Chapter 2

Hermione stepped into the Dormitory, leaving the door open behind her. The dormitory was very warm compared to the rest of the castle, especially in winter, and she pulled off her robe, jumper and school shirt until she was wearing only the t-shirt she wore underneath, as an extra layer.

She heard the door slam behind her.

She span around, but no one was there.

And then she felt a hand clasp over her mouth from behind, and a strong arm wrap round her body, leaving her unable to move. Fearing for her life, she didn't dare move an inch.

"Hermione," A man spoke from behind, into her ear. She could feel his breath on her. A man who knew her name. "It is Hermione, isn't it?"

She nodded the best she could with his hand clasped firmly onto her mouth.

"Good. You have something I need, and you're going to show me where it is." He slid her wand out of her pocket, and muttered something under his breath. "That was a silencing charm. No matter how loudly you scream, no one can hear you outside this room," He once again muttered something, and she heard a lock click. "And we don't have to worry about anyone getting inside this room either, so I suggest you co-operate." He finished, releasing her mouth, but keeping one arm wrapped tightly around her. He held her wand in his free hand.

"What do you want?" She asked, in a cold voice, holding her head as far away as she could from her unknown attackers face.

"I need Potters cloak. Where are you hiding it?" The man must have been listening to her conversation outside.

"Who are you?" She asked, not willing to let him get it that easily.

"What does it matter who I am? Just give me the cloak, I need it, and then I'll be on my way and you can carry on with your life and never need to see me again. Now where is it?" He asked, beginning to get

impatient.

"It matters to me a lot who you are. You know my name, but I don't recognise your voice. Why is that?" She heard him growl slightly with impatience.

He moved his head right next to hers. "Are you not afraid of me?" He whispered into her ear.

"I know you need me to find what you want. If you kill me you can't get it."

"There are other ways of getting information out of people, Granger."

She chose to ignore that, curiosity taking over.

"And how did you get in here? You need the password to get into the Gryffindor common room."

"I had an encounter with an old acquaintance. Mr. Longbottom. Awfully frightened of me, he was." His voice was lower and at a whisper, and again she could feel his warm breath, his lips brushing against her ear every now and then. "Why, I remember him right from when he was a baby. I only saw him once mind, I more remember his parents. Getting the password out of him... My my, it looked familiar."

She was hit with realisation, and a sickly feeling at what Neville must have felt. "Barty Crouch Jr."

They both directed their eyes at the door as they heard someone struggling with it from the outside, before Parvati Patil's voice rang out. "It's locked!"

She thought for a moment of calling out to her, before she realised that no one from the outside could hear her. From outside they heard a debate going on between her and Lavender Brown, about what to do, before finally the two of them left.

The conversation continued as normal. "The one and only." He smiled against the side of her face. "And now you know what I can do, show me where the cloak is."

"Never." She hissed, trying to pull away from him. She wasn't too happy about this man she was disgusted with, holding her against himself so tightly they were sharing body heat. Her attempts, how ever, only gained him to hold her tighter than ever.

He seemed to change tactics. "Shame about your friend, Harry. Lost so much already." She wondered where exactly he was going with this. "And you two have remained best friends throughout, haven't you?" She realised that wasn't a rhetorical question, and nodded. "So think, how would he be able to live with himself, if his best friend was killed, just protecting his invisibility cloak?" Hermione was horrified when she agreed with him. To Harry, she was worth more than the invisibility cloak. To the war, she was worth more than this invisibility cloak. It wasn't the Death Eaters that would be using it, they could get hold of an invisibility cloak easily. It was just Crouch that would be using it.

At her hesitation, he added, "I could do it." She froze. "I could kill you, right here, put you in your bed, no one would notice a thing until tomorrow morning when you don't come to lessons." Once again, he moved close to her ear. "All I have to do is-" He brought up her wand, and she shook under his grip. He spoke in a hiss. "Avada Kedavera." Her eyes clenched shut in the green light, and there was a loud smash, and for one terrifying second, she was sure she had died, until her eyes opened and she saw her trunk and a corner of her bed had been blasted apart by the force of the spell, bits of burnt pages from books still falling around her like confetti.

Burnt pages from books, and, to her horror, the invisibility cloak slid into sight. He growled triumphantly, letting her go as he dashed towards the cloak, scooping it up, examining his now invisible arm masked under the cloak.

"What exactly is it you need that cloak for?"

"A grin covered his face. Now, if I told you that, everything would be ruined." He still appeared to be showing more attention to his invisible arm.

She suddenly realised what he was capable of with that cloak. She slowly walked over to him, he was still fixated with the glistening cloak. He was staring at it with a gleam in his eyes. She didn't fully understand why, he had definately seen invisibility cloaks before, he had spent a great deal of time hidden away under one, and she would have thought he'd have seen enough of them. She reached out her hand and took the handle of her wand, which was carelessly sticking out of his robe pocket. This seemed to stir him, and his eyes flicked down to her hand, then back to her eyes. There was a pause for a second, before finally Hermione pulled it out of his pocket and scurried ungracefully across the room, him swooping to stop her, and almost falling flat on her face.

Later, she would curse herself for what she was about to do next.

She pointed her wand at him, shouting-

"Fortuvinculum!"

An orange light hit him square on the chest, the same orange light that spread up Hermione's wand and absorbed into her.

His dark eyes went wide and stared penetratingly into hers. "What did you do?" He almost whispered, just before there was a loud bang and the door was blasted open, revealing Professor McGonagle. He instantly

grabbed Hermione by the shoulder and shoved her into the bathroom. He snatched her wand from her grip, and pointed it at the door, which more than locked, it disapeared entirely, leaving plain stone in its place.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?" He shouted, furiously. The thing about spells was that with just one or two words, you can either do something incredibly simple, or something extremely powerful.

Hermione, however, did her best to stand her ground. "It- It was a binding spell, whatever you do," She glared at him, in the eyes. "You can't get away, you'll always come back to me, it's fate, and when you do, you'll be caught."

His eyes went wide, and then they turned to a look of resolve. Where was that rational Hermione that always thought before her actions? She turned and started banging on the wall where the door had been. "Let me out!!" She screamed, terrified for her life. If she died, he wouldnt have anyone to be bound to. She really, really wished she'd gven this more thought.

"It's no good, it'll take them some time to break through that magic, it was a powerful spell." She realised not only was he crazy, but he was truly, truly powerful. Like so many bad plans, this had seemed like such a good idea at the time.

She ran desperately for the window, only to have her own wand thrust in her face and direct her away.

"I can't let you go, Hermione."

And no matter much she protested, he put his hand of the back of her neck, pulled her head so her face was pressed against his chest, and apparated.

Powerful wizards certainly can apparate within Hogwarts grounds, Hermione thought, the terrible feeling side along apparition overwhelming her, as she blacked out.