Prompt: Seduction
Chapter 17: Crossroads
A hot breeze washed over Hermione. She closed her eyes tight against the sensation. Something smelled like it was rotting. The ground beneath her was rough. Sharp rocks pushed up against her back. It wasn't the smooth concrete of her prison. Maybe they moved her. Screams echoed somewhere in the distance. All around her. When she opened her eyes she saw nothing. Her hands searched her face for some blindfold. There wasn't one. A blinding spell maybe. Voldemort preferred that method of control.
Taking a moment to collect herself, she tried to remember what happened. Voldemort had been there. That wasn't the last thing she remembered. Someone moving her. And then a female voice. A heat and then a chill. What was happening to her?
"I have your horcrux," Harry's voice whispered in her ear. "The lost diadem of Ravenclaw. You can have it in exchange for Hermione. Alive."
She still didn't believe he'd do it. He was bluffing. That was the only answer she would accept. Rolling on her side, her body protested. But she had to get up. She had to figure out where she was. Her face pressing against the ground, she realized it hadn't been a hot breeze at all that woke her. She was burning up. A fever. That probably wasn't good. Wherever she was and whoever had her didn't seem to care about her enough to get her a potion to treat it or hadn't noticed. Getting herself into a sitting position nearly sapped her strength. A pillar or wall behind her caught her from falling back.
She could make out a door across from her. She could see. It was just too dark for her eyes to adjust properly. As she studied the large metal door, a dark mass moved in front of her, obscuring her vision. She wasn't alone. It hadn't made a sound and she didn't know where it was. "Hello? Is someone there?" she called out tentatively, knowing it was a risk. If it wasn't friendly, she had just alerted it to her position.
"No one is here," a voice said. It came from all around her. An oppressive presence pressed down on her. "You've been left to die."
She shook her head at the thought. Her friends wouldn't have done that. It wasn't true. A light grew behind her. Craning her neck, she tried to find the source and was startled to see a giant gray wolf sitting next to her. It should have been terrifying. Something about its calm demeanor kept her fear at bay. Had the voice come from it? She didn't think so. Bracing herself on the object behind her, Hermione struggled to get to her feet. It was a tree behind her. She didn't think it had always been a tree. Straightening, she looked for the door. It was gone. She was in a vast forest full of towering trees.
The wolf got up onto its feet and took several steps forward. It appeared to wait for her. It wanted her to follow it.
"Where did the black thing go?" she asked, not wanting to go far until she knew what was lurking.
Indifferent to her question, the wolf continued forward. Taking a small breath, she understood she couldn't stay there. Maybe it could lead her to someone who could help. Willing herself to walk forward, she knew she wasn't okay and yet her injuries felt distant. Examining her arm, she yelled out in shock. It was infested with maggots, wriggling in between the open flesh of her wound from the white fire spell. She shook it violently, trying to fling the disgusting bugs off. Another look at the wound and they were gone. In their place was a pulsing carving of letters from an alphabet she'd never seen before. "This isn't real," she finally realized.
"Oh, it's real," the voice from before answered back. "You're mine. I can give you the power you need to save the boy."
"How," she asked, knowing instinctively that she shouldn't trust anything it said. The wolf was sitting patiently a few yards up the path. It's tail flicking around its front legs. It was waiting for her to make a decision.
"Give me your magic and I'll release its power." As the offer was made a shadow peaked out from around a tree. There was a fork in the path. The wolf in the middle of one direction and this shadow that was taking a form, a dark panther that was so black it appeared to consume what little light there was around it.
"It's not something I can give," she dismissed it, and took a step toward the wolf.
A dangerous growl from the panther stopped her from taking another step. She had felt the warning vibrate her chest.
"If you don't believe me, give me permission and prove me wrong."
Hermione wanted to believe it. That there was something that could give her the power she needed to save Harry. The seduction of the offer was compelling. The situation they were in… there were no easy answers. There wasn't one thing that was going to turn the tide. "Just say words and you'll free Harry from the horcrux?"
"Just say words," it mocked her her disbelief, "You just say words and spells work. Words have power. Release me."
Hermione's eyes narrowed. "Release you? That's not what you said."
"Hermione?" a woman's voice rippled in the distance. "It's not safe there. Come to me."
She'd heard that voice before.
"Don't listen to her. Listen to me," the other voice hissed as the panther lurched forward.
The sudden movement had the wolf up on its feet, its head extended toward the panther. A warning. Their task was to deliver their message. They weren't to intervene in the choice.
She wanted more than anything to save Harry. She didn't believe the creature could do that. She didn't know what it was, but it wanted to be released. Hermione wasn't about to release something she didn't understand. Without looking back, she started for the wolf and the path it marked.
The panther leapt toward her. The seduction was over. It would take what it wanted by force. There was no way she could fight such a ferocious creature with her bare hands. There wasn't time to run. "I'm sorry, Harry," Hermione whispered, squeezing her eyes tight, waiting for the attack. It never came. An eruption of growls and hissing told Hermione the wolf engaged the panther before it could pounce on her. She ran. She didn't know what she was running toward, but she knew she was running away something dangerous.
