Disclaimer: I own nothing.

I know this plot has been attempted before with Draco and Hermione but I decided to try my own take on it. Please read and review! Happy reading.

Once upon a time, in a magical, far away land, a baby boy was born to an noble family. They baby brought great joy to all who laid eyes upon him, but it was a dark time and the land was thrust into upheaval. They boy's beautiful smile and great heart was looked down upon by his powerful father. He was taught to scowl, disrespect, and taunt anyone who his father and his father's master didn't approve of. His mother, desperate to have her happy, loving baby boy saved from the cruel, dark fate of his father, sought help from a powerful wizard who gave her an enchanted dragon. The glass the dragon was made from held a powerful magic that would bring calm and joy to the boy so long as he kept it. the dragon would also help the boy find love and happiness once more. his mother gratefully took the enchanted glass and told her son that so long as he kept the trinket with him, he would always be safe from the dark.

"Harry?" Hermione's voice was tentative as she called out for her friend. Her footsteps echoed loudly down the long, dank corridor though she tread very lightly, ears straining to hear any sign of her beloved friend. She knew if he were in here she'd have to get him out quickly. The old and dark magic contained in this castle was palpable and she couldn't risk allowing Harry to stay in here for any longer.

He had gone missing just a few days ago and though Ron told her not to worry, that he probably just needed to get away, she knew deep down that something was terribly wrong. She could feel him calling out to her for help. A simple tracking spell didn't work and it was only with an ancient locating spell that she could even begin to gauge his whereabouts. He was surprisingly close, somewhere about one hundred and fifty kilometers from London. With nothing but her wand, her wand as a compass and tracking device, and her gut she found herself at the near ruins of Malfoy Manor. She was surprised how easily she managed to get inside, the defensive wards around the property probably diminished now that all of the Malfoy family was gone. It was as dark and gloomy as she had always envisioned it and knew that a place like this could do harm to the state Harry was in—he was still recovering from the battle that brought Voldemort to his demise though he wouldn't admit it. The battle had spanned over two entire days and left half of the United Kingdom in ruins. It was three months later but Harry was still trying to regenerate after the magical loss he suffered bringing down the darkest and one of the most powerful wizards since Grindelwald.

She made her way down to what she assumed had been the dungeons. There were chains attached to certain walls and a few bizarre looking devices hanging from the ceiling and walls.

"Harry?" She called out again, softly. The very feeling the stone walls emanated made Hermione feel the need to be somber and almost reverent. A small groan came from a barred room towards the back of the dungeon. She ran the rest of the way and gasped at Harry's bruised and beaten form lying on the stone floor. "Oh Merlin, Harry!" The bars didn't even creak as they flew off the hinges responding to her frazzled and worried mind needing desperately to get Harry out of here.

"'Mione?" A groan escaped his purpled and swollen face and Hermione knew immediately that his jaw had been broken. She knelt down next to his limp body and held his head gently against her. She looked over his naked form, too worried to even blush and felt her eyes sting with oncoming tears as she took in the odd angles at which his leg and ankles were, no doubt due to them, also being broken.

"My God Harry what happened?" A sob, or a moan, she wasn't quite sure and she didn't quite care was his only response. "We need to get you out of here, Harry. I'm just going to mend you up." Hermione's wand was out and traced over every inch of his body, a faint yellow glow seeping into his skin and vanishing all traces of his bruises and cuts. She pointed her wand at his jaw, and then at his leg and ankles whispering long strands of complicated Latin, healing his broken limps and joints with an ancient spell that Poppy taught her after Ron had broken almost all of his ribs during a raid for a horcrux. The spell took a lot out of someone when just mending one break, but mending three made Hermione feel light headed and drained even with her high magical potency.

"'Mione you've got to get out of here." Harry's voice said urgently in her ear as he struggled to remain upright.

"I'm not leaving without you Harry. Just give me a minute to clear my head-"

"No Hermione go now!" Hermione shook her head at both Harry and the fog that clouded her brain.

"What are you doing in my house?" roared a voice that made the both of them jump.

"Leave her alone! Just let her go and you can finish me off." Harry pleaded, trying desperately to shield Hermione who was feeling even more lightheaded than before. Her pulse was pounding at her temples and she could barely hear anything but she could feel the tension and fear in Harry.

"You shouldn't have come here Potter." The unknown man said his voice dripping with malice. "Get our Granger." The man said and turning to walk away. Harry let out a breath and hugged Hermione close to him.

"Go on Hermione, get out of here."

"No Harry I'm not going to leave you!" She was gripping him tightly, as much to keep herself balanced as to show Harry how much she loved him.

"Go Hermione, leave me! Please just go!" He pushed at her, urging her to run far, far away.

"Please! Please let him go!" The man apparated into the small room with a soft pop and looked down stoically at the pair. Hermione couldn't quite see straight so the man before her was nothing but a silhouette. He was tall and imposing but she didn't get a strong negative feeling from him. Harry, however was shaking with anger and she knew he wanted so desperately to kill whoever his torturer was.

"I can't do that Granger."

"Hermione just go! Please-"

"I'll take his place!" Her proclamation was met with silence. Harry was shaking his head vehemently at her side and she could hear the man's breath hitch.

"Hermione NO!"

"Wh-what? You would really do that?"

"I-" She started but was caught off by Harry gripping her arms tightly and shaking her harshly.

"Hermione I won't let you! Just go!" She reached up and put her hands on his chest soothingly. He stopped shaking her but continued to grip her tightly.

"I love you Harry. You have a lot of saving left to do." She leaned in and kissed him tenderly on the cheek, their tears mingling in the process. "I will take his place if you let him go."

"I will-" Hermione sighed in relief and kissed Harry's cheek once more. "But you must swear on your honor as a witch that you will stay here forever." She instantly tensed at the words. Forever. He wanted her to stay his prisoner forever.

"No Hermione. No just go and I'll stay. He'll beat the pulp out of me and then get bored and let me off. Just go and-"

"You have my word."

"Malfoy NO!" Hermione gasped as she heard him cast an obliviate and suddenly Harry was gone.

"Malfoy?" Her eyes began to refocus and sure enough the awful, bigoted, ferret stood before her his signature scowl gone and in it's place a look completely devoid of any emotion at all. "But you're-"

"Dead?" He shook his head slightly. Hermione shook her head in disbelief. Malfoy was alive, Harry was gone, and she was here in the Malfoy dungeon to be a prisoner for the rest of her life. Visions of Harry and Ron, her parents, her letter of recognition from the Ministry as well as an invitation to join the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures as the head of a new division for the Progression of the Handling and Labor Ethics of Magical Creatures swam through her head. Her dreams were al coming true and she was going to spend the rest of her life happy and with her two best friends in the whole world. And now, she was never going to see any happiness ever again.

"You just sent him away. I didn't even get to say goodbye you bastard! I'll never see my best friends again and I couldn't even say good bye." She let the sobs course through her and sobbed out her sorrow. Draco couldn't stand to watch. He left her and apparated to his private quarters. He sat down in front of the fireplace folding his hands and leaning in towards the dancing flames. How did his life and up so screwed up? He never envisioned anything like this. He blindly followed his father's directions and did everything that was expected of him. He became a heartless bastard, taunting and teasing anyone who didn't fit the mold his father labeled as right. He embraced the ideals that got both of his parents killed and now here he was, nineteen years old without any family, friends, or any semblance of a life. His eyes found the glass dragon sitting on the mantle. It was given to him by his mother when he was maybe four years old. It spit fire of different colors illuminating an otherwise pitch black room and eased him to sleep back in the days when he was afraid of the dark. He still kept it now as a reminder of what his mother once was- a caring, loving, beautiful woman. This is how he preferred to remember her, not as the depressed, woman who lost all her life and luster because of his damned father. She was such a wonderful woman when he was young, almost like Granger. Granger. She was in his dungeon crying her eyes out because he forced her to a life as his prisoner. Why? He should have let them both go, he knew he should have and yet he still made the compromise.

"Master Draco, sir?" Linky, one of Draco's most trusted house elves, asked tentatively from his side. Linky, Coggy, and Piddy had all been the houseelves in charge of serving Draco since he was a baby, and now, they were head of only a few house elves left on the estate.

"What is it Linky?" He asked, his voice tense and strained.

"Would Master Draco sir like Linky to set up the Mistress' bedroom, sir?" Draco tilted his head towards the elf who had practically raised him and raised his eyebrows.

"Why?"

"The Mistress cannot sleep in the dungeon Draco, sir." Draco nodded tersely before standing.

"Very well, Linky. Please have dinner ready for us in the dining room." Linky nodded and with a snap apparated to fix a room for Hermione. Draco apparated down to the dungeons to find Hermione curled up on the stone floor, slightly shaking and still crying.

"I'll take you to your room now, Granger." She sat up abruptly, scurrying about on the floor until she faced him. She was tense and if looks could kill, Draco was sure he'd be with his parents once again.

"But I thought I was your prisoner." Her voice was terse and cold, but also slightly confused.

"Well if you want to sleep on the floor of the dungeon fine, otherwise, follow me." He began walking, not bothering to wait for her. He almost stopped walking when he didn't hear her follow but soon the sound of her footsteps racing to catch up echoed throughout the corridor. He figured he might as well walk and give her a slight tour instead of just apparating her to her room. They climbed up stone steps that wound up seemingly endlessly, the only illumination coming from random sconces on the walls. They finally stepped through an archway that creaked as stones replaced it leaving a stone wall behind. A tapestry fell into place over where the archway once was and a black knight nodded to her as he rode away on his black steed. She turned back to follow Draco and took in the expanse of the house. It was dimly lit, again, the only illumination coming from wall sconces. She couldn't really make out anything, but noticed several portraits sleeping hung along the main corridor. They reached a grand staircase at the foyer and she looked longingly at the front door, wishing escape would be as simple as just running out that door and away until she got back home. But of course, it wasn't that simple at all. He followed him up the staircase and they took a left and she noticed he didn't even glance towards the right of the hallway.

"What's down that way?" She asked pointing at the other end.

"That's forbidden. You will not go into any of those rooms, understand?" She nodded solemnly. "The rest of the house is at your disposal." Her head snapped up at this and looked for any sign that he was making this whole thing worse with teasing freedom in her face. He, however, continued walking, his focus never wavering from directly in front of him.

"But-"

"Don't make me regret it Granger." She nodded and continued to follow him. They came to another staircase and Hermione was beginning to think that they were never going to get there. He stopped at large French doors and opened them. She looked behind her quickly and noticed that at the other end of the rather long hallway was a matching set of doors but she turned her attention away from that and tentatively ventured into the room. She gasped out loud at the magnificence of the room. Surely this couldn't be the room she would reside in. A giant bed sat near the far wall with deep burgundy colors and sheer burgundy drapes canopied over the sides. A large wardrobe stood at the corner near the large bay windows that gave her a breathtaking view of the night sky and the forest that sat at the end of the grounds. She walked up to it and looked up, then down at the well kept garden that bloomed right below her room. She walked over towards the wardrobe and noticed that next it was a gorgeous antique vanity with dozens of pretty bottles scattered over the surface of it. She turned and saw a fireplace across the room from her bed that was lit and bathed the room in a soft glow. Draco cleared his throat before pointing to a door over to the left.

"That's your bathroom. I'm sure you'll find everything you need but, um, if you need anything just ask Drory, she'll be in charge of tending to any of your needs."

"Yes Mistress, Drory will help Mistress." Hermione jumped, startled, never noticing the house elf even apparating in.

"Right then. Dinner will be served in about half-an-hour. You will join me." Draco turned and left before Hermione could say anything. She bit her bottom lip as it trembled, the tears beginning to well up in her again.

Well, there's the Prologue. Please let me know if I should continue with this. Thanks!

Mel