The nurse who had tended to Hermione's wounds had let her know everything. She was hidden underground by a pack of werewolf death eaters who planned on using her as bait to lure the king and queen away from the throne so Bellatrix could take it. If they don't come, they would change her.
After her finger had been wrapped and she was feeling very numb, she curled up in the corner of her cell and pressed the ring Draco had given her to her face. There was no light in the cell, so she examined it by her sense of touch. It was not extravagant. It was a simple gold band with many diamonds inlaid around the entirety of it. At the top was one single diamond, held on by tiny gold prongs. The metal and stones were cold against her face.
She wished nothing more than for Draco to be here with her. She had seen his face in the window when she had been taken, but there was no way for him to ever know where she had been taken, especially because she didn't even know herself.
Thinking back to her attack, though, she felt like it had been a hasty decision for the Death Eater to apparate them. If she had struggled her way to the ground, she guessed he would have pulled her to this cell. Perhaps this meant that she wasn't too far from the castle?
She hoped so.
The cell was very cold and very dirty, and, being underground, Hermione understood that. She only wished she had grabbed her shawl, or perhaps a dress that was a bit less torn than this. Oh, how she missed her jeans and sweaters. What she wouldn't have given for her old Hogwarts robes and a pair of tennis shoes.
She heard a noise outside her cell and sat up straight, staring hard in the direction of the door that had closed several minutes or hours or days or weeks ago and a little tray clattered to the ground. The stream of light that filtered in through the crack of the door did little to brighten the room and she could still see nothing. The door slammed shut, returning her to darkness, and she dropped her head back down to the ground, ignoring the offering left for her, preferring to sleep instead.
Hermione had a plan. Every time someone came to her room, she'd pretend to be dead. That way, they'd just leave her alone to die in peace. Because she really was done with this princess stuff. She really, really was.
...
Draco was petrified. Draco was terrified. Draco had no idea what to do.
"Lupin!" he shouted, sprinting through the castle, searching for someone, anyone that could help him. "Hermione's been taken! We have to help her!"
"Draco?" It was Harry's voice. Better him than no one.
Draco took the boy with stupid unruly hair by the shoulders. "Hermione was taken by a Death Eater! A werewolf one by the looks of him, too. We've got to find her. You get together a search team. I'll get a head start."
He took off down the hallway, but was stopped by Harry's voice calling him back.
"Wait, which direction did they go?"
"Beats me!" Draco cried. "They apparated!"
He dashed out of the castle, then, and Harry went back to find help.
Draco started by returning to where Hermione had been taken. There he found both of her shoes and a bloody rock. Searching the area, he found also a scrap of clothing, not hers. She must have really been fighting him.
He stood up and looked in all directions, then took off towards the woods. He hadn't looked like he'd been planning on apparating, so maybe if he was lucky they would still be in there somewhere.
...
"Gordon, go fetch the prisoner," said the man in the long black cloak with the short stubbly beard and the ice-blue eyes. "Bring her to the circle. It's almost time for her execution."
"Yes, Master Riddick," said Gordon, standing from the circle of meditating werewolves and hobbling away from their clearing and into a mostly-hidden cave in the side of a rocky wall. He covered it with foliage and crawled along a man-made corridor until he reached what they called the North Hall, though it was the only hall in the entire cave, a room about 6 meters by 10 with guards around the perimeter. Some had nodded off slightly, but it was alright because the trap-door at the center of the room was highly fortified, and Gordon himself was one of the only few able to actually open it and step inside and out again. The prisoner didn't have a single chance of escaping.
He pulled a key from beneath his robes and inserted it into the keyhole. The tumblers creaked and a click told him that the door was unlocked. He replaced the key and pulled open the door. There was a tingle of magic that caused the hairs on Gordon's arms to rise as he reached in and patted the floor directly below the door to see if he could just grab the girl and pull her up. He didn't feel her, so he dropped to the floor below and peered around. On one wall was a door that led out to an underground hall that eventually took you up to the clearing. On the other wall, the prisoner was lying on her side, facing the wall. She was extremely motionless and didn't seem to be reacting to him entering the room.
"Oi, prisoner," said Gordon, hoping she'd get up and walk over ot him so he didn't have to crouch down and drag her over. She didn't move.
"Oi! I'm talking to you, mudblood!"
There was still no answer, and the more Gordon stared at her, the less movement he saw. Was she...was she even breathing?
Approaching her as quickly as he could with the pain in his back, he placed a hand in front of her mouth and nose. Not a single draft. It was cold. Swallowing hard and crinkling his nose, he lifted one of her arms and dropped it to the floor. It thumped and stayed where it was.
Gordon swore. This wasn't going to turn out too well for anyone.
Gordon took the prisoner by the arm and dragged her closer to the exit. Then he hoisted her up and set her on the floor above before climbing out after her. Shutting the door behind him and taking up her arm again, he painfully tugged her out of the North Hall, down the long corridor, pushed aside the foliage and took her into the clearing. He replaced the foliage and took her to the center of the circle.
"Gordon," said Riddick slowly. "What have you done?"
"I think she's dead, Master," said Gordon quietly. "Found her this way, sir."
Riddick stood and circled the girl, then knelt and pressed his nose to her neck, inhaling deeply. She smelled alive...but it was true that she wasn't breathing. Or maybe she was holding her breath.
Riddick lifted his hand and brought it down on the girls face in a hard slap, sending her rolling onto her other side. Blood rushed to her cheek but she continued to hold her breath. She was still very much alive, but he wouldn't let her know he knew.
"She can still be used as bait," he said quietly, still watching her in case she decided to breathe. She was very good at holding her breath and keeping still. "Royalty need to be buried like royalty. They'll still want her." He straightened up and returned to his spot in the circle, crossing his legs and closing his eyes. "Take your seat, Gordon, while we wait."
...
Draco crashed through the woods, sending out sonar spells in all directions, waiting for them to bounce back and warn him of human life anywhere in the distance. It was faint, but he could feel it. And it seemed like a lot of people.
He was making quite a bit of noise and knew he would alert them all to his approach, but he couldn't care. Whatever happened, he would kill all of the bastards that took Hermione. He was no stranger to killing, unfortunately.
Finally, he knew he was very close when his spell practically hit him in the face. He stopped running and crouched down behind a log that had been on the ground for a very long time. It was decayed and covered in moss and insects. He rose his head just above the log and tried to see what was ahead.
There was a circle of people, sitting cross-legged on the ground. Their eyes were closed and they appeared to be waiting for something. Between them Draco could make out a shape, but could not see what it was. He felt as if a stone dropped to his stomach when he recognized the pale pink color of Hermione's gown.
With only a little hope remaining in Draco's body, he shifted on his hands and knees and climbed the tree beside the fallen log. One man opened his eyes and they darted towards where Draco had been. He pressed himself against the tree, hugging it tightly and pressing his eyes shut. He was an expert at hiding. If the Dark Lord couldn't find him, he couldn't make him do anything.
He continued climbing after counting to one hundred and planted himself safely on a tall branch and peered down over the wall of men and into their circle.
What he saw made his face turn hot and his hands turn cold. It felt like a punch to his brain - everything went blurry as his mind attempted to figure out what was going on. His eyes prickled and he stopped breathing. He felt a thump in his chest as his heart tried to keep itself beating.
Hermione was dead.
Quite unfortunately, Draco was used to being around dead people. She was dead. He could see it with his own eyes.
Feeling his face flush now with anger and his breathing grew ragged, he jumped down beside Hermione at the center of the circle. His shins stung and his ankles hurt but he didn't feel it, not at the forefront of his mind. Everything happened very slowly. The werewolves reacted quickly. Hermione was on the ground, not moving. Good. It made things easier. Draco drew his wand and began shouting every lethal or terrible curse he knew. He felt blood on his face and his arms but he wasn't sure if it was his own or the men he was trying to destroy.
There was a shuffle somewhere outside of the circle, but Draco didn't stop. Not until someone grabbed him by the arms and shoved him to the ground.
"Draco!" someone screamed in his face.
Draco made a strangled noise. "Kill me!"
He rolled out of the grasp of the order member holding tightly to him. He couldn't remember who they were anymore - they didn't matter at the moment.
The person - whoever it was - bashed Draco on the back of the head before he could kill anyone else and Draco fell to the ground, his eyes blurring and closing with Hermione's worried face in front of them.
...
Ay! It's been a while, hasn't it? Sorry about that... So I've decided that I'm going to target one of my stories at a time in order to get them done. This one is first! Lucky you guys! :)
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