Thinking quickly, Draco backed his horse up and hastily but carefully steered it down a steep leafy hill full of stumbling rocks, branches and divots.
He merged finally from the side close to the vertical wall of the cliff; there was very little shore between the wild, wide creek and the bluff.
He saw Mystery walk out of the water, shaking out his mane. His eyes scanned the creek, to find Hermione frantically trying to swim to shore, her robe weighing her down.
Draco jumped off his horse and ran into the water, only to feel the sharp sting of its surprisingly icy temperature. The fading warm sun was very deceiving; the October water was remarkably freezing. He bared it up to his knees and reached out for Hermione, who had made it so close but appeared to be giving up her trudge to the shore. He pulled her hands to him, lifting her upper half out of the creek. She looked at him through squinted eyes and immediately Draco could tell she wasn't well, perhaps having knocked her head on a rock at the bottom of the creek when she fell.
He dragged her out of the water but she was unable to stand, her knees collapsing under her.
"Granger?" he asked, hoping she would show signs of response.
Her eyelids merely fluttered and her head rolled to her shoulder.
"Hermione!" Draco tried again, lightly and quickly slapping her cheek. Draco began to panic; she obviously had hypothermia or severe stress or a similar bout.
He pulled out his wand to instantly dry her then start a fire, only to his horror, discover that it was spilt down the middle and barely hanging together. He must have damaged it in his own tumble when Troy bucked him off. This would have a grave affect on what he could do to make sure Hermione was okay.
Desperately trying to recall everything he knew about woodsmen-ship and what to do during emergencies; he looked at his horse and Mystery, both very sore and exhausted. He surveyed the way he came down, and knew the horses couldn't make it back up that way. The other option was to loop around the bluff and then climb it when it became a steep hill, which was unfortunately a few miles away.
With gray clouds rolling in and the sun setting since it was now shifting into the evening, Hermione would surely freeze to death by the time they made it home. He had no choice. He must keep her as dry and warm as he could until help came.
Without much thought he carried her over to a half circle-like curve in the bluff wall and sat her down there, hoping the rock walls would block the rousing wind from chilling her even more. She shuddered, her breathing very shallow and her lips blue, and slid down to her side, completely out of it, basically unconscious.
"Midnight," Draco cried, as he knelt down by Hermione, "GO! Retrieve Lucius! GO! Good boy!" he yelled as Midnight took off running back the way they had come.
Draco, observing Hermione, decided the water's coldness was too traumatic for someone recently released from prison, her physical state still too weak to handle the shock of the stress and excursion.
He unfastened Hermione's sopping wet robe and tossed it aside. He pulled off the clinging tight gray shirt, then her shoes and gray knee-highs, leaving Hermione in a tank top and skirt. Frantically he got up and went to his horse, tugging out the blanket they had brought for the picnic and rushed back over to the cove in the bluff past Noon, who was watching with interest.
He laid it out in front of Hermione and then removed his own robe and flung it over her shoulders, meanwhile hastily running his hands speedily over the skin of her arms trying to create heat with the friction, evaporating any moisture that may have remained on her. Realizing her hair had absorbed a lot of cold water and was still dripping it on to her, he took a handful and squeezed it the best he could. He ran back to his saddled bag and removed a bandana.
Back at Hermione, he sloppily bundled her hair up and tied it to her head, hoping that with it away from her skin she might be able to warm up. Then he pulled the hood of his robe over her head and fastened the front of it. He picked her limp body back up and set her into the blanket, then rolled it around her. He looked back at her, she was still shuddering and had cold sweat, her forehead was feverish and her eyelids fluttered.
"Noon," he called, "Lay down," he pointed to Hermione's feet, knowing the head and feet where the two main areas from which heat escaped. Noon obeyed and Draco ran back to the saddle bag, pulling out some potions. He eagerly hoped that what he was looking for was there.
"Liquid Brimstone!' he declared out loud, shaking it, and then frowning, realizing not much was left. He ran into the woods, frantically looking for a bur oak tree. He sighted one and hastily grabbed a handful of its leaves returning once again to the cove where he had laid Hermione.
Desperately he arranged the specific leaves, hoping they were still alive enough to activate the reaction with the potion. He managed a small flame when he poured the concoction onto his leaf pile, to which he had to feed kindling and more leaves. He was amazed with himself as he got it to grow, and quickly ran away for wood to burn.
Luckily he practically stumbled upon a dry fallen trunk, which he dragged back over to the small fire, along with a handful of longer thinner sticks under one arm. He dropped the bundle of longer pieces of wood and stomped on the dry trunk where it easily broke into chunks. He placed one into his flames and they greedily ate the log. Draco breathed a sigh of relief and looked down at what he had created without a wand. He grinned at his success as he watched it grow into a healthy stable fire but then instantly started to worry again if it would be enough.
He looked down at Hermione, who was still blue and shivering. It was no wonder too, since without his robe and his shirt being ribbed down the middle Draco, who was far drier than she, was also cold. Draco opened the blanket he had rolled her in and laid down next to her, tucking the blanket snuggly around them. He scooted her till her back was to the fire, its heat hopefully drying her hair, and the dog still at her feet.
Her clingy wet tank top chilled his chest and abs as he pulled her closer to him, but soon his heat over powered the cold sensation, hopefully conducting the warm energy into Hermione. He found himself sliding his arm under her neck and pulling her tightly onto him, making her murmur something inaudibly. Then she wrapped her arms around his free forearm in a delusion, pulling his arm onto her chest, probably instinctually sensing his natural warmth and body heat.
Draco's heart finally began to steady its pace as Hermione stopped shaking violently and seemed to fall asleep, the pinkness returning to her lips, her skin no longer gray. Her face mere inches from his, and her feminine frame pressed against his body, Draco realized as mentally tough and brave as she was, little Hermione was more fragile than she seemed. Draco knew if he had not helped her, she would have died.
He hated the thought and dismissed it quickly. She was going to be fine; he had made sure of that.
Now that he was relaxed, he realized how stressed and exhausted he was as well, and with the heat of their blanket roll-up, Draco too drifted off to sleep, Hermione snuggled right against him.
In a faint glimmer of good fortune, it did not rain and the clouds passed. Draco had successfully managed to keep Hermione warm, so much that she was now well enough to maintain her own heat and sometime during the night the two rolled away from each other, now only sharing the bubble of warmth the blanket enclosed. The dog, uncomfortable from the fire had crawled away and laid on his own.
The horses were making some sort of disgruntled noise when Draco awoke. He felt Hermione's forehead, she didn't seem feverish, but healthily warm. With her no longer shaking or murmuring, he concluded it would be safe if he left the shared blanket and saw what was wrong with the horses, who were sounding more nervous and skittish with each passing second.
Hermione recalled first awaking due to the gust of cool air that touched her when Draco got up. She wearily watched him walk out of the cove towards the creek through the fire light, her head pounding with ache, realizing that they had been sharing the close proximity of the blanket. Still exhausted, she rolled over and hazily wondered why she was so undressed when she re-closed her eyes.
Suddenly she heard that horrible shriek once again, the sound that had spooked Mystery into taking off over the bluff in the first place. Then she heard Draco cry out from shock and in a flash she was up out of the blanket.
It was very early in the morning, the sun having not risen yet. She squinted through dimness and saw Draco cover the back of his neck, squatting near the ground, as a horrible huge beast hovered above him, flapping its wide black wings, resembling a massively huge bat. She cursed herself for not recognizing the sound when she had heard it the first time.
The beast lowered and positioned himself to fly right into Draco. It intended to scoop him up and carry him off into the distance, where it could sink its teeth into his neck and feast on Draco's blood in peace. But when it made its dive something crashed into Draco from the side, knocking him out of the way.
Like an eagle missing a field mouse, the beast clutched his talon feet and screeched angrily. It turned around in the air and stared at Hermione, who was standing up defiantly, Draco knocked to the ground a few feet from her. Its yellow eyes flashed in the darkness and its pointy ears twitched. It hissed and exposed its fangs to her.
It made the same swooping motion down at Hermione and Draco observed her swiftly move out of the way from where he laid stomach down on the sandy beach.
Angry it missed again the beast landed; taking a humanlike postured and walked towards Hermione. Draco noticed with horror its resemblance to a man when it wasn't flying about. It reached out with an angry clawed hand, attempting to slash Hermione's face. With cat like reflexes she dodged out of the way by just inches only to return the slash with a punch in the face.
The monster growled and retaliated by smacking her down with the back of its balled up fist.
Hermione grunted as she landed near the fire. Draco yelled her name, warning her of the things approach. Earnestly, she reached for a very long staff-like stick Draco had collected as fire wood.
She hoisted herself up as it neared her and swung the tree branch like a baseball bat, crashing it into the thing's midsection.
It immediately flew up backwards into a tall tree, where it perched itself on a high branch and screeched at Hermione, bellowing in pain and ferocity. Draco gulped in fear but Hermione looked sternly up at it.
Thrashing about aggressively now, the thing was very mad. It spread its wings out to let Hermione be aware of its massive size. Draco hollered as it swooped again, fearful for Hermione who was out in the open, ripe for the picking. He didn't want to witness the monster rip her to shreds.
It made its final dive for her, determined to destroy her. It swooped low, and in a timed reaction Hermione maneuvered down to one knee, bashed the branch across her thigh and then formed a cross with the two jagged broken pieces of tree.
It screamed its most horribly high scream yet as it saw the cross, shielding its face with its arms and swerved away, crashing into the ground and rolling into summersaults. It quickly stood up from its coiled, trampled state, only to feel the blow of a spike pierce into its chest. It looked down to its left breast to see the tree branch Hermione had just had in her hand sticking out of itself.
Draco watched in awe as Hermione had hurled the spiked branch at the creature with accurate missile precision. Then she firmly and fearlessly jogged towards it, only to jump up and high kick the piece of wood further into the creature's chest, causing its sharp jagged end to burst through its back.
It shrieked for the last time before it slowly crumpled into a pile of fine gray dust.
Hermione heaved a big sigh and fell back onto her butt in the sand, her hand clutching her pounding head. She looked over at Draco, whose mouth was gaping.
Slowly he rose and walked over to her, looking at the pile of gray dust with horror. He helped her to her feet; they stumbled back to the fire where they both collapsed onto the blanket.
Draco looked a little dazed and slowly reached for a canteen. After a long loud gulp, he finally spoke. "You saved my life."
Hermione, still rubbing her temples, looked over at him then down at her scantily clad body, realizing all to well now that she had passed out in the cold water and that it was he who had kept her warm, "Well it would appear that we're even now."
"What was that?" Draco finally asked in a hazy huff, passing the canteen to her.
"A vampire." She answered, gulping down the water thankfully.
"That was no vampire!" cried Draco in disbelief. "Vampires look like men. They're intelligent and civil. That thing was insane."
"It was just recently turned," she said matter-of-factly, staring into the fire, "You know, once a normal man just barely bitten by a developed Vampire. It was kind of like a baby."
She turned to look at Draco, who was still looking confused, "Adolescent vampires are uncontrollably bloodthirsty and beastlike," she tried to explain, "They want to feed so badly they act ravenous. When they first turn they're dumb and wild, looking like giant bats and craving only blood. The more blood they drink the more they mature into your typical vampire. They get smarter, calmer and more manlike, the form they spend the rest of eternity as. That one," Hermione said gesturing to the pile of dust, "didn't make it into maturity." She turned to look at Draco who was still staring at her with a confused expression. "Why are you so surprised, you've been looking for it all day haven't you?"
After observing Hermione's fighting skills first hand, it didn't surprise him so much than to learn that she was so observant too, "I was looking for the thing that killed all the deer and rabbits yesterday, yes. But I had no idea it was a baby vampire. How old was it?"
"Just a few weeks I would guess, however long ago the animals started turning up like they did…Who lives beyond your woods?" she asked gazing off into the rolling hills in the distance, covered with tall leafy trees.
"No one," said Draco, "There are just a few old small castles and houses that no one has lived in for years spread randomly throughout the forest."
"Well looks like an adult vampire has moved in to one, and it's luring in victims from the nearest village. It will continue to do so once every month or so. For whatever reason it didn't finish off its last victim allowing it to become a vampire. You might want to hire a slayer to take care of the master one."
"Slayer?" Draco scoffed, "Why don't we just send you out into those hills, you're obviously capable," asked Draco, "You knew just what to do."
"It wasn't my first time," was all she answered, taking another swig from the canteen, leaving Draco to wonder when and why in the hell she'd ever had to slay vampires before when he heard Lucius angrily call his name. He looked up to the top of the bluff.
Silhouetted through dawning sun, Midnight was also looking over the edge of the bluff as Lucius yelled again, "What the hell happened!" he was roaring, looking furious.