hallway she saw nothing, and decided to make her way downstairs. Walking barefoot she crept down the hallway, keeping her back to the wall with her wand extended. She quickly glanced into the silent bedroom that belonged to her parents and moved on when she didn't see anything, or anyone, in the now bare room.

She came to a stop at the top of the stairs looking down into the dim corridor that now seemed dark and foreboding. 'Come on Hermione, you can do this,' she thought to herself, 'it's probably nothing anyway...you can do this!' She told herself over and over in her mind, attempting to make herself believe it. She stepped softly onto the top step and began her decent, skipping the 5th and 2nd stair as she knew that they creaked.

Hermione stood still on the bottom step and listened, trying to hear anything that gave away the presence of someone in her house. The blood seemed to be rushing through her ears, creating a buzzing sound. She shook her head, trying to ease it. As her foot landed onto the plush carpet of the living room she debated which way to go. Towards the front door or towards the kitchen. Her feet seemed to make her decision, moving her noiselessly towards the open archway that led to the kitchen.

Moonlight filtered in, dimly illuminating the room in its pale glow. Hermione stopped in the open doorway, glanced at the clock, reading 1:27 AM. She scanned the room with her eyes and noticed that the walk-in pantry door was open slightly, and Hermione could clearly remember shutting it last night after grabbing out a pack of noodles for dinner.

Breathing shallowly she made her way towards the door, her shadow moved against the wall to her left it's disproportioned arm making its way to the pantry before she actually did. She stopped just before the cracked door, swallowing hard once, she reached forward and opened the door quickly.

Hermione barged into the small room prepared to disarm whomever, but saw no one. She heaved a sigh of relief and rested her head against one of the shelves stocked with food. It had all been over nothing. Hermione smiled slightly and made her way out of the pantry, securely closing the door and making sure she heard it latch.

Running a hand over her face she sighed and made her way out of the kitchen and trudged through the living room. She glanced around, looking at the many picture frames that lined the walls. Empty backgrounds, school yards, and group pictures all stared back at her. A strand of hair blew softly onto her face and she brushed it away almost absentmindedly.

And then she remembered that there should be no breeze coming through the closed up house. Hermione spun around, wand extended. Creeping quietly towards the front of her house Hermione could feel her heart pounding against her ribcage and she gripped her wand tighter.

Stepping into the mudroom that separated the main portion of the house and the front door, Hermione glanced around the small room before going onto the front porch.

Sounds of the night surrounded the young woman, small insects calling out in the night were woven between the hushed whisperings of the cool autumn breeze that danced amongst the trees that lined the street. The bright moon shone down into the quiet muggle neighborhood, but the houses and trees caused many dark shadows which now seemed ominous to Hermione.

"You should really be more careful when walking around at night," a male voice spoke softly, "you never know what sort of people are out this late."

Hermione spun around quickly. A tall, arrogant, figure stepped out from the shadow of the doorway she had just moments ago been standing in. Lucius Malfoy's cold silver eyes found her own hazel.

"Get off of my property." She said through clenched teeth. 'Why didn't I just leave today? Why did I feel the need to stay another night here? Stupid stupid stupid!' she berated herself mentally, raising her wand up threateningly.

"You shouldn't be so disrespectful to your elders and obvious superiors mudblood." He replied coolly, looking at her as if he saw something filthy.

"What do you want?" She spat, purposefully being rude.

"Oh it's not what I want," he smirked "more as what He wants...which is you actually. STUPEFY!"

"PROTEGO!"
The spell ricocheted off into the side of the house, blasting pieces of wood into their direction.

Hermione threw herself into the bushes bordering the edge of the porch, getting scraped by branches which tore at her soft cotton clothing.

"Incendio!" she cast the spell towards the area she saw the older wizard had thrown himself. She heard him gasp in pain and then a quickly muttered aquamenti.

She hurried to untangle herself from the bushes, which only lead to more of her clothing to be ripped slightly.

"Expelliarmus!" Hermione spun away from the red spell watching it crash into the ground next to her. "Expulso!" She sent the spell over her shoulder and ran out into the street not waiting to see if it worked or not. She saw lights turning on around the neighborhood and her mind briefly wondered how long it would take for the ministry to wipe all of their memories.

She ran across the street, behind the Higgens house into the alleyway. She spun around quickly, expecting to see Lucius behind her, but he wasn't and she didn't hear him running after her either. Perhaps her spell had caught him after all.

Breathing heavily Hermione leaned up against the fence trying to catch her breath. Her mind raced, there was a Death Eater in her little muggle neighborhood, how had they found where she lived?

A large gash suddenly appeared across her shoulder, for a moment Hermione was to stunned to understand what had happened, and then the pain hit her. Blood gushed out, drenching the old t-shirt and spilled onto the pajama bottoms. She clutched at the wound that went from her left shoulder to the middle of her chest.

She was losing blood quickly and as her knees buckled beneath her and she crumpled to the cold ground, her vision swam before her eyes. Pain racked her body and just before she fell unconscious Hermione saw two black eyes staring at her from the shadows.

TBC.
Reviews are highly appreciated!