Author's note: Ok. First, I would like to apologize the mix up this chapter posed at first. It should be fixed now, with the loading of this new and improved chapter. Sorry for the mess. The chapter that was originally in this spot was just a place holder, because I couldn't delete it. It wasn't supposed to be formatted or read, so just ignore it.
Secondly, I would like to explain about the characters in previous chapters. I KNOW THEY'RE THERE. I AM AWARE OF THE PROBLEM. Please stop leaving reviews about them. I APOLOGIZE FOR THEM. I don't want to leave them there, but it will take me a long time to replace all of them and repost. I'm sorry for the inconvenience.
Thirdly, I will try and post more often, because I am finding that this story is moving rather quickly now, and will only take a few more chapters to finish. Please keep checking for more posts.
Thank you for reading. Enjoy.
Chapter 12
The passageways leading down to the dungeons were confined and cramped, and Hermione had trouble keeping up with Draco, who apparently knew the way like the back of his hand. She stumbled over the uneven stone floor, though she tried to keep away from the dusty, disgusting walls. Draco continually told her to keep up, though she found it hard.
As they traveled down several flights of stairs, she felt the air around her grow cold. Drafts seemed to flow from unseen cracks in the walls, and she felt goose bumps prickle her arms.
"Are we almost there yet?" she whined, her teeth beginning to chatter.
"Quiet, or someone will hear you," he spat back, following the wall with his hands.
Slowly he stopped before a large wooden wall that blocked their path.
"This is it?" Hermione laughed sarcastically. "You lead us through a blocked passage?"
"Will you refrain from insulting me before you know what you're talking about?"
He suddenly stopped moving, and appeared to be listening for something. Hermione tried to get his attention to ask him what he was doing, but he quickly silenced her and continued to walk forward, his ear facing the wall. He placed his face against the wall.
"What is it?" said Hermione finally.
"There's someone yelling in the dungeon," he whispered. "It sounds like my father."
Hermione's concern grew. "What is he yelling about?"
Draco continued to listen, his brow furrowing. "I'm not sure," he said, "the wall is making his words muffled."
Draco jumped. "He's hit something, and it's slammed into the wall." He continued to keep an ear pressed to the cold wooden surface. "Someone's in pain."
"It's Snape," said Hermione, drawing closer to him.
"Shh." He waved her silent with his hand. He heard his father beating Snape over and over again, but refrained from saying anything that would upset Hermione into giving away their position.
The floor began to vibrate.
"What's that?" Hermione asked.
"The door is closing," he replied, "I think they're leaving."
He slowly withdrew his wand from his cloak, and held it steadily at his side. "Now, on my mark, we'll go in, and we'll probably meet up with the guards," he told her. "You don't have you're wand, do you?"
She shook her head no.
"Then I'll have to stun them."
He took a step back from the wall, facing it with his wand arm outstretched. "You may want to stand back and brace yourself."
He slowly muttered a spell underneath his breath, and as soon as he did, the seemingly stable wall was blown forward with a deafening bang.
Hermione cried out with surprise and shock and fell back, shielding her face with her arm. Draco remained standing, but guarded his face as well.
He entered the small dungeon, with which Hermione had become all too familiar.
She saw Snape, lying on his side, supporting his weight on one arm. He grimaced with an ugly frown as he tried to raise himself, but also tried to find out what the source of the loud, earth-shaking bang was from.
"Who's there?" he yelled, and Hermione had noticed that some of the inflection of his voice was gone. She ran to him, just as Draco entered the room.
The door to the dungeon began to slide open.
"Draco, the door!"
He ran to the door, flattening himself against the doorway so that the intruders would not notice his presence. As the door creaked open with the heavy weight, he heard the guards yelling from the outside.
"Who's in there?"
Draco took a deep breath, and as they entered and spotted Hermione and Snape, their attention remained drawn away from him.
Unguarded, he was able to use a simple spell to disarm them.
"Stupefy!"
The guards fell to the floor slowly, first falling to their knees, and then landing face first on the floor.
"Did you have to yell my name?!" Draco spat, "They could have heard you!"
"I'm sorry!" retorted Hermione as she helped Snape into a sitting position. "I wasn't thinking!"
"Obviously," muttered Draco.
Hermione swept the hair out of Snape's face as his breathing slowed to a near-normal pace.
"Hermione?"
Yes, she answered, I'm here.
"Are you alright?" he asked with trouble.
You first, she answered.
"I'll be fine," he answered, though a stream of blood was gushing down his face, and blood was smeared on the floor where he had landed.
Draco help get out, she wrote in short hand, hoping he would understand.
"Now?"
Yes.
Draco crept to another wall, fingering the stones carefully.
"If you've known this whole time that that door was there, how come you had to disguise yourself instead of just coming through the passage?" asked Hermione as Draco unmasked another hidden passage by blowing it to bits.
"It makes to much noise," he explained. "I didn't have a plan to get you out yet. I had to wait."
Hermione accepted this explanation and helped Snape to his feet.
"Where are we going?" he asked, again with less inflection of his voice.
Home, she answered, and was surprised at the sense of hope and joy the simple work brought her.
Draco peered into the dark corridor, and turned back to them as Hermione directed Snape over to the door, an arm around his waist, the other hand holding his to keep him from falling.
"This isn't going to be easy," Draco said, eyeing Snape skeptically.
"I would fight anything to get home again," answered Hermione.
Draco hesitated a moment, then sighed.
"Well then, let's get moving."
*
After a slow and rocky start, Hermione was able to get Snape through the corridors. Draco followed in the lead, his wand alit from a spell, guiding the way quickly. At times, Hermione had trouble keeping up because of the uneven floor kept Snape from traveling quickly.
At last they reached the end if the passage, which led into a small room.
It was not unlike the room that Draco and Hermione had started, in but it was not the same room. Though the furniture was exactly the same, they were in different positions.
"This room is at the very end of the East Hall," Draco explained. "To get out of here, we're going to have to go to this room," he brandished a map from his pocket, spreading it out on the small desk to show her, "in the South Wing. This will be quite a journey, because the meeting which you just witnessed," he drew his finger elegantly down the paper, "is right here in the East Hall. We'll have to pass it to get out. We might get caught."
Hermione studied the paper for a moment, and then looked up at him. "It's a chance we're just going to have to take."
Very short. Please R&R.