Okay, could someone please tell me what's wrong with this story? Since the last chapter, two people have taken it off of their favorites, and I don't know why. If I never get any critiques feedback, I don't know what's wrong. Please review my story, guys.
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"Where are you taking us? Back to the camp?" Draco asked as he was shoved along by one of his guards.
"Ha! You will wish that were the case when you do get to your new destination. Breendonk, Belgium." The kommandant laughed cruelly at the thought.
"What, exactly, is Breendonk?" Draco asked, unsure if he really wanted to know the answer.
"It's a prison camp. Actually, it was a fortress designed to protect Belgium from an attack from Germany at the beginning of the century. Glad to see that worked out for them," he laughed sarcastically. Draco was inwardly groaning at this new bit of information. They were being sent to a prison camp designed as a fortress? Escape would not be easy.
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They were taken to the local train station by their guards and placed in a boxcar with several other unfortunate souls. The doors were shut and locked, and they were forced to stand, since there was no place to sit. Hermione moaned as she balanced precariously between Draco and Elsa on one foot.
"Where did they say we were going?" Hermione asked.
"Breendonk, Belgium. It's an old fortress that they converted into a prison camp for the war," Draco sighed.
"Well, at least we're getting closer to England. Too bad we're going to be stopped about 12 miles short of Antwerp," Hermione said.
"Antwerp?"
"Yeah, it's a major port city in Belgium. Breendonk, if I remember my geography correctly, is about 12 miles to the southwest of Antwerp. If we could escape and make it those twelve miles, we could probably contact the British underground and escape to England somehow. The only problem with a port is that the whole North Sea, especially around England, is filled with U-boats."
"How do you know all this stuff?" Draco was rather impressed.
"You're not the only one with a bit of interest in World War II. I was just more interested in the Holocaust than the actual battles and weapons of war. A lot of it was just common knowledge anyway," she said airily. She looked down when she felt a tug on her sleeve. "Yes, Elsa?"
"Are we going to Breendonk? Breendonk is a bad place! There are never very many people there, but they have torture chambers, and they say the SS guards are extra mean because there are fewer people to pick on." The child's eyes were large with fear. Hermione felt her heart sink at the words.
They rode the last part of the trip in silence.
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Upon their arrival, the prisoners of the train were all shuffled onto large transport trucks like cattle and driven to the massive fortress. The gray structure with thick concrete walls and barbed wire fences looked gloomy and bleak in that early morning dusk.
Elsa, upon seeing the prison, burst into tears and threw her arms around Draco's waist. He was so startled that he put one arm around her shoulders and used the other to pet her head. He didn't want the girl to know that he was just as frightened as she was, and was actually somewhat glad to have someone to hold on to.
He glanced over at Hermione, standing next to him in the bunker. She was leaning against the side of the vehicle, her eyes shut and her face ashen with the pain in her ankle. She looked like she was trying not to pass out.
When the guards finally opened the door to let them out into the compound, Draco jumped down and helped Elsa down first, and then grabbed Hermione around the waist and lifted her down as gently as he could. He noticed her flinch at his touch and couldn't help but be a little...what? Hurt? No, it couldn't be. Well...maybe just a bit. He gently set her on the ground and put one of her arms around his neck and held it there while snaking his other arm around her waist to hold her up. They'd never finished the splint for her leg, and hadn't had time to find her a cane.
They walked to the middle of the compound and queued up with the rest of the prisoners. As they stood in line waiting to be issued sleeping assignments, duties, clothing, and get checked out by the doctors, the three took the opportunity to look at their surroundings. What they saw was not pleasant.
The open commons area was surrounded on all sides by a massive solid brick wall. Their only views outside were through the huge wooden doors leading into the compound. The commons was devoid of anything except a few sparse patches of grass and some older prisoners gathered in little groups watching the new arrivals. The last, and most horrifying thing that they noticed, was a platform over in one corner. From the center of that platform rose a tall wooden gallows.
"Name and age?" The SS soldier who was apparently checking in the newest members of this Hell had finally reached them.
"Huh? Oh. Uh...Hans Schmidt, 17," Draco lied, hoping the man didn't see through his obvious pseudonym. Fortunately, he just wrote the name down.
"Name and age?" The man had moved on to Hermione and Elsa.
"Gretchen Kuntz, 17 and Elsa Kuntz, 6," Hermione made up a name on the spot. Apparently she was going to try to keep Elsa with her by pretending they were sisters. The man merely wrote it all down and moved on.
"Well done, Gretchen," he smirked.
"Hey, it was your idea, Hans, I'm just playing along," she half-smiled back, but when she remembered their situation, she suddenly became grim again. "So, how do we get out of this one? This place is made of solid concrete. At least out here," she gestured to the thick walls.
Draco glanced around at the guards surrounding them. "Let's discuss this later, okay? I don't think it's a good idea at this particular moment."
She caught his meaning immediately and changed the subject. "What do you think it's going to be like here?"
"Hell."
"Great, I've never been there before. I'll work on my tan." Draco just frowned at her bad attempt at a joke, effectively shutting her up.
They were silent as they were given their bunk assignments, clothing and bedding, and they all headed off to visit their respective doctors. When they came to the doctors, Hermione finally got her leg in a very basic splint and was given an old cane to help her hobble around. This made her feel a whole lot better, but then they came at her with a shaving razor.
"Wha-what's that for?" she asked, her voice shaking with fear.
"You don't want lice, do you? Well you've got to lose that bush on your head if you don't want lice." And with that, they pinned her down and shaved off all of her hair. She felt so naked without her hair she began to sob. Elsa came up to her and tried to comfort her, but it wasn't until she saw that everyone, including Elsa, had been shaved that she began to stop crying.
When they finally put their stuff on their bunks (they shared a room with about ten other women), they headed back out to find Draco in the compound. Hermione finally saw him, but was stunned to see him without his white blonde hair. She knew everyone had been shaved, but it was still a shock.
Apparently he felt the same way when he saw her.
"Grang-...uh, Kuntz? Wow. You look...different," he said.
"I could say the same about you," she said, suddenly feeling very self-conscious.
"Well, at least they've got your leg in a splint finally," he said, glancing at her leg.
"Yeah. Too bad I couldn't get a cast, but such is the life of a prisoner, I guess."
"I just thought of something," he said, suddenly turning more pale than normal.
"What?"
"They haven't done a strip physical yet."
"A what!" Hermione couldn't keep the alarm out of her voice.
"Where they make you strip down and they check you over and rummage through your stuff. What are we gonna do when they find our wands? They're already starting to call people in," he said, pointing to a cluster of scared looking newcomers headed back towards the hospital ward.
"Bury them," Hermione said a defiant note in her voice.
Now it was Draco's turn to be incredulous. "What? We can't bury our wands! What's to keep others from digging them up?"
Hermione was already digging a hole. "What's to keep those SS men from taking in from you and putting you there when they find out what it is?" she shot back, pointing to the gallows.
"Point taken." He began digging just as Hermione finished and plopped her wand in. She was a very fast digger. She covered her wand up and moved to stand over the hole just as a soldier grabbed Draco and began dragging him towards the hospital wing. He hadn't gotten a chance to drop his wand in the hole.
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Okay, it's kind of a stupid ending to the chapter, and I'm sorry. However, everything that I've described of Breendonk is true. It was a fort turned labor camp and it had a gallows in one corner. It was cruel due to small numbers, and conditions were terrible. I'll get into more detail with the next chapters. Please review and send me any suggestions, comments or questions you may have. I respond to all signed reviews!