Disclaimer: I do not own, nor do I claim to own Harry Potter in anyway, shape or form. This is merely fanfiction, please don't sue. JK Rowling and Warner Bros. own all.
A/N- This is the first chapter to happen after my extensive planning regime. One of the few which will lead to the exciting leaving Hogwarts bit. Stay tuned, enjoy, review and all that jazz.
This chapter is dedicated to Rose AquaFire, for your diligent reviewing which always brings a smile to my face.
Dark Souls
By Bellatrix Black
Chapter Eight: Humble Beginnings
The day passed by for Hermione and night soon came to rest upon her. Draco had said he'd owl his mother at lunch, so it was not suprising that she'd not replied as of yet. As Hermione settled down that night, she couldn't help but worry slightly over Luis and his whereabouts. Lucius' letter had worried her slightly; his warnings had been rather straight forward, which was understandable.
She had read through the Daily Prophet after classes were done, but there had been no more news of another death. Nonetheless, Hermione laid her head down on her pillow and no sooner had she done so, than she fell into a deep dreamless sleep.
Unfortunately, her waking the next morning was not pleasant. Parvati had invited a group of fourth years into their dorm and as the giggly troupe all conversed over hair spells and products, Hermione groaned and prepared herself for class. So life was turning back to normal. In but two days, it was a miracle. Perhaps she had been over reacting over the whole ordeal.
Hermione smiled slightly at the group as she passed them all and headed down to breakfast. Ron and Harry were already there, debating with Neville over the newest assignment Professor Lupin had given to them in Defense Against The Dark Arts. Apparently they were all a bit confused about something or other. But Hermione merely shrugged as she buttered her toast.
Glancing over at the Slytherin table, she saw Draco was deeply immersed in a tight-lipped conversation with Blaise Zabini, whilst Pansy watched them both with daggers in her eyes. It was common knowledge that Pansy had been dating Draco, in fact it was rather hard to now know as she practically proclaimed it to everyone she met.
But rumors had been surfacing about Blaise's advances towards Draco and now Pansy watched her boyfriend and the feisty raven-haired girl whispered back and forth between each other.
Hermione rolled her eyes and began eating her breakfast, chiming in with Harry, Neville and Ron's conversation whenever she had the opportunity. The mail soon came and Hermione eyed the Slytherin table suspiciously, but Draco received nothing but another small box of sweets. Hermione promptly paid for her copy of the Daily Prophet, before she looked down and noticed the small plain white envelope next to her plate.
She quietly opened the envelope and read the letter to herself.
Granger,
The books have arrived and are waiting for us in one of the potion dungeons. Meet me outside Snape's dungeon at nine tonight. Do not be late as I'm not one to be kept waiting.
Hermione blinked at the brief note. Well, Draco certainly wasn't one to mix words.
~*~*~*~
"You're late," Draco mumbled as he unfolded his arms. Hermione glared at him as she struggled to catch her breath. Escaping from the common room was not as easy as she had expected. Harry and Ron had insisted on another night of Gobstones and Exploding Snap and it had almost broken Hermione's heart to turn them down. Eventually, she had come up with some excuse that she had wanted to get one last book out of the library and if she hurried now, she just might be able to before Madame Pince locked up.
By then of course, it was almost nine and eluding Filch, Mrs. Norris and other Professors who were on patrol was no easy charm. But alas, she had managed to arrive without being caught and as she stood their in the dark hallway, it's only light coming from both their wands, she couldn't help but feel a bit more animosity curl up inside of herself towards the silver haired devil.
"Why Malfoy, it's nice to see you too," she muttered sarcastically as he began walking down the hallway and came to stop at one of the empty storage rooms.
"Alohomora," he muttered at the lock and he swung the door open.
OK, perhaps the room wasn't empty per-say. Infront of them both stood two crates of old and worn out books. Against one wall were stacks of stools, piled on top of each other and a barren desk sat in the corner. Hermione ran a finger down the spines of some of the books, reading off some of the names in unison.
"Dark creatures… The Malfoy Family Legacy… Malfoy History…"
"Impressive, aren't they?"
Hermione chortled. "Actually, I was just thinking about how self righteous your ancestors were."
Draco scowled and reached into the crate, extracting one of the heftier volumes. "There's nothing wrong with sustaining ones family history, though I guess you would know nothing about that."
"Oh please Malfoy. Believe it or not, muggles do the same thing. The only catch is that the ones who do are usually part of the royal family."
"My family are royalty in their own status," Draco scoffed.
"Your family are pureblooded fanatics who despise change," Hermione muttered and Draco shot her a dark look.
"Whatever happened to the so-called truce we developed yesterday Granger? The last time I checked, we'd not revoked it."
Hermione thought for a moment, before she merely shrugged and dusted off one of the stools, which had been neatly placed in the corner. Sitting down, she opened up a large green omnibus bearing the title, 'Malfoy's Through the Ages: The Aged and Forgotten'. She could have sworn she had heard Draco grunt with annoyance, but he merely sat himself down on his own stool and began reading his own thick book.
The minutes ticked by slowly and the silence between the Gryffindor and Slytherin became deadening. Hermione shifted in her seat, tugging her robes around her tighter as she felt a slight draft enter the eerie dungeon. She noticed Draco glancing at her from above his book and he silently stood up and lit a small fire in the fireplace.
"Thanks," mumbled Hermione as she took her seat.
"I didn't do it for you Granger. This room was rather cold to begin with."
Hermione bit her lip and slammed her book shut, making Draco jump slightly, before he straightened his robes in a somewhat dignified manner. She took great pleasure at the look of embarrassment on his face as she withdrew a different book from the crate. Minutes ticked by and silence prevailed between the two as they skimmed each book for any sign of something concerning Luis.
"This is pointless," Hermione huffed loudly as she returned a rather thin and worn looking copy of 'Malfoy lineage' to it's respective crate.
"If you have a better idea, I'd like to hear it," Draco growled and she folded her arms, pursing her lips.
"Malfoy, from what I've read in Luis' journal, your family weren't exactly pleased with him. I very much doubt that they'd want to immortalize him in a book among their 'most cunning and ambitious' if they locked him away, never to be heard of again."
Draco considered this for a moment. She was right. It was obvious that his forefathers had wanted Luis forgotten, so that the shame of the family name would not become part of their history. Of course, he could never admit this to the Gryffindor in front of him.
"Fine, if that's what you think, then search through the dark creatures text's to see if there's anything in them concerning the binding. Or…"
"Or what Malfoy?"
"Or, you can go through the journal and see whether Luis himself mentioned it."
Hermione mumbled something under her breath which Draco couldn't hear and retrieved one of the dark creatures volumes from the crate. She shot him a determined look and stuck her nose inside the book. He didn't seem to notice though, he was more distracted by the journal which was slightly visible, poking it's spine out from one of Hermione's robe's pockets.
'So,' Draco mused to himself. 'She carries it with her.'
~*~*~*~
She was walking silently through a large street. It was night and the buildings surrounding her were all lit up with small candles from within. Hermione took no real notice though as she was heading somewhere. She just wasn't very sure of where that place was. Her feet led her past some highly risen buildings, bearing the names The Quibber and Wally's Printing Press and Magical Stuffed Animals.
The night was cold and she shivered slightly, wrapping her black cloak around her tighter before she finally turned the last corner and arrived in a dark, desolate alley.
'This isn't right,' she told herself. Hermione turned, as if to go back before she caught in the corner of her eyes, something moving ahead of her. Her curious nature set in and she slowly edged towards the moving figure. Or to be more precise, moving figures. It was two people and for a moment Hermione feared that she'd walked in on two people in a rather … intimate session, before she caught the look of terror on the woman's face.
Hermione froze and the man drew back from the woman's neck, letting her limp body drop to the ground. He turned around and leant against the stone wall; delicately wiping his mouth and jaw with a small white handkerchief, taking no notice of her at all. It was as if he could see right through her. The man took out a cigarette and with the light of one mere match, Hermione could see his face.
'Luis,' she breathed.
And then his eyes locked on hers and a small devilish smile tugged at the corner of his lips. He blew out the match and tossed the cigarette aside. He took step towards her and Hermione's knees almost buckled.
"Stay back," she said, silently glad for the strength her voice held this time.
"I don't want to hurt you, Hermione."
He took another step towards her.
"Then stay away from me."
A look of surprise passed over Luis' face, which Hermione could not see in the darkness. But then he scowled and crossed his arms.
"You sound so sure of yourself," his soft voice muttered.
"I am."
"You lie."
Hermione bit her lip as Luis slowly walked closer to her. Some part of her willed to run but the other part seemed mesmerized into staying there and finding out why exactly she was here. But wait a minute…
"Where am I?" Hermione asked all of a sudden and Luis smirked.
"You're in a dream my dear. Isn't it obvious?"
Hermione glanced back over her shoulder, at the buildings around her and the side of the office building, whose sign blared 'The Quibbler'.
"If this is a dream, then why am I here of all places?"
Luis now stood but two steps in front of her. He could feel her warm breath pelt softly against his own body as she looked around, her body no longer nervous but more confused than anything.
"Because you are where I am," he answered, gesturing to a large sign not too far off in the distance. Abbotsville. Hermione knew of Abbotsville and she knew of the Quibbler building. She and Ginny had both paid Luna a visit at her father's enterprise days after they had returned from their vacation. The thing that resounded the most to Hermione was that Abbotsville was but a stone's throw away from Hogsmeade.
"Is this place real?" she questioned mournfully and Luis nodded.
"You are where I am. I am not asleep, goodness knows that I cannot sleep day and night. Not when I need to feed."
Hermione shuddered as she glanced over at the limp body of the woman lying on the ground across from her. The cold night's breeze flayed autumn leaves against her and Hermione muffled and small groan. The woman was dead. No one would find her body until morning. And no one would ever have known just how rough and uneasy the night had been to her.
"Why her?" Hermione insisted. "Why did you feed off of her?"
"If I did not feed off of her, then it would eventually have been someone else. She was but the unlucky one I came across," Luis murmured, obviously noting the look of disgust on Hermione's face. "My hunger is but a curse. I cannot help it, I cannot fight it."
"Would you ever give up your hunger? If there were a way?"
"I am unsure, mon ami."
~*~*~*~
Hermione returned to the old storage dungeon once again. For two weeks now, she and Malfoy had been scouring silently through the books inside the crates longing for some scrap of information pertaining to Luis. Unfortunately, all that had managed to surface were the comments of an insane uncle claiming that 'vampires had to be dealt with, we did once already'; which was not very helpful at all.
Of course, Draco's mother Narcissa had adhered to their request for more books. Hermione couldn't help but wonder how they kept arriving, before she put two and two together and realized that Professor Snape had agreed to Narcissa's request that 'her Draco learns about his family.'
"You weren't seen were you?"
"It's my turn for prefect rounds this fortnight. For the next two weeks; I'll have an excuse if I get caught," she proclaimed as she seated herself down in front of the warm fireplace, which Draco always lit, before she arrived.
"Right, Right," he nodded absentmindedly as he flicked through a copy of 'The Dark Creature Annals'. The two had become slightly more comfortable with each other, once the ice had been broken. To be more precise, after a rather nice argument had broken out between them both.
~Flashback~
"I wonder why you've not told Wonderboy and the Weasel about your predicament Granger," Draco had shot one night after she had objected to him going through the Malfoy Family books once more.
"That's none of your business."
"Really? Well considering I'm going out of my way to help you get a blood thirsty murderer off of your back-"
"Going out of your way? The only reason you're helping me is because you want to be around to see next Christmas."
Draco sneered, ignoring her and plucking the copy of 'Vampire Traits' from her hands, he began reading through the index.
'Give that back! I'm not done with it!" she had protested, but he had merely walked back across the room and sat down on his stool, flicking through the pages absentmindedly. And then suddenly, it happened. Draco felt something graze his ear and a loud thud followed soon after.
"Bloody hell Granger, what the fuck do you think you're doing?" he hissed, before his eyes widened and he ducked quickly. A second book flew promptly over his head and thwacked into the stone wall behind him. Hermione was standing on the other side of the room; one of her hands was already reaching inside the crate to retrieve another book.
Draco strode over and tugged the crate away from her, scowling. Hermione placed her crossed her arms, her face was burning and she could feel hot, burning tears welling up in her eyes. She blinked them away quickly as Draco returned to standing in front of her.
"What the hell was that?" he fumed and she shot him a venomous look.
"They're called books Malfoy," she said sweetly.
"Well that's obvious, but you see Granger, people usually read books rather than throwing them."
"You deserved it!"
"How on earth did I deserve to almost be knocked unconscious by a copy of 'That Malfoy's Failures'?"
"Because anyone whose as awful and cruel as you are deserves to be kept quiet than to speak so nastily to people!" she hissed as she pushed past him and headed for the door. Fortunately, Draco's years as a seeker had done him some justice and he managed to block her from exiting the room.
"Lately Granger, I've been acting damned well pleasant to you-"
"Pleasant? Is that what you call teasing me on every possible occasion that presents itself?" Hermione interrupted, her eyes narrowing to haunting little slits. She suddenly felt the same urge from third year to reach up and slap the young boy, but she kept it at bay. Just barely of course.
Draco took a deep breath to steady himself, contemplating the situation at hand. If he were to move out of the door frame and let her leave the room, then not only would she win their short war of words, but she'd also take off and never let him so much as glance at Luis' journal. He glanced down at the face in front of him, which was pink with exhaustion and which was glaring at him with daggers in her eyes.
"Tell me, what on earth did I say that was so damn well offensive?" he muttered, ignoring his brain's warning that he was straying down a very dangerous path. Hermione turned away from him, her arms still crossed. She was silent for a moment, trying to find the right words if any, to answer him.
"The thing about Harry and Ron…." she muttered as she gathered her bag, which she had brought with her. Inside of it, it was packed full of notes and extracts she had made from Luis' journal. Realization dawned on the silver haired Slytherin as he watched Hermione hurriedly shove a few books inside. "I wouldn't expect you to understand Malfoy."
"I do," he said plainly and Hermione's face darkened. Needless to say, the atmosphere around Draco was not the most pleasant. The last thing most people his age would want is to be in a dark dungeon, where half the room was a fireplace, with an intelligent Gryffindor who was in a very sour mood. OK, perhaps if one were to rid her of the sour mood, he might feel a bit more at ease.
"Don't say you do just to appease me, I'm not stupid enough to believe you either way."
Now it was Draco's turn to glare, "See! It doesn't matter what I say, it won't be worth anything to you, so I don't know why you even expected me to try in the first place!"
"You issued the truce, not me!"
"You agreed to it, you should have known that I'm a cynical bastard, haven't five years taught you anything?"
"I thought you'd put aside the petty bickering just long enough for your god damned father to get rid of Luis! Obviously I was wrong."
Hermione stormed back over to Draco.
"Move!" she ordered, but he shook his head.
"You know just as well as I do that you need myself and my father's help on this. It's not some little adventure you, Potter and Weasley used to go on. This is your problem; you awoke Luis, now you have to deal with the consequences. One of which is me."
She sighed in exhaustion and threw her bag at Draco. He caught it and dropped it down next to him. Hermione had endured enough. Enough arguing, enough worrying, enough distance from her friends and enough nights of being scrutinized by the enemy. And in one mere moment she let it out. One solemn, lonely tear cascaded down her face and she prompted reached up to brush it off before Draco noticed.
Unfortunately, she was a second too late and the boy caught sight of her smallest of weaknesses.
'Wonderful,' her mind raged sarcastically. 'Could this night get any worse?"
She waited for his next stinging comment to fly and his next expression of disgust to come, but instead he just stood there. His face was expressionless and apparently, he seemed unsure of what to do exactly. This only added to Hermione's embarrassment and she returned back to her seat, silently plucking up one of the books from the crates, opening it and sticking her nose into it.
A minute later, she heard Draco's own stool squeak as he too returned to sitting down.
"Perhaps we ought to have another try at that truce we were discussing," he mumbled as he began skimming the pages of a large black volume. Hermione nodded as she flicked through the book in front of her.
"Perhaps."
~END FLASHBACK~
Even now when Hermione reflected on the memory, she couldn't help but be slightly embarrassed. It had helped the atmosphere in the dungeons a bit more now and they rarely swiped at each other whilst they were in their humble privacy. In public though, they did enjoy letting loose all the comments they couldn't possibly have said whilst in their quaint little dungeons and Hermione was surprised with Draco's rather… err... extensive vocabulary.
She felt a small smile tug at her lips as she flipped through some of the latest books Mrs. Malfoy had sent to them.
"Tell me, did you find anything in those Vampire Chronicles?" Draco asked, looking up from his book.
"Just the usual details I could have found in the library. Oh, and some rather nasty torture methods," she replied, a disgusted look on her face which almost made Draco smirk.
"My forefathers didn't take very kindly to those who strayed from their blood rights, most probably those methods were ones they invented for any child of a pureblooded family who was turned, so far it would seem Luis is the only Malfoy vampire who ever existed."
"Maybe. Or maybe he's the only one who left behind a scrap of evidence about himself."
Draco shrugged, "Another of those endless possibilities."
Hermione nodded slightly. Endless possibilities. That was the term they had given to the theories which usually led them around in circles. They had managed to find bits and pieces of evidence pointing towards Luis in some old memoirs. But other than that, they had found barely anything new. She had given Draco some of the notes from the journal, but even those just reflected on his treatment of his family.
Draco had asked only once more to see the journal and once she had refused, she heard not another word about it. Perhaps the fact that he knew now that she would not just abandon the research and mission to rebind Luis had made him have a bit more confidence in her. She had lessened in her reading of the journal now as some part of her willed to not feel guilty for what she was attempting to do.
The Luis in the journal had been so carefree and full of life -- even if that was the only asset that he did not possess.
"Granger?" Draco suddenly called and Hermione looked up from her book. He was pacing in front of the fireplace, a serious look on his face. They weren't even on first name basis, but she knew his behavior well enough to know that he didn't just react whenever he thought he had found some small reference.
"What is it Malfoy?" she asked, lowering her book from her face.
"You haven't by chance seen a book called 'Darkness Broken', have you?"
Hermione cocked her head to its side for a moment, before looking back up at the boy. "No, I don't believe I have. Why?"
"I've been reading through the journals of some of my ancestors, the ones after Luis' time. Two of them, brothers Cassius and Julius to be precise, have both mentioned this book as one they went in search for to help 'bind a familiar evil'."
"Well, didn't your family consider muggles and muggle-borns to be evil?"
Draco shifted his shoulders. "True, but I don't think that's what they meant. Well, they considered them to be dirty. But apparently in that time, they didn't so much as glance at muggles at all. They even went to Durmstrang to avoid mudbloo-"
"Muggle-borns," Hermione cut in shortly, giving him a dark look. He merely brushed it aside and continued skimming the lines of the page in front of him. "I see your point though."
"Perhaps, we should check to see whether the Restricted Section has it?" Draco asked suddenly and Hermione raised an eyebrow.
"Breaking into the restricted section? That sounds like a rather familiar plan."
Draco rolled his eyes, "You had no idea what you were even looking for back then. Now we do."
~ENDCHAPTER8~
Authors Note: OK, well I must say this did take me some time to write. But I do think I've accomplished a lot in this chapter. I've outlined twenty-four chapters, which is how many I think it will take to complete this fic, though the chapters may reduce if I end up combining some of them together. Each chapter will now be 3000+ words, so I can get things done a lot quicker and professionally. I probably would have had this whole thing speedtrained if I had finalized the plot in the beginning, rather than trying to develop one as I went on. But now, I must say that there is going to be a lot of action, some more Harry and Ron, some Voldemort, some Dumbledore and some of the Malfoys. So just wait, I need to make the characters GROW so to speak. Please review, I'll love you if you do :p (Constructive Criticism Please.)
A/N- This is the first chapter to happen after my extensive planning regime. One of the few which will lead to the exciting leaving Hogwarts bit. Stay tuned, enjoy, review and all that jazz.
This chapter is dedicated to Rose AquaFire, for your diligent reviewing which always brings a smile to my face.
By Bellatrix Black
Chapter Eight: Humble Beginnings
The day passed by for Hermione and night soon came to rest upon her. Draco had said he'd owl his mother at lunch, so it was not suprising that she'd not replied as of yet. As Hermione settled down that night, she couldn't help but worry slightly over Luis and his whereabouts. Lucius' letter had worried her slightly; his warnings had been rather straight forward, which was understandable.
She had read through the Daily Prophet after classes were done, but there had been no more news of another death. Nonetheless, Hermione laid her head down on her pillow and no sooner had she done so, than she fell into a deep dreamless sleep.
Unfortunately, her waking the next morning was not pleasant. Parvati had invited a group of fourth years into their dorm and as the giggly troupe all conversed over hair spells and products, Hermione groaned and prepared herself for class. So life was turning back to normal. In but two days, it was a miracle. Perhaps she had been over reacting over the whole ordeal.
Hermione smiled slightly at the group as she passed them all and headed down to breakfast. Ron and Harry were already there, debating with Neville over the newest assignment Professor Lupin had given to them in Defense Against The Dark Arts. Apparently they were all a bit confused about something or other. But Hermione merely shrugged as she buttered her toast.
Glancing over at the Slytherin table, she saw Draco was deeply immersed in a tight-lipped conversation with Blaise Zabini, whilst Pansy watched them both with daggers in her eyes. It was common knowledge that Pansy had been dating Draco, in fact it was rather hard to now know as she practically proclaimed it to everyone she met.
But rumors had been surfacing about Blaise's advances towards Draco and now Pansy watched her boyfriend and the feisty raven-haired girl whispered back and forth between each other.
Hermione rolled her eyes and began eating her breakfast, chiming in with Harry, Neville and Ron's conversation whenever she had the opportunity. The mail soon came and Hermione eyed the Slytherin table suspiciously, but Draco received nothing but another small box of sweets. Hermione promptly paid for her copy of the Daily Prophet, before she looked down and noticed the small plain white envelope next to her plate.
She quietly opened the envelope and read the letter to herself.
Granger,
The books have arrived and are waiting for us in one of the potion dungeons. Meet me outside Snape's dungeon at nine tonight. Do not be late as I'm not one to be kept waiting.
Hermione blinked at the brief note. Well, Draco certainly wasn't one to mix words.
"You're late," Draco mumbled as he unfolded his arms. Hermione glared at him as she struggled to catch her breath. Escaping from the common room was not as easy as she had expected. Harry and Ron had insisted on another night of Gobstones and Exploding Snap and it had almost broken Hermione's heart to turn them down. Eventually, she had come up with some excuse that she had wanted to get one last book out of the library and if she hurried now, she just might be able to before Madame Pince locked up.
By then of course, it was almost nine and eluding Filch, Mrs. Norris and other Professors who were on patrol was no easy charm. But alas, she had managed to arrive without being caught and as she stood their in the dark hallway, it's only light coming from both their wands, she couldn't help but feel a bit more animosity curl up inside of herself towards the silver haired devil.
"Why Malfoy, it's nice to see you too," she muttered sarcastically as he began walking down the hallway and came to stop at one of the empty storage rooms.
"Alohomora," he muttered at the lock and he swung the door open.
OK, perhaps the room wasn't empty per-say. Infront of them both stood two crates of old and worn out books. Against one wall were stacks of stools, piled on top of each other and a barren desk sat in the corner. Hermione ran a finger down the spines of some of the books, reading off some of the names in unison.
"Dark creatures… The Malfoy Family Legacy… Malfoy History…"
"Impressive, aren't they?"
Hermione chortled. "Actually, I was just thinking about how self righteous your ancestors were."
Draco scowled and reached into the crate, extracting one of the heftier volumes. "There's nothing wrong with sustaining ones family history, though I guess you would know nothing about that."
"Oh please Malfoy. Believe it or not, muggles do the same thing. The only catch is that the ones who do are usually part of the royal family."
"My family are royalty in their own status," Draco scoffed.
"Your family are pureblooded fanatics who despise change," Hermione muttered and Draco shot her a dark look.
"Whatever happened to the so-called truce we developed yesterday Granger? The last time I checked, we'd not revoked it."
Hermione thought for a moment, before she merely shrugged and dusted off one of the stools, which had been neatly placed in the corner. Sitting down, she opened up a large green omnibus bearing the title, 'Malfoy's Through the Ages: The Aged and Forgotten'. She could have sworn she had heard Draco grunt with annoyance, but he merely sat himself down on his own stool and began reading his own thick book.
The minutes ticked by slowly and the silence between the Gryffindor and Slytherin became deadening. Hermione shifted in her seat, tugging her robes around her tighter as she felt a slight draft enter the eerie dungeon. She noticed Draco glancing at her from above his book and he silently stood up and lit a small fire in the fireplace.
"Thanks," mumbled Hermione as she took her seat.
"I didn't do it for you Granger. This room was rather cold to begin with."
Hermione bit her lip and slammed her book shut, making Draco jump slightly, before he straightened his robes in a somewhat dignified manner. She took great pleasure at the look of embarrassment on his face as she withdrew a different book from the crate. Minutes ticked by and silence prevailed between the two as they skimmed each book for any sign of something concerning Luis.
"This is pointless," Hermione huffed loudly as she returned a rather thin and worn looking copy of 'Malfoy lineage' to it's respective crate.
"If you have a better idea, I'd like to hear it," Draco growled and she folded her arms, pursing her lips.
"Malfoy, from what I've read in Luis' journal, your family weren't exactly pleased with him. I very much doubt that they'd want to immortalize him in a book among their 'most cunning and ambitious' if they locked him away, never to be heard of again."
Draco considered this for a moment. She was right. It was obvious that his forefathers had wanted Luis forgotten, so that the shame of the family name would not become part of their history. Of course, he could never admit this to the Gryffindor in front of him.
"Fine, if that's what you think, then search through the dark creatures text's to see if there's anything in them concerning the binding. Or…"
"Or what Malfoy?"
"Or, you can go through the journal and see whether Luis himself mentioned it."
Hermione mumbled something under her breath which Draco couldn't hear and retrieved one of the dark creatures volumes from the crate. She shot him a determined look and stuck her nose inside the book. He didn't seem to notice though, he was more distracted by the journal which was slightly visible, poking it's spine out from one of Hermione's robe's pockets.
'So,' Draco mused to himself. 'She carries it with her.'
She was walking silently through a large street. It was night and the buildings surrounding her were all lit up with small candles from within. Hermione took no real notice though as she was heading somewhere. She just wasn't very sure of where that place was. Her feet led her past some highly risen buildings, bearing the names The Quibber and Wally's Printing Press and Magical Stuffed Animals.
The night was cold and she shivered slightly, wrapping her black cloak around her tighter before she finally turned the last corner and arrived in a dark, desolate alley.
'This isn't right,' she told herself. Hermione turned, as if to go back before she caught in the corner of her eyes, something moving ahead of her. Her curious nature set in and she slowly edged towards the moving figure. Or to be more precise, moving figures. It was two people and for a moment Hermione feared that she'd walked in on two people in a rather … intimate session, before she caught the look of terror on the woman's face.
Hermione froze and the man drew back from the woman's neck, letting her limp body drop to the ground. He turned around and leant against the stone wall; delicately wiping his mouth and jaw with a small white handkerchief, taking no notice of her at all. It was as if he could see right through her. The man took out a cigarette and with the light of one mere match, Hermione could see his face.
'Luis,' she breathed.
And then his eyes locked on hers and a small devilish smile tugged at the corner of his lips. He blew out the match and tossed the cigarette aside. He took step towards her and Hermione's knees almost buckled.
"Stay back," she said, silently glad for the strength her voice held this time.
"I don't want to hurt you, Hermione."
He took another step towards her.
"Then stay away from me."
A look of surprise passed over Luis' face, which Hermione could not see in the darkness. But then he scowled and crossed his arms.
"You sound so sure of yourself," his soft voice muttered.
"I am."
"You lie."
Hermione bit her lip as Luis slowly walked closer to her. Some part of her willed to run but the other part seemed mesmerized into staying there and finding out why exactly she was here. But wait a minute…
"Where am I?" Hermione asked all of a sudden and Luis smirked.
"You're in a dream my dear. Isn't it obvious?"
Hermione glanced back over her shoulder, at the buildings around her and the side of the office building, whose sign blared 'The Quibbler'.
"If this is a dream, then why am I here of all places?"
Luis now stood but two steps in front of her. He could feel her warm breath pelt softly against his own body as she looked around, her body no longer nervous but more confused than anything.
"Because you are where I am," he answered, gesturing to a large sign not too far off in the distance. Abbotsville. Hermione knew of Abbotsville and she knew of the Quibbler building. She and Ginny had both paid Luna a visit at her father's enterprise days after they had returned from their vacation. The thing that resounded the most to Hermione was that Abbotsville was but a stone's throw away from Hogsmeade.
"Is this place real?" she questioned mournfully and Luis nodded.
"You are where I am. I am not asleep, goodness knows that I cannot sleep day and night. Not when I need to feed."
Hermione shuddered as she glanced over at the limp body of the woman lying on the ground across from her. The cold night's breeze flayed autumn leaves against her and Hermione muffled and small groan. The woman was dead. No one would find her body until morning. And no one would ever have known just how rough and uneasy the night had been to her.
"Why her?" Hermione insisted. "Why did you feed off of her?"
"If I did not feed off of her, then it would eventually have been someone else. She was but the unlucky one I came across," Luis murmured, obviously noting the look of disgust on Hermione's face. "My hunger is but a curse. I cannot help it, I cannot fight it."
"Would you ever give up your hunger? If there were a way?"
"I am unsure, mon ami."
Hermione returned to the old storage dungeon once again. For two weeks now, she and Malfoy had been scouring silently through the books inside the crates longing for some scrap of information pertaining to Luis. Unfortunately, all that had managed to surface were the comments of an insane uncle claiming that 'vampires had to be dealt with, we did once already'; which was not very helpful at all.
Of course, Draco's mother Narcissa had adhered to their request for more books. Hermione couldn't help but wonder how they kept arriving, before she put two and two together and realized that Professor Snape had agreed to Narcissa's request that 'her Draco learns about his family.'
"You weren't seen were you?"
"It's my turn for prefect rounds this fortnight. For the next two weeks; I'll have an excuse if I get caught," she proclaimed as she seated herself down in front of the warm fireplace, which Draco always lit, before she arrived.
"Right, Right," he nodded absentmindedly as he flicked through a copy of 'The Dark Creature Annals'. The two had become slightly more comfortable with each other, once the ice had been broken. To be more precise, after a rather nice argument had broken out between them both.
"I wonder why you've not told Wonderboy and the Weasel about your predicament Granger," Draco had shot one night after she had objected to him going through the Malfoy Family books once more.
"That's none of your business."
"Really? Well considering I'm going out of my way to help you get a blood thirsty murderer off of your back-"
"Going out of your way? The only reason you're helping me is because you want to be around to see next Christmas."
Draco sneered, ignoring her and plucking the copy of 'Vampire Traits' from her hands, he began reading through the index.
'Give that back! I'm not done with it!" she had protested, but he had merely walked back across the room and sat down on his stool, flicking through the pages absentmindedly. And then suddenly, it happened. Draco felt something graze his ear and a loud thud followed soon after.
"Bloody hell Granger, what the fuck do you think you're doing?" he hissed, before his eyes widened and he ducked quickly. A second book flew promptly over his head and thwacked into the stone wall behind him. Hermione was standing on the other side of the room; one of her hands was already reaching inside the crate to retrieve another book.
Draco strode over and tugged the crate away from her, scowling. Hermione placed her crossed her arms, her face was burning and she could feel hot, burning tears welling up in her eyes. She blinked them away quickly as Draco returned to standing in front of her.
"What the hell was that?" he fumed and she shot him a venomous look.
"They're called books Malfoy," she said sweetly.
"Well that's obvious, but you see Granger, people usually read books rather than throwing them."
"You deserved it!"
"How on earth did I deserve to almost be knocked unconscious by a copy of 'That Malfoy's Failures'?"
"Because anyone whose as awful and cruel as you are deserves to be kept quiet than to speak so nastily to people!" she hissed as she pushed past him and headed for the door. Fortunately, Draco's years as a seeker had done him some justice and he managed to block her from exiting the room.
"Lately Granger, I've been acting damned well pleasant to you-"
"Pleasant? Is that what you call teasing me on every possible occasion that presents itself?" Hermione interrupted, her eyes narrowing to haunting little slits. She suddenly felt the same urge from third year to reach up and slap the young boy, but she kept it at bay. Just barely of course.
Draco took a deep breath to steady himself, contemplating the situation at hand. If he were to move out of the door frame and let her leave the room, then not only would she win their short war of words, but she'd also take off and never let him so much as glance at Luis' journal. He glanced down at the face in front of him, which was pink with exhaustion and which was glaring at him with daggers in her eyes.
"Tell me, what on earth did I say that was so damn well offensive?" he muttered, ignoring his brain's warning that he was straying down a very dangerous path. Hermione turned away from him, her arms still crossed. She was silent for a moment, trying to find the right words if any, to answer him.
"The thing about Harry and Ron…." she muttered as she gathered her bag, which she had brought with her. Inside of it, it was packed full of notes and extracts she had made from Luis' journal. Realization dawned on the silver haired Slytherin as he watched Hermione hurriedly shove a few books inside. "I wouldn't expect you to understand Malfoy."
"I do," he said plainly and Hermione's face darkened. Needless to say, the atmosphere around Draco was not the most pleasant. The last thing most people his age would want is to be in a dark dungeon, where half the room was a fireplace, with an intelligent Gryffindor who was in a very sour mood. OK, perhaps if one were to rid her of the sour mood, he might feel a bit more at ease.
"Don't say you do just to appease me, I'm not stupid enough to believe you either way."
Now it was Draco's turn to glare, "See! It doesn't matter what I say, it won't be worth anything to you, so I don't know why you even expected me to try in the first place!"
"You issued the truce, not me!"
"You agreed to it, you should have known that I'm a cynical bastard, haven't five years taught you anything?"
"I thought you'd put aside the petty bickering just long enough for your god damned father to get rid of Luis! Obviously I was wrong."
Hermione stormed back over to Draco.
"Move!" she ordered, but he shook his head.
"You know just as well as I do that you need myself and my father's help on this. It's not some little adventure you, Potter and Weasley used to go on. This is your problem; you awoke Luis, now you have to deal with the consequences. One of which is me."
She sighed in exhaustion and threw her bag at Draco. He caught it and dropped it down next to him. Hermione had endured enough. Enough arguing, enough worrying, enough distance from her friends and enough nights of being scrutinized by the enemy. And in one mere moment she let it out. One solemn, lonely tear cascaded down her face and she prompted reached up to brush it off before Draco noticed.
Unfortunately, she was a second too late and the boy caught sight of her smallest of weaknesses.
'Wonderful,' her mind raged sarcastically. 'Could this night get any worse?"
She waited for his next stinging comment to fly and his next expression of disgust to come, but instead he just stood there. His face was expressionless and apparently, he seemed unsure of what to do exactly. This only added to Hermione's embarrassment and she returned back to her seat, silently plucking up one of the books from the crates, opening it and sticking her nose into it.
A minute later, she heard Draco's own stool squeak as he too returned to sitting down.
"Perhaps we ought to have another try at that truce we were discussing," he mumbled as he began skimming the pages of a large black volume. Hermione nodded as she flicked through the book in front of her.
"Perhaps."
Even now when Hermione reflected on the memory, she couldn't help but be slightly embarrassed. It had helped the atmosphere in the dungeons a bit more now and they rarely swiped at each other whilst they were in their humble privacy. In public though, they did enjoy letting loose all the comments they couldn't possibly have said whilst in their quaint little dungeons and Hermione was surprised with Draco's rather… err... extensive vocabulary.
She felt a small smile tug at her lips as she flipped through some of the latest books Mrs. Malfoy had sent to them.
"Tell me, did you find anything in those Vampire Chronicles?" Draco asked, looking up from his book.
"Just the usual details I could have found in the library. Oh, and some rather nasty torture methods," she replied, a disgusted look on her face which almost made Draco smirk.
"My forefathers didn't take very kindly to those who strayed from their blood rights, most probably those methods were ones they invented for any child of a pureblooded family who was turned, so far it would seem Luis is the only Malfoy vampire who ever existed."
"Maybe. Or maybe he's the only one who left behind a scrap of evidence about himself."
Draco shrugged, "Another of those endless possibilities."
Hermione nodded slightly. Endless possibilities. That was the term they had given to the theories which usually led them around in circles. They had managed to find bits and pieces of evidence pointing towards Luis in some old memoirs. But other than that, they had found barely anything new. She had given Draco some of the notes from the journal, but even those just reflected on his treatment of his family.
Draco had asked only once more to see the journal and once she had refused, she heard not another word about it. Perhaps the fact that he knew now that she would not just abandon the research and mission to rebind Luis had made him have a bit more confidence in her. She had lessened in her reading of the journal now as some part of her willed to not feel guilty for what she was attempting to do.
The Luis in the journal had been so carefree and full of life -- even if that was the only asset that he did not possess.
"Granger?" Draco suddenly called and Hermione looked up from her book. He was pacing in front of the fireplace, a serious look on his face. They weren't even on first name basis, but she knew his behavior well enough to know that he didn't just react whenever he thought he had found some small reference.
"What is it Malfoy?" she asked, lowering her book from her face.
"You haven't by chance seen a book called 'Darkness Broken', have you?"
Hermione cocked her head to its side for a moment, before looking back up at the boy. "No, I don't believe I have. Why?"
"I've been reading through the journals of some of my ancestors, the ones after Luis' time. Two of them, brothers Cassius and Julius to be precise, have both mentioned this book as one they went in search for to help 'bind a familiar evil'."
"Well, didn't your family consider muggles and muggle-borns to be evil?"
Draco shifted his shoulders. "True, but I don't think that's what they meant. Well, they considered them to be dirty. But apparently in that time, they didn't so much as glance at muggles at all. They even went to Durmstrang to avoid mudbloo-"
"Muggle-borns," Hermione cut in shortly, giving him a dark look. He merely brushed it aside and continued skimming the lines of the page in front of him. "I see your point though."
"Perhaps, we should check to see whether the Restricted Section has it?" Draco asked suddenly and Hermione raised an eyebrow.
"Breaking into the restricted section? That sounds like a rather familiar plan."
Draco rolled his eyes, "You had no idea what you were even looking for back then. Now we do."
~ENDCHAPTER8~
Authors Note: OK, well I must say this did take me some time to write. But I do think I've accomplished a lot in this chapter. I've outlined twenty-four chapters, which is how many I think it will take to complete this fic, though the chapters may reduce if I end up combining some of them together. Each chapter will now be 3000+ words, so I can get things done a lot quicker and professionally. I probably would have had this whole thing speedtrained if I had finalized the plot in the beginning, rather than trying to develop one as I went on. But now, I must say that there is going to be a lot of action, some more Harry and Ron, some Voldemort, some Dumbledore and some of the Malfoys. So just wait, I need to make the characters GROW so to speak. Please review, I'll love you if you do :p (Constructive Criticism Please.)