Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Harry Potter, except those that clearly aren't from J.K. Rowling's stories. And since I expect anyone reading this by now to be a complete HP aficionado, I'm sure you'll know which ones they are.
Chapter 2 — Hostage
Hermione and Draco stared at the motionless body on the floor.
"Harry?" Hermione whispered. "Harry!"
She dropped to her knees and picked up the cat with trembling hands, shaking it lightly. "Harry, please don't be dead. Wake up!"
Slowly, a thin-veined lid slid open and a glittering green eye peered back at her. The cat's other eye soon followed suit.
"Oh, thank goodness!" Hermione gasped. "He was only stunned."
"What a pity," a cutting voice responded, startling Hermione, who had forgotten that there was anyone else in the room. "It would have been a delightful irony if one of the Golden Trio had brought an end to the Boy Who Lived. Would have saved Voldemort a lot of trouble."
Malfoy relished in the rage that bloomed over Hermione's face, delighting in the control that his words managed to bring back to him. His hands instantly stopped their quivering, though the girl had never even noticed them trembling. For one awful second, he had thought they really had killed Harry Potter. There was no way he would have been able to stay at Hogwarts, what with Dumbledore's murder shadowing him like a Dementor, and now Harry Potter's…. Not to mention that the Dark Lord would have been very displeased. He wanted to finish off Potter on his own, and had explicitly forbidden any loyal Slytherins from doing the job for him. Draco would have been an exile in truth, hunted by both light and dark wizards alike.
"How can you be so cruel?" Hermione growled, glaring up at the blond-haired boy. "Oh, yes, I forgot. You really are a cold-blooded killer." Her attention shifted. "Harry, no, you shouldn't move yet! There might be after-effects…." She ignored Malfoy as Harry, paying her no heed, jumped off her lap and stalked towards the Slytherin. Malfoy sneered and aimed a kick at the feline, but it agilely dodged his sneaker. Suddenly, it stopped; the sparkling of Malfoy's silver shoelaces had caught its attention.
"Potter, what do you think you're doing?" Malfoy glared as the cat began to paw at his shoe. "Get off me, Potter!" The cat, which was not actually touching Malfoy, ignored him. "What in the blazes is wrong with you? Desist!"
Harry's paw froze in the middle of a swat. The unnaturalness of his reaction caught both of the humans' attention.
"Harry?" Hermione asked softly. "Why aren't you changing back? Change back, Harry."
The cat just sat there. It lowered its paw and began to lick its fur.
"Obliviate…imperio…" Hermione's eyes widened in horror. She grabbed Harry's face with both hands. "Change back!" she ordered. The cat yowled indignantly and clawed at her face, leaping away. Hermione sat there, stunned, ignoring the two streaks of blood that were dripping down her cheek.
"He's lost his memory. And he must be under the imperious curse, which is why he listened to Malfoy," she exclaimed, thinking out loud. "As a cat, he won't be able to fight off the curse, and with no memory, he won't even want to."
Draco saw the full realization of what their spells had done hit the brunette. Just as suddenly, he realized what it was she had said.
"He's under the imperious curse? Awesome. Do a somersault," he ordered Harry, and burst into raucous laughter at the sight of the black ball of fur attempting to carry out his command.
"Stop it Malfoy!" Hermione said angrily, grabbing his arm. Instantly, his good mood vanished.
"Get off me!" he shouted, flinging her away. "Mudblood filth," he muttered, wiping off his arm where she had touched him on the skirt of his robe.
"I mean it Malfoy," Hermione said, for once ignoring the slur. "You know how dangerous it is to be Obliviated! And people can't stay in animal form for too long, or they start to forget that they're human. Without his memories, Harry won't know he's not a cat! Tell him to change back."
Malfoy stared at her. He opened his mouth to obey, then slowly closed it. "No," he said instead.
"What?"
"I…said…no." He smirked at the look of utter bewilderment on the young witch's face.
She stared at him, realization dawning in her eyes. "You wouldn't," she whispered.
"I would."
"I'll tell."
"You'll do no such thing." He pushed her against the wall, his wand pointing threateningly at her throat.
"What are you going to do? Hex me? I have faster reflexes than you do, and I guarantee you that any hexing I do will be permanent."
To emphasize her point, Hermione wiggled her wand slightly, drawing attention to where Malfoy's attack had caught it between their bodies. It was pointed at a most unfortunate location…for Malfoy.
Scowling furiously, he backed away, his wand still pointed at the girl. "You won't tell," he bit out, "because if you do, I'll tell Potter to kill himself."
"They'd stop you," Hermione began doubtfully.
"You know as well as I that they wouldn't be able to do anything. One second is all I need, and your precious Potter has just choked to death on a hairball."
Hermione's brain raced furiously. She did not doubt that Malfoy would make good on his threat. Perhaps it would be better to buy time. She could tell McGonagall, and together they would find a way to free Harry.
As if he sensed her thoughts, Malfoy added dangerously, "But just to make sure that you don't say anything…Expelliarmus!"
Hermione gasped as her wand suddenly flew out of her hand and into Malfoy's. She held herself very still. She was utterly defenseless.
Malfoy laughed, enjoying the sudden look of fear in the Mudblood's eyes. This was quite a…tasty…situation. But there were too many unknowns tonight for him to take advantage of it, and in truth he was still shaken from almost killing Harry Potter. He had better ensure the Mudblood's silence now — he couldn't risk having her blabber their story to some professor and getting him expelled.
"You will swear a Binding Vow," Malfoy said slowly, "that you will not mention anything even remotely connected with this night to anyone else, ever."
"A Binding Vow?" Hermione asked ignorantly, biding for time. The teachers' patrol should be coming around soon, and maybe if she screamed…but Malfoy would still have his one second to destroy the hope of the Wizarding world. She couldn't do anything.
"A modification of the Unbreakable Vow," Malfoy smirked, well aware of her dilemma. "You don't imagine that Voldemort would willingly give up his wand to someone else, even for a short time, do you? He created it." What Malfoy didn't tell Granger was that Voldemort had gotten lazy and stopped using it, due to the energy it required from both participants. The Dark Lord thought fear was enough to control his followers, and Malfoy knew that he and Granger would not even be having this conversation if Voldemort had made him swear it.
Hermione's face blanched at the thought of putting herself under a spell created by Voldemort, but she didn't see that she had any other choice — Malfoy was still holding her wand. "What do I have to do?"
"Nothing." Malfoy began to chant, a weird, serpentine language that reminded Hermione of Parseltongue until she realized, it was Parseltongue. He started to glow and several bands of white and green light began to wrap themselves in infinity loops around the two wands. They hovered there, waiting for the words that would seal the spell.
"From this point on," Malfoy began, his words reverberating around the room with a deepness not normally characteristic of his voice, "Granger will make no mention of any events associated with her and Potter's attempt," his lip curled as he looked at the girl, "to become Animagi or any of the events that happened between sundown and sunrise this night to anyone or anything not currently present in this room. Now, swear."
Hermione cast her mind around frantically, searching for a loop-hole in his promise. She couldn't find one. "I swear," she said at last.
At her words, the bands of light hovering over the wands contracted suddenly, seeping into the woods. Suddenly, two rays of light shot out, striking Hermione and Malfoy in the chest.
The two teens picked themselves up slowly. The room was dark.
"Lumos," Malfoy whispered, and a faint glow spread out from his wand, softly illuminating the room.
"Come along, Potter," Malfoy sneered, heading out the classroom door. Harry padded along after him. "Oh, and Granger," Malfoy said, pausing in the doorway. "This vow is like its predecessor in one respect – if you break it, you die. And, need I remind you, so will your precious Potter."
With that he was gone, taking the light with him. Hermione stood alone in the darkness, her chest heaving heavily for several minutes. Finally, she gathered her courage, if not her wits, and started back for her common room. A few feet from the classroom, her foot struck something, and it skidded away from her, bouncing off a wall and coming to a rest several feet away.
She walked towards it slowly and picked it up, her fingers recognizing its contours as one recognizes the body of a lover. It was her wand.
Chapter 2 Summary:
A duel of spells between Draco and Hermione leaves Harry in the body of a cat, without his memory, and under Draco's control. Draco binds Hermione to secrecy under penalty of death.