Author's Note: A big thanks to those who reviewed and a smaller thanks to those that like my story. –shakes fist- You poopy people that don't review…
Pranks Are So Siriusly Padfoot: Hm. I suppose it was supposed to be funny. –shrug- I didn't give it much thought. I just put it in without thinking. XD And the symbolism thing you were saying; I didn't think much about that either. You have weird thoughts. XD COOKIES. –munch-
Chapter Eight: A New Dark Lord?
"You do?" Draco stared at her with unbelieving eyes. Hermione smiled weakly and nodded. "Wow." For a moment, Draco Malfoy was totally and completely speechless. "Just. Wow." He eyed her skeptically before concluding that she was telling the truth. "No girl has ever said that and meant it." With a sigh, he let go of her and leaned his hands back on the dirt behind him. "They usually just say it because I'm so popular." A smirk flickered on her face for a second. "Or because Lucius is so powerful and rich." He ran a finger through his blonde locks and dropped his hand.
Locking eyes with Hermione, Draco took her hands. "I might love you, too." He looked down at their hands. Her delicate hands felt smooth against his callused ones. "But with all the confusion, lately… I'm not really sure." Hermione smiled at him and leaned her cheek against his warm chest. "I wish that you would feel the same way." She closed her eyes and suddenly felt tired. "It's getting darker." Draco commented. "Do you want to rest now?" Yawning loudly, she nodded in reply and soon fell asleep.
While she napped, Draco stayed wide awake, holding her in his arms. He constantly stroked her brown hair and gazed affectionately at her face. What he had said before was true. But now, he was almost entirely sure that he did love her. It was a burden to be a Malfoy. If only he could get rid of his girlfriend… She was probably still at the Manor, waiting for him. She had a beautiful face, but it only made up for her stupidity. Even a spoon was smarter than her!
Draco immediately straightened and looked around as he heard a loud groan in the night air. It was quite dark and hard to see without light. Fumbling through his robes for his wand, he heard another groan. It sounded much closer this time. He grasped his wand tightly and gently lifted Hermione off of him. He conjured up a sleeping back and carefully rested her body on it.
He gazed at her in a peaceful slumber and smiled privately. Another moan snapped him back to reality. Holding his wand ahead of him, he stepped away from Hermione. With a last glance back at her, he continued on to where he thought the source of the sounds was. The ground shook a little and there was a thud. Squinting, he soon made out the outline of a large body on the ground. Draco cautiously approached it and leaned close to the face. "Malfoy." It mumbled with difficulty. "Hagrid?" He dropped to his knees. "What happened?" The half-giant seemed to be in too much pain to speak. But finally, he did. "Malfoy." He repeated. "You an' Hermione…" A low grunt. "Have ter get out. Death Eaters." One loud groan of agony was the last sound Hagrid ever made.
"Hagrid, I'm going to help you, okay?" Draco was unaware that he was no longer breathing. "Hagrid?" He shook his former professor's shoulder. "Hagrid?" There was no doubt that the poor half-giant was dead. There were some light footsteps heard nearby. There were many, and Draco realized that they must be the Death Eaters. Quickly wishing Hagrid the best, he stood and hurried back to Hermione.
During the hours of darkness, it was hard to tell which direction you were going. Especially in a mass of trees. Draco soon became hopelessly lost. He continued to wander around, searching for Hermione. He occasionally whispered her name to see if she could hear him. Afraid to light his wand or call her name to loudly, he was not able to find her. It seemed like he was walking for hours and his feet quickly grew sore. "Hermione." He whispered and collapsed to the ground in exhaustion.
Meanwhile, Hermione had waken up shortly after Draco's departure. She sat up in the sleeping bag, looking around for Draco. Even calling out his name several times, she walked around the area. She heard some footsteps nearby and spun around. Seeing a shadow, she called out, "Draco?" All of a sudden, a spell was shot at her and fell, paralyzed. The Death Eater walked up to her and bent down to look at her face. "It's that mudblood Zabini has crush on." He shouted to someone. There must have been other people around, but Hermione couldn't see behind her. Another voice drew nearer as someone else walked up to them. "You're write. I'm sure he'd just love to see her again. Let's take her with us. If we have no use for her, we can just kill her."
"Yeah. Hey, she's kind of cute when she's scared." The first grinned toothily. Hermione could tell because his pearly whites glimmered a bit in the darkness. "Maybe I should take her for myself." She strongly hoped that he would not choose this. "No." The second shook her head. "Zabini wouldn't be too happy… I heard that he finished off the Lord earlier today. Turns out he's going to be the new Dark Lord because he's so young and able-bodied. It was originally going to be that Malfoy brat, but he seemed to have turned against us."
Hermione felt her body move up into the air. One of the Death Eaters must have been using a hovering charm. "If Zabini can kill the old Dark Lord, he could kill us. Best to be on his good side. After all, this is his girl. If we bring her to him, we might get a great reward." Said the first Death Eater. He and his friend laughed while they took her away.
All the while, Hermione couldn't take her mind off of Draco. What had happened? Did he get taken as well? Was he okay? Did he abandon her? The last question seemed unlikely to her, but she couldn't help but feel a sadness inside her. It was possible. She felt like crying as she remained hovering in the air. Her captors were silent, now. With the information she had, she decided that she would eavesdrop some more. In the case that Draco didn't leave her, she could be useful.
If she could, she would have sighed. But under her conditions, it was not possible. Her mouth was closed. She would have to do without one. After a long time, they finally reached the fortress in which Hermione and Draco had stayed. Hermione suddenly wondered if Ron was alright. Hopefully, he had escaped his own way and was long gone. The Death Eaters and she went to the main entrance. A set of heavy metal doors. Two guards stood on either side of it. Eyeing the Death Eaters carefully, one guard planted something small on each of her captor's upper arm. Where the Dark Mark was supposed to be.
With a nod, the next guard unlatched and unlocked the doors and the doors slowly creaked as they opened. This was all done in their silence and they entered. Unsurprisingly, it was dark where they entered. The doors closed behind them, the last trace of light disappearing. Hermione heard the two pairs of footsteps stride quickly, and had no idea where they were going. If she was going to escape, she wouldn't even know which direction to run because she was floating in the air.
Hermione heard a lock click and a door was opened, revealing light. It blinded her for a moment, but she soon became adjusted to the brightness. The light dimmed down and it was dark. Shadows fell everywhere. The room reminded her eerily of the dungeons at the Hogwarts castle. She was set down on the cold stone floor and her wrists as well as ankles were chained to the floor.
They must have released the paralyzing charm because she was able to sit up and take a good look around. On the wall opposite the door sat a throne. It was not as elegant as it should have been. The whole thing was made of some sort of metal. Probably steel. It was totally plain with only a black 'D' emblazoned on the back. The only indication that it was a throne was something that was shaped like a crown on the top of the back. It was part of the chair and stood out because it was constantly glowing black, white, dark blue, or dark green.
More than a dozen cloaked Death Eaters stood in a semi-circle on each side of the room. They stood in silence and barely moved. The worst of everyone in the room was Blaise Zabini. All the power having gone to his head, his eyes looked insane with greed. He eyed her hungrily and smirked unpleasantly at her. "Well, well, Granger. Looks like you've managed to evade me twice." He stood and took his time to approach her.
He bent down so that his lips were close to her ear. "But it won't happen again." He whispered roughly and straightened. "Now, then. It seems that Draco is lost in the forest. Isn't that convenient?" He smiled at her. This smile was menacing and there was nothing comforting about it. Like the previous Dark Lord, Blaise had once been handsome. During his Hogwarts years, he was what all the girls would fuss about. Draco had always been first, however. Now, his face was scarred and he always seemed to have a hint of madness in his dark eyes.
"Because you seem to care so much about him," Blaise continued, returning to his seat. "I suppose we have to care of that. The Cruciatus Curse, followed by the Killing Curse." His eyes flickered over Hermione's horror-struck face. "And maybe doing it in front of you would teach you a lesson." He added, followed by a loud snicker from him. "Take her away." He ordered to one of the Death Eaters closest to him. With a nod, he grabbed her brutally by the arm. Her chains disappeared, but she was sure there would be more soon. He pulled her along with him through a door that seemed to appear out of nowhere. He opened it and threw her in an even more badly lit room. It was almost identical the other one except smaller and there was no throne. She turned around and saw that the door had disappeared. That was just terrible. She lay on the ground and started to sob. It felt like forever when she had last been happy. She missed Draco. She missed Harry, Ron, Ginny. She especially missed her Hogwarts years. The best times of her life. She found herself growing tired and gradually dozed off to be awakened much later by her door banging open. "Time for your little show." Blaise grinned evilly and snatched her arm. "Starring the one and only, Draco Malfoy."
Author's Note: MWUAHAHAH! CLIFFHANGER! -evil grin- Anyway... Sorry this took so long. I didn't feel like writing. Besides, I had like, no ideas. Please do review! Reviewers help me get through with this story. If I get more than five reviews from different people, I will probably update really soon. I love you all!