Darkness Falls Chapter Three
By Bellemaine Cherceour
bellemainec@yahoo.com



The library was empty. Only the ever-present books resided there, and although they diligently searched the stacks, the four Gryffindors could find no trace of Hermione.

"Well she's not here. Although she has left all her books here so it looks like she was planning on coming back for them tonight. Any idea where she could be?"

Lavender considered for a second, then said, "Well I think the Astronomy Tower is out."

Harry exchanged a look with Ron, then forced himself to ask, "Why?"

Parvati, shooting a death glare towards Lavender for revealing Secrets to the Uninitiated, tried to divert them by saying, "Hermione doesn't like heights remember."

Ron snorted. "I know Hermione doesn't like heights, that's why I had George and Fred bundle her onto the back of a broom during a Quidditch game at the Burrow! She's fine with the Tower though, I think it's only flying that makes her slightly queasy."

Parvati seized the opportunity, "How did you know that Hermione was fine with the top of the Astronomy Tower, Ron? I didn't think she had been up there since she stormed out of Divination back in third year."

Harry watched in stunned astonishment as a blush rampaged over his friend's face, turning it to precisely the same shade as his hair. "Bloody hell, Ron! Did you snog Hermione? Up the top of the Astronomy Tower?"

Amazingly enough, Ron was able to blush harder.

Lavender let out a whoop of victory and clapped her hands together. "I told you! I told you all that fighting, that whole stand back and shake hands thing after she was petrified, the way Ron acted like a bear with a sore head when Victor Krum was around; I knew it! You so owe me, Pavarti! Correct location and participants! I win!"

"Win what?" Harry managed to tear his gaze from Ron's face with difficulty.

"A robe at Miss Malkin's and a beauty treatment at Madame Alchemie's Salon off Diagon Alley. I am going to revel in it. Although, was there was shagging involved? I win more if there was!"

Ron finally found his tongue. "Shut up Lavender. None of your business."

Harry paused then said quietly, "I do think it might have been my business, Ron. At least a hint that my two best friends were going to be something more to each other. That might have been appreciated."

Ron grabbed Harry's elbow and dragged him a short distance away for some privacy. Lavender and Pavarti assisted his attempt by falling to squabbling over precisely what was involved in the reward of a beauty treatment at Madame Alchemie's.

"Harry, I swear to you it was just the once. I tricked her, left her a note that said we needed to see her urgently on the top of the Tower. She arrived and was pretty upset to find that I had tricked her. I screwed up the courage to tell her how I felt about her, how jealous I had been of Krum and how I wanted us to be together and I realised that she wasn't really listening. She had been looking at the stars and peering over the edge of the Tower. She turned to me and grinned, then said, "Ron! I'm not scared of heights, only of flying! Thank you!" Then she threw herself at me and we hugged. She pulled back a bit, apologized for not listening and asked why we were there. I just leant down and ... kissed her. It was nice, and I certainly enjoyed it, but there were no fireworks. Hermione lifted an eyebrow at me and asked if I was alright, and then gave me the speech about how we were friends, and she treasured me as one of her best friends and how we always would be friends and how she would always remember that I was the one who showed her that she was only scared of flying not of heights. All in all, it was a bit mortifying, so I didn't say anything about it; I wasn't sure that Hermione wanted me to either."

Lavender, having agreed that while a deep conditioning hair treatment would not count, a leg depilation, facial mask and massage would count as part of the rewarding beauty treatment, coughed to catch Ron and Harry's attention. "Everything ok?"

Ron looked at Harry, who smiled and thumped Ron on the shoulder. "Never better."

Pavarti grinned, then said, "Except for our missing friend?"

Harry sobered immediately, and Ron cast a harried glare about him. "Right, if I was Hermione where would I be?"

Harry grinned cheekily and said, "Not with you apparently."

Ron glared. "And you ask why I didn't tell you?"

***
It seemed to take hours. His legs ached and his lungs burned. He had no real sense of passing time, and Snape refused to consider it too closely as he knew that the longer he took to find them, the less chance he had of intervening. He mentally cursed the blundering Ministry official that had called Dumbledore away from Hogwarts. Of any wizard, living or dead, Snape would trust Dumbledore to be able to stop Goyle, curse or no curse. If anything, Dumbledore might have sensed the fact that Goyle was under the influence of something so dark. Hell, he should have realised. He was head of Slytherin House, he was responsible for his students. He should have known. He should have **known**. Goyle was one of his, and it was not so farfetched to consider Goyle as a possible initiate. Although, Goyle had not been present at any of the meetings Snape had been invited to...

The thought dragged Snape to a halt. He forced himself to catalogue the attendants at the last Death Eater meetings he had been invited to attend. The last Death Eater initiation had taken place three months ago; a girl from Durmstrang who had transferred to England to study at Avalon. The last initiation of a Hogwarts student had been ten months before that. The sick feeling in Snape's stomach increased as he realised that Lucius Malfoy had extremely effectively cut him out of the loop. His cover as a loyal follower of Voldemort may still be intact, but due to the political jockeying of Malfoy, Snape had been cast from the innermost circle. If he was being omitted from initiations, how many other clandestine gatherings had he been excluded from?

Draco. Even Draco had known; had come to him when he realised that the darkness was too much to bear. Malfoy junior should have thought him to be a comrade in arms, a fellow Death Eater who lived for Voldemort's ascendance. Yet Draco had come to him, and told him of Goyle's involvement, of how the Sangmalren had been called, had betrayed his Father, the Death Eaters, the Dark Lord, all of it in one fell swoop. He had risked it all on the recognition that Snape was no true servant but a spy. Which raised a most definite question; why had he not been killed before now? Why had Voldemort ordered his followers to leave him in ignorant safety? Why had be been tagged as untouchable?

The terrified scream that echoed down the tunnel harshly recalled him to reality, and he thundered down the hallway towards the cry. He turned a corner and found himself barely able to keep from vomiting as the sickening stench of fresh blood and fear surrounded him.

**
Flanked by Albus Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall, the Custodian of Light and the Lore of Avalon swept through the halls of Hogwarts. Morgana le Fay entered the shattered classroom, and peered into the jagged hole.

"He went down there. He went after them, he went after her." Draco spoke quietly, the habitual arrogance completely wiped from his voice, his countenance and his attitude.

Morgana paused to lay a hand on his cheek. "You have done well, young Malfoy. This has not been an easy task for you, and I thank you for your choice. I swear to you, you will not come to regret it. You will stand under my protection." She turned towards Dumbledore, and said, "The longer he remains free, the stronger the Sangmalren will grow. If he fully tastes her blood, it may be beyond even our power to contain him."

Dumbledore sighed and nodded. "Time is one of our greatest allies in halting the power of the Sangmalren, Draco. Only in the hunt can it be captured and contained, and it will be at great risk to those involved. Snape knows this, as he knows that it feeds on blood and fear and dark magic."

"It is time Albus." Minerva extended her arm, and soft golden light spilled from her wand into the darkness below them. "We must go."

Morgana and Dumbledore nodded, then in turn stepped into the gaping chasm. Left behind, Malfoy sat down to wait for their return. His idea to remain silent and still until they returned lasted all of thirty seconds before he pushed himself to his feet and began to pace.

***

All the usual places turned up empty, and even the unlikelier places held no trace of Hermione. Just as Harry and Lavender were arguing about fetching Professor McGonnagal to help, Pavarti silenced them all by flinging up a hand and demanding that they shush.

Silently she crept towards the hall on her left. She listened for a moment, then beckoned them over. "I thought I heard someone speaking."

A crash resounded from the Arithmancy classroom down the hall, and the four of them crept closer.

Ron let out a low whistle. "Bloody hell. What happened here?" The wall surrounding the classroom was door was scorched and chipped, and a sizeable chunk of the masonry had been literally blown away, creating in effect a new door.

Together the four of them crept closer to the hole, peering into the gap.

Draco Malfoy paced the length of the room. As they watched he punched the nearest wall, muttered something and stormed back towards the front of the room. As he came nearer they could see that his knuckles were scraped and bleeding, obviously he had struck that wall more than once. They could also make out the words that were spilling angrily from his lips. "Should have done it. Should have stopped him sooner. My fault. Father is going to kill me. Should have told. My fault if she dies. Should have seen it sooner. Let him kill Lauren. He'll kill them. Trust Dumbledore. Trust Dumbledore? What does he know? Father....Father is wrong. My fault, I let him, I knew. Snape will fix it. Why did it have to be her? He'll take his time, he hates her almost as much as Potter. Damn it all Granger, couldn't you see it was a trap?"

Although the first words had caused glances of bafflement, Malfoy's obviously upset tirade had kept them quiet. At Hermione's name, Harry launched himself into the room and pinned Malfoy to the nearest desk. Ron was close behind him and helped to persuade Malfoy to remain where he was through the simple expedient of resting his elbow against his throat.

Lavender and Parvati hurried into the room after them, moving to stand beside Ron and Harry.

Draco's eyes were icy, and he said nothing; his silence in stark contrast to his behavior mere moments ago. Harry tightened his grip and said, "Where is Hermione?"

Draco stared at him, eyes full of antipathy. Silence reigned.

Ron pressed his elbow harder against Draco's windpipe. "We heard you, Malfoy. What have you done to her?" Recognising that he was cutting of Malfoy's air supply, Ron lifted his elbow, just a little. Enough for him to speak, just enough for him to breathe.

If anything, Draco managed to look even more arrogant. Pavarti could have sworn that he was managing to look down his aristocratic nose at all of them, even though he was looking up at them. "Where is she? You must know Draco!"

The iciness in Draco's gaze disappeared, to be replaced by a bone deep weariness. "She's on the run. He tricked her into meeting him, and then he attacked her. She managed to get into the dungeons, and Professor Snape has followed them. He sent me to Professor McGonagall, and she called Professor Dumbledore, and then the two of them went down there, along with someone who looked exactly..."

Ron cut off his rather rambling explanation by leaning on his throat once more. Harry said coldly, "What do you take us for, Malfoy? Tell us the truth. What the hell have you done to Hermione?"

Lavender pulled at Ron's arm, tugging gently until he released his hold. "He is no use to us if he does not speak." Pavarti leant down and held Draco's gaze, as Lavender said, "Tell us where Hermione is, Draco. We are all worried about her."

Draco said nothing, merely stared up at them. Pavarti straightened, dragging her hands through her hair as she did so. "He is telling the truth, I can see it in his eyes." She turned and stared down the classroom. "Hermione is in great danger."

At this pronouncement, Lavender gasped, Harry and Ron shared yet another skeptical glance, and Draco concentrated on dragging oxygen into his burning lungs.

"You could tell all of that by looking into Draco's eyes?" Ron sounded skeptical.

Parvati turned back to look at him. "Yes. By looking in his eyes, and by also seeing that huge hole in the floor, and catching the scent of blood in the air."

**


Hermione shuddered violently as Goyle approached. He had thrown her against the wall, and she now lay huddled at its base. Exhaustion lay like a heavy blanket over her, the stench of blood hung in her nostrils and her lungs burned in a desperate quest for air. Tears of terror and frustration swam in her eyes and spilled over her cheeks to mingle with the blood that spattered from a laceration near her right temple. The taste of blood and fear was bitter against her tongue. Her mind screamed in an attempt at self-protection that this was not happening. Her eyes told her otherwise, and a scream of realization clawed its way out of her.

As sobbing breaths tore at her throat, she gathered the little strength remaining in her limbs and waited for Goyle to get close enough to her. He sneered at her show of fear and made a sick show of licking his lips in anticipation.

As he stooped to drag her to her feet, Hermione launched herself upwards, smashing the top of her head squarely into his nose before raining whatever blows she could land on his face and neck. Snarling, Goyle threw her back against the wall. Lurching after her, his fist smashed into the wall as Hermione ducked beneath the blow. Howling in rage, Goyle swung the wand towards her.

Knowing it was her last chance, Hermione spat the blood that had gathered in her mouth from her aching split lip straight into his eyes. Goyle reeled back in surprise and she lunged for his wand, caching hold of it and hanging on grimly.

With both her hands seeking purchase on the wand, Hermione felt it slip from her grasp. As the tip of the wand swung wildly between them, she reached deep inside herself. Knowing that it was wrong, knowing that she would never be the same again, Hermione knowingly cast her first Unforgivable curse against a fellow Human being.

"Crucio," she whispered.