Chapter 8: The Savior

That night Professor Snapes left Hermione alone in the potions class room for detention. She had an hour to make the class room look spic and span. She was told to wash the desks, wash the chalk board, wash the cauldrens and if the professor didn't return by then, she was to mop the floor. It was brutal, and most importantly unfair. But reluctantly, Hermione silently got to work for the next hour, she did everything she was told and even double checked.

After everything was cleaned up and ordered, the professor walked in. He gave an inspection then gestured her out the door without a word. Hermione was thankful for that, she didn't want a lecture from him. Not tonight, she went through to much girl drama in one day. Draco had reported to Dumbledore about Lavender and he had given her a month's worth of detention. Professor McGonagal was told about this and she was extremely angry at Lavender's behavior as well as Hermione's actions. The head master thankfully excused her of any consequences for knocking out Lavender which made her really angry but Hermione didn't care.

Hermione walked down the corridors, she figured it was eleven in the night by now. She came upon Peeves who was being stupid once again and annoying two fifth yearers who were walking around.

"PEEVES! Leave them alone!" Hermione ordered. Peeves turned around and smiled. "You two get to bed right now!" Hermione commanded to the two students, although she wasn't a Head Girl she still had her Prefect duties.

"Ah...fresh meat!" Peeves said with an annoying laugh once they ran off. He hovered over her head, planning on something devious.

"Don't you dare!" Hermione hissed. Then with that she ran as fast as she could to her Prefects common room. Hermione stopped momentarily to take a breath of air at the bottom of the staircase leading to the Prefects tower. She then heard someone coming out of the portrait hole and Hermione hid behind a corner to watch. It was Draco, he seemed preoccupied and quickly walked down the steps and towards the entrance of the school.

"What is he up to?" Hermione whispered to herself. She had no time to alert her friends, so she followed slowly behind him. When he reached outside he took a glance around and continued down the path to the Forbidden Forest. Hermione waited until she could come though the entrance door and when he was completely far away, she stepped out and followed him.

Hermione ended up following him deep into the forest and she was beginning to fear what he was up to. Draco left the path he was taking and walked in another direction. When she tired to pick up her pace to catch up to him she was trapped by something invisible. The thing wrapped around her waist and slung her off her feet. Hermione out of fear, screamed at the top of her lungs. Draco was out of sight and now she was sure no one could help her. Hermione touched the thing that was holding her and she found that it was invisible web. She tried to cut the web off of her with her wand but was getting no where.

Hermione tried every spell she could think of but the web held her firmly as she dangled in the air. The next thing she knew a large, black, hairy spider with eight red bulging eyes came down from a tree across from her. Hermione out of shock, disgust and fear screamed once more. A moment later, she heard some footsteps walking over and she looked downward to see it was Draco.

"Granger?" Draco asked confused and surprised, he looked above his head at her were she swung in midair.

"Malfoy!" Hermione said loudly out of relief. He glared at her, he couldn't see the spider that was right behind him climbing down a tree. She suddenly lost her voice, she wanted to warn him but nothing was coming out of her mouth. She pointed behind him, but he just stared at her strangely.

"What are you doing in midair?" Draco asked suspiciously. The spider had now came down and was crawling towards him.

"S-s-spider!!!" Hermione stuttered in a terrified scream. This time Draco got the picture and spun around facing a spider who was an inch away from him. Draco became pale in the face, he held out his wand. Hermione who got back her senses tried once more to cut herself off of the invisible web. "Whatever you do, don't let him bite you!" Hermione yelled. She didn't know if Draco was even listening to her but she had to get herself down, somehow.

"Stupefy!" Draco yelled and the spider became unconscious. Hermione's eyes widen in horror, he wasn't suppose to do that, it would only cause more spiders to come. Draco looked up at her, glaring. "Why are you in midair?" Draco asked.

"Invisible web." Hermione replied. Draco brushed his blond hair back in frustration and then pointed his wand at her. He used a spell to get her out of the web that she never heard of and she fell on the ground hard on her ass.

"Ow!" Hermione yelped in pain. Draco just stood there watching her with so much anger. Hermione got up and dusted the dirt off and stared back.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Draco asked.

"I..ah...umm..you see..I.." Hermione stuttered.

"You were following me!" Draco yelled at her angrily.

"Don't fucking flatter yourself! I was not." Hermione replied then she looked down at the frozen spider and remembered. "You shouldn't have done that!" Hermione said pointing to the unconscious spider.

"Why the hell not?" Draco asked.

"Because you're going to cause the rest of them to-" Before Hermione had the chance to answer him, ten large spiders began to appear. Draco turned around to face what she was looking at and jumped back.

"FUCK! Granger you have a lot of explaining to do when we get back."

"That's if we get back." Hermione squeaked. She hated spiders, just as much as Ron did but usually she was able to handle spiders, but this...this was ten gigantic spiders. Not your average household ones. Hermione ended up grabbing Draco's arm out of fear. He looked down at her and smirked.

"What? Are you fucking scared?" Draco asked mockingly. Hermione nodded, she didn't care if he was going to use it against her later on. She wanted to live, not die because of spiders. Draco shook his head and stared back at the spiders who were slowly inching closer to them. They surrounded them in a circle and Hermione had no idea what to do.

Unexpectedly one of the larger spiders jumped out at them, Hermione screamed at the top of her lungs as hairy long black legs cut through her school uniform sweater causing her to fly ten feet. Her back made a horrible impact on the ground causing her to groan in pain. Draco on the other hand began to curse the spiders one by one.

"Don't-" Hermione yelled.

"STUPEFY!" Draco hadn't heard her and cursed a spider near him.

"You shouldn't-"

"STUPEFY!" Draco did it once more. Then out of no where more spiders began to appear. Hermione picked herself up and ran to Draco. She grabbed his wand before he could make another attack.

"Are you bloody mad!" Hermione screamed.

"I'm trying to save your fucking ass!" Draco yelled back, taking his wand from her. Before she had the chance to reply, Draco was hoisted by an invisible web. As she stared up at him, another large spider came down and trapped her between their legs. Hermione screamed once more as eight red beaming eyes looked at her with their claw-like mouth inch closer to her face.

"GRANGER!" Draco screamed.

"MALFOY!" Hermione yelled back in fear as it crushed her with it's weight. The spider made a twitching sound and the next thing she knew, the spider was flung off of her. Draco had freed himself and attacked the spider. He came over to her, grabbed her arms and held her firmly against his chest. He then put a defense charm around himself and her. Hermione watched as one by one spiders flung back once they began to approach them. Draco began to lead the shocked and amazed Hermione through the forest. Slowly the spiders had began to give up and crawled away into the darkness of the woods.

Once they reached the edge of the Forbidden Forest, Draco let her go and also took down the defense charm. Hermione stared up at him, she was speechless. But she somehow needed to know if he was okay.

"Malfoy-"

"-not a word!" Draco hissed. Hermione closed her mouth and they both stood there. Draco put a hand through his hair and breathed in deep. "You could have died tonight." Draco said after a minute of silence.

"Thanks?" Hermione said unsure weather she was saying the right thing or not.

"WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU DOING FOLLOWING ME?!" Draco screamed in frustration making her jump back in surprise.

"I..ah.."

"Granger! This is serious! I do not appreciate you snooping around following me. Just leave me the fuck alone!" Draco hissed angrily. Hermione stared at him, this was hopeless, yet expected. Hermione couldn't tell him her real reasons, she had promised Harry and Ron. Draco then looked over at the clock tower and cursed under his breath. For a moment there, when she was being saved by him she almost thought he was human but now watching him she couldn't understand why she ever did. Draco went back into the forest silently and Hermione's jaw dropped. Why was he going back?

"Where you-"

"DON'T FOLLOW ME!" Draco yelled back. Hermione watched him as he disappeared into the woods. Hermione bit her lip, what if something happened to him? She looked back at her school then where Draco had walked through. Being the Gryfindor that she was, she ran after him.

Hermione had no idea which way he went, the only thing she could do was follow her instincts and keep a sharp look out. It was beginning to get cold and Hermione had just realized that she was bleeding from her chest. The spider really had cut her badly. A moment later, she heard a crack of a twig and she went in it's direction. She was being stupid, she thought. What if a rage of spiders come attacking her this time, alone?

Finally Hermione had come to see a source of light ahead of her. She walked over to it, making sure she didn't make a sound and was low to the ground. Hermione realized that the area the light was coming from was a bunch of hooded men. Hermione hid behind a tree and watched closely and carefully.

In total there were five hooded men who Hermione guessed were Death Eaters. They were in a half circle and the person in the center was Draco Malfoy. He was kneeling on the floor in front of one of the hooded men. He stared at the ground as the hooded man in front of him showed himself. It was none other then their Dark Lord, Voldemort. His skin was scaly and dark as his eyes were bright red and gruesome.

"Stand up!" Voldemort ordered in a unearthly kind of voice that would make your skin crawl in fear. Draco obeyed silently and stood up straight in front of him.

"Now, Draco. How has your mark come along?" Voldemort asked.

"Just the way you wanted it." Draco replied sternly.

"Good, good. Now I just need to have a few more things adjusted and then we can carry on with the task. Lucius!." Voldemort said. Quickly one of the hooded men appeared beside Draco.

"Yes sir?" Lucius replied.

"How is Potter coming along with this?" Voldemort asked.

"I-I wouldn't know, sir." Lucius replied. Voldemort then laughed evilly, it seemed that Lucius had no idea what was going and Hermione couldn't see the expression on his face.

"Of course you don't! Only I do!" Voldemort said loudly. He then stared around the group of servants. "You see, I have come up with a plan. Quiet simple in deed. I will make Harry Potter one of us!" All the servants of the Dark Lord gasped and murmured in disbelief.

"Certainly that isn't what-" Lucius begun.

"SILENCE! I make the rules here Lucius. Don't ever speak out of turn! Crucio!" Voldemort roared. Draco's eyes widen as he watched his father fall to the floor, screaming in pain. Voldemort continued speaking while Lucius was on the ground. "Now, what I have done to Draco here was a test. But come the night of Halloween, when he is initiated into the circle. So will Harry!"

Hermione's eyes widen in horror, shock and disbelief. Her best friend will end up like them if she didn't do anything about it. Hermione watched Voldemort lift the curse from Lucius Malfoy and Draco stood there silently, but with so much emotions in his eyes. She couldn't tell what he was thinking about but all she knew was that she had to stop him from becoming one of them.

"Draco we will see you on the night of Halloween here at midnight. Do not be late!" Voldemort hissed and disappeared in thin air. Lucius and the others also followed quickly and disappeared. Draco was left standing there alone in the clearing. Hermione waited a few more minutes, then walked out of her hiding spot. Draco must have heard her because his head snapped up to see her.

"Granger?" Malfoy said confused. Hermione stood right in front of him, she didn't know why she stood there watching him the way she was but something about his grey eyes were different.

"Malfoy I just wanted to really thank you back there." Hermione said calmly. Draco watched her for a second longer then his dark cold glare came back. His face twisted into hatred and Hermione knew she made a mistake for walking over to him.

"YOU FOLLOWED ME! AFTER I TOLD YOU NOT TO!" Draco yelled angrily.

"I had to! I was worried-"

"-cut the crap. You came here to snoop on me so you can tell your dear friend Potty. But I'll be damned if he finds out!" Draco yelled.

"He already knows! He knows a lot more then you think!" Hermione screamed back. Draco froze, and watched her. He seemed to be unsure of what to say to her. Then he began to walk back to Hogwarts and Hermione followed right behind him. They were both silent the whole time as they walked through the forest. But once they came to the school grounds Draco twirled around to Hermione.

"NOTHING happened tonight. You got that mudblood?" Draco sneered. Hermione decided it was better then to argue with him about it and it wasn't like she wasn't use to him calling her names.

"Okay." Hermione said quietly. Draco shook his head and turned to leave. Hermione watched him walk back to the school entrance, she had no idea what to do now. Should she tell Harry and Ron about what happened tonight? Or should she try and get Draco to change his mind about becoming a Death Eater? Hermione hugged herself and began to walk back inside as well. This had been one hell of a night for her.