Chapter Two
At The Lakes Edge
For the rest of the day Hermione wasn't able to shake off Harry, and Ron. She was beginning to regret telling them about Malfoy's job. When she tried to go into the girls lavatory Ron almost followed her in. Luckily Harry pulled him back in time before the other girls saw. They thought if they left her alone for only a second that Malfoy would kill her then, even if they were in the middle of a crowded hallway.
That night she fell into bed relieved that boys weren't allowed in the girls dormitory. She was willing to bet every single one of her books that they would have camped beside her bed if they could. She smiled at this thought. Hermione was lucky to have two people that cared so much for her, no matter how annoying they could be.
She expected sleep to overtake her quickly, but when she laid her head on her feathered pillow she felt wide awake. The covers were stifling, but if she kicked them to the side a draft would chill her legs. She would have drawn the drapes around her bed, but with them closed she wouldn't be able to see anyone approaching her bed. She knew it was near impossible for Malfoy to turn up there, but she didn't want to take any risks. She didn't even lay her wand by her nightstand like she usually did, but kept it at her side like a security blanket.
With all her tossing, and turning Crookshanks who curled up at her side looked up at her indignantly many times. Eventually her cat hopped down to go in search for some lingering mice.
Her side suddenly felt bare. Fear was getting to her. Hermione shouldn't be scared. She had faced far worse things with Harry, and Ron than Malfoy. Malfoy was nothing to be frightened of, he was simply a schoolboy git, and he was not going to get under Hermione's skin. She was determined of that since their second year when he called her a mudblood.
She threw her covers off, and pulled on her school robe over her outfit she had worn that day. She would have put on her pajamas, but the fear over the day had become so deeply imbedded that she got the idea that she might need to run in the middle of the night, and she wasn't prepared to do that in her sleepwear. That last thought she clutched her wand, and left her dormitory. She was going to walk the castle, and she wasn't going to be scared. If she was going to die then she was going to die brave. She was a Gryffindor after all.
Hermione felt her pocket for her prefect badge. If she was to be caught by Mrs. Norris, or Filch she would have the perfect excuse. She was a prefect, and it was her duty to make sure no one was sneaking around at late hours... Like she was.
From the first time she walked the halls in her first year she had the feeling that the statues of the knights weren't simply there for decoration, that they actually did move, and she blamed them for the little noises that made her jump.
Get a hold of yourself, Hermione she told herself silently. She figured it was time to get out of the castle. She could walk the grounds. After the first nervous year in school second years were ready to start breaking rules. It was possible that some strayed out into the grounds. Yes, entirely possible.
Fall was nearing the nights growing colder. Hermione pulled her robe tighter around her. The wind blew unrelenting causing her hair to fly over her shoulders, and in her face. It felt wonderful, and in some odd way it refreshed her mind. Things didn't seem too bad. Malfoy was taking the task of killing her, it was only a promise to do what he had wanted since they first met each other. There was still a chance that he wouldn't have the guts to do it...
Hermione's thoughts fell away as she spotted a shilloute by the lake. She squinted her eyes curiously. She was out her on the excuse that she was searching for rule-breaking students, but she didn't think she would actually spot one. She started to march down the slight hill towards the kid.
"You're not supposed to be out here. What house are -" She stopped short, in her sentence, and in her tracks. The boy turned his pointed face around, and sneered at her. Malfoy...
"And what are you doing out here, Granger?"
Hermione shook herself out of her shock. It was just Malfoy. He was a spineless ferret. "I'm a prefect, Malfoy. That'll be fifty points from Slytherin. Get back to your common room before I take more."
He laughed, and her insides shivered. "Think you're all high, and mighty? The only reason you're a prefect is because of that mudblood lover."
Her hands itched to hit him like she did in their third year. "I'm warning you, you need to go to your room. Don't make me get one of the professors."
"Is that a threat," he asked coming dangerously close to her face. She could feel his hot breath on her forehead. "Don't make me feed you to the squid here, Granger. Then again, I don't think he would find a filthy little mudblood like you tasty."
Before she could answer, something dark, and long shot up out of the water, and wrapped itself around Malfoy's waist. He screamed horrified, and as Hermione jumped back as he was dragged into the darkness of the water.
Her mind reeled. Malfoy may have deserved it, but she wasn't about to lower herself to his level. There was no way. There was also the fact that if a life was taken in front of her when she could have done something, no matter who that life belonged to, she would never be able to forgive herself. So she slipped off her robe, and stood at the lakes edge, the cold water brushing over her toes. Then she ran in, slipping a little in the mud. Taking a deep breath she dived in, the iciness of the water shocking her.
Gloom engulfed her. She couldn't see anything. She felt the bottom weeds tickling her shins. She had the nasty feeling that water dwellers were watching her, and she sped up so as to give them little chance to get their thin fingers around her wrists, and ankles. She pulled out her wand from her pocket, and saying the spell in her head the tip of her wand lit. It helped very little, but at least now she could see the weeds she was feeling.
Unable to hold her breath any longer she quickly swam to the surface. She took a sharp intake of air into her dry lungs. Her arms, and legs were getting tired, but she dived back down again, and after a few feet downwards she saw a tentacle enclosing an unconscious Malfoy in its grasp. His head lolled from side to side, his hair swaying over his head, his arms hanging uselessly. She swam forward.
Hermione held her wand out in front of her, and concentrated on another spell. Bright light shot out from the end of it, and hit the squid's hold. She closed her eyes against it, and when she opened them the light was fading, and Malfoy was falling deeper into the water. She kicked harder rushing to him, and grabbed him around the waist. As she tried to pull him up she gasped giant bubbles floating from her mouth, and water entered her lungs. She coughed, and kicked again getting a little further.
Black dots sparked in front of her eyes. Her brain was losing oxygen, and she thought briefly of letting Malfoy go, and saving herself. It was a horrible thought, and she sickened herself. This was the right thing to do, and she was all about doing the right thing, it was what she based her life around. This is what she stood for.
Finally, right when she thought they were going to fall to the depths of the lake they reached the surface. She felt the wind blow, her face becoming numb, her hair plastered to the sides of her face. She tightened her hold on Malfoy, and swam to the edge. She felt her energy draining from her, and she wondered that if making it to the surface wasn't going to be enough, that they might just sink into the lakes depths.
When they reached the edge, Hermione dropped him unceremoniously on his back the water rippling underneath him. She fell to her hands, and knees, coughing up water until she was close to coughing up blood. She glanced over at Malfoy lying still beside her his school robe clinging to his slight figure, and she noticed that it didn't look like he was breathing. His chest wasn't moving. She didn't want to touch him, the thought repulsed her, but she pressed her fingers to the side of his neck searching for a pulse. There was one, faint, but he was still alive. She a finger under his nose, but there was no warm breath. She started to panic then. If he died she might get expelled!
Hermione steadied herself for what she was about to do. She tilted his head back opening his mouth. She looked in checking if there was anything lodged as she remembered from a class she took during last summer. She thought this kind of thing would come in handy with Harry, and Ron. She never dreamed that she would have to use it on Malfoy!
She opened her mouth, and pressed it against his breathing life into his lungs. She brought her head back up. He still wasn't breathing. She counted to five, and bent down to breathe into him again. She did this several times, and was becoming close to hopeless tears when he coughed. Hermione rolled him over to his side helping him sputter out the water. She was deeply thankful, and relieved.
Malfoy rolled over to his back, and looked up at his rescuer. His gray eyes rounded, and he sat up suddenly. There was a light blush over his cheeks, and Hermione tried very hard not to smile.
"Y-you!"
Hermione nodded. "You okay?"
He cursed, and scooted away from her like she held a deadly disease. "You put your dirty mouth on mine!"
"You're welcome," she muttered.
"Next time, mudblood, let me die."
She glared, and he flinched as though she was going to hit him. "Fine," she snapped. "If that's the way you want it." She stood, and stormed off. If the squid got him again, so be it. That would be the last time she would ever save his life! Ungrateful, spoiled little ferret!