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Chapter Four
Missing
Hermione spent a long, miserable night in her "Safe Spot" behind the couch in fitful sleep. She never thought she would have to find out what it was like to sleep when she was trapped in the house of one of the people she hated the most.
Finally, she could see a bit of golden light seeping in through the crack in the curtains. She crouched at the very corner of the couch, gazing intently at the door. As soon as Malfoy came in, she would bolt out the door and run like a madwoman – er, cat – to find the front door and get out. He might not even come into the living room, but it was the only good plan she had now…
She waited for a very long time, looking from the door to the wall clock and back to the door again. It was almost eleven before she finally heard voices outside.
"Mr. Malfoy, sir, Erkki has cleaned the dining room and the ballroom just as Master asked!" came the squeaky voice of what was, unmistakably a house elf. Hermione puffed up with anger at the thought of how many house elves Malfoy probably had doing all his work for him.
"Good, now finish the living room," Malfoy said. "I'm going out."
"Yes, sir, Erkki will clean the living room now, sir!"
In a split second, the door had swung open, just as Hermione heard another door close. The house elf, Erkki, came bounding in, carrying a large bucket of cleaning supplies. He immediately spotted Hermione after setting the bucket down a foot from her.
"Oh, Master has a cat!" it squeaked. "Erkki should take care of Master's cat, also."
"I can take care of myself!" Hermione meowed indignantly, hoping maybe house elves could understand her. "I'm not even a cat, I'm a human!"
"Oh, yes!" Erkki said. "Master's cat must be very hungry! Erkki will feed him!"
"Her," Hermione growled. Then she thought of something: if she just went along with it, then Erkki would let her go around the house, thinking she was Malfoy's beloved little cat, and she could find the front door, no trouble at all.
Erkki reached down and scooped Hermione up with his great, leathery brown hands. He walked out of the living room and into an even bigger entrance hall with marble floors and a grand stair-case. She had a chance to stare longingly at what was undoubtedly the front door, as it was the only one with a stained glass pane in it. Erkki then went into a swinging door that was back in a corner so that Hermione wouldn't have seen it if she hadn't been being carried into it.
This room was the kitchen, which was smaller than the other rooms. The tables and appliances were close to the floor. It was very warm from the kitchen fire and the food cooking on the stoves. Of course, there were about five house elves scuttling around doing all the labor. Hermione was so angry seeing them all she could've had an aneurysm.
Erkki deposited her on the floor, out of the way of the busy house elves. He patted her head, went to the pantry, and came back with a little dish of tuna. "There! Master's cat is fed! Erkki will continue cleaning now…"
He went out the door, leaving Hermione to stare at the pile of pinkish-white meat in the dish. She had always hated tuna. It smelled especially foul now…
"I'm not eating that rubbish," Hermione mewed. She left the dish and dashed out the door as a house elf was exiting through it.
She ran to the door with the stained glass pane, stretched her paws out upon it, and scratched repeatedly, hoping Erkki would come back and let her out.
It worked. The house elf emerged from the living room. "Oh! So Master's cat wants out!"
He stepped forward, unlocked the door, and held it open. Hermione darted over the threshold, down the stone steps, through the front yard decorated with carefully tended to, unusual plants, and found herself on a very strange street.
It was filled with houses which were just as large and fancy as Malfoy's. It would appear very normal, however, the road running between them did not look like a road. It looked more like a wide, old-fashioned sidewalk, and there were no cars on it, but a few people in strangely colored robes. One squat man stopped at the corner of the street and Disapparated right in front of everyone. Hermione deduced that this must be a no-Muggle neighborhood.
"Right," she mewed. "Now I have to find the Burrow…"
She looked left and right and tried to find something about the place that would tell her how close to or how far away she was from the Burrow. She saw some posters stuck to a lamppost and decided to look there.
As she approached, she saw that the largest and most noticeable poster there was a purple Ministry poster. The photo covering most of it was not of Bellatrix Lestrange or some other Death Eater, though – but of herself.
"What?" she mewed. Above it was the word "MISSING", and below was a small caption.
"Hermione Granger
Desc: 20 yrs old, height 5 ft. 4 in. (163 cm.), weight, 121 lb. (54 kg.), eyes; brown, hair: brown
Gone missing June 8th at about 0:27 PM; is unarmed; is believed to have been kidnapped by a Death Eater
Any information should be reported to Ministry officials immediately."
Hermione stared in dismay. Great, now everyone thinks a Death Eater is holding me hostage! …Oh, wait, I was…
She growled and tried to look for another poster telling her where she was. She kept glancing back at the photo of herself, which was from around Christmas and showed her grinning and happy. The exact opposite of how she felt after the incident with the Ministry…
Hermione failed to find anything that gave her any clue where she was. So now she had two options. She could wander the streets aimlessly, trying to find a way to the Burrow, or she could turn back and just live at Malfoy's house…
It was a lose-lose situation. In the end, though, she decided to go back to Malfoy's. It seemed he wasn't home very often, and at least Erkki tried to help her out… She could just stay there until she thought of a better plan…
She sauntered down the road back up to Malfoy's huge second story house. She scratched at the door unenthusiastically, and soon Erkki was there to let her in.
She went and hid behind the couch again, trying to nap, since cats couldn't do much else. She found it hard to sleep with hunger biting at her stomach, though… Hours passed by and Erkki moved on to other chores in the house. The living room was empty for quite some time before the sun began to set, and the daylight pouring in through the now open curtains changed to a honey color.
At that time, Malfoy came home. Hermione looked around the side of the couch at him coming in through the open living room door.
"Is the house ready for that party, then?" he asked, stopping in front of the door and staring off toward the corner where the kitchen door was. He looked as if he had more interesting things to think about than parties.
"Yes, sir!" Erkki squeaked, appearing in Hermione's line of sight. "It's all tidied up, sir!"
"Good," Malfoy said simply, heading for what was probably the staircase. Erkki disappeared from view, too.
If Hermione was going to be trapped in this house as Malfoy's pet, then she may as well do the Order a favor and get some more information on the Death Eaters from Malfoy. She walked out from behind the couch and wandered up the stairs.
She was now in a long hall filled with doors. She knew he must be behind one of them, but where would he have gone? She stopped at each one and listened for a brief second. Finally she came to one and heard muted talking.
"…she's the one that's wrong," said a young woman's voice on the other side of the door.
Hermione heard Malfoy sigh. "But how can she be? I – I didn't do it…"
"Can't you see? She's working for those blood traitors that idiot Dumbledore put together. She just wants to shake you up so she can get you to give in to them – "
"I still think she's right, Pansy. When I was supposed to kill Dumbledore that night at Hogwarts…"
"Draceeeey," she whined. (Must be his girlfriend, Hermione thought, rolling her eyes.) "Just forget about it! You are one of the best Death Eaters the Dark Lord has ever had, I know you are."
She says that like it's a big achievement or something. Hermione dug her claws into the carpet.
"Right," Malfoy said. Suddenly the door opened and Hermione found herself sitting right in front of Malfoy. Behind him was a girl with a round, pouty face, clutching his arm. Is that Pansy Parkin-son?! Hermione thought.
"You have bad taste in women!" Hermione mewed, frowning. (If cats could frown.)
"The cat!" Malfoy said, looking extremely disappointed.
"Awwww!" Pansy cooed. "You didn't tell me you had a cat!"
She reached down and picked up Hermione, who promptly began growling and hissing. Pansy ignored her and stroked her fur gently.
"What's her name?" Pansy asked. Hermione hissed again.
"Uh…" Malfoy started. Hermione thought he'd tell her he didn't know her name and didn't care, but she was appalled to hear him say, "it's Moggy. Isn't she cute?"
Ugh! Hermione thought. He's using me so she'll like him even more! She hissed again, but this time her anger was directed at Malfoy.
"She's adorable!"
Suddenly, they all heard a thud. Malfoy looked toward the staircase where the sound had come from. Erkki appeared at the top step, panting.
"Master!" he shrieked. "He's here! Forgive me! I couldn't keep him from coming in!"
Malfoy's face turned white. Pansy looked at him. "Who's he going on about?" she asked.
"Me," said a dark, drawling voice. "Mr. Malfoy and I need to have a… conversation."