Chapter 14: Into the Forest

The Whomping Willow stopped moving for a fraction of a second, and then started to roar again. Although Hermione was standing by the castle door, she could see three figures—Peter was too small to be seen at distance in his Animagus form— quickly slipping into the tree trunk. The bright moon shaped a perfect circle and shone brightly in the sky.

"You are early," a voice behind her quietly said, making her jump.

Hermione quickly turned around and saw Lucius standing behind her. She sighed in relief.

"You surprised me, Malfoy. When did you come?"

"Just now. Are you ready to go into the forest?"

"Yes, let's go."

They started walking toward the forest, and soon they reached the edge of the forest. Hermione turned to Lucius and asked,

"Shall we start from here?"

Lucius nodded and they began their search for fluxweed.

After about an hour, Hermione and Lucius gathered enough amount of fluxweed in their pouch. Lucius stood up as he put the greenish yellow plant in the pouch.

"I think we've got enough now. Shall we head back to the castle?"

"Sure," replied Hermione as she stretched herself.

Lucius put the pouch into his pocket and began walking with Hermione. However, not long after, he noticed that the trees surrounding him did not look familiar to him.

"This…is not where we came from, is it?"

Hermione, who just noticed the same thing, answered in an uncertain voice.

"No, I don't think so. This tree was not here, was it?"

Lucius shook his head. He stopped walking and looked around his surroundings carefully. The night was dark and the woods was dense. A worried look appeared on his face.

"We came in too deep. I think we are in the forbidden area of the forest."

"I heard the trees move their positions in the night," said Hermione anxiously. "Let's get out of here before we get really lost."

She took out her wand from her pocket and whispered, holding it flat in her palm.

"Point me."

Her wand spun around and pointed to her left.

"This way is north. The castle is in east…so we need to go this way. Come on, let's go."

"Where did you learn that?" asked Lucius as they started to walk again. He looked a little more relieved now.

"Oh, from a book I read a few years ago," said Hermione proudly.

"You read a lot, don't you?"

"I surely do. Reading is my pleasure."

Lucius snorted with the look suggested that he doubted reading can be anyone's pleasure, but she ignored him. They kept on walking in silence until Lucius suddenly asked,

"What else do you like beside reading?"

Hermione did not answer his question but only looked at him with her eyes widened. Lucius seemed a little bit embarrassed by her reaction; pink tinges appeared on his pale cheeks.

"I mean, I don't know anything about you, even after spending two weeks working together everyday. You always ask about me but never tell anything about you."

Hermione was still silent.

"You've asked me a load of questions, and when I ask you anything, you just turn away!"

"What do you want to know about me?" she said at last.

"…Where are you from?" asked Lucius, staring at her eyes directly. She did not avoid his eyes, even though she was afraid that her body might flinch at his piercing eyes despite her own will.

"Britain," she calmly replied.

"You know I wasn't asking about that," said Lucius, looking a little annoyed at her answer. Hermione only shrugged her shoulders innocently.

"You seem to be familiar with everything at Hogwarts even though you just came here only two weeks ago. Yet sometimes you look so out of place…like at the library today."

"Don't mention anyone about that, Malfoy, or I will—"

"Okay, okay," Lucius cut her across before she could finish her sentence; yet the intense emotion remained in Hermione's eyes. "Let me ask you something more general then, is that okay?" Hermione nodded. "Any sibling?"

"I'm an only child."

"And your parents are…"

"Both Muggles. I thought you already knew that," snapped Hermione coldly.

"Yes."

Lucius bit his lip. He wanted to ask many things about Hermione but he could not think of any proper question. He especially wanted to ask what made her feel so lonely that she cried alone in the library. That was the only time he saw her in such state: frail and spiritless. She seemed so tough and bossy, always trying to have more control while they worked on their project. Therefore, to see her like that was quite a shock to him. He wanted to know why she was crying; he wanted to know what her problem was. When she said she just needed someone to talk to, with tears smudged on her face—he just wanted to comfort her and say that everything was okay.

Of course he did not do it—he was Lucius Malfoy and she was a Mudblood. He could not do such thing; it was out of question.

However, as he watched Hermione perform Four-point spell, a question entered his mind.

'How?' thought Lucius. 'How does she know all these different advanced spells? She's also good at Potions...But how? She is a Mudblood...she can't be good at magic...'

He was too deep in thought, he did not realiza that he stopped walking; Hermione, who was walking a little ahead of him turned around.

"Malfoy? What—"

Lucius' eyes widened. He could not believe what she was doing: she was pointing her wand at him.

Hermione shouted,

"Stupefy!"

A jet of red light passed over Lucius' head, and there was a loud roar.

Lucius turned around only to find a giant forest troll holding a spiked club writhing in pain. Before he realized what was happening, Hermione grabbed his arm and started running toward the direction of the castle.

"Are you deaf?! You didn't hear it coming? It was about to smash you head with its club!" she yelled at him.

"I—I was thinking—"

Hermione only snorted at him and glanced behind her; the troll recovered from the pain and was now running toward them, with—

"Oh my God, it brought a friend," murmured Hermione, and Lucius' face became a shade paler than usual. "Let's hide somewhere first." Lucius swallowed and nodded his head.

They found a giant oak tree with a hollow trunk and quickly hid themselves in it. The trolls were talking between themselves—that is, grunting and pointing— and seemed to be looking for Hermione and Lucius.

Hermione felt her heart tightened. Yes, she had dealt with a troll in her first year with harry and Ron, but it was based on pure luck; she was not sure if she will have the same luck this time, especially when she was against not only one, but two trolls. She also knew that forest trolls were more vicious than mountain trolls, from reading Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

The trolls were now smashing trees around them, and they were coming closer to the oak tree Hermione and Lucius were hiding.

'It can't be worse than fighting Death Eaters,' thought Hermione, biting her bottom lip. She turned to Lucius and said determinedly,

"Malfoy, go back to the castle."

"What?"

"You go back to the castle and get some help. I'll distract them."

"Are you insane? You'll get killed! And I can't just leave you here. I have reponsibilities as the Head Bo—"

"Look," said Hermione impatiently. "This is not the time to discuss about your Head duties—"

CRASH!

A tree beside them got smashed by the spiked club of the troll.

"Just run to the castle, Malfoy! This is not something an inexperienced schoolboy can handle!" shouted Hermione.

"Inexperienced school—"

Before Lucius could protest, Hermione jumped out of the tree trunk and pointed her wand at the trolls.

"Stupefy!"

A jet of red light was shot from Hermione's wand but the troll blocked it with its club; the other one was still concentrated on smashing trees around it.

"Oh, smarter than your mountain cousins, aren't you?" she murmured to herself. Then she realised that Lucius has not moved yet. She turned to him and yelled,

"Why are you still here? Run!"

Lucius stared at Hermione confusedly for a moment, then finally turned around and started running toward the castle.

Hermione sighed in relief and shot various spells at the two trolls in front of her. A few hit them but it did not seem that they were much hurt, likely due to their giant body size. She even used the levitation charm, hoping for another luck, but these two were definitely smarter than the one she encountered in her first year. Hermione hid behind another tree to earn her some time to think.

'Think, Hermione, think. How did you defeat it last time?'

Hermione recollected her memory from the first year: Ron used the levitation spell—Wingardium leviosa, not Wingardium leviosa, he did it correctly for the first time—then the troll's club flew to the ceiling and—

'It hit the troll's head!'

Hermione's eyes suddenly glistened with hope; she had a plan in her mind. Only if it works well, she might escpae the forest unscathed. It required a precise aim—however, the forest was dark and full of trees...Hermione swallowed and tightened her grip on the wnad. Still hiding her body securely, she aimed her wand at a tall tree behind the trolls and whispered,

"Diffindo!"

The bottom of the tree got slashed by Hermione's spell and fell to the ground, knocking down one of the trolls and hitting the other one's shoulder; the former went unconscious and the latter groaned in pain.

'That's enough,' thought Hermione; she would be able to sneak out of here.

She shut her eyes tightly and began running toward the castle with all of her strength. When she quickly opened her eyes, the edge of the forest was so close, with the glimpse of the castle shown behind the trees. She shut her eyes again, then she ran and ran and ran...until she heard Lucius' voice shouting something. She burst her eyes open and saw him running toward her direction from the middle of the field. He had his wand out and was shouting something at her, but she could not hear him clearly because of the distance.

Then she heard the tree leaves rustle behind her. Before she could even turn around, she felt a heavy blow on her back—and everything went black.

"No! Grandel! No!"

Lucius screamed at what just happened before his eyes: the troll who was injured in shoulder ran after Hermione and striked her with its spiked club; she fell to the ground immediately, blood spattering all around her. Then The troll saw him coming and began walking toward him slowly—to his relief, it did not step on Hermine.

Lucius shot all kinds of spells he knew at the troll. The troll roared loudly—whether it was in pain or in anger, he was not so sure—and swung its club, which nearly smashed Lucius' arm, though left a deep scratch; he let out a cry of pain.

"S—stupefy!" Lucius bellowed.

The spell hit the troll in the eyes. It roared in pain—this time Lucius was quite sure—and jerked his body uncontrollably, then ran into a tree beside it; it hit his head and fell on its back, making a loud thud that made the forest tremble.

Lucius stood there, taken aback by the troll's stupidity, and not able to believe how lucky he was. Then he collected himself and ran toward Hermione.

"Grandel! Wake up!"

But she did not respond. Her face was ghostly white and her robe was already soaked in blood.

Lucius picked her up in his arms and started running toward the castle. On his way, he was murmuring something without realizing it himself.

"Don't die, Grandel. Don't die..."

A/N: Whew! I finally updated. What do you think of this chapter? I know some of you thought that it would be about the Marauders' infamous prank on Snape, so I'm sure it was quite a surprise. There is three reasons why I did not use the prank in the story: first, it did not happen in their seventh year (if I remember correctly); second, I want to focus on Lucius and Hermione as much as possible, so I'm trying to keep out any sub characters; third, too many people use that incident in their stories.

Anyway, I'm developing another Lucius/Hermione fic, and I will start writing it after I finish this story. So keep your eyes opened! Thank you for reading and reviewing :)