Chapter 3
Hermione opened her eyes, to see the dark canopy of a bed she knew too well for her liking. She slowly raised her hand and felt her neck. The wound was healed. Feeling an all too familiar dread settling in her mind, she got up from the bed. She spotted Tom sitting on the windowsill, the moonlight reflecting off his pale skin. His eyes held a curious color, of red meeting silver. Hermione gazed at him. Despite his cruel and sadistic nature, Tom was beautiful.
"You disappoint me Hermione," said Tom, turning away from the windowsill. Hermione could no longer see his fair face as he had his back to the moonlight. Her hatred for him resurfaced. "I gave you the powers which no Muggle-born like you deserve. I gave you immortality. I gave you the chance to experience the pleasure that no humans can experience. I gave you my blood. Yet, you disappoint me." He slowly walked towards her, and Hermione reflexively got off the bed and backed away from him. This motion made Tom's eyes burn with anger. He grabbed Hermione by her wrist, and roughly pulled her to him.
"You are nothing but food," Tom whispered, grabbing Hermione by her hair and pulling her head back. "Yet I give you the highest honor of drinking my blood. And this is how you repay me?" he threw Hermione against the wall with his inhumane strength. Hermione fell to the ground and coughed up blood. It was meaningless to struggle. He was much faster and stronger than she was. Running would result in captivity and more pain, and fighting back would result in more injuries and blood loss. Tom walked over to her and pulled her up by her robes, and furiously forced his lips onto hers. Hermione could feel Tom licking every inch of her lips, savoring her blood.
"Please, stop," Hermione gasped, trying to catch some air. This little gesture of rebellion angered Tom more. He pulled away from her and slapped her aggressively. Hermione fell to the floor.
"You failed to kill that hunter, and have failed to retrieve the brooch," said Tom, walking towards the door. "You are to live in this manor now. Go and grab your things from the other manor. After that you shall not leave this manor without my company." He opened the door. "Don't even think about running away. I can find you. Wherever you are." And with that, he slammed the door shut behind him as he exited the room.
Hermione lay on the floor, crying silent tears. Her little piece of freedom was now gone. Gone because of that stupid brooch, and because of the hunter that just won't kill her. Then Hermione realized that there was no brooch. The Mindless was set free on purpose. Of course. It wasn't easy for anyone, especially a Mindless to escape from Tom's manor. It was all a plan, to punish Hermione for a crime that was set up, and to get a reason to bring her back to this accursed place. This realization made more tears well up inside her. She was Tom's food, his plaything, for as long as she could remember. And she was going to be his food, his plaything, for eternity. The only way she would escape this madness, this imprisonment, was to get killed by a hunter. Hermione wiped her tears. Yes, there was a convenient hunter, just waiting to kill her. That boy with pale gray eyes and white-gold hair. She stood up. She will run. Run like she has never run before. She exited the room.
How will she find the hunter? Or worse yet, how will she make the hunter find her, before Tom caught up with her? Maybe if she set a Mindless free, like Tom did? But where will she find a Mindless? Lost in her thoughts, she exited the manor, and found a carriage waiting for her to take her back to her manor. As she entered the carriage, she made her mind. She would turn someone into a Mindless, free them, and stay close by until a hunter appears.
When she arrived at her manor, she went straight to the storage. There was no point grabbing her things. She had nothing she wanted to keep, nothing that meant anything to her. She looked down the long corridor of cells with humans inside them. She hesitated. Who would she turn? Turning into a Mindless would mean death. Who would she kill?
She walked along the corridor, her mind battling furiously. She couldn't kill a person, she just couldn't. But then again, these people, they may not want to live like this. Hermione stopped, and found herself in front of Potter's cell. He gazed back at her.
"Why are you here?" he asked. "I'm not causing any trouble."
Hermione stared at him. Potter. She pulled out the key ring, unlocked the cell door, and entered Potter's cell. Potter backed away a little, alarmed. Nobody came into his cell before who wasn't about to withdraw his blood for food.
"Potter," Hermione whispered, feeling a sudden thirst inside of her. She realized that after losing much of her blood at the fight with the hunter, and again with Tom, she hadn't replenished her thirst. "I need your blood Potter," she whispered, approaching him. Potter frowned and backed away further, until the wall hit his back and he could go no more. Hermione had never bitten anyone after that horrifying night of biting that little boy with pale grey eyes. She had forgotten how orgasmic it had felt.
"What are you doing?" said Potter, when Hermione grabbed him with tremendous strength. Hermione felt instincts taking over her sane mind, and Potter saw her eyes turn red.
"Stop it!" Potter yelled. But it was too late. Hermione grabbed Potter's head and sank her teeth into his neck, and Potter felt a pain he had never felt before. Hermione sucked violently and felt Potter's blood filling up inside her. It felt so good.
"Granger, stop!" Potter yelled, feebly trying to push her away. His voice filled Hermione's head, and she pulled away abruptly.
"What have I done?" she said weakly, seeing Potter's blood running down his neck. Potter swayed, and grabbed Hermione's robes for support. "We must get out of here!" Hermione said frantically. She grabbed Potter, swung him over her shoulders and ran up the stairs, then out of the front door. The carriage was still there, and the footman stared at her, confused. She ignored him, and swiftly dashed out of the gates, and into the forest.
"What now, what now…" she whimpered. It was a stupid idea, turning someone to lure a hunter to find her. It was very stupid. Yet she did it anyway. She bit her lower lip, as she felt tears welling up inside her. What has she done to Potter? She wished that Potter had enough self-control to not turn into a Mindless.
"Her..mione," Potter said, shifting on her shoulders. "I feel weird… I cannot think straight. Put me down." Hermione closed her eyes as she halted. It was happening.
"'Mione…" Potter whispered. Hermione watched as his eyes started turning yellow. He wasn't going to make it. He was going to turn… turn into a Mindless.
"No… I'm so sorry Potter…" Hermione hugged Potter tightly. Potter grabbed her arms, and Hermione could feel his nails growing and cutting into her skin. She hugged him nonetheless. "Her… mi…one…" Potter growled. Tears dropped from Hermione's eyes and fell onto Potter's cheeks.
"Savage as always, you vampires," said a voice. Hermione turned, and spotted the hunter, the boy of her nightmares, the boy that she had bitten, the boy that now was a man and the one that Hermione had determinedly sought for. "Who did you turn this time Granger? Some helpless, innocent boy like myself?"
Hermione didn't understand this mockery. The hunter obviously hadn't turned. Dismissing this confusion, she hugged Potter even more tightly. She could feel Potter struggling to get out of her grip. He was turned. He needed blood.
"Let go of him," the hunter commanded. Hermione shook her head violently. The hunter sighed, and grabbed Hermione by her robes and pulled her up. Hermione aggressively pushed the hunter's hand away, and held on to Potter, who was scratching her arms. The hunter pulled out his whip, and quickly wrapped it around Potter's hands. Hermione glared at him.
"He'll be in better hands than yours Granger," the hunter said, and in a sweeping motion, he pulled on his whip and Potter broke free from Hermione's arms. Hermione was dumbfounded at the hunter's strength that matched her own, and watched helplessly as he rapidly knocked the now growling Potter unconscious.
Just then, Hermione came to her senses. Tom would know by now that she had run. It would be extremely easy for him to catch her scent, the scent that he had inhaled and lived with for all of her life. She grabbed the hunter's robes.
"You have to kill me!" she begged. The hunter looked at her with an expression of mild interest. "You have to kill me!" Hermione repeated. "Please kill me, and do Potter a favor and kill him to, please, kill us both! Before he… Tom finds us! Please!"
The hunter watched the begging Hermione, and reached into his robes. Welcoming death, Hermione closed her eyes, and waited for her body to burn, her soul to be broken, and her thoughts wiped clean. However, all she felt was a large amount of powder covering her, and a smell of herbs stinging her nose. Before she could open her eyes in confusion, the hunter grabbed her robe and started running. Hermione gasped at the speed. This was beyond the speed that humans could conjure.
Soon, they reached a river, where the hunter threw Hermione into. Speechless, she stumbled on the mossy rocks, and squeezed the water out of the now soaked robes. When she finally pulled herself together, she saw the hunter handing Potter to a heavily clad stranger, no doubt another hunter. The stranger and the hunter exchanged a whispered conversation, and the stranger hurriedly ran off into another direction. Then the hunter peered at Hermione, and swiftly jumped over the river, grabbing Hermione at the same time. He started running again, occasionally dropping a bunch of different colored powders behind him or to his sides. Suddenly, Hermione felt that they were going uphill, and sure enough, moments later they were on top of a cliff overlooking a dark body of water Hermione assumed to be the ocean.
"Where are we?" Hermione asked faintly. The hunter put Hermione down, and bound her hands with his whip. Hermione didn't object to this treatment. After he secured the whip, he walked over to the edge of the cliff and looked down.
"Don't worry about Riddle," the hunter spoke. "We're at least three hundred kilometers from him. I've also… scattered minor distractions so that even if he did track us, it would take him at least a day to come to this cliff. By which we will be long gone."
Hermione watched the hunter's silhouette contrasted from the moonlight that he was facing. His white-gold hair gleamed.
"Why didn't you kill me?" Hermione asked. The hunter did not answer. Instead, he looked up at the full moon. Hermione gazed at him, and when the wind softly blew his hair from his neck, with her good eyes she spotted the tooth marks that she had inflicted, thirteen years ago. The hunter seemed to have sensed her gaze, because he quickly rearranged his hair and pulled the collar of his cloak up further to hide the scar. Then he turned, walked over to Hermione and dropped to his knees to face her.
"My name is Draco Malfoy," he said. "And I can turn you back into a human."
(A/N: Is the story moving too fast? hmm.... Well, I heart reviews and constructive criticism! :D)