By Bellemaine Chercoeur
bellemainec@yahoo.com
The walls of the lower levels were slick with moss and damp, and the further he moved downwards, the colder the surrounding air became. Even as he hurried, Snape feared that he would be too late. From the state of the classroom, Goyle had not been able to take the Granger girl without a fight. Even taken by surprise, she had obviously stood her ground and attempted to defend herself. Which made the fact that she had managed to somehow escape Goyle's attack even more worrisome.
Snape felt the chilled air burning his lungs as he ran down corridor after corridor. Granger must have lost her wand; even taken by surprise she would have been able to hex Goyle. Her skills were far above those of her classmates, and he could not imagine her being.... Snape viciously told his mind to stop that train of thought. Granger was still out here somewhere. The best case scenario he could think of was that Granger had managed to wrest Goyle's wand away from him and decided to run. Even though she far outweighed him in the magical stakes, Goyle was still physically imposing. Without a wand, Granger would have been almost helpless. If she had managed to get his wand away from him, then blasted that hole into the lower levels, then all he had to do was trace the hallways until he found them. Goyle, enraged no doubt by her behaviour, would have followed her. Her many years of experience in roaming the hallways after dark would be of use to her, she knew Hogwarts almost as well as Potter and Weasley. He tried to convince himself that she would merely be playing a game of hide and seek, staying out of Goyle's way until she could either stop him or escape from him.
The knot in his stomach that had formed when Draco confirmed that Lauren Bones's disappearance had been no accident twisted tighter. Somewhere in these dark caverns he would find them. And the only problem with his best case scenario was that he knew, deep down inside, that his fantasy best case scenario was simply that.
Fantasy.
Goyle had tapped the power of the Sangmalren. Once before, Snape had seen such a gaping hole. Once before, he had stood in a place that reeked of blood, yet no visible trace of it was to be seen. Hermione had not chosen to escape into the dungeons, she had been driven there. Goyle, the curse of the Sangmalren singing in his veins, had sent her on a quest. A quest to become his prey. He would stalk her with the cunning of a wild animal and the maliciousness of a human; he would drive her before him until she was blinded by terror and exhausted from the chase. He would not, could not, stop until he had sampled her hearts blood; the taste made sweeter by terror, exhaustion, despair and pain.
Forcing himself to move faster, Snape thundered around a corner and almost fell headlong into the wall. Gingerly picking himself up from the hard flagstones, he searched the floor for what had tripped him. He picked up the pitiful remains of a wand. His fingers tightened on the broken shards of yew, and gently caressed the dragon heartstring core. Her wand. His mouth tightened, and he placed the fragments in his pocket. He had to find them. Now.
**
Draco pummeled his fists against the empty painting that covered the entry to the Gryffindor Tower. He had no idea where McGonagall's rooms were, so he had ran to the only Gryffindor place he knew would be guarded. The entrance to Gryffindor tower. At last, the Fat Lady responded to his urgent thumps and pleas for attention with a grumpy demand to be told what was going on.
"Where is Professor McGonagall?" He forced the words out amidst his heaving breaths. "I have to see her, Professor Snape sent me." He saw that the Fat Lady was unmoved, and played his last desperate card. "It's about Hermione Granger, I must see Professor McGonagall now!"
The Fat Lady shot him an assessing look. "Well seeing Miss Granger is not in the tower, and you are obviously distressed..." She paused and Draco stifled the urge to grab the painting from the wall and shake her until she told him where McGonagall was. Her slightly creaky voice resumed, "Down there. Left and third door along, the one with thistles around the frame."
Draco skidded around the corner and threw himself at the door, pounding and begging McGonagall to answer quickly. He was rewarded by her sudden appearance before him, so sudden in fact that he stumbled forwards as the door suddenly opened. Before she could demand to know what was going on, Draco told her, the words tumbling out in coherent snatches. "Professor... Professor Snape told me to come here....Goyle is a Death Eater...Lauren Bones, and then he.....has Hermione Granger...tricked her into meeting him....I tried to get in I swear...went to Snape...he has gone after them....Blood you could smell blood but there wasn't anything there....she was missing...he told me to come here.....you must owl Professor Dumbledore immediately...he said the Sangmalren has been released."
Professor McGonagall paled, her eyes wide with apprehension. Silently, she grabbed Draco's sleeve and pulled him into her chambers. Depositing him in a nearby chair, she hurried to her fireplace and threw a frantic handful of floo powder onto the glowing embers. She snapped a single word, a word that Draco missed as he was half bent over trying to catch his breath. At any other time he might have been surprised at the face that appeared in the fireplace, but the events of the night so far had left him slightly numb and hard to shock.
"Yes Minerva?" The person that had answered McGonagall's call was familiar to any child who came from a wizarding family. The glossy raven hair that shone with silver streaks, the stunning blue eyes, the creamy skin. Morgana le Fay had entered legend eons ago, had stood beside Merlin and Arthur, yet Draco would swear that it was she.
McGonnagall dispelled any lingering doubt with her next words. "Morgana, I must speak with Albus. Immediately. It is a matter of life or death."
Morgana nodded. "You would not have risked the contact otherwise." She gestured to a person standing near her, and long moments later the wise face of Albus Dumbledore appeared in the fireplace.
The words tumbled from McGonagall's lips, and a part of Draco marveled at how well she could dissemble when under pressure. She must have known that the floo systems were not free from tampering, and she protected her message accordingly.
"We have a serious problem, Headmaster. The son of one of our finer patrons has laid a problem at my feet, at the recommendation of one of our most trusted members. We have news of a new start Albus, news of one we wish to contact and confirmation of the status of a beloved student. The trusted one asks that you return immediately. This situation requires your attention. He calls you."
Draco watched in fascination as the well-known face of Albus Dumbledore changed into the visage of someone immensely powerful, immensely determined and quite unfamiliar to the young Slytherin. The usual geniality, kindness and slight air of vagueness had disappeared, to be replaced by the powerful wizard only a select few ever saw. In that moment, Draco realised why the Dark Lord had never attacked Hogwarts directly.
Dumbledore nodded once, then asked McGonagall to step back from the fireplace. She did so, and dragged Draco out of the chair and pushed him against the far wall. "Look away, Mr Malfoy. Do not watch as he comes through."
An incandescent light burst from the fireplace, and Draco threw both hands up to protect his eyes. Two figures stumbled into the room, and as the light flared about them, a sense of immense power filled the room. The sense died with the light, but Draco knew that he had not imagined it. Voldemort was not the only powerful wizard in the world.
Morgana strode forward and clasped both his shoulders in a firm grip. She locked her gaze to his, and he felt the force of her presence settle like a tangible thing about them. He was dimly aware of Dumbledore coming to stand beside them. Morgana softly said, "Tell us all, Draco Malfoy," and without any hesitation, Draco did so.
**
Hermione fought to hang onto the last scrap of reason left within her mind. Goyle had hunted her like an animal seeks its prey, driving her before him into the dark cellars like hunting hounds drove the fox and hare before them. He had taken her by surprise, stunning her long enough to throw her off balance, but she had kept hold of her wand. For a while. No matter what charm, hex or spell she had thrown at him, he had shrugged it off, overcoming it with seemingly no effort. It was only when he had struck her for the first time that she allowed herself to realise that Goyle had not tricked her into some kind of stupid and petty wizard's duel. As his heavy hand had smashed into her jaw, grinding her teeth against her tongue and filling her mouth with blood, she acknowledged that Goyle was not some silly schoolboy seeking gratification through bullying. She had stumbled backwards and fallen, spitting blood, and he had laughed. Not his usual thickheaded laugh; something infinitely crueler. Something that delighted in her pain. Something ... almost inhuman.
The next few moments were mercifully scrambled in her brain. He had struck her, and although she had tried to retaliate through the only option left to her, most of her magic was concentrated on keeping herself alive. She thickened the air around her to slow down his punches, softened walls so her landings were less heavy, even tried to create a barrier to keep him away. Nothing worked for long, and after he had somehow thrown her halfway across the room; she knew he was growing bored. As she staggered to her feet, he snarled at her. "Run."
She stared at him, befuddled as he backhanded her again. "Run!" He hit her again, throwing her in the opposite direction. "Run!"
Seeing the terrible light shining in his eyes, Hermione gathered as much concentration as she could, pulling pain, anger, fear and hope into one seething mass of will. She released it at the floor, and plummeted into the cellars as the stones beneath her feet exploded into nothingness.
**
"Parry, are you awake?" Lavender Brown kept her voice as quiet as possible as she asked the question.
Parvati Patil rolled on to her back and looked in Lavendar's direction. "Barely. What's up Lav?"
"I'm not entirely sure, but I am worried. Lumos." A soft glow filled the room, and Lavendar sat up in her bed, tucking the quilt under her arms as she did so. "Hermione's gone."
"What?"
"Hermione is not here. Her bed has not been slept in, and she's gone!"
Parvati threw a hand in front of her mouth as tried to stifle a yawn. "Well, she wasn't here at curfew, why are you worried now?"
Carefully smoothing her sleep-tousled hair over her ears, Lavender paused, then said, "Remember our reading in Divination this morning? I think this is the true Event!"
Parvati's eyes widened. "Are you sure?"
Lavender nodded enthusiastically. "Yes. Remember, "Janus shall lay his favour upon he who calls to blood. The lioness shall be taken, the Dragon shall fly, the Serpent shall strike and the phoenix will burn. At the turn of the tide, that which was lost shall be found and hope triumphs." It all fits!"
Silence reigned, broken only by the sound of a deep breath being drawn. Pavarti raised an eyebrow, then asked, "And how does all of that relate to Hermione not being in bed?"
Fixing her Divination partner with a cold glare, Lavender said, "Professor Trelawney said we must look beyond the material world to truly see the future."
"Well, yes, but seeing the material world is only showing that Hermione is missing from her bed in the middle of the night.....oh. I see your point. I suppose Hermione could be seen as a lioness... What do you think we should do?"
"I think there is only one thing that we can do. We need to get Harry and Ron; who else manages to sneak around Hogwarts in the middle of the night without getting caught?"
Five minutes later, two hastily dressed Gryffindor girls snuck into the seventh year boys dormitory in Gryffingor Tower. As stealthily as possible, Parvati headed towards Harry Potter's bed. She was just about to shake Harry awake when Lavender grabbed her arm and hissed a question at her," How do you know that Harry is in that bed?"
"Easy! He is always in the second to the left one."
"And how do you know that?"
"Um. Common Knowledge?"
"Parry, I think we need to have a talk about why you are so familiar with the boys dormitory."
"What in the bloody hell are you two doing in here?"
Lavender and Pavarti exchanged a look that positively reeked of caught in the act chagrin, then Lavender bent down to whisper to him, "We have a problem; Hermione is missing."
Both girls managed to stifle a scream as Ron Weasley popped up in the next bed and said, "You mean she's not in bed? Since when did Hermione Granger have adventures without us?"
Lavender shot him a look full of disdain, whilst Parvati said scornfully, "I don't think she's having an adventure, Ron. I think something terrible has happened. Don't you remember what happened in Divination today?"
"To be honest, I try to actively forget everything that happens in Divination. I don't need that rubbish cluttering up my memory when there are vital Quidditch stats to be memorized."
Having reached the limit of his tolerance, and concerned about the likelihood of waking up everyone else in the room if a full scale brawl over the legitimacy of Divination erupted over his bed, Harry climbed out of bed, grabbed his dressing gown and demanded that the three of them follow him into the Common Room to sort things out.
Fifteen minutes later, and after much arguing, Ron and Harry agreed that regardless of whether Divination was an art or inexact science, the bottom line was that Hermione was not in her bed. As neither Harry nor Ron had any idea that she was planning a nocturnal excursion, they agreed that her absence was a concern. Harry summoned his invisibility clock, and together the four Gryffindors crept out into the Halls. Unfortunately, one invisibility cloak does not cover four grown up sized Gryffindors, and they realised that they were going to be forced to rely on skill and luck when it came to evading Filch and Mrs Norris. If even one of them had even the slightest inkling of the danger that stalked the Halls that night their mood would have been more sombre and careful, and the results might have been less tragic.
I have increased the rating on this story from PG13 to R; just to be on the safe side. There will be no lemony goodness, I am more concerned about the violence inherent in the Sangmalren, it is going to get nasty...er!
Otherwise, please let me know what you think, I welcome any and all comments.
