Chapter 21

Will to Survive

"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you"
 - Friedrich Nietsche

"You can lay down and die, or you can get up and fight, but that's it - there's no turning back." - Jon English

The air was cold, very cold. And damp, a thick, musty dampness that grew over many years of no care or cleanliness. It brought back a distant and painful memory that one tried so hard to push to the back of their minds; a memory of capture and torture, of pain and despair, a memory of the acceptance of death.

Her body felt heavy; her hands felt swollen and legs leaden as she tried to squirm in her uncomfortable position. It was only as the numbness began to fade in sharp, electric tingles throughout her body did she feel the thick leather wrapped tightly around her wrists. With a groan, her head lolled back as she unconsciously berated Draco for his failed attempt as spicing up their sex life.

It was only when the thought crossed her mind did the fog finally push away and she realized that this was not, indeed, an attempt to ignite more passion between her and Draco. There was something very, very wrong with this situation. It was too cold, too quiet, and too damp. It could only mean that she was somewhere under the castle, within an unused dungeon.

Squeezing her eyes, she tilted her head back, stretching it as she tried her hardest to recall how and why she suddenly found herself tied up in the dungeons. She'd been in the library, in her silenced bubble like usual, poring over her notes about her potential bullies.

Ah. Now she remembered.

And it pissed her off.

She'd been so distraught after class that she had accidentally overdone the bubble; she had realized that only moments before losing consciousness and it meant that she couldn't hear anyone outside of it just as they couldn't hear her.

Damn. Of all the times to screw up a spell…

A couple of people had snuck up behind her and, before she had realized they were there, she'd been bound in the Body-Binding Curse. The fall had been hard, but it had given her the chance to see her assailants before they Stunned her.

"Fucking Parkinson," she mumbled, twisting her hands in the restraints.

"That's my name."

Her eyes flung open and she looked over to the side of the room, sight quickly adjusting to the shadowy darkness of the old potions classroom. Broken chairs, dusty tables, and burnt cauldrons littered the room, making her think of an abandoned asylum of sorts, a place that would be haunted by creatures of the past.

For now, however, it had occupants that were very much alive.

Pansy sat on a comfortable armchair, something Hermione assumed she had transfigured, while another girl sat nearby on the same style of chair. It took Hermione a moment to realize who the second person was and when she did, she finally understood why she had underestimated Pansy. Astoria Greengrass was, after all, one of the best Sixth Years in the school and had been equally as passionate as Pansy about becoming the next Bellatrix Lestrange.

"Heh," she let out, trying to roll her shoulders to remove the knots. "I wouldn't have guessed."

"Of course you wouldn't have," Pansy cackled. "It couldn't possibly be Pansy, right? Oh no, you didn't think I was good enough, you didn't think I was strong enough, but I showed you. I'm much, much better at magic than you ever thought."

The similarity between the actions of this young woman and a much older one made Hermione rolled her eyes. "Well, Parkinson, you sure have Bellatrix's voice right; you sound just as mental as she did."

Pansy let out a sound of shock as Astoria jerked in response. "M…Mental? She was not mental; she was brilliant! One of the best in the whole world. How dare you call her mental!"

"Pansy," Astoria said calmly, reaching out to touch the older girl's leg. Instantly, Pansy calmed down and Hermione narrowed her eyes at the sight. It was slowly becoming more obvious who was the real leader here, and Pansy sure as hell wasn't it.

"Ah yes, well, where was I?" The way Pansy shook off the momentary insanity had Hermione confused; was the girl in the right state of mind or just plain crazy? It was difficult to determine, given that Pansy had always been prone to outbursts and had been very passionate about her one-sided relationship with Draco. "Oh, yes, I was going to get the truth from you."

At the moment, any normal witch would have been terrified of their situation, but Hermione was more annoyed. She knew that her wand as nearby and if she managed to delay Pansy enough, she could gather enough strength and try to summon it using wandless magic. She'd been practicing for some time and had gotten the hang of it halfway through the war.

"Wouldn't you think" she began, keeping her voice bored, "that it might be much more hospitable if you told me why I was here before we started this pleasant little conversation?"

She would have expected her captor to have spluttered loudly at the sound of her voice, but Pansy instead stood up and sauntered over to Hermione. Astoria followed close behind, her movements like a slowly, unfurling ribbon as she glided silently behind the older girl.

Reaching down, Pansy grasped Hermione's chin and forced her head up to focus on the girl's face. Trying to make herself appear bored, she attempted to scrutinize Pansy's expressions and words; the subtle differences in text could help differentiate between insanity and awareness.

"You are here, my sweet little Mudblood, because I know that you forced Draco to drink a potion that made him fall in love with you." Her voice was calm, sickeningly sweet, and her nails dug gently into Hermione's flesh. "I know that you've always wanted him, you've always been jealous because he's mine, and really, I don't think it's right that you had to put some spell on him, so I'm going to punish you."

She was torn between laughter and concern; Pansy was and had always been this fanatical about Draco, so it was definitely nothing new in the world. The girl was obviously in the right state of mind, with a little bit of Bellatrix added here or there to influence her, and this made things worrisome yet less complicated. It was much easier to reason with someone of sane mind, yet it was harder to convince a fanatic that they're just imagining things. In spite of their sanity, it was something they fervently clung to and believed it and it was difficult to pry someone away from something they held dear and near to their hearts.

But, she could always play a bit with Pansy's mind to bide some time; that way, she'd have enough strength and she'd be able to fight back. While Pansy had been underestimated, she was quite certain that she was more than strong enough to take on the two women. She had, after all, been ambushed and attacked from behind, taken down before she had a chance to fight. It was the coward's way of winning a battle.

But the powerful, intelligent and courageous fighter usually won the war.

"Pansy, love," she drawled, "would you be a dear and show me the proof that have, so-called, put a curse on Draco? Because, to be honest, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Yes you do," Pansy snapped, withdrawing her wand to point it in Hermione's direction. "You know exactly what I'm talking about; there's no way in hell that Drakie would ever kiss a dirty Mudblood slag like you. You put a spell on him, I'm sure of it, you…you…you witch!"

Keeping her eyes on the wand, Hermione slide a smile onto her face and she tilted her head to make it appear as though she was staring at Pansy. "I would like to take this moment to point out that you're a witch, too, and that I never put a spell on my dear, sweet Drakie."

So, this is what it was going to come down to. All of that bullying, all of the harassment and cruel words; they were all written to her because of an idiot Slytherin's love for Draco Malfoy. It irritated her beyond reason; why the hell couldn't Pansy have just accepted it and moved on? But of course, this was Pansy they were talking about, and it looked like Astoria had been fueling the older girl's desire for revenge. She could only wonder why Astoria decided to play the puppeteer and just what she had done to earn the younger girl's wrath.

Pansy let out a loud expletive and would have thrown herself on Hermione if it weren't for the sudden, restraining hand Astoria used on the girl's shoulder. "Pansy, we have a plan, remember? Calm down and follow the plan."

It took a few moments for the girl to calm down, long enough for Hermione to take her eyes off of the women and survey the room. She needed to find some kind of usable weapon nearby, in case she couldn't grab her wand or lost it. She also needed proper cover; she wasn't in the mood to get hurt. It didn't seem so bad; an overturned table a few feet to her left, and the broken chairs littering the floor would be able to donate their legs as blunt weapons. It was better than nothing, although she really preferred to get her wand.

Did she panic? Did she worry? Did she fear for her life?

She couldn't afford to panic; panic in situations like this had been quickly pushed out of her during the war, when many of her friends had been taken captive, including herself. She knew that panic quickly ended with tortured or death; if one panicked, they would not be able to sanely find a way out and by the time they did calm down, it was always too late.

Worry? Of course she worried; she worried about her friends, she worried about being able to get out in time, and she definitely worried about Draco. He would be livid and ready to kill when he found out about this, that was for sure.

Of course, given Pansy's history as a wand-user, she didn't really need to fear for her life; Pansy was mediocre at best and while Astoria was powerful, a well aimed Stunner could knock that girl out quickly leaving Pansy alone to fight Hermione. She was one hundred percent certain that she would definitely be able to take on that bitch, whether it was a magical or physical fight.

But for now, she had to worry about getting out of these damns restraints and getting her wand back.

"Plan? What kind of plan? Would you two mind enlightening me?" she queried once Pansy slipped her wand back into her pocket.

"You'll see in a moment," Astoria answered as the door to the room opened. It was behind Hermione and no matter how much she strained her neck; she was unable to see who had come in. It was two people, from the sounds of the footsteps, and they did not seem as confident as Pansy or Astoria, given the way their feet shuffled and hesitated.

Two unwilling partners…well, this made things interesting and possibly more in Hermione's favour.

"Daphne, do you have it?" Pansy's face lit up with glee, a cat-like grin that was creepier than the room they were in.

Daphne Greengrass…well, that was somewhat expected; she was, after all, Pansy's best friend and right-hand woman. Although, there were things about Daphne that always made Hermione wonder if the girl was truly the same type of person as her best friend.

"Y…Yes," came the voice, followed by a series of footsteps as Daphne came into Hermione's line of sight. She saw Hermione and quickly diverted her gaze, eyes trying to look anywhere but the woman tied up in the middle of the room. Hermione felt like a stain on a shirt, something people tried not to look at but couldn't help but see no matter where they looked.

Glancing over, Hermione watched as Daphne pulled a small vial of translucent liquid out of her pocket. It took a moment for her to realize just what the concoction might be and, while she had nothing to hide, fear instinctively began to well up within her.

"The Veritaserum," Daphne said softly. "It was the only vial I could get from Slughorn's office without him noticing."

"That's fine, you did a wonderful job," Astoria answered. The way they spoke to one another, one might have thought the birth order was reversed; Astoria appeared older, darker, and more sinister, while Daphne played the role of a terrified little sister.

"Go outside with Maryse and keep guard; we don't want any unexpected intruders," Pansy ordered.

In the time it took Hermione to realize that the fourth member of their group was Maryse Felborne, Daphne had already hurried from the room and the door slammed shut. Well, they had quite the gaggle of girls against her, didn't they? She didn't know much about Maryse; had never really spoken to her and she had never really noticed her either. Maryse was…someone in the middle; nothing too exceptional, yet nobody too horrendous worthy of attention. Well, worthy wasn't necessarily the right word, more like warranting unwanted attention. She was a shadow, blending into the crowd.

Perfect for this type of situation.

Expected the unexpected; that's what she had been told before going to war. She hadn't really realized the extent of that phrase until the first major fight with Death Eaters, when the masks came off. Fellow classmates, parents, even a teacher…it was not what she had expected, yet Lupin had told her to expect it.

Now, she was more accustomed, she had become used to these situations and her heart trembled less.

That didn't mean it didn't tremble a little bit. It didn't mean that her flesh didn't shiver with frissons of anxiety. It didn't mean that sweat dripped coolly down from her brow to tickle her lips. It didn't mean she was made of stone.

She knew the moment it was going to happen, she saw the change in their eyes, saw the way their muscles shifted as they moved in unison. Even when she knew it would happen, she could do nothing to stop it; the second she opened her mouth, she knew that the tasteless liquid would creep down her throat and make her say things she didn't want to say.

Astoria gripped her hair, yanking her head back sharply, creating an aching pain in her neck as it cricked loudly. Wincing slightly when Astoria pulled on a particularly tight knot in her tresses, she kept her lips sealed shut as Pansy pressed the open vial to the crease of her mouth.

She really didn't want to do this; even though this was different from a war situation, where she could not cause anyone's death, there were still things she wanted to keep to herself, secrets she had kept, promises she had made.

Pansy let out a sharp breath, sighing loudly as Hermione resisted, not quite struggling in their grip, yet trying to push the vial away with her lips. Pushing harder against the girl's mouth, she tried to force the brunette's lips open.

"Open your mouth, you dirty Mudblood; just like you do when Potty and Weasel want to get off, you fucking slag," she snarled, pressing harder into Hermione's mouth.

Her instinct was to open her mouth and say a retort, but her mind managed to control her body just enough that she kept her lips sealed.

Moving away, Pansy grimaced at the girl restrained in front of her. This, she had not expected. She had expected spells, curses, and an assortment of magical methods of pain, but she had not expected the sudden feeling of a palm smacking viciously across her face.

Her mouth opened as she let out a whoosh of air as pain raced across her cheek and her teeth bit into her lip, breaking the skin. Her head was pulled back once more and Pansy smacked her a second time, bruising her lips and smearing blood on Hermione's cheek and the back of Pansy's hand.

This time, when she was savagely pulled back, Pansy managed to shove the vial between her aching lips. She tried to push the liquid out of her mouth, gagging and choking on it, but she had no choice; while she had secrets, she had none worth dying over, unfortunately.

Coughing, she swallowed the last drops forced into her mouth and let her head hang as Astoria shoved her away, trying to catch her breath and stop the gagging.

"Well, then, little Muddie, I think we'll wait a couple minutes to let the potion take full effect. Now, how will we pass the time?" Pansy asked, glancing over to Astoria.

"Oh, I have a few ideas," the younger girl answered, grinning over Hermione.

She knew what was coming, and she braced herself for it, tensing her body, flexing her muscles to create the least amount of pain possible as every fist, foot and palm hit her body. She remembered Sirius' words at the back of her mind, telling her to push the pain away and focus on something else. She had to compartmentalize.

So, instead of crying out, instead of letting the pain dull her senses and make her weaker, she focused on her wand across the room, willing her power to increase, trying to get the conductor to further augment her strength. She couldn't grow weak, not when she had almost gotten strong enough to summon the wand.

Hissing loudly as Astoria's fist slammed into her ribs, she coughed loudly, blood flowing freely from her mouth from a few more slaps by Pansy. Blinking, she heaved for air, winded and shaking, pushing the pain away as the girls finally relented. It had felt like an eternity, every punch, every slap had felt like it had gone on for forever and pain radiated from her torso and face. Her blouse was stained with her blood, ripped on the sleeve when Pansy tried, and failed, to dislocate her shoulder.

"I think that's enough," Astoria panted, wiping sweat from her brow.

"Break a sweat from a couple of minutes' physical activity?" Hermione asked breathlessly, still trying to be in control of the situation. "How pathetic."

Pansy had to be held back by Astoria once more when she moved to smack the girl once more. "Enough, we're dirtied our hands enough," the younger woman hissed, squeezing her nails into the girl's arms.

Nodding, she slowly relaxed in Astoria's arms and the duo performed a quick Scouring charm on each other, muttering about needing to shower a thousand times to get rid of the filth on their hands.

Standing back, arms crossed, Pansy smiled down at Hermione as she felt a sudden, cooling sensation overwhelm her. She knew this feeling, understood the compulsions, and her heart trembled just a little more in her chest. The Veritaserum was now in effect.

"Now," Pansy said, "let's have some fun."

The moment she had been forced out of the room, Daphne had turned quickly on Maryse, grabbing her friend's arms.

"We need to do something about this," she whispered, eyes wide and face pale with fear. "We can't let them do this, we can't."

"I know, I know," Maryse admitted quietly, pulling Daphne a little ways away from the door. They knew that the crueler twosome had performed Silencing charms on the room, and Daphne had done one on the door from the outside, but they didn't want to take any risks that they would be next in line for torture.

"What do we do? What do we do? What do we do?" Maryse repeated, rubbing her face with her hands, trying to find some way to solve the problem at hand as she paced in front of Daphne. "This is just awful; I was fine with the stalking, I was okay with Pansy's ranting, but honestly, this is not right. It isn't right at all." Spinning around, she gripped her friend's arms. "What can we do?"

"We…we need to tell someone." Daphne lifted Maryse's hands from her arms, holding them tightly in her own. "I…I need to find Blaise. Blaise will know what to do."

Sending her a perplexed look, Maryse squeezed Daphne's hands back. "What do you mean 'find Blaise'? What can he do?"

Daphne lowered her head, sighing loudly. "I…I told him."

"Told him what?"

"Told him…about Pansy and Astoria's plans, I mentioned it to him just after supper, when I left the Great Hall and before Pansy got the bright idea to do the kidnapping today."

Maryse's eyes bugged and her face got tight and considerably paler. "What…what exactly did you tell him? Will he go to the Professors? Did you say anything about me, because you know I didn't do anything wrong!"

"Relax, relax," Daphne hissed, fighting the urge to give her friend a harsh slap back to reality. "I only told him of their plans, but I didn't tell him who was doing it. I think, though, he would have figured it out anyway. I only told him to tell Draco and that they had to keep an eye on Hermione…" Her speech slowed down and she spoke the victim's name syllable by syllable as realization dawned on her. "Oh shit."

"What?"

"What do you think the chances are that after I told him that, he went and told Draco and two headed off to find Hermione in the library?"

"Fuck."

"My thoughts exactly." Daphne pulled away from Maryse, giving her friend a last squeeze. "I've got to go and find them. If Pansy or Astoria come out, tell them I had to go to the loo for lady issues, okay? Just keep watch on the door, do what they told you to do unless you see Draco or Blaise coming. Do you understand? When they come, pretend that they figured it out, pretend they fought their way past you, got it?"

"Yes, yes," Maryse answered with a nod of her head. "Go, and please hurry."

That was all she needed. Daphne ran, she ran through the school as though the very hounds of Hell were after her. Every sharp made her breathing faster, every turn made her heart pound harder, but she pushed on, ignoring a loud cry of outrage from a rather shocked and irritated Filch, jumping over Mrs. Norris. She was glad that she had worked out daily when in Death Eater training, glad that it had increased her stamina.

She kept running until there was a stitch in her side, trying her hardest to find Draco and Blaise in the maze of corridors that was Hogwarts. She desperately needed to find them, to tell them what was going on and get them back in time to save Hermione.

Her body went suddenly flying back as she hit a solid mass, tumbling hard onto the floor as the wall let out a mumbled curse of shock. Wincing, she rubbed her bum as she lifted her head to try and see just who or what she had hit.

Shock was quickly replaced with joy as she realized that the wall, which had also made its way to the floor, was none other than the man she sought, with Blaise and Luna standing to his side.

"Draco!" she squealed, jumping up in happiness. "You have no idea how happy I am to see you."

Before she could let out another word of joy, his hand quickly darted out and coiled around the front of her blouse as he yanked her to him. She whimpered at the dark look in his eyes, the whispered promises of pain and retribution for thing she hadn't done. Dark frissons ran down her spine at his expression and her heart thundered loudly in her chest.

"What the hell did you do to her?" The words were whispered savagely, as untamed and furious as the hand on her shirt. "Where the hell is she?"

Swallowing thickly, she pushed aside her fear long enough to be able to coherently answer his questions. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Blaise and Luna, both torn between pulling Draco away and letting him continue. "I know where she is, and I've come to bring you guys to her."

"Yet you've helped them get her, haven't you? Haven't you?" Draco said, voice rising as he shook her when he repeated himself.

She couldn't fight him; she knew the truth in what she had done and felt the guilt consume her body over her actions. Her intentions had been to just merely placate Pansy, not help the girl kidnap Granger and torture her. She felt awful for everything she had done, and yet some of the guilt faded away the moment she had found Draco. She needed to tell him where Hermione was, if only he would stop yelling at her every two seconds.

It was like a really bad movie. Which Muggle film was this like again? Damn it, she'd seen it a while ago…

That one with that actor who had flipped out during some other movie…What was it?

Oh yes, the Dark Knight.

Putting that aside – really, what was she doing thinking of awful movie lines at a time like this? - she sighed heavily as Draco shook her one more time. Squaring her shoulders, she managed to shake loose his grip and stood firmly in front of him, suddenly fed up the way he shook her every time he repeatedly asked her where Hermione was. The reason that she had gone behind Pansy's back and told Blaise about this was because she was fed up. She was tired of being pushed around and used as a lackey, she was tired of being the person behind the others, and she was certainly sick and tired of hearing people yelling all of the time.

"Look, do you want to know where she is or not? Because you're wasting precious time yelling at me," she snapped, sending him a sharp glare. "She's in the dungeons, follow me," she continued as she turned around, "and hurry. I don't know how much longer Pansy will stay calm."

With that, she began hurrying back in the direction she had come. She knew that he would follow, even though she was certain that he was in shock over her outburst. He may have been stubborn and overly emotional at times, but he loved and cared for Hermione with all of his heart and soul and he wouldn't waste a single second gawking or idling around while she was being tortured.

That was the magic of love; it made people do amazing things, and in Draco's case, it was learning how to stand up for someone other than himself.

"How long?"

"How long what?"

"How long have you been stalking him?"

The questions shocked her; she had been trained to deal with far more important questions and answers than little personal ones that made no sense. Yet, it was another reminder that this situation was quite different from those she'd encountered during the war. However, the way her face throbbed begged to differ.

Twisting her head, she cracked her neck and tried to stretch out one of the many knots in it. She felt the compulsion to answer the question truthfully, felt the familiar pulling at the bottom of her stomach and the uncomfortable itchiness in her throat. She needed to answer, but she knew that the truth would not please Pansy.

"I never stalked Draco."

She was partially glad that her face was no longer the target of their attacks, given that she figured it was bleeding and swollen enough already, but hot, burning pain sliding up her arm was quite unnecessary. They couldn't possibly torture the truth out of her; she had taken the Veritaserum and that was more than enough to get her to speak the truth. She felt that the torture was more for their own sick enjoyment.

"Try another question," Astoria suggested, standing behind Hermione, slowly twisting and gripping the girl's hair in her hands.

"How long have you loved him?" Pansy's voice grew rather shrilly as she spoke this question, and it was for good reason. The girl had been fanatically in love with Draco for the majority of her life, and it was quite terrifying to think of just how much of her time was devoted to merely thinking about the blond.

Then again, Hermione thought about Draco quite often, although the situation was quite different.

Her cheeks reddened at the thought of answering this particular question; she didn't really want to let them know just how long she'd been in love with Draco for, especially since she wasn't one hundred percent of the answer herself. But her throat began to itch and her stomach twisted and her mouth opened before she knew it; "Since just before Christmas, but I started liking him near the end of the war."

Of course, she always had to overachieve, didn't she?

"Whore," Pansy snarled. "Have you shagged him? How many times?"

Mortification made her cheeks burn red and she looked away at this question. She really didn't want to divulge anything about her sex life to anyone, Pansy especially. The only person who was aware that she had had sex was Luna, who had given her some advice on how to do the deed. It was far too embarrassing to answer such a question and she wanted to avoid answering it for as long as she could.

Turning away, she closed her eyes as she tried to push aside the will to answer truthfully. Her stomach twisted painfully and her throat itched uncomfortably, but she just couldn't answer. Her modesty was very important, it was one of the few things that she would try to keep a secret no matter what, and she did not want Pansy to know anything.

"Answer me."

Shaking her head, she swallowed thickly, trying to find a way to ease the itching in her throat. The sudden burning feeling on her left arm distracted her from it and she gritted her teeth against the pain. It brought her back to focusing on things, her attention slowly going back to how she'd been nearly successful at summoning her wand. She was close, very close, and if she could just summon it before being too compelled to answer, it would be wonderful. Opening her eyes just the slightest, she kept her sights on the wand, a little grateful that Pansy was currently cutting out various words on her left arm.

"Answer me!"

The wand shifted slightly and elation rose in her body, making her heart jump. Almost there…

"ANSWER ME!"

Choking, the itching so painfully uncomfortable that it made it hard to breathe, she tried to focus all of her strength on summoning her wand.

Pansy stabbed something into her left arm and she let out a loud shout as she threw all of her power into an invisible stream that reached out and grasped her wand, rapidly pulling it back. Before it even reached her fingers, she was already muttering the incantation to free herself of her bindings and managed to rush out of the chair just as Pansy yanked a small blade out of Hermione's left arm.

Blood dripping down her fingers, a good chunk of hair now missing and clasped tightly in Astoria's hands, Hermione stood facing the girls, breathing heavily.

Pansy gawked wide eyed as Astoria made a move for her wand, which she had foolishly left on a nearby table. Raising her wand, Hermione didn't give the girl a chance and sent it flying in the opposite direction, landing in the farthest corner of the room. Unable to stop herself from grinning, Hermione turned her wand back on the two girls.

"To be honest," she finally answered, lifting the wand up in preparation for casting a spell, "I've lost count." With that, she swung down the wand, sending out a brilliant flash of light.

The stairs felt too tall, the corridors too long, and the school too huge. Every corner rounded led them to another lengthy corridor, every staircase led to another corridor, the corridor to another staircase. Not long ago, Draco loved the way the castle shifted and formed into a maze, but now, when he wanted to get somewhere fast, he absolutely despised it.

He desperately needed to get to her; he had no idea what was happening to her at the moment, didn't have a clue about Parkinson's plans, but he knew that she was deceptively strong when it came to magic; she hadn't been Lestrange's favourite student for nothing.

A part of his mind berated him; he should have known, should have seen the signs. He should have had some inkling of a sensation that Parkinson was not going to be happy about his relationship with Hermione. After all, it wasn't so long ago that she had proclaimed her deep hatred for Hermione and that he had broken her apart when he defended the lovely Gryffindor. He should have known that Parkinson would try and do something. But, then again, he never thought that it would be kidnapping and torture.

His heart had sunk the second he had discovered Hermione's disappearance and it currently lay somewhere at the bottom of his stomach, beating rapidly as he sprinted through the school.

Damn it all, he should have known. It frustrated him, pissed him off that he hadn't seen the signs and that he had always prided himself on his ability to see and understand individuals. He knew Parkinson, knew what she was capable of and what her personality was like, and he should have fucking known that she wasn't going to sit back and do nothing about Hermione.

He was pissed, upset, and beyond desperate to find Hermione before Parkinson could practice Lestrange's spells on her. Bellatrix Lestrange was the cream of the crop when it came to malicious tormentors in the army of Death Eaters. She had taken a great many of lives, most of them through slow and painful torture, and she had passed on most of her expertise to Parkinson. The thought of Parkinson using Lestrange's techniques on Hermione made his blood freeze.

He'd already lost so many people, he couldn't lose Hermione now, not when he had just 'found' her only a few months ago. He couldn't…

'Don't think about it,' he thought, trying to push the negative thoughts aside. Parkinson, he knew, was capable of torture, but he was fairly certain that she would never be capable of murder.

Hopefully…

The cool dampness of the dungeons crept up the back of his neck and he knew that they had now descended into the underground of the school, another series of mazes and confusing corridors that he hated even more.

To the inexperienced eye, every hallway in the dungeons looked the same; old, wet stone walls, the same musty smell, the cracked and forgotten doors, leading into the same classroom no matter which door you took.

But he knew, he knew every little crack in the walls, every little spot of moss or mould, and he knew where every corridor led.

When they rounded the last corner and he saw Maryse Felborne, Daphne's best friend, standing near a door, he knew that his suspicions were right. Surging ahead, he sent Maryse flying before she could even express the look of shocked relief at the sight of the group. Pausing in front of the door, he turned to Daphne and before he could even ask, she nodded.

Wand out, he yanked open the door just in time to hear shouted words and bright flash of green.

"You fucking bitch. I'll kill you! I'll fucking kill you!"

Spittle flew from Pansy's mouth as she stood before Hermione, eyes wild and face taut, nearly foaming at the mouth like a rabid beast. Astoria lay on the ground next to the Slytherin, unconscious and bound, something Hermione had found was surprisingly easy. It seemed like Astoria was all talk.

Pansy, meanwhile, really did look ready to kill and Hermione was on her guard, keeping an eye on the girl's wand as it shook violently in her hand, sparks shooting out from the tip of it. She kept on shouting curses while Hermione panted softly, wiping blood out of her eyes.

Pansy's arm lifted up and Hermione shielded herself before the curse was cast, rebounding to cause a nearby table to explodes into pieces. Keeping her shield up, Hermione scowled at the girl in front of her. She really wanted to make it fast, to quickly and efficiently take down both girls, get Professor McGonagall and find Draco. She was tired, aching, bleeding, and pissed off, and she really didn't want to see Pansy's face for the rest of her life.

And she couldn't even bluff because of the goddamned Veritaserum, which pissed her off even more.

Fortunately, it seemed like Pansy was not taking that to her advantage. Instead, Hermione was called a bitch yet again and the same curse was sent flying in her direction, to rebound and once again destroy another piece of furniture in the room. Breathing heavily, Hermione kept her eyes trained on the girl in front of her, ignoring the insults that kept making their way out of the girl's mouth.

It was almost too fast for Pansy to see, a quick flick of the wrist and a quiet mumbling of words sent the girl flying across the room, landing hard into the pile of chairs she had stacked aside earlier. Scrambling out of them, tossing each aside, she struggled to her feet and sent another curse flying towards Hermione, hoping that the shield was still down.

The invisible wall formed just seconds before the curse was sent repelling back and Hermione took a deep breath as another crash resounded in the room. This was starting to get on her nerves.

"You call yourself an expert dualist? Honestly, this is pathetic," she sneered as Pansy panted from the other side of the room.

"Don't lie to me, you know I'm good," the other girl snarled, lips curling unattractively.

"One word, Parkinson," Hermione answered, lifting her wand, "Veritaserum." With another swish of the wand, Pansy managed to just barely dodge the explosive attack that sent chairs flying in all directions.

"You fucking bitch!"

Curse after curse was sent flying in her direction, bright flashes of red and blue, and each time the wall flew up and held strong, or her deft feet danced across the floor as she twisted and dodged the attacks. Her body groaned with pain and wear and she wanted nothing more than to just be able to collapse somewhere and take a nice, hot bath, but that was something well out of her reach at the moment. Instead, the only thing she could do was dodge one curse after another, continuously goading the girl into losing more of her emotions, making her more likely to make mistakes.

She needed to end this quickly, she thought after a few more curses were sent her way. It took a lot of effort and power to be able to keep up the shield for this long and it was starting to wear her down. Sweat slid down her brow, the unwelcome, salty tang prominent in her mouth, and her arm began to tremble with exhaustion. She was quickly losing power.

Lowering her shield, she sent a quick stunning curse over to the Slytherin, muttering a curse as it missed, and she threw herself onto the ground to dodge another spell. She had no choice; the shield had to go if she wanted to have enough power to take down Parkinson.

Getting to her feet, she focused her attention across the room. Pansy panted heavily, wiping her face with the back of her free hand as she kept her wand pointed at Hermione. "You're better than I thought you would be," she admitted.

"You're better at dodging that I thought you would be," Hermione answered with a smile, relishing the way the girl's face twisted with anger.

"You know, I'm going to step it up a notch," Pansy said, smiling in a dark, malicious manner that had Hermione on the tips of her toes. Just what was the girl talking about? What was she planning?

Pansy slowly shifted her hand in her fingers, twirling it slightly and raised her arm. She quickly lowered it, twisting her wrist on the way down. "Frendo!"

She just barely managed to dodge it, quickly stepping aside and taking a dancing step backwards as a bright red flash was sent her way, cutting diagonally through the air. The loud crunching behind her had her looking back and she could barely hide the shock at the sight of the Professor's desk cut down the middle, each side of the cut crushed as though quickly and savagely pried apart by some kind of splitter.

Turning back to look at Parkinson, it was then that she realized she had underestimated the girl even more. If she knew a spell like this, Hermione was certain that Pansy knew of the kind. She was going to have to watch her step even more; this was getting to be more and more like dealing with a Death Eater.

"Like it? I found it in this neat little book in the library. Maybe you've heard of it, Vox Mors, it's quite the fascinating read."

Hermione's brows went up at the book title and a cold shiver ran down her spine. If Pansy had indeed been reading that book, and if she had managed to at least get a coherent grip on some of the spells, she was going to be in for a seriously harder fight than she had earlier expected.

Gripping tightly on her wand, she couldn't help but smile; Hermione Granger wasn't the smartest witch of her time for nothing. She had her own little secret abilities too.

The attack was sent again and she managed to dodge, twisting her body around to send a spell flying back at Pansy. "Serpenstringo," she muttered, sending five snakes shooting from the tip of her wand. Quickly, they slid around Pansy's legs, opening their mouths wide to dig their fangs deep into the girl's flesh.

When Pansy let out a loud shriek of fear and pain, Hermione couldn't help but smile at the sound. It felt good to cause the bitch pain, especially after all Hermione had suffered through.

"Now you won't be able to move," Hermione said with a grin, readying her next spell. This had been easier than Pansy had said it would be.

"You bitch!" the Slytherin shouted, pushing through the pain to lift her wand. "Fuck you, I'll fucking cut you open. Sectumsempra!"

Eyes wide, Hermione slipped as she dodged away from the bright, green flash of light that moved with the intent to disembowel her. Stumbling, she felt the heat of the curse graze at her hair as she moved to the right, cursing as the tip of it dug deep into her left arm, cutting the flesh to the bone.

It was at this same time that she heard the door to the room come crashing open, dimly hearing the sound of loud curses followed by an even louder thump. Spinning around, her eyes widened in shock to find Draco slumped on the floor, shirt cut and blood surfacing to stain the cloth. Her heart screamed, her mind went blank, and her stomach twisted violently. Rage like no other consumed her very body and she spun around at Pansy, no longer feeling any emotions towards the girl except for white hot fury. Pain overwhelmed her, blanketing her mind in a thick, black fog and white hot flashes of furious lightning flickered throughout her body; she felt nothing, no joy, no love, nothing except for the all consuming pain of loss and rage.

For the second time in her life, Hermione Granger truly and honestly wanted to kill someone. Mercilessly.

The Slytherin, on the other hand, let out a loud shriek at the sight of Draco on the floor, bleeding from his chest. "Draco!" she screamed, face paling so rapidly it seemed inhuman. She struggled against the snakes at her legs, dropping her wand as she fought to get to the man who she had just harmed. "Oh my god, Draco! DRACO!"

"If we were alone," Hermione said suddenly, voice cold and calm, cutting through the screaming like the sharpest blade as her words silenced Pansy, "I would cut you all over your body and feed you to rabid werewolves. If we were alone, you'd be already dead." Pansy visibly shook at the words, eyes wide and red with shock and terror. "For now, I'll just have to knock you out," Hermione ended, disappointment quite evident in her voice. "Stupefy," she said, stunning the girl as the snakes faded away, sending the girl flying back. "Incarcerous," she finished, sending long and thick ropes out of her wand to wrap tightly around the Slytherin, binding her the same way Astoria was bound.

The second her opponent was down, there was a rapid change in emotions as her heart twisted and fear washed over her body like a bucket of ice dumped over her head. Spinning around, she stumbled, mid-run as she saw Draco get to his feet, pushing away Blaise's offered assistance. Perplexity made her heart tremble, attempting to revive itself within her suddenly cold body, and her movements suddenly felt heavy and leaden, as though every joint was stuck. She didn't know what to think, couldn't possibly twist her mind around what was going on in front of her. Just moments ago, he had lain on the ground, bleeding and unconscious, and yet, now he was awake and clambering to his feet.

Just what was going on…?

"Draco?" Her voice trembled, her throat ached and felt torn apart, and her heart slowly eased in her chest to a light pitter-patter. Exhaustion slowly seeped into her body, and it was a trembling hand that reached out to the wounded blond getting to his feet. "You're okay?"

Warm arms enveloped her as her legs finally gave out and his soothing scent consumed her. She allowed him to hold her for a moment, just long enough to pull at his strength and shove away the hot tears of joy and fear, before she gently pushed him back to look at his chest wound. Reaching out, she gingerly touched the red area around the angry slash, frustrated that it would not stop bleeding.

He sighed heavily and reached up, cupping her bruised and bleeding face in his hands, gently forcing her to look up at him. "I'm fine," he said. "I'm just a little pissed because I finally got rid of the scar from the last time someone used that damn curse on me. I managed to dodge it at the last second." He brushed his thumb across her lip, smearing blood on her skin. "Would it be stupid of me to ask if you're okay?"

In spite of herself, in spite of the aching in her body and the fear still trapped in her heart, she managed a small smile. "I'll be fine," she said softly. She squeezed her eyes shut as she felt tears suddenly return. "I'm fine," she repeated, throat tightening as she suddenly buried her face in his chest and felt her heart explode in pain as the tears slid down her face. She choked and hiccoughed on her sobs as he held her tight, burying his face in her hair as she cried in his arms, letting out all of the fear, all of the pain, and all of the happiness swelling in her heart.

"I…I thou…thought…" she stammered, trying to catch her breath through her sobs.

He gently hushed her with a kiss to the forehead, pulling her closer to him. He didn't need her to tell him, didn't need to hear the words when he saw the thoughts in her eyes. She had thought she he had been killed, and he knew and understood the pain of that feeling all too well.

It was just as she began to gather her thoughts and catch her breath, pulling away to wipe away her tears with her dirty and bloodied hands that a loud cry of shock came from the door. The couple turned to look at the doorway and their eyes widened with surprise when they found Professors McGonagall and Morningstar standing with their wands out, faces twisted with shock. A body shoved its way between the two of them and a dark-haired blur rushed over to Hermione.

"H…Harry?" she asked, pulling away from the embrace. "When did you get back?"

"Are you okay? What happened? Why the hell didn't you tell me anything about this? I could've helped you, you know!" he began, words coming out in a rush of almost indiscernible speech.

A warm blush crept over her cheeks as she patted his arms, trying to calm him down. "I…I understand you're angry, but please, you have to understand."

"I think, Miss Granger, that we would all like to understand just what happened here," Professor McGonagall interrupted. Her face was a strange combination, torn between care and severity, like a mother who gave tough love finding out her favourite child had been hurt, wanting to run over and console the child yet sternly tell the child off for not obeying the rules.

Giving Harry a quick squeeze, a promise that she would tell him everything and give him all of her explanations as soon as possible, she nodded towards the Headmistress and the group began the process of cleaning up and explaining everything. The whole time, she kept her hand squeezed tightly around Draco's, grateful that neither of them were fatally injured. As they stepped out of the decimated classroom, she gently squeezed his hand.

"I just wanted to tell you that I love you," she murmured softly when he lowered his head to hers.

Softly, he pressed a chaste kiss to her forehead and he held her hand tighter. "I love you too."

In spite of the pain, the fear, and the anger, love always managed to sneak its way into her heart and make the sun shine brightly. It made her realize that today, no matter how painful it had been, it was a good day to be alive, because it meant that they could live to love each other for another day.

"One word frees us all of the weight and pain of life; that word is love." - Sophocles

Hey everyone.

Sorry for the long wait, I have been going absolutely insane with school work and I decided to take a few moments out of my time today to finalize and post this up as a little gift to you before I go die over more school crap.
I hope it's worth the wait; I do plan on going back and fixing a few things here or there, but right now, I felt that I just had to post this so that you lovely readers wouldn't have to wait any longer. Thank you all for your undying patience. 3

Enjoy reading!
P.S. I can't promise that I will be updating anytime soon, as my Fall semester finals are coming up and I'm ready to set the school on fire. But, I will try to make time between studying and dying to continue writing. Thanks!

Now please go review, I love hearing your feedback! 33