Authors Notes: Thanks for the reviews. I edited this chapter and took out gruesome violence for Spychick898 and akgurl1616. And for those who wanted more romance, I added a little bit but just to warn you Draco does not confess his love for her! I mean you can't expect that so quickly. I'm trying to keep this IC as much as possible.
Lizbethr, I think Blaise has a thick neck too. Lol. But don't worry, there's more twists in this story so don't jump down Blaise's throat so quickly. Unless you want to do it sensually. Lol.
TickledPink89 I'm going to Humber College. Like I said, there are so many cute guys. Not that they can direct my attention away from this lovely story.
For the rest I didn't mention I still love you all and now you may read unless you're like me and skip the whole A/N message.
Chapter 18: Protection
Draco stared at her for a moment; his eyes were trying to read hers. She wasn't in a good mood at all, she was furious for all that had just happened to her. Hermione pushed his hand a little, digging the wand into her chest. He finally snapped out of his daze and glared at her. He stood up quickly not once taking his eyes off of her.
"I told you, I'm not the one who's going to kill you." Draco said crossly.
"What? Then who?" Hermione asked confused.
"Get up!" Draco hissed. Hermione didn't move she was too drained out and angry to get up. Draco bent back down taking her arms and forcing her to get up. Unlike the other death eater, Draco didn't dig his fingers into her already bruised arms.
"Now you listen here mudblood, I was told to bring you and that other girl upstairs for the ceremony. Instead I came up with a plan but once again you jump to conclusions so that just fucking sucks for you." Draco sneered then bent over Ann's body and conjured up ropes.
"No!" Hermione screamed in frustration. Draco ignored her and began to tie Ann who was still sleeping soundly.
"Please! Draco!" Hermione yelled horrified at his actions. Draco stopped dead in his tracks and looked over at Hermione.
"Did you just call me Draco?" He asked sternly.
"Yes! Please just listen to me. I'm really sorry. I need your help, don't bring us to Voldemort. Please!" Hermione begged. Draco gave her a smirk and walked over to her.
"Usually I'd yell at you if you called me Draco but you begged, which makes up for it."
"Must you be cocky at a time like this?" Hermione asked annoyed by his Slytherin attitude.
"Granger," Draco growled walking back to Ann untying her and shaking her up from her sleep. Ann woke up a bit confused as she rubbed her eyes and squinted to see where she was in the dim of the light. Finally her eyes came to focus on Draco and she screamed so loud and horrified. Hermione had to place her hands on her ears just to block out the sound.
"Shit! Shut up!" Draco yelled angrily.
"Who-who are you?" Ann asked.
"Your worst nightmare, now get up." Draco commanded. Instantly the girl stood up and brushed her jeans and then looked over at Hermione.
"Malfoy-" Hermione wanted to know if he was going to help her or not. She was desperate, even if it meant Draco wouldn't help her out at least she could trick him and take his wand.
"-he's Malfoy?" Ann asked. Hermione gave the girl a glare for interrupting her but Draco seemed to be amused by this.
"You told her about me?" Draco asked with a large smirk on his face.
"Of course Ann, care to tell him what I said." Hermione glared at her making sure Ann got the message.
"She said you were an asshole, a git and she hates you." Ann replied. Hermione smiled at her, she gave her a thankful look because usually if it was Pavarti or Lavender they would give Draco false information, not that what Ann could have said was false.
"Stupid mudbloods." Draco muttered under his breath.
"We heard that!" Ann and Hermione said at the same time, Draco glared at the both of them, turned around and muttered something under his breath. Hermione looked over at Ann who gave her a wink and a thumb up. Hermione gave her a look of confusion. Ann then waved her hand near her face, fanning herself and worded 'hot'. Hermione gave her a warning look before turning her attention to Draco.
"Malfoy?"
"What?" He asked turning back around.
"Does anyone else know I'm missing?" Hermione asked.
"Of course, the whole school practically knows."
"How the hell did you get out of Hogwarts? I mean Dumbledore is supposed to keep an eye on you."
"Port Key." Draco answered with a smirk. Then he walked over to the door of the dungeon and looked around then came back. "Granger, I'm risking my neck to get you and your friend out of this mess but you owe me big time!"
"What are you planning?" Hermione asked calmly but inside screaming with excitement. Draco grabbed Hermione's and Ann's arm and took them outside the dungeon and into a small hall. He looked at either long ends of the hall then back at Hermione.
"Go down this end..." Draco pointed to his right. "..And turn left; there is a small wine cellar there. Inside there's an open window. Get through there and tell your friend to apparate-"
"-you knew how to apparate? How come you never told me?" Hermione asked Ann.
"Because, I tried before and they have some kind of blocking spell. So when I try and apparate it leads me back in the same spot."
"Well now that you two know this place is heavily guarded with charms and spells, my plan is the only thing that will work." Draco said irritated. Ann shut her mouth automatically and Hermione waited for him to continue. "This gives you exactly five minutes to leave the place because the death eaters are all at the ceremony. But once the patrol guard comes it's too late for you." Draco said.
"What are you going to do?" Hermione asked worriedly.
"Don't worry about me! Go!" Draco said gesturing her to leave. Ann already began to walk towards the end of the hall but Hermione still lingered. "What are you doing? Go Granger!" Draco said nervously. Hermione smiled up at him, he was risking his life for them.
"Malfoy I-"
"Don't Granger." Draco warned cutting her off. Hermione frowned, how would he know what she was going to say?
"Don't what?"
"Don't thank me or anything." Draco replied turning away from her. Hermione grabbed his arm and pulled him back. She then wrapped her arms around his neck in a tight embrace; she didn't care if he would push her off or tell her to leave. Just in case it was the last time she would see him as just Draco and not Draco the death eater, she wanted to hug him. Hermione looked up at him and he was no longer angry or nervous, he was smiling back at her. It was the first time she had ever seen him smile and he looked absolutely amazing. It brought small butterflies to her stomach just looking at him so she slowly pulled his neck down causing his head to tilt closer to her own.
"I don't hate you any longer..." Hermione whispered. "..Draco." She then kissed him on the lips hard and the way she had always wanted to. He returned the kiss after a second later and slipped his tongue in her mouth. They began to kiss feverishly when someone rudely interrupted them by tapping their foot.
"We don't have time for this." Ann said irritated. Hermione quickly pulled away and blushed. It was seriously a bad time for a make out session but Hermione got herself together after experiencing the most sweetest kiss, besides the other's she received from Draco.
"Sorry, let's go then." Hermione said and turned to look at Draco one last time. "Thanks." Then with that, Hermione and Ann ran down the hall. After they turned left, Hermione heard footsteps walking towards their direction. Although the hall was dim, she could see the room Draco told them to go into. Hermione grabbed Ann's hand and ran inside then locked the door. She pulled shelves and barrels to hold down the door from anyone entering. Doing things Muggle way was hard work, especially when the guard was walking right outside in the hall and can barge in any second.
"Listen Ann, I have an idea." Hermione said quickly, hearing the footsteps inching closer.
"What?" Ann asked just as worried as Hermione was. She kept looking at the door then back at Hermione.
"Go on without me. Go to Hogwarts and tell Dumbledore, Harry and Ron." Hermione said.
"I can't leave you here!"
"You have to Ann." Hermione said quickly. She then tugged a strand of her hair and gave it to Ann. "When you go see Dumbledore, my Head Master, he will need to track me down. Since I don't know where we are, he will need my hair in order to perform the spell."
"How do you know all of this?" Ann asked shoving the small hair into her pocket.
"Let's just say I read a lot." Hermione said quickly. That's when the door started rattling and Ann was close to screaming again if Hermione didn't close her mouth. "Go! Please! Hurry!" Hermione pulled her towards the open window, which clearly showed that the sun was setting and helped Ann climb out. Once she did, Ann looked back at her worriedly.
"Hermione good luck. I will get to them as soon as I can. Hold on, don't let them kill you!"
"Of course, now go! Apparate!" Hermione ordered. Once Ann disappeared, the half empty wine shelf fell down and the barrel rolled away. There stood two death eaters raising their wands at her.
"Stupid mudblood, trying to escape!" One death eater screamed. The other binded Hermione with invisible chains. Her arms were tied behind her back and her legs were tied together.
"Where's the other one?" The same death eater asked.
"I don't know." Hermione replied. The death eater kicked her in the stomach causing her to fall on her knees and crutch. She gave a small groan and wondered why they always aimed for her stomach.
"She's lying. Don't think I don't know a lying mudblood when I see one." He screamed yanking her hair back and making eye contact with her.
"Then I guess you don't know much." Hermione replied but quickly wished she took it back. He smirked at her and raised his wand to her neck.
"Don't kill her! We need her for the ceremony." The other death eater finally spoke. He lowered his wand to her school dress shirt and began to make circles on the hallow of her collar bone.
"Consider yourself lucky. I would gladly have killed you for mouthing off." He hissed in her ear then pulled her up by the hair in which he still held. Hermione winced but tried her best not to show any pain. The man then grabbed her arm and began dragging her out of the room, through the hall and into a small passage way. They walked for what seemed like ten minutes before they came upon a hidden staircase. It leads them into a dinning room and the men continued walking her down the dinning room and into a connected large dark living room. Hermione's feet were hurting from the constant lashing of the invisible chains on her feet. It was even worse when they forcefully dragged her despite the throbbing bruises it left behind. She considered this was torture enough.
"Look who we have here." A malicious voice spoke and Hermione knew instantly who it was. But what shocked her most was how many death eaters were in the room the moment the light was turned on. She glanced through the crowd of hooded men and tried to figure which one of them was Draco. It was hard to tell since most of the men were as tall as him.
"How did you escape, mudblood?" Voldemort asked. Hermione didn't look him in the eyes for it was just disgusting to watch his face. Hermione also didn't answer the question, what did Draco say to him? How will she explain herself? They knew she had no wand.
"I asked you, how you escaped mudblood?!" Voldemort roared.
"Apparated." Hermione lied. She couldn't tell if he fell for it or not because the room was dead silent. It was an eerie feeling to have this much control over his servants. Voldemort walked over to her and grabbed her by the neck.
"No one and I mean NO ONE lies to me." His scaly hand wrapped tightly around her neck and Hermione felt she was losing oxygen.
"May I speak, sir?" Draco spoke out loud. Voldemort let her go and turned towards the direction of his death eaters.
"Yes, you may." Voldemort said calmly. Draco took his hood down and stepped out of the group. Hermione gave an inward smile, just seeing his face caused her to forget all the pain.
"I would like to be your servant as soon as possible." Draco said sternly never making eye contact with her. Hermione prayed she heard wrong, he was trying to direct Voldemort's attention to himself.
"Ah! I love this boy! Certainly, we may begin as of now." He spoke proudly then faced Hermione once more. "Take her away!" He ordered.
The two men that were on either side of Hermione grabbed her and dragged her out of the room and into another living room. Hermione kept replaying Draco's declaration in her head as they took her up a stair case and into a small room that had no windows or furniture. It was completely dark and gloomy. They threw her inside and locked the door. Hermione sat on her knees hands behind her back which itched and she slowly cried. Downstairs, Draco was being initiated just so he could save her. Again. That's when something clicked in her head. Why would Draco Malfoy always come to her rescue? Unless it meant he didn't hate her and in fact, liked her. But then she shook her head, someone who likes you or cares for you would never have put you in this situation to begin with.
Hermione looked around the dark empty room and wondered when they would take her out and kill her. And if it wasn't Draco who would kill her, then who? All she could do was pray Harry and Ron would find her and save her.