Thanks for the follows guys! Chester99: I agree with you, it doesn't seem like something the brightest witch of her age would do. But in her defense, she is also very trusting of the people trying to help her, so I figured that she would trust the castle guard. But it was rather foolish of her :)

Chapter 10

It didn't take too long before they reached the end of the passageway. Its exit opened into an abandoned stable not that far from the castle grounds.
"They're not here" James spoke.
"Of course they aren't here. What do you think they are, stupid?" he hissed. Draco looked around the room and found nothing amiss. He exited the room and started looking at the ground, if he was right about this, there would be tracks.
"Ah here! Look, a carriage left from here, we can track it. " he sounded almost happy.
"We'll need horses for that." James commented. As much as Draco wanted to take off running, he knew James was right. They ran back to the castle and prepared two horses. Draco saddled Rogue, he had seen Hermione riding him and he was fast. James just prepared his own horse, a white stallion named Seawind, a ridiculous name for a horse, almost as ridiculous as its owner. It didn't take the boys long before they were galloping towards Hermione, or so they hoped.

Meanwhile Hermione was still sitting pretty in her little cell. Her wrists were raw and her body was aching. She heard another pair of footsteps approach her door. As the door opened she saw that damned Lord Davenport again. He walked over to her and grabbed her hands, yanking her forward.
"You can come up now, we'll get you cleaned up" he said as he tugged her up the stairs. Hermione wanted to yell at him that he was hurting her, but she didn't want to give him the satisfaction. He brought her to a big bedroom, probably his. She most certainly was still inside a castle, it was smaller than court, but still large. He sat her down on a bench in front of the fire and turned to close the door. He sat down next to her and Hermione was glaring at him. He grabbed a knife. Hermione crawled back on the bench, trying to get as far from him as humanly possible.
"Don't be ridiculous, my queen, I'm not going to hurt you" he smiled, grabbing her hands and yanking her back towards him. He placed his blade against her wrist and cut the rope that bound her hands together. Hermione gasped as the material was pulled of her, they had dried and stuck inside her wounds, wounds that were once more open and oozing blood. He grabbed a basin of water and a piece of cloth and started cleaning her wrists. Hermione whimpered every time the cloth touched her.
"I should tell you that your fiancée is indeed dead" he smiled at her. Hermione looked up at him.
"What?" she asked.
"He's dead, your Draco. He was cut down by one of my men as he was trying to run from the castle." He added.
"You're lying, Draco would never run" she spat.
"I'm not lying, my queen. He ran like the little coward he is and he was cut down because of it. He never even tried to find you" the man continued to speak. Hermione tried to wrap her mind around what he was saying.
"No, he's not dead, I don't believe you" she whispered, a single tear running down her cheek.
"He is" he simply added. "I hear he even begged for his life" he looked at her and smiled wickedly. Hermione pulled her wrists to her chest and away from his hands.
"Tomorrow, we'll go to your coronation together and after the event, you'll announce our wedding." He started to tell her.
"What? No, I will certainly not" she stood up.
"You will, you'll announce that you're going to marry me." He repeated. He raised from his seat and walked over to her. Hermione backed away, until she had nowhere left to go. Her back hit the wall and his body crashed into hers soon after. "I will never marry you" she spat, looking him in the eye. He laughed and grabbed her face in his hands.
"You won't have a choice." He hissed. He threw her on the bed and quickly crawled un top of her. Hermione struggled against him, but he proved too strong.
"What are you doing?" she shrieked.
"if you no longer have your virtue, no man other than me will touch you," he smiled. Hermione's eyes grew big and she started to fight him even harder. His hand grabbed her hands and raised them above her head, trapping them. His other hand travelled down to her thigh, quickly gathering up her skirt and touching her skin. Hermione was kicking and screaming but he didn't stop. As he touched her undergarments, she bit him, hard. Hard enough to draw blood. He hissed as blood trickled down his shoulder. He retaliated by slapping her hard. Hermione's vision went black. She tasted iron in her mouth, she must be bleeding. He started ripping her dress, his lips tasting every bit of exposed skin. When her vision returned, Hermione looked for anything that could help her regain the upper hand. She reached and grabbed a candlestick from the nightstand and cocked him on the head with it. He growled and rolled off her and she took that opportunity to ran to the door and pull it open, but she wasn't fast enough. A hand grabbed her wrist and threw her across the room.
"You little bitch" the man hissed, a small trickle of blood running down his face. Hermione crawled back as far as she could.
"I was being nice and offering to marry you. That's how far my loyalty reached, but I'm all out now" he yelled at her and Hermione couldn't help but think that she'd gotten herself into an even bigger mess. He stalked over to her and pulled her up by her wrists.
"I'll ask you once more and give you the chance to save yourself" he hissed, Hermione pressed her eyes shut.
"Marry me. Marry me or I will kill you right now" he whispered. Hermione remained silent for a second. Her brain running overtime trying to figure out what she would do. Damned that Gryffindor courage and stubbornness though, because when she heard herself speak the next second. She was sure she'd just signed her own death sentence.
"I will never marry you" she hissed before spitting in his face. He growled and threw her to the ground once more, unsheathing his sword and pointing it at her throat. The tip cut into her skin as she laid on her back, propped up on her elbows, panting. She watched his face as she waited for death to come. But it never did. Instead, she watched his eyes grew big as he dropped the sword, his hands grasping at the sword that stuck through his chest.

Draco heard voices at the end of the hall. He and James had entered the castle as quietly as possible and they agreed to go their separate ways, as that would cover more ground in less time. He followed the direction of the noise and heard a whimper that made his heart sink. He recognized her voice. He carefully opened the door and crept inside. There was a man standing over her, his sword at the edge of her throat. The next couple of minutes happened as though Draco was watching someone else in his body. He stalked his prey, and he drove his blade home. Right through his chest. The man sunk to his knees and Draco hurried to Hermione. He lifted her up in his arms. She was sobbing into his chest.
"you're alive" she whispered in his neck.
"I'm here, you're okay. No one is going to hurt you" he held he in his arms.
"Are you hurt?" he asked her. He pushed her of him and looked at her. Grabbing her hands in his, inspecting her. Her wrists were bound in bloody bandages. He hissed as he inspected her face. There was blood on her lip, trickling down her cheek and she had a cut on her throat. Her clothes were disheveled and ripped.
"I'm fine" she whispered, her hand touching his cheek.
"you're alive" she repeated. "They told me you were dead." He pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her once more.
"I'm here" he whispered before picking her up, his arms under her knees and behind her back and carrying her outside. He lifted her atop his horse and just as he mounted, the castle guards arrived. "They're inside. Lord James is already there. I want you to capture every last one of them." He ordered before digging his heals into Rogue's side and speeding off down the path back to the castle. It didn't take him long to get there. He was holding on to Hermione, one arm wrapped around her waist as her body leaned into him. The other hand was occupied with the reins. As soon as he entered the courtyard, the servants came rushing out of the castle. He dismounted his horse and Hermione slid off in his arms. He handed her to the servants as they were surrounding him. They carried her inside and into her room. Draco was told to wait outside. It took a little while before the doctor showed up and entered. Draco was pacing the hallway, waiting for news. The doctor exited and Draco rushed over to him.
"How is she?" he asked.
"She's going to be fine, no lasting effects, she's asking for you, my lord" the doctor responded and Draco turned to enter the room.

Hermione was sitting in her bed. Her servants had cleaned her up and dressed her in a new nightgown. The doctor had been in to see her and he had bound her wounds and gave her a tonic to help her. It tasted terrible, but it did seem to dull the ache. The door opened and Draco came in. He looked at her and she smiled softly at him. Hermione told everyone else to leave her room and they bowed before walking out. Draco walked towards her bed and sat down on the edge.
"How are you feeling?" he asked.
"I'm fine." She whispered.
"Do you want to tell me what happened?" she bit her lip.
"They came into my room, a guard, telling me the castle was under attack. He told me he needed to get me to safety and walked right into his trap. He took me to this secret passageway down in the cellar" she told him. He nodded.
"We found it and made our way to you." Hermione smiled softly.
"They threw me in a cell, and then this guy, Davenport, introduced himself." She looked away.
"He's some rich lord of Argon, and he is against me marrying you" she continued, "he wanted me to marry him instead, so naturally I refused." She stopped talking. Did she really want to tell Draco about what almost happened?
"How did you get away?" he asked, his eyes boring holes in hers.
"Well, he didn't take too kindly to my refusal. So he tried to … you know, he tried to" she stopped talking and looked away from him.
"He tried to what?" she heard the anger in his voice.
"He tried to rape me" she whispered, barely audible. He got up from the bed, unable to find something to distract him from his anger.
"But I fought him off, I hit him on the head and tried to run off, but he caught me, and that's when you found me" she ended her story. Draco grabbed a glass bottle from her nightstand and threw it at the wall. He watched it shatter against it surface, its contents slowly dripping down.
"Did you get them all?" she whispered. He nodded.
"Every living soul in that castle is in our dungeons now" he answered.
"Good" she smiled a little. "Are you really okay, Hermione?" he asked. She nodded softly and stepped away from him.
"I just need to get some rest" Draco nodded.
"I'll leave you to it then, I'll see you tomorrow" he smiled before walking out the door.