It's coming along slowly, I would like this to end up being a 40-50 chapter story so bear with me.
"Miss? …Miss? Are you awake?"
Someone prodded her in the shoulder. It was an uncomfortable prod, it pushed her shoulder blade back into a hard surface. Her head throbbed with dehydration and her limbs were heavy with a dull ache.
She opened her eyes slowly, the world was a blur and above her she saw a number of fuzzy faces peering down at her. She pushed herself up slowly and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She had been laying on a concrete floor, surrounded by a bunch of woman who looked very worse for wear. Looking down at her own hands she saw dirt and scabs. Her jeans, shoes and top had gone, replaced with a very thin nighty, it was badly stained and slightly too large for her.
Where was she? She had remembered the battle the night before, if it was the night before. A Death Eater had knocked her out cold, and taken her to this place. Upon looking around she noticed she was in a cage. There were identical cages around her housing more people.
Eventually she looked up at the person who prodded her, it was an older woman. Her face was heavily lined and her blonde hair was scraggly and unkempt. She also wore the same dress.
"Uh… where am I?" Hermione questioned. Her voice came out croaky and dry.
"You're at the prison, where all the Mudbloods, Halfbloods, Bloodtraitors and others are taken by you-know-who" She answered, she sat down next to Hermione. A few other women came and joined the huddle.
"What do you mean prison? How long has this been here?" Hermione started to panic slightly.
"I'm not sure, I've been here for three weeks now. None of us last long here, so none of us know" She looked at her sympathetically. "How old are you?"
"Eighteen" Hermione answered, distracted by her surroundings.
"Ah, well, you will be gone before long too" One of the other ladies piped up.
Hermione turned to her, she was also unkempt, she was slightly dumpier than the other lady, but not by much, they all bore the signs of malnutrition.
"Why?" Hermione replied.
"Oh we've been keeping track of who leaves, they always seem to take the younger ones first, not the children. But in our section and the men's section across. The elders get left to die and the children I guess are left until they reach a certain age."
"Where do they all go? And who takes them? Are they being killed?" Hermione blurted out, her eyes were wide in panic, she clutched onto her hands in fear, trying to stop the shaking.
"Ok, ok girl don't rush yourself. We have all day to get through your questions. Trust me, we do nothing but wait for one of the Death Eaters to come and take us away." She chuckled darkly.
"We don't know where they are taken, all we know is that they go up to the loft and never come back. Maybe they're dead, ha, that would be a lot better than most scenarios I can think of. This place is patrolled by numerous Death Eaters, there's no way to escape, we can't even climb these fences. The last person who did –" She shuddered "Well, they didn't die peacefully, that's for sure. You-Know-Who does not come here often, the place is mainly run by Roldolphus Lestrange. He gives the orders on the selection process, and it really depends who is on shift at the time. Although there's a new guy working with him, it looks like he's gone straight to personal assistant or something. What's his name Marge?" She turned to the woman looking questionably.
"I can't remember, he's too new for my old memory" She grunted.
"Young kid, blonde hair, sharp face" The woman continued.
"Malfoy" Hermione snarled.
"Yeah that one" She said "He seems to do a lot of the 'disappearing' so to speak" She shook her head at Hermione. "Seems he rose in the ranks fast."
"He's vile" Hermione spat.
"Oh, you know him?" She asked, raising her eyebrows.
"We went to Hogwarts together" She sighed
"Ahh, we got another from Hogwarts, arrived four days ago."
She turned around looking into the crowd.
"Hey, Hogwarts Girl! Come over to the front, someone's here to meet you"
The crowds turned to look at the small group curiously. There were a few murmurs and bustling about. Through the crowds, a head of wavy golden hair moved, getting closer and closer.
"Lavender?!" Hermione yelped.
.
.
"I-said-ORDER!" Moody roared. His real eye glared out across the room. His fake eye rolled around in his socket, crazy, like his personality.
"She's gone Moody! I will not calm down until she's back!" Ron yelled at the man.
"Sitting here yelling at each other will not bring the girl back you fools!" He snarled. "We need a plan and we need order."
The room was alive with chatter and movement. Molly sat at the table sniffing and dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief, she was being comforted by a solemn Arthur. Those that new Hermione well were at the closest end to Moody. Harry and Ron were closest, hunched over, they hadn't slept a wink.
Once they had returned to Grimmauld Place after their successful counter-raid they had waited patiently for others to arrive back. It was slow going, each group had their own losses and hardships to deal with; a number returned with plenty of nasty wounds.
Ron and Harry waited and waited. Finally Lupin returned, bloody and beaten he walked in and collapsed to his knees at the boys feet.
"She's gone" He had whimpered. "One of them disapparrated. I couldn't get to her, they had surrounded me, I tried. I couldn't get to her- I couldn't -I -"
Ron roared in anger and Harry stared in shock. What happened after was a blur, they had apparated back to the house with a number of Members. Searching amongst the rubble for any sign of bushy hair. But Lupin had been right. They had taken her, she was gone.
They had remained awake all night, discussing places she could potentially be held prisoner. Neither of them even mentioning the idea of death. It was too surreal.
"Constant Vigilance!" Moody boomed. Everyone jumped.
"Now, we can't rule out the possibility of her death" He declared. Molly gasped and burst into tears, Arthur and Lupin gave him stern looks.
"She's not dead" Harry stated, he didn't look up from the table.
"You don't know that" Moody grunted.
"She's not dead" Harry stated again, his voice rising. "I would know if my best friend was dead." He looked up at Moody with dark eyes.
"Harry says she's not dead. That's enough for me to go on. Where do we start looking?" Sirius piped up, he looked over at Harry and gave him a small sympathetic smile.
"So… what are we going to do?" A woman at the back inquired. The people around her murmured in acknowledgement.
"Not sit around bloody well wasting time, I hope" Ron muttered to himself.
Moody's magical eye stared down at Ron, menacingly.
"It is common knowledge that Voldemort's hideouts are under the Fidelius charm. We only know so far of Malfoy Manor, which has long since been unoccupied. However, we will muster up a group and deploy them to the manor within the hour." Moody ordered. A quill was dancing across a piece of paper in front of him, writing down everything he said. Its dark voluminous plumes mesmerized the younger members, lulling them into a sleepy trance.
"I think we need to get in contact with our insider at the Ministry. It's high time we infiltrated the Ministry with another insider. See if we can scope out the next plans, and hopefully convince a few to change sides." Lupin added on.
"Excellent idea" Moody replied. His quill scratched away.
"And of course, if any of you see a Death Eater. Nab him! We need an interrogation, and fast!" He roared. The room jumped again in fright. The tension in the room could be cut with a knife. The majority were still in shock that one of their best fighters had been captured. If she had been captured then how easy was it for any of them to be captured themselves?
Lupin and Moody jotted down a few more notes, murmuring to Moody occasionally. The crowd began chatting away again, various theories could be heard flying across the room between jittery and anxious members.
"How the heck did this happen?" Fred muttered, he had always had a soft spot for the young girl, her fiery attitude towards their wild endeavors had always been cute. She would look up at the tall twins with her rosy cheeks huffing and puffing about one thing or another and Fred was now sorely missing it.
"If I had known, if I had just known- I would've stayed" Ron brought his fist down to the table hard, making the group jump. His eyes were watering slightly and he looked down to hide them.
He never understood completely how Hermione had been so hung up on Dean's death, they weren't close at Hogwarts. Yet she carried the guilt like he was an ex-boyfriend. But he knew now, the guilt of being apparated out early was eating him from the inside, he wanted to vomit and scream. It wasn't fair that she had been taken.
"It should have been me that was taken" he muttered still hiding his face. Ginny put her arm around him and rested her head on his shoulder. Her face was red and blotchy and she hadn't spoken in hours.
"Mate, it wasn't your fault. Don't say that." Harry put his hand on Ron's shoulder "Hermione would not approve of that attitude and you know it." He said, looking at Ron sternly.
"You know he's right, brother" George added on, he looked at Ron sympathetically.
Ron looked up at Harry and then across the table where Fred and George sat, he recomposed his face from lost and helpless to determined.
"No, you're right. I've been like this all night. It's not helping her or me, for that matter- Moody!" He suddenly yelled out.
"What!" Moody barked back. One eye looking at Ron and the other still down at the notes.
"I want to go to Malfoy Manor for the search" Ron declared
"Me too!" Harry said.
"So do we" Fred and George said in unison, sitting a little straighter.
"Fine" He glared out at all of them "But remain alert, that house is full of nasty dark objects, if one of you gets bitten by an angry hat stand don't blame me."
The group of kids looked at each other grim but determined, Ginny huffed in irritation. She still wasn't allowed to go on any missions. Instead she had been staying at home practicing all the spells Hermione was teaching her. But now she was gone, and Ginny felt lost.
Moody compiled the rest of the groups to different suspected hideouts and the mission began.
.
.
The side door opened with a creak and Draco pushed the unconscious inferior out, they collapsed to the ground, a waiting Death Eater grabbed them and with a crack, they were gone. It was the third person today and he was quickly running out of steam. He had been at it for a week, at first he could only manage one or two a day, but now he was up to five and making good progress.
He stepped out of the room and into the commune. Roldolphus was again pouring over papers, he was a smart man. It was a shame his talents were left to the coordination of inferiors, he was worthy of Minister Status. Yet Voldemort thought his brains were better used here, and who was to dare question the Dark Lords motives.
"How'd it go?" Roldolphus asked as Draco sat down at the table.
"Not bad, I really need a pepper up though" He sighed, leaning back in his chair, he ran his hands through his long hair and closed his eyes with fatigue.
Roldolphus got up and grabbed a bottle of the shelf and slid it across the table, Draco downed it in one gulp and muttered his gratitude. His uncle looked over at him with a peculiar expression.
"What?" Draco asked, raising an eyebrow.
"You brought that Granger girl in the other day" He stated.
"So?" Draco challenged.
"You went to Hogwarts with her" He replied.
"What are you getting at?"
"Look you and I both know where our loyalty lies, and what we must do to cleanse the Wizarding race. But you went to school with her, and I know you used to talk about her at home." He peered at Draco, trying to pry a reaction from him.
"I am fine, and good riddance. She doesn't deserve magic" He spat, glaring up at the man.
Roldolphus looked at him apprehensively and sighed.
"Well okay, as long as you're good" He said.
Draco looked at him suspiciously. What was he on about? Roldolphus never showed and form of emotion unless it was towards Bella. Which was freaky in itself considering she was such a nutcase. He did not care for Granger, in fact he was glad she would be rid of magic. He always had hated that she beat him in every class. He wasn't far behind marks wise, but to be beaten by a Mudblood was downright embarrassing.
"I'm going to get some fresh air" Draco declared. Roldophus nodded but didn't look up from his work.
Draco walked downstairs and past the cages, people cowered away as he walked, a few children yelped in fright and ran from the edge of the cage. The news had spread fast that he was the main perpetrator of the 'mysterious' disappearances, thus women and men fled the edges of the cage when he passed, afraid they were going to be next . He smirked to himself at the power he now had over them, the way he could spread fear through a person created an adrenaline rush. He loved the feeling, he could only imagine Voldemort felt this but to a larger scale. No wonder he wants to rule the world he mused. As he began his walk down the middle he saw her, she was holding on the cage and looking out at him. Her hair was crazier than usual and created a halo of frizz, her thin arms and legs poked out of her flimsy dress. She really looked pathetic.
As he got closer, his heart stopped ever so slightly, it was those eyes. She was looking at him with such a fire he hadn't seen since Hogwarts. Those two large brown eyes swam with absolute loathing. They followed him up the aisle until he came face to face with her. He had stopped walking and looked down at her. The fence separating the two. She looked up at him, her expression unchanging. The inferiors in the cage had all quietened down and were staring at the two in curiosity and fright. His expression remained impassive. Her eyebrows furrowed slightly and her glare became stronger. Her unblinking eyes held him captured.
Suddenly, he blinked out of his reverie. He sneered down at her, throwing his harshest look of disgust he could muster and stormed out of the room. As he walked he felt her stare burning through the back of his skull.
He had a flashback to the day she had punched him in the face, they had been closer than this. Her eyes had bore the same loathing looking up at him. Her shoulders had risen and fallen quickly as she took short adrenaline filled breaths. He had secretly looked at her in awe, she was wild and majestic and despite the growing pain in the side of his face, her rage was mesmerizing. It was beautiful.
And for a short moment he felt guilt, guilt for taking her away from her friends. From her beliefs, from her life.
He hated it.
He hated her.
The story is really not aligning to the actual story, so at the moment just clear your mind of original HP. Reviews would be appreciated.