A/N: Happy April Everyone =) Enjoy.
Disclaimer: *Evil laughter* I own EVERYTHING.
Chapter 12:
The cabin was filled with laughter as the Head Boy and Girl faced off once again.
Padma turned to Susan. "This should be a very fun year with those two in charge. I'm only worried that we won't get anything done."
Susan Bones looked dubiously at her friend, "With Hermione in charge? Padma, all we'll do is work!"
They were interrupted as Malfoy's voice raised over the crowd.
"Somehow, I highly doubt that, Grang-Parkinson," Draco scowled at his fellow Head Student.
"No, I'm completely serious, Malfoy! Hogwarts a History says it clearly. It's been done since Hogwarts was founded," Hermione argued.
Theodore was chuckling on the other side of Malfoy. "Come on, Draco. You mean you didn't know?"
The pale blonde looked even paler. "No I didn't. Thanks for ruining my entire life, Parkinson."
Hermione threw up her hands. "Do you seriously think that I want to have to share a Common Room with you?" She exclaimed making Ginny start giggling.
Draco groaned. "I won't believe it until I see it." He growled.
Hermione reached into her bag and pulled out her copy of Hogwarts A History. The edges of the pages were dog eared and there were numerous bookmarks jutting out of it at all angles. The cover was well loved and looked impeccable, but when she opened the book, the other prefects could see that the bindings were getting weak and the spine was bent in one hundred places.
"Wow, Hermione. How many times have you read that," Dean asked.
Flipping through the pages, Hermione answered before thinking. "Fifty three and a half times. Not counting the times I just needed to look something up."
Now there was more than one mouth in the prefect cabin that was open in astonishment.
"Hell, Parkinson, you're crazy!" Tracey said, her eyes as wide as fish bowls.
Hermione looked up from the book, her finger holding her place, "What? It's informational."
"I can't imagine you would have anything more to learn from that book after the twentieth time, nevertheless the fiftieth." Jesse Black chuckled.
Hermione scowled at them and rolled her eyes. "Aha! Found it. It says right here-"
Hermione paused. Something wasn't right. When she had started speaking, all of the other prefects starting laughing, minus Draco. He was watching her silently.
The laughter in the cabin started to distort, the faces beginning to blur. Hermione sat up shock straight. The Gryffindor Head girl began rubbing her eyes, but everything looked like it was… moving. Something was not right. She looked over to Draco who was still on her left and he smiled at her.
She stood up so quickly that her chair flew backwards. "Draco Malfoy! Did you slip something into my water?" When she stood, the room spun and she nearly collapsed on the ground. But the blonde didn't answer, he merely continued to grin at her, like a Cheshire cat in a tree.
"What's going on?" She cried out, but it seemed as if no one in the room was listening to her.
"What do you think is going on?" The Lioness saw Draco's mouth move, but it was as if his voice was coming from far away.
"I don't know. Why won't it stop?" Hermione shrieked as the room shook under her feet making her collapse to the ground. All the other prefects were still laughing, but it sounded maniacal.
"Ginny! Ginny! Dean! Eliza! Someone! Please! Someone help me!" Her voice was rising to a feverish pitch as she tried to crawl her way back to the round table. But it was like her hands and feet were stuck to the ground. The room distorted and with another rumble, she was thrown against the wall, her arms spread out beside her, seeming to be holding her up. But she wanted to fall back down to the ground.
She continued to scream as the room began to swirl into a mass of colors, sounds, and unintelligible shapes. She closed her eyes against the mayhem, but they were forced open again and her head turned as if by its own will to where the table had been. The flashing colors and shapes made her stomach roil. She felt like she was going to be sick. There, where the table had been, was Draco Malfoy.
He began to walk towards her, changing as he got closer. He got taller, leaner. His face gained a long scar down the side and his hair was longer, more ragged. His Slytherin robes grew and changed into long, black lengths of cloth that flew out behind him like morbid wings. His eyes became more grey than blue and they had a cruel light in them.
"Malfoy," When Hermione spoke, she didn't recognize her own voice. It was gravelly, as if she hadn't had a drink of water in days, and it was weak. So weak. Her eyes were fixated on the man in front of her, so much that the swirling colors seemed to die away. "Draco," She pleaded, "Help me, please. I don't know what's going on."
Then the flashing lights stopped. The spinning halted. The cabin was gone. The Prefects were gone. She couldn't help but look around her. Where was she? The room was dark and damp, the stones covered in a grey-green slime. There was a small window with bars over it. In the distance thunder rumbled. She was hung against the wall, her wrists shackled to the slimy stones.
"Granger."
Hermione's attention switched back to Draco so fast she felt a few bones in her neck pop with the stress. "Draco. Help me. Where am I. What's going on?" Her eyes began watering with fear. This Draco was so different than the seventeen year old boy she had come to know at the Manor. It was the strange man he had become as he walked towards her in the prefect cabin.
This other Draco looked at her strangely. "You don't remember anything."
"What are you talking about. Draco! I'm hanging against a wall in this godforsaken place and I can't- can't-" Hermione burst into tears.
Draco stepped closer and grabbed her head roughly. "Tell me what you remember."
"Don't you know!" She shrieked. "We were in the prefect cabin and you were complaining about having to share a dorm with me. Before that we were at my family's manor with Theo and Blaise and my sister, remember? Why don't you remember?" The Lioness felt Draco's hands tighten around her jaw and then he let go.
"This is good. Better than we had planned," He muttered to himself. The pale man then addressed Hermione again. "I do remember."
"Drakey-poo."
Draco scowled and turned around. "What the hell do you want, Pansy?"
"Pansy!" Hermione called out feeling relief rush through her bones at the sight of her twin. But once again, her twin looked different, older. "Please. Tell me what's going on. Where's our mother and father? Why are you free and why am I in chains?"
"Draco, darling, why is the mudblood talking to me?" The dark girl sneered at the Hermione who watched in horror. Theodore Nott, Blaise Zabini, and Anton Tsiklauri entered the room.
"The potion worked. She doesn't remember a thing. Her mind followed the path given to her." Draco's sneer turned into a wicked grin.
"Theo! Blaise!" Hermione managed to cry out before Pansy whipped out a wand and Hermione's voice was gone. Her mouth was still moving, but there was no sound.
"That's enough from you, you insolent little mudblood. Be grateful we didn't kill you like we did your pet Weasels." Pansy spat.
Hermione stopped moving, then her face broke into frantic, silent tears.
Draco's grin had turned back into a scowl. "Pansy. Do the words, she doesn't remember a thing mean anything to you. She doesn't know. As far as she knows, just five minutes ago, we were on the train to seventh year."
"Ummm… we didn't do a seventh year, Drakey. We went straight into the Death Eaters," Pansy looked confused.
Dracoo growled. "Anton, take this idiot back to her rooms."
The other blonde nodded and grabbed Pansy by the arm and dragged her out of the stone keep.
"Theo, Blaise, she thinks she knows you too, so don't be surprised if tries to, uh, appeal to your better nature," Draco spoke to the two robed figures before turning back to the shackled woman. He summoned a mirror and turned it towards Hermione. "Look in there. Look deep and hard. Actually no, it's not that hard to see. You obviously aren't the girl you were on the train."
If Hermione could've touched her face, she would've. It was pale, her honey-chocolate eyes staring out from their deep set sockets. There were scars littering the entire expanse. Her hair, matted and ugly, fell around her oval face.
Draco continued. "That's because that train ride never existed. After your sixth year, you went with Potter and Weasel to search for the Horcruxes." He shrugged. "That didn't turn out so well for you. Everything from the time your parents told you you were adopted was an illusion. Some things were real, but others… others just never actually happened. I'm not your friend. Pansy is not your sister. Theo and Blaise aren't your little toys. You're actually twenty, we," Draco made a sweeping motion, "won the war. And you… you were just a little experiment to see how we can get rid of resistance in the future."
Hermione was yelling at him, but the silencing charm put on her hadn't been removed yet.
"Theo. Go tell the Dark Lord and Snape that their experiments worked."
Theo nodded, pulled his mask down over his face and left.
"Which means, you, my darling," Draco sneered at the Lioness, "are no longer needed. Such a shame. I think if we had made the potion last longer you would've made a lovely addition to our little party. I was getting quite fond of you."
Hermione spit on him and he laughed. Pulling his mask back down on his face, he turned to Blaise. "We're done here."
Blaise nodded, spoke the words, and a green flash of light flew from his wand. The body chained to the wall slumped lifelessly.
The End
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A/N: Hope you enjoyed that little plot twist. I just have one last thing to say…
APRIL FOOLS.
It was sure fun to write, but it's not at all where I plan to take this story. The real chapter will either be posted tonight or tomorrow after some final edits. This chapter will be removed after today, but I'll post it under it's own story just for memorabilia. Haha.
See you tomorrow =) Reviews are still welcome for prank chapters!