Labyrinth of Life

Chapter 8: Choices

By coeurnoir

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A/N: i know that this one is short but i'm still working on the storyline further on from this part of the story. sorry about the cliffhangers but theu just happen to be where my train of thought ends and starts planning the next chapter...

Please enjoy and please review!!!

Draco leant against the wall with Hermione's head in his lap. He gently stroked her hair from over her still face. She moaned softly and stirred. Draco froze and watched her face intently.

"Hermione? Wake up, please! C'mon," his voice was full of stress. He sighed in relief as her eyes fluttered open. She looked at him in confusion.

"Draco? What happened?" She tried to sit up but Draco motioned for her to stay lying down. "I don't recognise this part of Hogwarts." She was starting to look distressed.

"Hermione, we aren't at Hogwarts anymore. Somehow they made a port key work and take us somewhere else." Hermione looked frustrated at that one.

"How many times must I tell people, you can't do that, it says so in Hogwarts – A History! No transportation spells work on school grounds." Draco surprised the both of them when he chuckled.

"Books aren't always right, these people are experts at finding loopholes."

Hermione, feeling better sat up. Turning, she looked him in the eye.

"Which people Draco? Where in Merlin's name are we?" Draco looked her back straight in the eye.

"Remember how my father's guys caught me in Diagon Alley? Well, I didn't get away that time. They- ." He stopped short and looked away. Hermione lifted his chin with cool fingers. "What happened Drake?" without knowing she used his mother's nickname for him.

"They forced me to be one of-," he forced it out through clenched jaws. "They forced me to be one of them!" He looked at his forearm. Hermione saw the direction of his gaze and used her small hands to push up his sleeve. There, in dark ink was the mark. A grinning skull with the snake curling out, looking like a pox mark on his soft, pale skin. She let out a small gasp, her eyes filling. Draco pulled his arm away. In a hollow voice he continued.

"My father had me under the imperius curse. I tried to stop the words coming out of my mouth but he was too strong, he must have had someone else helping him with the spell. They locked me up afterwards, but they put me in my own room. The house plans were lost so long ago that only I know about the passageway that leads out of it. I escaped; I went back to Hogwarts early. I told Dumbledore that my parents had to go on a business trip so they asked me to come back early." Hermione had noticed that he was rambling she thought that he mustn't be mentioning everything. They must have been awful to him for him to be this out of it, she thought.

She pulled him towards her and just held him in a tight embrace as he stopped talking. They stayed like that for ages, until the door of the room they were in opened and a tall, slightly built man with long white blonde hair walked in.

"Draconis, I do hope you're cold." His smooth voice held venom in its words. Draco's father strolled into the room, sneering at his son and Hermione. Draco didn't let go of her.

"What do you want Lucius?" Draco spat. He was sick of the games, sick of the sick bastard that called himself a father. He wanted out, but how was he going to do that without Hermione getting hurt?

"Draconis, I wondered if we could have a private… chat? Please accompany me to my study, I'm quite sure that you know the way there by now?" Lucius gestured toward the doorway. Draco didn't move, tightening his hold on Hermione. Seeing this Lucius chuckled evilly. "Don't worry about your little mud blooded whore my boy. She'll be in one piece when you get back."

Draco looked down at Hermione, she bit her lip as she nodded and whispered that she'd be okay. He looked up at his father, "if one hair on her head is harmed, I'll kill you Lucius. She had better be okay when I get back to her."

"Don't worry, if you're good, she'll be returned to you in mint condition." His upper lip curled as he looked down at Hermione distastefully.

Draco stood up tall; smirking at the fact that he had grown taller than his father and as usual reminded him of that fact as he walked past him. In his fathers office he sat down before his father could even walk to his side of the desk. Lucius scowled at this breach of etiquette. He adjusted his emerald, silk robes as he sat. Watching Draco with an evil glare.

"I set your future for you Draconis. I make certain that you will never be found wanting. I arrange a perfect marriage into another high-ranking pureblood family, and this is how you repay me? By running off, making me force you to take the future that we fought so hard to give you? By running around with that mud-blooded animal they call a witch at that school? I knew I should have sent you to Durmstrang! At least Karkharroff knew how to control his students."

Draco said nothing. He simply looked into his father's icy grey eyes with contempt. Lucius stood and walked around the desk and walked to the bookshelf, running his fingers along the volumes there. When he reached a large blood red volume he paused and looked back at his son. Draco knew that look in his eyes. His face was completely passive. Most people would take that as a good thing. Draco didn't, when his father showed no expression he was at his most livid.

"You have only one chance Draconis. You choose here and now if you would like to return and become my son again. Your past… mistakes can be overlooked as teenage rebelling. You will sever ties with that whore in the dungeon and take your place in the ranks of the death eaters and honour your mark." His face was still expressionless, he watched Draco carefully waiting for his answer.

What was his father playing at? He knew that Draco didn't want anything to do with it? So why was he offering a chance for him to redeem himself. But then what would happen to Hermione if he did? He would get out of this the easy way but Hermione would probably be done away with. Looking up at his father he summed it up in one word, putting all his feeling into it.

"No."

Pulling his wand out of his robes Lucius went to cast a curse at Draco. Draco, knowing that they'd taken his wand from him at Hogwarts jumped up and dodged the curse. The door flew open and his father's two favourite crones charged in and they were all going at Draco until they finally had him on the ground, panting and not without their own collection of bruises.

Footsteps near his head made him look up at his father's sneering face. "Looks like you need some more persuading Draconis." His wand pointed at Draco and he knew nothing.