Hermione's sleep was fitful at best. The floor was so hard that it was getting painful, despite the blanket she was pitifully cold, her stomach ached for food and her mind would not switch off. The events of the forest replayed over and over in her head as she analysed every detail of them, wondering where they had gone wrong and why on earth she had not disapparated out of there while she had had the chance. She was haunted by the memory of her parents, how they had had no idea what was happening to them; they had been tortured for information and then cruelly murdered while Hermione had been away. She had thought that they would be safe, that she could protect them, but she had been arrogant and it had cost her her parents. When she thought of them it made her shudder and more tears leaked from her eyes, pouring down her face and onto the ground making it muddy.
Suddenly Hermione had an idea. She knew that she could not get out through the door, walls or ceiling, but what about the floor? Surely there were no floors below this one and hadn't Malfoy said that he was not coming back? The floor seemed to be made of dry compacted dirt so if she could just make it wet was it possible that she could somehow tunnel her way out of there? She sat up and reached out for the glass of water and poured it onto the floor, waited a moment and then poured it out again. She must have done it about ten times and then put the glass down. Hermione could feel the water seeping into her shoes and socks and her jeans, making her almost unbearably cold, but she hoped that more was seeping into the floor. Getting on her knees, she started digging at the floor with her nails. The dirt started shifting and she felt a thrill of anticipation run through her. Pouring more water on with one hand, and digging with the other, she felt that this, at last, might be the way out. She dug and dug, not waiting for the water to properly sink in, breaking finger nails and making her fingers so excruciatingly agonising that she had to take breaks, but she was reluctant to do that for too long; she needed to get out of there as quickly as she could. After hours and hours, Hermione had to admit to herself that she needed a real break and without thinking about it much, fell quickly asleep.
She awoke with fresh tears dampening her face and the fading images of Harry and Ron disappearing from her mind. It did not take her long to remember what she had been doing and, feeling for the small hole that she had created, began to dig again. No sooner had she started, however, she had to stop, her fingers were extremely tender and felt swollen, all her nails were broken and the mud that had been forced up under them made the tips of her fingers throb. As if wrapping the blanket more tightly around her would somehow make her hands hurt less, she pulled the blanket around her as closely as she could and, taking a deep breath, began to dig again.
Over the next she knew not how long, Hermione scraped away at the dirt of the floor. She took frequent breaks, sometimes just for a sip of water and sometimes because she simply could not go on any longer. The new hope seemed to give her a renewed burst of energy and she felt that this, finally, might work. The Malfoy family doubtlessly expected people to break out using all sorts of kinds of magic and the room was probably protected against it, but she felt that it was highly likely that they had overlooked this simple thing. This would work, this had to work; she had run out of all options. So she kept on digging. By the time that she fell asleep once more, the whole was as large in diameter as her and as deep as half her arm was long.
She woke up, shivering, to discover that she had thrown her blanket from her and was drenched in cold sweat; her skin stung where she was damp from the perspiration because the air was so icy. She quickly pulled the blanket back around her and instinctively reached out for the water, but she couldn't find it. Quickly becoming panicked, she sat up and swept her arm along the ground in frantic search of the beaker but it was to no avail. Her mind raced; highly alarmed that she was unable to locate the glass. She crawled on her hand and knees all around the very small room, but it was not anywhere and then she suddenly remembered that she had left it in the whole. Breathing a sigh of relief as she pulled the water out of the hole and her one life line was returned to her, she took a sip and allowed herself to calm down. And then the events of her dream came flooding back to her. She was locked in the cell, only now there was a little light, a very little but some nonetheless, everything was so dark but she could make out the walls and there was a figure standing in front of her. He laughed cruelly and flicked his wand and in front of Hermione had appeared a loaf of bread, which she had grabbed hungrily and began to eat, but the more she ate the more hungry she because until her stomach became so painful she felt as if a dagger had been driven into her. She looked up at the figure but could not make out the face and as she looked down at her stomach she could see a deep red patch spreading across her stomach. She screamed. And then the room was light and bright and next to her were Harry and Ron and they looked worse than she did. In front of her was the same figure as before but this time she was left in no doubt as to whom he was. Malfoy. And he was saying something but Hermione couldn't quite make it out, something about You-Know-Who.
She shuddered with the memory and glanced down at her stomach to make sure it wasn't bleeding but of course this did no good as she was unable to see anything so she felt it just in case. It was not bleeding but it was certainly painful, almost tender, and groaning in emptiness. Hermione could only guess how long she had been in here, three days at most? The hole was taking a disproportionate amount of time to dig, could she manage to dig it within a week, and before Harry and Ron found out where she was? Feeling a renewed sense of purpose Hermione once again set about ignoring the immense pain and digging the hole.