Ch.9 Unlikely Hero

Disclaimer: this story is based on characters created and owned by J.K. Rowling no money is being made off of this story. Sara, Sharen, and Suki are mine. Special thanks to Morrigan my co-author and beta reader.

Hermione had been a prisoner in the Malfoy dungeon for five weeks (not that she knew it). The only thing that had changed since her encounter with Voldemort as far as she knew was that she no-longer fought back.

Draco still watched his father torture Hermione. He had ceased to think of her as Granger a while back. Two weeks into her incarceration she had been forced to write her parents a letter under the influence of the Imperious curse telling them that she had been invited to stay with a friend she had made at the class and wanted their permission to do so. Of course they had given their consent. Draco had taken to going down to the dungeon on his own at erratic times. He couldn't help but admire and pity her a bit. While she no longer fought back verbally, she would say nothing else either.

Sure she screamed when she was tortured, but it was never anything intelligible. Draco found himself growing more and more fond of this girl and wondering how he could have let family prejudices blind him to her strength.

~ "I know mudbloods are below us but, why?" ~ Goyle had asked him once during their second year. He had snapped a reply along the lines of that they just were and had compared Goyle's intelligence with that of a rock. Goyle had accepted the answer and verbal abuse and that had been that. Or so Draco had thought. The question had been bothering him ever since. What did make Purebloods superior? Intelligence? No, you only had to compare Hermione and Longbottom to disprove that one. Power? No, again, Hermione and Longbottom were the disproving comparison. What then? There was no logical satisfactory answer to the question. One had only to look around Hogwarts to see proof against the prejudice. Not to mention the fact that she was being held prisoner instead of just being killed. If she were so inferior to "purebloods" why did the Dark Lord want her as his queen? It didn't fit. Draco did not like things that did not fit into his ordered world. The beginnings of a plan were forming in Draco's mind. A plan that was beginning to look more and more attractive to him all the time.

He was so lost in his musings as he walked down the dungeon stairs he ran right into Suki their new house-elf. She quickly bobbed a curtsy and started gathering up the food and dishes that had fallen from the dinner tray babbling apologies. Draco stemmed her flood of words saying, "It's all right, Suki, no one was going to eat it anyway." She started to say something, but he cut her off asking, "How is she Suki?" He gestured needlessly down the stairs.

"Same, Master Draco, Miss is the same."

"Will she still not eat?"

"no, Suki tries but Miss refuses. Threw bowl across the room again today."

Draco laughed humorlessly and replied, "Don't worry Suki, she'll eat when she gets hungry enough." Taking this for the dismissal it was Suki bobbed a final curtsy and left.

Draco unlocked the dungeon door and walked in. The sight that met him had not changed from two hours ago when he had last been down there. Hermione lay curled in a ball with her back to the wall. She lifted her tearstained face to meet his eyes then looked away in disgust. That look was all it took to decide him, he would do it Dark Lord and family be damned.

He started towards her which only made Hermione press herself further against the wall. Draco sighed, this would take a while. "why don't you eat?" he asked. Hermione acted as if he weren't there. "You need your strength. You can resist the torture better that way, you know. I'll admit your doing quite well on your own. Keep it up, Hermione, at least you know what your fighting for is right."

"what did you just call me?" Draco stopped dead, she had talked to him. He answered before she could decide to regret saying something and refuse to talk at all.

"I called you Hermione, that's your name isn't it?" he replied teasingly.

Hermione was confused, she expected Draco to come down and taunt her that was part of the routine. But now he was encouraging her to fight his father? Her head hurt from all the times she had been under the cruciatious curse, and trying to think only made it worse. "why are you doing this?" she managed to rasp out. Her voice was raw so from screaming that it hurt to talk.

Draco smiled to himself, wonder what father would say to all this. "Let's just say I've been rethinking some old prejudices." She looked at him in disbelief, but didn't answer. "Look Hermione, I'm trying to help you, call it my penance if you will, for all those times I've made a remark about Mudbloods. And," he continued with a smile of remembrance, "that time I fixed your teeth for you." Hermione laughed hoarsely at that.

"You didn't fix my teeth, you just gave me an excuse to. All right , then Malfoy, prove yourself to me." He set out to do just that.

A week and a half later Hermione finally let him get close enough to her so that he could touch her if he wanted to . Hermione must have been desperate for some form of comfort, that was the only explanation he could think of for her quick trust.

Draco couldn't believe his luck, his parents were going to a Death Eater meeting and were leaving him home-alone. They would be gone for hours. Now was the time for him to put the second part of his plan into action.

He waited a half hour just to make sure that they were gone for good. After ordering Suki to make him dinner and bring it to his room he went down into the dungeon.

Hermione looked up when she heard the door open praying that it wouldn't be Lucius or Voldemort. She breathed a sigh of relief when she was sure that Draco was alone. He strode over to her purposefully. Hermione didn't move a muscle until he started to reach behind her. Then she protested, "What are you doing?" real original Hermione she thought to herself.

"I am trying to get you out of these manacles, now would you please be so kind as to let me see your wrists." He answered evenly. Sheepishly she wriggled around so that he could have a better view of her wrists. It's a good thing she's been starving herself Draco mused. It was only a matter of minutes before he managed to get her to slip her manacles. Draco pulled Hermione to her feet. "can you walk?"

"I-I think so." She said hesitantly. She tottered for a few steps and nodded. "Than-"

"Don't thank me just yet." He cautioned. Hermione nodded her understanding.

Draco led her slowly through the dark hallway's of Malfoy Manor, and up to his room. It was impressive, Hermione had to admit, but all that black was really starting to get on her nerves. Thick black carpet, Mahogany floors, black and silver tapestries…. She had trouble with the stairs and had to lean heavily on Draco. I can't believe he's actually doing all this for me. Could it be some sort of trap? If it was why would he bother? I would have broken soon enough, I guess I'll just have to trust him.