Menteur: Chapter 2: Meeting Malfoy

August 28, 1943

Her vision was blurry and her head spun violently causing a nauseating feeling at the pit of her stomach to push her breakfast out of her belly towards the esophagus. She closed her eyes. 1,2,3..she counted to ten before trying to open them back up. She could see her own hands and the water almost clearly now…Wait! Water? She looked around, still trying to adjust her sight to the blurriness. It was very dark, so she wasn't able to see very clearly anyway, but what she knew for a fact was that the floor was in deed covered in thin layer of still water. She could feel it soaking through the material of her tennis shoes making her toes uncomfortably cold.

"Harry?" Hermione whispered faintly. She waited couple seconds, but there was no answer. Everything was still and strangely quiet. She pocketed the broken chain and put Harry's notebook in her Infinity bag. Then she decided her sight was adjusted enough and slowly moved forward. She had no idea where she was or where she was going, but it would be too dangerous to simply cast lumos and look. That stupid enchantment Harry put on her time-turner must have transported her somewhere and with her luck it's probably Malfoy Manor, or Voldemort's current base! Stupid Harry and his crazy ideas!

She stumbled little more before her hands found something to hold onto in the darkness. She carefully swiped the palms of her hands over its sleek, cold surface. It was strange; almost like something was carved into the wall with a stunning detail. She continued searching the unknown pattern, moving up and down small bumps and wrinkled lines. The carvings were simple, long strips mostly flowing straight but curled on the narrowing end, almost like snakes'tails. She moved one step to the right to find where those carvings lead, until she eventually found a point of their seeming convergence. There all of them came together and forward, creating almost a statue like object. Longer she examined the place, more it reminded her of a nose. Actually, she was sure it was a nose and there was only one statue, which nose was proportional to the one she found- Salazar Slytherin. That meant she still was in the Chamber of Secrets, but what was all that water doing there? And where was Harry?

Hermione reached for the crack on Salazar's cheek, but when her hands finally reached the place where she remembered it was, there was no sign of it, just smooth marble. She checked the part of his head which was knocked off during the battle of Hogwarts. There it was, untouched, firmly attached to the rest of his forehead…Shit!

Screw all the precautions, thought Hermione and snapped her fingers for her wand to land in her hand.

"Lumos"

The Chamber of Secrets in front of her looked even more unwelcoming than before. Everything seemed cleaner and shinier. There were no cracks on the floor, no collapsed ceiling. The snake statues were standing to the perfection of their creator and the heavy metal vault door sealed shut. The young witch turned back to Slytherin's head. There was something else, outside of it being repaired, odd about it…

When the idea finally hit her she spun on her heals and sprinted as fast as she could towards the first possible exit. The last time she looked at the statue, the mouth of Hogwarts builder, was open. It was so since Basilisk left his nesting place through it to attack Harry in their second year and because it was impossible to close the secret door without its monster returning, it simply stayed open since then… and now it was closed! Hermione quickly crawled into the closest sewer.

Stupid, stupid Harry! The Chamber of Secrets, the water on the floor, the time-turner accident! It all was making more and more sense! She traveled through the time, but to when? It could have been anywhere! How is she going to get back? There were thousands questions running through her head at once and she was getting the feeling that the answers to them won't be in her favor.

She did not stop crawling until she reached the large sewer lit placed in an opening above her. She pushed it aside with all her might, squeezed herself out of the sewer and carefully kicked the metal lit back on with her foot. It was quite comical, Hermione though, that all the chamber's entrances seem to end in a washroom. At least this time it wasn't a lady's room, otherwise she might have suspected Salazar of some ulterior motives for building it. The curly haired witch played with the funny idea for little bit longer before she decided that the best thing to do, would be to leave Hogwarts as soon as possible. She was transferred in time, she knew that much, but the question was how far. Since the Basilisk was most likely still alive in the dungeons, it was definitely before their second year a.k.a. at least 10 years back…Hermione rubbed the sweat off of her forehead. This was going to be problematic. First she must leave the castle to ensure that she won't be seen by anyone from her time, and that way, manage to alter the future. Then maybe she could travel to the Ministry and ask for help at the Department of Magical Accidents. They might be able to help her out…

It was middle of the night, so Hermione didn't have to worry about any students crossing her path and has made it out onto the grounds in a record time. At the edge of the Forbidden Forest, she turned to look back at the castle and noticed somebody going towards the tall trees right behind the lake. Normally, she would not pay any attention to some students, strolling through the school in the middle of the night to meet their lovers or friends, but this one had a full head of platinum hair- the Malfoy trademark. His school robes flew behind him, as he rushed across the grounds. It couldn't be Draco, could it? Hermione's curiosity took over and she sneaked closer to where he was heading, finding an adequate hiding spot behind some ivy bushes. As he got closer, Hermione was sure that this was in deed one of the Malfoys. It was almost painful how much this one looked like Draco; picture-perfect pale skin, shinning blue eyes, high cheekbones with strong jawline and long, slightly pointy nose, this all framed by nearly-white hair. Hermione frowned, when she noticed how upset he looked. His eyebrows were furrowed together creating a petite wrinkle just above the bridge of his nose, eyes fixed on the ground, and hands clutched into fists. Hermione couldn't help but wonder what was going on and maybe it was her inquisitive nature, or maybe it was the thought of Draco, what made her follow him deeper to the woods.

It did not take more than a minute of sneaking behind this guy before he stopped. About 50 yards farther into the forest, in the small clearing, were standing in an almost geometrical circle five other male figures, all wrapped in their school cloaks, waiting in a complete silence. The blond wizard quickly joined the others. Couple whispered sentences were exchanged between them, when suddenly there was a puff of grey shimmery smoke and a person stepped out of it. The whispers died down as soon as the last person's foot touched the ground and everybody made a timid step back.

"How nice of you to finally join us, Malfoy" said the newcomer in a smooth voice. From her position Hermione couldn't see his face, but the tone of his voice said it all.

Malfoy, who had his back to him and therefore didn't see him appearing in the clearing, shuttered. He followed the example of other and kneeled down, bowing his blond head low enough to kiss the hem of his cloak.

"I'm sorry, my Lord" he coughed out without ever looking to his lord's eyes.

Voldemort? Thought Hermione, taking a closer look at the tall black haired man's back. He turned around in her direction and Hermione froze on the spot. This couldn't be HIM! The person in front of her was merely a boy no more than 16 years of age. True, he was quite tall, way taller than her, with angular features which gave him eminent aura of maturity and independence. One couldn't find a one flaw on his look; his thick black hair was brushed out of his face in a very classical stylet of 50s gentleman, making a contrast to his pale ashy skin. Although the most charming part were his eyes. Two black marbles were shining with dominance and cold logic, and yet graceful was the only word Hermione could find to describe them.

"We will discuss that later" said young Voldemort apathetically. Then he sharply turned to the rest: "I hope you have everything I asked for"

All boys nodded in union and pulled various object out of their capes and pockets. All of them got handed to the Voldemort and he carefully checked every one of them before putting them in his own cloak.

After all goods were transferred, the group took its original circular shape with dark wizard in its middle. One more time he looked his minions over before setting his gaze on young Malfoy : "Now, what shall we do with you, my friend."

"I'm sorry, my Lord. Professor Lawry's appointment took longer than expected. " answered Malfoy, kneeling again.

Young Voldemort crossed his arms behind his back and spoke: "Are you saying that you are incapable to handle simple time-management task?" He paused, even though he did not expect an answer.

"Do you still remember what your priorities are, Malfoy?"

Malfoy nodded silently with his head down.

"Really?" Voldemort raised his eyebrows as to mock the man in front of him "Maybe, I should still remind you."

He pulled out his wand and pointed it at Malfoy's chest. With one swift swing, Malfoy fell onto the ground shaking violently as the waves of pain washed over him. Hermione bit her lip. Fine stream of blood rolled down blonde's chin and his arms immediately went to his chest, where another bloodstain started to appear from underneath his green sweater. The young witch knew she shouldn't, but she couldn't let him suffer. It was too much.

She snapped her finger for her wand. When it appeared in her hand she touched its tip to her throat and whispered "AliquaAnimusFelix". This was a quite simple spell she learned from Lee Jordan. Only thing it did, it imitated a noise particular animal makes before it fights a projected it about 20x louder in a high pitched frequencies out of the mouth of the caster. They used it constantly at the Quiddich matches to announce the winner and she remembered covering her ears from skull-puncturing, highly annoying sound. It should distract them though, or maybe alert somebody in the castle.

Hermione, with her wand still pressed to her neck, screamed on the top of her lungs. The sound which escaped her lips was indeed awful. Instead of the Phoenix's war cry, that she intended, it sounded more like a car trapped in whale's breathing apparatus. But it got the job done beautifully. Voldemort interrupted his torture and looked cautiously around.

"My Lord, that's not a good sign! We need to go before somebody finds us!" panicked the short boy with long dark brown hair.

Voldemort thought about it for a second and then smiled victoriously as an idea crossed his mind. "Alright, BUT-" With a hand gesture he stopped two students who tried in a hurry to help bleeding and almost unconscious Malfoy up.

"Leave him here" he ordered. "He wanted to prove his worth, didn't he?"

One of the boys protested but was shut down with one single look from his master. After that they all cleared out.

Hermione didn't even wait for the Voldemort's little group to be far before jumping to injured Malfoy. One look and she could tell it was actually worse than she expected. There were couple minor cuts around his arms and face, which could be sealed with basic wound-sealing potion, but the large gash, spreading from his collarbone to his stomach, was making her nervous. The sticky blood was getting on her hands, making it difficult to undo buttons of his shirt.

The blond wizard let out a painful sigh, when she finally reached the wound. His eyes were still shut, but he was obviously still conscious enough to feel the pain.

"Woah, don't get up. You will make it worse." whispered Hermione, and pushed down on his shoulder to keep him still when he was about to get up. She did what she could; she patched up his wounds with a best healing charm she could think of and gave him blood replenishing potion from her bag. He refused it at first, but all his strength eventually ran out and he had no other choice than let himself be fed a whole dose of foul-tasting liquid.

"W-who *cough* who are you?" Hermione turned to answer and found him staring at her through half closed eyes. He tried to grab her arm, but missed in his delirious state by almost 10 inches. He probably can even see me form all that blood loss, realized Hermione relieved.

"A friend" she decided on the most appropriate answer to calm Malfoy's suspicions.

He snickered: "Well, nice to meet you, A Friend. My name is Abraxas Malfoeey…" joked blond before slipping into the sweet world of unconsciousness, leaving the speechless witch having to levitate him into the Hospital Wing.

To be continued...