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Disclaimer: My name is Livi, not J.K. Rowling, you sillies. So obviously I don't own the characters, yet I do own the plot.

Take Our Escape

Chapter 4

2:35 A.M.

"DRACO! Now, do it now!" Bellatrix screamed up and octave. Hermione was visibly shaking now, shuddering every few seconds or so.

Hermione fell to the ground, a crumpled heap on the ground.

Draco's heart stopped, for only a second that lasted a lifetime. What had he done?

Bellatrix's crazed screams of joy filled the air around him, shaking the trees and signaling another death had happened at her feet. She jumped around, setting rogue plants on fire and burning them to bits. Draco lowered his wand ever so slowly, beginning to realize what he had done. He had destroyed a life. The Death Eaters behind him chuckled a bit, their throaty laughs rough and ragged. Eventually they sauntered off, before giving Draco a sneer each. Bellatrix squealed, not unlike a mother swine.

"Finally, you proved your worthless self. Ah, I always knew you had it in you…but your idiot mother was too feeble-minded to see what power you have. Eh, she's gone now it doesn't concern her! Nothing concerns her anymore - she's dead!" Bellatrix cackled, her bittersweet voice turning sour.

She disappeared in a mist of gray smoke, leaving Draco trembling from sadness and anger…leaving Draco with the lifeless body of Hermione Granger. After seconds of snowfall and sorrow, Draco stepped forward. He knelt down, his kneecaps becoming wet and cold from the snow.

He reached his hand out to Hermione, though his hand stopped short when he noticed with implausible shock, the tremors that went through her body.

He jumped back from Hermione's shaking body. And before he knew it, Hermione had stood up and was glaring at him with all force.

"You put me in a very dangerous position, Draco Malfoy! You going to kill me!" she yelled, raising her hands in the air to prove her point.

"What the fu-"

"That Bellatrix is a monster Draco. Pray tell, have you ever killed someone under her feet?" Hermione said, pacing back and forth on the hard cool ground. Hermione shivered again, desperately wishing she had a jacket. She looked off into the distance, and saw bits and pieces of Hogwarts being ripped apart by wavering spells. Her heart shuddered and she calmed herself enough to face Draco.

She sighed. "No, you didn't kill me. I faked it."

Draco tensed. Hermione searched his face for a reaction of any sort. Anger, happiness, pain, sadness? Nothing. Hermione thought he had had a seizure before his face transformed into a large smirk.

"Clever girl. That's pure Slytherin material, yet you're in Gryffindor? Shame really."

Hermione grimaced at him. The harmless atmosphere turned to deadly in a flash. Another twig snapped from only a few feet away. The naïve two thought that in the middle of a raging war that no one would find them in this secluded area. Yet they thought wrong. Fortunately, Draco heard the crack of the branch, and he stuck his wand out at Hermione once more.

Hermione's eyes clouded over in surprise and fear until she saw a solitary figure come out of the shadows.

Oh no, it couldn't be.

Draco whipped his head back and his soft grey eyes turned rusty and cold when he laid eyes upon the intruder. His worst fear, here with him and a Gryffindor Princess. Nothing worse than this…

"Greyback." Draco said tersely. He bit back his rude comment of, 'Who let you out of your cage?' because surely it would be a suicidal remark.

"Malfoy. What do we have here? Bella sent me here looking for you…" he muttered, his voice deep and hoarse, as if it hadn't been in use for a long while.

Draco turned around slightly, just able to steal a glance at Hermione who seemed to be concentrating very hard on something.

"I've captured the Gryffindor mudblood." Draco said, his voice raw.

Greyback, his eyes blood red and nails hollow with dirt, grinned lopsidedly. Hermione's own chocolate brown eyes swam with shock, but stayed calm.

Out of the corner of Draco's eye, he saw Hermione mouth twitch as she spoke in a soft whisper.

Seconds slowly ticked by and by, faster and faster as the tension grew and grew. Soon the only sound was the faint sigh of snow as it fell on the ground, and the murmur of screams in the far off distant. The screams that lasted forever and never seemed to stop.

"Well Malfoy," Greyback said at last, "I see you have everything under control. The full moon is tonight and, eh, I'm feeling a bit…hungry." Hermione cringed and Draco's face stayed still. No emotion.

Greyback continued, "Be sure to bring her body to the Dark Lord personally, I reckon he'll use it for bait to get little Potty in his grasp."

There was silence. "Well aren't you going to do it then? I'm staying here, I'd like to watch." Greyback snarled.

And for the second time in 1 hour, Draco had Hermione trapped, her back against the cold bark of the tree, the war going on around them, Greyback panting and wheezing as he watched greedily. Draco's wand was pointed at Hermione's chest, and all he had to do was mutter those cursed words, and he was done. After all, he was a Death Eater, it should be easy. But he didn't say a thing.

And when all was lost, a spark of light emitted from the darkness.

"Incentum Incartum!" Hermione screamed, her wand clutched firmly in her hand. How she had gotten it was beyond Draco. He watched as Greyback flew through the air and landed with a dull and loud thud on the snow-misted ground. He was clearly unconscious.

Draco turned to Hermione. Her wild frizzy locks blew in the wind, dramatically accenting her soft face, carved with wisdom a girl her age should not possess. Her curved lips, her large doe eyes, her button nose; her beauty only accompanied her amazing mind and power. Draco could tell she was scared, just by the way her lips were set and the soft tremors that went through her body. A powerful girl, trying to find her way in the decreasing world of magic, though under her masquerade she was a small innocent girl, confused and scared. Understanding washed through Draco. Was this why she never retaliated when Draco taunted her? Was every time he caused her emotional pain, was he just chipping away at the small brick that was her fearlessness? He was sure of it, because thanks to his father, his brick was gone.

And he was a Malfoy. A cold snake incapable of love or emotion. A boy with white-blonde hair, falling loosely in his eyes. His pale complexion, his eyes of such a forceful, icy gray that silver would tremble beneath its gaze. His pointed face, the sharp chin he had, the small ears, the smooth lips that were now agape with wonder and admiration. Admiration a Malfoy should never give a muggleborn.

But here it was. The tall, blonde Slytherin gazing at the petite bookworm Gryffindor with such awe that the night could never give to the stars.

The war was going on around them, so many losses, so many traumatic experiences engraved into minds of students, so many friends falling to the ground with so much pain, fighters begging for death to come and end the ache; all happening under the cold winter sky, under Voldemort's watchful eye.

Draco took one long stride and in one second had taken Hermione's lips hostage.

Woooow! DRAMA. Reviews are great! -livi

p.s. i feel extremely guilty about not posting :( forgive? please? reviews? please?