"You're an insufferable git, you know that?" Hermione huffed, crossing her arms and pointedly tapping the toe of her shoe against the floor; the click of it echoed annoyingly down the empty corridor. The insufferable git in question was letting a silver chain dangle in front of her, owl pendant hanging from it, twirling tantalizingly just out of reach.
It was late and the castle was cold, most of its occupants having retreated to the warmth of their common rooms, which was exactly where Hermione imagined herself being at that very moment; curled up in front of the fire with a good book, a small smile on her face as Harry and Ron grumbled through another round of wizarding chess instead of completing their homework, she could almost feel the comfort, but Draco's prattish voice snootily broke through her daydreams.
"Better than a prissy know-it-all," Draco shrugged smirking down at Hermione as blew a strand of frizzy hair out her face. "What is this made of, tin?" He asked, inspecting the necklace closely, nose wrinkling in disgust. She swiped for it quickly, growling in frustration as it was lifted just out of her grasp by the taller Slytherin, "Ah, ah, ah, not so fast. I'm still looking."
"The chain is silver and the owl is gold, now will you give it back?"
Hermione fumed, grinding her teeth over the fact that she shouldn't have even been there, it was all Snape's fault. The potions professor had been idiot enough to partner them in brewing a batch of Wit - Sharpening Potion. Brewing the thing was easy enough, but why he thought that either of them could work well together was beyond her. She cursed him silently to a long and drawn-out death, as she remembered the smug smirk that graced his pale, pointed features when he'd given them both detentions, the remnants of their potion congealing nicely on their clothes. Hermione didn't need this; the year had been stressful enough already without adding a spoilt pureblood prat to the mix.
"Malfoy give it…" she stopped, eyes wide and mouth hanging open as the Slytherin threw her necklace down a dark stairwell with a lift of one blonde eyebrow. She wanted to slap the smug look off his pale aristocratic features, shouting every expletive known to muggle and wizarding kind till she was red in the face and the Blonde was suitably spooked, instead she bit her tongue and opted for stomping towards the stairwell muttering under her breath, her fingers grasping at the stone for guidance.
"I don't know why you're bothering with something so cheap," Draco commented, leaning lazily against the wall hands digging into his pockets. Hermione ignored him and knelt, searching the steps with her palms.
"It was a present," Hermione spat, hardly understanding why she was explaining herself; it wasn't like the Slytherin would understand something as simple as sentiment. She slowly knelt, palms flat against the cool stone as she groped in the dark.
"Shit present." Draco scoffed, rubbing his ear to alleviate the pain that her shrill voice had caused.
"Of course, you would think that, because you're a spoilt, pompou…WAHHH," Hermione let out a shriek as the stairs gave way beneath her, sending her hurtling into darkness. A hard floor broke her fall. Hermione winced, lying still to catch the breath that had been knocked out of her, gingerly sitting up as her whole body screamed in protest.
"Malfoy?" she called, choking on air thick with dust.
"Granger?" She heard his voice somewhere above her, tipping her head back to investigate and breathing out a sigh of relief when she could just about make out the outline of the hole she'd fallen into, thanking every god and wizard that it hadn't closed behind her.
"Help - help me up," she coughed again, pushing herself slowly off the floor, and dusting off her school uniform.
"And how, pray tell, do you suggest I do that, Granger? Don't know whether the fall has affected your memory, but we are both wandless...and it's dark." Draco examined his nails, wincing as the bushy-haired witch screamed back at him shrilly.
"And whose fault is that? If you'd have stopped being a prat for just one second, then maybe, the potion wouldn't have exploded, and then maybe, just maybe, we wouldn't have had to spend detention cleaning the corridor walls. And if you weren't such a self-righteous prat, I wouldn't be down this hole."
"Weeeellll... I guess you're right. Have fun sitting in the dark, mudblood." he flung the 'mudblood' cheerily over his shoulder as he slowly walked away.
"WAIT, wait, wait. Okay, fine." Hermione sighed trying to calm herself. Swallowing her pride with great difficulty, she called up.
"Would you please just get me out of here?" Hermione ground her teeth together as she heard him laugh in reply.
Draco hesitantly placed his foot on the first step, his amusement at Granger's predicament wearing off quickly when he realised that none of the light from the torches burning at regular intervals down the corridor, seemed to reach the stairwell, instead, there was only deep impenetrable black. He contemplated leaving the Gryffindor where she was, but even Snape wouldn't let that one slide. With a sigh, he placed his hands on either wall and slowly began his descent.
Hermione methodically traced the walls with her fingertips, counting her footsteps, starting the process again when she reached the corner, trying to work out what exactly she had fallen into. As far as she could tell the room was empty, the walls bumpy and uneven, but why it was there was lost on her.
"Merlin, Granger, I can't see anything down here." Hermione sighed in exasperation when Draco's comment made her lose count.
"Who knew you were so good at stating the obvious."
Draco scowled, "Do you want out of the dark and dingy hole, Granger? Because I will leave you, and trust me when I say, I will sleep like the dead."
Hermione bit back the retort of him already looking like the dead and leant back against the wall, wincing when something sharp dug into her back. She quickly turned, tracing her fingers over it surface and noted that there were patterns carved into the stone. She knew she didn't have a hope of working out what they were in the dark, but she was curious non the less.
Draco squinted, shuffling down another step, wondering why he hadn't come across the hole yet.
"Where the…" The words died in his throat as his foot slid into a gap, and the rest of him followed. He groaned at the pain lancing up his leg as he landed funny, crumpling into a sorry heap in the darkness.
"Malfoy?"
"Now who's stating the obvious?" He grumbled, pushing himself up, gingerly putting his foot to the floor, testing his weight on the injured limb.
"Well this is a flawless rescue, I'm sure its easier with both of us down here, better perspective perhaps?"
"Sarcasm isn't a good colour on you Mudblood," Draco bit back, glancing around the space forlornly realising he couldn't see anything. "I knew it, I fuckin' knew it, never help the know-it-all." Draco rubbed his leg gingerly, it felt bruised.
"Don't call me that!"
"Which one, Mudblood or Know-it-all, because you know, both are…" They both paused as they heard a grating sound above their heads.
"Is that the…" Hermione started, but couldn't finish, panic making her words bubble into nothing. She didn't want to think about the fact that she might be trapped and with Malfoy of all people.
"Oh no, no, no. HELP! HELP! I'M TRAPPED WITH A MUDBLOOD!" His shouts echoed around them and faded into silence. "Great, that's just peachy. Thanks a bunch, Granger. Tell me, does that bushy hair of yours drown out common sense, you know like, don't go traipsing down dark stairwells without a light?"
"This mess is entirely your fault; you have to be so-so...immature." Snapping at Malfoy seemed to be the only viable way of not panicking. She couldn't be trapped, she had stuff to do, a life to live, books to read. "Okay, okay. Let's think about this. It's Hogwarts, so there's got to be some sort of latch, or handle, or something..." she knew she was clutching at straws, she'd searched the room and found nothing but the possibility of patterns on the wall, but, if being friends with Harry had taught her anything, it was that there was always hope.
"Sooooo you suggest feeling around in the dark, great plan, 10 points to Gryffindor." Draco slow clapped as Hermione turned and once again started running her palms along the wall.
'Will you just try?' She bit out.
With a heavy drawn-out sigh, Draco began feeling around in the darkness till his hand met the cold wall. "What the hell are these?" he mumbled, running his finger along a ridge that stuck out of the wall quite significantly "Feels like runes or something..."
"Runes, I hadn't thought of that. Perhaps…maybe we could read them and they…they could show us the way out."
"Well good luck with that one, Granger." Draco scoffed, "the golden trio worked out how to see in the dark?' Hermione ignored him and carried on searching, but with each bit of wall covered, the knot of worry in her stomach grew. Suddenly her hand brushed Draco's in the darkness, and they both jumped back quickly.
"Get off me mudblood," He spat, wiping his hand down the front of his jumper.
"I told you not to call me that!" Hermione stomped her foot against the floor, to keep herself from kicking the wall and hurting herself even more.
"Wow stomping feet, Granger, real mature. You're hardly in a position to be giving orders anyway, you got us trapped down here."
'"You stole my necklace," Hermione hissed through gritted teeth.
"Correction, Granger, you dropped it, I simply picked it up." Draco attempted to pushing the wall nearest to him, gritting his teeth as the ridges dug into his palms.
"You wouldn't give it back."
"You wouldn't give it back," Draco mimicked, "I don't know what you're getting all pissy for, it was a piece of trash."
"I told you, it was a present." Hermione had given up on searching for a way out, actively aiming all her frustration and fear at Draco in the darkness.
"Shit present." Draco paused in his pushing, grinning into the black in the general direction her voice had come from.
"Wait a minute, oh don't tell me, no that's too precious. By any chance did one of your boyfriends buy it for you?" Hermione blushed, grateful for the lack of light if Malfoy knew she'd never hear the end of it.
"Shut up, Malfoy."
"Oh Merlin, they did, didn't they? So, who was it? Potty or little Ronniekins?" He tapped his chin in mock thought as he leant against the wall he'd been pushing. "Given the cheapness of it, I'm going to go with, Weasel."
"Shut up."
"I'm right aren't I?"
"You're such a twat." Hermione crossed her arms, wishing for about the fiftieth time that night that she was somewhere else, with anyone else. She'd have preferred Voldemort to sharing an enclosed space with Malfoy.
"And you're a mudblood."
"I've told you...arghhh, you're such a dick." Draco laughed bitterly at her pathetic insults.
"Well you're getting on my tits, Granger, so I guess that makes us even." He pushed himself off the wall in annoyance, even in the darkness she still managed to have an air of know-it-allness about her and it was stifling.
"EVEN? EVEN? You deliberately sabotage the potion and get us stuck down here and you think we're even?" Hermione gestured wildly around her, even though he couldn't see "The ingredients said cut ginger roots, so guess what, you were supposed to cut them." Hermione hit the back of her hand against her palm reiterating her point.
"And we're back to the bloody potion. For your information, little miss-micro-manage, I was cutting the fucking ginger roots."
"You were dicing."
"Same difference, bucktooth."
"Well, it obviously wasn't because the potion exploded."
"It probably exploded because it couldn't take listening to one more minute of you shrieking."
"I do not shriek!" Hermione shrieked, making Draco wince.
"Of course, you don't Granger, and your hair's not bushy and you don't have the hots a ginger weasel." Draco drawled sarcastically.
"Why you…" Hermione went to lunge in his general direction, but the light stopped her; it was small and bright, pulsing gently as it floated in lazy circles between them. floating between them.
"What is that?" Draco whispered, noticing how close their faces had gotten in their argument and pulling back sharply, his face contorting in a mix of fear and curiosity.
"I don't know?" Hermione breathed, leaning forward, feeling her face warm in the glow.
"Wow, Miss Know-It-All doesn't know, this should go down in his...Hey, don't touch it, are you mad?" He went to reach for her hand then thought better of it; partly out of distaste for her mudblood germs, and partly because he didn't want to get any closer to the unidentified flying light.
The bushy-haired Gryffindor had no such qualms reaching forward bravely, the end of her finger tingling as it made contact. The light flew away at an alarming speed, sinking into one of the crevices on the wall. For a moment it seemed as if it would stay there, pulsing its light into the black stone, but just as Hermione was about to step towards it again, the light began to spread, pooling into every available gap. The effect was dizzying, the walls coming to life with a multitude of colours and the air around them warming in the glow.
"Wow." Hermione realised that she was no longer afraid, the strange light banishing it all in an instant making her feel strangely calm.
"They're pictures," Draco muttered, spinning slowly to take in the scene in its entirety, his hands burrowed deep in his pockets feigning a calm he hadn't felt since he'd fallen down the stupid hole.
Hermione stopped staring at the end of her finger in curiosity and glanced up. He was right, before her lay the intricate carving of a ball; it glittered in spectacular detail, the ever-changing glow of the light making it seem as if the people were dancing. She turned and gasped, the rest of the walls were filled with them too; battles both magical and muggle, night and day, places she'd never seen before but looked beautiful and real enough to fall into.
"Arden." Hermione turned to Draco, who was tracing his fingers warily over a large and foreboding castle, it was the darkest of all the pictures, the sky above it full of grey clouds.
"The haven of the witch and wizard. You know it?" Hermione whispered, coming to stand by his side.
"Duh, Granger, everyone knows it." She rolled her eyes, ignoring his tone, not even he could ruin how magical the moment was.
Hermione turned away and her breath caught, steps faltering as she saw the image on the farthest wall; it was the brightest, filled with a kaleidoscope of colours that swirled into each other and created shades and textures she had no name for. It was a man and a woman, their foreheads pressed together, hands clasped as they cried, their tears dripping into an alabaster bowl beneath them, the contents of it a swirling silver mist. Hermione ran her fingers along the breastplate of the man's armour, golden vines decorated the edge which unfurled into leaves towards the centre. The woman wore a white dress, corseted with long sleeves that almost dangled into the bowl beneath them. The bowl itself was beautiful, the rim encrusted with precious jewels and between them carved runes that glowed a deep crimson. Hermione felt drawn to it as if pulled by a gravity that felt inevitable.
The shaking started as soon as her fingers made contact. The walls creaked and groaned around them as if about to give way.
"What in Merlin's name did you do?" Draco shouted over the din, his whole body shaking in panic as he made his way over to the Gryffindor, hands grasping at the moving walls for purchase. Hermione stared at her fingers wide-eyed, inspecting them for any marks as the tips tingled.
"I didn't do anything...I" she pointed at the wall in front of her just as it split down the middle separating the couple and breaking the bowl. The silver light within in it leaked away, flooding through the newly made gap and the shaking abruptly stopped.
"Whaaa…?" Draco eyed the walls suspiciously, certain they were going to crush him at any moment and then he'd have to die by the side of a mudblood, not something he'd ever planned on.
"It's a door," Hermione stated matter of factly, shaking off her shock and moving to action. If there were doors then it meant a way out and as beautiful as the room, she didn't want to stay trapped in it any longer. She pushed at the stone and Draco let out a snort as he watched her feet slip hopelessly on the floor beneath her.
"Malfoy, would you please help me?" Draco scanned the rest of the lit pictures lazily.
"And why would I do that, mudblood?" He added the 'mudblood' like an afterthought, grinning slightly as he watched her face screw up in annoyance.
"Because, Malfoy," she tried to calmly explain through gritted teeth, "since the stairs went back to their original job of being stairs, we are trapped down here. And this, this is a door, doors usually lead places,' she paused and looked at him, "you see where I'm going with this?' she finished with a patronising smirk.
"Oh, shut up, mudblood, no one likes a smartass." Despite his words he moved to help her, putting a great deal of distance between him and the know-it-all witch. He hated her more when she was right, which, infuriatingly, was all the time.
The stone moved slowly, scraping along the floor loudly as it left an arch in the thick blanket of dust that had settled there. Draco pushed it one last time before stepping back and admiring the gap they'd created, big enough for them to fit through one at a time.
"Right let's go," Hermione paused when she felt a hand on her shoulder, looking around curiously at the Slytherin who was worriedly eyeing the gap, trying his best to glimpse the unknown on the other side of the door.
"I swear that hair or yours dulls your senses. You can't just go waltzing through a gap in the wall. You don't know where it leads." Hermione rolled her eyes at his cowardice.
"And what do you suggest, sitting in the middle of the room and willing the hole to appear again?" She shrugged off his hand, watching the realisation dawn on his face as he pulled his arm back not so subtly wiping the 'germs' off on the nearest wall.
Hermione slowly shuffled through the gap, her mouth falling open as she stepped out into a large expansive room, emerald green pillars sparkling in the light of candles that floated just above her, suspended by magic as they were in the great hall. The roof was domed, a 4-pointed star sparkling in its centre, splitting off sections that depicted each season, the images moving as if windows to the weather outside. Snowflakes began to spill out of the winter scene, floating down around her. She grinned reaching out to catch them, and when they touched her skin, they were warm, disappearing in a glimmer of sparkling light.
The walls around her were painted with images that moved; people, animals, clouds and plants that moved and swayed, as if living their own smaller life. Hermione leaned closer to inspect them, smiling gently as she watched a little girl with a dog, run along crowded streets filled with people admiring the abundance of different objects being sold at little stalls. The scene looked so real, so alive, she was sure she could smell cooking bread, smoke from fires and the mud that squished beneath their feet.
"What in Merlin's name?" Hermione jumped as she heard Draco's voice behind her. He'd finally worked up the courage to push himself through the gap and was stunned by the sight that met him. Snow fell from the roof and was collecting on the floor and the bushy-haired Gryffindor was leant over slightly inspecting moving pictures that decorated the walls, snowflakes collecting in the frizz on top of her head and not melting.
"It's amazing," she breathed, her eyes glinting with wonder which was something that Draco had never really had the pleasure of seeing, not that he would ever admit that he cared.
"We live in an enchanted castle where we perform magic, I think amazing kind of goes without saying," he answered drily. Hermione scoffed turning away from him. Draco shrugged and went over to inspect the opposite wall, stepping closer when he noticed a tiny battle was raging. Blood poured into the earth, as men screamed and slaughtered one another. He saw one young man curled up in the mayhem, trying to shove his innards back inside of him, tears making tracks down his filthy cheeks. Draco pulled away in disgust, his stomach doing somersaults.
"Granger, I think we should get out of here." Hermione ignored him, tracing a rune that was carved into one of the emerald green pillars.
"This is seven, well I mean, the actual meaning has never been uncovered, but it usually means seven. Why is it here?" Hermione muttered, as she inspected the other pillars and found that there were no more runes.
"I don't know, Granger let's just go." He mumbled, working his way to the far end of the room, hoping that the large archway housed a door that he could escape through and be free from the nightmare that was being in the mudbloods company.
He paused as he heard the grating of stone against stone. Turning, he watched as a good portion of the floor opened and a huge white bowl floated out of it, runes carved into its base and precious stones encrusted around the rim.
"It's the one from the picture," Hermione whispered, letting her hand fall away from the green pillar where the rune was glowing red. The floor slid back into place leaving the bowl floating a few inches above it. Hermione looked so tiny next to it, the expanse of it covering most of the floor, snowflakes disappearing in glittering bursts as they fell into it.
Draco turned away, shaking his head. It all felt too much like something the golden trio would get up to and that usually led to danger, which he wanted absolutely no part in. He felt a glimmer of hope and began to increase his pace when, to his relief, the outline of a door began to appear the closer he got. However, he faltered when the Gryffindor muttered something behind him.
"What?!" he spat, swivelling around violently to look at her. To his horror, she was inspecting the contents of the strange floating bowl, her face glowing silver.
"It's a Pensieve," she said again, not bothering to look up at him, "It holds memories, so you can view them,"
"I know what a Pensieve is." he grumbled, "Look let's just go. I don't think we're even supposed to be here." Hermione looked up at him scornfully.
"Since when do you care about abiding by the rules, Malfoy?"
"Since common sense tells me that this place could be dangerous," he muttered glancing around fearfully.
"What, scared?"
"No, just...just come on, mudblood." He focused intently on the door, hoping to hear the steps of the Gryffindor behind him. He looked over his shoulder when he was met with silence, his mouth falling open as he watched the bushy-haired witch reach forwards, snowflakes from her hair drifting into the basin below.
"No, don't…" he started running back toward her.
Hermione barely even registered him shouting, the contents of the bowl was so hypnotising, it moved like mist and smoke, noises and sounds swirling within its depths so faint she could hardly make them out. She leant forward, slowly lowering her hand into the bowl, the sensations that travelled up her arm made her gasp. It was like feeling every emotion at once, tears threatening to spill from her eyes at the same time as she tried to stifle laughter.
The feeling suddenly stopped as she was yanked back, wincing at the vice-like grip around the top of her arm.
"Are you deaf, or just too bloody stupid? You don't know what that thing is," The Slytherin was spitting in her face, his nose almost touching hers as he snarled. She tried to shrug him off, pushing against his chest.
"Get off me."
"No, because when left to your own devices, you wander. I swear I don't know how you aren't dead yet."
"Wouldn't you just love that?" Hermione yanked her arm away from him with all her strength.
Draco suddenly relinquished his grip, sending Hermione falling back. For a while her arms flailed in the air, desperate for something to grip onto, finally, she managed to grab a large handful of Draco's jumper, pulling him with her. Draco's arms pinwheeled as he struggled to find purchase, his face contorting in fear as he watched the silvery mist rise and wrap around Hermione's shoulders in two long tendrils. With extraordinary strength, the mist yanked Hermione into its depths and she was powerless to do anything but fall backwards, yanking Draco along with her.
