Between A Rock and Draco Malfoy

Hermione Granger

Malfoy pulled me into the back of the cave forcefully. I didn't have much of a choice—trusting him was pretty much the only option I had.

He slipped in between a crevice in the rocks and pulled me in after him. It was narrow, but we fit. Then the felt around for another rock and he found one that was from floor to ceiling. He pushed me in the narrow space before he entered it himself. The next thing I knew, I was in between a rock and Draco Malfoy. His body was pressed up against mine, forcing me to stay still and motionless. The smell of his cologne was dizzying. He put his mouth by my ear and whispered, "Don't move."

"Don't worry," I breathed, "I can't."

It was then we heard the voices. "I think it's clear."

"No," said a different person, "I think someone's in here."

I held my breath as I heard footsteps coming in our direction. They passed us.

"Granger, listen to me," Malfoy whispered firmly. "Stay here. Do not come out of this until I come and get you, understand?" As much as I didn't want to obey Malfoy's orders, I wasn't feeling one hundred percent better, so I nodded.

He left me in that stupid crack in between the rocks for ten bloody minutes. It seemed like hours, though. I couldn't hear anything but the dripping of water and muffled voices. It scared me that I didn't know what was going on.

Then he came back. "Alright, it's safe."

"Who was it?" I asked impatiently. He didn't answer. "Malfoy, you stupid git, tell me who it was— Ron! Ginny!"

I saw two of my best friends sitting in the cave on some rocks.

"Hermione!" I threw my arms around Ginny's neck.

Ron put his arms around my waist and said, "I thought you were dead."

"I didn't know what to think about you." I admitted solemnly.

----

"Now what?" I asked as we all sat in the dark cave. It was nighttime, now, and it was pitch black. We were too afraid of being seen if we used magic, so Lumos was not an option.

"We can't go back to Hogwarts," Ginny offered.

Malfoy nodded. "There's now way in hell I'm leaving this place."

"Ever?" Ron asked, making an attempt to be civil. We all sort of got a long with Malfoy. "What… are you going to live here or something?"

"Are you out of your bloody mind?" Malfoy spat. So much for being civil. "I only meant stay here for a little while… and then try and find our way back to the wizarding world."

"We can't," Ginny said, shaking her head. "We can't go back there."

"Yeah," Ron agreed. "We don't know what we'll find when we get back to Hogwarts."

Something was bothering me. "Have you ever heard of The Blaze?" I asked slowly, not sure if I wanted to tell them about it.

"The what?" Ron asked thickly.

"I think I know what you're talking about," Ginny whispered. "But I'm not sure if I believe in it."

"Yeah, me neither, but in times like this, I—" I started.

"Care to enlighten us on what you're talking about?" Malfoy asked impatiently. Ron actually nodded in agreement.

"The Blaze," I began in a hushed tone. "Is said to exist somewhere deep in the Forbidden Forest. It's a secret society that was formed by Hogwarts students about two decades ago. It was the time when the dark forces were getting stronger, and people got more and more afraid. Some students feared for their lives and ran away from school one night. They traveled for weeks and set up a camp deep within the forest."

"Yeah," Ginny said, "I've heard of it. They welcome new members, but there's one condition. No more magic. Ever."

"Wow." Ron breathed.

"None at all," I said slowly. "They're afraid that the use of magic will attract the Ministry to them. They don't want to be found."

"Do you think it's real?" Malfoy asked.

I shrugged, but remembered it was too dark for him to see. "I'm not sure."

"I think we should take the chance," Ginny began, "It's the only option we've got besides staying here and turning back."

"But Weaselette, it'll take weeks, and we don't even know where to go and then there's the whole 'no magic' thing!" Malfoy sputtered.

We all glared at Malfoy, but I had to admit he had some good points.

"I think I could live like that," Ginny stated simply.

"I couldn't!" Ron exclaimed.

"Me neither." Malfoy said.

"Well you all know I could," I laughed. "Being a muggle and all. But after being in the wizarding world, I don't want to live without magic."

"Well," Ginny said, rising from her seat. "I'm going."

"Gin, sit down!" Ron grabbed his sister and tried to make her join our circle. "Let's talk about this!"

"Ron, look," She sighed. "I don't want to stay here. I don't want to go home. I have to start over… make a new home for myself. If there are other people there already, than great. If you three don't want to join me, well, it's your loss."

"Can't you just wait until morning?" Ron pleaded.

"No." She said firmly. "I might be seen."

"But if you leave now, you won't be able to see!" Ron pointed out.

"Which is worse?" Ginny asked, heading toward the front of the cave.

"Ginny," Ron pulled his sister into a hug and she started to cry.

"I'm going to miss you, Ron." She whispered.

"I'll come and find you someday, I promise." He said as he held her.

"I'll be waiting." She wiped her tears and hugged me goodbye. "I'll miss you, Hermione."

She looked over at Malfoy and said, "I probably won't miss you, but goodbye."

He laughed. "Have a nice life!"

Ron glared at him.

----

We some how managed to sleep on the cold, hard ground. I woke up with a stiff back.

Ron was still asleep when I woke up, but Malfoy was sitting upright in the corner. "Good morning," He whispered to me.

"My back is killing me." I said as I went over to where he was and sat next to him.

"Maybe we should leave this place," he said. "Maybe Weaselette was onto something," he said.

I gaped at him. "You?" I breathed. "You want to live without magic?"

He shook his head. "I don't want to, but maybe I have to." He paused, "To get away from my son of a bitch father."

"I won't do it," I whispered decisively. "I was never one to go camping."

Suddenly, before Malfoy could ask what camping was, someone was at the entrance to the cave.

We froze. I looked at him, he looked at me, and we both looked at Ron. We didn't know what to do.

"It's me, it's okay," We heard from the entrance. "It's Ginny."

We relaxed, and Ron stirred in his sleep.

"Ginny!" I ran over to her and hugged her. "Why did you come back?"

She looked awful. Her hair was a tangled mess and her skin was dirty. Her clothing looked tattered, and it was more than the usual tattered-ness of the Weasley's robes.

"I had to warn Malfoy," she said slowly.

He looked up at her with surprise. "You came back to tell me something?"

She nodded. She sat down on a rock across from him while I took the spot beside him. "I was walking in the direction away from Hogwarts. I walked for roughly three hours when I heard voices ahead of me. I hid in a bush and got as close to the people as I could without them seeing or hearing me. They were death eaters… and they were looking for you."

"Did they say why?" I asked.

"Your father," Ginny started. "He thinks you've come to the light side. He said you didn't respond to any of the signals when your mark should've glowed. And he said you've been skipping death eater meetings all year."

"Are they coming back in this direction?" He asked nervously. They might've missed the cave in nighttime, but there was no way they'd fail to see it in broad daylight.

"I'm not sure." Ginny said.

"We can't stay here," Malfoy said again. "Whether The Blaze exists or not, we need to find it."

"Come on," I began, "we don't know where we're going and if it's even there!"

"So?" He asked. "If it's not there, we'll make it ourselves. We'll build a home for ourselves. We'll find more people from Hogwarts that are in the forest and let them in."

"This is risky," Ginny said.

"What's life without risks?" Malfoy asked us. "What's life living in a cave, worried about being caught?"

At this point, Ron woke up. "Ginny?"

We told him what happened and of our plans to go to The Blaze. "Well," He said nervously. "I'm not staying here alone."

And so, we gathered our wands and headed out of the cave, unsure of what we would find.

Author's Notes: Wow, thanks for all the reviews! Only two chapters in and there are already more than 30! To some of you who said this works with the 6th book, I'm glad, though I'm not quite done yet! I'm limiting myself to three chapters a day, do I don't end up reading the whole thing in one afternoon. So, in short, nothing that happens (at least for the first few chapters) will have anything to do with book 6. I'll also hold off on spoilers… since I know a lot of people aren't done reading yet, either. NEXT CHAPTER SPOILER! (I did these with my other fic and people seemed to like them… so here you go!) Chapter 4 is in Draco's POV again. They all set out to find The Blaze, and they stay in another cave. While they're there, they find a dead body and a Death Eater pays them a visit… Please review!