Chapter 10

Rabastan Lestrange walked out of his detention as quickly as he could. With a simple "scourgify" he removed all of the dirt from his robes that had accumulated thanks to three hours of re-potting plants in the greenhouse. Instead of going to the castle, as was expected after a detention, Rabastan walked straight towards the forbidden forest. A nearly full moon loomed over head and Rabastan could hear the calls of many different creatures in the forest. Trying to cover his fear, in case any of his fellow members were watching, Rabastan bowed his head as he walked, speeding up ever so slightly.

Walking through the forest, he soon joined a group of fellow students and took his place in the crowd. He raised his head to look directly at their leader - Abraxas. Surprisingly, Abraxas did not comment on his lateness to the meeting and merely began to talk to them all.

"There is a mission", he stated. "The Dark Lord has a very important mission for us."

Looking closely, the amount of strain of Abraxas' face was obvious, despite the facade of calm on his face. Rabastan was concerned about what this talk could possibly involved as he had never seen Abraxas so out of character like this. He remained silent as excited murmurs spread through the group.

"Quiet", Abraxas said softly and at once every body stopped talking and watched him, the eagerness glinting in their eyes. "We have a long night ahead of us. We need to get started and you all need to listen to me. The Dark Lord will not take kindly to failure". Abraxas paused for a moment and looked around before saying "And nor will I".

Rabastan shuddered at the thought of Abraxas displeased. He had seen the wizard punish a few members of the group for giving false information and he knew he didn't want to be cursed by him, never mind by their powerful master.

"And what mission do we have to complete, Abraxas?", asked Rodolphus.

Abaxas smirked, his usual look of superiority returning to his face as he puffed out his chest slightly. "Upon my last meeting with our master I gave him vital information concerning the mudblood bitch who appeared here 2 or so days ago. He has decided that he wishes to interrogate the girl herself and find out how she got here". Abraxas paused for effect as a few members of the group began to understand what was being asked of them.

"But, sir!", said the young Ravenclaw. "You can't ask us to-"

Abraxas turned towards the boy and said, with malice in his eyes, "Crucio".

The young boy screamed as he writhed in pain. The rest of the students stepped back; a few averted their eyes but most watched fascinated as the boy's body began to stretch to breaking point. His eyes shot open as his bones began to contort and attempt to push their way out of the skin. His blood boiled and each heart beat felt as though someone punching his chest. His legs began to bend backwards and his spine began to curve the wrong way. He bit his tongue in an attempt to stop the scream. He knew the more weakness he showed, the longer this would continue. As the boy began to lose consciousness, Abraxas lazily lifted his arm to release the spell. The young wizard collapsed onto the floor, coughing, panting and spitting out blood as his nerves screamed at him.

"Did you want something, Diggory?", Abraxas asked, his voice dangerously soft.

"N-no sir", stammered Diggory, his body shaking as blood dribbled down his chin.

"Then get up and stand straight", Abraxas turned away from the young Ravenclaw and paid him no more attention.

Diggory rose to his feet (no one offered to help him stand or cast a spell to alleviate the pain) and staggered slightly. He stood up tall, with tears in his eyes and remained silent.

"Good", said Abraxas. "Diggory here has just demonstrated what you can expect to happen if we fail in our mission, except that, in this instance, I was kind enough to let him live. I'm not sure I will be that kind again. Do I make myself clear?"

Abraxas' question was met with many nods and murmured "Yes sir"s.

"I thought I would. You are wondering, I assume, what our exact mission is. Unless one of you is keeping some very important information from me, there is no way that we know of to summon our master here to the castle. Am I correct?"

Once again, the group, including Diggory, nodded. They all watched Abraxas intently as he continued in his explanation.

"Our mission then, to put it simply, is to kidnap the girl and take her to our master. And we need to do it tonight."

Draco Malfoy sat on the floor of the hospital wing in the early hours of the morning looking at the silver bracelet that encased his wrist. Another of the jewels had gone, leaving only 10. He twirled the bracelet around, looking carefully at all the others and all of them seemed fastened securely. Why were they disappearing? He'd woken up after another nightmare. This time he was in the forbidden forest, watching Hermione being attacked by wolves. Every time he had tried to approach, to help her from this agony, to stop her terrible screams, he had been stopped by the bracelet and had been forced to relive the terrible screams he had heard in his own home, this time watching flesh be ripped from her body in massive chunks.

Malfoy knew this bracelet was the key. But why? And why was he suddenly having nightmares? He didn't dream. Malfoy's didn't dream. Shaking his head, he looked over at Hermione who was laying fast asleep on her bed, surrounded by books.

As Malfoy stood up, the Matron bustled into the room, carrying bed sheets. She walked over to Hermione's bed and angrily shook her. "Wake up, girl!".

Hermione opened her eyes groggily and started at seeing the Matron so close to her face. "Wha-?"

"Since you have to stay here and aren't a patient, you have jobs to do. Make all these beds immediately for me!"

Hermione, still blinking sleep out of her eyes, didn't protest as the Matron walked back in to her office, slamming the door behind her.

"Morning, Granger", said Malfoy.

"Morning, Malfoy".

"You going to make the beds? You don't have to. Stupid bitch making you do her chores."

Hermione felt a slight flutter in her stomach as she realised that Malfoy was defending her. He seemed to be really changing. She smiled at him and responded, "Yes, I will. It's not worth all the fuss it would cause if I didn't. I'll just use magic".

Hermione reached into her pocket for her wand and froze in horror when she realised it wasn't there. "My wand!".

Malfoy looked at her confused. Frantic, Hermione began to look all around the hospital wing for it. She looked through the chest of drawers next to her bed, under the bed sheets and on every available surface. She let out a small sob as she realised the truth - her wand was where she belonged. At home. In the future.

Looking slightly uncomfortable, Malfoy approached Hermione. "We can get you your wand back when we return, Granger. Or if not, I'll buy you one". Malfoy wasn't used to girls like Hermione. He was used to girls who expected him to buy them things, constantly and was therefore incredibly surprised when Hermione began to sob even harder mumbling incoherently, "So nice-" "-thanks-" "-new wand-" "-you would-"

In an attempt to distract her, Malfoy began to explain what was happening to his bracelet. "The jewels are disappearing. I don't know what it means, Granger. It must be linked. Why are there jewels on mine and not yours?"

As he finished talking, his stomach gave a loud rumble. He looked at Hermione sheepishly and mumbled, "Sorry. Not eaten for a while".

Hermione, feeling sorry for him, decided to ignore his stomach and obvious discomfort, knowing he wouldn't want her pity. "I don' know why the *sniff* bracelet has jewels. Perhaps it's something to do with the link. Maybe it's why you feel pain and I don't. Or-"

As Malfoy had hoped, Hermione was distracted by the thought of a puzzle and he tuned out as she began to contemplate all the different possibilities of the jewels.

Whilst she was rambling, the hospital wing doors swung open with a loud bang. Hermione stopped talking and both she and Malfoy turned to see a group of students walk through into the wing.

The Matron burst out of her office, obviously having heard the noise. She glared angrily at the group of students. "Shouldn't you all be in lesson? What are you doing here? Leave at once!".

One of the girls in the group raised her wand and cast a silent stunning spell at the Matron. Malfoy gulped as she hit the ground face first with an audible thud and a sharp crack as her nose broke. He stood in front of Hermione as the 8 student began to walk to them.

The girl laughed as she realised that she had probably broken the Matron's nose.

"Rabastan", breathed Hermione as she recognised one of the boys at the back of the group.

Hearing her, Rabastan nodded in mock greeting. "Mudblood", he said cordially.

"What are you doing-?"

Before Hermione could finish her sentence, Rodolphus sent a stunner at her. It went straight through Malfoy and hit Hermione before she could even attempt to reach for the wand that wasn't there. Everything went black and the last thing Hermione heard before she slipped into the realms of unconsciousness was Malfoy screaming her name.

A/N: Dun dun duuuuuuun! There we have it. Chapter 10! Hope you all enjoyed and thank you very much to everyone who has read, favourited, followed and especially those who reviewed this story. It means so much to me! I have just started uni, so updates may take longer now as I have a pretty intensive course. I shall try my best to update as much as possible. Thanks again for reading!