Harry, Ron and Hermione were under the invisibility cloak. Over the years they had all grown at such alarming rates, that the gesture was nearly completely useless in hiding all of them. It seemed to be more out of habit now, to throw it over themselves once more and walk through Hogwarts castle.
Hermione, who was still flustered and irritated by Pansy and Ron's abrupt interruption to her and Draco's dance, reached up and threw off her cat ears, discarding them somewhere on the fifth corridor they were walking through.
"You didn't have to make an ass out of yourself like that Ron!" She whispered to him from the middle of the cloak.
"You didn't have to dance so close to Malfoy! Or have you forgotten how he talked to me that night after the party?"
"You deserved to be talked to that way! You were man handling me like I was some sort of rag doll. I told you no, and I intend to keep telling you no based on how you've been acting recently!"
"Look Hermione, I don't know who you think-" Ron said, but was interrupted by the cloak flying off all three of them.
Harry was standing right in front of the Gargoyle statue which they would use to take the passage through to Honeydukes.
"Will you two shut up!" Harry said, holding the cloak in his hand and beginning to fold it up into his robes. "Ron, she had to dance with Malfoy in case you failed to notice. Besides, it barely lasted for two minutes. Get over it. And Hermione, stop encouraging his argument. There are more important things at stake tonight than jealousy!"
The music from the Halloween Ball fluttered up through the corridors and stairways as if reminding them that they were no longer apart of the innocent fun going on just a few floors below. They were all in danger tonight, and they would be lucky to make it out alive. They needed to stop bickering and start focusing.
"I'm Sorry, Harry," Hermione said, feeling ashamed. Not only were they acting childish, they were being loud and the first part of the plan was to not get caught. "This is much more important. Let's go over the plan again."
Ron refused to apologize, but muttered the password and shoved the gargoyle aside to lift himself through the entrance. Once they were all inside, Harry walked in the middle and relayed the plan to Hermione and Ron. Hermione worked to magic all the glitter off her as best she could. When they were ready they set off. The path was dark and full of damp earth. Hermione could have sworn she heard creatures above her but refused to light her wand, believing that what she couldn't see, couldn't hurt her. Ron lit the way from the front. They were almost to the entrance of Honeydukes when Hermione heard a twig snap some ten feet behind her and she stopped abruptly and turned to examine the nothingness.
"Once we're there we can start splitting up and start looking for…Hermione? What are you doing?" Harry stopped and turned, noticing Hermione wasn't following him anymore.
"I thought I…I thought I heard something." She said uncertainly, as she gazed into the darkness behind her. No one seemed to be there. She reached out her hand and grabbed onto air. She dropped her arm back to her side, looking puzzled.
"Are you sure it wasn't just the echo of my voice or something?" Harry said, looking as if he was about to investigate when Ron announced they reached the end of the tunnel from ahead.
Harry grabbed her hand and led her up the steps and into the Honeydukes cellar where Ron was holding the flapped door open for them.
"Is it weird if I still feel like eating all these sweets, even when I feel like I'm going to vomit out of sheer nerves?" Ron said, trying to lighten the mood, looking around at the piles of boxes with bright colorful candies poking out. Harry smiled, but Hermione refused to and began preparing for step three. She took out her wand and the picture of Malfoy she had found in his room. She studied it for what felt like the hundredth time. She held the image in her mind of the house he was standing in front of.
"He looks a bit sad doesn't he?" Hermione said, feeling Harry come up behind her to look at the picture. They needed to concentrate on the house in order to apparate there, even though Ron would be doing the bulk of the work.
"A bit. I reckon he always looks that way though, just with a bit of an arrogant smirk when we see him. You'd probably look like that too if you grew up with Lucius Malfoy for a father." Harry said indifferently.
"Didn't you catch him crying once?" Hermione said softly.
"Yeah, last year in the bathroom. He was stressed over Voldemort's mission to kill Dumbledore. Wouldn't you be too?"
"Of course." Hermione said. "I didn't mean it in an insulting way to him. It just gives some kind of confirmation that he's a human being."
"As much as a death eater can be a human being, Hermione. He might have not been able to kill Dumbledore, but he's still Malfoy, and he's still a death eater. You ready Ron?"
Ron turned from the other side of the cellar. He was picking around in a box of candy.
"What? Oh yeah I'm ready."
"Swallow your food before you apparate us at least. Otherwise you'll choke to death." Harry said slightly annoyed.
"I get hungry when I'm nervous!" Ron said defensively. "Don't worry, I can get us there in one piece. I've been there before and I've been concentrating on the Malfoy Manor now for a whole month. You both ready?"
Hermione nodded and grabbed Harry's arm, who grabbed Ron's. They all took a deep breath.
"Okay." Ron said, his eyes shut tight and his breathing steadied. "One, Two, THREE!"
On one, Hermione straightened herself up. On two, she gasped when a box shifted in front of her and a dark black dress shoe peaked out behind it. And on three Hermione quickly shut her eyes and turned on the spot thinking distinctly of the picture of the Malfoy Manor.
Hermione felt herself spinning, but refused to open her eyes. She could feel Harry to her left and her hand on his arm. She held on tighter. The entire world was spinning and all she could do was try and hold the picture of the Malfoy Manor in her mind. Finally, the spinning stopped and they all landed unglamorously on the front lawn of the Malfoy Manor.
In the picture, the Malfoy Manor was beautiful and cream colored, with what looked like a full six floors all with long draping windows to leave the light to shine through on its own. The grass was a luscious green and there were gardens to the left of it in full bloom, and a small lake to the right.
Tonight the manor looked dead. The white color was still painted on, but it looked darker and more frightening in the dead of the night. No light was shining in or out, only one glowing light emitted from one of the downstairs windows.
"That must be a dining room or something. It looks like they left a fire going, but it's not very bright. I bet no one is up, it's nearly midnight." Harry said getting to his feet.
"It doesn't look very populated, does it?" Hermione said wearily. She was afraid that they had been using the manor as Voldemort headquarters. It was possible that they still were, but that Voldemort and most of the death eaters were not currently around.
"No, not at all." Ron said nervously. They had assumed it would be a good thing if Voldemort and the death eaters were not present. But the eerie emptiness of the house seemed to make going inside a more pressing affair.
"Shall we?" Harry said, looking over at the two. He could hardly make out their faces in the clouded moonlight. They both looked frightened, but determined.
"Let's do it." Hermione said, taking the first step forward up the sloping green lawn toward the front door. She heard the other two trailing behind her and her strides looked braver than they felt. She paused when they reached the large wooden oak front door.
"I feel like there should be muggle security alarms and cameras or something…" Harry said looking around. It seemed as if no one had noticed that Harry Potter himself just marched up to the front door of Voldemort headquarters.
"Okay, stick to the plan. I'll go in the basement, Harry you check the first floor, and Hermione you take the second. When we're done we'll come help you with the upper floors." Ron said seriously.
"If anything happens, get out while you can. Don't be a hero." Hermione said, directing this specifically to Harry who seemed to always have the hero complex going. If anyone was going to walk out of that building alive, it was important that it was Harry.
"In and out." Harry said determined. He pulled out his wand and whispered a simple alohomora. The door clicked and the large wooden frame creaked open into the complete darkness of the entry way.
The trio stepped inside and all three lit their wands. There was no sound in the entire manor.
"That was…anticlimactic?" Hermione said, sounding uneasy.
"Definitely. I expected intruder alarms to go off." Harry said.
"Well the Malfoy's are a bit thick. Let's get to it then, we don't have much time." Ron said, putting on a brave face and trying a door to the left which led down to the lower area of the manor. Harry and Hermione stayed just a second longer.
"Harry, this doesn't feel right. I've never read about a wizard house, especially a dark wizard's house, to not have some kind of intruder charm…" Hermione said peering around for anything unusual.
"I agree. I bet it's a silent charm then, so we better hurry. You take the first floor up and I'll check out the kitchen and dining area. I'll meet you up there in a second. Be safe. And remember if anything happens to apparate back as soon as you can." Harry said, moving to the right door which she assumed led into the main living area.
Hermione took a deep breath and started up the white carpeted staircase in front of her. She managed the first floor without incident. It was comprised of five different guest rooms all lavished and fully stocked. Each one impressed her in a different way. She checked every closet, drawer, under and around each bed, and fully checked each bathroom. Nothing out of the ordinary, and certainly no jeweled cups of Hufflepuff.
Hermione decided to head up to the second floor, which looked just the same as the first, but with only three rooms. She peered in the first one and nearly died at recognizing it as Lucius's and Narcissa's. Once she realized they were not inside of it, her fear died down. It seemed as if everyone was gone from the Malfoy Manor that evening. She could tell it was their room because it was the most magnificent one she'd seen so far. The bed was huge, seeming to give the couple enough room to sleep apart without being disturbed. The sheets were a deep silk and the bed was covered with pillows. The art on the walls looked expensive and the bathroom was larger than the Gryffindor common room. And still, there was no cup of Hufflepuffs. Not that she was surprised. Hermione assumed that Lucius would keep something like that in a vault, most likely in a den or study of some kind. Still, they needed to check the entire house.
With that thought, she exited the room and moved to the door at the end of the hall. She opened one side of the double doors and quietly crept inside. This was Draco Malfoy's room. Hermione imagined his room would be covered in silver and green boasting his house colors or some kind of family tree symbolizing his pure blood status. She was surprised to find a very plain room in front of her. It was still a ridiculously huge room, and the bed and sheets themselves must have cost a fortune but still there was no decoration or any indication that it was Draco's room besides having his name on the door itself. She went over to the bed and ran her fingers over the black comforter, aimlessly letting her eyes wander.
Hermione felt herself pulled to the room, just knowing it was Draco's. The feeling scared her. Ever since the beginning of the year, something in the boy had drawn Hermione to him. He saved her life. He seemed at times to be a completely different person than the Draco she had grown up knowing. He was dark and mysterious, something Hermione wasn't. Actually, he was everything she wasn't. She was a good person, he was not. But Hermione still couldn't help but search for something good inside of him. After all, a completely evil death eater wouldn't spare a mudblood life for no reason, right?
Hermione was just beginning to go through some desk drawers in Draco's room when she heard a shout from downstairs.
"GET OFF ME! Ron, run!" It was Harry and he was in trouble. They must have been found.
Hermione panicked, unsure of what to do. She heard distant fighting coming from downstairs that hadn't quite reached the stairs yet. Should she apparate? Run away? Go fight? Harry had told her to get back to Hogsmead at the first sign of trouble, but she was still standing in a trance unsure of what to do. Finally, the Gryffindor in her made her grip her wand more firmly and head towards the door. She almost reached it when she heard quick footsteps coming up the stairs and down the corridor. With a quick decision made, Hermione ran back into the room and slid quietly under Draco Malfoy's bed to hide, quietly extinguishing the light on her wand.
She only had a few seconds to cup her hand over her mouth and quiet her breathing before the door slowly creaked open. Hermione's eyes adjusted to the dark, and she was able to make out a nice pair of black dress shoes with a coat of dirt on them. So someone had been following them! Hermione knew she saw a shoe creep out from the boxes in Honeydukes just before they apparated. The dirt on the shoes even proved that someone was behind her in the tunnel from Hogwarts. The thought made her shiver. But who from Hogwarts would follow them here? Were they a friend or foe? Another pair of shoes came in behind the first set, they were plain and brown. The second person spoke in a deep male voice.
"Find anyone?"
Hermione assumed the first person shook their head no because the second person seemed to reply.
"Alright. Keep a look out then. Good thing the charms tipped us off to people coming in tonight, eh? You got here quick! Who'd have thought it'd be Potter of all people though! They've almost got him cornered downstairs. Come down after you've checked the rest of this floor."
The second person left and more running, and sounds of fighting came from below. Hermione hoped Harry and Ron were okay. She kept quiet, privately thinking of how lucky she was that Malfoy's bed was so large, which kept her hidden well. She watched the footsteps circle the room, check in the closet and in the bathroom. Someone was looking for her, and they knew she had entered this room.
Just when Hermione thought the person was going to check under the bed the pair of shoes seemed to disappear near the door. Hermione was puzzled. She didn't think she heard the person leave. Maybe they had, and in the dark she just couldn't see very well. Either way, the room as eerily quiet. She heard no other sounds of breathing, and certainly no footsteps. She wondered if she should stay under the bed a bit longer. Another shout and sounds of battle from downstairs made her make up her mind. Hermione hoped the person had left and quickly shoved herself out from under the bed, running for the door wand in hand.
She almost reached the handle when arms came out of nowhere. One cupped her mouth to shut out her scream, and the other grabbed her arms and forced her into a closet across from the bed. Hermione struggled against the person using any technique she could think of without magic, as her wand had been dropped on the floor somewhere in her squirming. The arms were strong though, and refused to budge until Hermione gave up trying to free herself.
She tried to say something, but the hand over her mouth prevented her words from being coherent.
As if knowing she wasn't going to scream anymore the hand loosened on her mouth, giving her the ability to speak.
"You scream, and we're both dead." The voice said darkly.
"You followed us out of Hogwarts. Who are you? How did you know how to apparate here?" She said vehemently, her body squirming against theirs. Her captor was leaning against the wall in the dark closet, and Hermione's back was pressing into their front, the person's arms still wrapped fully around her refusing her escape.
"Really Granger, and they call you smart." Hot breath fell on her neck, making her shiver and causing her stomach to go in knots.
Hermione Granger was inside of Draco Malfoy's closet…with Draco Malfoy himself.
A/N: PLEASE REVIEW!