DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything but the plot. Please don't sue me, I can't afford to pay for a decent lawyer.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Well, English isn't my mother tongue, so there might be plenty of grammatical and lexical mistakes in the following chapter. If you like the story and if you want me to keep it going, then you can bother and correct them. At the moment I don't have a beta-reader and I can only rely on me, my ego and my dictionary.
Oh, yes, and please, be kind and review.
AND THEN WE WERE DEFEATED
***
Chapter 1
CAUGHT
Dark coldness surrounded her when she finally woke up and opened her eyes. Hermione's head ached and her whole body felt sore. What had happened? Where was she? Slowly she raised her hand and touched her forehead. She could smell blood. Her own blood, sticky and still warm. Eventually the pitch black darkness closed in on her and she was drowned in restless unconsciousness.
***
„Where did you take her to?" Lucius Malfoy asked in a smug voice.
„Right to the dungeons, Sir. She was still unconscious when we locked her up." his servant replied eagerly.
„Well done." Lucius was pleased with the outcome of the last battle. „We still don't know what happened to the Potter boy and this Weasley. The mudblood bitch might come in handy. It's the Gryffindor pride, they won't want to let her die, they will try to rescue her soon enough." A content smirk spread over his face when he turned to inform his master. the Dark Lord, of their latest victory.
Little did Lucius know that neither Ron nor Harry had a clue that Hermione had been caught by the Deatheaters. Both boys had gone into hiding as soon as it was obvious that this time the battle against Voldemort and his Deatheater army had been lost again. The thought that Hermione could have been caught didn't even cross their minds. She was a powerful witch, who was perfectly capable of taking care of herself, and Ron as well as Harry believed she had just gone to another hideout and would contact them in a little while when she was sure it was safe to get in touch with them. Since Voldemort had been rising to his full strength this had happened more than once. Although Hermione and the others had tried their best to limit his powers he had somehow managed to take over the Ministry of Magic and now the whole wizarding world was in danger to be overpowered by the dark side.
***
Hermione sighed and stirred as a hand brushed lightly over her cheek. Once more she was drawn back to reality, back to the cold dungeons where she was laying on the damp, freezing stone floor.
"Wake up. Is Miss Hermione all right?" a hushed voice asked.
Reluctantly Hermione opened her eyes and blinked. Her cell was now dimly lit by a torch burning in the far corner. She groaned as her eyes slowly adjusted to the light and finally tried to focus on the figure that was crouched next to her on the floor.
"Is Miss Hermione all right?" the person repeated the question.
"Where am I?" Hermione's voice wavered and realisation dawned on her before she had even finished to ask her question. She had been caught. She was trapped. Her eyes widened in shock as she realised the whole extent of her situation. Slowly she started to remember what had happened. She had faced a group of Deatheaters when suddenly a bolt of green light had hit her and knocked her out.
"Malfoy Manor. They brought Miss Hermione here a few hours ago. Dobby was afraid Miss Hermoine is injured badly, Dobby came in to make sure she lives."
Hermione sensed the fear and worries that lingered in the little house elfe's words, but before she had the chance to say anything, they could hear a noise outside the door of her prison and with a soft pop Dobby and the torch vanished. For a moment the darkness closed in on Hermione, then the door creaked open and a small ray of light fell on her body.
***
Draco paced nervously up and down his room at the Manor. He knew that something was going on and he had the bad feeling that the Dark Lord's new plans would involve him. When he-who-must-not-be-named had started to take over, Draco hadn't been the least surprised. He had known that sooner or later the Dark Lord would rise again. What made him nervous was that during the last months so many major changes had occurred in his life that he had somehow lost himself in the track of events since his departure from Hogwarts.
At first he had been proud when his father announced that he would be made a deatheater in the very night of the Dark Lord's return. And he had been full with pride when he had received the Dark Mark. He had been eager to fulfil his master's wishes and to make sure he was worthy to be a deatheater.
Now his strength had worn of and he felt nothing but tired and disgusted of himself. He wasn't sure anymore that he wanted this life. A life which only consisted of distrust, fear and murder in his own family, in which he had to obey every order of Voldemort and his father.
Draco Malfoy didn't want to take any more orders. He wished to decide for himself and he wanted to be in charge of his own life. If the Dark Lord or his father gave him another command he might not be able to stop himself from disobeying and this would certainly result in his execution or at least in a severe punishment.
If he wanted to stay alive he had either to think of a way to change his situation, to get rid of Voldemort and Lucius or he had to turn into a slave stripped of his own free will.
***
Hermione's eyes widened with shock and surprise as she recognised the figure leaning in the doorway, but it didn't take longer than a few seconds and hate and anger welled up in her.
"You." her voice was drenched with revulsion and barely audible as she spit out this single word.
