… … …
"I'll occlument to you soon, but if you need me, just think strongly," thought Harry, sending it to Hermione.
He peered through the window a moment longer to the beautiful girl among all the old and rich. Ivan Karkaroff was now by her side and Hermione was smiling at him. Harry couldn't help but be worried about her. Of course he could never tell her to be careful, it would only shake her confidence. He looked down at his watch, he needed to sneak into Ivan's room and soon.
He needed a better view of the house if he wanted to find a good place to scale the walls and climb in through a window. He turned away from the window to face the dark yard…
"Why hello there Potter," said a slick sultry voice.
… … …
"What in the bloody hell!" Draco fired.
Hermione just looked at him. Harry's unbelievable words ringing through her ears.
"Potter!" he asked, enraged at the very thought.
Still Hermione said nothing; she was far too flooded with so many different thoughts.
"Explain!" he screamed at her.
Hermione looked in his eyes of storm. "Is he really nominated then?" she finally asked, her face grim and serious.
"Yes," said Draco, trying to attempt calmness.
He watched her look away from him and stare into nothingness, thinking very deeply. She looked still and terrified.
It was impossible. Impossible! There was no way the members of the Ministry would actually nominate Lucius Malfoy for Minister of Magic! How could anyone let this happen?
Out of all the things that had happened, after everything she had already been through, Hermione never felt a bigger, deeper feeling of despair. The image of Lucius taking the head seat at the Ministry of Magic…. In his hand a large black quill, before him a bill. And as he would sign, millions of screaming wails could be heard in unison. The cries of muggles everywhere, as their absolute doom was implemented.
Lucius would merely be the pawn of Voldemort. Who would rise unafraid after Lucius would declare no punishment for the harming and killing of non-magical people.
It would only be a matter of time before every muggle and muggle-tolerant person everywhere would be hunted down and murdered for sport. There would be so many of them to get rid of, it would become the daily job for some. Hermione imagined the factories large masses of human beings would be herded off into, factories of death. Where thousands went in, and none came out.
The ministry had no idea what they had done. No idea whatsoever. Even if the fucking fools really were oblivious to just how close Lucius was with the Dark Lord or how deep his hatred for muggles and their supporters really ran, believing Lucius, omnipotent or not, didn't really discriminate against non-purebloods was impossible to comprehend. Who could ever believe him when he said he didn't? After all the past suspicions against him? The very idea of such a scoundrel with such a history! What could possibly redeem a man of his past! Nothing!
"It's impossible!' she thought to herself.
Bloody impossible! It had to be!
….Just as impossible as Hermione Granger marrying Draco Malfoy.
Because that's what happens when Malfoys marry Mudbloods. The whole world as everyone knows it comes undone. If one can get the people to believe Draco and Hermione, so very different people, are willingly married, convince them that such polar opposites came together in love, one can get the people to believe anything.
Even that Lucius Malfoy has changed. That Lucius Malfoy likes muggleborns.
The tormenting grip all her unanswered questions had had on her insides all those months slowly released their hold. Clarity flowed through her from her feet to her head. She could see clearly down the tunnel of the future. She could see Voldemort marching his army, with Lucius at his side.
'I know what's happening," she whispered.
She looked up at Draco and opened her mouth to say something, but she could not decide what. She closed her mouth and rushed to the chest of drawers. "I've got to go," she finally told him, opening the drawers, checking quickly in case she saw something she would need.
"Excuse me?" said Draco.
"It's exactly what they were trying to do last year…" she said quickly, she had a demeanor of only wanting to talk to herself; Draco was merely an over-hearer she didn't seem to notice. She occasionally glanced up into the mirror hanging above the dresser as she rummaged, in which she could see Draco's face and he could see hers. "They had all the "documents" ready, the documents Dumbledore wanted so badly…" she went on, "Only we must have foiled they're plans. The ruckus we caused…investigating Podmore's death… they couldn't make it to the political convention to vote the waters run red last year because they're were all in custody being questioned…"
Draco just looked at her, trying to follow her confusing rant.
"So they started over again this year…" she said with realization, "Only this time they had me," she thought glumly, "this time Lucius had some public approval."
"I have no idea what you're talking about," said Draco, finally ready to interrupt.
"He used me!" she screamed, "Now Lucius is going to have a holocaust of muggles. Lucius is going to win tomorrow!"
Draco looked at her like she was utterly insane. "Hermione, please calm down! Think! So he started a little hysteria, it will never last. Just because he got Fudge impeached and himself nominated doesn't mean he'll actually win. People aren't that dumb. You may have helped his reputation but nothing can help it that much."
But Hermione had already thought of that. It didn't matter if the Ministry had already begun to doubt their decision. Even if they realized they were being stupid about him by tomorrow and vote Fudge back in, it wouldn't matter. Lucius had Brusto.
"They're going to rig the election so Lucius wins," she said, "He's going to trick the Trove of Smoke."
"What?" spat Draco, she really was off her rocker, "Trick the Trove of Smoke? Are you stark raving mad?"
"Brusto Karkaroff is an expert forger!" she told him, "He's undoubtedly made fake ballots… THOSE were the documents Dumbledore wanted last year. Signed, stamped and sealed Draco! And Landon… he's their hook up, they made him set up a deal with the counter Nicholas Greenly! Nicholas Greenly is going to submit them!
Draco was shaking his head, "No, no," he said, "The Trove of Smoke will never accept them."
"And what of the Goblins then?" cried Hermione, "The Goblins Draco! They are supposed to be untrickable! How do you think fake money got into Fudge's campaign account anyway? Only Brusto could do it!"
Draco reeled her story through his mind, not wanting to believe it. He watched her in the mirror as she shoved an extra cloak into a bag, and grabbed a few bottles of water as well. She looked extremely distressed. She had no idea where she was going, but she had to warn someone immediately…
"Hermione," said Draco suddenly, "You can't leave."
Hermione scoffed, she turned around to face him, "Don't be silly, I know you'll release me. I'm going. Right now."
She made a small pause, contemplating her next words, thinking of what Harry had said, risking a lot... "…And you should come too."
"No," said Draco firmly.
Hermione's heart plummeted. It was like it was made of glass and her body was only a shadow. Perhaps she did really love him, and if he was not going to go with her then her heart was dropping… but before it could hit the ground to shatter to pieces, Draco went on speaking.
"You're not going," he said, "You can't. Not if you're right. You've got to stay here with me, with us. You'll be treated better if you behave. It's stupid to resist this. If you make a fuss then they won't go easy on you at all."
Hermione looked back at Draco in disbelief, "What?" she uttered breathlessly, "It's stupid to resist? I shouldn't make a "fuss"? You mean to tell me you're just going to sit back and let this all happen? You know what he's going to do and you're not going to do anything about it!
Draco could not stand the tone she was taking with him, what she was implying, "Yes," he said firmly, "what can I possibly do?"
"You can bloody fight!" she hollered in his face.
Draco's mouth turned into a horrible scrunched sneer, "We're not all fucking Gryffindors you know!" he screamed at her, "We don't all think stupidity and bravery are the same thing!"
She was appalled at him and his reasoning. Even under the circumstances, with what the entire world had at stake…"You're still a coward," she said, starting crying.
Draco stood, brooding with anger, watching her fall apart. "You're not going. I won't let you, it's final."
Hermione looked up at him forlornly and wiped her cheek with her sleeve. Her right hand rose out in front of her and she made the gesture of picking an apple. While doing so she said the word, "Revealio," and a wand grew out of the air from tip to end.
Draco gave a small pained gasp. Concealing and revealing a wand was terribly hard magic.
"How long have you had that?" he finally asked.
"Since practically the beginning," she whispered.
Draco looked away from her, struggling to find meaning of the evening's chaotic revelations
"Do it," she whispered firmly.
She watched as Draco gently closed his eyes, she could only hope he was undoing the binding charm…
"It's done," he answered.
And with that she jumped out the window, her cloak flailing behind her.
Draco looked at the chest of drawers she had been rummaging through. She had left behind the bottles of Mountain Dew he had made for her.
The mirror had time to give out a shrill but short lived scream before he chucked the vial right at it, shattering it to pieces, not wanting to see the sight of himself standing there pathetically alone in the room.
Augustus came barging through the door, "We could hear a ruckus all the way down at the elevator!' he yelled angrily.
Draco swallowed hard and forced his voice to return, "She escaped," he said coolly.
… … …
Hermione ran. She ran and ran until her legs felt like metal rods and her lungs burned. She had no idea where she was going, she was just headed north for some reason.
Where could she go! Surely she couldn't go to the Order. No, not Grimmauld Place, not the Burrow. Not after refusing to go with Harry, after what he had found out. Had he told them? What would they think?
Did it make her a traitor? She didn't know… but not going with Harry probably didn't help clear her of the accusation to say the least.
She couldn't go to Fudge, he had absolutely no power over the situation.
Hermione had nearly stopped dead in her tracks the minute she landed with a soft thud on the pavement outside the hotel to look up and see tall, looming figures silently demanding she stay away. The chaotic scene outside of the Ministry just across the street had gotten so out of had the Stone Wallers had come to life for the first time in many years. They lunged out there giant shields and pushed back the crowd. They blocked off all the exits and entrances with their massive rock presence, keeping the Ministry members safe inside from the reporters and onlookers till the vote was over with the following day.
Once they were invoked to come to use, all the reporters and bystanders had left. They accepted it was no use to try and get in much sooner than Hermione did. She made a few vain attempts to get in, to warn those inside that their precious and reliable Trove of Smoke was about to be corrupted, that Nicholas Greenly must be stopped from submitting the fake forms… but it was no use, no magic or physical force could get her passed the magical protectors. Even the Magical Law Enforcement had left. There was no need for them, not with the Stone Wallers there. She didn't even have a cop to tell.
Suddenly she realized she was on the steps of a dark and docile building. It must have been very late. Anyone left on the street that time of night was very strange indeed.
So she had to run. Who knew how long it would be before Lucius and his gang would realize she was gone and come looking for her.
She was choking on the pain in her throat from her gasping for air. She wanted to stop many times but could not justify doing so. She couldn't stop until she reached someone, anyone who could help her. But the burden of it all was so overwhelming she feared trying to figure it out, for every time she did she felt sick to her stomach and woozy, knowing that Lucius could be so close to destroying everything.
She considered the fact she might not be thinking very clearly, that the revelations she had just received were so terrible, so unthinkable, that she wasn't making the best choices. She thought desperately on what was the best thing to do.
Finally she stopped running. She could hear sirens, eerie creaks, babies crying, all around her and off in the distance. She realized she had run into a very dodgy section of muggle London. It was cold and dark. Definitely not safe for a young girl to be alone so late at night. She wanted to control her fear, her rushing adrenaline, her sense of aloneness, her racing mind, but she couldn't. She was wasting valuable time; she had to get away from there.
She cursed the night and starting running again. She ran and ran until she thought her legs would surely freeze up and stop moving. Finally she came to a skidding stop just outside Kensington Gardens.
Finally she managed to make an executive decision. The first thing she had to worry about was Lucius finding her again.
Well… since she had dashed off in the most random direction, surely Lucius locating her where she was at that moment would be impossible. She had managed to earn some time to take care of one of the many impending problems.
She called out to an owl, as surely there would be one available in the park at night time. It is an owl's duty to heed the call of a wizard in need.
She was most grateful when one came swooping down to her aid. She rummaged through a disgusting park rubbish bin before finding a suitable scrap of paper to write on. She used the quill transfiguration on her wand to scrawl most quickly for her parents to flee the house and go somewhere where no one would think to find them immediately.
Surely Lucius would go after them next, to hold them leverage over Hermione. She couldn't allow that, and contacting them was one of the first things she had to do.
She had done all she could regarding their safety and she hoped with stifling one of her numerous daunting worries and fears, at least for the time being, she would earn enough peace to clearly decide what to do next. But her mind was still a jumbling, horrid mess. She had exhausted herself by running.
'Stupid, stupid girl,' she thought; the heavy, enveloping feeling of soreness and tiredness overcoming her, 'You need to keep strong; you need to warn others…'
She had to get to other wizards, that's all there was to it. She closed her eyes to apparate to Hogsmeade.
Why at the very last second she chose the Shrieking Shack she did not know, but nevertheless she hastily ended up there.
She coughed on the dust as she blinked furiously, trying to acclimate her eyes to the darkness, kicking up clouds of dust as she moved. She must have ended up in the attic.
'Bloody hell,' she thought grimly. It would be most difficult trying to make her way down the numerous stories of the shanty and dilapidated house to the exit in the blackness. Surely there would be many imposing obstacles she have to climb over and under along the way.
She was absolutely correct too. Tiptoeing around jagged nails and stopping to claw the spider webs off her arms and face while trying not to squeal as she made her way… Dashing across rickety floor boards she did not trust through the halls. At one point the doorway out of a room was so caved in and blocked she had to kick at the old drywall, making an already existing hole in the wall bigger so she could fit through it. The staircases frightened her the most; they did not stop swaying.
Slowly but surely she made it to the second floor and was ready to celebrate her exit when her heart dropped. The stairs to the main floor were no longer there. It was a 10 feet drop to the landing and the wood planks that constituted the floor looked very questionable.
But Hermione had made it so far. She couldn't quit now, no matter how tired she was, no matter how shot her nerves were.
She took a deep breath in and jumped.
She landed with a heavy thud and her ankles shot with pain as she crumpled to the floor.
Panic shot through her as she heard rumbles and cracks around her. The floor dropped out beneath her and she landed on her back with a crash on the basement floor.
She moaned loudly. Why, she didn't know, it's not like anyone would be there to help her…
"Mione?" said a voice.
Hermione blinked rapidly. Was she knocked unconscious? Was she dreaming?
Ginny Weasley's face appeared over the jagged hole Hermione looking up into.
Hermione barely understood what was going on as Ginny lifted her out of the cellar with her wand. Ginny struggled with her mind power to lift something as heavy as a person, but she was becoming a strong witch.
Hermione hobbled along next to Ginny, most of her weight thrown over Ginny's shoulders with her arm and leaned. Her legs and ankles were too abused at this point from all the running and the terrible jump to carry all of her. And her back was throbbing and contorting in pain from the last fall.
"How did you know…?" Hermione tried to ask but was out of breath.
"I was doing my rounds. Harry made my Head Girl position much easier by giving me the Marauder's map, let me tell you…"
"Harry…" whispered Hermione…
"Shhh," said Ginny, "I'll tell you all about Harry later Hermione. Let me take you to Pomfrey, just you rest…"
"No," exclaimed Hermione.
Ginny stopped and looked at Hermione with deep concern.
"Voldemort…." She tried to say, "Stop him….Nicholas Greenly…"
Her eyes rolled into the back of her head. Darkness came. Rest.
… … …
Vincent Crabbe had just stormed into the room. He immediately approached Lucius and gave him a sort of awkward bow.
"My Father sent me straight away," he said, "What can I do?"
"Go over there!" Lucius shouted ungratefully, "They will assign you a place to search!"
As Vincent went over to where others had gathered around, hastily deliberating over a map laid out across the table, he gave Draco, who was standing silently in a corner, a curt nod he did not return. Draco's mind was much too busy for petty greetings. There were so many in the room, all were gathered together quickly to find her soon after the news she escaped was delivered.
"I WANT HER FOUND IMMEDIATELY!" roared Lucius again, unable to contain his anger from periodic outbursts.
Draco had grown accustomed to them within the last few moments, and did not let them phase his thoughts.
'She had a wand the whole time…' he kept repeating. He just could not understand why she never used it earlier. Surely a powerful warrior witch he had discovered her to be could easily find away to escape his binding charm and house months ago with no trouble at all. Why had she stayed so long? Why had she allowed things to escalate to the point that they did?
He shook his head to the thought of her being some sort of anti-Death Eater spy… How could she possibly be so high up there in such an organization? And why, why deep, deep, down, was he not surprised at all?
He was vaguely reminded of Dumbledore and all his cryptic and subtle offerings of security and welcome into his efforts and causes, promising him a place where he truly belonged. He could never come right and say it of course, not to Draco Malfoy. And Draco Malfoy, could never, ever, come right out and ask.
But they both knew what the other was talking about. Both out on a high, high, limb.
But it was dangerous. A risk with unthinkable consequences. What if his Headmaster couldn't protect him… because the others wouldn't help him? He knew he would never be truly welcomed there if who he already suspected to be involved in anything Dumbledore had forming truly was. He did not fit in there and he knew it. And since Dumbledore never really asked anyway, it was always easier to never really say yes.
Just then the head of Augustus Goyle appeared in the fire place. "No one is here Lucius, it looks like this place has been deserted for weeks!"
Draco sighed with relief as Lucius roared again. He approached the table, pushing his way harshly through bodies in his way.
"There!" he pointed angrily at a section of London, "You four," he assigned randomly, "search there! There is a Magical Law Enforcement Station on that street! Scour all the alleys too! What are you still doing here? We MUST get her NOW, the election is hours away till morning; she could do all sorts of damage by then you idiots! GO!"
Quickly, Zan and Blaise Zabini along with the Lestrange brothers, apparated away in fear as others cowered to the sound of Lucius's horrible, furious yells. But Draco was very unaffected. He was still thinking of Augustus's news. He recalled very clearly the night Hermione so desperately cried over the thought of Lucius invading her parent's house; it was so expected of her overly sweet spirit. The thought that the muggles had been smart enough to leave soon after swelled a small feeling of triumph in his chest. But he was unabashed by this, and cared not at the time to analyze what such thoughts meant.
"Alright!" cried Lucius again, gathering everyone's attention, "I've just received word," his voice turned more grim and forlorn. "Due to the potentially dyer circumstances, Master wishes all who are not out searching to leave this hotel and congregate at the secret liar. We have a narrow window of apparition available so we must all go together now."
Draco thought glumly of the horrible hideous lair under the Riddle House he was supposed to be sending himself to, but as Lucius's countdown reached one and the room full of Death Eaters all popped away into nothingness together, Draco was not going to where they were going.