“Good evening Miss Granger…” drawled Lucius Malfoy in his usual arrogant manner. “Enjoying the evening gossiping with your friend in the middle of the Forbidden Forest? A bit irresponsible of you isn’t it?” he added with a sneer.
Hermione couldn’t speak. She had frozen with fear. It wasn’t until she heard Ginny stand up off the rock behind her that she finally snapped out of it.
“Ginny run!” Hermione yelled as she cast a stunning spell toward Lucius. He blocked the spell and began laughing evilly. Hermione started to worry at this sudden change in his attitude and then she heard it…the unmistakable shrill, shrieky cackle of Bellatrix Lestrange behind her. Hermione turned around just in time to see the last strands of Ginny’s red hair turn into the black crazy hair of Bellatrix.
“Oh Hermione!” Bellatrix imitated Ginny’s voice, “I can’t believe Harry dumped me and your pregnant too!” she laughed hysterically and cast a spell that caused ropes to fly out and tie themselves around Hermione’s body, leaving her completely vulnerable.
“You pathetic little mudblood,” Bellatrix sneered. “You put too much trust into people that don’t even care about you anymore. And you think you are good enough to be with my nephew? YOU MUDBLOOD BITCH!”
Hermione pleaded, “Please…we’re happy together. We love each other. Isn’t that enough?”
She got her answer to her question with the cruciatus curse cast by Lucius. Hermione writhed and twitched on the ground screaming in pain. The curse was lifted and Lucius knelt down so he was right near her face.
“You are a mudblood. You are dirt…nothing….not worth two minutes of any Malfoy’s time. I am going to make sure you never bother my family again!” he sneered evilly as he stood up.
Hermione took in a sharp breath. He was going to kill her and the baby! But how could he kill his own grand child?
“But what about the baby?” Hermione cried, tears running down her face. “It’s half Malfoy! You’d your own grandchild?”
“What about the baby?” Bellatrix mocked. “There is no Malfoy in there. Just a filthy mudblood child just like its mother!” she screamed.
Hermione started to think fast. She managed to twist her hand around uncomfortably into her robe pocket and found Draco’s coin. She squeezed it as tight as she could and thought:
‘Help! Death Eaters are going to kill me in the forest!’
She prayed it would work. “Please Draco, I need you…”
~*~*~*~ A little earlier, in the head’s common room ~*~*~*~
It was 12:30 and Hermione still wasn’t back. Draco paced around the lounge are nervously. ‘Her note said she had gone to the library with Ginny. Maybe she went to stay in the girls Gryffindor dorm tonight? No! She wouldn’t just leave without telling me…would she?’
Draco sighed. “Where can she be?”
As if someone had heard him, he felt his pocket get warm and knew Hermione was using her coin. He took it out of his pocket and almost dropped it in shock when he saw it was glowing bright red! He quickly read the message and panic invaded his mind.
“Oh Hermione!” he said, almost crying. “I’m coming!” and he ran as fast as his legs would carry him, out the common room door, down the corridor, towards Professor McGonigal’s office.
~*~*~* Back in the forest ~*~*~*
Hermione was racking her brains…trying to buy some extra time.
“How did you change into Ginny? You haven’t been in the school, how did you get some of her hairs?” she asked Bellatrix.
Bellatrix cackled. “Oh that was easy!” she said. “You have no idea how much Pansy Parkinson hates you…. I sent her an owl offering her an impressive reward if she could get some hairs from Ginny Weasly. When she found out it was a dinner invitation to the Malfoy manner next holidays she couldn’t resist. All she had to do was have an argument with that muggle loving fool and grab her hair. Simple enough. And the next day I received a nice handful of red hair in the post.” She laughed hysterically. “Didn’t you wonder why she would want to meet you in the forest so late at night? Why not in the castle? You stupid mudbood!” and Bellatrix kicked Hermione in the stomach.
Hermione cried out as a sharp pain rippled through her stomach. She worried for her baby’s safety in this situation and tried again to buy some more time. “But how did you get into the forest? Its part of the school grounds! There are enchantments! You should have been able to get in! How did you get around it?” Hermione asked with mock curiosity and admiration.
“Oooooo! Little miss Know it all wants an explanation!” Ballatrix shrieked. Lucius smiled.
“Miss Granger…you really are the brightest witch of your age. Pity it’s wasted on dirty blood, but not for much longer. You see, Dumbledore was the one who was in charge of security around the perimeter of the school. While most of them have stayed in-tact, some have also fallen now that he’s dead. The other side of the forbidden forest is open, however once we reach the boundary to the school, we can go no further. So we had to lure you in her Miss Granger. A simple job of a false letter, some Pollyjucie potion and some wonderful acting from my dear Bellatrix.”
“Lucius stop it! I was only doin’ what was necessary to help my sister! Can’t have any more mudbloods in the family can we? Bad enough with them Tonks being related to us isn’t it?” said Bellatrix with a look of disgust on her face.
“Yes….we can’t afford to have anymore poison running in our pure blood family. So Miss Granger, any last words?” Lucius asked with a smirk as he raised his wand.
“Yeah…” Hermione said with as much courage as she could gather, “Go to hell!”
Lucius cast a cruciatus curse at her for that remark. “You would just make it easier on yourself if you asked me to kill you Miss Granger.”
“Never!” she screamed.
“Oh you will Miss Granger….eventually…” he assed with a very evil look on his face.
He cursed her and cursed her until her throat was red raw from all the screaming. He didn’t stop for more than five seconds at a time and all she could her was the evil cackle of Bellatrix Lestrange as she taunted her, “Beg for us girly! Beg for your death!”
Hermione wept as she screamed, tears running down her face as she pictured how devastated Draco would be when he found her and the baby dead. How upset Ginny would be. She could see her now crying over Hermione’s grave. What about Harry and Ron? Would they even care? Would they be sad? Or would they just say that she had gotten what she deserved? Hermione was getting weaker and weaker the longer the cursing went on. She was fighting for consciousness when a red blast flashed past into Lucius’ arm and the pain finally stopped.
Hermione had blurred vision as she tried to make out what was happening…..she saw several shapes of people running towards them and a number of coloured flashes as curses and spells were cast. Finally, Hermione couldn’t stay conscious anymore and she fainted just as she saw a pair of ice blue eyes full of worry bending down towards her.
~*~*~ Author’s Note ~*~*~
So? What do you think? Let me know! Please Review! And out of curiousily, I’d love to know more about what type of people my loyal readers are so whenever you leave a review from now on, could you say female/male, your age, and where you live? That would be awesome! Thanks for all my lovely reviews and support guys. You’re the best!
Printer Friendly Version
