All Hermione knew was that her head hurt and that it was dark wherever she was. She attempted to move her hand in front of her face to gauge how dark it was. Upon that attempt she found that her hands were bound behind her back. Letting out a grunt of frustration she stopped her efforts. She decided to test out her voice, by calling out for Ginny.

"Ginny?" she whisper yelled into the dark. No response. "Ginny!" she said a little bit louder. This cause something or someone to shuffle on the other side of the room from her.

"Hermione?" Ginny's voice sounded hoarse as she responded.

"Thank god you are okay. But where the bloody hell are we?"

"In the viking's ship."

There was a moment of tense silence before a sob violently escaped Hermione's throat. Her family had finally escaped and was just now comfortable after escaping pillaging in her home village. Her parents and herself were the only survivors, as they were visiting family in another village.

Soon her sobs turned into sniffles and hiccups. Ginny had been trying to comfort her the best she could being tied up in the opposite side of the room. The door above them opened suddenly flooding the small space with light. This made Hermione's headache hurt worse as her darkness adjusted eyes were exposed to full sunlight.

The person who had opened the door said something in an unfamiliar language to someone next to them. After talking with the other person next to them the one that opened the door took the stairs two at a time. Identifying the person as a male, he strode over to Ginny and hoisted her to her feet. Forcing her forward and up the stairs out of Hermione's sight. Panic settled into her chest as they closed the doors.

Seemingly hours later the door opened and a woman came down this time to retrieve Hermione. She moved stiffly as she had been sitting on the floor for who knows how long. The still bright daylight assaulted her eyes.

It took a few moments to adjust but once her eyesight did she took a moment to look around. They were on a viking ship indeed. There was the crew milling about, talking, laughing, and drinking. Hermione was broken out of her stupor as she was shoved to the ground so she was on her knees again.

"You kneel for our Steersman you wench." the sheild maiden sneered above her.

A pair of leather and fur boots entered her vision as she had her head turned to look at the deck. Looking up her breath hitched. The Steersman was breathtakingly handsome, she hated to admit. Hell, she was supposed to be furious that she was kidnapped, but she grudgingly admitted that she was terrified as well.

He wasn't looking at her so she decided to take a moment to study him. His long pale blond hair was intricately braided along the sides of his head. The sharp features of his face were outlined by the black paint he had yet to wash off. He seemed to be tall and lithe, not a build of one that would be wielding any sort of weapon for close range combat.

Suddenly he looked down at her sharply and grinned. He had startling grey eyes and his white teeth looked as if they were ready to rip someones throat out. This made Hermione gulp and look away. She felt someone grab the back of her head. Using her hair they forced her to look up, right into his eyes.

"Well, look at you pretty. You'll be of great use of to us." The Steerman sneered in her face. Letting go of her hair he stood up from where he crouched. He stalked off to another part of the ship. Leaving her and sheild maiden that had brought her up. Again she was wrenched out of her thoughts as she was wrenched onto her feet.

The ropes around her wrists were loosened. "Don't you dare and try something stupid. You'll be gutted and thrown overboard before you could even say anything." the maiden hissed. All Hermione could do was nod mutely. "Now, lets go join your friend in the galley."

A few moments later Hermione was forced into what they called the galley. She spotted Ginny and a few other red heads immediately. They were all busy preparing dinner it seemed. When Ginny noticed her she waved at her weakly.

After getting a crash course in Norse cuisine Hermione was right beside what was left of the Weasley's cooking their captors next meal. It broke her heart learning of the patriarch and matriarchs demise along with Fred. Their reasoning for killing him was that they didn't want to have to learn to tell the twins apart and that he was too cheeky. She snorted slightly at that. Vikings didn't need a reason to off someone other than that they wanted to.

Hermione, Ginny, George, and Ron talked quietly amongst themselves as they were leftwith the cold leftovers that the others didn't eat. But their small moments of peace didn't last long. The group was ushered out onto the main deck. They were brought to the Steersman that Hermione had faced earlier. This time he wasn't alone. There was another man beside him.

This man's eyes stood out as boldly against the black around his eyes as had the eyes of the man she met earlier. Except his eyes were green and he had long black hair, it was shaved on both sides and braided. He had just about as much of a wicked smile as the other man, but his was framed in a thick black beard that was also braided. Both of them smiling at the lot of them sent a chill down her spine.

"Welcome, prisoners. You are now the property of the Black Tribe." The one with blond hair said. Saying the name alone made the hairs on the back of Hermione's neck stand up. She clamped her mouth shut to keep her from saying something rash.

"We will reach our home shore in about two weeks time. By then whoever is left will be welcome to convert, be our slaves, or die." The black haired man spoke. His voice was startling, not quite as deep as his companions, but still quite deep. Both men commanded authority, no not just commanded they radiated it. This caused Hermione's mouth to set into a deep scowl, along radiating authority they also radiated arrogance. She hated this so much more already.

The two men took turns speaking even though it seemed that the other was reluctant for the other to take over. Her interest was brought back to the conversation when the blond spoke once again. "How rude of us to not introduce ourselves to them," he paused to punctuate the weight of the sentence with a wicked grin. "I'm Steersman Wolf and my colleague, Steersman Reaper."

Her blood ran cold at the mention of those names and all of her prayers were shattered.