Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything attributed to him. All I own is the plot to this fic and Luis. No copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
A/N- To all avid readers of this fic, I am so sorry for taking so long writing this chapter. To be honest it wasn't the actual chapter I was writing; it was the next. To the reviewer Eclipse, let me please clear something up for you. I refuse to post one chapter and not have the next completed already (this way I can avoid any unneeded kinks in the story line). This is why I take "so long" updating [which might I add is not long compared to many other authors who only update on month by month basis's]. As for the chapter lengths, look closely. The chapters are most commonly 2000+ words, so let's not get testy. Thank you however for your constructive criticism. A higher thanks to all the kind words and advice from my wonderful reviewers (The Marauders, thank you so very much as you've given me good clarity for how I should persue future chapters) :p
This chapter is dedicated to my beloved Morgie, because you're my comfort food.
By Bellatrix Black
Chapter Four: The Grim Reality
Hermione sat in her bed that night silently, her eyes darted across the room every time Parvati and Lavender's bed's creaked or she heard the slightest of noises. She had lingered in the common room for mere moments after her encounter with Luis, before hurrying back up to her dorm and throwing herself into her bed.
Perhaps she had imagined it all? She nagged herself, in a way believing that if she told herself that enough, it would become true. But his touch still lingered on her skin and she could still smell his essence lingering in the air. This man … this monster … She had found herself to be frightened; of all things. She glanced down and saw on the floor, the small black book that had been the beginning of her newly found fear.
She leaned over the side of her bed and retrieved the journal. It was because of this thing that Luis had been binded. And it was because of Hermione that he was now loose. She shuddered slightly. Perhaps she should have just burnt it, but it was a gift. A gift from him and judging from what she had read so far, he was not one for impoliteness.
Luis had said he was not going to hurt her though; and the very words from his mouth had soothed many of her qualms whilst he had been in her presence. But now, in the silence of her familiar dorm room, surrounded by darkness all but the light from a small flicking candle on her bedside, her mind raced with all sorts of possibilities. He could have killed her then and there, fed off of her and calmed that hunger that she had noticed flicker so briefly in his eyes.
But his words had expressed gratitude. Gratitude for something she had done unknowingly, something that Hermione just knew deep down inside, was not going to have a good result.
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Loud drunken cheers erupted from a dimly lit building, the atmosphere was almost euphoric and the breeze carried the all too familiar stench of alcohol and sweat. Luis chuckled to himself as he walked towards the building, a local pub which seemed to be open at all hours of the night. He made his way inside and seated himself on one of the bar stools. His silver eyes traced the room carelessly, noting the males were all fairly drunk and hitting on the few waitresses who were still up for the late night shifts.
"Can I help you Sir?" There came a petite voice from his right and he turned to see one of the waitresses. Her eyes shone like dark almonds and her wavy black hair traced down her back. Many men would probably find her appearance appealing, this tall exotic woman, but all Luis could see was just another body. Her heart however … her heart … it was beating so strongly in her chest as she surveyed him that Luis heard it pounding in his ears. The sound was maddening, intoxicating, a hidden torture and Luis knew that he did not have much time left before his body ignored his mind and allowed the blood lust to set in.
She stood there awkwardly, gesturing to the bar, "Is there something you'd like to drink?"
He smiled charmingly, he would have to just play the same old game and hope that this woman was easily swayed.
"Whatever you're willing to serve me will be fine" his soft voice beckoned and the woman's face softened, her smile spoke volumes…
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The sun soon rose around Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Hermione was awoken by the sounds of someone running up the stairwell outside her room and she sat up wearily, sleep still clouding her eyes as she surveyed her room. Lavender was searching through her drawers, muttering to herself about some lost Divination paper and she could see Parvati's bag was no longer by her bed, meaning she had already made her way down to the common room to wait for Lavender.
"Oh you're awake" Lavender said as she glanced over at Hermione, who had just slid out from under the covers, "We tried waking you but you just rolled back asleep, we figured you'd get up on your own eventually". Lavender merely shrugged to herself and threw some of the contents from inside her drawer into her bag.
"Thanks anyway" Hermione mumbled as she ran a comb through her hair and quickly changed into her school robes.
"Breakfast is almost over anyway, but do you want me to wait for you?" Lavender asked, which was one of the few pleasantries that actually seemed to happen between the two girls. They weren't friends per-say, but they did often extend the olive branch to get along. Hermione shook her head as she started sorting through her books and papers. Lavender took this as her cue to leave and she promptly did so, leaving Hermione to the silence of the dorm room.
"Let's see… Arithmacy… then Care of Magical Creatures…" she began muttering to herself, when suddenly a large tawny barn owl swooped into the room before setting itself down on the end of her bed. In its beak it held what Hermione soon recognised as the Daily Prophet. She promptly placed five Knuts in the small pouch affixed to the owl's leg and with a soft hoot; it took off out the open window. She ignored the paper, stuffing it into her bag along with her schedule and hurried out of Gryffindor Tower.
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The people in the Great Hall were all chatting between themselves as they filed out and headed in the direction of their own respective classes. Hermione made her way to her seat in between Ron and Harry, greeting them before she took a quick bite of her bagel. As soon as she did so, the plates in front of them were cleared and she kicked herself mentally for sleeping in.
"Where've you been Hermione?" Ron asked as they all stood up.
She shrugged and glanced at the two boys, obviously they had realised that something was amiss here. Hermione was seldom late for breakfast and on most days; she was the first one down into the common room, waiting impatiently for her friends to wake up. Not only that, but her contained and isolated behaviour recently had left both boys pondering crazy explanations for her erratic behaviour.
"Hermione … is there something you're not telling us?" Harry asked softly as they exited the Great Hall and she narrowed her eyes in annoyance.
"What? I arrive late and suddenly it's the end of the world?" She snapped and Ron flinched slightly. Harry sighed, " It just seems a bit out of character"
"I slept in, nobody's perfect"
The trio quickened their pace as they came upon a group of Hufflepuff first years, all of which seemed quite lost and it was almost time for lesson's the begin.
"Sorry Hermione, we were just curious" Ron grumbled and she rolled her eyes, "You're not mad at us are you?"
Ignoring the question, she merely mumbled to them both, "Get going to Divination, I'll see you later".
A part of her was glad that she had Arithmacy first that day; she could be all-alone and not have to deal with their blatant stares and curious faces. But another part of her groaned inwardly, she seemed to be pushing away her best friends ever so slowly and right now, that was the last thing she neither wanted nor needed. She sighed and hurried down one of the corridors she knew would lead to Professor Vector's classroom. She noticed a group of Ravenclaw girls in front of her, chatting between themselves loudly and giggling every now and then. Hermione rolled her eyes and made to walk past them.
"Oh yeah, it's such a tragedy though. She was always so sweet to everyone" one of the girls muttered and the others nodded their heads and broke out in a chorus of agreement.
"The Daily Prophet said that they don't know who the culprit is, but the Ministry says they doubt it was working for You-Know-Who"
Hermione glanced back at the group of girls, wondering for a moment just who they had been talking about. She let the thought run through her mind for a moment before she arrived at her Arithmacy classroom. Hurrying inside and taking her seat in the front of the classroom, she watched as the last few students began filing in and Professor Vector stepped forward to initiate the lesson.
"Now remember, whenever you're dividing the fraction…"
Hermione's concentration wavered from mild interest to sheer boredom. She sighed, listening half-heartedly and randomly taking notes, knowing that she could just look it all up in her copy of Numerology and Grammatica when it came to doing her homework. Midway through the lesson, a familiar awkward feeling began to consume her as she searched through her bag for another piece of parchment. It was almost as if she were being watched…
Nonsense! She told herself and she took a glance at the people behind her; all of whom seemed deeply engrossed in the lesson. Except for one… she noted and to her dislike her eyes soon fell upon Draco Malfoy. His silver blonde hair sat roughly against his pale white skin and his steely grey eyes bore deep holes into her forehead. His gaunt face bore no expression at all and she glared at him before turning back to her bag.
After what seemed like an eternity, Professor Vector dismissed her class and Hermione gathered up her belongings and quickly made her way out of the classroom. She hurried down the corridor, glancing back only to find that Draco was making his way out of the doorway. He caught her eye and she turned into the corridor on her left, not wanting another confrontation with Hogwarts proudest pure blood. She had completely pushed the events in the Potions dungeon into the back of her mind and now it had all come swimming back to her.
The journal; Draco knew about the journal. And what's more, he had not seemed happy at all with its presence in her possession. She made to turn into another corridor on her left when she was stopped suddenly by a figure in front of her.
'Dammit' she berated herself. She had walked right into him.
"Might I ask why you're stalking me Malfoy?" she hissed at Draco as she took two steps back. He glowered darkly at her, as if insulted.
"Why on earth would I be stalking a mudblood?" he retorted, but she was unfazed. The word mudblood had become trivial for her now as he had used it almost every other week for the past three years whenever they were in each others company. She often wondered how easily such a word could become a part of a person's vocabulary so fast. Then again, this was Malfoy they were talking about.
"You tell me! You're the one who's been staring at me during class and following me down dark and lifeless corridors!" she growled, but he stood his ground, his smirk unwavering and his eyes shining with unspoken malice. There was silence between them for a minute or so, the air practically crackling with the tension between the two.
"The journal," he stated, "I want the journal".
Hermione shook her head and glared at him once more.
"It's not your's Malfo-" she began, but he cut her off.
"It is a family heirloom Granger and it therefore belongs with the family."
He held out his hand, as if expecting her to find reasoning in his words and hand it over to him. She shook her head and took another step away from him.
"The journal is mine" Hermione said sternly, her voice dripping with disdain. Draco narrowed his eyes at her, almost as if sizing her up and she shuffled uncomfortably under his gaze.
"You have no idea what you've done" he murmured, his voice so thick that she could have sworn she heard him growl. He turned away from her and she heard him call as he walked down the corridor, "I wonder, just how many people Luis will kill before you decide the journal is no longer of importance".
"What's that supposed to mean?" she hissed softly and he turned around for a moment, nodding towards her backpack and the Daily Prophet, which was peeking out of the top of it. She slowly slid her backpack off her shoulder and undid the latch. Glancing over at where Draco had been, she found him no longer present and shook him from her mind as she undid the paper bindings that held the newspaper closed and opened it up in front of her.
By Renda Cobblepott
Early this morning, the body of a young waitress was found outside the Three Broomsticks in the town of Hogsmeade. The town, which neighbours Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was taken aghast by the brutal slaying. Ministry officials have announced however that this was probably the single action of an individual rather than a planned strike by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. The body, identified as Madame Maria Rosmerta was found at 4am this morning by a group of wizards who were exiting the well known pub. Two puncture wounds on her neck and an investigation there after proved that she had died from excess blood loss. Ministry officials have confirmed reports that it was indeed a vampire bite, but have not been able to narrow down who is the exact culprit….
~ENDCHAPTER4~
A/N- Ok, I hope you guys liked this chapter, as I liked it more than the original one I wrote. Thanks so much for all your lovely reviews and tips, I appreciate them a lot :p I'm sorry for any fans of Madame Rosmerta, but she was just such a wonderful target to kill off and I think it just suited Luis. Either way thanks for reading!
Kay a.k.a Bellatrix Black