Chapter 15
"What price must I pay?" Hermione asked finally, remembering Madame Pince's story about the Lestrange couple. Hades leaned over, and looked her straight in the eye, and she imagined that they were no longer cold, but full of the fires of hell.
"You must devote your life to the dark magic of Necromancy, and discover its secrets and share it with your wizarding world." Hermione shuddered; Hades had wisely given her a nightmare of a task. She supposed that there is always a price to pay for what you desire most.
Persephone spoke, her ethereal voice slid through the dark stagnant air, "Do you choose this path, Hermione Granger?"
Hermione raised her chin, and took a deep breath.
"Yes," she replied firmly, knowing that she had doomed herself to a life of darkness and danger.
"So it shall be," Hades said finally, turning to the Fury. "Bring out the shade of Draco Malfoy."
The Fury slunk away leaving Hermione alone. She closed her eyes and wanted to cry, but consoled herself saying that, despite all this, she would have Draco.
The Fury escorted Draco's soul from wherever he had rested in limbo. Hermione opened her eyes and found herself looking into the intense blue eyes of the ghost of Draco Malfoy.
"Draco?"
"Hermione?" he whispered, his eyes wide. "What have you done?" She shrugged with a faint smile, turning back to Hades.
"May we leave, your majesty?" she asked. He made a dismissive gesture with his pale hand, his mind already on more important things, such as torturing that new soul that had recently arrived… However, Persephone's eyes remained fixed on the reunited couple.
"What have you done?" Draco asked again, his voice choked as they left the dank hall of death. "You've gone and thrown your life away, for me?"
"I haven't thrown it away," Hermione replied, allowing a slight edge of anger enter her voice. "You're worth the price, Draco. Necromancy isn't all that bad."
"Don't you understand?" Draco begged, grabbing her hand. She stopped and looked back at him. "He'll have hold over you for the rest of eternity."
"That's the price I'll pay," she said coolly. "And don't you dare say that you'd rather be dead, or something stupid like that. You're worth it Draco, and don't you dare-"
He pulled him close to her, and looked down at her.
"Draco," she said with a slight snicker. "This is rather uncomfortable, especially since you're a ghost." He swore and let her go, looking down at himself.
"I look like a prat," he snarled. "I'm all white, or something!"
"We'd better get back up the real world, eh?" she laughed, taking his hand. He nodded furiously, and they ran toward the Gate.
Hermione pushed the Gate open and they spilt out into the hallway.
"Was it hard getting down here?" Draco asked as she looked for the River.
Hermione made a face, remembering the darkness that she had to wander through. "No, actually, it wasn't all that hard." She frowned, and reached into her pocket, pulling out the box. She flipped it open to the page she had marked, and found the pictures of the Gates.
"It says that to cross the River again, we must have some sort of payment," she said, heading away from the doors, and farther into the black.
She stumbled over a rock and nearly tripped. "The river's over here somewhere, do you remember?"
"No," he replied tersely, looking around, clearly slightly panicked. "Something's wrong, Hermione, but I just can't place my finger on it."
"Nothing's wrong," she replied flippantly, holding the book up in the dim light. "Ah, look here it says-"
"Run Hermione!" Draco shouted, pushing her toward the unpenetrable night. "It's the Furies!" Hermione shut the book and shoved it into her pocket, drawing her wand, as they scrambled toward the river.
"Why are they following us?" Hermione panted, grabbing Draco's cold chilling hand. "I thought we were allowed to go!"
"The book!" Draco replied through short breaths. "The book, look at the book!" Hermione drew it from her pocket, and she could hear the screeches of Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, their evil cackles filling her ears. She held the book in front of her, and realized what was on the cover.
A picture of the Gates adorned with gold, and between the doors the Furies faces poked out, their evil features beset with hatred, and at the foot of the Gates knelt a handsome boy... She recognized him instantly, but was reluctant to believe what she saw. She opened the book to the first page, and the silver writing glowed in the faint light, as if some dark monster was shining through.
"What does it say?" he asked roughly, the wing-beats growing in the distance. "What does it say?"
"It says…" she trailed off unhappily. "Property of Tom Riddle."
"The Dark Lord!" Draco exclaimed in horror. "That's how he reformed his body! He's a necromancer, and the Furies-"
"His servants!" Hermione finished his sentence. "That means-"
"The Dark Lord knows I have risen from Hades' depths, and that, we have the book that is the key to his power," he said grimly, pulling on her with increased urgency. "And he wants the book back."
"Draco, what do we do?" Hermione said under her breath, her side hurting. "I don't have a fare to cross the River again."
"You can swim, can't you?" he asked with a wry smile. "Well, that's what we're going to do."
"We can't do that, Draco," Hermione snapped. "The River Styx is thought to be made of fire, we could die!"
"Didn't you think that you could die when you ventured into Hades to bring me back from the dead?" Draco said. "I had rather hoped you had thought of this before hand."
"Well, I didn't have much time," she said. "You had been dead to long as was, I couldn't really risk spending more time reading the book."
Draco, who was rather calm about the situation, took a deep breath and spoke.
"Well, if we die." He clenched her hand with such frightening fervor, that Hermione felt her hand constrict. "If we die, at least no one will be able to separate us ever. And, you won't have to honor you promise to Hades."