Why am I so stupid?
Draco jumped off of his bed from where he had crashed out the night before. He was still fully clothed. He grabbed his wand off of the night stand beside his bed and stowing it in his jean pocket ran out of his room. He stopped dead when he was in the common room thinking that perhaps Andre might still be around. He crept quietly around the normal looking common room, inspecting everything to make sure all was still the same.
Next, he made his way cat-quiet towards Hermione's room. He leant against the door, trying to hear if anything was going on in the room. After standing there for 30 seconds he decided everything seemed fine, but still he drew his wand out of his pocket and held it in front of him like a sword.
Should he knock? What if he woke her up? No . . . he wouldn't knock . . . he would just creep in really quietly, so as not to make a sound. She would never know. So, with curls of unease in his stomach, he turned the door handle with a sense of dread of not knowing what he might find on the other side.
The door swung noiselessly open and he crept into the dark room. Even though it was daylight outside the curtains were drawn and the heavy drapes around the bed were pulled closed. Draco crept across the bed so that he could pull one of the heavy drapes back a bit so he could see what was inside.
Fingers fumbling slightly he found the end and drew it back slightly. The bed was . . . empty. Draco let out a breath of relief, but then he realised that if she wasn't there . . . then where was she? It looked like the bed had been slept in, and as he put out a hand to feel the covers, he could feel a slight warmth on them. She had not got up long a go then. He looked at his watch to see what the time was and saw that it was almost 11:00am!
He was talking to Andre last night though . . . and that meant that today was Friday . . . and that meant that . . . it was a full moon tonight! He ran out of her room, through the common room and out of the door. Running down the corridors, he decided what to do. He would go to Dumbledore and explain everything. Maybe he could get protection for Hermione. Dumbledore would be able to sort things out. Draco knew he could. With that in mind he sped down the passages.
It was only as he was racing along the corridor outside the Great Hall that he realised that he had met no-one on his travels. He should have met someone. It was Friday, a school day. The whole place should be packed with students making their way towards their second lesson. But he had met no-one! It was strange. He didn't like it. Draco stopped, he was tingling with dread, he quickly looked around the entrance hall and then once again set off to go to Dumbledore's office.
Hermione had woken with a sense of anxiety and doom hanging over her. She had slept well, nothing had disturbed her sleep, no dreams, no nothing. She felt better, but she couldn't help feeling something bad was going her way. It was strange. This was the 7th day and yet . . . and yet . . . everything seemed . . . normal. Perhaps she had imagined that voice. Yes, that was it, she imagined it. That was the only sensible conclusion. The walls were still standing, there was nothing about to happen. She kept telling herself this firmly, making sure that she believed it fully. It was her over reactive imagination. It was the first time then that Hermione believed that perhaps too much reading was bad for you. Nope. That wasn't it. She loved reading, it wasn't about to hurt her.
With the thought of reading fixed in her head, Hermione decided to go and check if the book was in the library now. She looked at her watch and focused on the time it was . . . 10:40! How could she have slept that long! She was supposed to be at lessons! What was wrong with her! She started pulling on her school uniform and in 5 minutes was done. It was only when she was finished did she remember that she had asked for this Friday off. She slowed down and remembered her conversation with Dumbledore the day before.
She had asked for the day off as she was so tired that she would barely be able to stay awake in lessons. Naturally, Dumbledore understood and agreed. He knew she would be able to catch up easily. She had been tempted to tell him about her tattoo but decided against it as she wasn't sure if it meant anything. She said thank you and left.
Hermione was glad she was getting the day off. It would mean that she would be able to go and see if any other books mentioned her tattoo. It was a start. So, as she liked a tidy room and really couldn't be bothered to make her bed she drew the curtains around her bed, and after a quick decision not to open the curtains in front of the window, went out the door and closed it with a snap.
After walking down a few corridors she began to feel a bit scared. She hadn't met any students, or teachers, or any other creature in the castle. Normally she would have passed a dozen classes by now. Perhaps, the lessons were being held elsewhere for today. That's it, she thought. The lessons are being held elsewhere. So, refusing to believe anything strange was going on, she headed for the library, determined to get some information.
When she got to the library though, the heavy oak doors were closed. Now that WAS strange. The library should have been open. It always was. The students needed it, she needed it. Feeling slightly annoyed at the inconvenience she knocked on the big oak doors, feeling slightly foolish.
"Hello!" She called. "Hello! Anyone there?" She called again feeling slightly nervous. Why hadn't she seen anyone? Why was the library shut? Where was everyone?
Hermione cautiously leaned on the doors and with a quick push, they swung inwards. Hermione had alarm bells wringing in her head. Why were the doors just left open like that? Still determined to find what she was after, Hermione walked straight in and with a wave of her wand lit all the lamps.
"Now, where would the books about prophesy books be? Oh yeah in the prophesy section" Hermione said aloud. And since she knew the layout of the library off by heart she headed straight for the back section of the library.
"I suppose I should start looking in ones that contain marks of different sorts." Hermione said to herself. "Yeah, that would be a good place to start" Knowing how many there were on prophesies Hermione began to get books off the shelves, which had something to do with marks in the title. She hoped she would be able to find it quickly as she really wasn't in the mood to spend ages researching. Which was an unusual thing for Hermione to think.
Draco had been up to the head masters office. (both the head boy and girl had been given the password encase they needed Dumbledore urgently. He had been up, knocked on the door, waited knocked again and there was still no reply from the head master. Draco then decided to brave going in uninvited, but to his surprise and growing fear, he saw that it was completely empty. No Dumbledore, no Phoenix. There was even no former headmasters, or headmistress's on the wall. Each portrait seemed completely empty. There was not a person around.
Draco thought it over again and knew somehow that Hermione was still in the castle. He would go back to the room and see if he could find the person finder spell he had learnt in the sixth year. He would bewitch a parchment to act as a map and then if anyone was in the castle then it would show up as a glowing green dot. It wouldn't say who it was, but then again any sort of person was better than no people at all.
Draco raced out of the room and down the spiralling staircase, setting off at a sprint to his room. Hermione might even be there when he got back. He hoped she would be. He wondered why his first priority hadn't been to find her in the first place. He cursed as his own stupidity and set off at an even faster pace to his room.
Draco skidded to a halt in front of the wall that hid the entrance of the common room the wall slid back to reveal a still normal looking room. Nothing had been touched. It didn't look as if Hermione had been back at all. His confidence in being able to find her was ebbing away, and in its place was guilt and worry settling in. Guilt because he should have thought about finding her earlier and all this mess was his fault, and worry because he hadn't seen a single living soul, and he still didn't know where Hermione was, he was worried for her safety because Andre was trying to get to her.
He looked around in the common room, trying to find the one book he was after. He looked in the desk, he looked on the desk, under the sofa, in the sofa, in the bathroom, in his room and there was still no sign of it anywhere! Then he wondered. What if Hermione had taken it into her room for some very strange and peculiar reason? It was worth a shot. So, with a light knock on the door, Draco waited to see if she was in there. He hit himself on the forehead. Stupid, stupid. Why am I so stupid today? He thought. She's not going to be in there, she's in the castle somewhere. That's why he needed the book. He was definitely losing his marbles.
He entered feeling a bit like a thief and embarrassed to be searching her drawers. But after a couple of minutes clever looking he managed to find it. It was in her bedside table.
After three wrong attempts, where glowing green goo spurted all over him, he finally had the right thing. There were two dots on the parchment, one was him, showing him in his room, and the other was in the library. Great, he thought, he should have guessed she would have been there. That is if it is her. There was no one else on the parchment, so that meant that Andre wasn't there either. For the second time that day he thought, why am I so stupid?
He rushed off out into the deserted corridors to find Hermione, to correct what he had done. He had to. He hurried on, hoping she would stay where she was. His stomach gave a little grumble, but he barely noticed and continued on his way to the library. On the second louder grumble, he looked at his watch and saw to his astonishment that it was 13:15. He had been searching for two hours. He was really losing track on time.
Hermione had looked through which felt like the 50th book before she decided to stop. Her back was hurting from being bent over the books and she was starting to feel just a little bit hungry. Even if there was no one around her, there was sure to be someone in the Great Hall. She looked at her watch and saw that it was 13:10. Her stomach gave a growl and she decided to give up on finding the prophesy. She felt slightly annoyed, but she was too hungry to think about anything now.
So with a defeat sigh she left the library and with a swish of her wand extinguished all the lamps. She closed the door softly behind her and made her way towards the Great hall.
Draco skidded to a halt outside the library doors, hoping she was still going to be there. He pushed one open and darkness met him. There couldn't be anyone working in the library if it was dark. He might as well check anyway. He did a quick sweep of the room and found a table at the back full of books . . . not any books though . . . books to do with prophesies! She had been her then! But where was she now? Draco thought and decided that she had probably gone to get something to eat as it was past 1. With a big sigh he hurried off to the Great Hall. He seemed to be doing a lot of hurrying.
Hermione walked slowly to the Great Hall feeling extremely lonely and wondering where everyone was. She felt depressed. Her footsteps echoed strangely and made her feel even more lonely. She missed company. Even Malfoy's, she thought. It sounded weird even to her considering that he wasn't being very nice to her.
She pushed the doors to Great Hall open. It was . . . totally empty, nothing stirred. It was like everyone had vanished! It was very unnerving. At that moment a new sound met her ears standing out against the roaring silence; it was footsteps. Her heart leapt strangely and found that the noise was coming from the other side of the hall.
Hermione jogged to the other side where she noticed a door that she had never seen before. From where she was standing the sound didn't sound like footsteps but someone knocking on the other side of the door. With some puzzlement Hermione slowly pushed the door but found it was locked. Hermione whipped out her wand and muttered the alohomora spell and there was a click of the door unlocking. With a small smile of remembrance of first year she pushed it open.
The room was dark and there was a shuffling sound as if someone was slowly dragging themselves away from the light. Hermione peered into the darkness but could see nothing . . . so she walked in a little bit further but still couldn't see anything. In a timid voice Hermione called out.
"H . . . Hello? Is any body there?"
Even though no one answered she was sure there was someone there. Then it came to her: she should light her wand! "Lumus" Then there was light. But what Hermione saw was not a person but a thing. Hermione slowly backed away wide eyed. It started to come towards her and she let out a piercing scream and turned to run but the thing was faster than her, it caught her just as she was at the threshold of the door. With another scream Hermione fell onto her front, she was dazed by the fall but rolled over just in time to see the thing change into a person right before her eyes. " Andre" She whispered. Then she blacked out.
Draco finished jogging outside the hall doors, and stopped a moment to catch his breath. Just as he went to push open the hall doors though, a piercing scream met his ears! Without wondering what he was getting himself into Draco pushed open the doors and saw that on the other side of the hall a girl was being dragged in to a closet, a girl with brown, curly hair, it was Hermione! He had found her! But he also saw that Andre was taking her.
Draco found himself running towards her. Shouting at the top of his voice, "NOOOOOOO!" But he was going too slow and the closet was on the other side of the hall, he would never make it! With a last spurt of energy Draco got to the door but found that it was closing, he was going too fast and there wasn't any room to stop so Draco closed his eyes and in the next second felt the impact as he slammed into the now closed door.
He bounced off it and laid sprawled on the floor but was not knocked out. He just laid there thinking that he could of done something more to help her! She had been taken by a thing he knew so well that had terrified him and that had stalked him in his and her dreams and with a horrified thought Draco knew what Andre was capable of. Draco hadn't been able to tell her how he felt and he knew what he would have to do, everything was his fault and now Andre had taking Hermione and he knew he had to rescue her.
He had to tell her how he felt, he had to tell her his misunderstanding. He had to get her to forgive him. But at that moment he wasn't capable of anything like that. He just lay on the floor, crying out his heart, his soul, crying in self pity.
A/N: Well here's chappie 26! What did you think? Please review cos reviews make authors happy and makes them write wicked stuff for their fans. hint, hint lol! Any way if you review tell me your opinions! What you thought of it, what parts were good. I can take constructive criticism but no flaming please! I don't think I could take it! Lol! Thanks for reading and reviewing! Luv Water Demon xXx