Chapter 2 : Rescue Mission

Hermione, not used to port key travel landed on her bum, hard.

Wincing, she stood up and brushed off her now grey robes.

"He must be killed, he knows too much." A voice hissed.

Hermione stopped mid motion, eyes wide.

"He's but a boy, he can be manipulated." Another voice pleaded. One Hermione recognized.

Lucius Malfoy.

"He turned Seventeen but yesterday and you still claim him a boy!" the other voice bellowed. "You have had seventeen years," it continued, softer, "To mold and manipulate him into what he should be, yet he still defies us. You should know your own son better, Lux."

"He, is power hungry, you haven't said what he is to gain-."

"Enough!" the voice said sharply, "You have failed Lux, He will be killed tonight, and so will you. The line ends here with you and him."

"No! Please Nox!" It was strange to hear the elder Malfoy pleading.

"Its Tenebrae to you!" the voice bellowed, "Only family may refer to me by that name, and I no longer have any family."

Hermione was up against a far wall, where, if anyone took to peaking through windows or cracks, she wouldn't be seen.

Kill? The word swam through her head, making her slightly dizzy. Malfoy and his father were going to be killed, by family.

She wasn't an expert at rescue missions, especially where she had no clue what to do, or where she even was!

She cursed herself yet again for not checking the note for port magic.

Now what to do?!

She could very well go back, but she had no clue how.

"Guess all that left is to save the bastered." She said softly even for her own ears.

She pulled out her wand fm her sleeve, having her Seventeenth birthday at the beginning of break was a wonderful change, not to mention being able to do magic when working on her school work.

She tapped her nose, and felt as though she had tossed water on her face, but the water wouldn't stop, until she was drenched in the cool sensation.

Her disillusionment charm wasn't nearly as advanced as Mad-eyes or Tonks', but it would serve the purpose.

She waited until she could hear nothing outside the door, then she quickly opened and quietly shut it.

The hall was draped in a black wetness, with a dark cobble stone floor. There were no paintings, only torches.

Dungeons. She realized, or at least a hall close to them.

Chances were that she was close to Malfoy as it is. After all, you wouldn't give a suite to someone you're about to kill.

"Who's there!" someone hissed.

She turned quickly fearing that her charm was off.

It wasn't.

Lucius Malfoy was in rags, very unbecoming him, and looking frantically around, even though she was right in front of him.

'this could prove useful' she thought quickly kneeling by the bars of the dungeon cell.

She didn't get to close, or her spell would be canceled. Prison cells outside of Azkaban were laced with magic sapping anti spell charms and curses.

At least according to "A History of Wizard Prisons" a book she had read twenty or so times in the summer between her third and fourth year.

She changed her voice, slightly, adding an accent to it. A trick she had been able to do since before she knew she was a witch.

"I'll shout, you shouldn't be here!" he called to loud for Hermione's tastes.

"Shut up you imbecile!" she hissed, "Unless you want your son to die?"

He quieted quick. "Who are you?"

"A friend," she replied, quickly, "I need help, where is your son kept? I'll get him to safety, and come back for you." She didn't intend on keeping the second half, but she needed his help, or she'd be searching this apparently large manor, crawling with who knows what or who.

His eyes shifted to hers, following her voice, "No, I'm fine, he wont kill me until Draco's dead." He responded, quiet, assuming she knew the situation. "Get him out of here, then leave, the longer you remain the worse, Draco is kept a floor above me, two cells down. Take the stairs on your right."

"Thank you," She responded taking to her feet.

"Thank you," he responded, "Cast a silencing charm on your movements, the floor is drenched in water, Nox keeps all of his dungeons that way to hear better."

"Thank you," she responded, "Stay alive," she cast the strongest silencing charm she knew and took the specified stair case.

Hermione knew that she was bordering on insanity at the moment.

Lucius Malfoy had been in Azkaban since the end of her fifth year, and was set free the end of last year by family.

He had tried to kill Harry, Ron, and herself, she had been infuriated when she heard of his release.

And she had just told him to stay alive. But somehow, she knew that it didn't matter, his past. Something was going on here, greater than she Ron or Harry had known about when she cursed his release two months before.

A groan lead her to Draco's cell. He was laying flat, his blond hair streaked in mud, and his attire was worse then his fathers.

His back and arms were covered in welts.

"Draco." She whispered.

He shot up, wincing from the movement, "Who's there." He demanded, softly.

"Hermione Granger." She replied, and watched his expressions change.

Draco knew it was no trick.

Anyone who might have tried to trick him, knew that he hated her, and logically, wouldn't use her as their choice of identities.

One of the reasons why he chose her.

"Granger?" he whispered, he looked relieved, "You certainly are quick."

"I had no option, Mr. Port Key the note." She hissed. "We need to get you out of here, and quick."

She taped the bars twice and muttered the finite Incartum spell. To her glee, the bars dissolved.

She repeated the spell on his shackles.

"Wand?" she asked quickly.

"Yes."

She didn't ask where, that was his secret to keep. She took her wand and tapped his forehead, and watched him shiver before vanishing before her eyes.

"Have anything else you can port key?" she whispered.

"No." he replied.

She casted the silencing charm on his feet, and a concealment charm on their voices. "Come." He heard her voice change, he could hear it, even though he knew she had made no noise.

She hummed softly leading them down the stair case.

Lucius was already gone, 'Nox must have taken him' she thought, leading Draco into the room she had found herself in when she had first arrived.

"Where are we?" she asked once the door was closed and the charms canceled. The reason she couldn't have made a port key before was that she had no clue where she was.

"Nice, France." He replied. "Look Granger, thanks for your help, but you need to get out of here, I can manage a port key charm on my own."

"I want to see you gone first." She wasn't about to leave him only to find out in a week when school started up again, that he had been killed after she left.

"Fine, 'Portus'." he tapped a scrap of cloth with a wand that was suddenly in his hands. "Before I go, here." He removed a ring from his finger, and put it in her hand, "My thanks, Granger." Touching the cloth, he was gone.

She shook her head and tapped her wand on the ring, "Portus,"

After a slight tug, she was once again sitting in her bed at number twelve Grimwald place.