Chapter One. Crawling in the Dark

Hermione opened the door to her bedroom and looked around. She was seventeen, about to turn eighteen, and lived in her parent's Mansion. Her parent's had died a two years before by Voldemort. He had used the killing curse on them, and was going to use it on her when a hooded figure aparated her out of the circle of Death Eaters.

~*~* Flash Back *~*~

Hermione was sitting on the ground, tied up and gagged. She watched as four men brought in two crucifixes, her mother on one, and her dad on the other.

"Mom!" Hermione tried to scream to her parent. "Dad!" They looked at her and Hermione tried to speak to them.

"Shut up, Mudblood bitch." A near by Death Eater hissed at her, kicking her in the stomach. Hermione gagged on her gag, and doubled over in pain. She rolled into a ball on the ground, trying to drown out the excruciating pain.

She looked up to see her parents mounted into the ground and firmly planted in. Hermione looked around her surroundings and noticed many other crucifixes, skeletons hanging from the metal chains. Hermione looked panic stricken at her parents, but they seemed not to notice the other victims of the psycho path by the name of Voldemort.

"Ah, finally. I finally get to meet the parents that have spawned the cleverest witch Hogwarts has ever seen, or even heard of. I just want to tell you how proud you should be." Came the voice of Voldemort as he walked out form the shadows near a large house. 'The Riddle House' Hermione thought.

"We are very proud of our Hermione." Mr. Granger stated. Mrs. Granger complied with a nod.

"Good, good." Voldemort said, nodding. "Lucius!" he called. A hooded figure walked forward and kneeled before his Lord. "I will give you the pleasure of torturing Mrs. Granger." Voldemort said.

Hermione's eyes turned into brown slits, her hair seemed to stand up on the back of her neck, her eyes grew alive with flame, and her pain started to quickly go away. She pulled at her bindings, as quickly as possible, and got free. She laid down on the cold ground, just to make sure she wasn't going to blow her cover and watched as Lucius walked over to her mom. He stood in front of her and looked her up and down. He smiled wickedly at her, but she kept her guts and glared at him.

"Crucio." Hermione's mom was frail and weak. She had the bad attitude of a grizzly bear, but was as soft as a kitten. But attitude won't do too much in this department. Her mother screamed and closed her eyes, blocking out her screams, and trying to drown out the pain. Lucius removed the curse and her mother breathed hard. Hermione looked over to her father's limp form, and noticed he wasn't moving, at all. Hermione felt herself start to cry. She looked back over to her mother and saw Lucius point his wand at her mom's head.

"Hermione! Baby, go! Get out of here! Go!" Hermione's mom yelled. Hermione stood up and started to run. She ran through the cemetery and behind the house. She looked around and her vision welled up in tears when she saw the bright flash of green against the white painting of the house. Her eyes caught something silver and she ran over to it. It was an axe and a piece of sheet medal. 'Odd. But this will have to do' she thought with a sigh. She whipped away her tears and turned around and started to run.

"Avada Kedavra." She heard someone yell. She did a roll and it missed her and hit a tree. She started to run into the woods behind the house, but someone started to walk out of the trees. Two people actually. One was bigger than the other. He was a bit large and he was around 6' 5". The other was only 6', but Hermione couldn't see their faces for they were covered by the hoods. They reached for Hermione's arms, but Hermione was faster.

She hit one of them in the head with the back of the axe and shoved the piece of sheet metal though the other man's stomach. She kicked both men and they fell to the ground in heaps. She turned around and fell to the side because one of the other Death Eaters had shot a killing spell at her head. She rolled into the woods and picked up the wands that the two Death Eaters dropped when she dropped them. She pointed one at Death Eater each, and fired a killing spell. They shot out of the wands and hit the two men. Or women. (A/Q: Are women aloud to be Death Eaters?) Hermione ran into the middle, throwing random spells in different directions, but the hooded figures seemed to multiply by the second.

They were surrounding her all around now, and they weren't getting any less. Hermione still used the spells. One of them grabbed her arm and hugged her to him. All of a sudden, she wasn't in the middle of the group. Instead, she was in her bedroom, the person still attached to her. Hermione then was hit by reality. Her parents were dead, she was all alone in the huge house, besides the butler, Donald. Hermione burst into tears and her knees buckled. She fell against the person who was holding her. She didn't care if it were friend or foe, she just needed to cry.

"It will be OK." Said the voice. It was male and sexy. Hermione turned around to see that he was a Death Eater. She back away and into a wall, she was starting to slide down it, but the boy grabbed her arms and held her up.

"Get away!" she screamed. He pulled her to him and hugged her. "Just get away." She whispered.

"I'm not going any where until you calm down." He said. She rested against him and he hugged her tighter and started to rub her back.

"Thank you. I think." Hermione said after ten minutes.

"You're welcome. I have to go. Keep low, and use some spells on your house, I think that Dumbledore and the ministry will allow you to. Good luck, Hermione." He said, then apparated out of her room.

Hermione ran down the stairs to Donald's room. She pounded on the door and he walked out in his night robe.

"Hello Hermione." He then noticed her tear stained face. "What's wrong?" he asked. She started to cry again. He held her in his arms as she cried.

"Voldemort. . . killed. . . mom and. . . and. . . dad." She managed. Donald gasped and looked Hermione in the eyes.

"Are you sure?" he asked. She nodded and started to cry, sputtering and muttering incoherently.

"It will be ok, Hermione. It will, I promise." Donald told her in her ear. Donald was around forty and had been Hermione's best friend almost all of her life. Donald was now her legal guardian because her parents had put in the will, which they had sent the day before, saying that if they died, that Donald would care for her, but Hermione would get all of the money, the house, and everything else. They told her that Donald got the greatest thing they could ever give anyone. Her.

"I. . . ." she tried to speak, but she couldn't. She rested her head back on Donald's chest and cried.

~*~* End Flash Back *~*~

Her parents had always been there for her. Her mom had taught her different languages, and how to use different things in place for supplies she didn't have. Like, rope and bullets.

Her father had taught her everything she needed to know about ancient artifacts and which ones have curses and such. He taught her where to look for the tombs, and all about how to use weapons, like swords and guns. Hermione owed a lot to her parents, and she had revenged their deaths. She had killed Lucius Malfoy and she had made sure he suffered. Just like her mother. It all happened a year back.

~*~* Flash Back *~*~

Hermione put on a dark scarlet robe that covered her face. She had put on red lip stick and eye-shadow. She painted her nails black and put on black leather pants and a scarlet halter top that showed her stomach. She finished it off with black combat boots and then put on the robe. She grabbed her wand and pocketed it.

She opened the door to Malfoy Manor and stepped inside. She walked lightly down the hall and listened for any movement. She didn't notice the person walking behind her. She walked past the kitchen, but didn't see anyone, same thing in the family room and all of the bathrooms. 'Now for the bedrooms.' She thought.

Out of a dark corner, someone's hand clapped onto her mouth and one around her waist. The person pulled her into the corner and held her there until she quit struggling. She was about to kick him in the nuts when she noticed something. That body felt so familiar. Like the person had held her like that before. She flashed back to the night her parents died and noticed that this person had saved her from all of the other Death Eaters. He let her go and she turned around, her hood still up.

"Malfoy." she sneered at the youngest Malfoy. He put a finger to his mouth to indicate that she should be quiet.

"Quiet Granger. You tripped the alarm." He said to her, replacing his arm around her waist.

"You know who I am?" she asked. He nodded and held her a bit tighter.

"You felt familiar, even with that robe on." He informed her. Hermione nodded and rested her head against his shoulder.

"Where do you think they could be?" came a voice.

"Check every where! All of you! When you find him, send him to my office. I will deal with him there." Lucius Malfoy's voice came from down the hall. Hermione could see his shadow in a door way, and she smirked. Five men ran from the room and down the hall, past her and Draco, and down a flight of stairs. She watched, and listened as the door to Lucius' office closed. She smiled wickedly.

She elbowed Draco in the stomach and then punched him in the face. He was instantly knocked out and he fell to the ground.

"Sorry, dear Draco." She whispered to his unconscious body. She bent down, gave him a kiss on the cheek and walked down the hall and knocked on Lucius' door. She heard foot steps come closer to the door and she lifted her wand.

"Did you find . . . ?" but his sentence was cut off when he saw her. Hermione smiled evilly at him, and he saw it. Fear flashed through his eyes, but it was quickly shot off and replaced with no emotion. She whispered the first spell that cam to her mind.

"Crucio." She hissed. He fell to the ground in pain. She could tell he tried to scream or yell, but he couldn't. She smiled at that. She kicked him and he rolled farther into the room. She stepped in and closed the door behind her and locked it with the strongest spell she knew.

"Well Lucius. You're stupidity will cost you your life." She said, ending with a mock sympathy sigh. He looked up at her, blood coming from his mouth and nose.

"Who are you?" he asked her.

"Why do you want to know?" she asked, circling him, her wand pointing at his head the whole time.

"Because I want to tell my son in my ghost form who killed his father so he can go after you." He explained.

"Too bad. I don't think he'd care, and I don't want to tell you." She told him, smiling evilly at him again.

"Are you a Death Eater?" he asked. She levitated him into the air and put him in a bind so that his head could only move.

"No. Why would you think that?" she asked. She knew why, it was because of her robe. But she had always liked the whole cloak too big for you, idea. It made you mysterious.

"Just guessing." He replied. Hermione was going to put a silencing charm on the room, but she wanted anyone who was in the house to hear him scream. 'Like a sissy' she thought.

"Well, I hope that's your last guess, because I am going to have more fun. Maybe, kill you, but not before I torture you. Maybe a bit of bleeding until you die, or nine tailed whips, or knifes, or-" she smiled evilly and looked at him, her eyes and smile all filled sinisterly," castration." She finished. His eyes widened and he tried to get out of the bindings.

"You will not get away with this." He hissed at her.

"Good." She said. She walked up to him and stuck her wand an inch from his face. "Stercio." She said. A knife popped form the end and the tip punctured his fore-head. He yelped in pain. "Diti." She said. The knife continued to eject itself form the tip of her wand.

"Stop!" he yelled. It continued its journey through his fore-head.

"No," she said with a sigh," I don't think I will." The knife had made it to the skull and was slowly puncturing that too.

"Enough!" he screamed.

"Nope." She said simply.

"Please!" he said. Hermione instantly dropped her wand and turned around to see Draco flying out side the window.

"Well, hello Draco. One second." She turned back around to face Lucius. "Good bye, Lucius Malfoy." she said. She put down her hood and put her wand to his heart. "Avada Kedavra." She bellowed. A blast of bright green light filled the room and when it subsided, Lucius' body fell limp. Draco flew through the window and stood next to Hermione.

"Why'd you do that!?" he asked, grabbing her arms and shaking her violently.

"I was revenging my parents' deaths." She replied simply.

"By killing one of my parents?" he asked harshly.

"Look at it this way, you inherit all of his money, you get the house, and no more beatings." She said. His eyes got just a bit smaller.

"How do you know about that?" he asked her, shaking her more. Hermione, who wasn't scared too easily, but she was freaked out. VERY freaked out.

"I am the best friend of Harry Potter. Dumbledore told us." She said in a small whisper. "I'm sorry about your mum." She stated. She knew that Lucius had beaten Draco's mother to death, and then moved on to Draco. She cast her eyes down-ward. She wasn't going to fight him back, she was going to take what came to her.

"Well, thanks." He said, loosening the death grip on her arms a bit. "Now, get the hell out of my house!" he yelled at her. Hermione gave a frightened yelp and jumped out the window. It was four stories high, but she knew a small spell that would let her glide. She glided to a near-bye tree, and landed on one of the thick branches. She floated down to the ground and headed off of the Malfoy premises on foot.

~*~* End Flash Back*~*~

Hermione walked out of her room and down the stairs.

"Good morning, Donald." She said to her butler, who was sitting at the counter, reading the news paper and sipping some coffee.

"Coffee, Hermione?" he asked her.

"Yes. That would be great." She said, sighing and resting her head in her hands.

Her last year of Hogwarts had ended two months before. She had raided four tombs and almost got decapitated three times. The last raid wasn't too exciting. Just a few rounds of bullets and some scratches here and there. Her thoughts then escaped back to Draco.

He didn't even talk to her the last year of school. If he did, it was to call her bad names, even worst than 'mudblood'. That word didn't bother Hermione anymore, so he resorted to calling her "Gryffin-whore', 'slut', and 'bitch'. It pissed Hermione off, really bad. She didn't talk to him, ever. But they had been Head Boy and Girl, so they had to talk about Christmas plans, and Halloween. They even shared a laugh once. Once.

"Here you go." Donald said, handing Hermione a mug of coffee. It was only six in the morning. Hermione had practice that day, and the next day, she had to go talk to a man about a tomb he found on his property.

~*~* Later that Day *~*~

'Kick. Punch. Back hand spring. Scissor kick. Spin kick and pull out the guns. Shoot, shoot, shoot!' Hermione thought. She was practicing and her mechanic, Tom, had made her a new robot. He was bigger and stronger than all of the other killing machines that he made for her.

She ran to the other side of the room, backwards, shooting clips off the heezy. She reloaded and grabbed a rope behind her. She shot one side of the rope, and she started going upwards. It stopped about a foot away from the banister that she wanted on to, and she swung over to it. The machine was climbing the wall like a spider, slowly though. She ran across the banister and to the other side. She turned around to see that the machine was already on the banister and was slowly walking toward her. She started to shoot at its head and tried to break the glass that protected its insides. Hermione then got an idea.

She started to run toward it and when she reached it, she jumped onto it. She straddle its head, and put its head between her thighs. She took off the glass and shot into the opening. She reached inside, and ribbed out all of the wires and cut most of them. It started sparking and she didn't notice one of its limbs come up behind her. It latched itself to her shirt and threw her across the room and she hit the wall.

It pounced over her and put two of its sharp knife-like pinchers on either side of her neck. It started to clamp and it was already drawing blood. She grabbed one of the pinchers, one in each hand, and started to pull them from her neck. They were cutting thin slits in her hands as she pulled, but her hands slipped, and the two knifes got stuck into the floor. She slid out from underneath it and she ran to the pedestal she had been trying to get to the whole time. She looked over her shoulder and saw the machine take it's hands of life from the concrete, and start to move quickly after her. Hermione picked up her speed, then all of a sudden stopped. She got on the wall and run up. She did a back flip and landed on top of it again.

She disabled the machine quicker and it stopped moving. Hermione climbed off and walked over to the pedestal. On top of it was a thin piece of silver metal that had small writing on it. She walked up to it, and grabbed it off of the pedestal. She opened the case it was in, but not before she turned around.

"Stop!" she said, putting her hand up to stop the machine, that had surprisingly come back to life. It put its claws down and stopped moving. Hermione opened the built in lab top and put in the chip. She grabbed a small controller from the underside of the machine and pushed start. A computer game popped up and she started to play it.

~*~* After the Practice *~*~

She dragged the machine out of the practice room, and dragged it into Tom's mechanics room. She stopped after the entrance and dropped the leg that she had held onto while dragging it.

"Oh my gosh! Hermione! What did you do to Albert?" he asked, bending down next to the large machine and examining the damage she did.

"You shall answer my question before I answer yours. Was Albert programmed to stop before it took off my head and mounting it on the wall?" she asked, crossing her arms over her chest. Tom looked up and saw the bleeding cuts on her neck.

"Oh. Sorry." He said, going back to looking at the damage. Hermione walked out of the room and up the stairs to the family room.

"Hermione! What happened?" Donald exclaimed, looking at her bleeding hands and neck. Her tank top was ripped almost completely in the back, her pants had been made into Capri pants and her hair was almost out of the long French braid that went to her bum.

"Oh nothing. Tom forgot to tell his robot not to kill me." She said simply

"Again?" Donald asked angrily.

"Yes, again." She said. The two started to walk up the stairs to Hermione's room.

"You know, Hermione. You should really be acting more like a lady." Donald stated.

"Well, I don't want to." Hermione stated simply.

"You should at least dress like a lady." He replied.

"No I shouldn't." she said, opening the door to her room and taking off her shirt.

"At least try." He protested. She walked into the bathroom and finished the conversation before closing the door.

"No."

// I will dedicate

And sacrifice my everything for just a second's worth

Of how my story's ending

And I wish I could know if the directions that I take

And all the choices that I make won't end up all for nothing

Show me what it's for

Make me understand it

I've been crawling in the dark looking for the answer

Is there something more than what I've been handed?

I've been crawling in the dark looking for the answer

Help me carry on

Assure me it's ok to use my heart and not my eyes

To navigate the darkness

Will the ending be ever coming suddenly?

Will I ever get to see the ending to my story?

Show me what it's for

Make me understand it

I've been crawling in the dark looking for the answer

Is there something more than what I've been handed?

I've been crawling in the dark looking for the answer

So when and how will I know?

How much further do I have to go?

How much longer until I finally know?

Because I'm looking and I just can't see what's in front of me

In front of me

Show me what it's for

Make me understand it

I've been crawling in the dark looking for the answer

Is there something more than what I've been handed?

I've been crawling in the dark looking for the answer //

//Crawling in the Dark: Hoobastank//