Oh, my word! This chapter has taken me months to finish. It has fought me every step of the way. I am so sorry that it has taken so long to update this story. I want to thank everyone that has stuck with me through this dry spell. My muse for this story hightailed it out of here in January after beginning this chapter and I am just realizing that it has been almost a year since I posted on this story. Please forgive me. I promise not to take so long for my next chapter. I want to thank you all for your favorites, follows and reviews. You guys are awesome! This chapter was meant to go in a different direction, but Hermione got pissed off and changed it up a bit. I hope that she isn't too OOC and I really hope that you enjoy it!
Bound to You
HGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHG
The night had turned to hell with the shouts and bangs of spell-fire ringing across the moor. Fire ripped through the tents like a hot breeze as witches, wizards, entire families tried to escape the chaos. Mr. Weasley had roused the girls from their separate tent and screamed at them to hurry, not to worry about dressing, to grab their wands and go.
Hermione had slept in pajamas so was fully covered once she added her coat and threw her bag across her shoulders. She was not taking any chances that the tent might not be there if they could return later. She made sure that the younger witch was covered and had her own wand before following her out of the tent.
They met the other members of the Weasley clan along with Harry, outside of the male wizard's tent and followed the directions of Mr. Weasley. He told them to head for the woods with the twins and Ginny, while he and the older Weasley siblings went to help the ministry officials with the evacuation.
As the teens headed towards the woods, they became separated. Harry was lagging and once Hermione realized this, she too turned to try and reach him yelling at him to hurry. If it were dark wizards causing this chaos, Harry should not be on his own.
They all reached the tree line, following behind Ginny and the twins as they moved quickly towards the other people that were hiding there. When they repeatedly kept tripping over tree roots, Hermione had had enough.
"Lumos" the witch cried out, startling them all with the brilliance of the light emanating from her wand. They were far enough into the woods that they should not be spotted, so they continued, following her lead.
Up ahead was a tall platinum blond wizard leaning against a tree watching the procession of the teens through the woods.
"Hey Granger", the teen drawled once they were closer. "You might want to keep your bushy head down while walking through these woods. They are looking for muggles don't you know, you wouldn't want to attract their attention."
"Hermione isn't a muggle Malfoy; she is a witch." Growled Harry from behind her. "Those ragtag bunch of wizards including your father had better keep their distance."
"Then do your job for once and protect her Potter, you wouldn't want her to be floating out there showing off her knickers." Snarled Draco. Looking at Hermione, he flicked his wand once and her hair tied itself back, making her virtually unrecognizable from the back.
Surprised but oddly grateful, Hermione nodded once at Draco before he smirked and continued through the forest.
"That bloody berk, saying that we don't take care of Mione. He probably put some sort of tracker on her hair so that they could find her quicker." Complained Ron, looking disgustedly at Hermione's pulled back hair.
"Ronald, what are you on about? There isn't a tracker in my hair, it is a beauty charm that the girls in my dorm use frequently." Said Hermione exasperatedly, still a bit gob smacked that Malfoy had cared enough to make a point of restraining her hair.
"I wonder where the poof learned it from then? What chap learns hair charms anyway?"
"Bill knows hair charms, Ron as do Charlie and Percy, they have all helped me with my hair when I was younger." Explained Ginny, looking at her brother like he was a dunce.
Getting a bit redder in the face and about his ears, a sure sign that his temper was rising, Ron stated "Well it isn't like he has a little sister to help at home, does he? Why would he need to know them?"
"Maybe he learned so that he could put to rights the hair of the girls he has been snogging." Replied Fred snidely, not noticing the bit of a wince on Harry 's face in response to that speculation.
"It doesn't matter, we need to go a little deeper into the woods and lay low for a bit until this little show ends," said Hermione a little breathlessly. For all that she exercised while on break from school and her terror at the end of the school year, when running from Professor Lupin during the full moon, she was not accustomed to running in terror from Wizards in masks through the moors of Great Britain.
They came across a clearing that contained several veela huddled together from the riot, while wizards that had apparently stumbled upon them or followed behind them tried to regal them with stories of their heroism and riches, the veela looked at them like they were mad. Hermione could tell that Ron wanted to join them, but she caught the eye of Ginny who proceeded to hustle all the wizards along deeper into the woods.
Finally, they took a seat on some felled trees and tried to catch their breath. Unable to contain themselves, Fred and George took off further into the woods, hoping to swing around and find out how the rest of their family were faring and hustled Ginny along with them as she was their responsibility according to Mr. Weasley.
Ron sat watching his miniature Krum walk across his palm, his little face in a scowl as his miniature broom would not fly. Harry sat in silence, probably contemplating further that this was somehow his fault and Hermione sat watching both of them and questioning her decision for attending this match once again. She did not regret being here for Harry, but truly it seemed like they were involved in one disaster after another for the last three years and it did not look to be letting up at all.
Noticing the quietness of the woods, the trio agreed to continue on towards where the port-key had dropped them off hours ago to see if anyone else had, had the same idea. Upon reaching the clearing where they had fallen unceremoniously earlier, they heard a dark shout ahead of them.
"Morsmorde"
Unsure of where the strange call had come from, the trio ran as fast as they could towards the far side of the clearing, only catching a slight glimpse of the man that had conjured the mark glowing above them.
Not quite reaching the edge of the tree line in front of them, they paused when they heard the yell of "Stop!" Turning abruptly, Hermione saw roughly twenty or more witches and wizards behind them with their wands raised and as one yelled "Stupify!"
"Boys, get down!" screamed Hermione pushing them down to the ground, while raising her hands in front of herself. "Protego Maxima!" she yelled, feeling the sting of the spells as they collided with her shield. Her adrenaline running high, she pushed as much power as she could into her shield and directed them back towards their attackers."
"Stop!" Screamed Mr. Weasely, "That's my son!" he yelled.
Running more quickly then she thought his not quite fit body would allow, Mr. Weasley came to an abrupt stop beside the collection of aurors looking down at the three teens, surrounded by the flickering shield that Hermione still held above them, her wand tucked against her thumb."
"Which one of you did it, which one of you conjured the Dark Mark?" asked Mr. Crouch aggressively looking at the three, while Hermione let her shield drop once she recognized the people that were surrounding them.
"None of us conjured it Mr. Crouch, we were hiding amongst the trees when we heard a rustling in the behind us and a man's voice saying the incantation." Explained Hermione, while getting to her feet, she reached behind her and helped first Harry and then Ron to their feet.
"You sound awfully well-informed missy, on how that mark is conjured, perhaps you are wishing to divert the attention from yourself by blaming a hapless passing wizard?" Speculated Mr. Crouch pointing his wand at Hermione.
Wanting to roll her eyes, but instead seeming to channel her taciturn Potion's Professor, by raising her eyebrows and standing to her full diminutive five-foot three-inch stature before crossing her arms across her chest and responding."
"Why yes Mr. Crouch, me a teenage, muggleborn witch, whom is best friends with Harry Potter, conjured the Dark Mark for shits and giggles, while a family of muggles was being harassed. That sounds just like something I might do."
Both boys looked at their best friend in utter shock as Hermione talked down to the head of the DMLE. They had never heard her speak to anyone so disrespectfully or look so much like their hated Potion's professor while doing it.
"Hermione!" They both cried out in shock.
Rolling her eyes now at the utter disbelief in her friend's voices, she then turned address the aurors surrounding them. "The wizard who conjured the mark was over there. "She said while pointing to the edge of the wood.
The other members of the DMLE looked to where she pointed, several with a bit of a smirk on their faces.
"Barty, over here" cried Amos Diggory, where he had found an unconscious house elf holding a wand.
The ridiculousness of the following conversation and show of power over a hapless house elf, just made Hermione, more and more irritated. When Harry had discovered that his wand was used to conjure the Dark Mark, her aggravation grew to previously unknown levels.
Seemingly unaware of the magic crackling around Hermione's head and at the end of her curls, Mr. Weasley finally decided it was time to round up his family and return to see if the tents that they had inhabited earlier were still fit to use.
The three teens marched behind Mr. Weasley barely noticing the devastation around them. The men of the group that is, Hermione saw everything that they passed and it made her more and more worried that this year was going to be worse than the other three combined, if this was how their summer was ending.
They returned to their tent, where they encountered the remainder of their party. Questions were asked and explanations were given over their location, the conjouring of the Dark Mark, Mr. Crouch's firing of his house elf and Hermione's verbal evisceration of said house elf employer. The resulting argument with Percy Weasley of all people resulted in Hermione walking out of the tent and questioning the sanity in her decision to remain in the wizarding world.
"Hermione, I can't believe that you of all people would speak to a man such as Mr. Crouch like that! Exclaimed Percy, looking baffled at the young witch in front of him. "That man is my boss and you were a guest of ours."
Feeling mildly bad about seeming disrespectful of her hosts family, she felt that she should apologize, but then remembered facing the twenty or so aurors set to stun her.
"Percy, I am sorry that it seemed disrespectful to you, but we were the ones facing twenty wands aiming to stun us at once and then being accused of conjuring the Dark Mark probably didn't bring out the best in me."
"She looked like bloody Snape, when she went off on Crouch", whispered Ron to his siblings that were surrounding them.
"It is still bad that you then had the nerve to question how he treats his elves? They are his employee's, they should be loyal to him, given the position that he is in."
"So, what, Winky should have just stayed in their tent, while it was burned down around her, because he ordered her to? She isn't an employee to him, she isn't paid, she is a slave."
"Hermione, you think that you know so much, but you don't know enough about our world to know how the relationships between magical creatures and wizards work." Said Percy a bit condescendingly.
Shocked to hear this from the one person in the Weasley family, that she thought she had at least something in common with and whom she had defended to his own brothers on more than one occasion, she bit out more defensively, her voice biting and cold.
"And that is my fault how? Where is the manual on how to treat House Elves? I've already seen how Werewolves are treated and Goblins are talked about. And Muggleborns, we must fall into that oddity of magical creature as well. You know, the more time that I spend in this "world" the less that I feel welcomed in it. I don't even know why I got an invite in the first place, I'm obviously not wanted here, the travesty that happened tonight with those muggles and Death Eaters proved that."
With those final words and leaving behind a chill in the air, Hermione walked out of the tent determined to try and find her way home.