OMG! I'VE BEEN FORGETTING TO SAY THAT HARRY POTTER AND AMISTHA ARE NOT MIINE! I DON'T OWN ANYTHING!

Thanks for reading and reviewing. Sorry it took me so long and the fact it's so short. I was having a big brain fart but hopefully when I get back from my vacation I will all set to give you a wicked long chap! I'll be gone for a week and I will miss you all! OXOX

Love,

ThexHallowsxGirl

Ch. 10 I'm not dead!

Xxxx

It had taken Hermione all day to find Draco. After freeing herself she had wandered around, not knowing where to start searching. Merlin must have taken pity on her because she found herself back where her and Draco had escaped from the water monster. Going in the direction she thought they had went Hermione prayed she would find Draco in one piece. She called out the blonds name every once and a while, not wanting to draw to much attention on herself. Just when Hermione was giving into her worst fears she heard a soft sob.

She pushed through the thick branches; Draco's name dyeing on her lips. Blood pooled and spattered in the ditches and trees. Two bodies were huddled together in a tight ball. Hermione could barley make out the familiar white, blond hair under the blood and dirt. He was sobbing into the mutated neck of the body curled into his lap.

"Draco." Hermione said cautiously moving toward the wizard. His head whipped around, cracking the bones with his movement. Grey eyes, red and water, widen when they saw her. Tears spilled down, unchecked. He whimpered, clutching the body closer to his.

"I'm so sorry." He whispered so softly Hermione was surprised she heard it. He started to rock, repeating 'I'm sorry' over and over.

"For what?" She questioned, inching closer to him, like she would with a scared animal. Hermione could clearly see that Draco's sanity was on the brick of collapsing. His pupils were blown, the grey-blue completely taken over by the black.

"I killed you. We were here, then not, she came and you died…oh Merlin I killed you." Draco pressed his face into the crushed face of the girl he was holding. Hermione could see how he, especially in the mindset he was in, thought the body looked like hers. The brown hair was cut short; she was wearing her shirt but other then that the body was wrong. Her hair was too light, she was too tall, the pants were the wrong color and she was to pale. Hermione was the opposite.

"Draco, that's not me, what ever you think happened, didn't. I'm right here. Alive and almost well." Hermione gagged when Draco looked up at her. His pale face was painted with the unknown girls blood and flaking flesh.

"No you're a ghost, you don't know your dead. Potter's going to kill me."

"Harry is not going to kill you because I'm not dead!" Hermione pinched the bridge of her nose. He wasn't going to lesson to her and who ever staged her 'death' and captured her was going to be back. They had to find that portkey more then before, is that was even possible.

"Draco, get up." He shook his head, rubbing his face along the bodies' ruined cheek. "Now!" Renewed tears rolled down his cheeks; the clear trails washing some of the blood away.

"Hon you need to find the portkey. You have to take my…body to my parents. Don't give up just because I'm 'cough, cough' dead. I'll talk to Harry if you're really worried about him." At first he didn't move. Seconds passed, minutes then finally he slowly got to his feet.

"Ok. I'll take you back to your kin. Come ghost of Hermione, we have to find the snake tree."

"What?" Draco shifted the girl in his arms making blood and flesh spatter on the forest floor. Hermione fought the urge to hurl.

"I just remembered. There was a tree that looked like a snake. It was next to the blue carrot." He limped past her humming a tune similar to rock-a-by baby. Out of shear dumb luck Hermione literally tripped over her wand when she went after him. Draco weaved through the tree mumbling and humming pointing out birds to her 'ghost'.

"I wish you were alive."

"I am!"

"I never did take you to the Caribbean, they have waves…"

xxxx

Hermione was flabbergasted. There really was a blue carrot. In fact there was a whole patch of them. A pure white bunny was gnawing on one when Draco and her pushed into the clearing. Next to the patch was a spiral shaped tree. The trunk was curled like a snake ready to strike. Browning leaves stuck out like a fan around the tree's top.

Draco gently laid 'Hermione's body' down next to the trunk.

"I need." He said plucking the wand from her hand and gave it a wave. The wood sparked but didn't produce a spell. The true sign of how far gone his mind is. Hermione was surprised how normal he was acting but maybe it was just that, an act. Maybe he was off the deep end but was hiding it, just like the Malfoy he was raised to be.

"Here, let me." She retrieved the wand and casted every counter protection charm she knew while Draco went back to rocking the body. Once the wards were taken down Hermione pulled Draco to the trunk. He stared at it, stroking the bark with the tips of his fingers.

"Father said there was a branch, what branch?" He murmured circling the tree. Lower lip pout out cutely then…wham! Draco slammed his head against the rough bark. Blood spotted the surface then sunk in, disappearing into the wood.

"Ah, that branch…" He said with a smile. Hermione really had no clue what he was talking about. The wood made a groaning sound. It uncurled, striating, revealing a trap down that lay under the bottom curve. Hermione levitated the body down into the hole, followed by Draco, then herself.

It was a small drop, mushy dirt squeaked under her bare feet. They were under the gardens now, the mud pathway lead further down into the earth. Roots and rocks tried to trip them and it was hard to see, they no longer had the lantern, only lumos spell to guild them. Draco's humming became more frantic as they went along. His thin body shaking with each unsteady step he took. "Sounds like a dragon, do you think there is a dragon, I hear a dragon" Draco said. Whipping his head back and forth. There was a faint roaring sound, like a waterfall or old machinery. The tunnel opened into a large chamber. There was no dragon but there was a waterfall. Perched above it on a pedestal of gold was a Spinks. The woman peered down at them. Her gold eyes narrowed at the pair and a twisted grin trenched across her thin face.

"Pass my riddle and you can move, if not I get to eat you." She flexed her paws, popping out dangerous looking claws.

"Miony! Look a lady, bird cat thingy!" Draco exclaimed, bouncing up and down. The Spinks uncurled her wings and hissed at the blond wizard. Apparently she didn't like the term 'thingy'.

"Shut it." Hermione jabbed him in the side with her good hand.

"Do you think I can pet it?" He reached out a hand but Hermione slapped it down. The golden woman was becoming more and more upset.

"If you could give us the riddle please." She settled down again, crossing her paws like a human would with their legs.

"If I say 'Everything I tell you is a lie,' am I telling you the truth or a lie?" Hermione laughed. That was too simple.

"It's a lie, you even told us it was a lie." The Spinks face fell. She nodded at them then flew into a small cave at the top of the chamber. Hermione took Draco's free hand and pulled him along as he protested about how he didn't get to pet the 'sort of kitty'.

Xxxx

Nott kicked the house elf in the stomach. It let out a soft 'ouf' but didn't say a word.

"How did she escape!" He roared, spittle flying with the words. The elf coward under his hands; trying to make himself as small as possible.

"Hippcy doesn't know …Master…Hippcy didn't see she was gone!" The elf cried. "Hippcy will clip his ears! Hippcy is a bad house elf! Very bad!" With one finally kick Nott walked away from the bloody lump on the floor.

When he had come back he had found the cell empty of the bitch it was storing. Nott's fine tuned plan was going down the drain. For the second time that Mudblood fucked up one of his ingenious plans to get Harry Potter and kill him once and for all. Well she wasn't going to get away that easily. Nott levitated the chains over to him. There was a smudge of blood on the metal. Just enough for a blood tracking spell.