1Sorry that it's been awhile again...has anyone reviewed? If so, I haven't been emailed them. Sorry about the lack of responses! Chapters might be more and more interspersed what with school starting soon and all. Anyway, on with the story!
Chapter 16: Till Death
"You want...me...to do what?" Hermione asked, hardly breathing.
"You must kill Arthur Weasley." Lord Voldemort repeated, seeming somewhat threadbare.
"That's...what I thought you said." The room seemed to be spinning. A black haze was coming in from the corner's of the room.
"Hermione? Hermione. Hermione? Hermione!" His voice seemed to be coming from farther and farther away. Hermione felt her eyes roll into the back of her head.
And then she felt nothing.
-x-
There was a swish of a cold rag on her face, a hand on her forehead. Somebody was pressing their hands to her cheeks. Somebody else was calling her name. She opened her eyes slightly. There was a haze of white blond hair lit from behind like a halo. She stared into ice blue eyes, normally emotionless. They were now filled with worry. Once again there was a cold rag on her face. Then she sat bolt upright. Looking around, Hermione saw Draco and Voldemort.
"Hermione!" They both exclaimed at once. Draco grabbed her icy hands with his own warm ones.
"I won't...I can't." She said faintly. Then she fell back into bed.
"What is she a talking about?" Draco asked.
-x-
Hermione awoke for good the next day, only to find Voldemort waiting for her.
"Are you ready?"
"I can't do it!"
"You must. And I've even taken some pity on you. You may take young Malfoy with you to...help. I've already explained the situation to him." Hermione stopped arguing. It took too much out of her...she simply nodded. Bowing her head, tears fell to the end of her nose. She would have to kill someone who was like her own father. She couldn't do it.
She stood up and walked to Draco's room. She took her wand with her, figuring it was all she would need. She knocked on his door and then walked in.
Immediately, she was embraced. She cried for forever into his shoulder. She wailed as though the world was going to end, sobbing for eternity. Was this the life she would have to live forever? Having nobody to support her but Draco?
Slowly, she looked into his eyes. They both nodded in an unspoken agreement, and apparated without ever letting go. Hermione didn't know where they were going, so had to do Side- Along- Apparition. They were instantly greeted by a circle of wands.
"Explain yourself." A deep voice with an unseen speaker snarled.
"Per request of the Dark Lord Voldemort," Draco began, recovering where Hermione could not due to her emotional state, "You are to be inspected."
Hermione looked at Draco. Inspections by the Dark Lord were normal? But the wands lowered. Just how much power could fear induce?
"We need to know," Hermione said in a wavering voice, "How you consider the service...of...your servant."
"Lupin? He works well for a half-breed." Hermione's fists curled.
"I need to see him." She sneered.
"Servants are to work without being seen."
"Show us your damned servant!" Draco yelled.
"You would do well to watch your tone."
"You would do well to show us who you are, coward!" Draco shouted.
The voice seemed colder and angry. "Nobody calls me a coward." A tall black man stepped into the light. The rest of his party stepped forward as well. Suddenly, the man spoke a spell Hermione hadn't heard in awhile.
"Serpensortia!" Hermione jumped in front of Draco and felt gashes rip at her body. This was the spell Harry took from Snape! Snape must have taught it to his fellow Death Eaters. Draco went to rush to her side immediately, but was stopped. The crowd wouldn't let him help her.
"Let me go!" He shot spells blindly, and most of them actually hit. He had to get to Hermione!
But he was almost too late.
"Hermione!" A tear fell from his pale nose onto her cheek. "Don't go...stay with me." He performed healing spells on her, but the blood loss could not be helped. The breath was leaving her body as he told her he loved her. Suddenly, Hermione took in a deep, rattling breath. Draco feared it would be her last.
But then she took another. And another.
"I...I saw Harry." She whispered. "He made me come back." He hugged her fiercely.
"But now your back with me." He engulfed her in a deep kiss. They were lost in each other for a few minutes. Hermione then broke away.
"Draco, we have to find Lupin."
"Yes...I know." They continued their search. Voldemort had told them about this place, but he couldn't explain the aura in it. They wouldn't have been able to apparate if it hadn't been for his description. Hermione wasn't grateful. The walls were made of the blackest stone, and they looked as though they hadn't been cleaned since the house - or was it a castle? - was built. Hermione was very confused.
"Draco, where the hell are we?"
"In the MacNair manor." This explained the creepy chill. Lupin was the servant of MacNair? How the hell did he escape to talk to Hermione and come back undetected?
They were walking along a creepy corridor, almost like the dungeons at Hogwarts. Suddenly, they were in front of a bunch of jail cells. Inside one a figure was huddled in the corner. It looked up.
"Hermione! Have you come to-" But then Lupin saw Draco and broke off.
"Evening, Werewolf. I trust you've been having communications with Arthur Weasley?" Draco said coolly.
"Of course I have." Lupin said with just as much calm in his voice. "Why are you asking?"
Hermione watched this exchange fearfully. Would Draco hurt Lupin to get the information he needed?
"We need to know of his whereabouts."
"And why on Earth would I tell-"
"Immediately would be preferred." Draco interrupted mildly. Lupin narrowed his eyes.
"I would never tell that to a couple of Death Eaters." Lupin said venomously. Hermione was taken aback. Didn't he trust her?
Or was it even him who had talked to her in the library?
"We...we need to know, Lupin." It was the first time Hermione had spoken. Lupin looked at her as though she were the lowliest thing on earth. What was going on. "Draco, go away for a moment please. I have something I need to ask Lupin about...privately." Draco looked at her questioningly, but then walked on.
"Lupin, why are you acting this way?"
"You're a Death Eater, Hermione!"
"But you already knew that...didn't you?"
"How would I know that? I haven't seen more than a square foot of daylight in the longest time. The only way I can talk to others is...well, never mind that. How could you turn on us like this?"
"But you've talked to me before...at the Malfoy Manor, no less!"
"Don't be absurd. And I will NEVER tell you where Arthur is!"
"Lupin," Hermione was pleading, "Of course you've talked to me! You formed a new Order! You invited me into it. What are you playing at?"
"The Order is gone, Hermione." Lupin said calmly. "And apparently the Hermione I knew is gone with it." Hermione lost her temper.
"YOU try living with only Death Eaters, having daily contact with them, having Voldemort live in or around the same vicinity as you, having him want to adopt you, having to silently bear the knowledge that the life you loved is gone, try all of this without becoming a Death Eater! I either became one or I was killed, Lupin. That was the way it was. And I only stayed alive because I WAS pregnant with Harry's child. But that, too, is gone." She narrowed her eyes at him. "And you dare reprimand me? Claiming you haven't changed as well? Look at you! You were huddled in a corner when we got her."
Lupin looked at Hermione. "Perhaps deep inside you are the same Hermione I knew. But how could you switch sides?"
"For the sake of my too premature child, Lupin, which is now dead. And now you will tell me where Arthur Weasley is residing. I'm waiting, Lupin."
"I will never tell you."
"I'll find out one way or another, Lupin. You know me. I always find out."
"Then you'll have to find out a different way, Hermione, because I will never tell."
"So be it." Hermione looked at Lupin one last time with tears in her eyes. The new Order had been the only good thing in her life other than Draco. And now it, too, was gone. "Come on, Draco!" She yelled. "We're leaving."
She walked away from Lupin without ever looking back.
"Did he tell you where Weasley is?" Draco asked as they walked on.
"No, but I know how else to find out." Hermione said. "I have a plan. If I know Lupin and Mr. Weasley, and I'm pretty sure I do, then Mr. Weasley has a Secret Keeper. We find the Keeper, we find Mr. Weasley. But who is the Keeper?" Hermione didn't tell Draco the secret part of her plan. She would take as long as she could to find the Keeper. Once she did that, she would take as long as she could to find out where Mr. Weasley was. And then she hoped he would move. She never wanted to find Mr. Weasley because when she did, she would have to kill him.
It was more than she could bear.
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So, it might not be my best chapter yet. I'm so sorry that I suck at updating they way I used to. I hope you liked this chapter! Please R&R!