"What the fuck?" were the first words Hermione heard when her feet stumbled on stable ground. The candy was a portkey and they had been tricked. They were in a dilapidated house that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. "We have to apparate out of here. This is definitely a trap." Malfoy grabbed her hand and tried to apparate but nothing happened. "I think there are anti-apparition wards here Malfoy." Hermione hadn't felt scared in a long long time, but right now it was difficult to find the Gryffindor courage.
"Then let's find a way out of here." He kept holding her hand as they found their way out of the house under a disillusionment charm in case anybody turned up.
The house was a small two-storey building surrounded by acres of forests. The garden was unkempt and overgrown which led them to believe it was probably a long-forgotten vacation home up in the hills. But hills in what place?!
Normally Draco would have suggested hiding around the house to determine who was behind the attempted kidnapping, but he didn't know who they were or what they were after. It didn't seem like a strategic choice at this point. Hermione came to the same conclusion on her own so she walked through the forest while holding his hand. A very strange day indeed.
After years she had a date where she didn't feel forced or coerced by her friends. A date that she actually wanted to be there for. Poor Rowan, but at least Malfoy had alerted the St. Mungos about him so they would have gotten to him by now. The sun had nearly set so it was only a matter of time before they would run out of sunlight to guide their way through the forest. The duo kept tracking for any magical signatures around, in case any witches or wizards were trailing them. They kept going deeper into the forest. With no unique markers or waterbodies, it was impossible to figure out where they were. The forest seemed to be a magical one with muggle plants as well, but barring a dirt road leading up to the old cottage, they hadn't come across any signs of human civilisation, muggle or otherwise.
A few hours later, when they were sure that there was nobody following them, Malfoy asked if Hermione was carrying anything that they could transfigure into makeshift mattresses. The Sun had set and they had lost light about an hour ago. With no sense of direction, it only made sense to rest and then figure out the options they had.
Malfoy planned to camouflage them in the thick branches of a very old oak tree. It would be best if they weren't visible from the ground level. Hermione produced a scarf and some parchment that they levitated between the branches and transfigured into small mattresses. "Need a lift Granger?" he said as he started climbing the old tree. Hermione would die but not admit to Malfoy of all the people that a) she was terribly out of breath after all the running they just did and b) she didn't know how to scale trees. She preferred to read under them, not monkey around on them. To be honest, it was very unlike Malfoy to know something so plebeian.
The clothes she was wearing weren't meant for scaling trees but while she could change that with magic, there was no way to magically acquire tree climbing skills. But Hermione Granger wasn't a Gryffindor for nothing. She morphed her clothes into comfortable gear as she attempted to find her footing. By the time she was barely three feet off the ground, Malfoy sat perched atop one of the mattresses like a smug child ready to show off. "You are very slow Granger." The most annoying thing was he didn't even say it as a taunt, he was simply stating a fact. With angry determination, Hermione started climbing faster. Just as she was about to reach her nook, a branch she was holding gave way and she slipped. Malfoy grabbed her right in time and pulled her up to him. She landed on him with a loud thud.
"Oof! How heavy are you?" Malfoy huffed. "Fuck off!" Hermione said as she sat up and carefully held onto branches to make her way to her nook. "So much so for thanking me for saving your life twice."
"Technically you only saved it once. We are still stuck here and haven't made it out safely yet."
After they had both rested for a few moments, Hermione started to think of ways to determine where they were. "We can't try to apparate when we don't how far we are from anything familiar. We could risk splinching ourselves."
"Thanks for stating the obvious," Draco said lost in his thoughts. He had been rummaging through the pockets of his coat. He had ignored most of her commentary thus far while fervently looking for something.
"What are you looking for?" Hermione asked. "My watch."
"It's on your wrist?" she offered helpfully. Maybe he hit his head when she landed on him.
"No, not that one, this other watch that tells the time specific to where I am in the world. It auto adjusts as per the time zone."
That was clever, Hermione admitted to herself. That way they could determine what time zone they were in at least. The weather did feel different from anything closer home. It could be entirely possible that they were nowhere in the United Kingdom let alone England, a possibility the two had discussed earlier.
"Fucking finally!" He pulled out a watch glinting under his faint Lumos. The night was dark but thankfully the moon was out so they could keep an eye on their surroundings without giving away their location. The October night had brought with it a very chilly wind which made Hermione quickly cast a warming charm. She could see that Malfoy seemed to have pulled out another tube-like object but in the darkness, she couldn't make out what it was.
He started fiddling with it and that's when she realised it was a magical miniature and audibly gasped! They were very hard to come by! Malfoy, who had been staring at the sky through the foliage, snorted at her reaction.
"Why do you carry that around?" her voice was like that of a curious child discovering magic for the first time. What intrigued him was she didn't ask him about the telescope itself. Instead, she wanted to know why he had it on him. Nobody had asked him that before. The rare few who knew about it always assumed it was a Malfoy heirloom he liked to keep on him for some reason.
"If you tell this to anyone I swear on Merlin, I'll kill you Granger, but I like to study the stars when I get time. It's better than staying awake at night and staring at the walls."
"Why are you up at night?" she asked quietly.
"I don't like to sleep." It was a simple admission. Surprisingly raw and intimate coming from Malfoy but that one sentence told her a lot about the man in front of her. The stars brought him the calm and peace that sleep should have. Nobody escaped the nightmares that the War gave, and it made sense that Malfoy would still be plagued by them. Her heart ached a little for him. That was a first. She had felt sympathy for him many times before, but empathy was a first.
They sat in silence as the trees rustled around them. "I think we are somewhere in Germany." Malfoy said quietly. He had spent years studying stars. Initially, it was to spot all the stars and constellations named after his ancestors and then as an escape from his loneliness as he grew older. As time wore on and Voldemort returned, it became his only solitude. Now it was his escape from the nightmares.
Hermione knew he was a smart bloke but seeing him deduce their location based on their time zone and star alignments did something to her insides. She was attracted to the man's brains. His face wasn't too bad either, neither was the behind but let's face it, the man was a posh prick.
"So that was an international portkey?"
"Yeah, but I am sure it was either bought off the black market or made illegally by our kidnappers. Anybody who can plan so much wouldn't be stupid enough to use one registered with any Ministry"
"What could they possibly want with me?"
"Whatever it is Granger, you and I both know it's something ugly. For now, let's focus on resting. We'll figure out how to get home tomorrow at daybreak. Got something to eat in that bag of yours? Am feeling famished."
She fished out an old granola bar that she split in two for them to share. The weight of the day was finally getting to her. "You keep the first watch. Wake me up in four hours?"
Malfoy nodded in agreement as he devoured the granola bar.
