Disclaimer: Harry Potter and everything you recognize belongs to J.K. Rowling, the plot however is all mine.
A/N: Just to warn you again, in case anyone has not read HBP yet (shame on you!) this chapter does contain more spoilers. Thank you to everyone who reviewed chapter 3!
Steelo, totally-spaz, Sunflower18 – lol yes I know, I hate the RW/HG stuff too, and as promised, there's none of it in this chapter (yay!). lol Thanks for the reviews, and I hope you guys like the chapter!
FallenThrough, CrazySexyCool106, anIme-prYncess – thanks for the reviews! I hope you all like this chapter.
Anydaynow, sweetsummersun31 – Aww thank you so much! I'm very happy that you're enjoying the story, and I hope you continue to like it, thank you very much for the review!
Modaprincessa, marajade64 – thank you! I'm very happy that you like it, and I hope you like this chapter too.
Ocean Tranquility – applauds That was such a dramatic story, and the reenactment was breathtaking! I'm very glad to hear that you got the internet working (and I hope it stays working this time) and I'm also glad that my fic helped to brighten your day.
Now back to the story!
Chapter 4: Transfiguration Project
It had been two weeks since school began and Draco knew that he had to get to work on his task. He had already devised the general plan for how to do it over the summer, and the first thing he needed to do was to fix the school's vanishing cabinet.
Last year, Draco had learned that the vanishing cabinet in Hogwarts was connected to the one in Borgin and Burke's over in Knockturn Alley when Montague somehow got stuck in it. When Draco received his task from the Dark Lord, he immediately thought of how to use the connection to his best advantage. He was almost certain that no one else had made the connection, so once the cabinet was fixed; Draco would be able to sneak anything in and out of the castle completely undetected. In short, he had found a way to outsmart everyone, including their seemingly omniscient Headmaster, Dumbledore.
Draco smirked to himself as he strode through the empty halls. Today was Saturday, and all the fifth, sixth, and seventh years were stuck in their common rooms studying. And thankfully it was a pleasant day outside, so all the lower years were entertaining themselves outside, so Draco didn't have to be particularly sneaky or worry about running into anyone. Draco stopped in front of the tapestry of Barnabas the Balmy. This was the place where Potter had been holding his secret DA meetings last year, and since relatively few people even knew about this room, it was the perfect place to work on the vanishing cabinet without disruption.
Draco looked up and down the long corridor to make sure that it was completely empty, and then he closed his eyes and thought of what he needed. He needed a place to work on the cabinet where he would not be disturbed. When he opened his eyes he saw that what had once been a blank space of wall behind the tapestry was now a small wooden door. Draco opened the door and stepped into a room filled with all sorts of clutter. He stepped forward, making sure to close the door behind him, all around him he saw all sorts of junk, old sort of stuff that was either broken or no longer used. Towards the back and around a tall pile of junk sat the vanishing cabinet. Draco hurried towards it, but his excitement about finding it was instantly dampened when he saw just how badly broken it was. Fixing it was obviously going to be much harder, and take much longer than he had anticipated. And to make matters worse, he had no idea where to begin. He had badgered Borgin to tell him how, but the pathetic shopkeeper had proven to be of no help whatsoever.
Draco groaned, he hated doing this sort of menial labor, Malfoy's were not meant to do this sort of thing, this was for servants, muggles and mudbloods. But Draco was not about to complain, for that would be seen as a weakness in his Master's eyes. The last thing Draco wanted to do was disappoint or anger the Dark Lord, for he knew well and good that if he did, it would most likely be the last thing he ever did. That thought had a surprising humbling effect on Draco, he let out a breath he did not realize he was holding and decided to first completely assess the damage, and then he would decide where to start.
He slowly stepped around the cabinet so as to assess the damage from all sides. He then opened the door and saw that the inside was an even bigger mess than the outside, there were broken boards jammed at all angles on the inside. Draco stepped back and began absentmindedly pacing the room with his hands in his pockets. His left hand clenched around the panther statue, which he had become accustomed to carrying with him everywhere.
When no startling revelations came to him, he stopped pacing, took the panther out of his pocket, sat on the ground next to the cabinet, and placed the panther on the base of the cabinet. "What do you think?" he asked aloud, though he did not expect any sort of response.
However, the panther statue sniffed at the cabinet beneath it, and then turned and walked into the shadows at the back. It made an astonishing leap onto one of the broken boards and began to climb. It was rather intriguing for Draco to watch the panther's progress; the blue jeweled eyes seemed to be glistening back at him. Draco was nearly entranced watching the panther, until something in his mind snapped him back to attention; he stood up and kicked a pile of junk out of frustration. He was about to snatch up the panther and storm out when the small silver statue made what was most definitely a growl. Draco stopped short; the statue had never made any sort of noise before.
The panther growled again, he turned his head towards something, and then looked back at Draco, the jewel eyes seemed to shine brighter for a brief moment. Draco stepped forward cautiously; the statue had never acted like this before, not that statues could act of course, Draco shook his head deciding that maybe he was going crazy. Well, crazy or not, Draco took a closer look inside the cabinet where the panther seemed to be gesturing to. To his astonishment, he found a compartment that was hidden behind all the broken boards, "that's it!" he cried aloud, "that's how they're connected!"
The panther held its head up high as if in confirmation, and then it made a leap down to the ground which was so graceful it might have been floating. Draco leaned halfway inside the cabinet to see if there was anything else he'd missed. He tried to push the boards out of the way, but they wouldn't budge. Draco groaned and strained as he made three more attempts to remove the boards, but with no progress. He looked down to the panther, "Alright, so now I have to find a way to move the boards without blasting the whole thing apart, then we can go from there." He didn't even realize he was talking aloud to the panther statue; sometimes it was so lifelike it was as if it were a real animal. It certainly seemed to have a mind of its' own, and it helped Draco think to actually voice his thoughts aloud, even if he didn't receive a response. Actually, it was the same technique that he used around Crabbe and Goyle, although the panther statue had a much larger brain than the two of those useless lumps put together. The panther meanwhile, made no sign of disapproval to Draco's plan, so subconsciously Draco took that as an indication that his idea was good.
"I wonder . . ." Draco took out his wand and aimed it at one of the boards, "wingardium leviosa!" He gave his wand the proper swish and flick movement, however rather than move the boards as he'd intended, the entire cabinet levitated upward. Draco carefully guided it back to the ground and stowed his wand back inside his pocket. He hadn't really expected it to work that simply, but it had been worth a shot. Yet seeing as there was little he could do without the proper spell, Draco thought it best to leave. He'd do some research in the library, then come back another day.
As if sensing that Draco was leaving, the panther made one smooth leap towards Draco. Its silver claws caught on Draco's robes, and it climbed its way back into Draco's pocket where it curled up and became an ordinary statue once again. Draco strode past all the piles of junk to the door, since his mind was so focused on the vanishing cabinet, he didn't bother to peek outside before he opened the door wide and took a step into the corridor. As soon as he did he knew it was a mistake, up ahead he heard voices, one quick glance told him who it was, the Golden Trio, the last three people he wanted to run into in the entire castle. In a flash, he launched himself back into the room of requirement and closed the door as quietly, yet as quickly as possible. He darted behind a pile of stuff just in case they decided to investigate. After a good couple minutes of nothing, Draco scowled at himself. Him, a Malfoy, and a Death Eater on top of that, hiding from three pathetic Gryffindors like a pathetic baby.
Draco scoffed, held his head higher than usual and strode confidently towards the door. But even with his haughty attitude, this time he inched open the door and looked up and down the corridor. Thankfully this time it was empty, so he slipped out, closed the door behind him, and sped his way down the hall in the direction opposite of where Potter and the gang had gone. This way was a longer route to the dungeons, but at the same time, he was guaranteed not to run into the three Gryffindors he hated most along the way.
- - - - - - - - - -
"Did you hear something?" Harry interrupted suddenly as he, Ron, and Hermione were walking down the seventh floor corridor complaining about the massive loads of homework Snape had assigned them over the weekend. They were wandering the castle while taking a break from studying.
"Huh?" asked Ron, who had just been in the middle of an extra long rant about vile methods of killing Snape when Harry stopped him.
"What was that Harry?" Hermione had been too busy tuning Ron's rant out to hear anything else.
Harry looked back down the empty hallway, "I guess it was nothing, I just thought I heard something."
Hermione took a skeptical look down the hallway, "I'm sure it was nothing Harry, we're all just a bit overworked at the moment."
"Amen to that!" agreed Ron heartily as the three continued their way down the hall with Ron continuing to ramble on about all the horrid things he wanted to do to Snape.
Harry couldn't help but glance back a few more times before they left the corridor. There was something nagging him about it, but he couldn't put his finger on what it was.
For some reason, later that night, when they were studying together in the common room after dinner, it clicked in Harry's subconscious, "the room of requirement!" he announced suddenly.
Hermione and Ron started at him with perplexed expressions as if her were going crazy. Harry's eyes were wide with mischief, Hermione nudged him. "Harry, what is it?"
"Remember when we were walking through the corridor and I thought I heard something?"
"Yeah," said Hermione hesitantly.
"Well, something was bothering me, and I just realized that that corridor is where the Room of Requirement is! I think someone might have been there!" cried Harry, obviously expecting Hermione and Ron to be as excited about his revelation as he was.
"Okay," said Hermione with furrowed eyebrows.
"So?" asked Ron.
"So . . . well don't you wonder who it was? And why they were there?"
"Harry mate, I think you were just hearing things," shrugged Ron.
"Yes," agreed Hermione, "and besides, even if you're right and there was someone there, it shouldn't matter. Right now you need to be focusing on your work."
Harry huffed and rolled his eyes, but returned to his work anyway. He was sure he had heard something, and now he was curious to find out who it had been.
- - - - - - - - - -
"Alright class, that is enough!" Professor McGonagall called over all the voices shouting out spells in her transfiguration class. "I must say that I'm rather disappointed with your lack of success, you will all practice and by next lesson I expect to see some major improvements."
The class, all but Hermione, groaned. Draco was angry with himself, he should be able to do this transfiguration shit no problem, but his mind just wasn't in it. He'd gone back to the room of requirement twice that week, and he'd been in the library more than Granger, yet he still hadn't made any progress with the stupid vanishing cabinet. Deep inside, he was becoming nervous, the Dark Lord would expect results, and Draco had assumed that he'd have made at least some progress by now. If the Dark Lord found out, Draco would be in real trouble. Those thoughts were the ones governing his conscience, and they left little room for frivolous thoughts such as those about school. As a result, he was doing pitifully in just about all his classes, all but defense against the dark arts, which Snape was now teaching. Snape kept pulling Draco aside and offering to help him with his task. Draco hated the fact that Snape seemed to want to take away Draco's glory by taking over his task, so Draco made sure that Snape saw nothing out of the ordinary as far as Draco's behavior was concerned.
"Now class," McGonagall interrupted Draco's brooding thoughts, "Before next week's class, I want you all to begin your research for your project. This research must be done with your partner. No exceptions. Next class I expect to see a list of reading materials about human transfigurations, I expect you both to have begun reading them, and to be sure everyone is working, I expect a paragraph from each of you detailing what you and your partner did."
The entire class, Hermione included this time, groaned even louder.
Professor McGonagall glared sternly at them. "This research meeting is required and I shall accept no excuses! You're dismissed." Professor McGonagall strode out of the room to her office.
Meanwhile, the students all packed up their things mumbling with annoyance to themselves. The students who were paired with classmates from another house were especially ill-tempered.
Hermione told Harry and Ron to wait for her outside while she scheduled a meeting with Malfoy. From her position at the front of the room, Hermione eyed Malfoy apprehensively. She knew she should go over there and schedule a meeting time, but truth be told she was a bit wary around him lately. He seemed to be looking angrier and meaner than usual this year. His famous smirk had been replaced with an ever-present scowl, and Hermione didn't like it. Nevertheless, her hard-working confident side took control, and she marched right up to him. Thankfully, most of the other Slytherins had already left, so she didn't have to face an entire pack of them. Malfoy had his back turned to her and was putting his books and stuff back in his bag, so she cleared her throat to get his attention.
No such luck, either he was deaf or he was ignoring her. Hermione assumed it was the latter, so this time she spoke. "Malfoy, I think we should schedule a time to meet at the library for our project." He still made no response, not even to turn and glare at her. But Hermione knew he'd heard her so she continued.
"Alright, I'll see you at the library, at 3 o'clock this Saturday then." Hermione made to leave when Malfoy finally rounded on her.
"I've got a better idea mudblood," he spat with a glare, "you go to the library, and we'll both show up to class with a paragraph pretending that I was there too."
Hermione pursed her lips. "Not a chance Malfoy! For one, there's no way I'm lying to a professor like that for you. And Secondly, I refuse to allow you to sail through this project and then try to transfigure me into something at the end without you doing any of the research."
"Keep thinking that mudblood, that sort of work is what house-elves and mudbloods are for."
Hermione's face flushed with anger. "Either you show up on time and help, or I'm telling McGonagall that you're lazy arse refused to cooperate, and then she'll fail you right from the start!"
Draco sneered, the last thing he needed was attention to the fact that he was doing dreadfully in his classes. Though he had been planning on spending all of Saturday working on the vanishing cabinet, he had no trouble believing that Granger meant what she said, so he was forced to give in. Giving in was not something Malfoy's did easily. "FINE!" he roared as he shoved past her while muttering under his breath, "filthy mudblood bitch."
- - - - - - - - - -
Come Saturday, Hermione, while never opposed to a trip to the library was mortified that she would have to actually go and work with Draco Malfoy. Normally, she would have eagerly volunteered to do all the research herself just to get him off her back, but as she didn't want him to mess up transfiguring her, she knew she had no choice but to make sure that he seriously studied and understood the concept as well. She had never paid attention to how any of the Slytherins did in transfiguration, though she was guessing that Malfoy had to be better than the majority of his housemates at least. Then again, that wasn't saying much.
At first she had been concerned that Ron might try to come along again, but luckily he and Harry had decided to go practice quidditch. Ron felt he needed practice before tryouts, which Hermione quite agreed with. Initially she was relieved, however as she drew nearer to the library, she began to wish he was there with her, or even better she wished that both he and Harry, then even Malfoy in all his arrogance wouldn't dare to try anything. But her friends were not there, she was all alone, and she could not show any apprehension, or else Malfoy would see it written all over her face, and he's taunt her about it to no end.
So it was with a deep sense of foreboding that Hermione trudged into the library Saturday at exactly three o'clock, hoping against hope that she would have an eventless afternoon studying. Unsurprisingly, (in her mind at least) she arrived first. She hadn't expected Malfoy to arrive on time; she rather thought that since he assumed the universe revolved around him, whatever time he decided to show up, in his mind, was the correct time. With a roll of her eyes and an annoyed huff, she began browsing the library shelves for useful books.
Draco in fact, was at the library when Hermione arrived; however, he was in one of the back corners, still trying to find a spell to use on the vanishing cabinet. He had found several that would move the boards; however they all would most likely destroy the rest of the cabinet along with them, so they were useless to him. Draco was deeply engrossed in the latest book he'd pulled from the shelf when the panther, which had been prowling along the bookshelves, jumped down and landed on his wrist right next to his watch. Draco glanced down and saw that it was already 3:10, he was late. While he would have gladly left Granger alone to do the project while he dealt with more important things, her threat from class was still clear in his mind, and he had no doubt believing that she would tell McGonagall if he failed to show up, so with a heavy sigh, he returned the book to the shelf and stood up to find Granger.
He found her towards the front of the library already searching for a book. He couldn't understand why she had been so against his not showing up, she hated him as much as he hated her, so it wasn't like she wanted to study with him. No, Draco decided that she just wanted to make his life as miserable as possible, 'Well, two can play at that game,' he thought as she came nearer to him. He had every intention of making this encounter with Granger absolutely horrible for her, partially because making her mad was so much fun, and also because the worse this meeting was, the less likely it was that she'd make him study with her again.
Hermione came to the end of the first row of books she had been searching through when she jumped. There, leaning casually on the side of the bookcase was Malfoy, eying her with a definite look of disgust. Malfoy sneered, "Actually here alone Granger? I would have thought your precious Weasel would have forced you to take him along. He can't have wanted to leave you alone with big bad Malfoy."
"Shut it Malfoy!" Hermione ordered in a tone that granted her disapproving looks from the vulture-like librarian.
"Ohh, a little touchy aren't we?" Draco mocked, this was exactly the reaction he was hoping to get from Granger, and he wasn't going to let it stop now. "What's the matter Granger? Trouble in paradise?" Draco looked thrilled at the thought; anything that caused Granger misery was fine with him.
Hermione huffed and pretended not to hear him. She returned her attention to the bookshelf, but she wasn't even reading the titles, she was focusing all her attention on drowning Malfoy's words out of her mind, hoping that the less she spoke, the less he'd taunt her. Unfortunately, rather than ignore her, he was taunting her anyway, about the very subject she least wanted to be discussing (or rather arguing about) with Draco Malfoy. She loved Ron, Ron was her boyfriend, but Hermione had still not forgotten what had happened on the train, and whenever she thought about it (usually in her sleep when she couldn't block the thoughts out) she began to doubt her feelings for Ron. So what if she hadn't felt that spark between them when they kissed that she'd read about in books, and watched on muggle movies and TV shows? None of those were real, so there probably was no such thing as a spark anyway; it was all just in her imagination.
But Draco wasn't to be ignored, he was in the mood for fun, and riling up Granger was just the fun he was looking for. Clearly however, she was determined not to be tempted by discussing her looser of a boyfriend, perhaps another subject would get her going. He position himself next to her, so that she could not continue her search for books without bumping into him, then he whispered, "so, nice having a real professor in Care of Magical Creatures, isn't it? I mean that bloody oaf can't even contain a box of harmless snidgets for god's sake!"
This, it turned out, was just the thing Draco needed to say, for Hermione glared at him, her eyes livid and her fists balled up in rage. "There is nothing wrong with the way Hagrid teaches, he knows more about magical creatures than anyone else. And everyone knows it was you who let the snidgets loose!" She made sure to keep her voice down this time, but the anger in her tone was clear.
Draco smirked as if extremely proud of himself, "if everyone knew that, then why is he suspended, whilst I suffer no punishment at all?"
Hermione opened her mouth, still obviously outraged, but for once could not think of a comeback.
Malfoy went one step further, "speaking of which, since you're so confident that I did it, why didn't you tell anyone? Surely Dumbledore would believe you, the muggle-born member of the Gryffindor golden trio, rather than me, a mere Slytherin."
Hermione glared at him with narrowed eyes, but closed her mouth. She then shoved passed him, and resumed her search, determined not to allow him to taunt her anymore. In all honesty, she didn't know why she hadn't gone to Dumbledore and told him it was Malfoy's fault. Perhaps, deep down, a part of her did prefer classes taught by Professor Grubbly-Plank rather than Hagrid. They certainly were more useful, and nowhere near as dangerous. Not that she would ever let Malfoy know she felt that way of course, though something told her that he knew anyhow.
Draco threw her an arrogant smirk, he was well aware that he had gotten beneath her skin. He could tell that she was not really focusing on her search, and he was all the more proud of himself for it. Hermione was fuming so much that she was not even paying attention to where she was in the library, and she had yet to find any books that would help the research. In an effort to put as much space between her and Malfoy as possible, she stomped off to the back corner by the restricted section, hoping he would not follow her. She thought she was safe, when he didn't show up to pester her after a couple minutes, so she was finally becoming able to focus again. Unfortunately for her, Draco tracked her down and his drawling voice interrupted her thought process yet again.
"Have you found anything yet?" he spat.
"No, perhaps if you would actually do your share of the work, you would find something yourself."
"Why should I do the work when there's a perfectly capable mudblood here to do it all for me?" he drawled arrogantly.
Hermione clenched her teeth together, "You're not getting through this assignment without doing your share of the work, I am not allowing you to transfigure me without knowing you've done the preparation for it. And if you weren't being such an arse we would be able to find something!"
From the front of the library, there came several loud "shhh's!" Hermione closed her mouth with frustration.
"And how am I supposed to perform the spell correctly if you haven't found the books?" taunted Draco.
"You could try finding the god damned books yourself Malfoy!"
Draco smirked at his success. Not only was she now turning red, but he got her to swear in the library, which she considered to be a sacred place. This was just too much fun.
Hermione shot him a furious glare before turning her head back to the books. She was desperately scanning the titles if only if distract her from the insufferable jerk which was Malfoy. Finally, in a dusty corner of the shelf, which looked like it had never been visited, she glanced upon a book that looked like it may be appropriate. She could not read the whole title because it was half faded, but the first part read "The Complete Guide to Wizarding Trans . . ." then the rest was faded away. Assuming that the rest of the final word was Transfiguration, she pulled it down from the shelf. "I think this one may be helpful." She said before she could stop herself.
Draco narrowed his eyes and strode forward and attempted to grab the book from her hands, "let me see that."
"Malfoy, give it to me!"
Draco did not stop, instead he grabbed the cover, and she held onto the rest of it. In the midst of their fighting, the book opened. Instantly, there was an intense swooshing noise, as if they were suddenly engulfed in a small tornado. Both students' feet were ripped from the library floor, and they felt as if they were drowning. Though to them the feelings seemed to last an eternity, in under a second, they were sucked out of the library without a trace, save for the dusty old book, which had fallen open on the floor. It glowed for a mere moment after they were gone, and then it faded away, leaving nothing other than an ordinary old book.
They were spinning furiously, with no sign of stopping. The feeling that their lungs were being compacted and strangled doubled as they crashed through the darkness. The journey seemed to last forever and Hermione was sure her ribs her going to crack and her lungs would burst due to the enormous pressure that was on them. But then, all at once, just as suddenly as the feeling had begun, it stopped, and they were thrown onto the hard ground.
Hermione completely blacked out for about ten minutes. But when she regained consciousness, she used all her remaining strength to roll onto her back. She kept her eyes closed and was gasping for breath, the air felt so sweet to her deprived lungs; it was as if she had never breathed properly before. Her limbs were tingling with the live-giving oxygen which was now flooding into her veins and through her body. Next to her, she heard the sounds of something moving. She could hear the scraping on the dirt as something shifted.
- - - - - - - - - -
Unlike Hermione, Draco did not loose consciousness when he hit the ground. He sat up, and forced his eyes open, and he did not like what he saw one bit. Somehow they had landed smack in the middle of a very small clearing surrounded on all sides by trees. But these were not like any trees Draco had ever seen; these trees had trunks as black as Draco's ebony wand. The smaller ones, which were all clustered close to the clearing had sharp spikes pointing out of them, and looked rather deadly should one run into them.
Out of the corner of his eye, Draco noticed a lump of black robes with a mass of bushy brown hair at the top. "Granger," he seethed. No doubt she was to blame for this bloody mess, sending him god knows where for absolutely no reason. She was laying face down and he couldn't tell if she was breathing or not. His first thought was to hope she had died simply because it would serve her right for attempting to pull a stunt like this on him. But then he took another look around and decided that she'd better be alive, so he could yell at her for causing this mess, then once she'd gotten him back to Hogwarts he'd have the joy of killing her himself.
Draco nudged her a few times with his foot, but she was apparently out cold. Draco scoffed and muttered something about useless mudbloods before kicking dirt at her head, turning and stomping straight into the forest with the intention of figuring out where he was. His expensive robes snagged on a few of the tree spikes, and Draco cursed as he violently tore himself free.
It didn't take long for Draco to realize that something was terribly wrong. It was steadily growing darker, as forests usually did the deeper you went in, however the trees were getting further apart. One of the things Draco had learned from his experiences in the forest at school was that the deeper you went in, the closer together the trees got. Therefore, it made absolutely no sense for these trees to be getting further apart, unless . . . unless this forest was home to some very large and very dangerous magical creatures; the sort of beasts that the bloody oaf would try to cuddle all the while insisting that they were harmless.
Upon making this realization, Draco's ears became alert to everything. Every leaf rustling in the breeze, every twig snapping beneath his shoes was magnified, and it resounded in his head to the point where Draco felt as though he were drowning in noise. In a flash, he turned back the way he came and charged towards Granger, he didn't care that she was still laying helplessly on the ground, she was going to fix whatever the hell she did.
- - - - - - - - - -
Panic ensued in Hermione's head. 'What was that? Where was she?' She wanted desperately to move, or at least to open her eyes, but she could not find the strength. Her eyelids felt as though they each were held shut with a 100 pound weight.
She then heard what must have been footsteps on the ground. She breathed a little easier when the footsteps grew a bit fainter, apparently whatever it was, was moving away from her. Hermione continued trying to catch her breath, but then the footsteps rushed towards her and before she could open her eyes, she was violently lifted to her feet. She screeched and opened her eyes, and found herself staring into two terrifyingly livid steel gray eyes.
"What the fuck did you do!" he roared loud enough to startle a flock of birds into flight from a nearby tree.
Hermione cringed, but was still so completely lost that she didn't even open her mouth to answer.
When Hermione didn't respond, Draco threw her back to the ground.
She landed with a loud grunt of pain. She was sure she would have a bruise on her knee now, not to mention a cut on her hand from trying to break her fall. But the pain didn't register nearly as strong as her anger. She still had no clue what had happened, or what was going on, but Draco had a skill for sparking the fires of anger deep inside her. "I could ask you the same question!" she yelled. She forced herself to stand; she did not like the idea of sitting on the ground when there was a furious, and most likely violent, Draco Malfoy so close to her.
"I didn't fucking send us to the middle of nowhere, you did you filthy bitch!"
"I didn't do a damn think Malfoy! And calm down you pathetic moron, we're probably just by Hagrid's hut or something!"
"Do you see the bloody oaf's hut? Cause I can't even see the damn castle!" Draco stomped towards the trees, and disappeared into the darkness.
Hermione could hear the crunching of his pricey shoes on the twigs which littered the ground, and for a moment, she simply glared at the spot where he had gone. 'Pathetic Malfoy, overreacting to everything.' But then Hermione got a chance to look around, and she gasped. Malfoy apparently wasn't overeating, she did not see Hagrid's hut, or Hogwarts anywhere, nor were these the type of trees which belonged to the Hogwarts forest.
"Oh my God, where are we?"
So, now they're stuck together, so the plot can truly begin! I hope everyone's as excited as I am to get this fic going. As always, I really appreciate reviews. Thanks to everyone who's reading my fic, you're awesome!