Chapter 9
Help Me
~
It is two in the morning, my eyes hurt, my stomach is empty, and so is my head. How can we ever trust Malfoy again? Now that Harry has "seen" Malfoy as a follower for Voldemort, he has been extremely cautious around him. Ginny has stayed quiet, and Ron, Lavender and Faith has kept to themselves. Harry checked all of us into an Inn near the school and notified Molly about their sudden move. We were all in our own rooms when Harry slammed the door and kicked the side table. I jumped back, surprised at his sudden outburst.
"What are we going to do? Who can we trust?" Harry asked.
"We just have to be careful, we need to be on guard," I replied, sitting on the edge of the bed.
"What the hell do you think I've been doing? Sitting on my ass?" he replied heatedly.
"Harry, do not take that tone with me," I said calmly. He looked at me in disgust.
"Hermione…you have to stop treating me like a fucking child,"
"I'm not," I said standing from the bed, "I have done no such thing to show that I have."
"Hermione, maybe we should…" he started.
"Maybe we should what?" I asked, twirling the ring on my finger with my thumb.
"I don't know," he said swallowing hard.
"Fine, don't say something that you might regret later Harry," I said with caution.
"Damn! If it is not Voldemort it is his followers, if it's not them, it's Malfoy! If it's not him, it's you…" Harry pulled at his hair.
"Harry…"
"And there is no way to protect you without getting you hurt…What the hell am I going to do? Be your watch dog?" He stepped toward me and pushed me against the wall. He leaned in, and I pushed him away and ran from the room, my eyes watering from anger and hurt. I could hear him following me, calling after me. I reached the long stairway turned around to see him struggling to get to me through the crowd of noisy people. I began to run down the stairs. I reached the door to the Inn, when everything went blank…
~
I could hear the blast from the stairs. I saw Hermione fly backwards into someone and land against the opposite wall. As she slid to the floor, I could see the blood and bodies liter the Inn's floor.
"Help us!" I could hear someone cry, "Help us, my daughter, oh my god, my daughter," the woman cried. I turned to see Ron and Malfoy, their wands out, Ginny came in front of them.
"C'mon," she said running down the empty stairway. I ran past her to Hermione. She lay in a tight ball against the wall. I moved her from that position and cried out in horror. Half of her was drenched in blood. It looked as if she got the full blast. She had burn marks on her arms, and face. I put my hand onto her face, and it glowed, the burn marks slowly disappeared. The blood, and its wound, was still there. Hermione began to move. She gasped and tried to sit up but screamed from the pain. She looked at me for help and all I could do was cry. She touched the wound on the right side, underneath her rib and winced.
"Harry, what, what happened to me?" Hermione asked reaching to take hold of my shirt. I gingerly took her into my arms and cried into her hair. She held me tighter, whispering.
"Harry, I need to get to a hospital," she said gradually, as if trying to stay calm.
"No, you don't, here," I held my hand over her wound and little by little it began to heal.
"Harry…" Hermione started, she had sweat glistening from her forehead.
"Hermione, I'm sorry I yelled at you, I don't know what's wrong with me," I said.
"Harry, I don't want to leave you, or argue with you…" Hermione started to gain more color in her cheeks.
"I know, I'm sorry,"
"Sh, we have to help these people," Hermione said, trembling while rising to her feet. I wrapped my arms around her shoulders.
"HARRY! Can you please help us with these people?" Ron yelled, he was holding up a young girl who had a severe cut on her forehead. He tapped his wand and it began to heal. Ginny was helping an old man stand up, and Draco was trying to revive a baby with his wand.
"Harry! He's not waking up!" Draco yelled. Hermione walked toward him, still drenched in her own blood she knelt in front of Draco who was holding the baby. She pulled her wand out and tapped his wrist; a small red spark flew from his wrist. She grimaced and tapped his eyes with her wand. The baby began to stir now, crying. Draco held the baby up to his shoulder and rocked it. Hermione stared at him, stunned as he shushed the baby.
~
Fifteen minutes later the ministry of magic rushed into the blown away door of the Inn. Their wands at the ready, they began to dive into the already chaotic scene. Cornelius Fudge turned his nose up to the wounded people. He could spot a woman nearby that was drenched in blood. Fudge called over an agent and pointed in her direction.
"Yes Minister, what can I do sir?" the tall, dark agent stood next to Fudge.
"Bring her to the master; make sure no one sees you get her…" he turned around, called all his agents together and left.
~
~15 minutes ago~
"Hermione, Draco, stay here with these people, Ginny, Ron, watch the back door of the Inn, I'm going to check the side streets to find out how this happened," Harry said.
"Okay," where the replies of everyone.
"Harry, be careful," I said holding onto his shirt.
"I will, Malfoy, I want you to watch her," Malfoy nodded his head. He turned to Ginny and reached for her hand and squeezed it lightly.
"Okay, meet back in our room in one hour."
~
"Granger, I need to go check out that wounded lady, she hasn't stopped yelling. Stay here okay?" Malfoy asked, his stare was gentle and concerned.
"I'm capable of look after myself Malfoy," I said hoarsely, wrapping my arms around the cold bloody clothes that stuck to my skin. He looked me up and down, noticing how much my wet shirt clings to my breasts. He swallowed loudly and left. I had to prevent myself from vomiting on the spot. I began to drift away from the crowd of people who were leaving the Inn. The Inn was now empty, except for the liter of dead bodies. I felt as if we were trapped. Anywhere we were we would be targeted.
I knelt in front of a baby that was clinging to a dead mother. Then, I lost it; I let all the tears go. The baby wrapped his tiny arms around the mother's neck. I closed my eyes tight and tried to stifle my loud cries. It was Voldemort; he took these peoples lives, and wounded innocent people, and he will pay for it. As I stood from the baby, I was jerked back and had something thrown on top of me. I looked down and saw that my kidnapper had thrown an invisibility cloak on me.
"MALFOY!" I screamed wrestling with the kidnapper. Malfoy turned around to see a tall man struggle with something.
"MALFOY, will you help me?!" I screamed, biting down on the kidnappers arm through the cloak. He yelled and staggered back. I threw the cloak off of me and the man lunged for me, knocking me onto the floor, he covered my mouth, now, we both were under the cloak.
"You bitch," he wrapped his fingers around my throat.
"No, no," I tried to say, but he continued to squeeze my throat.
"AH!" the man was kicked off of me. Malfoy leaned over him and pulled him up. He punched him across his face. The man rocked his head back, but regained himself and knocked Malfoy off of his feet. He was a lot bigger than Malfoy, and older.
Malfoy lunged for the kidnappers legs, now both of them were on the floor struggling with each other.
I stood and ran to help Malfoy. He was pinned to the ground underneath the man. I jumped onto the man's back and wrapped my arms around his neck. He easily tossed me off. I landed on the floor, hard, my damaged rib screamed.
Damn, what the hell is wrong with me? I pulled out my wand from my sitting position, and stunned the man. He fell to his side, limp. I sighed and laid flat on back to stop the pain a little.
Malfoy dropped to his knees next to me.
"Hermione, are you okay, did he hurt you badly?" Malfoy asked putting both hands on my side. I screamed out in pain when he lightly touched my broken rib.
"My rib is broken, again," I said through gritted teeth. Malfoy took his wand out and tapped my rib, healing it. I shivered as the coolness of the spell worked quickly with my damaged rib. Malfoy watched me as I closed my eyes and shivered. I could feel something touch my forehead lightly. My eyes flew opened and I saw that Malfoy had kissed my forehead.
"All better Granger," Malfoy said standing.
"Thank you," I said sitting up. My side was still sore. He helped me up and smiled at me. He smiled at me! What the hell is up with him?
"Let's go find Potter," he said turning around to face the Inns entrance.
"Yes," I said. I followed Malfoy to the door when I felt arms being wrapped around my waist and mouth.
"Little bitch…"
I felt a tug at my navel- a portkey! No, no, no! MALFOY!
Malfoy turned around to see me vanish, the kidnapper grinned at Malfoys shocked face.
