Here's the second chapter! I will try to update as much as possible, but school is back again tomorrow so I'll see what I can do. X

Chapter 2: Plans

"Father, isn't it enough that half of the people on our lands are dying? At least feed the servants well won't you?" A blonde-haired boy said with a drawl to the man sitting at the head of the dining table. He stared at the man with his cold silver eyes as if challenging his own father to a duel.
"Draco, if you would rather I feed the servants than you, then I beseech you," his father replied with the same tone and a raise of his eyebrow, "give them your food if you think it is that necessary." Draco Malfoy, the well-known Prince was absolutely furious with how his parents handled the things they owned. He was brought up since young to only care about himself, his family name and nothing else. But all was not lost with Draco, seeing as the only company he enjoyed was the company of the select few servants that worked in his castle.

He would never admit to being friends with the help to his parents for he knew that his parents would fire them or easily kill them off within seconds, not wanting their one and only precious son to be corrupted by such.. low-lifes. Draco kept to himself mostly, hardly talking to his parents even, unless necessary. He was slightly more affectionate to his mother, seeing as he knew she cared for him. But all she did was obey his father's orders which made her just about the same as him, greedy and merciless. The blonde boy looked around the grand dining hall, knowing that he should be grateful for all he had, but all he felt was trapped. He knew his parents were trying to marry him into another rich family, who knew which one. But he had flatly rejected every single Princess that had visited his castle as they asked to talk to him. He had no interest in interacting with another bimbo who knew absolutely nothing of the world. How he could even communicate with such a human being was out of the question.

Draco Malfoy was an intelligent man of 18 years, he knew all about battle and the knowledge of the world. But he had never been able to leave the castle grounds once due to his parents insistent rules that he was to either stay in the Malfoy castle or apparate to the other castles. They were terrified that he would be over taken by beasts in the wilderness or something. "Like that would happen." Draco thought to himself with a smirk. He stood up without another word and strode out of the dining hall and into his room, slamming his door shut behind him.

"What's up, Draco?" Draco looked up to see his best friend since he was born lying casually on the couch near the window. The drapes were opened much to Draco's dismay and he rushed to close them.
"You know I hate it when the drapes are open, Blaise," Draco growled as he pulled them shut with one movement of his arm. Blaise chuckled, sat up and suddenly looked at Draco seriously.
"My parents are thinking to get me married into the Weasley family." He stated simply without any expression. Draco was slightly taken aback but he didn't show it, he instead, walked to his bed and sat down.
"What are your plans? I never imagined your parents would want to even talk to the Weasley Family, seeing as they are all so just and all." Draco replied, scanning Blaise's face for any emotion.
"Well, I have no plans whatsoever. I have no objections either, seeing as their daughter is one hot babe." Blaise said, his mouth turning up at the sides. "But, I can see that my parents are trying to plan something and I have no idea what. Next thing you know, your parents will be marrying you into the Parkinson Family." He continued, returning to his former serious tone.

"Well, what our parents are planning has nothing to do with me. If you want to marry the Weaslette, go ahead. Just make sure you know what you're getting into," Draco said nonchalantly. Blaise stood up and put his hand on Draco's shoulder, giving him a pat and apparated back home.

"Good-bye, your highness," Pamelia said with tears in her eyes as she bowed down onto her knee, holding Hermione's hand in hers and placing her hand to her forehead. "May we meet again in the future." Hermione knew Pamelia couldn't say much seeing as her parents were there, but all that had to be said had been said the night before.
"Pamelia, I'll miss you, travel safe." Hermione choked out, pulling up Pamelia into a hug. Some of the servants present who did not serve Hermione gasped, not knowing what a compassionate Princess she really was. Hermione graciously gave Pamelia a quick peck on the cheek and pushed her gently towards the carriage that awaited her. At last, she was gone.

Hermione's POV:

I walked slowly back to my room, knowing that no one would try to comfort or find me. I was still sad about Pamelia, but I knew I had to put my plan into action otherwise I wouldn't have another perfect opportunity. I quickly slid out of the uncomfortable dress and put on a outfit I had uh-borrowed from the guard I learnt my spells from. I quickly put on the hood and grabbed the rucksack I had packed all my things inside. I had put an extension charm on it, making it fit all of the stacks of clothes, money and food.

I slowly drew the curtains and peeked outside, checking that there was no one downstairs and apparated myself down. My parents didn't know I could apparate and neither did any of the guards. I had learnt secretly, by reading books in the library. It was rather easily, really. I just had to make sure I didn't get splinched. I knew I couldn't apparate out of the castle grounds though, but I already had a escape route planned. There was one section of the brick wall surrounding the castle that was weak and could be easily broken down by a simple spell. I ran to it and quickly took out my wand and did a non-verbal spell, not wanting to make too much noise.

Much to my dismay the bricks flew further than I had expected and one of them crashed through the glass window. I didn't even bother looking back to see if I had been caught and ran into the dark woods. I had a lot of practice of climbing and jumping from tree to tree in the fake forest that we had in the castle grounds. Those forests were to train the guards in case of emergencies. I continued moving, not daring to stop, in case I got caught and finally after about twenty minutes of running, I decided it was okay to take a small break. I sat myself on a rather high branch and pulled on my hood again.

I knew I was pretty good with directions but I recheck my direction by casting a spell and noticed that i was slightly off track. Nothing that couldn't be fixed. I was going to visit the Village of Rod first, seeing as I was friends with the owner of the Orphanage and she would definitely give me a place to stay. She thought that I was a maid working at the Granger Castle and that I was being ill-treated there. Most of the servants aren't really mistreated in my castle though, seeing as I make sure that they aren't. I rather not hire house elves, but then I think its better for us to have them than the other families that'll ill-treat them, right?

I jump down from the lowest branch of the tree and decide to walk the rest of the way seeing as the woods here were so large and I had a better advantage of running than the other guards from my palace did. I snuck out way more than anyone even knew. Most of the time I would just ask the guard at the gate to just let me off, but I couldn't risk that this time round, seeing as I wasn't going back and he could be held responsible. I reach the village in about half an hour of walking and I head straight to the orphanage. The village wasn't that big, but it definitely wasn't under good condition. A lot of the buildings were almost in ruins and half of the people lived on the food they grew on the fields which wasn't much either.

"Rion! So glad you could come again, the kids have been asking for you," A kind soft voice called out to Hermione from the entrance of the orphanage. Hermione looked up to see her old friend, standing with a baby in her arms. She seemed to look even more frail than the last time she came, but much healthier than when Hermione first met her.

Flashback:

"Hello? Is anybody in here?" Hermione called out as she stood at the entrance of the ruined building. The small boy in her arms kept pointing inside and struggled in her arms as if he was trying to tell her that there was somebody was in the dark room. Hermione decided to investigate further and put the boy gently down, taking out her wand and casting the lumos spell. Immediately she gasped as she saw the number of still bodies on the floor. She quickly ran to the lady with ratted blonde hair and was surrounded by several children. She checked her pulse and was relieved to find that she was still alive. Hermione examined the rest of her body to see if there were any signs of frostbite. The warmth they had all shared had spared each of them from literally freezing to death here.

She looked at every single child and the lady and saw how skinny and frail they all were. Their ribs were protruding out and their legs were almost like sticks. Hermione brought her hand to her mouth as she dragged her feet to what was left of a fireplace and started a fire, attempting to warm up the building. How the small boy was the only one still conscious was a mystery to her. The cold weather and the lack of nutrition must have gotten to them, leading them to fall into a deep sleep, but how long their sleep could last before they died was not known to Hermione.

The little boy who had dragged her in tugged at her shirt and tried to signal to her something with his hands. He cupped his hands together and brought them to his mouth. Water. They needed water. Hermione immediately stuck her hand into her bag and took out her water stachel, placing it to the lady's lips first, seeing as she was probably the one in charge of taking care of all the kids. She slowly tended to the other kids as well, giving them small sips of water, not too much and then laying them down carefully. She quickly set to work and took out the herbs she needed to treat some of the sick kids.

The lady's eyes slowly flickered open, adjusting to the light in the room. She sat up almost immediately and looked around frantically. "Its okay, I've taken care of the children. They're all alive." Hermione said quietly as she walked towards her. Hermione set a small bowl of broth in front of her and gave a small smile.
"I will stay here for a couple of days and try to help you fix this place, I can't imagine what has happened here but the rest of the villagers aren't as worse of as the kids here." Hermione continued and walked to tend to the children again.

The lady looked at Hermione in disbelief. Most of the villagers had given hope in trying to help the orphans, most of them could barely help themselves. The village had been hit by a cold snap for 2 consecutive days and the building hardly provided any warmth for the children and her, she took the bowl in between her petite hands and drank it slowly. The warmth from the broth gave her enough strength to stand up and sit beside the kids that were lying near her saviour.

"Thank you so much, how could I ever repay you.." The lady said earnestly, bowing down her head.

End of flashback

"May, it's good to be back. I missed the kids too." Hermione replied with a genuine smile. She rarely gave genuine smiles to anyone in the castle because she felt so fake back there, but out here she felt as if she really was Rion Cross, the maidservant in Granger Castle. The kids all ran out to her with their hands wide open waiting for hugs. Some even jumping up to her trying to catch her attention.

Hermione laughed as she picked up the children one by one, calling each of their names and giving them each an apple from her bag. She knew she had to ration the amount of food she gave first, seeing as she still hadn't decided on where to go. But apples were easily found in the castle and she had taken almost a whole crate. Thank God the bag she carried only weighed a quarter of what was really inside her bag, if not she would have been trudging the bag. The bag was still very heavy, nevertheless, but nothing she couldn't handle. The children happily ran inside and munched on their apples with tiny giggles.

"So, how's it going here?" Hermione asked May as she tossed an apple to her too. May caught it swiftly and bit out a small piece, giving it to the baby she was carrying.
"Oh you know, its been better ever since you've helped us out. The kids are starting to actually gain some weight and are able to run about a lot. But really, we can't make too many drastic changes, lest the castle guards come and find us out." She explained with a kind smile.
Hermione paused, wondering whether it was a good time to ask if she could stay and decided she should ask now while the kids were still too busy eating to come back to her.
"May, I wanted to ask a favour. Could I-" Hermione began to ask and she stared at the ground. "Whatever it is you need, Rion. I'll happily do it for you. You saved our lives after all." May said without a second thought. Hermione looked at her gratefully and gave her a hug, making sure the baby wasn't strangled though, of course.

"Thank you, May. It'll just be for a couple of days before I can find out where to go." Hermione replied and made her way back into the room to play with the children. How could it be that people who had so little could offer all they had and people who had so much could offer almost nothing. It was so unimaginable and selfish to her.

End of Chapter 2

Hope you liked it! RnR please!