Enilas: LMAO! XD I'm sorry - wait, I'm not, I'm sure you liked it even if you won't admit ;)

tfobmv18: Thanks, I'm glad you liked it!

sweet-tang-honney: Thank you.

ajerickson21: Hehe ^^ yes, I guess you could say that there is some action in there!

deator11: Hello ^^ thanks for you review, sorry if I was long :S

-typingpictures-: Yo hablo un poco Espanol tambien ;) but as for the anon who called me an idiot, I had really written "appearing" at the beginning, because I didn't remember how it was and I was quite sure it was it. However I agree that he was quite an idiot, why did he need to insult me for that and not have the guts to log in before he did, I don't know XD

MargueriteHOL: Of course I can stop there! I'm the author! I'M ALL MIGHTLY! (XD)

David Fishwick: Well thanks a lot ^^ as for Pansy she will eventually, but it's going to take her a while. Right now she's quite pissed that Harry lied to her anyway.

-typingpictures-, take two: Thank you for that second and lovely review. As for the reviews I don't really mind (although of course I enjoy them a lot!), I'm guessing it's just because there're so many Dramione out there that mine can easily get lost and unnoticed among that huge ocean :) I'm just happy when someone knew discovers it and appreciates it like you did!

Chapter 21: Voldemort's servant

Draco ran down many corridors and stairs, without even paying attention to Harry that - even if he was in good shape - had troubles following him.

"Draco, for Merlin's sake-"
"Move your ass!" Draco yelled over his shoulder as he pushed the doors of the Entrance Hall.

A very cold wind hit his face and froze him to the bones, as he hadn't taken the time to grab a cloak before leaving the common room, but he didn't care. Something had happened to Hermione, he was sure of it.

"Draco, wait, you're gonna end up like a frozen statue-"

The Slytherin boy didn't reply and kept walking in the path leading to Hogsmeade. It was covered with snow that reached his knees, but he still walked very fast, as if he didn't even feel the cold and weight of the snow.

"Hey! You two there! The trip's over, you can't go!" the caretaker's voice raised in their backs.
"I told you," Harry muttered.
"And I told you I didn't give a shit - RUN!"

He was so cold he couldn't feel his body anymore: Harry wonderer how his friend managed to run that fast in these conditions. Filch quickly lost them, although he kept yelling "I'll find you!", "You can't hide forever!" and "I know your names - the headmistress will hear about it!" in their backs for quite a long moment.

Out of breath, Draco stopped as they reached the village. His fingers were numb, his legs were so cold that they actually ached a lot, but he didn't take care of that and looked around. Why would she be?

"The Three Broomsticks?" Harry suggested. "It's so cold, maybe she went there with some friends..."

Before Draco could reply, his grey eyes met very red hair getting out Rosemerta's pub. Ronald Weasley - for once, the Head Boy was glad to see him.

"Hey!" he said with a strong voice, running towards the Gryffindor, who was chatting with Longbottom and Parvati Patil.

The prefect stopped his conversation to give Draco a glare that clearly wished him a thousand painful agonies.

"Have you seen Hermione?" Malfoy asked, forgetting everything about their relationship's secret.
"Yeah," Weasley coldly replied.
"Where is she now?"
"I don't know and it isn't your fucking business, Malfoy."

He pushed him aside and started to walk back towards Hogwarts with his two friends.

"You must tell me! I've got to see her!"
"For what?"
"I... it's not your fucking business either! Just tell me where she is!"

Ron smirked.

"Yeah, right. Goodbye, Malfoy."

He left with Neville, but Parvati stayed behind with the two Slytherins. She seemed worried.

"You're looking for Hermione?" she asked carefully.
"You know where she is?"
"I..."

She seemed rather confused.

"She told me... for you two. So when I saw her leaving..."
"She left? When?!"
"Hours ago. She left the pub, saying she was going back because she had homework, and met with someone outside."
"She met with someone?" Harry asked. "Who? Did you see?"

She shook her head.

"No, it was snowing so much I could barely see outside and I didn't pay much attention. That was a man, with black clothes. He was tall and slender, I thought it was you, Malfoy! I think I even saw pale blond hair like yours! I could've sworn it was you... I thought she had just left to go with you somewhere else."

Suddenly, Draco became very aware of the cold surrending him. So she had left with a man... a blond man that she had mistaken for himself...

"I've... I've got to go," she said to the speechless Slytherin boys.

She left them, and Draco shouted his rage in the middle of the village.

"SON OF A BITCH! That fucking miserable son of a BITCH! He can't reach me so he got her, the fucking coward!"
"Hermione's a brilliant witch," Harry noticed. "She would've won against your father."
"My father fights dirty," Draco replied on a very pessismist tone.

He became even more horrified when his eyes met something in the snow. He walked towards it and took it. Hermione's magic wand.

"And she certainly didn't win wandless."

"Crucio!"

A brief but very strong pain took over Hermione's body.

"You filthy creature!"

Hermione bit her tongue so she wouldn't scream when Lucius Malfoy threw her against the stone wall with a wave of his wand. She had been doing it so much these last hours that she could taste blood in her mouth, but she refused to show her pain, she refused to give him the pleasure to know how much his spells and curses hurt her. Her head hit the stone very hard and she blinked, trying not to feel so dizzy. She had to find a way out of this hell before he decided to kill her.

"Disgusting Mudblood..."

She managed to stand up, looking at him right into the eyes. He looked so much like the young man she loved... but no, not really, now that she looked at him more closely. Although they both looked cold, Draco still managed to look like an angel. Lucius... Lucius looked like a devil no matter what.

She tried to move back as he walked towards her, but her back quickly met the wall and he grabbed her face between his cold and pale fingers. He smirked to her.

"Did you really think... I mean, did you sincerely believe I'd just let you dishonour the Malfoy's bloodline? You, someone as worthless as a stupid Muggle?"
"You're the dishonour," she replied with a low voice. "Not me, nor Draco. You."

He laughed humourlessly.

"I'd like to see you trying to explain that one, Mudblood."
"People like you," she replied with disdain, "Are the ones that are truly a disgrace to the reputation of the Pure Blood. Thanks to you and Voldemort's other slaves, people believe that every Pure Blood is prejudiced, extremist and close-minded."
"We are not slaves!" he replied coldly, throwing her on the floor of his basement again. "You filthy Mudblood have no idea what you're talking about!"

She raised half of her body from the cold floor and stared at him.

"Truth hurts, doesn't it?"

Lucius smirked and waved his wand: the terrible pain was back again. He kneeled next to her and everything stopped. Panting, she stared at him, eyes full of hate.

"These are merely lies proving that you're already losing your mind," he said with a careless and low voice. "I'm going to tell you something true, however. You're going to die, Mudblood, no matter if my son thinks you're hot enough to get fucked by him. You're going to die, and he'll never find out. He'll never care."

He shook his head in a fakely comforting way.

"How sad and ironic... the filthiest Mudblood who thought she could get the purest of all will die alone in the mansion where he grew up... farewell," he said as he slowly stood up.

Suddenly, the fear disappeared from Hermione's face and heart and her chocolate eyes widened. She looked as if she couldn't believe what was under her eyes, and she even - was she truly crazy? - started to smile as she glanced over his shoulder. Frowning, Lucius turned and froze.

Here stood his son, staring at him with anger, his fingers clenched in a tight fist.

"Get away from my girlfriend," he said with his most threatening voice.

Before Lucius could realise what was happening, before he could see Draco's fist in the air and register the information as a threat, he was laying on the floor, holding his painful and bleeding nose.

"Let's go," he said, grabbing Hermione's hand to Disapparate with her.

Hermione's body was still shaking against his when they got to Hogsmeade, and not only because of the cold.

"Goodn-ess," she said, breathing heavily. "How did you manage... how did you even guess-?"
"I'll explain when we get to Hogwarts. Hurry, I'm taking you to the hospital wing - I've already had Harry going for McGonagall..."

He held her against him very tightly as they walked towards their school, giving him as much warmth as he could, considering that he was himself freezing to the bones.

"HA!" Filch yelled in victory as he saw them coming. "I've got you at last - well, the Head Boy and the Head Girl, surely the headmistress-"
"Get lost, you worthless Squib," Draco's voice snapped back, still walking towards the castle.
"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME-"
"Dray!" Hermione said reproachfully.
"Sorry. I meant get lost, you fucking assho-"
"THE HEADMISTRESS IS GOING TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR FILTHY MOUTH BOY!" the caretaker shouted, grabbing Draco's ear with his fingers quite painfully.
"Ow, you nasty-"
"Enough! Let him go!" Minerva McGonagall's voice raised.
"He called me-" Filch started.
"Yes, I heard that, and I will take care of this. Now if you would leave him alone, Miss Granger here must be taken to the hospital wing and Mr Malfoy himself cannot stay outside in such clothes."

He scowled, but let go of the Slytherin's bright red ear and walked away angrily. Both of the students followed the headmistress inside.

Hermione had been forced by the nurse to lay on a bed as she looked at her carefully, while Draco was sitting on a chair, holding a cup full of a potion that was meant to bring warmth into his cold body. Harry was on his right side, his back leaned on the stone wall and his arms crossed, and McGonagall was standing next to Hermione's bed, looking awfully worried.

"Would you care to explain?" she asked to Draco. "Potter was quite in a hurry and thus was not very explicit."
"Hermione told me she'd be in Hogsmeade for only a few hours," Draco started slowly. "I hadn't noticed how late it was until Harry came in our common room. I was really worried, I... I just knew something had happened, or else she wouldn't be so late. I rushed to Hogsmeade with Harry, we bumped into Weasley, Longbottom and that Patil girl, the one in Gryffindor. I asked them about Hermione. Weasley wouldn't tell me a damn thing, but the girl did. She told us..."

His grey eyes darkened with anger, with fury, and his hand tightened so much around his cup that Harry wondered how come it didn't break. He cleared his throat and continued his friend's story:

"She told us that Hermione had left the Three Broomsticks hours ago to go back to Hogwarts, but that she saw her having a conversation with a blond man. She thought it was Draco so she didn't bother looking more."
"Thing is," Draco said with his angry and low voice, "It wasn't me at all. There's only one man that one could mistake for me - and that's my father."
"But why would he do anything to Miss Granger? I mean I see why, obviously, he is a Death Eater and she is Muggle-born, but why now? Kidnapping her in Hogsmeade was very risky. Did he act on his own, or on Voldemort's order."
"I think he acted on his own."

It was Hermione's faint voice. They all turned to look at her.

"That looked pretty personal to me - he said he wouldn't let me dishonour the Malfoy bloodline. He obviously can't stand that the two of us are together. He tortured me for this, he was even ready to kill me when Draco came in!"
"Tortured you?" Pomfrey said worringly, looking at her even more closely. "The Cruciatus Curse? My, my, dear, it must've been - are you certain you're alright?"
"I guess I'll be."

She frowned.

"To be perfectly honest with all of you, I thought that the Cruciatus Curse would be far worse than that. I mean it was horrible, unbearable pain, but not as much as I-"
"That is because my father wasn't using his own wand," Draco explained. "It was either my mother's, Bellatrix's, or any other Death Eater's."
"What? Why wouldn't he? A wizard is less powerful with another's wand, why did he weakened himself?"
"It's been broken."
"And what, he can't repair it?" Harry asked. "Or just get another one? It only cost eight Galleons for Merlin's sake."
"It's been snapped in two parts. I was there. He's been forbidden to get another one."
"And why is that?" his friend said, frowning.

Draco sneered in disdain.

"Because he is the Dark Lord's servant."
"Well Mr Malfoy this is quite the definition of a Death Eater-" McGonagall started.
"No, not servant in a Death Eater way. I mean he treats him like an house elf. The Dark Lord destroyed his wand as a punishment for both his behaviour and mine. Being forced to do everything without his magic must be the most unbearable thing for him - heck, I wonder if he even know how to shave without his wand. Well, anyway. I knew my father - or as I will be calling him by now, that son of a bitch - had probably brought her in the mansion's basement, where he would be perfectly free to do whatever pleased him. I send Harry here, Apparated there, got rid of him and brought her back here."

McGonagall stared at him in disbelief.

"Are you trying to make me swallow that you won a duel against your father?"

A smirk creeped on Draco's fine lips.

"Hardly," he replied.
"But then-"

The smirk grew bigger.

"I punched him."

Now Malfoy was clearly beaming.

"Damn, it feels good even when I just say it."

Next to him, Harry merely laughed.

"I figure the old Muggle way's the best way to deal with such a man," the prefect said to his friend.

He winked at Hermione.

"Muggles sure do good stuff after all."

Draco smiled softly as he looked at the Gryffindor girl who was now sitting on her bed.

"Indeed they do," he replied, staring at her.

End of the chapter: Sorry, got sort of blocked after Draco took her away from the mansion XD hope you liked it anyway :D not cliffy this time, enjoy :D