Morning came and I had butterflies in my stomach. If Draco really was a man of his word, then he would help me escape from the wretched place. I heard the door open and in stepped Draco Malfoy. He didn't look very pleased and it made my heart sink. I knew he had some terrible news for me.

"How are you today, Hermione?" he asked.

"I'm fine, Draco," I replied. I looked straight into his blue eyes. "What is it Draco? You look unhappy."

"No, no, it's ok. It's just sad that today will be the last day that I'll ever see you."

"Don't say that Draco. Won't you come with me?"

"I'm afraid that won't be possible, Hermione. It's going to be hard enough just getting one person out of here, I don't think I'll be able to get out as well. But that's ok; I belong down here with the death eaters. This is my calling in life to serve Lord Voldermort."

I burst into tears and hugged Draco.

"Oh, Draco, I'm going to miss you."

"I'm going to miss you too, Hermione," Draco released his hug. "But there's no time to be overly sentimental now. We've got to get a move on. It's not going to be easy but I think this plan might work."

"What is it?"

"I'm going to have to drag you out of here, pretending you're my prisoner taking you down to the torture chamber. From there we'll be pretty close to the exit, close enough to make a run for it anyway. There shouldn't be too many death eaters down that way."

"Where's Harry?"

"I don't know. I haven't seen him. I'll do my best to avoid him, as he seems to be gathering quite a lot of magical energy recently. I imagine he is quite powerful by now. But there are death eaters surrounding this whole area, so you'll have to give quite a convincing struggle or they'll think something's up."

"Ok, that's fine or if it'll make it easier, you could knock me unconscious or something."

"Are you sure?"

"Not for real obviously. But if they see us struggling and then you pretend to hit me or something. It'll make it easier for everyone and be more convincing."

"Well, maybe not for my back."

"Excuse me, mister?"

"Sorry, sorry. Yeah, I've just got some powder in my pocket. It's just food flavouring but looks just like sleep powder. I bet no one will know the difference."

"Then it's settled."

"Ok, let's do this then. Good luck, Hermione. You know, I wasn't lying when I said I loved you."

"I know you weren't Draco."

I leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. Draco blushed.

I then let out a piercing scream, one so loud that everyone in a ten-mile radius could have probably heard it. Draco put his hand over my mouth to shut me up. He dragged me out of the room and into the large area where the stone slap lay at the front. It was the first time I had seen the place properly and there wasn't really much to see. There were fire lanterns on each of the walls and the place was literally swarming with other death eaters.

They didn't seem like real people. They all wore hoods to cover their faces and long black cloaks, much like Draco, although Draco had his hood down and didn't mind showing his face.

Draco aggressively took hold of my arms and held me in front of him. I tried to get out of his grasp but his hands were like an iron vice clamping down on my arms. It really hurt actually; I was hoping that Draco was acting because from the demonic look in his eye, it sure didn't look like it.

All the death eaters had now turned to face me and Draco who continued to struggle in front of the cell door. Finally Draco reached into his pocket and pulled out the powder and threw it over me. I stopped struggling immediately, rolled my eyes to the back of my head sighing deeply and fell limp in Draco's arms. I hoped my swoon looked convincing and wasn't too theatrical. It didn't matter now, from that point on, I had to be perfectly still and just hope that things worked out all right.

Draco slung me over his shoulder and I felt all the blood rush suddenly to my head. I gasped as my stomach was pressed against his shoulder blade, but I tried to hold it in the best I could. It wasn't going to be easy being completely still whilst hanging upside down. When I made my suggestion, I was kind of hoping that Draco would cradle me in his arms like I was his bride or something but I suppose he was trying to act like I was his prisoner.

Draco carried me forward until we came to a sudden stop. When he stopped it sent a massive pain through my stomach and it also caused me to slam my face into his back. I heard voices but I could only distinguish Draco's. I had no idea who the other were but I was assuming that they were death eaters.

"Where are you going with this girl?" asked one of them.

"She's been nothing but trouble," said Draco. "I'm going to take her to the torture chamber to teach her a lesson."

"I'm sorry. The torture chamber has been closed off. Harry is doing important work down there. May we see the girl? What happened? Did she faint?"

Draco took me off his shoulder and held me out in front of him. I was still pretending to act limp but I was very scared now. I didn't like the death eaters looking straight at me. I didn't know what they'd do if they caught me. One of them touched my face.

"She looks quite ill, said one of the death eaters. "I think you should take her to the medical office."

"Very well." Draco said.

Draco then slung me back over his shoulder and carried me to the medical office. It wasn't very far but I felt uneasier now. The plan hadn't exactly gone to plan so far but Draco seemed confident enough. I was just hoping he had another idea because he was taking me further and further away from the exit.

When we reached the medical office, Draco laid me down on a table. There was someone else there too, a woman. It was probably the nurse. I still had my eyes firmly closed and I was just picturing home and safety in my mind. That was the only thing getting me through all of this.

"What is wrong with the girl?" the nurse asked.

"It's nothing too serious. She just fainted, that's all. Just needs some smelling salt. I'll go and get some."

"I'll help you look."

"That's very nice of you, Mr Malfoy."

"Well, that's me."

I heard Draco and the nurse leave. There was no one left in the room; it was completely silent. I opened my eyes and looked around. There were some old wooden shelves on the wall all with bottles of various chemicals. There was a table next to the table I was lying on. On it were some surgical instruments. I thought about it for a moment and then grabbed one of the scalpels from the table and hid it in my blouse pocket.

I suddenly heard voices again. My heart jumped as I saw the nurse and Draco standing across from me.

"What is this?" cried the nurse. "The girl is awake."

Draco then slammed his hand down across the nurse's neck, knocking her unconscious. She dropped the bottle of smelling salt and it smashed all over the floor. Draco dragged the nurse into the corner of the room and then came back to me.

"Hermione, you idiot. We'll never get out unless you keep up the act."

"I'm sorry Draco, I thought you had gone. I was just having a look around."

"That nurse was really nice, I didn't want to have to knock her out. Now she'll never like me."

"Sorry."

"Come on, Hermione. Let's go. There's a secret passage at the back of this room. It'll lead straight out. Now remember, you're supposed to be unconscious."

I got it. I closed my eyes again and waited.

Draco scooped me up in his arms this time and carried me out of the medical room. It was much more comfortable like this. Draco ran quite fast, jolting me with every movement. It didn't take long though for Draco to come to yet another sudden stop. There were more death eaters there, two of them from the sound of it. I thought Draco said this was a secret passage.

"Where do you think you're going, Draco? And with this girl, she is a worthless prisoner, there's no reason for you to be here, Draco and there's especially no reason for this girl to be here. I don't think you can be trusted, Draco. Give the girl to us."

I was so surprised when I felt Draco hand me over to the death eaters, I couldn't believe it. I was now lying limp in the arms of some random death eater. What on earth was Draco thinking? How could he just hand me over like that?

The death eater began carrying me down the passage where we had just come back to the medical room. The plan wasn't going right at all. I couldn't let myself just b e carried away like this. They stopped for a moment as they spoke to Draco. I wasn't listening to them as I slowly crept my hand up towards my blouse pocket. From there I pulled out the scalpel and before the man had time to react I stabbed him in the chest.

He released me as blood poured from his chest. I watched on as Draco punched the other death eater in the face and threw him into the wall. Draco then grabbed my hand and we both ran down the dark passageway as fast as we could.

"Hermione, jeez, you sure do cause me a lot of trouble." Draco said.

I didn't answer him. I was too out of breath and was concentrating too hard on running. Draco was a really fast runner; he was practically dragging me along as he ran way out in front.

We made it to the end of the passageway and it split off into two directions. One passage went right and the other went left. We both chose to go the right. I just followed Draco's lead. The whole time I had a feeling he knew what he was doing but I'm not too sure if he felt the same.

Suddenly we heard footsteps behind us. We looked and saw a charge of about ten death eaters marching towards us at great speed. We both picked up the pace. At the end of the passageway we saw a ladder and it led up to daylight. This was it, we were going to make it.

We got to the ladder. Draco let me climb up first but by then the death eaters had already surrounded us. Draco tried to climb up the ladder with me but he got dragged back down.

"Run, Hermione," he shouted. "Get out of here whilst you still can!"

I watched in horror as I saw Draco get knocked unconscious and then carried off by the death eaters. I couldn't just leave him. I had to save him but there was still one death eater left at the bottom of the ladder that was looking straight up at me. He made a lunge for my leg and grabbed my ankle trying to pull me off the ladder.

I somehow managed to wriggle my leg free from his grasp and I climbed the ladder as fast I possibly could. It was a long way up and I could hear the clang of metal as the death eater chased me all the way. But I could see daylight and nothing was going to stop me now.

I made it to high ground but there was no time to stop and rest. I looked down ton see the death eater climbing up towards me. I then took hold of the top of ladder and pushed it down. Thankfully the ladder wasn't attached to the wall so when I pushed it, it went crashing down sending the death eater to a 30 foot drop. He fell with a thud and then a clatter as the ladder fell down on top of him.

I turned to look where I was. It didn't really matter where I was though. I was free at last. I could see the top of Hogwarts not far away and I breathed a huge sigh of relief as I jogged across the field and onto the cobble path leading to Hogwarts.

Thoughts of Draco entered my head, but there was no time to think about that now, there could have been more death eaters sent out to get me. I hoped Draco was going to be all right for everything he had done for me. He wasn't such a bad guy after all.

I breathed in the air. It tasted so good, so clean and so fresh.

Spring was here and the wonderful colourful flowers were just starting to bloom.

I smiled.

I was finally home.

To Be Continued…….

A/N: Thanks for reading my story so far. I hope you've enjoyed it. That's the end of part 1. part 2 will follow shortly.

love,

Angelic Dawn xxx