Hermione blearily lifted her head off of the cold stone floor. Her vision was swimming and her head was throbbing, all she could see was the dull gray of the floor and the grotesque shapes of statues. She stretched out a hand and suddenly felt smooth wood, tentatively she grasped the foreign object and realized it was the handle of a broom. With a start she sat up and rubbed her eyes, in an attempt to clear her vision. When everything began to come back into perspective, she surveyed her surroundings. She was laying on a damp and wide walkway that was lined by large sinister looking statues of snakes. The walkway itself led to a large stone formation of the face of a man, his beard twisting like tentacles around his chiseled face. There was no doubt about it, Hermione was in the Chamber of Secrets.

Standing now, Hermione picked up the broom ,wondering what had led her to this place, when she suddenly saw the Basilisk Fang and the broken cup of Hufflepuff and it all came rushing back.

Hermione gripped Ron's hand nervously as she stared at the imposing entrance of the Chamber. She looked over at her longtime friend and asked, "Are you sure you can get us in Ron?"

Ron gulped nervously but nodded, "I think so."

Breathing heavily Hermione looked over at Ron. It had been his idea to destroy the Hufflepuff Cup with a Basilisk fang, something that had been proven to destroy Horcruxes before. Now they had to gain entrance to the Chamber, a privilege granted only to those who spoke Paresltongue. Hermione hoped Ron could pull it off.

Suddenly Ron made a strangled hissing noise, and to Hermione's shock the door to the chamber began to open. Ron flashed a grin at Hermione who laughed in disbelief, "How did you do that?"

Ron shrugged, "It's the same thing Harry said to open the locket."

"That's brilliant Ronald!"

Ron beamed at this praise but his face fell when they heard a soft crunching noise behind them. They both whipped around, wands at the ready looking for the source of the noise.

"Do you think someone could have followed us?" Hermione whispered to Ron.

"They might've." Ron muttered, "You go in, I'll take care of this."

"But Ron!"

"Go 'Mione!", Ron turned to her, "It's probably nothing." He gave her an encouraging smile, "Go."

Hermione hesitated but finally decided to enter the Chamber, she looked back at Ron who was cautiously approaching the source of the noise. Then facing the Chamber, she gripped her broom in one hand and fondled the Hufflepuff cup in her pocket. She would have to be quick.

That was all Hermione could remember, but it was enough to worry her. She whipped around quickly looking for her friend. "Ron?" she called.

She suddenly spotted a patch of watery blood on the floor, causing her panic to increase tenfold. Massaging her forehead, trying to calm down she noticed a sudden stickiness. Pulling her hand away she saw that blood painted her fingertips, and realized that the blood on the ground was probably hers.

Looking at her reflection in a puddle of water, she saw that her forehead was gashed and oozing blood. She had most likely slipped on the slick floor and cut her head. Hermione sighed, relieved now, knowing that the blood was not Ron's. But this did not lessen her panic as she still did not know where her friend was. Thinking of this Hermione thought of another important factor.

"The battle!" she gasped aloud, "Oh no! What's happened? I need to get back. Ron! Ron! Where are you?"

Panic gripped her heart as she grabbed her broom and started running toward the exit of the Chamber. Not thinking clearly due to her frantic state, she did slow her pace, and considering the wet condition of the floor and the fact that she had already busted her head once today, this was not a good idea . Inevitably, she felt the floor fall out from under her as she slipped on a particularly wet part and fell back on the ground. Luckily, her arms stopped her fall but she knew there would probably be bruises on them in the morning. If there was a morning for her, the thought came to her suddenly. After all she still didn't know the outcome of the battle. She bit her lip in a mixture of worry and pain as she pulled herself up off the ground, they had to have won, they had to have.

Making her way to the entrance, this time at a slower pace, and wincing at the pain in her arms as well as her head Hermione was stopped by a sneering voice.

"Well , if it isn't the Gryffindor princess."

Hermione visibly jumped in shock and turned around rapidly whipping out her wand, searching for the owner of the voice. After a few moments of silence, save for Hermione's heavy breathing, a cloaked figure stepped out from behind the snake statue closest to Hermione. The figure pulled back the hood of his robe revealing a strong jawed face with a day old beard, framed by stringy black chin length hair. The man's eyes were a deep shade of green which stared mockingly at Hermione as he took in her condition.

"Rodolphus Lestrange.", Hermione whispered horrified.

The Death Eater smirked at her then gave a small bow, "At your service." His tone was mocking.

Hermione pointed her wand at him, trying to steady her shaking hand, "What did you do with Ron?", her voice was equally shaky.

Lestrange ignored her question and stared at her wand with a look of wonder on his face, "I recognize that. It was my wife's wand."

Taking a few steady breaths Hermione replied, "Yes it was."

Lestrange pulled out his own wand slowly and continued to smirk at Hermione as he leaned casually against the stone statue, "She's dead now you know." He said this nonchalantly, as if he were talking about the weather.

"Good." Hermione gritted her teeth, she was growing impatient with the Death Eater's seemingly pointless chatter.

Lestrange gave her a devastatingly handsome grin, but Hermione remained stone faced. She had heard of Rodolphus Lestrange's charming ways, but she knew that she was dealing with a very dangerous man, and possibly a very crazy one judging by her conversation with him these past few minutes.

As Hermione mentally guarded herself, Lestrange made his move, "Expelliarmus!" he bellowed.

Bellatrix Lestrange's wand flew out of Hermione's grasp and into the awaiting hand of Rodolphus Lestrange. Fear overtook Hermione and she bolted in the opposite direction, broom still in hand. The only thing on her mind was finding Ron and getting out of this place, but she had no chance against Lestrange, wandless as she was.

With a flick of his wrist, Lestrange immobilized the Gryffindor, sending her tumbling to the ground. Completely petrified now, Hermione could only wait in terror as Lestrange made his way to her, the shuffle of his boots echoing in the chamber. Finally, the noise stopped as the Death Eater halted next to Hermione. Ever so slowly he crouched down and whispered in her ear, "Running is a very bad idea."

His arm suddenly lashed out and gripped her neck pinning her already immobile body to the floor. With another flick of his wrist, Hermione was mobile again. In a desperate attempt to free herself, she kicked out at her captor furiously and tried to scramble away. She soon realized that this was the wrong move.

When one of her well aimed kicks hit home, Lestrange growled angrily and applied pressure on her throat. Hermione made a strangled noise but was undeterred; she gave a vicious kick to Lestrange causing him to lower his body onto hers, thus giving her no room to apply any more kicks to his person.

"You're just full of bad ideas aren't you Mudblood?", the Death Eater snarled, his green eyes flashed with anger and his teeth were bared "I was going to be lenient, maybe even tell you where your boyfriend is, but if you're going to be difficult…"

Hermione froze and met Lestrange's eyes. He sneered at her, "That's better."

He released the pressure on her throat giving Hermione her speech back, "Where's Ron?"

Lestrange smirked, "He's safe…in a way."

Hermione felt the breath hitch in her throat, but she swallowed her panic long enough to ask, "Who won?"

The smirk on the Death Eater's face fell, "We did, but we don't have Potter", he growled, evidently this fact upset him, "He and his friends ran off somewhere barely holding their little group together." He flashed an evil grin at her, "But don't get your hopes up princess, they won't last long."

Despite his warning, Hermione calmed somewhat. Voldemort hadn't gotten Harry and the Light side was still alive. Hermione felt the sudden urge to rub this in Lestrange's face but seeing the stormy look on the Death Eater's face, decided not to. Besides she knew it was presumptuous to brag considering taking back the school would be more difficult than it was defending it.

Eyeing the Death Eater above her carefully, Hermione asked, "What are you doing down here? Did you follow me and Ron?"

"That's none of your business." He snarled.

"And what are you going to do with me?", Hermione asked, fearing his answer.

Lestrange cocked a half smile, "I could turn you into the Dark Lord I suppose", he mused, but I have a feeling I'll need some entertainment these next few weeks. So let's strike a deal shall we?"

Hermione looked at him warily, but stayed silent. Taking her silence as compliance Lestrange continued in a deathly soft voice, "I'll give you one hour. Run. Hide."

Hermione's eyes widened, at this the Death Eater chuckled and continued, "You'll have three chances, but after I find you three times, it's the Dark Lord for you Mudblood, is that clear?"

Staring at him in horror, Hermione could only nod.

Lestrange grinned, "Good, but don't take my leniency lightly, princess. There will be punishments when I catch you."

Mind whirring, Hermione tried desperately to think of a suitable place to hid from this terrifying man when another question came to mind, "What if another Death Eater finds me?" she whispered.

"Then you're out of luck."

Hermione bit her lower lip worriedly then asked, "How do I know you won't turn me in anyway?"

"Upon my word as a Pureblood, I will not."

Suppressing the urge to roll her eyes at his emphasis on the word 'pureblood', Hermione realized she had no choice but to take his offer. She had a better chance of finding a way out of Hogwarts than she did with Voldemort. Suddenly becoming uncomfortably aware of the weight of the Death Eater's body on top of hers she summoned her Gryffindor courage and snapped, "Well, are you going to get off of me?"

The Death Eater's eyes flashed dangerously but he relented and lifted himself off of her. Standing now, he brushed off his robes then turned to her and said, "You have one hour, starting now."

Hermione stood, gathered her broom and started for the entrance, moving at a fast pace. The wheels in her head grinded incessantly, as she visually pictured Hogwarts in her mind, thinking of the best possible place to hide. Her mind was a whirlwind of different ideas and solutions to her current problems. She still had to find Ron, she had to get word out to her friends that she was alive, and most of all she had to figure out how to avoid the deadly Death Eater that lay in her wake.

A/N: So, an idea about Hermione being trapped in Hogwarts popped into my head as I was trying to fall asleep last night, and then I started thinking about how it would work, added Rodolphus Lestrange into the mix, starting thinking of a plot and voila! This story was born. This is an unusual pairing and I'm still trying to figure out if this story is going to work and if I should continue. Feedback would be appreciated :)