I can't say Goodbye
Chapter 2. The Moment.
"Granger? Hermione Granger? Ah yes, such a sweet girl. Always came around during the summer and baked my husband and I cookies. We always looked forward to it. She was so lively and pleasant. But when we didn't see her around for awhile we asked her parents, and they looked at us as if we had three heads. They had no recollection of her. It was odd. I've seen her around a few times, but she isn't the same. After...well..."
Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear. ~Ambrose Redmoon
"What?" Hermione stood still, frozen in shock. "Are you sure she isn't here?" Grotesque images clouded her mind, and she shuddered. Now was not the time to have such thoughts.
"Positive. We looked everywhere. She went out into the field for something, then all of a sudden we heard a pop and she was gone." Ron cried. He was shaking terribly, Hermione noted.
She stood motionless, as fear began to creep up her spine. Ginny was missing, and if she was honest with herself; possibly never coming back. 'No' she thought firmly, 'Not if I can help it'. "What are we going to do?"
"I don't know yet. Come downstairs, Mum called for the rest of the order to a while ago." Ron replied. He turned and walked away, while Hermione stared dazedly after him. 'Ginny...where are you...'
She bent to pick up her fallen wand, warding off the tears that threatened to fall. Crying wouldn't bring Ginny back. They needed to come up plan as fast as possible. Whoever took her was definitely not on the light side. Time was of the essence.
Harry was waiting at the bottom of the stairs when Hermione came down. "Harry! Oh, it's great to see you! I didn't know you were here." She pulled him into a hug, soothed by his presence.
"I came as soon as I heard," He said. He sounded tired, broken...'Well Ginny is his girlfriend' Hermione thought.
Mrs. Weasley shuffled into the room at the moment. She had a way of hiding her worries that Hermione really admired. Now, however, she looked frantic and haggard.
"Harry dear, I'm so glad you are here. Come now, we have things to discuss," she gestured for them to follow her.
They made their way to the kitchen were a large ground of people were already gathered. Hermione recognized some from the Order and others she didn't. She spied Ron in the corner and made her way over to him; with Harry close on her heels.
"It's obviously Death Eaters who took her!" someone began "If it wasn't I wouldn't bother to be here." 'Jackass' Hermione thought bitterly. Wasn't the fact that Ginny was missing good enough for him?
"How can you be sure of that?" Another chimed in "We have plenty of other enemies,"
"What kind of statement is that? Whether they are Death Eaters or not, Ginerva is missing and even if it was 'another enemy' as you say, that's just as bad!" Hermione silently agreed with him.
"Is she really missing? She could have run away." Hermione rolled her eyes at that and Ron made a noise of deep disgust. Harry's face was completely impassive. Hermione gently patted his shoulder hoping he wouldn't suddenly lose his temper. He had a bad habit of jumping the gun when things didn't quite go the way he wanted them to.
"My daughter is missing" Mrs. Weasley's voice cut through the hubbub like a knife. "And all you can talk about are Death Eaters and running away. My daughter would never run away!" her voice trembled on the last bit. "She was here one minute and gone the next-,"
"Well there you go. She probably apparated to Hogsmeade for some candy or something. Were we really called here for such a foolish reason?" an older witch interjected. She was leaning against the door frame looking as unimpressed as one could look. Hermione blinked in shock, 'Who would say such a thing?' she wondered. She threw a scathing look in the witch's general direction. She looked almost looked like corpse. Her skin was an odd grey color; her face taunt, like paper drawn over bones. Her greying hair fell wildly down her hunched back, and she blinked bleakly at everyone out of dull grey eyes. Those eyes...Hermione couldn't quite place what she saw, but she could have sworn she had seen her somewhere before. 'But where?' she wondered. A moment later she shrugged it off. She would have remembered if it were important.
"Mildred! How can you be so insensitive? We are talking about the Weasley's daughter, and possibly a connection to Voldemort! Don't you care at all?" cried another wizard.
Hermione looked around the room at all the shocked faces, too shocked to say anything more. At that point Harry stormed out of the room without saying a word.
"Harry..." she called following him. She heard Ron racing after her. She finally caught up to him in the living room.
"They don't give a flying Frisbee, Hermione" Harry raged as he turned to face her. "Calling this meeting was pointless! We have to do this alone, we're ALWAYS ALONE!" Hermione shrunk back from his threatening scowl.
"We're not always alone-,"
"No Hermione. I don't want to hear it. Most of those people in there aren't even part of the Order. They don't care about what happens to Ginny! We need to be the ones to save her." Harry was adamant. There was no arguing with him.
"He's right Herm, we have to do this alone," Ron said. "They won't do anything to help." Hermione gave up after that. It was two against one, and they had valid points too.
"...Alright...Ron, can you show us the exact spot where Ginny last was?"
"Follow me," he said turning to lead the way.
"Okay so this is it then?" Hermione confirmed once Ron stopped. He nodded and scuffed the ground with his shoe.
Hermione looked around. She had no idea what she was looking for, but anything could help. Even a piece of thread from a cloak. After about an hour of looking around it seemed like a lost cause. Just as Hermione was about to give up she heard Harry shout.
"Ron! Hermione! I think I found something! I don't know for sure but look at this!"
"What is it?"
"Well, I don't know. It looks like part of a cloak or something, and I think this is hair on it!"
Hermione grabbed the piece of cloth from his hand, "Ginny must have really put up a fight against whoever took her if she managed to rip this off of their cloak!"
They all just stood there for a few moments, thoughts whirling through their minds. Maybe hope wasn't lost. They could find and save Ginny and at least they would be safe for now. "Also Harry, you said there was a piece of hair on it."
"Yeah, it's platinum blonde, almost white, and who do we know who is a Death Eater with that color of hair?" Harry sarcastically. All three of them knew exactly who it was without them even exchanging any words. The last time Harry had seen him was in the tower the night Dumbledore was murdered and he had hoped that would be the last. Unfortunately he knew it wasn't going to be, and now with Ginny being kidnapped by him, he would have to face him yet again. Draco Malfoy. He thought about what he would do when he saw him again. He remembered how it seemed so long ago that Draco had been nothing more than a playground bully. Now it seemed like he would have to fight him to the death. He let out a sigh and looked up at the worried faces of Ron and Hermione.
"Hermione, didn't you say onetime how it's possible to track people with just a piece of their clothing?" She smirked at him.
"That I did".
"So Hermione, can we please just go over this one more time?" Ron asked with absolute fear in his voice. It had been three days since they decided they were going to go to Malfoy Manor and snoop around, in hopes of getting information on where Ginny was. They received information from a few Aurors on where Draco would be within the next week. It seemed the whole world was against them, but they still could get some people on their side that they could trust.
"Okay, well, we are almost positive the Malfoy family has Ginny for who knows what. So I'm going to turn into Draco using polyjuice potion since he is going to be gone, and Harry managed to save the hair that was on that piece of cloth. They have a barrier around their home that prevents people to apparate in and out of it. We will apparate about a quarter mile from the house and walk the rest of the way, hopefully getting through the barrier. Once we get there, I'll go in through the main entrance, then Ron, you and Harry are going to take your brooms and sneak in somewhere above the house, namely a window or skylight. Harry you will be under the invisibility cloak while flying, then once you two get inside, Ron you get under it as well. Our sources said that Narcissa and Draco would be gone, leaving only Lucius there. So I will try to search inside the house, and hopefully won't be caught, but if I am I'll just say I forgot something. But after everything, apparently the Malfoy's aren't trusted by the Dark Lord as they used to be. So they will only be left alone for a few hours at the max, and if anything Bellatrix may be there as well. Hopefully none of us will run into her. Well we will go in for an hour, no more, no less. Even if we don't find anything about Ginny, as hard as it may be, we need to get out of there. We will go back some other time if it doesn't work out today. Our main thing is to keep you safe Harry, and I'm pretty sure Ginny wants the same thing too. So...are we ready?"
There was a silence among them, and it was almost like they were considering backing out. Before they could decide to Hermione picked up the potion and dropped Draco's hair into it.
"Hermione, are you sure I shouldn't be the one doing this-,"
"Harry no way! You are the most important person at this time. You can't be in the line of fire at this point. You will stick with the invisibility cloak so you can get out safely; if need be." Seeing that Harry was about to protest again, Hermione quickly guzzled the potion. This brought back memories of her second year, and it almost ended the same way. She stood up and started to grow taller. Her frizzy brown hair started to turn platinum blonde and turn so much straighter, but it didn't get any shorter. In fact it grew longer. She looked down and noticed newly formed curves, and couldn't help but notice her chest not getting any smaller either, but it got a bit bigger. She looked at Ron and Harry's shocked faces.
"What?"
"Hermione, I don't think that was Draco's hair..." Ron muttered.
"It was Narcissa's. It must have been on his clothes," Harry pointed out. He cracked a small smile. "How does it feel to be Lucius' wife?" Ron chuckled quietly at that, while Hermione glared daggers at him.
The trio arrived outside the mansion a little later and stared at the imposing building in awe. 'Well, here we go' Rom murmured to no one in particular.
"Good luck, guys. Remember, even if I'm not back within the hour you must leave. Do not wait on me. It's crucial that you stay hidden, especially you Harry. You're our only hope," with that Hermione strode through the front gate into hell itself. Of course Harry and especially Ron wanted to argue about that. They were best friends, they couldn't just leave her. But deep down they knew this is how it had to be. They just hoped their plan would work, and they all could get back to the Burrow safely with Ginny.
Hermione looked up and saw Ron speeding towards the top of the mansion. She wasn't sure if this would be her last sight of him or not, so she wanted to savor it. Leaving her parents was bad enough. Now she was leaving her best friend and the boy she loved, and it was just too much.
The boy she loved. That was a new one. Of course she had been feeling that for quite some time now, but she had never admitted it before. It was understandable though, given the situation. It was quite possible that she would never see him again. 'Oh I can't think like this. I will get out and it will be fine. We will get Ginny and it will be fine. We'll all get out, and back to the burrow, and we'll be fine'. Her constant repetition of said mantra didn't calm her in the least.
She reached the front doors, not knowing what to expect once she opened them. She took one door and opened it very slowly, trying not to make any noise what-so-ever. She peeked in and thankfully nobody was in the foyer. It seemed silly to be so timid, for if someone caught her, it would look all to suspicious, with her being so dodgy. She was Narcissa Malfoy, after all.
The shoes she picked out to wear seemed all too loud now that she was walking around in the long marble hallways. 'Who lives like this?' she wondered. Everything was, either: black, grey, or green. There seemed to be at least fifty candles lining the walls in just one hallway. However, even with the little flames, the house still had a cold, eerie feel to it.
The hallway Hermione was walking down had to be at least 100 feet in length. She passed around twenty doors or so, leading off into other rooms. All the doors looked the same. They were tall, elegantly made, and black. She wondered how they could tell the rooms apart; everything looked the same. Had the circumstances been different, she would have found the thought intriguing. Now, everything just seemed dark and gloomy; nothing more. 'I guess this reflects how cold this family can be.' Hermione smirked at her own thoughts, 'Family?''.
How did one define what a family was, anyways? In Hermione's mind, a family was a close knit group of people living in a typical suburban home; with a dog. The father was over-protective of his daughter and taught his son how to be a man. The mother held the family together and listened to the kids when they needed someone to talk to. That's what Hermione figured a real family was.
Take the Weasley's for example. They were a family. They stuck by each other through thick and thin, they loved each other. A perfect family. The Malfoy's weren't a family. They were just a group of people who were connected, and forced to live together. Who knew if Lucius and Narcissa really loved each other? Were they even capable of love?
She was so caught up with her thoughts she lost her way. 'Oh shoot!' she thought. She was supposed to remember how to get out of here in case of an emergency. She decided to just continue straight. The house had to end somewhere.
She came across a door that opened into a big room with only a chair and a fireplace. There was a fire going, giving the room an eerie feel.
Curiosity overtook her and she continued forward, eager to look at the chair on the other side of the room. It was small, like a loveseat. All black leather, but it looked as if it hadn't been sat in for ages. There was a book placed on the seat cushion. 'Ha! These people read. That's a shock.' She thought to herself as she picked up the book. Books had always been her weakness. Count on Hermione to be interested in them at a time like this.
"Ooohhh, Cissy. What are you doing back so soon?" The high-pitched voice echoed in the empty room. Hermione froze like a deer caught in headlights.
"Bellatrix...I was just leaving."
"Bellatrix?" she sounded perplexed. "You haven't used my full name in years." Her eyes narrowed. "I thought you left with little Draco an hour ago. You know you shouldn't be around when the Dark Lord gets here with the others. Didn't you say you didn't want to hear the screams of that filthy blood-traitor? Hehe," Bellatrix ended with a little laugh.
'Oh god...Ginny.' Hermione thought. She looked back up at Bellatrix, and there was such happiness in her eyes. 'What kind of person would take pleasure in torturing someone?'
"You're right. I don't. As I said I was just leaving. But I wanted to have a little word with the...filthy blood-traitor. Where might she be?" How Hermione managed to say that out loud was even a mystery to her. She was trying to be careful on how she worded things. She could tell that Bellatrix was already suspicious of her.
Bellatrix waltzed her way over closer to Hermione. Her wild black hair swaying and her black eyes narrowing with every step. "And why, my dear sister, would you want to even waste your time with filth like that? She is less than the dirt on your shoe. There's no need to waste your time on her. Just leave. The Dark Lord should be here. Any. Minute. Now."
Hermione couldn't help but take a step back with every step Bellatrix took forward.
'She knows. Oh god she knows!' Hermione was screaming in her head. "Well I was just curious..."
"Curious aye? Just...curious. You're acting...strange. Are you sure you don't want to stay here for awhile, hmm?" Bellatrix was less than two feet away from Hermione now.
"..Um no. I really should be going." Hermione tried to walk around, not looking Bellatrix directly in the eye.
"Hehe okay...if you sayy sooo" Bellatrix said in a sing-song voice. For a moment it almost reminded Hermione of Luna's spacey voice, but she could never disgrace Luna so much; comparing her to this monster.
"And if you must know," Bellatrix said suddenly. "That piece of dirt is down in the cellar of this room" She pointed to a door Hermione hadn't noticed before. Hermione looked out of the corner of her eye to see if Bellatrix was gone. She was.
Hermione started walking towards the door, but a wave of Goosebumps came over her. She recognized the feeling. Harry had described the way he felt after the polyjuice potion wore off to her.
Hermione looked at the door, and then back at the doorway leading out of the room. Should she leave Ginny here, and save herself? Was she even capable of that? Or should she risk the safety of both of them? Hermione began walking towards the door of the cellar when a wave of nausea washed over her.
No, she had to leave. The hour was almost up; she had no time left. At least she knew exactly where Ginny was. She could come back with Harry and Ron later. Bellatrix said that Voldemort would be here...it wasn't safe for Harry to be around and not know that. They could go back and tell the Order. Plus with twenty or more Death Eaters arriving here, they needed to leave.
Tears started to pour from her eyes as she turned to run out of the room, knowing she was leaving poor Ginny behind. She felt horrible. She kept on running and tried not to look back. 'Hold on Ginny. We will be back. I promise. Be safe. We will rescue you.' With tears stinging her eyes and blurring her vision she really wasn't paying attention to where she was going. All of a sudden she ran into something...or rather...someone.
"Narcissa. This is unexpected. I thought you and Draco left already? Have you been crying?"
The smooth, velvety voice she recognized all too well was talking to her. A hand with a black glove on it reached down, grabbed her arm, and pulled her up. She looked up to see the face of Lucius Malfoy. His words showed care, but when you looked into his eyes there was nothing; no concern, no worry, no care. Just. Nothing. But his grey eyes... Hermione's eyes widened. Grey eyes..."'Mildred! How can you be so insensitive?" The memory of the awful witch from the meeting came flooding back. 'No. It couldn't have been...'
"Narcissa? Are you alright?" The swarthy voice snapped Hermione out of her thoughts. It was then that she realized she had been staring straight into his eyes. For some reason she found herself unable to look away.
"Yes. I was just leaving..." How could she even talk? She hated this man with every fibre of her being. She was equally afraid of him too. All the while she was stared straight into his eyes. She knew she should look away but she couldn't. She couldn't get away with the way he was holding on to her arm either, so she simply stood still.
Lucius
'Narcissa...Well she's certainly acting odd. I haven't seen her cry in years, if ever.' He thought. He felt bad that she was sitting on the floor so he offered a hand to help her up. She just looked at it so he grabbed her arm and pulled her up. She didn't say anything, which was strange. But she seemed to be staring into his eyes, so he stared back. Brown eyes...
Narcissa never had brown eyes. She had the deepest blue eyes he had ever seen. They were beautiful, but this color almost put that to shame. He caught himself wondering about the color of her eyes a bit too long. This was never like him. Maybe Narcissa did have brown eyes. He didn't know. It wasn't in his nature to remember such trifles.
"Narcissa? Are you alright?" He asked in hopes of distracting himself from thinking about her eye color. She jumped at his words and he raised a pale eyebrow at her.
"Oh...umm, Yes...I was just leaving..." she said. Her voice seemed a bit off. He couldn't quite place it, but he knew it was different.
He looked into her eyes again and he didn't know what came over him. He pulled her into a gentle hug; flush against his body. He wrapped one arm around her waist and slid the other up to rest at the back of her head. He couldn't remember the last time he had given someone a hug like this. Even to Narcissa. There was something in her eyes though, that he couldn't resist. It shocked him, but he couldn't let go. He thought he should pull away but he wanted this moment to last forever.
He had never felt emotions like these before. What was making them arise all of a sudden? It would probably remain a mystery, and he was okay with that. He liked being emotionless; cold. He wanted this moment to end, but at the same time he didn't. All of a sudden she let go and pierced him with those eyes again. She looked at him and every emotion appeared in them; anger, sadness, hatred, fear. Then she walked off.
'What was that about?' He thought. He wasn't sure if the thought was directed towards his attitude or Narcissa's. He was just glad that the moment was over.
Hermione
Without warning Lucius pulled her into a hug. His touch made her skin crawl. She wanted him to let go, but found it almost impossible to resist. It felt as if they stood there for years, but in reality it was probably only a few seconds. 'Oh god, I'm still changing back! I need to get out of here....' Hermione thought frantically.
She pulled away from Lucius gave him a look of contempt; or so she hoped. She turned around and walked briskly, albeit calmly, away from him. Once she turned the corner she ran for dear life; her shoes clicking with every step. Why in the world did she choose heels to wear? She mentally berated herself for her poor judgment as she ran pell-mell down the long hallway.
She glanced down and noticed her perfectly straight blonde hair becoming brown and fizzy once more. Her heart was pounding in her chest and it felt as if it would explode at any time. 'Damn these hallways. Who the hell would want so many rooms in one house for three people?' she thought. All the hallways looked the same. They were all the same length, all the same amount of doors, the same amount of candles, and at the end of every hallway, you had to make a choice whether to go through the door, or turn the corner. How was she supposed to find her way?
She arrived in the foyer just her transformation completed itself. At least she was nearly out. She rushed up to the monstrous doors and pushed them open with all her might; relief rushing through her veins. A second later, it all came crashing down.
Standing in front of her, with about twenty other hooded people, was Voldemort. His red eyes caused a shiver of utter panic and terror to run up her spine.
"Well, well, well, what have we here?" He said softly.
It was over. He was going to kill her; she was as good as dead. He was here. Blocking the way to her escape. She could feel the wind, even smell the fresh grass. She knew this would be her last chance to enjoy it. Thirty feet, that was the only thing between her and her escape. But she knew she wouldn't get that far...