a/n: Update time…hope you all enjoy this chapter, don't really have much to say, except that I am going to the Kanye West concert in Sydney! Yay!

Disclaimer: JK owns Harry & Co.

CHAPTER 14 – I can hear them…

Hermione screamed. It seemed the only appropriate reaction. Her fake husband's murderous father shows up in her living room (completely unexpectedly), and to top it all off, he was smiling as though he had just found out that Voldemort was actually still alive and living next door.

Lucius ignored the scream, and just made a complex wand movement aimed at the door.

"Your portrait is now sealed against any outsiders, whether or not they have the password, and whether or not you let them in. In fact the only way someone can get in here is if they have my permission, or if the spell is ended. Just letting you know where you stand. Oh, and it makes things a lot more difficult to hear from the outside as well." He stopped talking and surveyed the apartment, his eyes finally coming to rest on Hermione.

…………………………………

Harry and Ron were pacing the corridors looking for Hermione. She had vanished ten minutes into lunch after barely eating anything. They had checked the library, the Room of Requirement (since it opened up to them, they could safely assume that she wasn't in there) and were about to head for the apartment when they ran into Draco, who had also been looking for Hermione. The three boys stopped short and Draco greeted Harry and Ron warily. He knew for a fact that Hermione must have told them something had happened, but had no idea what the others would think he had done.

"Hey, um have you seen Hermione anywhere?"

"No. We were just looking for her," Harry replied. Tense silence.

"Well I'm really worried about her, and I noticed that she hardly ate anything at lunch today before she disappeared again."

"You noticed? The Slytherin table is on the other side of the Great Hall to ours. Anyway it's a little rich you being worried about her when you're the one who upset her so much in the first place."

"Ok, I have no idea what she's told you happened, but I am betting it is a million miles from the truth. The point is, I need to find her and talk to her. Do you have any idea where she could be?"

Ron spoke up suddenly, having chosen to remain silent throughout the exchange.

"Harry we could ah, ask the Marauders…they'll know where to find her." Harry looked away from Draco and grinned at Ron.

"Good idea." Harry swung his book bag to the ground and began rooting through it. He had taken to carrying the Marauders Map around with him everywhere since the end of fifth year and it now had a permanent pocket in the side of Harry's bag. Draco was looking at the two Gryffindor boys, completely stumped. He had no idea who these 'Marauder' people were and why Harry expected that a) they would know where Hermione was, and b) he could find them in his book bag. Harry straightened up with a piece of parchment in his hand and nodded towards Draco.

"You reckon we can show him?" Harry asked Ron, who nodded in reply. Draco stared at the perfectly ordinary looking piece of parchment, still half expecting that the mysterious Marauder people were going to appear and wondering what the hell the parchment had to do with anything.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." Harry tapped the parchment and Draco was amazed to see the intricate map appear. As soon as the ink lines had finished spreading across the page, the boys lay it out on the floor and Harry explained what the Hermione 'dot' would look like.

"Ron, you check all the girls bathrooms, I'll look in the class rooms and stuff, Draco just look in general, since you don't really know where anything is on the map."

Draco swept his eyes over the library, kitchens and the castle grounds.

"Hey, do you know where our apartment is on the map? How old is this thing anyway…the apartment was just put in this year you know."

"Well, it was made around the time my parents were at school," Harry replied, "but that shouldn't matter, anything changes in the castle, and it'll change on the map. Your apartment should be over in that corner somewhere." Harry gestured vaguely as a portion of the map, still intent on studying the charms corridor. Draco began looking where Harry suggested for a little apartment area. He found the corridor where Daine's portrait hung and followed it along until a room opened up behind an apparently blank stone wall. He looked in the living room and saw two dots labelled "Hermione Granger" and Lucius Malfoy". His heart skipped a beat, his mouth went dry and his face went a whiter shade of its usual pale.

"Holy Fuck, we have got to get to the apartment RIGHT NOW!" Draco jumped up, left his bag lying on the floor where he had tossed it and sprinted down the corridor. Harry and Ron glanced at each other, grabbed all three book bags and ran down the corridor after Draco, Harry searching the map as he went. As soon as he saw who was in the apartment with Hermione, he understood Draco's urgency and ran even faster.

…………………………………..

Hermione stopped screaming, and glared at Lucius. She didn't bother testing whether or not the door could be opened. Like it or not, Lucius was a powerful wizard. A powerful wizard who stupidly had left her with her wand.

"Stupe-"

"Expelliarmus." Hermoine's wand went flying toward Lucius and he neatly caught it with his free hand. Crap. Now he's a powerful wizard who has my wand.

Silence again. For the next few minutes Hermione and Lucius just stood there, Hermione glaring, Lucius looking bored. It was obvious that the lack of, well, anything, be it talking or cursing was driving Hermione up the wall. So for a little extra enjoyment, Lucius decided to remain silent a little longer.

"HERMIONE!" The silence was broken by Draco's voice shouting outside in the passage. Despite the fact that she cringed every time she was around him now, Hermione's heart still skipped a beat when she heard his voice. Both Hermione and Lucius listened as Draco practically screamed the password at the painting. And then as Draco swore at the painting when Daine explained that she couldn't let him in.

"Silencio." While Hermione was still staring at the doorway, Lucius said the spell, as though adding an afterthought to a sentence. It seemed as though it were very much a throwaway line to him.

"Now, we can have a nice talk with no interruptions. Except that boy shouting in the passage of course. But you can just ignore him. I certainly am planning on doing just that."

Hermione mouthed something angrily at Lucius, but no sound came out. She gave an impatient sigh and mouthed something else, a little easier to understand, possibly due to the accompanying hand signals. Namely something along the lines of "Fuck You".

Lucius laughed and casually flicked a Crucio in Hermione's direction. She immediately dropped to the floor, writhing in agony. Her mouth was wide open in a silent scream, and the pain was so intense that after a few moments she broke through the silencing charm and began shrieking out loud.

…………………………………..

Out in the hallway, Draco had given up trying to get through the portrait and was considering blowing a section of the wall away to get through to Hermione. Harry and Ron had finally arrived, though Draco ignored them as he tried to figure out the best place to blow a hole in the wall. No sound had been coming from the apartment for a few minutes, but then he could only really hear through the portrait, and that was only when the people inside were being exceptionally loud. None of the boys were saying anything, when the tense silence was broken by hysterical screams coming faintly through Daine's portrait. Every drop of colour instantly drained from Draco's face and he began banging on the painting, as though hoping to break through it. Daine began shrieking in alarm and vanished from the edge of the painting. The boys heard her calling from a painting down the hallway,

"I'll come back when you stop hitting me." Draco ignored her and screamed out Hermione's name again. The shrieking had stopped, and almost as bad as the sound of Hermione in pain was having no idea what was going on.

…………………………………….

Lucius had stopped the Cruciatus curse momentarily and was staring at Hermione, who was slowly raising herself from the floor.

"You know what the advantage of wanting to kill your son's wife is? That is opposed to a random person's wife who you have no connection to. Since Draco is in fact my son, I have full access to his mail. Letters he receives, parcels, letters he sends. All I have to do is cast a lovely little connection spell between his owl and my own. And you know what? From the letters I've been reading for the past week, I'd say there was trouble in paradise. Wouldn't you?"

By this time, Hermione was standing unsteadily, but still off the floor. She answered him with one word.

"No."

"No? You mean all the "I'm sorry" notes Draco has been sending you have been for nothing? He just likes practicing apologies…is that it?"

"Oh shut up. All we had was an argument over a few library books. Oh, and I have PMS which meant it escalated into something a little bigger than it actually would have. So sorry, no pending divorce for you to get excited about." Hermione's brief satisfaction at the look of obvious discomfort which flitted across Lucius' face at the mention of her period was cut short by his next question.

"So the 'I'm sorry I couldn't say it, but I care about you so much Hermione' was a library related note?"

……………………………….

Draco stepped back from the painting where he had had his ear pressed, trying to hear anything that would confirm that Hermione was alive. He took his drew out his wand and prepared to use the Reducto curse to blast his way through into the apartment. Harry guessed what he was about to do and pulled his arm down.

"It won't work."

"Why the fuck not?"

"Something to do with the magic of the castle. It's virtually indestructible. Hermione told me, she read it in Hogwarts: A History."

"Well then what the fuck am I supposed to do? Stand out here while my arsehole of a father kills Hermione?"

"What? Why would he kill her? He's that mad about you two getting married?" Ron spoke up, looking shocked. Draco realised his mistake and mentally shrugged. Didn't make much difference now anyway.

"Too long to explain when we have no time whatsoever. Just trust me on this one, Hermione's in real trouble. And why the fuck has no-one gone to get Dumbledore?" This was all said in the same tone of voice, tense and worried.

"He's not here. He's gone to London, they needed him at the Ministry," Harry answered, sounding just as worried as Draco.

"Well can't you do something Harry? You did kill the greatest dark wizard of all time…you can't get us into the apartment?"

…………………………………………..

"Ok, you caught us. Draco and I are in a fight. Not one about library books. However, as I said before, it's not like we're heading for a divorce, its not like we're not in love…so you can't really do anything to me." It took all Hermione's self control not to add a "so there arsehole" to the end of her answer. She figured it would probably be best not to antagonise the person who had trapped her in her own apartment and stolen her wand. Oh, and he also wanted to kill her.

"Well I can't begin to tell you what's wrong with that. For starters, I can do things to you. I could in fact torture you to insanity with the Cruciatus curse, but it's been done. I need something a little more original. I could go for the good old muggle standby and stab you, it's a tried and true method. But I digress. I was tell you what's wrong with your little statement. You and Draco, I'm pretty sure you're not in love. In fact I'm positive. I wouldn't have come here if I wasn't."

"Yeah, by the way, how exactly did that happen?"

"Well this morning I put on my invisibility cloak, apparated to the gates of the school grounds, walked into the school and followed you from the Great Hall. I didn't quite hear the password, so I had to 'ring the bell' as it were. I don't think Dumbledore thought I would resort to something so simple."

"Frankly I'm surprised he didn't. Simple plans for simple minds." Shouldn't have said that…the whole not enraging your captor thing.

"That wasn't nice," Lucius put on a mock hurt look, "Crucio."

…………………………………………

The screams started again from inside the apartment and Draco looked as though he was about to pass out. Then, he shook his head, although clearing his mind, steadied himself against the wall and glared over at Harry.

"Can't you do this any faster?"

"No I can't. Since I have no idea what your psychotic father did to the portrait, I have no idea how to unlock it. I am trying to find out what he did at present so we can try undoing it. OK?"

"No it's not fucking OK. Hermione is in there screaming and I am stuck out here and I have no idea how the fuck I can get in and help her. I should know this. The only person better than me in the grade at magic is Hermione who is in there right now. But I have no idea what that twisted son of a bitch did to the door and hence I am forced to listen to her in there screaming knowing that I can't do anything. OK?" Harry looked over at where Draco was standing, his chest heaving, two bright spots of colour rapidly appearing in his otherwise pale face.

"Ron, try and find McGonagall, Snape or Tonks. They might know how to get around the spells. Draco, Hermione is going to be fine. There is no fucking way that I am losing her as well. I have no idea how to get around these spells at present. We need to weaken them." At this, Harry flicked his wand and a wave of raw magical energy slammed into the portrait. Draco nodded, showing that he'd understood, and he flicked his wand at the wall.

…………………………………….

Lucius had only been inflicting the Cruciatus curse on Hermione for a moment when something huge slammed into the wall of the apartment, causing him to break the connection. Hermione gasped and again pulled herself up from the floor. Lucius had been momentarily distracted by the repeated blasts that were coming from the corridor. What the fuck were they doing out there…trying to get through with a battering ram?

…………………………..

Out in the corridor, Harry and Draco could feel the lessening resistance to their onslaught of power and continued their assault on the wall. Two bursts of energy, one from each, hit the wall at the exact same moment and washed through into the apartment.

………………………………

Lucius felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up and in an instant knew what the boys were doing. He had to hand it to them, to get through his barrier, they had to be pretty powerful. He probably didn't have a whole lot of time, and there wasn't much point in wasting it strengthening the wards on the door. Instead he turned to face Hermione, his wand pointed directly at her heart.

"You know what? It doesn't matter where I point this thing. Two little words and you're dead. I could point it at your toe for all the difference it makes for you."

"Do I have to say it again? I love Draco. You can't kill me."

"I can. You love Draco. That much is obvious. He doesn't love you." Lucius watched with satisfaction as Hermione struggled to keep her emotions out of her face. There was the proof he needed. A flash of sadness, when confronted with the truth.

……………………………………..

"I can hear them, the silencing charm must be gone." Draco fell silent at Harry's words, straining to hear Hermione's voice.

……………………………………..

"Avada Kedavra!" Hermione's head thumped loudly as it hit the floor.

a/n: Hope you all liked this chapter. I'm almost done, one or two chapters to go (two I think). Didn't get 200 last time, this time would like at least 210….remember more reviews mean that I'll post quicker!