Chapter 10
She kept pushing back her uncontrollable bushy brown hair as she clumsily arranged different flowers on the kitchen table. Her tiny feet were dangling just above the ground and she was humming a tuneless song as she rocked her head side to side. She giggled a little as she placed a yellow poppy in the center of her arrangement and again battled her hair with her small hands. The sun was setting outside the little kitchen window and it cast a long shadow behind her. After laying a red rose petal near the poppy, she hopped off the table and headed towards the front door with anticipation gleaming in her innocent child eyes.
"Daddy!" the girl squeaked. The front door swung open to reveal a man with an equally impressive matte of brown hair as the girl. The man, her father, laughed heartily as he plucked her off the ground and swung her up into the air. The girl screamed in delight and when the swinging was over she clung onto his overalls and refused to descend to the floor. She tipped her father's hat off his head and buried her face in his hair to whisper something. He raised one eyebrow accompanied by a warm smile extending from ear to ear. They both entered the kitchen together. The girl wriggled down her father as if he were a tree and found her balance on the floor. She skipped to the kitchen table and showed off her flower masterpiece.
"Ooh 'Mione, these flowers are very pretty!" her father said. The girl danced around savoring the compliment. A woman entered the kitchen with an armful of assorted vegetables. Father glided over to the woman and wrapped an arm around her waist. "But not as pretty as much wife here!" he declared. Mother laughed and gracefully twirled out of his grasp and laid the vegetables on the kitchen table. Seeing that her flower arrangement was disturbed by the veggies, coupled with her father's attention moving onto her mother, the girl pouted and crossed her arms. She stomped to a corner and squatted down looking determined.
"Oh ho, my little princess is being a little sulky today," father said. He jogged to the girl and hoisted her up into his arms. "Can she stand this though?" Father raised his hand, his fingers dancing individually. The girl's pout faltered for a split second but it was back stronger than before. Father slowly moved his hand towards her belly then suddenly started tickling her. The girl burst out laughing and father and daughter both melted down to the floor giggling.
It would have been a happy sight if not for the five intruders standing in the middle of this kitchen, their bodies slightly opaque and colorless as if they were ghosts. Draco stood his ground as he shifted his sight between the young Hermione, giggling and wrestling her father while the present time Hermione lay before him, twitching slightly with her eyes half open. She was also gray and slightly transparent like himself and the other three surrounding her. Young Hermione and her father rolled around the floor and they went right through their ghostly forms. They were unwelcome guests to this beautiful memory, invisible invaders of one person's deepest secrets.
"So this is the night Riddle is supposed to have captured her then?" Lucius said. "Can we skip this nonsensical scene and go straight to the point, Narcissa?" He turned towards the woman with white-gold hair. The very woman who joyously declared that she would be subjecting Hermione to possible insanity. Narcissa rolled her eyes slightly and sighed. "Nothing ever makes you happy does it Lucius," she muttered. "This is where the memory starts. You and I both are going to endure this nauseating scene."
Draco turned his eyes onto Snape. He was expressionless, bored almost, and was patiently waving his wand arm maintaining the Pensivitum spell. Then quite suddenly, the Grangers stopped their happy exchange. Hermione dropped to the floor as her father stood up slowly and her mother tightened her grip on her kitchen knife. The last rays of sunlight were disappearing rapidly behind the tall mountains that surrounded the valley the Grangers called home. A chill swept through the house and all the lamps and candles were extinguished. Everything was still. Quiet. Motionless.
"It can't be…" Hermione's mother whispered. Then a piercing scream from a distance broke the silence and Hermione's father quickly bolted the door. Her mother quickly tied up her hair and steadied her shaking hands, making sure not to drop her knife. Hermione eyed her parents nervously and slowly backed into a shadowy corner.
"RUN!" her father yelled suddenly. Hermione's eyes widened and her head whipped around to see her father being held in the air by a shadow. A shadow with glinting yellow eyes. Her mother grabbed Hermione by the arm and ran towards the back door. Hermione could feel drops of water hitting her forehead and she realized that her mother was crying. She looked back at her father, who was limp in the shadow's hands. Then, without realizing that her mother had stopped in her tracks, she crashed into her mother's back and fell onto the floor. Her gaze followed her mother's trembling legs up towards her face and saw another shadow right in front of them, blocking the back door.
With a barely visible swipe from the shadow, her mother fell onto her knees, her hand on her neck. A warm something was gushing out between her mother's fingers and Hermione could see it slowly soaking her socks. Her mother dropped the kitchen knife with a clang and held out one arm to shield Hermione. The shadow stepped closer and the moonlight hit his face. His dark hair fell lazily around his eyes, which was a terrifying, beautiful red. He opened his mouth slightly to lick his lips and Hermione saw the light bounce off two fangs that were protruding slightly. Instinctively, Hermione picked up the kitchen knife. The man advanced towards her mother and Hermione sunk the kitchen knife into his shoe. He didn't even scream. He simply looked down at her with those menacing eyes.
"Feisty," the man said. He kicked Hermione in the stomach. Hermione's body slid a few feet from the impact and she felt all the air leave her. Doubled up in a pain she never knew, she gasped for air. The man lowered his head towards his mother's face.
"Her-mio… don't… look…" her mother breathed. Going against her mother's last wishes and still gasping for air, Hermione watched in horror as the man buried his fangs into her mother's cheek. Her mother's eyes were wide with fear and tears were gushing down. Hermione could not break eye contact and neither could her mother. She wanted to look away. It scared her. But she couldn't. Drops of blood were seeping out from where the man bit her mother and it slowly mixed with her tears until her mother's face was no longer pale in the moonlight. Then Hermione saw it. The last hint of life leaving her mother's eyes. Half open, still staring at Hermione, but not really looking.
"Noooo!" Hermione screamed. She felt her body leave the ground and felt a warm tingling sensation in her chest as she floated a few inches off the floor. The man stopped feeding off her mother and looked up, slightly bewildered. There was a split second of silence. Everything seemed to be moving slowly. Then, she expelled a shock wave with a loud bang. The man was knocked to the ground. The kitchen table turned over. The windows all shattered. Her mother's lifeless body rode the shock wave and slammed into the wall. Then Hermione felt herself slowly descending to the floor. She could breathe again.
"A mudblood," someone said. It was the shadow that held her father earlier. The man stood up with a slight smile on his lips. "Don't kill this one." He told the shadow. Hermione's vision blurred and she felt all the strength leave her body. Her eyes closed as the man advanced towards her.
"And this is why we don't use a pensieve," said Narcissa, jerking Draco awake from being absorbed in the events unfolding before them. "Had we used a pensieve the memory would have stopped here. Stupid girl. We want to see the Tom Riddle when you aren't conscious." Draco watched as the man, Tom Riddle, crouched before young Hermione. Draco expected Riddle to hurl her body over his shoulder like a rag doll. But Riddle didn't. He sat in front of Hermione for a long time. Draco looked over to present time Hermione and saw that her body was twitching madly like a fish out of water. Her eyes rolled into the back of her skull and Draco averted his eyes. Perhaps probing into her subconscious will kill her physically. It would be nicer than losing her mind.
"What…" Lucius muttered. Draco looked up to see Riddle carefully cradling young Hermione in his arms. It was as if he were holding a sick puppy. Riddle's eyes lost the intimidating red color and briefly turned dark. Then, before any of the ghostly forms could say anything, Riddle disapparated.
(A/N: Sorry it isn't that long. But it was either stop here or go on for too long. Please let me know what you guys think through reviews ^^!)