CHAPTER 29: THE ONE WHERE SIX PEOPLE ARE CHAINED IN A DUNGEON

Hermione opened her eyes slowly, trying to get her bearings and sort out the muddle of thoughts and emotions racing around in her head. She'd expected to be tortured, she'd been prepared to face the Crucio from him, and even death, but the masked man had simply hackled on about catching Draco and some plan before knocking her out cold.

She sat up, cringing when her body groaned against the movement. How long had she been out? She tried to get to her feet, but her arms and legs were shackled to the wall with chains that barely allowed her any movement. She took in a deep breath, and almost yelped when her ribs strained against her skin.

When had she broken her ribs?

"Ah, I see that you're finally awake, Hermione. Nice of you to pay some attention! I've been trying to kick you awake for ages now! And thanks to your meddling, I had to push back the end of the world as we know it, to three am!" The masked man suddenly appeared in front of her and before she could respond, he kicked her ribs again.

Hermione bit her tongue to stop herself from screaming out as the already tender skin around her ribs was crushed once more, and the bones from within, pressed dangerously against her skin, like they were going to tear through. It hurt, so badly that she was tempted to give up right then and scream for Draco, to make it all go away, but she couldn't do that.

She'd realised pretty early on in their run-away adventure, that Draco had been the missing piece that the lunatic behind the murders had needed. Over the course of the two years she'd been alone, she'd found almost no clues, yet the moment Draco was involved in her life, the murders had begun to get sloppy.

On purpose too. Whatever this plan was that the masked man was trying to get underway, it needed Draco to be present too, that's why he'd left the note pointing to Malfoy Manor at Ron's murder scene, to get the whole thing in motion.

So she couldn't call to Draco for help, the most important thing he could do right now, was to stay away from this place. She needed him to be safe, even if in the end, it meant she'd have to break the promise she'd made him.

Forever and ever...at least she'd had a small taste of happiness before things had gone so downhill. She clenched her fist, finding comfort in the ring on her finger.

"You know, Hermione, at first I didn't understand why it had to be your blood for the potion to work, but I think I'm starting to understand. You lived most of your life thinking you were a muggle, and then you found out you have magic and became a Muggleborn witch, and then you find out that you have a Pureblood inheritance. Your life has been a constant struggle and you've lived through it all. Those are some genetics, Granger."

Hermione didn't respond. She kept her lips firmly closed, knowing that the only thing he wanted from her right now was for her to get angry, and she wouldn't give him that satisfaction. But, apparently, that hadn't been the right thing to do either, since he took that as a revolt against him and with that creepy smile of his, cast a "CRUCIO!" at her.

Hermione knew the feeling of being tortured. She'd had this done to her before, the pain, the agony that came with such a curse was almost indescribable and clenching her teeth was not enough to stop herself from gasping for air.

Why was this happening? What had she done that meant such a treatment was necessary?

And just as soon as the pain was washing over her body, it disappeared and Hermione took in a lungful of air, choking as she was able to breathe again, her heart racing so fast in her chest, she felt like it was about to explode.

The masked man seemed to be enjoying her attempt to stay quiet, because, almost like he was having fun teasing her, he cast another "CRUCIO" at her, and once again Hermione felt her whole body begin to burn up with torture.

Had this...had this been what Draco had felt when he'd been affected by mermoisa scarisa? Had this been the kind of pain that he'd felt? Had he been gasping for breath and panicking as air seemed to freeze, unable to leave or get into her lungs, just as she was?

And yet, he'd told her that he was fine? That he was alright?

...If...if he could be that strong...if the love of her life could be that strong for her...then...then surely...she could be strong too...

For him.

For Draco...

Another ripple of pain crashed through her body, and then, just when she thought she was going to pass out from the pain, he stopped the curse and Hermione crumpled to the floor, unable to stop the tears in her eyes from falling.

But the feeling of relief was short lived as the masked man suddenly grabbed her by her hair and pulled her to her feet roughly. Hermione felt like her neck was going to snap, and bit her lip to stop herself from crying out. If she kept biting her lip like that, it was going to start bleeding soon.

"Had enough, my little Hermione? I need to keep you alive, but we can have a little fun before the ceremony, right? You won't tell anyone, right?" He whispered in her ear before slapping her so hard that she almost fell to the floor from the impact, but his grasp on her hair was tight and he made her stay upright by pulling on the long strands sharply.

It had taken her years to be happy with her hair. After the constant teasing from everyone around her, she'd made sure to start watching her appearance, not so much to please them, but to ensure that she would be happy with herself. She'd done everything in her power to stop the frizzy mess from before reappearing, growing out her hair so that the weight would keep the frizz out, and combing it every day.

It had taken her years to be happy with the way it was and now she wished that she could cut it all off so that he wouldn't have anything to hurt her with so badly.

"You think you're so clever, sending Draco away with a portkey, don't you? Did you think that I wouldn't be able to catch him again? All you managed to do was stall the ceremony for a few hours, Hermione, and I'll reunite you with everyone very soon. Isn't that nice of me? Giving you all some time to say goodbyes to each other before you all die? Aren't I a nice guy?" he asked, leaning in so close, that the dull blue colour of his eyes were fixated directly into hers.

What...what did he mean by that? Had he caught Draco? And the others...who were these others he kept mentioning? Harry? Had Harry been caught too? What was going on?

He let go off her hair and watched her crumple to the ground in satisfaction, and then he crouched down and grabbing her hair once more, slammed her head against the stone floor.

Hermione practically felt her forehead split open, and the sticky red liquid of life began to trickle down her neck. She was bleeding, and quite baldy too.

The room began to spin, and her vision went blurry. It felt like every part of her body was screaming out for help, but Hermione could barely focus on breathing as vision got worse. Was she going to faint again? Would she wake up this time? Why was there so much blood?

Just as her eyelids began to droop dangerously, Hermione clenched her fist, the ring on her finger warm against her skin.

Get a grip, Granger, she told herself, you can't faint, you need to survive this, you have to live through this and tell Draco--- she didn't even get to finish her thoughts as her head was slammed against the wall again.

Hermione felt her eyes began to close and the darkness begin to close in around her. Was this it, was this how she was going to die?

"Oops! Can't have you fainting on me again." The masked man muttered, and Hermione felt her wound close suddenly and she was jerked back into the present violently as the blood in her body was replenished abruptly and her body healed suddenly.

"That's better, isn't it? I can't have you dying on me before the ceremony is underway! Am I not the nicest man in the world, Hermione. If you say thank you, I won't hit your head anymore." He stated calmly, watching as she struggled to sit up from the floor.

Hermione swallowed heavily and breathed in deeply, ignoring the pain when her lungs pushed her ribs against the delicate skin of her torso. "Go to hell," she whispered out, smirking at the scowl on his face.

That stupid mask was really starting to piss her off now. She wanted nothing more than to rip it off his face and shred it to pieces and shove it up his-

He slapped her, and Hermione bit her lip so hard to stop herself from crying, that her teeth sunk into the soft flesh of her lips and she tasted blood.

He seemed alarmed by the sight of blood on her lips, backing away like he didn't know what to do, but then he smirked and leaned in close. "Aw, poor baby, did that hurt? Let me kiss and make it all better, Granger!" He muttered into her ear, before forcefully pulling up her chin and slanting his mouth onto hers. She kept her lips firmly closed, and her eyes shut, wishing desperately in her heart that this wasn't really happening, that it was all some nightmare that she couldn't wake up from.

His tongue ran over her bottom lip, tasting her blood before letting her go and laughing like it was the funniest thing in the world. Hermione tried not to vomit and wiped her mouth on her sleeves, trying to get rid of all memory of it.

"Your blood is so sweet, Hermione, just like you. Now then, where were we?"

Hermione didn't say saying, just continued wiping her mouth in frenzy, her eyes shut tightly away from the horror she was facing. Her heart hurt, her head hurt too, but her heart felt like it was breaking into a thousand pieces and all she wanted to do was call for Draco to come.

She wanted to be with him, on that hill once more, before everything had turned so dark and horrible. That hill where she'd realised that her future was literally in front of her, but she kept her mouth shut.

"No, no, no, Granger! I want to hear you scream for mercy! I want to see you cry and beg me to stop. Scream for me, my lovely, little Granger! CRUCIO!"

The raw amusement in his voice seemed to have compelled the curse to be even more unbearable that before. He was so full of loathing towards her and coupled with the trauma she'd already suffered through, this was the curse that broke her boundaries and made her scream.

Her throat began to sting from screaming, and yet she didn't stop...couldn't stop. Tears began to run down her cheeks, and her skin felt like a hundred thousand hot knives were being driven into them, one by one, carefully so that they caused her as much pain as possible, piercing through the soft barrier of her skin, cutting into her nerves and muscles and tearing the flesh apart.

The man looked down at her, his eyes wide in excitement at her pain, "yes, that's what I like to hear. What an obedient little girl you are! What a nice sound...for that, I'll reward you."

He removed the curse and Hermione fell to the floor, unable to move. Her throat raw from her screaming, and her body, mentally and physically wounded. There were tears on her face, but she wasn't even aware that she'd been crying until the salty water touched her lips.

Somewhere deep in her mind, she wished for death to come quickly to carry her way, but the rest of her brain was telling her not to give up. This wasn't how she wanted to die. Alone in a dungeon with a mad man.

"I'm feeling compassionate, Hermione, I'll keep my promise to you. Let me take you to your friends so that you all can have some last words." The masked man stated.

Hermione felt her body be bound by the full body bind again and the cuffs around her wrist and ankles were removed. If she'd wanted to do something about it, then now would have been the time, but she was so tired...so very tired and hurting...

And then she was being lifted, none to gently, off the ground by him and being carried away to somewhere else.

She could feel every step he took; the movement was causing her ribs to press harder and harder against her lungs and her skin, and her head was still pounding. Whatever spell he'd used to bind her forehead hadn't worked well, and she could feel the wound beginning to drip blood again, but it was impossible for her to say a word or do anything.

She felt broken. So broken, like a doll that had been dropped and left behind in the rain for the wild animals to play with. And she missed Draco.

The masked man stopped walking suddenly, and Hermione heard the sound of another dungeon door opening slowly. Before she could even prepare herself, she was thrown into the room, shackles appeared around her wrist and legs once more and then, door closed behind him.

For a moment, the room was silent, and Hermione didn't know any more if the pain she was feeling was from the injuries from the other dungeon, or if it was from being throw so roughly onto the floor, and then an eruption of voices began to call out to her desperately.

She pushed herself to sit, and in the dim light of the lone candle in the corner of the bare dungeon, Hermione came across a sight that almost convinced her that had died and had gone to hell.

"Granger?"

There was Ron and Pansy, who were supposed to be dead, shackled to the wall by their legs and wrists, almost arm's length apart from each other.

"Granger!"

Her mind tried to figure out how that was possible, did dead people not die after all? Or were they ghosts? But if they were ghosts, why were they being held captive then...

"Granger!"

And if so...but any theories evaporated upon catching sight of Harry, also bound to the wall and staring at her like he couldn't believe it, his eyes wide in shock at her appearance, his mouth open in speechlessness at seeing her like this.

"Hermione!"

Hermione jerked her head around and stared at the other person attached by chain to the wall of the dungeon, closest to her, but still too far away to reach out and touch. Her eyes widened in horror and the haziness around her body disappeared as she sat up straight. "Draco? Draco, what are you doing here? I sent you away with a portkey!" she shouted, struggling against the shackles desperately.

No! NO! NO!!!

This wasn't supposed to happen! Draco, at least Draco, was supposed to be safe from all this.

Draco stared at her in horror. There was a wide cut on her forehead that looked like it had been stitched up with bad magic, and it was leaving a trail of blood down her face. One side of her face was red, like she'd been slapped, and the way she was sitting made him think that there was something wrong with her ribs too.

He stared at her hands, and found them trembling slightly; a known result of being put under the Crucio. Her hair hung around her like a broken halo, her eyes dim and every inch of skin he could see on her arms and legs were purple and blue.

And there were streaks on her face from tears.

Then there was the fact that only moment ago, before she'd been thrown into the room like she was an object and not a person, Draco had heard her screaming.

"Granger, did...did that guy do this to you? Did he make you cry?" he asked, his voice low and dangerously terse.

Hermione froze and looked away from him, clasping her hands together to hide the trembling and shook her head at him, "I'm fine, Draco. What are you doing here? What are all of you doing here? Ron...Pansy...Harry..." she looked at each of them, needing an answer, but they were all too horror-struck by what they were seeing and the screams they'd heard, to respond properly.

Harry and Ron especially, didn't know how to speak to her after all this time, and with the way she looked, and the anger in Malfoy's eyes, right now wasn't the right time to apologise.

"Um...I'm here too, Hermione," a voice said from her right. Hermione turned to face a dishevelled looking Blaise who gave a small smile like he wasn't sure whether now was a good time to smile or not.

"Blaise...you too? Why are you all here? What's going on? What's he planning to do with all of you?"

Draco gritted his teeth; the rage he felt was worse than anything he'd ever felt before, and he found himself straining against the cuffs on his body, wanting nothing more than to run after that masked coward and make him pay, not even flinching when the iron cuffs cut into his skin.

"We're not entirely sure ourselves. I feel like we're not even at Hogwarts anymore, the Aurors would've come looking for us by now if we were. Plus, this place doesn't feel like school." Harry muttered, looking around the dark, damp dungeon that was far too disgusting to belong to Hogwarts.

"But obviously, that masked man needs us for whatever ceremony or plan he's got going on, maybe we're going to be sacrifices?" Ron inputted, grimly.

Hermione blinked at his words, not used to such serious things coming from him. Had being thought dead changed him somehow? Pansy tsked at his words and rolled her eyes, "that's nice, Weasely, why not make the situation even more dreary and hopeless."

He glanced up and made a face at her, and she made one back, and then both of them huffed at each other and turned away, their arms crossed.

"...Um... now is not the time to explain everything, Hermione, we need to get ourselves out of here first." Harry butted in, looking at the presumed dead duo in confusion before pulling at the chains around his legs.

Hermione nodded distractedly, wiping the blood from her face, her eyes hardening as she began to think, "right. The ceremony is supposed to start at around three or something...I don't know what time it is, but I don't think we have much time left. We need to figure out a way to get out of here." She said, prioritising her mind. Ron was right, there was no point of figuring out other things until they got out of here first

Hermione took a shallow breath to ready herself before she pulled her feet as close to her body as possible. Everyone watched in confusion as she began to, slowly and carefully, take off her left shoe, her face pulled into a grimace every time she moved an inch.

No one questioned her, and Draco was far too busy scanning her face intensely, catching sight of every mark and bruise that shouldn't have been there, before his eyes settled on her lips, which had a deep cut and looked swollen like she'd been...

Draco gritted his teeth hard and growled in anger, leaving quiet room as everyone stared at him. Hermione froze again, aware of the anger radiating off of him, but then she pulled off her shoe and let out a sigh of relief. She observed the room, looking for the exit and wondering how to get a small plan in her head into motion but it was hard ignoring Draco's intense gaze on her and sighed, "Draco, I told you I'm-"

"You're not fine, Granger! Stop lying to me! First you sent me away-"

"Because I didn't want to see you get hurt!" Hermione interrupted, getting frustrated at him.

"I wouldn't have gotten hurt. None of this would have happened if I'd stayed with you! You would've been hurt and you wouldn't have been alone again!" He wanted to yell at her, scream at her for what she'd done. but couldn't bring himself to do so.

She looked so broken now, and it was easy to tell that she was putting on a brave face in front of the others, but she was so broken. This was all so unfair, why was this happening to her, what wrong had she ever done to deserve this kind of treatment? Why hadn't he been with her, so that he could've stopped it?

Pansy watched the two of them, and though it was sad and intense moment, she couldn't help the fluttering in her chest at what she was witnessing. She'd been right, their chemistry and love was so worth shipping! She decided then and there, that if she ever got out of this alive, the first thing she was going to do was write all of this down as a beautiful love story for the world to know or something.

It would be far more worth it than trying to get along with the stupid git, Weasely and his moody behaviour.

"I swear to Merlin, Granger, when we get out of here, I'm going to give you the biggest lecture in the world about your stupid actions and then I'm never going to let you out of my sight again, but right now, as much as I hate to admit it, the idiots are right. We need to get out here before that crazy bastard comes back." Draco muttered, trying to wrench the cuffs off of himself.

Hermione opened her mouth to speak, her eyes focused on the shoe that she'd taken off, but Pansy suddenly breathed in like she remembered something important, "Blaise, you said you knew who the guys was, right? The masked man? You were going to tell us before we were knocked out!" She cried out, pointing at the man, who froze as if remembering the incident too.

Her shackled clacked against her wrist and Pansy winced, Rom glanced at her in worry before looking at Blaise for an answer.

Draco felt like slapping himself across the face! How the hell had he managed to forget that, of all things? At least Pothead and Weasel had forgotten too, so he didn't look like an idiot at least. "She's right, you said that he took the mask off in front of you, right?"

Blaise gulped, not liking all the attention that was suddenly on him for this reason. Only a few seconds ago, everyone had forgotten about him, and now everyone was staring at him like he was the answer to the question of life. "Yeah, I said that...but you and Potter wouldn't listen to me and kept threatening to kill me or lock me in a pink coffin!" He shuddered at the idea of being buried in such a monstrosity. Pink didn't match his personality at all.

Draco sighed in irritation at his stupid best friend, "that doesn't matter now, Zabini! Who is that guy? How do you know him?" he asked. It wasn't that he wanted to know because it was crucial to the escape plan, more so to know who he was supposed to kill for harming Hermione.

"We went to school with him, Draco. And there is a lot more to this plan than we know...the way he was talking about this plan...man it's kind of creepy." Blaise stated, frowning.

Hermione glanced at him, his words catching her attention. So, she hadn't been the only one to pick up on that then? There was something more to this situation than just needing to kill her?

Draco waved away his words, "just tell me that masked guy's name, I don't care about anyone else. He's the one that..." he trailed off, looking at the bleeding cut on Hermione's head, "I just want to know that guy's name."

Blaise licked his lips and nodded, "right. Its-"

But for the second time that day, he was cut off again as the door to the dungeon opened and the masked guy walked in, smiling brightly at all of them, twirling his wand between his fingers like he was showing off the fact that he was the most powerful one amongst them right now.

Hermione clenched her teeth.

"I hope you all had time to say your goodbyes! It's time for the ceremony to begin! Aren't you all excited, especially you, my little Hermione?" He shouted, shooting her a wink.

Draco growled, the iron shackles that attached him to the wall, creaking with pressure as he pulled against it. The masked man took a step back at the aggression being thrown at him, but then, as if realising that he had a wand, he petrified all of them.

Then, with another wave of his wand, everyone in the room, except Hermione, gasped suddenly as a cold, harsh wind sliced their right hands and the blood oozing from the wounds were collected in five little vials. Draco's wound though, was larger and bled more, and every drop of it was collected into a larger vial, and all of them flew into the masked man's side like obedient puppies.

"I don't need the lot of you anymore, but Hermione dear, you're coming with me."