A/N: Hey guys, I'm back again! Okay, just for all those Ginny/Draco fans, such as myself, I decided to write a short little ficlet on how it is that they first got together…look for that soon under my penname, Jenalla. Now on with the story…

A/N: I apologize for this, but is being an idiot, and every time I upload my chappie, it deletes these little dividers I had between sections, so I'm sorry if things seem a tad confusing. Just try to follow the best you can…I added extra spaces between them, but I don't know if they'll show or not…

Everything was going so perfectly, just like she'd dreamed it would. No Krum to ruin things tonight. In fact, she hadn't even thought about him all day.

They'd danced most of the night away, to both fast and slow songs. Harry had, of course, claimed that he couldn't dance, but his movements contradicted his words. Her favorite part of the night, though, was waltzing slowly in his arms, head resting on his shoulder as he gracefully led her across the dance floor. In those moments, she'd close her eyes and fantasize about their lives, and whether or not they'd spend them together. Merlin she felt foolish, but she couldn't help it. She was planning their lives away, one fantasy at a time.

At one point or another, she felt her hair drooping slightly, and she realized she was quite sweaty.

"Harry, I'm going to run to the loo. I must look a bloody mess," she said. He smiled at her and shook his head, but released her from his grasp nonetheless. She kissed him softly on the cheek before turning and walking off the dance floor. Grabbing her purse from their table, she exited the hall slowly, not wanting to leave but knowing she should. Determined to be as quick as possible, she broke into a sprint, or at least, as much of a sprint as her high-heeled shoes would allow. She pushed open the door and quickly walked over to the sink, in too much of a hurry to notice that she was all alone, or that the door had not closed completely behind her. Opening her purse, she pulled out her lipstick and re-applied it until it looked as it had before she'd left. Putting it away, she began rummaging around her purse for her compact. Not finding it, she dumped the contents of her purse out on the counter edge. She triumphed as she saw it lying there. Grabbing it, she opened it to re-apply her powder, and that's when she looked in the mirror. His hand on her mouth stifled her scream as his other hand yanked her head back by her hair and pointed his wand at her exposed neck.

"I didn't want to have to do this Hermione," he said softly against her ear. "But you left me no choice. If you'd just listen to me, none of this would have to happen."

"None of what?" she spat out angrily, cursing herself for not being more observant.

"Well, for starters, this," he said and releasing her hair, he quickly smashed her in the back of the head with an object she couldn't see. The last thing she remembered before blacking out was him standing over her, shaking his head as he said,

"I'm sorry Hermione, I really am."

She awoke in stages, still groggy and her head pounding. Opening her eyes, she immediately wished she hadn't as the bright light magnified the pain in her head. She attempted to reach a hand up to touch her head, but found she couldn't. Tugging, she realized her hands had been bound together behind her. Panicking, she looked down and saw her legs were also bound together, and that she was sitting in a metal folding chair. She tried to stand up, but found that not only were her hands and legs bound together, they were bound to the chair as well.

Faintly, although not sure if it truly was faint or just her head, she could hear the music from the dance, so clearly she hadn't been knocked out for that long. Unfortunately, even if she screamed, the chances were slim that anyone would actually be able to hear her. Looking around, she tried to assess her location in the hopes of figuring out which part of the castle she was in. As she twisted her head this way and that, she caught sight of him sitting off in the corner, smirking at her.

"As I said, I am truly sorry this had to happen Hermione. You should have listened to me, though. I love you, and I know you love me too."

"Well if you love me so much, then why are you doing this?" she sneered. He shrugged.

"You gave me no choice. You refused to listen to me at all, or read any of my letters. I had to get you alone instead of with that stupid Potter boy." Hermione's heart ached at the mention of Harry. Was he worried? Did he realize that she was missing yet? Would he figure out what had happened? She realized her hopes were futile, as there was no chance, even if he did figure it out, that he would ever find her. There were thousands of rooms in the castle, and considering that she didn't even recognize this one, there was probably no chance he'd ever been here either.

"Well now you've got me. What are you gonna do with me?" she taunted.

"Make you listen to me. I know you love me Hermione. You know you do too. So why won't you just let us be together?"

"Because I don't love you. I love Harry. You're nothing to me. You're pathetic. You had to kidnap me to even have me pay attention to you-" She was cut off as his hand made contact with her cheek. Her head whipped to the side as the smack echoed around the empty room. She glared at him angrily, refusing to give in.

"You bitch," he said menacingly. "You do love me! You do!"

"Guess again Krum. I don't love you. As a matter of fact, I don't even like you. You could even say that I hate-" Again, hand met cheek, and her head was once again thrust to the side. She could feel her cheek burn and knew his hand imprint was probably already visible there.

"Don't you say that! Don't you ever say that to me!" His eyes glittered angrily as he spoke.

"Why not?" she asked. "It is the truth afterall." Another slap. She continued to glare at him, anger rising in her. "I hate you."

Harry glanced around the hall for about the tenth time in the past five minutes. Where was she? She'd only been going to the loo for crying out loud!

"Calm down mate," said Ron, clearly understanding what he was waiting for. "You know girls. They take forever in there!" Harry smiled weakly, although he had the feeling that something was wrong. Hermione wasn't like most girls. She never spent long periods of time in the bathroom. He glanced at his watch again. Twelve minutes. She'd been gone for too long. He stood, knowing something was wrong. Looking around the room, he spotted Ginny, off in a corner with Draco. He walked over to them and smiled apologetically.

"Ginny? I'm really sorry to interrupt, but I need you to do me a favor." She nodded, realizing it must be serious. "I'm worried about Hermione. She's been gone too long. Could you just check in the loo for me and make sure she isn't in there?" Ginny nodded, rising, only to be stopped by Draco. She looked back at him as he stood as well.

"What? I'm coming too," he said stubbornly. "You don't honestly think you can just leave me here, now do you?" She shook her head and smiled to herself.

"Lead the way Harry," she said.

They arrived in front of the door, and Ginny went in. She returned in a moment, face pale. Harry's gut clenched as he realized he'd been right. Something was wrong.

"What is it?" he asked, not sure if he really wanted to know.

"Her purse…it's just sitting on the counter. And all her stuff is spilled out," she paused, taking several deep breaths. Draco reached out and squeezed her hand reassuringly. She looked at him and smiled for a minute, before turning back to Harry. "And…I found this on the floor." She brought up her other hand, and held in her fist was a large metal object. Harry grabbed it and scanned it quickly. And then he saw it.

On one corner, so small he'd have missed it had he not been examining the surface closely, was blood. He instinctively knew it was Hermione's. His gut clenched even more and he gritted his teeth. There was only one explanation. Krum.

She closed her eyes and counted to herself, attempting to control her anger. Lashing out at him wouldn't do any good- he'd just continue to hit her. Merlin knew her cheek was already in enough pain (not that she'd ever tell him that).

"Well? What do you have to say Hermione?" he asked, standing over her, arm raised slightly. She stared at him in silence, refusing to voice the anger boiling in side her. He laughed. "Nothing? Really? That's disappointing. Well let's see if we can't get you to talk a little," he said, and struck her other cheek. Without even giving her a second to breathe, he punched her in the stomach so hard she wanted to keel over and die. Unfortunately, given her current situation, that wasn't really possible. She gasped in pain and began taking deep breaths, trying to replenish her air supply. He smiled, and it scared her. He was sick. He was beating her up, and enjoying it.

"Please…don't do this," she said, truly afraid for the first time. "Stop. You need help. Please, just stop." He leered at her once more before punching her in the face. Her entire body was screaming in pain, from the ropes tying her down as well as from him, but there was nothing she could do about it. She was helpless. Completely and utterly helpless.

'Oh Harry!' she thought as a sob rose in her throat. 'Please- help me. Come find me!'

"Please! We need to go and find her!" Harry begged Dumbledore. After finding the instrument with the blood, Harry had raced back to the dance, Ginny and Draco trailing behind him. He immediately sought out Dumbledore and explained everything he knew. Dumbledore nodded slowly, and examined the weapon Harry showed him.

"And you're positive it's him?" he asked. Harry nodded furiously.

"I'm sure. There's no one else that would do this to her," he said flatly, knowing it was true. Everyone loved Hermione, and if they didn't, then they didn't care about her one way or another. Unfortunately, Krum fell under the 'love' category…more like he had an unhealthy obsession, but close enough.

"Now, Miss Weasley. You're sure those are Miss Granger's things in the bathroom?" She too nodded in response to his question.

"Yes. We bought matching purses, because we both thought they were so cute. As far as I can tell, we're the only two here with that style, so it can only be hers." Dumbledore nodded again before rising and said,

"Quickly then. Gather as many people as you can and we'll begin a search party. We must only hope that he was not removed her from the school grounds."

She had no idea how long she'd been sitting there. The music was still playing, so she knew it was before midnight, but that was all. Her arms and legs and long since gone numb, and her back was aching from sitting in such an uncomfortable position for so long.

He'd finally left her alone, to mull over all that he'd said. She didn't know where he'd gone, but frankly, she was just glad he'd left. The silence was a welcome pleasure from the stiff accent of his voice. She sighed aloud, wondering how much longer this would go on. And what would happen when he decided he was finished. Would he let her go? Would he take her away? Would he kill her? She had no doubt that he was capable of it. She'd seen the predatory gleam in his eyes as he'd hit her. Fear overcame her for the first time. She was actually afraid. There was so much left that she had to learn, had to do. She wasn't ready to die and dammit! she wasn't going to!

Not knowing what else to do, she began moving her arms back and forth across the back of the chair in the hopes that they'd catch a sharp edge of the metal and snap. Her arms quickly tired, but she kept going, praying they would break. All the while, all she could think about was Harry, and how much she wished he would walk in, untie her, and just hold her in his arms and tell her everything was okay, and that he'd never bother them again.

She was so deep in her thoughts that although she heard the door open, its sound didn't register to her until he spoke.

"Hello Hermione. Did you enjoy your time alone?"

Harry was frantic. They'd rounded up Ron and Luna, Dean and his date, Neville and his date, several of Ginny's friends from her year, and, to Harry's dismay, Crabbe and Goyle (they, of course, had no dates). They'd quickly divided into small groups and strode off to different parts of the castle. Ginny and her friends divided into two groups and agreed to search the Gryffindor tower and the Astronomy tower. Ron, Luna, Dean and his date agreed to search the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff towers. Neville and his date reluctantly agreed to search the Slytherin tower with Crabbe and Goyle. That left Harry…and Draco.

Draco opened his mouth, and Harry held up his hand and said,

"Save it Malfoy. Whatever little joke you have, just save it. I am not in the mood. Don't think I won't hex you, because right about now, I'm game for anything. Now let's go. We're going to search the dungeons." They walked off for the dungeons.

After searching through seven corridors, which consisted of over fifty rooms, they were both lagging a bit.

"Jesus," Malfoy muttered, although Harry heard him. "You'd think they'd make a map of Hogwarts or something. This is ridiculous." Map?! Of course! Why hadn't he thought of it before?

"Accio Maurader's Map!" Harry bellowed, wand out. He waited several seconds, aware that Draco was staring at him as if he had two heads. Then he heard it. The sound of parchment, hurtling through the air. He looked in the direction it was coming from, and there it was. His map.

He grabbed it anxiously out of the air, tapping it with his wand and muttering the magical words that began its magic. He unfolded it impatiently, searching for her dot. Thankfully, since the dance was still in progress, the majority of the students' dots were in there. He began scanning the folds for any dots not in the hall. There were those of Ginny and her friends, of Ron's group, Neville's group, as well as him and Draco. But there wasn't one for her. Where was she?!

He groaned in frustration. Where was she? He was about to flip to another section when two dots caught his eye. Squinting closer, he read the names. It was her! He'd found her! Glancing at the room where she was, he saw that it wasn't far from them. He took off sprinting, leaving a very confused Malfoy with no choice but to follow. Turning corners blindly, he followed the map until he was outside a wooden door. It was closed, and after testing it, locked.

He blasted it with spells, with every unlocking spell he knew. Finally, he heard the lock click and the door creak as it opened a crack. Grabbing it, he threw it open before racing in, wand raised, ready for battle, if necessary.

"Hermione!"

A/N: Aren't I evil, leaving you with such a cliffie like that? Guess you'll just have to tune in next time to see what happens next. =]