Hermione said the password and entered the dorm, Sirius following behind her. He whistled. "Nice place. A lot nicer than when James and Lily were the Heads."
Hermione shrugged distractedly and made her way towards Draco's room, feeling more and more anxious and excited to see him with every step she took. But when she opened the door...he was no where to be found.
Just in case, she called out, "Draco?"
There was no answer.
"Draco?" she called once more.
Still no answer. She cautiously entered the room. Oh, Merlin, she had feared this. It must have been what they'd been talking about, the Death Eater's coming after her through Draco. She began breathing rather heavily as she started searching the room for any sign of what might have happened.
"You alright, doll?" Sirius asked, poking his head in. "Where's Malfoy?"
"I don't know!" Hermione exclaimed. "I don't know where he could have gone!"
"Well, calm down," Sirius replied, stepping into the room with his hands on his hips. He looked a little worried himself underneath it all. "I'm sure nothing bad has happened. Maybe he went to the hospital wing? Or maybe he's visiting Minnie? I know I could never resist her."
Hermione gave him a weird look before she shook her head and began nearly tearing apart Draco's room in search of her blonde boyfriend. "No, he knew I was coming to check on him...Oh, Merlin, and I'm even late! Where could he have gotten off to?"
"Hey, what's this?"
Hermione looked up from beneath Draco's bed in time to see Sirius kneeling down to pick up a small scrap of parchment. He skimmed it before handing it to a quickly approaching Hermione. "You might want to read this."
She snatched it from his grasp and read it over. She was horrified. Was Draco stupid enough to fall for this? Of course it was a trap!
She flipped it over to make sure she'd read everything. The backside was blank, but as she was about to turn it back around so she could go and save that idiot, she spotted something. A little red mark. She was about to simply pass it off as an ink spot, but soon that spot began to grow. It grew from the centre, words and punctuation unfurling until she could decipher the hidden message, scrawled in neat cursive and by way of red ink. The handwriting was the same of that which had been carved into her arm. As she read the note, that very patch of skin, now bearing her blood status, began to tingle.
Mudblood,
If you are reading this, you are now aware that your precious boyfriend has been kidnapped. If you wish for him to not be harmed, I would come to the specific location outlined in the adorable letter written by my sister to her darling son, intercepted by me. Come alone and before nine, or face the consequences. You know what we wish to use you for.
Bellatrix Lestrange
The ends of each letter seemed to Hermione like knife points, stabbing her as she read, causing her to bleed the very ink from the paper. Her eyes stung. What was she going to do?
"Hermione, what is that?"
Sirius took back the note and read the hidden message, meant only for her. H crumpled the letter and dropped it in the doorframe. He swore loudly.
"I'm going," Hermione said, pushing past the older man.
"Oh, I don't think so," Sirius replied, grasping Hermione's wrist as she tried to leave.
"Let me go!" she said, trying to yank herself away from him.
"Why?" Sirius demanded, sounding dangerous. "So you can go and get yourself killed? Not to mention get all of the Order's information stolen and used against us? Not going to happen."
"So what do you propose we do?" Hermione demanded.
"We go and fetch the rest of the Order and all attack together," Sirius tried to reason.
"You read the note-there's no time!" Hermione exclaimed. "Plus, I have to go alone. I don't want to even know what the 'consequences' are."
"They don't have any consequences set up because they know you're going to come!" Sirius let out an odd half-laugh, half-growl. "You're just doing exactly what they want you to do!"
Hermione groaned, knowing he was right, but not ready to give up. She had to save Draco.
Sirius thought she was giving up, and loosened his grip. As soon as he had let go enough, Hermione ripped away and shot off out of the room and down the hall, straight to the same tunnel Draco had used.
"Hermione!" Sirius roared, chasing after her. But she had done a lot more recent running for her life, and was half-way through the tunnel before Sirius had managed to catch up with her.
When he had made it close enough for the two to speak together, he said, "At least let me come with you."
"Sirius, they want me alone."
"Are you stupid?" he whispered. "If you go alone, you're both goners. I'm coming with you, and that's final. I'll only show up when things get bad, I promise."
Hermione sighed, but nodded and continued climbing down the tunnel.
They soon made it out of the tunnel. They weren't even given a moment to catch their breath or allow their eyes to adjust to the sunlight, when they were suddenly blasted with fifty different spells and knocked completely unconscious.
Meanwhile, Blaise was returning to the dorm. No one had seen Draco all day, and he wasn't in the hospital wing. He just couldn't understand where Draco might have gone.
He decided to check the bedroom again, thinking that his experience earlier might have somehow been a dream, and Draco had been in there all along.
He had no such luck, but something was much different about the room. It had been completely ransacked.
"Oh, no," Blaise mumbled, moving to step into the room. Something crinkled beneath his foot, and he moved to pick up the piece of parchment. Quickly un-crinkling it, he scanned it over. He flipped over the note, and, horrified, ran from the castle, up to Dumbledore's office, knowing the password from a previous encounter, and he took a handful of floo powder from the jar on the mantle. He threw it into the fireplace and said breathlessly, "Number 12 Grimmauld Place!"
He had to warn the Order.
As he tumbled into the kitchen, the occupants of the room jumped to their feet. It appeared each of them were currently preparing to resign to their bedrooms. He was glad he'd caught them.
"Who's in charge?" he exclaimed.
Remus glanced around before getting to his feet. "I'd say that is me, Mr. Zabini. What is the meaning of this?"
"It's Draco and Hermione, Professor," Blaise said, moving around the table to hand Remus the letter. Remus read it over. "And the back."
Remus's eyes grew wide. When he had finished, he glanced at his watch, set down the paper and pulled on his jacket. "I need three people to come with me. Harry, Blaise, you two will do. Come along, don't dally. We have to go, now."
The group ran outside and quickly apparated into the town of Hogsmeade, hoping with all they had that they weren't too late.
...
Kind of short...sorry. :( But it's a chapter, and not too far away from the previous one! I hope you enjoyed, but I won't know unless you press that sexy little blue button that says "Review." Who knows, maybe it'll grant you a wish if you press it and review? It only works if you press submit. ^^
Just kidding. Only review if you want to. I have no control over you. Actually, I could just deny you chapters...but I'm not cruel, and I love writing. ^^
Anyways, until next time, do what you want and I'll be writing! ^^
