A/N: Still looking for a beta

Chapter 18

When Hermione eyes slowly opened all she saw was a blanket above her. "Hmm" She mumbled as she tried to sit up. She rubbed her eyes and looked around again. She found she was in a bed. Ron was in a bed on the other side of the room and Harry sat next to her, with his eyes half shut.

"Harry?" She asked. His eyes snapped open and he looked around wildly. When he realized she was awake and talking to him, he seemed to relax a little.

"Hermione you're up!" He jumped out of his chair and hugged her. "I was so worried." She smiled at him and then remembered what had happened before she had been knocked out.

"Oh my god what happen after I was hit? What happened to Ron? And where is Draco?" She was consumed with fear. Harry put a hand on her shoulder.

"Ron got thrown into a tree. He's all right, Elwood fixed him up. That werewolf pretty much wiped the floor with us all. I got lucky; Elwood showed up before I was knocked out too. He fought the beast off," he said softly.

"And Draco?" she asked her voice shaking slightly.

"Hermione…he…" Harry looked at a loss for words.

"Harry please tell me, where is he?" She looked scared as she stared at her friend.

"The werewolf ran off and he took Draco's unconscious body with him." There was no other way to say it. He knew she was in love with Draco Malfoy even if she didn't. "Elwood wants to find Draco's brethren and Red is in a deep slumber. Apparently Elwood can't wake him for our safety because he would apparently go blood hungry and kill more people than the town has or something." He could see her eyes widen.

"We have to go find him!" She jumped out of the bed and scrambled to get her shoes and socks on. Harry looked over at Ron who was snoring lightly in his sleep.

"Hermione, I know you're worried about him." He looked away from Ron to her. "But we should what for Elwood and the others. Ron can't come with us; he has a broken rib." At his words, Hermione turned around and looked at Ron.

"Well we've done harder things without Ron before. He needs his rest now, so let's go. I ..." She looked at Harry. "I can't stand here and wait like this. I…Harry I…" She looked scared at what she was thinking. "I guess you're right we should wait." She looked down at the floor.

Harry sighed heavily "You love him don't you." It wasn't a question, but a statement. Hermione looked as if he had just called her a horrible name.

"L…love him? What are you insane? I don't love Malfoy, it just I feel sorry for him. He's been hurt and his family…" Harry cut her off.

"Hermione you may not see it yet, but you are in love with him. I know you think it's pity, but I've seen the way you look at him. And if it were just pity you wouldn't be as concerned as you are about him now." He reached a hand out and made her look at him. "Come on let's go find him."

She smiled at him and whispered, "Thank you Harry."

In the woods

Draco's eyes opened and he looked around to see where he was. Sitting across from him was a man. The man looked a lot like his brothers. He had long black hair with white tips. His eyes were green and his skin, tan. He wore an outfit that screamed 1700 century Indian. However, he definitely was not an Indian. It probably only looked that way because his clothes were made of animal skins.

"So, you finally woke up." He smiled devilishly at Draco. "Weak little wizard, can't even take getting tossed around a little." Draco sat up, it was painful but he did it.

"Hey I had broken ribs before you attacked me!" Draco snarled at the obvious werewolf in human form. He was not weak and he would prove it! "Instead of throwing me and other people around like a nut, why didn't you try and give me a test?"

The man stood to leer over him. "You want a test to prove yourself boy?" His smile was widening at the thought of something, Draco only dared to guess of. Using a tree for help Draco pulled himself off the ground.

"Bring it on old man, bring it on." Draco rose to the challenge. Sure, he was hurt and felt the pain in his chest, but screw pain! This guy accused him of being weak! And no amount of pain would hold him back from proving him wrong.

"Call me Kane, boy," the man snarled.

"Call me Draco, old man," Draco snarled right back at him. The two glared at each other and then smirked at the same time. Their minds were more alike than either of them recognized.

"Alright Draco, I will give you werewolves tests and if you win, I will respect you as one of my own. If you fail… I get to eat you alive." He glanced at Draco to see if fear would show on his face. There was none, the boy passed test number one.

"Fine Kane let's get started," his voice cold as his icy eyes. Kane picked up a large walking stick. He tossed it to Draco who caught it with ease. 'He's got good hand/eye coordination,' Kane thought.

"First the rules, this is a test for werewolves, so you will not use any magic from your wand or a potion. Whatever you use to aid yourself must be in the woods. You must conjure nothing and use nothing to beat me." He watched as Draco simply nodded. "That stick is your only weapon. Test one: you must find a magical creature in the woods with your new senses, and then you must approach it and get it to let you touch it. If it attacks you, then you fail."

Draco hated the idea already. 'Oh why did it have to be animals?' Ever since third year, Draco hated almost all animals. They were so unpredictable; which was what made Draco hate them so much, but Kane didn't stop there.

"Test two: you must beat me in a race. I will be in werewolf form. If you can't at least keep up with me, you lose. Test three: this is the falling test. You will jump off a cliff and not do anything to stop yourself from falling. You must believe in the world around you to be saved. If you try and save yourself then you lose!" At the last part, Kane smiled widely. "I can tell the hardest test for you will be the trusting."

Draco was pissed about his so-called third test. "I will do your first two tests, but there is no way I will do your third test. It's ridiculous to even ask such a stupid thing. If I jump off a cliff and didn't do something to stop myself from falling I would die!" He glared at the werewolf.

"Then you lose, you are weak and pathetic and you'll never be anything more than a worthless fool," Kane said simply.

Draco felt like he was going to kill Kane with his bare hands. How dare he say those things to him! He was a Malfoy and Malfoys were not weak. "Alright I'll do your stupid tests and if I die, I am going to haunt your stupid ass for the rest of your life!"

Kane smiled at Draco's words. "Then let the games begin."

An hour later

Draco looked at the ground and he noticed a large foot print. He got down on hands and knees and found himself smelling the footprint. It was faded, but it was the first sign of life he had seen since he had started this stupid test. Fortunately, he didn't have a time limit.

Draco noticed some ruder ribbles (Which was a type of vine plant that was like an elastic band.) and some other magical healing plants. Mostly silver dust flowers, which numbed pain of any kind. He found himself picking a couple of them and cutting down some ruder ribble vines. He wrapped them around his stick and looked around for any other signs of life. He noticed more footprints and followed them.

They ended at a water edge, which had a waterfall and some large rocks spread out in it. Draco used his stick to vault from rock to rock. Once he landed in the middle, he looked around to see if there were any signs of life. When his eyes came to the waterfall Draco's heart stopped in his chest. There were two large eyes looking back at him. They were so big one eye was the size of his head! 'Holy crap what kind of animal is that?'

Slowly he found himself putting his stick down, as if to show the animal he had no intentions of trying to hurt it. As if he could without magic anyway. The large unknown animal slipped into the lake. It swam towed him slowly until it was just five feet away. It rose out of the water to show Draco what he was about to face.

Draco found himself looking into the face of a Horntail DRAGON! But this one was three times the size of any Horntail ever recorded. 'Oh, My G...GODS' He stood still, frozen from fear as the dragon opened it's large jaws, snorting steam from it's nostrils. It raised one large paw out of the water showing Draco the unexpected.

There was something lodged in it's paw. Without thinking, Draco pulled out the sliver dust flower. He leapt on to it's nose and lunged for it's paw. He landed on the back of it's hand. The dragon started to swing it's paw wildly smashing it into the water and out again. With all of his might, Draco held on for dear life. Slowly puling himself to the offending object. Somehow, he managed to place the pillion around the object (Which turned out to be a sword of all things!). With the dragon still shaking him wildly around, he grabbed the end of the sword, put his feet on the palm of the paw and pulled. The sword gave way and he fell, sword in hand, into the water.

Draco swam to the rock and pulled himself out of the water. Throwing the sword on to the rock, he looked up at the large dragon who seemed to be looking at it's paw and then at him. And just at it had come, it left again. Draco lay back on the rock with a heavy sigh. 'Well I guess I lost.'

"Nice work kid!" Kane called from the shore, grudgingly. "I was surprised you did that." Draco sat up and looked at him.

"So I guess I lost then. Being as I just went for a wild ride on that thing's paw." He sighed 'Yeah go ahead and gloat already. Just get it over with'

"Lose? Nope you haven't lost yet. You attacked it… Sort of. I said if it attacked you, which it did not. He didn't bite or claw you once." He smirked at Draco. "You ready for round two?"

Draco grabbed his new sword and his stick and got to his feet. "Let's do it!"