This chapter is a bit short… I had writers' block, I was trying to think fast. : P
Sweet, over 4200 hits! I'm hoping this story can beat my last fanfic, "The Note" (it had 106 reviews and exactly 15821 hits). So read and review my minions! XD READ AND REVIEW!
Chapter Eight
Field of Innocence
Hermione could not come up with a valid plan, but she knew that whatever strategy she chose, she wouldn't be getting anywhere if she didn't get Malfoy to trust her. It would be extremely hard to earn that trust, though… How many times had she bit him since she'd turned into a cat?
The best approach was probably to take it in little steps. But I don't have time for little steps… Damnit… She'd have to try anyway. It was the greatest tactic she had at the moment.
So, the next morning, when Malfoy came down the stairs to go out again, she walked over to him. She mewed, trying to sound as friendly as possible, but it was much more difficult then she thought.
"I'm leaving… Oh, what do you want?" he said, looking down at her scornfully.
I want you to go to… she began to think, but she tried to shake those thoughts away. Have to be nice… Be a nice little Moggy…
"Erkki, this thing's hungry again," Malfoy said. "Get it some food so Pansy won't whine about her 'poor starving Moggy' again."
He left, slamming the door behind him. Hermione stood rooted to the spot. Be patient. He's not going to be nice the first time around. Or the second. Or third…
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Hermione did not waver. She stayed faithful to her plan and every time she saw Malfoy, she acted like a total suck-up, even thought it pained her to do so… And, of course, Malfoy could care less. If anything, he seemed to be slamming the door harder every time. It seemed the only reason he kept Hermione around was because Pansy adored her.
When Malfoy wasn't around, she did her usual: trying to found out where she was, and what was in that book he had in his office. Who knew what other targets Voldemort had given Malfoy? Hermione knew that the answer was in that book.
New posters had finally been put up on the lamppost, but they were about as helpful as the old ones. The Ministry poster with her face on it remained up for a long time.
Then one day, she ran outside and went to look at the posters, and saw hers had been taken down.
And as she was walking back, she saw a copy of the Daily Prophet on the front step. In these days of Voldemort, a column had been put on the front page, announcing those that had died at the hands of Death Eaters. Hermione glanced at it, and her heart sank when she saw the name at the top.
"Hermione Granger
Missing, pronounced dead by Ministry on 16th of May"
"No!" she yowled. "No, I'm not dead! Don't say I'm dead! No, no, no!"
The door opened, and she saw Erkki standing there. "Moggy!" he said. "Master's cat must be hungry, Erkki heard Moggy crying from in the kitchens – "
Hermione hardly paid any attention when the house elf's leathery hands closed around her and raised her into the air. She kept her eyes on her name in the paper, which Erkki picked up also. She continued to read it over and over again, the whole time thinking, but I'm not dead…
Harry and Ron would read this, she knew they would, and so would Ginny and the Weasleys, and everyone else back home, and then they would give up looking for her… She'd never get back…
Hermione thought of all those times when she was young, in Hogwarts, all those times going to classes with Harry and Ron, how they'd been the only ones to defend her when all the other students thought she was a nerd, and the feasts and Halloweens and Christmases and the trips to Hogsmeade and all those adventures… The thought of never, ever going back to all that… Staying a cat all her life…
How much she wished she could go back to when she had gotten the letter from Hogwarts, found out she was a witch, become friends with them… When the days were filled with laughing and the innocence of being a child… A child who need not be afraid of Voldemort, Death Eaters, murders, being trapped and afraid and alone…
Erkki had set Hermione down by her food dish, piled with kitchen scraps, but she wanted anything but to eat at that moment. She looked at the paper one final time, as Erkki began to walked away…
And there in the top corner, she noticed a long, thin label.
"Draco Malfoy
Number 33 Selene S.
Rohesia, Great Britain"
"That's it… Rohesia, of course!" Hermione said, her spirits lifting. "One of the fourteen wizard communities in Britain, that's not far from the Burrow at all! I know how to get there now!"
She did not think of her incomplete plan to save Ginny, but jetted out of the kitchen and to the front door. She opened her mouth to yowl for someone to let her out, but a knock came on the door before she could say anything.