Disclaimer: Harry Potter and belongs to J.K. Rowling, not me.

A/N: Please don't hate me for taking so long to update. I've just had a ton of schoolwork (and hurricanes) to deal with, so I haven't had much time for fanfic writing. I'm doing my best to write more often, but I can't guarantee anything. Anyway, thank you very much to everyone who reviewed last chapter!

pixiestars162 – lol I think I know what you mean about Draco being evil in a good way, so I think it's possible. Not sure how truly good good Draco's gonna be in this fic so I'm glad you like him evil. lol thanks for the review!
FallenThrough – You will find out where they are when they find out, and at the moment I'm not sure when that will be. But I guarantee you that eventually you will know where they are. I'm glad you liked the chapter, and I hope you like this one too! (How's your fic coming?)
elektra30, Mistress Cosmos, steelo, modaprincesa, Athene Saile, smitten, Sunflower18, anIme-prYncess, midnightwanderer01 – Thank you all! I hope everyone likes this chapter!

Chapter 6: Into the Forest

Hermione stood in a panic in the center of the clearing for a good ten minutes before her brain recovered from the shock and began to function properly once again. It was then that she realized that Malfoy was still somewhere in the forest, leaving her all alone in this strange clearing, "Malfoy!" she cried out of desperation.

On an impulse, Hermione darted towards the trees where Malfoy had gone, but right before she tangled herself in the thorns and branches, she skidded to a stop. What was she doing? Why was she even compelled to follow him? He had just yelled at her, blamed her for whatever had happened to them, and injured her by throwing her to the ground, why should she care where he went? She was better off without hi and his evil negative attitude anyway. But then again, the thought of being alone in a strange forest with no clue where she was, or where to go wasn't all that inviting either. At a loss for anything else to do, she called out again, "Malfoy! Malfoy get back here!"

But she received no response. All she could hear now were the usual sounds of an active forest. Panic ensued again and she could feel herself beginning to break down. "Fine!" she screamed with a sob, "but if you die out there then it's your own bloody fault!"

Hermione dropped to the ground and hugged her knees to her chest. She buried her face in her hands and sobbed hysterically. It took quite a while for the tears to stop flowing, but eventually they did and Hermione was left feeling completely emotionally dried out. Yet in a way, the feeling was good for her, because it allowed her brain to regain control over every part of her body and mind.

She forced herself to stand, and then began walking in a random pattern around the clearing. 'Alright,' she began a mental pep-talk. 'It's ok, you're fine. Pretty soon Ron and Harry will realize you're gone, and then they'll tell Dumbledore he'll figure out what happened and then everything will be fine. They'll come here, bring you back home, you'll be nice and safe in the castle again, and by tomorrow this will feel like nothing more than an exciting dream. Yeah,' she smiled to herself, 'tomorrow Ron Harry and I will be laughing about this.' She took a relaxing breath and managed a fake smile. "Right then," she said aloud, "I'll just stay here until Dumbledore comes, and then everything will be back to normal."

Hermione sat cross-legged in the center of the clearing and cast the patronus charm just so she would have some company. The silvery otter ran a couple laps around her, but faded into nothingness when she attempted to touch it. She sighed and cast the charm again, but every time it lasted only a few short moments and in the end she found herself feeling even more alone than she had felt when she first sat down.

The longer she sat there, the more worried she grew. Even though she tried her best to fight it, she couldn't help but wonder where Malfoy was. He had just vanished into the forest without a word about where he was going or when he'd be back (if he planned on coming back at all that is.) Terrible thoughts began rushing through her head. 'What if something had attacked him and seriously injured him? Or worse, killed him!' The usual, caring side of Hermione was terrified by the idea, but a small, angry and vengeful voice inside her spoke up 'it would serve him right!' it said stubbornly.

Hermione vigorously shook her head to rid those evil thoughts from her mind, those were not appropriate thoughts to think no matter how much she hated Malfoy, she didn't really want him dead did she? After a momentary pause in which she seriously considered the options, she decided not to answer that question.

It was at that point that another possibility entered her mind which caused her to bolt upright back to a standing position. 'What if Malfoy had found someone to help? What if they knew how to get them back to Hogwarts? If he did, then he would definitely tell them that she was here wouldn't he? There's no way he'd go back to Hogwarts without her, everyone would know that he left her behind, right?' But even as she asked herself these questions, the answers as Malfoy would see them popped into her head. 'Of course he would leave me,' she moaned to herself, dropping back down to the dirt, 'He'd probably say they were attacked by something violent and he only just got away, while she was not so lucky. He certainly looked like he'd been attacked with all those thorn tears and scratches he had in his robes.'

Hermione curled up into a ball and began to whimper again. She forced herself not to cry by repeatedly muttering to herself, "Dumbledore's coming, everything's fine. Dumbledore's coming, everything's fine." She was focusing so much on her words that she sort of slipped into a trance, she had no idea how long she'd been sitting there muttering to herself. But as the air began to cool around her, and everything began to grow dark with the setting sun, the stronger the feeling that Dumbledore might not come, and that everything was not fine grew.

- - - - - - - - - -

Draco kept walking through the forest purely to get as far away from the mudblood as possible. It was her fault that they were here, that much he knew. But where the hell was here! The forest seemed to go on forever, and Draco hated it. He had hated forests ever since first year when he'd been forced to go into the Hogwarts forest to serve a detention with Potter, Granger, and Longbottom. Draco's lip curled to a sneer at the memory, those blasted Gryffindors were always fucking up his life

"Malfoy," Draco froze as he heard his name being called. He turned his head back towards the clearing and smirked, the mudblood was calling for him. 'Probably terrified out of her mind' Draco thought happily. Draco stood there considering whether or not to return to the clearing and taking his anger out on the mudblood some more since there was clearly no quick way out of this forest, but the thought of seeing her again was at the same time revolting.

Draco just began walking away again when the mudblood shouted for him to come back again. Draco smirked and continued on his way, he might return to the clearing in good time, just to see how badly the mudblood was faring. 'She's probably crying her eyes out' he thought with a malevolent satisfaction. Still, Draco kept walking, he was in no mood to be in the presence of that mudblood, and he wasn't going to sit around doing nothing. Deep down Draco kept moving forward with the hope that he would find something useful, a city or village, hell he'd settle for a random cottage. Anything that signified there were people somewhere in this forest. But no matter how far he walked, all he found were more trees, and the occasional small rodent-like animal which would scamper across Draco's path.

The sounds of the mudblood's pathetic attempts to call him back had long died out; they were lost to the rustling of the trees and noises of the small forest creatures. Draco was stomping his way through the forest when suddenly, out of nowhere a screeching beast raced into Draco's path. Draco let out a scream and whirled around to run away. However he did not get too far for just about as soon as he turned around, his foot caught on a branch and sent him crashing face first into a pile of mud. Behind him Draco heard a chattering, as if the stupid creature was laughing at him. Draco glared at it and found that the cause of his moment of panic was a furry rodent which was only slightly larger than a squirrel.

Draco was furious that a pathetic rodent had caused him to panic fall into the mud, neither of which were becoming for someone with the stature of a Malfoy. Now he was covered in smelly filth, and in a more foul temper than ever. His only cause for relief was that no one other than the rodent itself had been there to see the great Draco Malfoy fall. No one would ever have to know, and Draco could forget about it this exact moment. Draco half sneered half smirked to himself knowing that this one embarrassing moment could never come back to haunt him, and after cursing violently at the rodent, Draco continued on his way, following the same path he had been traveling before he had been interrupted.

Draco was still thinking horrid thoughts about what to do to all the forest animals, and to the bushes that snagged on his robes, causing more tears to shred through them, when a new sound reached his ears. Draco tried to identify the sound because it seemed familiar, but he could not seem to place it. The noise was constant and gentle, and judging by the fact that it was gradually getting louder the further he walked, he figured he must be getting closer to it. He began moving faster, and he could tell that it was just ahead of him when he realized what it was. Water! Draco ran passed the trees and let out a triumphant shout at the sight of the cool, refreshing water. It was just a small river, no more like a large stream, but it was cold, refreshing, crystal clear water. Draco dropped to his knees at the water's edge and dipped his hands, which were still gloved in dirt, into it. As soon as the water touched his skin, it began to remove the dirt in small brown swirls, leaving his hands looking as perfect, pale and pristine as usual. Draco cupped his hands together and scooped some of the water up to his face, vigorously washing that as well. He ran his hands through his hair a few times, causing it to fall back around his eyes in damp clumps. Draco then dipped his hands into the stream again and raised the water to his lips to take a drink. He didn't realize how parched he was until the water reached his throat, and then he felt as though he could never get enough.

After satisfying his thirst, Draco felt a demanding rumble in his stomach. He glanced at his watch and saw that it was well passed dinner time. Draco sneered since he had no other choice than to find something to eat here in the forest. But what was he supposed to find other than leaves and sticks? He supposed that he could catch a fish and cook that over a fire, but he hadn't seen any fish in the stream. With an angry groan, Draco looked up and down the stream; it didn't seem as though it mattered which way he went, so he chose to turn right and travel along the water's edge.

A few times, he passed by clumps of bushes which were growing bright red, delicious looking berries but Draco did not eat them. He was very wary of this forest with its strange trees and freaky rodents. The berry bushes looked harmless, but who knows whether or not they were poisonous. Draco certainly was not about to find out for himself, 'that would be a good job for the mudblood though' he thought to himself with a smirk. Draco then began to amuse himself with thoughts of how panicked the mudblood must be. 'She probably actually expected me to come back,' he thought with a chuckle, 'the idiot.'

It was then that a particularly cool breeze pulled Draco from his thoughts about Granger. The forest suddenly seemed much colder and darker than it had been a short while ago, and Draco's senses were once again put into overdrive. He heard every snapping twig and rustling leaf, his eyes seemed to play trick on him by causing him to think he was seeing creatures moving just beyond the bushes at his side. Instinctively he took out his wand, "lumos," he whispered, causing a ball of light to form on the tip of his wand.

He now faced a real dilemma. It would be foolish for him to keep walking in the dark; the light from his wand would make him easy prey. Plus, anything that did decide to chase him would certainly be able to navigate the forest better than Draco could. But at the same time, stopping here would be suicide. He couldn't start a fire, no matter how cold he was because the light and heat from the flames would draw far too much attention. He was stuck between Scylla and Charybdis, as the myth goes, and in the end he decided that the best option was too keep moving. But just as he did so, a particularly loud snap followed by a rustling of the leaves which had nothing to do with the wind caused him to stop dead in his tracks. Draco jerked the light towards the sound, but only saw darkness beyond the small circle of wandlight with the surge of panicked adrenaline coursing through him, Draco sped away, only stopping when he tripped over a fallen branch and came crashing down. He instinctively held his hands out in front of him to break his fall, but in the process, he let go of the wand and the light went out.

Draco's eyes were wide, as if that would help him see better in the blackness of the night. But the darkness of the forest was so great that his eyes could not adjust. He felt at the ground around him for his wand, but found nothing except leaves, sticks, dirt, and rocks. Draco sat with his knees up and dropped his head into his hands. To his surprise, one of his hands was wet. It was only then that the pain in the base of his palm registered, he must have cut it when he fell. With a harsh sweep of his sleeve, Draco wiped the blood off his face. He sat there, hardly moving, with nothing but feelings of pain, hunger and anger to occupy him for hours. He knew that he should try to sleep because in the morning he would have to continue moving, and he would need to be alert. But sleep never found Draco, and he was left sitting there all alone and awake all night until the rays of the morning sun passed through the trees and kissed his pale skin.

- - - - - - - - - -

A sharp screech sounded from somewhere in the forest, causing Hermione to jerk out of her sleep, though she did not know what had caused her abrupt wake-up call. Hermione opened her eyes to find herself lying on her side in the dirt; she instantly bolted upright panicking because she could not remember where she was or how she'd got there. She whipped her head around and as she viewed the clearing, the memories of what had happened flooded back into her head. She and Malfoy had been studying, and then they had somehow been transported here. Malfoy had vanished last night in the forest and apparently was not coming back. Hermione had been waiting for Dumbledore to come save her, but apparently he wasn't coming either, and sometime during the night, she had fallen asleep on the cold hard ground.

Hermione stood and stretched out, her body was sore from her uncomfortable night's rest, and her stomach was growling, demanding that she eat something soon. Hermione glanced around the clearing again, but did not see anything at all edible. She bit her lip, it seemed as though she would have to leave the safely of the clearing if she wanted to find something to eat. But then again, there was no guarantee that she would be able to find food in the forest either.

Just then another screech sounded from the forest, causing Hermione to scream, and dart away from the sound. Little did she know that the creature, whatever it was, was nearer than it had been when it woke her up. Hermione could feel the hairs on her arms and neck standing on end, and her breathing was ragged. She didn't know what to do, she knew that she could not stay in the clearing, she would starve, and something would inevitably find her here anyway. But something would find her in the forest too, and then she might have a harder time getting away. Of course she still had her wand, so that would probably protect her, from anything dangerous, and the forest was bound to have food somewhere, after all there were creatures in the forest, and they all had to be eating something.

With her mind made up, Hermione took a deep breath, and marched towards the forest. She chose to travel in the same direction as Malfoy had gone, a small subconscious part of her probably hoped that she would somehow be able to find him if she went in the same direction. As much as she hated him, she had to admit that traveling together had to be better than wandering the forest alone. She only hoped he would agree, if she ever managed to find him of course.

Hermione crept slowly and carefully through the trees, her eyes and ears open for anything, and her wand ready in her hand. Her spirits lifted whenever she saw a small piece of fabric snared on a bush because that indicated that she was still following Malfoy's path, which for some reason gave her hope. She wasn't sure exactly what she was hoping for, maybe she was hoping that following Malfoy's path would lead her to safety because in a part of her mind, she had the feeling that he would have come back unless he found somewhere safe to stay. Then again, perhaps she merely hoped that by following his path, she would find him, and then she would not be lost out here alone anymore.

Her improved mood only lasted so long however. Her stomach was now steadily rumbling, yet she had seen nothing in the way of food, not even any berry bushes to munch on. She was also rather disturbed to find that the trees were beginning to grow further apart, which meant that there was probably something very big living in this forest, and if Hermione learned anything from Hagrid's monsters, the bigger it was, the meaner it was. In addition to that terrifying realization, since the trees were far apart now, it meant that there were no more traces of which way Malfoy had gone, cause his robes had not snagged on any more bushes. She halted her progress, wanting to cry. Now she was completely lost, she had no clue which direction Malfoy had gone, so she could only hope he had continued going straight, and there was some huge monster in the forest which probably wanted to eat her as a mid-morning snack.

Hermione refused to allow herself to break down, so instead she kept moving forward. Eventually she passed a huge mud puddle, which she edged her way around, but the sight made her thrilled. Not because a puddle of mud anything, but because from that puddle, there were muddy shoe prints, which meant Malfoy was here. Hermione laughed at the thought of him falling face first into the mud, 'that would certainly serve him right' she thought with a nasty grin. Gradually, the footprints disappeared of course, but they had nevertheless continued in a strikingly straight line, which gave her hope that he had continued going straight for as long as he walked.

Hermione felt like she had been walking for hours when she began to see little forest creatures crossing her path. She smiled because she thought they were cute, but for the most part, they managed to dart across her path before she could get a good enough look to see what they actually were. Hermione stooped low to the ground and tried to coax a couple of the animals towards her, but her efforts only seemed to scare them further away.

She made to try again when a distant roar sounded through the forest. Hermione jerked up. Luckily, the sound seemed to be from a good distance away, so she did not feel that she was in immediate danger, but still the knowledge that there really were dangerous creatures here was very unsettling. She waited silently for a few moments to see if she heard the roar again, but no more sounds came.

She breathed a small sigh of relief as she stood and wiped some beads of sweat from her forehead, according to her watch it was only 10 am, but it was already sweltering and she was forced to remove her robe so that she wouldn't pass out from overheating. Now the need for water vastly outweighed her desire for food. She knew there had to be water somewhere because there had to be somewhere for all the animals to drink, but she did not know where that was, and all the animals were too speedy for her to follow them. She tied her robe across her waist because she knew she would need it during the night, and then she moved on. She ignored the fears of dangerous creatures which were attempting to invade her mind and instead filled her mind with determination, determination to find water, determination to find food, and determination to get home.

- - - - - - - - - -

As soon as the sunrise hit his face, Draco opened his eyes to the world around him. He had not actually fallen to sleep, but he hadn't exactly been awake either. Immediately, Draco's sharp eyes scanned the ground beneath him for his wand, but it was nowhere to be seen. He ran his fingers across the dirt, overturning twigs and leaves, hoping to find it somewhere, but it seemed to have disappeared. Whether it had fallen further into the forest, into the steam, or whether some creature had found it and decided to chew on it, Draco did not know. All he knew was that he was now stuck in the woods by himself with no wand, and therefore no powerful means of protection.

Draco let out a furious primal sounding roar of anger and frustration. He could hear the small creatures hidden in the bushes around him scattering away from him. "Yeah!" he shouted after them, "get out of here!"

Draco continued searching for his wand, going further and further into the forest without ever losing sight of the stream. The water had become something of a landmark to him, and he instinctively knew that he had to keep close to it if he had any hopes of survival. But after searching for quite a while and finding no sign of his wand, Draco dejectedly returned to the stream.

He sank to his knees next to the water's edge, cleaned himself off, and took several large gulps of water. He stared into the cool clear depths, while drops of water fell from his hair back into the stream. He was about to stand up when he felt something nudge him in the side. He whipped his head around, but saw nothing. Again he felt the nudge, but he knew there was nothing there. He stood up, and again felt something nudging his side, finally realizing what it was; Draco reached his hand into his pocket and pulled out the silver panther statue. It stalked across Draco's palm, and Draco felt an intense desire to chuck the stupid statue as far into the forest as he could, merely to release some of his anger. Yet he resisted the urge, the statue somehow made him feel better, as if he wasn't really alone out here. Instead of throwing the statue away, he clutched it tightly in his fist. Perhaps he was just imagining it, but he seemed to feel a tiny surge of energy flow between him and the statue as he held it tight.

Then he spied some more of the berry bushes he had seen the day before, and he held the panther out towards them. "What do you think?" he asked it, not feeling at all weird about talking to his statue anymore, "Are those safe to eat?"

The panther seemed to understand him, and it sniffed at the deliciously red berries. It then opened its mouth wide and closed it around one of the berries. The panther turned his head back to Draco and appeared to be trying to thrust the berry to him. Draco took that to mean that the berries were safe, so he took the berry in between his index finger and thumb and shrugged, "if you say so."

He popped the berry into his mouth, chewed and swallowed. It had a rather sour, yet not entirely unpleasant taste. He waited a few moments to see if anything bad suddenly started happening to him. When it didn't he thrust the panther back inside his pocket and began collecting all the berries he could and shoving them all in his mouth. His stomach welcomed the incoming food, and after ravaging nearly the entire bush, Draco finally slowed to a stop.

He felt a small weight on his shoulder, and turned his head to find that the panther had apparently climbed from his pocket up to his shoulder. "Thanks" Draco said. The panther stepped forward and licked some of the berry juice off of Draco's face. Draco wiped the rest off with his hand, and then washed himself for the second time that morning in the stream.

Having been fed and washed, Draco felt much better about continuing on his way, his watch told him that it was only 8am, so he had a long day of traveling ahead of him, and he could only hope that it would be as uneventful as the day before had been. So Draco set forth, with the panther on his shoulder. Occasionally as he would pass by the berry bushes and he would stop to collect some (and eat a few more as well). Soon his pockets were bulging with berries, but Draco didn't mind as it guaranteed him food for later in case he needed it.

Draco had been walking for what felt like miles, and he had been lulled into a false sense of security due to the complete lack of threatening looking creatures. However, all that changed when a sudden cautionary growl sounded in his ear. Draco froze and nearly panicked before he realized that the growling was coming from his panther statue. That allowed him to relax a bit, but he continued to remain motionless and tense as he scanned the forest for whatever it was that had instigated the panther's growl.

He finally spotted it about 15 meters ahead of him, rustling in the bushes. A sinking feeling of dread spread through Draco's stomach as the beast emerged from the trees to take a drink at the stream. The beast was large and grayish purple, and Draco's eyes widened at the two extremely sharp horns which adorned its head. Draco was sure he had seen a picture of this creature in some book, and while he could not remember its name, he remembered enough to know that this creature was extremely dangerous.

Draco's first thought was to run in the opposite direction, but he stopped himself when he remembered that even if the beast somehow did not see his movements, it would most certainly hear him, and that would probably be just as bad. Either way the beast would probably chase after him, which was the last thing he wanted.

Instead, Draco stood stock still, praying that the creature would just go away after it had had its fill of water. Draco could feel small beads of sweat tickling his brow and he itched to wipe them away. The beast appeared to have stopped drinking, but now it was sniffing at the air. Draco felt his heart begin to race even faster, what if the thing smelled him? He had to get away now before the thing decided to turn him into lunch. Draco's eyes darted around for the safest place to run, but the only logical choice seemed to be to run into the woods and hope the beast lost track of him in the trees.

Draco inched his foot back so slowly one would question whether he was moving at all. He shifted his weight to his back foot, and then slowly began to move the other foot back. This proved to be a mistake, for when he put his foot back down on the ground and shifted the weight, he caused a twig to snap, and brought the beast's attention directly to him. For an agonizingly long second, the creature and Draco merely stared at each other, Draco wearing a look of wide-eyed terror, the creature appearing curious.

However, after that second, the creature seemed to decide that he did not approve of Draco, and with a loud roar which seemed to sound throughout the entire forest, he began charging at Draco. The adrenaline in Draco's blood took over before his brain could, and Draco found himself darting as fast as his legs would carry him through the forest. He didn't bother to look back because he could hear the sound of the beast's footsteps gaining on him. Suddenly, Draco felt a tug on his robes; the beast apparently had pounced at him, but had only succeeded in tearing his robes.

Draco paid no attention to where he was going; he just continued sprinting as fast as he could. He could feel a stitch forming in his side due to erratic breathing, but he couldn't let it slow him down, if he did, it would very literally be the death of him. Draco closed his eyes to take his mind off the pain, and opened them again just barely in time to see a huge tree trunk in front of him. He leapt sideways, but lost his footing and crashed painfully on his side.

Draco turned and tried to back up on his hands and feet as fast as possible. He locked eyes with the beast, and he could still hear the panther growling ferociously at the beast, though it didn't seem to be helping any. The beast crept forward, its teeth bared menacingly. Draco saw it crouch down to pounce again, and he knew it was the end, there was no way he could escape before it came at him again.

But fate seemed to have a different plan in mind. Just at the creature made to pounce, a huge limb came out of nowhere and hit the creature directly in the side with such a force that the beast was thrown into another tree. The creature growled a mixture of anger and pain, but it seemed to know better than to come near the whomping willow again. It cast a hate-filled glare at Draco before disappearing back into the darkness of the forest.

Draco barely had time to catch his breath when he heard the threatening cracking and groaning of the willow's limbs. He knew he had to get away before the tree attacked him too, so ignoring the wincing pain he felt all over his body; Draco forced himself up and ran out of range of the tree's deadly branches. He then sank against the trunk of a harmless tree to catch his breath. He now had no clue where the river was, nor could he tell where the clearing was either. Now he was even more lost than before because he did not know for sure which direction he had been heading. All he knew was which way the beast had gone, and he sure as hell was not going that way.

In the meantime, Draco gave himself what he deemed to be a well deserved break. He slipped his hand into his pocket, intending to munch on a few berries, only to find that his fingers were covered in a sticky red juice. "Fuck," he groaned, the berries must have gotten squashed in his pocket while he was running from the beast. Draco licked the berry juice off his fingers, "brilliant," he sighed sarcastically as his mind thought over everything he had already been through this morning. "Just bloody brilliant."

So the adventure in the forest has finally begun (and to anyone who may be wondering, yes this is still a DM/HG fic, it's just going to take a while for that to happen.) ;o)

Also a quick note just for reference: At one point in this chapter Draco said he was stuck between Scylla and Charybdis, so I just wanted to explain where that saying comes from so that no one is confused. Scylla and Charybdis are too monsters from Homer's Odyssey. Scylla had several heads, and Charybdis was basically a gigantic whirlpool with teeth. The saying 'stuck between Scylla and Charybdis' is synonymous with 'stuck between a rock and a hard place' meaning that there is no easy way out of a given situation.

I believe that's all for now, I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter, and I will work hard to get the next one up sooner. In the meantime, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it, so please submit a review! Thanks!