I don't aim for this story to be very long, but I just couldn't leave it. I hope everyone enjoys it. I don't imagine this story will be too serious, or dark, but it has potential. I hope everyone likes it!

Harry Potter and the Labyrinth are not mine; I do not own them.

The setting is the Third year Hogwarts. Time Turning Hermione Granger has had enough of Draco's bullying of Harry's fear and fainting tendencies towards Dementors. Hermione, shortly after punching Draco, finds herself in the library.

If she thought about it and concentrated, she could still feel Malfoy's face colliding with her hand, and the burst of pride and confidence she felt. Her knuckles still ached from the contact, but she wouldn't take it back. She had thought later, that maybe there would be repercussions because of her act and she had thought about using the Time Turner that was currently hidden behind her shirt, but she didn't want to go to all that trouble. Draco deserved it.

She rolled her shoulders back and turned her attention back to the shelves in front of her. She was needing a book about ancient runes so she found herself in one of the oldest sections of the library. The smell of the books was all around her, and she couldn't have been more at peace. She leaned upwards onto her tiptoes and pulled a grey leather bound book from the shelf that had the runes in-scripted on the spine. She had just pulled the book from the shelf when a book fell from on top of it and hit her squarely in the eye socket. She let out a squeal of pain as she lurched back from the shelf, one hand flew to her eye while the other pulled the grey book down. Someone laughed at the end of the row and she turned to see a very smug looking Draco.

Amazingly enough, he was without his usual cronies. He looked normal without his left and right thugs behind him. Small even. His arms were folded across his chest. "Seems even the books have turned against you, Mudblood." The amount of vile putrescence that was leaking from his lips caused her hackles to rise. She almost growled at him.

"Yes, you're so clever." She spat. She bent down to pick up the offending book that struck her to see that it was a pretty little red book that looked hand bound. In gold letters, the Labyrinth, glittered up at her. She put the book on top of the other and turned to leave the aisle, to find Malfoy blocking the way.

"I'd be careful, Granger," He said, trying to look imposing, yet all Hermione saw him as was the crying boy that insulted Buckbeak. "There are more dangerous things than books around here."

"I'll punch you again if you don't get out of my way, Malfoy." She returned his scowl with one of her own. She also hoisted the books to one hip so she had a hand free to follow throw with her threat. His eyes darted from her to her free hand. He put a hand in his pocket, probably reaching for his wand. She didn't give him a chance to draw it however, as she took a threatening step towards him and raised her hand. He turned and fled.

She rolled her eyes as she returned to her seat, and plucked up the red book and started to read.

"What do you think he meant, about dangerous things?" Harry asked, his brow furrowed in thought. Hermione looked up from her little book at him next to her on the couch in the Gryffindor common room.

"I imagine he pulled the threat out of the air. Just trying to scare me. But he didn't seem so sure of himself when I moved to punch him again." She tilted her chin up just a little in pride. Pureblood supremacy her ass.

"I think it would be pretty smart if you stopped doing that, Hermione." Harry looked concerned at her for a second, "I mean it was great and all when you did the first time. It caught everyone off guard, but he won't just leave it alone, he's too prideful of a person. You're lucky he was by himself in the library..."

"Oh please, Harry. I am not helpless, nor am I scared of Crabbe and Goyle." Hermione shut her book after placing the ribbon page-keeper on the page and she turned her shoulders to look at him. "I am sick of how he has treated us since we started school, and now him and his father are giving Hagrid and Buckbeak all that trouble for something that Malfoy did! He is a smarmy git and I will not place nice with him when he will not pay the same courtesy to us!" Now that she had herself completely worked up, she got to her feet and took the little book with her. Her school work this week had been amazingly light so she was not concerned with it at the moment. She took her book and went to one of the lesser used study halls on the third floor.

She sat on one of the benches by the fire and opened the book back up to her page, her eyes instantly finding where she last left Sarah.

"Give me the child...Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered I have fought my way here to the Castle beyond the Goblin City to take back the Child that you have stolen. For my will is as strong as yours, and my Kingdom is as great. You h-"

She had been absorbed in the reading so she hadn't noticed the approach of several footsteps. The book was wrenched from her hands by a thin and pale hand. She lurched to her feet and drew her wand but someone behind her gripped her hand and wrenched her wrist so the wooden weapon fell helplessly to the floor. She reflexively kicked out behind her and heard a grunt of pain, though another person grabbed her in a bear hug. The arms were thick and tight and she had no hope of struggling out of it.

She was turned to look at Draco, as he leafed through the book. He looked smug, but also at a loss for what to do. Hermione didn't stop struggling, grumbling for whoever had her to let her go. In the open doorway of the study, she saw Zabini and Nott standing causally in the doorway, keeping an eye out. Draco got bored of the book and turned to look at her.

"I told you there are dangers." He said, and she rolled her eyes.

"Yes, you must feel so superior right now; three against one. You can tell the entire school how you managed to overpower me and everyone will see you for what you are, you pathetic inbred!" Hermione spat at him, he wasn't expecting it and with alarm, wiped the bile off his face. He took a dangerous step towards her, his hand sailing through the air.

She felt the slap, but didn't fully process it until she saw the...shock on Draco's face. It seemed like he hadn't meant to do that. She felt the sting now. She blinks several times to get rid of the tears that welled in her eyes-just because of the sting of the slap.

"Draco. You said nothing about-"

"Shut up Nott!" Draco growled over his shoulder. Draco composed himself and adjusted his robes. "This Mudblood needs to learn her place. She is never to lay a hand or spit on someone who is far superior to her."

"You have a skewed sense of superiority. Outnumbering me, slapping me when I am defenseless. I'm surprised your parents raised you to be so despicable. I may just owl your mother and see what she has to think about what you've done."

"You hit me first!" Draco shot back at. Was that alarm in his eyes?

"And you had every avenue available to do something about it. And you chose to run! You coward! That's all you are!" She had her Gryffindor bravery to thank for the second slap Draco delivered, because of her riling him up. He hit the same spot as before, this time her head pitched to the side.

"Draco!" Zabini spoke up this time, a sense of warning in his voice. Draco shot him a glare over his shoulder before turned back to Hermione, who had a tear track down her face on the side he had slapped.

He seemed to be memorizing the defeated look about her. He looked over her shoulder briefly and nodded. Whoever had a stone grip on her pushed her harshly to the ground and she immediately reached for her wand. It was kicked away from her and the same leg that knocked it away pushed her down to the ground. She had to hurriedly put her hands on either side of her head to stop her face from crashing into the stone floor. By the time she picked herself up, the Slytherin's were long gone.

Hermione started grumbling to herself as she picked her wand up from the floor as well as The Labyrinth from where she dropped it. She looked at the cover as she wiped her face free of unbidden tears and sat heavily on the bench. He was such a prat!

She angrily looked at the book and grumbled, "I wish the goblins would come and take Draco Malfoy away, right now."

She didn't go back to the common room immediately, she didn't want them to see her as she was, and instead went to the lavatory nearest the common room and sat in one of the stalls with her head in her hands. She should have been able to defend herself better! She should have been paying more attention to her surroundings and hadn't let herself get jumped like that. She gingerly touched her cheek and winced at the throbbing pain that greeted her. She'd have to get that bastard back somehow.

After a while, she picked herself up off the toilet and went to the mirrors. The redness had faded and the only reminder she had of it was her bruised confidence and a faint shake in her fingers. She went to the common room.

She found Ron and Harry alone in the common room, sitting over the table in front of the fireplace. "What is it?" She asked, recognizing the Marauder's Map.

"Funny thing, really," Ron sounded pissed off, not amused, "that after we watched Malfoy and his cronies leave you by yourself on the third floor..." They trailed off and looked up at her, scrutinizing her appearance. They saw that they had been in the room, but not what actually happened. "And they were fleeing to the dungeons like the snakes they are...when Malfoy's name disappeared from the map." Ron and Harry both folded their arms across their chests at the same time, like they rehearsed it.

"What? That's impossible." Hermione's eyes widened and a strange sense of guilt flooded over her. Had what she said had anything to do with it? Harry and Ron arched an eyebrow at her, again in synchronization.

"It's what happened. They seemed to realize something was amiss by the end of the corridor and turned around and started going into all the rooms nearby. Which means..."

"He had to have vanished there as well. Now, I mean the git absolutely deserves it, but...what do you think happened?"

"You don't think Sirius Black had anything to do with it, do you?" Ron asked, though Hermione rolled her eyes at his denseness.

"He would have been on the map, then." She pointed out, causing Ron to frown.

"Oh yeah." Hermione chaffed her hands against her upper arms and started walking towards the girl's staircase. "You guys can keep looking at the map I guess. I'm going to bed, I am worn out." The both responded noncommittally and leaned back over the map. Hermione felt panicked as she walked up the stairs.

"I didn't mean it! Not really..." She was muttering to herself as she walked up the steps. "The boy is horrid, but I couldn't be that selfish. I mean, it's impossible for what I said to have actually..." She trailed off as she walked inside the 3rd year girl's dorms. None of the girls were in yet, which was odd, because it was getting rather close to bedtime. "I couldn't possibly have wished him away."

She continued to mutter to herself as she folded her school cloak and removed her jumper and tie, leaving her in the button up, skirt, and shoes. She sat down to take off her shoes when movement at the window drew her attention. It was a white owl. She got back up to let it inside when the window flew open. A gust of air and what appeared to be glitter ushered in the owl yet as soon as the owl reached the center of the room, the owl became a man with white hair, multicolored eyes, leather pants and boots, a pendant, and a smirk.

"What? No. Impossible. The book was a work of fiction!" She barked, her eyes hardly comprehending the man that was before her. His laugh was absolutely musical. He produced a crystal orb from the air and started to play with it in his hands. With her eyes trained on him she leaned over slightly and picked up her wand.

"Hermione Granger," he said in his laughter. His voice was just as melodious. "You wish away a very deserving boy and yet you regret it." He shakes his head faintly. "My dear, I have done you a favor."

Hermione who still can't process anything at this point rubs her cheeks with her hands, her eyes still glued to him (no man should be able to be inside the girl's dorms! Hogwarts; a History says so!) "It's-not-I had no-you can't just kidnap people when someone wishes it!"

"Is it so bad to have a wish granted?" He asked with a tilt of his head. Hermione puzzled over his words for a moment, remembering herself as the unpopular and lonely child that she was that wished for something grand and then discovered she was a witch...

Of course then she pictured Dumbledore having to tell Draco's parents that he has disappeared without a trace from the school. Lucius would have Dumbledore lose his job, and the Malfoy's would lose their only son. Hermione felt the weight of her selfish wish and suddenly shook her head.

"No. You have to return him. He will have learned his lesson, surely. Just by...being taken. Please, Goblin King," how absolutely silly she felt using that name, "you have to return him."

"What's said is said." He folded his arms across his chest, the crystal orb now gripped in his fist. "I will give you a gift," he smiled and offered out the crystal.

"What-?"

"This will show you your dreams." She looked at it and felt drawn to it, and yet she remembered the Mirror of Erised and what Harry said it did to him. How he only wanted to look at it. Hermione shook her head and refused to be tempted by it.

"No. Malfoy needs to be returned where he belongs; here at Hogwarts." She set her jaw and caused him to look around for a moment.

"Go back to your friends, your studies." He encouraged her, taking a few steps closer to her, "and forget about the boy. He won't be able to harm you where I have taken him."

"Where have you taken him?" She asked, without realizing it. This conversation seemed to mirror the book.

"My castle, of course." He gestured over his shoulder and out the window. She gazed at the Labyrinth that surrounded the Goblin city and the site took her breath away. He chuckled and stood next to her.

"Your life will be better with him gone. He torments you so." His gloved finger brushed her cheek where Malfoy had slapped her and she leaned away from the contact.

"It doesn't matter. I will feel guilty, forever."

"Forever is a long time, my dear." He whispered quietly. She suddenly realized that they weren't standing in the dorm room any longer and were instead in a clearing of red clay, yellowing plants, near the outer wall of the Labyrinth.

"You shouldn't defy me," he said gesturing to the world around him. His movement brought her eyes upon the castle in the center of the Labyrinth that she could just barely see.

"Just return him. That is all I am asking," Hermione turned to look at him.

He closed his eyes for a moment, "turn back before it is too late. Forget about your schoolyard bully."

"I can't." She replied quietly, her hands curling to fists. "I can't. He doesn't deserve it."

"What a pity," he sighed. "You have thirteen hours to solve the labyrinth before your tormentor will become one of us forever." His voice seemed to carry away and when she looked back at him, he was gone. With a widening of her eye, she turned and walked towards the Labyrinth's wall, missing her friends.