Chapter 4
"So this is what she looks like. No wonder the Dark lord wants her." Draco thought to himself as he watched the bright light surrounding Hermione. "You're hurt." said a voice that didn't sound like Hermione's at all. The light was shining so brightly Draco couldn't see anything. All he saw was an outline of a woman and she was getting closer to him. For some reason, he wasn't afraid. It was as if he could trust the woman.
She stopped two feet in front of Draco. Then she started mumbling something. Draco wasn't sure what she was doing but the pain he was feeling was gone. He got up and checked to see if himself to see if anything was wrong, but he was fine.
"T-thanks." Draco said trying to get a good look at the figure but the light was too bright. Draco wasn't sure, but he thought he saw the woman smile. Then the light started to fade away. He started seeing Hermione again.
He got to her just in time before she past out. He caught her in his arms and then picked her up, wedding style and placed her carefully on the couch.
I couple hours past before Hermione woke up. She sat up to see where Malfoy was. She saw him sitting at the table with his head down, probably thinking. "Glad your up, Hermione." he said without even looking up. Hermione stared around. "Where are they?" she asked. Malfoy finally looked at her.
"You don't remember anything do you?" Hermione looked confused "What are you talking about?"
Instead of answering her, he put his head back down. "What happened?" he heard Hermione say. "Nothing. Forget it. I'll tell you later," he said. He got up and walked over to the pile of bags. He took out his wand and mumbled a spell, which made their things disappear.
Hermione was getting annoyed. She never knew what was going on and she was getting tired of it. She made a loud frustrated sigh, which made Draco look at her. "I want to know what the hell is going on and I want to know now!" she said angrily. He turned his back on her. "I just transferred our school things to Dumbledore and I transferred our other belongings to where we're staying." He put his wand back in his pocket.
"We should be leaving soon. I don't know how they did it, but it seems that Aurora and Eric shut down the system in which only floo powder can enter. I guess it makes it a little better for us because we can apperate to New York."
"DAMNIT! Stop changing the subject Draco! Tell me what is going on." Hermione shouted. Draco turned to her and started to smirk. Hermione looked confused. She was just yelling at him so why is he smirking. Then he mumbled something.
"What? Hermione said trying to figure out what he said. "You just called me Draco."
Hermione thought for a second. Did she really call him by his first name?"
"You did it also when Aurora and Eric was here as well." Hermione thought for a moment but then gave him an angry glare.
"Will you stop changing the subject every time I ask you something?" she said angrily. He chuckled. "Sorry I couldn't help it." When he saw that Hermione didn't think it was funny, he stopped chuckling.
"Listen I told you before I would tell you everything when the time is right and it's not that time but before you know it time will fly and you'll know. But in the mean time, we have to go." Hermione looked at him in disbelief and folded her arms. "Why must you be so difficult to get a straight answer from?" he shrugged. "I like to keep people guessing." Hermione couldn't help but smile. "You ready?" Draco asked her. She nodded. "Then lets go." and they both apperated.
When they popped up, they were in a forest. "I thought you said we're going to New York?" Hermione said looking at her surroundings. "We are in New York."
"But I was expecting big giant buildings and lots of people. But there's not a person in sight and I can't see a single building." "Not every part of New York has a major population. Geese, Hermione. For someone so smart, you can sureas hell ask stupid questions." Draco said. Hermione rolled her eyes. "And this is coming from someone who doesn't even know about a muggle bank." She snapped back. He rolled his eyes and shook his head.
"What ever. Lets get going." he said and started walking. "Go where?" Hermione said and ran after him. "I dunno exactly where this place is, but I know that he Jason told me to go north."
"Oh great. We could be walking for hours." Hermione mumbled.
Draco ignored her comment and kept on walking. An hour past before he saw that Hermione was slowing down. "Can we please take a break?" Hermione said panting. He stopped and thought about it.
"I guess we can take a little break." and with that, Hermione pinned herself to a tree and slid down it. He sat down on the opposite side of the tree. "I'm so tired." Hermione said closing her eyes.
Why? You were asleep for a least 2 hours... he thought but didn't dare say it. "I think you should wait till will get to the base before you go to sleep." He waited for an answer but didn't get one.
"Hermione?"
He looked to see what happened and saw that Hermione was already sleep. He would have woken her up but she looked so peaceful and he didn't want to disturb her. He leaned against the tree again. Then he started to feel sleepiness overwhelm him. Then he started to doze off. It was long before he fell asleep. He was then woken by voices that seemed like it was surrounding him all around.
When he opened his eyes, his vision was a little fuzzy but he could make out a bunch figure wearing masks and they were pointing wands at him. What caught his attention the most was a scream that came from Hermione. He jumped up, but someone grabbed him and he couldn't escape from their grasp. He looked around. "They're not death eaters because those aren't death eaters masks. So they must be..." his thoughts were interrupted by a strong powerful voice.
"That's enough. Let them go." He said. Draco knew that voice but he couldn't tell where it was coming from. "Well if it isn't my old friend Draco Malfoy. It's good to see you. We were expecting you a long time ago." a man walked out of the crowd surrounding them. He took off his mask.
Hermione looked at the man. He was quite handsome. He was a little muscular than Draco was and he had a light tan. He hair was black and pulled back in a ponytail and he had hazel eyes. He was wearing a wife beater and black shorts. Hermione wasn't sure if he was good or evil but he seems to know Draco. She relaxed when she saw Draco was smirking. "Jason. Long time now see." he said and walked over to the man and shook his hand.
Hermione looked confused. "Um...Draco you know him?" she said staring at the two guys. Draco started to smile. "Yeah. This is Jason. He's the one who letting us stay with him." he turned to Jason again.
"Jason this is Hermione Granger the one I told you about." Jason looked at Hermione and smile. "Hello Hermione." he said and walked over to her. He gently grabbed her hand and pulled it to his lips and kissed it. Hermione smiled and blushed.
"N-nice to meet you." She looked at Draco who rolled his eyes. "What took you so long? We were expecting you hours ago." he said looking back at Draco "I know we got a little...err...distracted. I'll tell you later." Jason looked at the both of them and then nodded.
"Come now." Jason said. "We must be getting back. Follow me. Dinner is almost ready." He said and Draco and Hermione did as he said. Following behind them was the crowd of people.
They walked for about ten minutes before they reached a clearing. "Welcome to our home." Jason said walking into a campsite with Draco and Hermione following. "This place is huge." Hermione said, looking around at all the tents and people walking around. "Not as big as you think. I believe there are about 70 of us," he said.
"Carmen. Just the girl I wanted to see." a girl walked up to them. When the girl stood next to him, there was a huge difference in height. The girl was only up to Jason's chin. She had the same hazel eyes and black hair Jason didexcept it passed her shoulders and had brown highlights.
"Hey Jason. What's up?" she said. "I want you to meet your tent mate, Hermione." Carmen looked at Hermione. "Hi. I'm Carmen." she said and put out her hand. "Nice to meet you Carmen." Hermione replied and shook her hand.
Carmen turned back to Jason. "The food is ready. We can eat now."
"Great. I'm starving," he said rubbing his stomach.
"Oh please. You didn't do anything all day." Carmen said folding her arms.
"Yeah well doing nothing is work. It takes a lot of concentration to sit there all day. It can really wear you out." Carmen shook her head "Sometimes I just don't understand you, little brother." She replied and walked away.
Just because you're older than me, doesn't mean you're bigger than me remember that!" He shouted to her.
Hermione looked at Draco, who was smiling. "He acts just like you." Hermione whispered to him. "I'll take that as a compliment." he said and then grinned. Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Come on. There's some seats over here." Jason said and walked away. Hermione and Draco followed. They stopped at a long rectangular table that looked similar to the one they used in Hogwarts. The table was piled with a lot of different types of food. The three sat together Draco on Hermione's right, and Jason on her left. So after, more people started to come sit down and immediately started talking to the person next to them. "Hey, Jason. Who are all these people?" Hermione said looking at Jason who already had food on his plate. "Oh Draco didn't tell you?" Hermione stared at Draco who was paying attention to something else.
"No. He doesn't seem to tell me anything at the moment."
"Wow. It's not like Draco to keep a secret for so long." and started to eat. Hermione smiled. "You seem to know Draco very well." he swallowed the food that was in his mouth. "Yeah. Draco and I are really tight. We are like the best of friends."
"Really? He's never mention you."
"Just because he doesn't talk about me much doesn't mean that I don't exist in his life. It's just like you're not talking much of your best friends Harry and Ron." Hermione looked surprised.
"How do you about them?"
Jason chuckled. "Draco told me about you guys."
"Probably all bad right." he nodded.
"Yeah pretty much. But only because he was jealous that you had friends that truly care for you. Draco has very few friends and the ones that he hang out with, never really care for him."
"You know, it's not nice to talk about people who are sitting right next to you." Hermione jumped at the sound of Draco voice. She thought he was going to be angry with them, but instead he was smirking.
He looked at Jason. "So what exactly have you've been telling her?"
"Well the conversation wasn't about you, but your name was brought up."
"How reassuring." Draco said sarcastically. Jason just ignored the comment. "Anyway, to answer your question Hermione, all these people are somehow here because of the Dark Lord. Occasionally, a witch or wizard comes with a different problem, but it's most the Dark Lord who drives them here."
"So what do you guys do here?" Hermione asked "Well, there lots of things to do. Some practice dueling, others ride horseback. It's like a wizard summer camp."
"And you stay here all year?"
"Yes and no."
Hermione looked at him with confusion and he smiled.
"Let me explain. You see when we find a place that is very remote and is very hard to seek in the air. If we find a place that is like that, then we stay. But if we are to somehow be discovered by muggles or death eater, god forbid, then we must leave and find another spot."
"Wow I can't even see myself moving all around like that. I would feel like I don't belong."
"You get use to it." Jason said. "Hey Draco, can I talk to you for a second?" Jason said getting up from his seat.
"Yeah sure." Draco said and got up and followed Jason. When they were in a corner where no one could hear them, Jason started talking.
"Hey why the hell didn't you tell her about her special gift?" Jason asked seriously. Draco rolled her eyes. "Why is everyone asking me that? I think I know what I'm doing. She isn't ready to know yet."
"Or maybe you're not ready to tell her yet." He smirked. Draco was speechless. "What?" was all he was able to get out.
"You don't want her to know because you want to protect her a little bit longer." Jason said. "That is not true."
Jason raised his eyebrows.
"Oh really. Tell me Draco, how much do you care for her?"
"What are you talking about?" Draco asked nervously.
"I've seen the way you look at her Draco. God knows I've seen you with plenty of women and not one has got you looking at them like that."
"Whatever. I don't like her like that. She's more of a friend-to-be to me. That's why I'm trying to protect her. There's no way that I like her." Jason smirked.
"If you say so, mate." He looked at Hermione. "She's really pretty. I wouldn't mine having her. So you wouldn't mind if I go for it?" Draco looked at him with confusion.
"Go for it?" he repeated. "Yeah. Since you did say that you didn't like her that way. Why let her be lonely. I'm sure she needs a boyfriend. Or does she have one already, Draco?" He was barely able to shrug to the answer. "Oh wells. I can always find out can't I? I hope not, that would be a real let down. So how about it?"
Draco was thinking the entire time. He was trying to snag Hermione. No way was he going to touch her! But he couldn't say anything that would lead Jason to think that he like Hermione. "Err...I g-guess so." but Jason was already walking over back to Hermione. He sat down and started talking to Hermione.
"Damn! Okay Draco just calm down. Just remember, only two weeks with him and then we leave." Draco said to himself quietly and then walked back to the table to watch Jason flirt with Hermione.
When dinner was over, Jason got up and put his hand out." Come on Hermione I'll show you to your tent." Hermione nodded. "Ok." she said grabbing his hand and he pulled her up to her feet.
"Do you want to come Draco?" he said looking at Draco who had his head turned the other way. "Yeah sure why not." he said and got up. Jason let go of Hermione's hand and turned the other way.
"It's this way." he said and started walking, Hermione and Draco following behind him. Hermione glanced at Draco through the corner of her eye. She could tell that he was thinking but it wasn't his stern face like she seen on him before. It was like a confused face. A painful expression. "Are you ok?" Hermione asked looking at him.
Draco snapped out of his trance. "Yeah. I fine." he said. "You sure?" Hermione asked again. "Yeah. Promise." He said and looked at the ground. She shrugged. "If you say so."
"Here we are." Jason turned back to Hermione.
"I would expect Carmen to be back in a little. Your things should be there already. If you need anything, you could come to me." Draco shot his head up.
"Or Draco or anyone else of course." he said seeing Draco's expression. Hermione nodded. Jason smiled. "G'night." Jason said and reached out for her hand and kissed it as he did before. Draco looked at them with disgust.
Hermione started blushing. "G-goodnight." she said. She turned to Draco who still had his disgust face but quickly changed it to a smile as Hermione faced him. "Goodnight Draco.
"G'night Hermione." He said. She waved good-bye and then went into the tent. He stood there for a good while thinking about her. He didn't realize that Jason was already walking to the tent they were going to share with each other. He finally snapped out of it when he hears Jason call him.
"Come on Draco. Damn. I swear if you were any slower, you would be walking backwards." Jason said who was a good distance ahead of them. "I'm coming," he said. He took one last glance at Hermione's tent and then ran to catch up with Jason.
When Hermione went into the tent she wasn't surprised to find it wasn't a normal tent. It was like the tent that Hermione was in at the Quidditch World Cup.
There were black armchairs on the side of the small room and next to one was a bookshelf. There were two doors and one of them had Hermione's name on it.
She looked into the rooms and sure enough, her stuff was in one of the rooms right next to a bed with a nightstand with a lit candle on it. There was also a dresser to put her things in.
She left the room to see the rest of the tent. Then she heard someone come in. She went to go see who it was. "Oh hi Hermione." It was Carmen. "Hi. Carmen right?" she smiled
"Yeah." she sat down in one of the armchairs and Hermione sat in the other.
They stood in silence for a while. "So...how old are you?" Carmen asked Hermione. "Sixteen." she answered.
"Two years younger than me."
"How long have you've been here?" Hermione asked.
"About a year."
Hermione looked at Carmen. Her style in clothes was nothing like Hermione's. She had on tight dark pants with an equally tight white tang top, which showed her curves more, compared to Hermione's clothes that were very loose and covered her up.
"It's nine o'clock. I think I'm gonna go to bed. It's been a long day and I have to get up early."
"Oh ok. G'night." Hermione said. Carmen smiled and walked into her room. Hermione decided not to go to bed just yet so she got a book from the bookshelf and started reading for who knows how long.
A/N:
I hope you guys are happy that I'm updating more. But I must be the one to tell you that I may not update in a while. You see, I already have the chapters set up in Document Manager because I had this story posted before and I wanted to make some corrections, but being the stupid person I can sometimes be, I accidently deleted the next chapter. I'll try to type it again, but I've been really busy lately, trying to get my GPA backup to a 90, cause my mom is having a BF right now about it especailly because it's senior year and "high schools lool at your eight grade report card"at least that what she told me. Hopefully it'll be a little easy cause I know exactly what to write, soplease don't get mad at meif I don't update in about-say-a few months.
