Chapter Two

Hermione, presently asleep, was dreaming of food… a large mountain that reached the sky. And it was all for her and the people around her. It was enough food to last a life time. Steak, potatoes, pudding, carrots, chicken, turkey, stuffing, cake, cheese, milk… the list was endless. But when ever she picked up a chicken leg, or a glass of milk, or a carrot stick, it would disappear from her hands, vanish. And so she'd reach for more, but that, too, would vanish before she had the chance to quench the ache in her stomach. The pain soon grew so intense that she awoke, clutching her stomach, tears on the brim of her eyes. She lay on the floor with hundreds of bodies around her. No blanket covered her. Just her flimsy, dirty white shirt and pants which at first fit, now hung more then loosely off her body.

She could see the small amount of light the sun had already began to grace the world with. Well, it used to grace the world. Now all the sun seemed to mean was yet another day of hard labor and starvation was upon them all. They had been the unlucky ones who had survived the night.

Hermione knew she was stronger then those who begged for death. Knew she was a fighter to the end. But she couldn't help but see the peaceful look on the faces of the dead, knowing that they were out of this hell hole and in a much better place.

But there was no time to think of that. The lodging room door had been opened. The first thing the men with the lit wands did was cover their noses and mouths. When hundreds of bodies clung together in a room for a whole night, a smell did seem to arise.

"All right you bloody bastards! Get your asses out to your stations! Same work as yesterday! And if I catch any of you hanging back here again, there'll be more hell to pay then even the devil can imagine!" As he said this, he walked through the crowd of people huddled together for warmth. He kicked all he went by, crucioed a few others, and mumbled a bit more about how muggle borns were scum and had no right to stand on the same earth as the noble pure bloods of the world.

Eventually the mass of people left the large room used for sleeping and went outside to their stations. There job? Spell producing.

They were given hundreds of thousands of books to look through of Latin terms. Most spells were derived from Latin, and it was their job to take words, put them into a spell, and see what they'd do. Well, no, they didn't get to attempt the spell. They told the words to a guard, who would then test it on one of people from the day before who had the most nonsense spells created. Hermione had no trouble avoiding this, but she hated what she was doing. She was giving the enemy weapons. So many weapons it was unbearable.

She had just picked up her book when suddenly a hand was on her shoulder. She immediately tensed, ready for the likely blow or curse that would follow. They liked to see you get worked up, get scared. That way the fear was more evident in your eyes.

But instead she heard a very light, almost welcomed voice.

"Hermione, I need to speak with you," he said in small whisper in her ear. "Just go along with what I say, alright?"

"Sir? Captain Malfoy?" Hermione could, surprisingly, hear the loathing in his voice as he said the words, but apparently no one else could. "I'd like to take this women," he said, grabbing her by the upper arm and pulling her from the ground rather more roughly then he would ever normally do. "to my chambers for the day. It has been a long time since I've had day off and you can understand my… longing."

Malfoy, that is, Malfoy Senior, did not seem to recognize her, for he allowed it…

"Of course. You are expected here after mid lunch."

And so, Ron pulled roughly at Hermione's bone-thin arm toward his room. When they reached stairs leading up to his shared room they began to climb, and he began to talk.

"Hermione," he said, taking each step heavily yet also quickly. "This is the only was I could think of talking to you with out to much risk involved." They reached the first landing, but Ron didn't stop, he just kept staring at the stairs, climbing up and up. "I've told you time and time again how much I love you. I know you don't believe it, but that also isn't the point, but, well, what I'm trying to say is-" he'd reached the second landing but Hermione was not beside him. His heart skipped a beat and his eyes widened as he thought of what could have possibly happened to her in just two flights of stairs…

He chanced a glance down the stair well, and there she was, unharmed, sitting on the first landing. He ran down the flight to her and caught a few of her words, "My lungs.., burn…too weak…" He didn't think a second thought. He quickly picked her up and ascended back up the second flight.

He set her down when they reached his floor and he walked her to his empty room. She sat down on the first available bed looking completely warn.

"Hermione," he said, kneeling on both knees in front of her, lightly gripping her shoulders and looking deep into those chocolate brown eyes that he hadn't seen happy since the day he'd proposed to her. "You and I both know that this has to end. It needs to end. I am, I think, one of the only Death Eaters here who honestly believes that. I had a dream last night, Hermione. A dream about you, about us, about the world; what it would be like if all of this hadn't happened. When I woke up this morning I had something go through my mind. Something so crazy that I knew only the women I loved, and who once loved me, could help me. All I'm asking is for you to give me a few minutes of your undivided attention. We can do this. You can do this. All you need is a little bit of help from the outside. And I might be that help 'Mione. I could be it if you wanted me to be."

Ron looked at her desperately. The expression on her face had not changed. Ron wondered if she'd fallen asleep with her eyes open. Maybe she really was just that exhausted. It was then that her eyes looked down at the floor and a small, solitary tear fell from her eye and too the floor. The tear made a small, almost soundless drop on the ground. Ron looked down at the tear mark. It laid there, a small symbol of a women's grief. It would evaporate in a few minutes and no one would ever know that it had fallen, let alone been shed in the most utter desperation known to man.

"I have a plan, Hermione. And I think it could work. All I need is for you to help me. I know you are strong. You are not weak. You can do what ever you set your mind to, I've seen you do it!"

Her gaze returned to his and this time it was not with lifeless brown eyes. A sparkle of what Hermione had been before her world had been turned upside down seemed to be, somehow, shining through all of the pain. She spoke then, very desperately, but she did it none the less… "If you have a plan, then lets hear it."

A/N- I know, quite dramatic. Not as long as the last one but I did this all in one sitting which is weird for me (wrote first chapter in 3 nights, very complicated, I know). I hope this makes up for the abysmal first chapter which I myself think is one of my worst opening chapters ever. REVIEW! And I shall give you a hug!

sarah