Three angry pounds on the door echoed like gunfire through the barely lit room. Bits of old food and crumpled clothing layered the frigid floor. The stench of burnt paper still hung heavily in the air, the only remnants of the fire message he had received only a few moments ago. He unclenced his fists. Angry, red skin marked the places that his nails had bitten, unrelenting, into soot smudged palms.

"Didn't you hear what I said?" Rough hands gripped his shoulders, shaking him from a dreamy revere. "Are you even listening to me?"

He snapped his head up, only to be greated with eyes as dark as night. "I was trying to pretend your shrill voice was some sort of buzzing I could simply ignore," he drawled and shrugged his shoulders softly. The female's hands wrapped themselves in her dark hair, yanking through wind-blown knots.

"It's time to show where your true loyalty lays." Her voice was almost innocent, painted with joy.

He laughed without any hint of humour. "I'm not going to help you, Pansy."

She stiffened, her face twisted with anguish for just a fraction of a moment before she put on a smile again and patted his head.

"You know what to do then. Do not come into my way."

The door shut almost silently behind her as she departed, a sound which seemed as loud and final as a gunfire inside of his head.

Hermione snapped her head up when the window in her dormitory suddenly swung open, pushed by a heavy breeze crashing against it which sent dozens of parchments that were covering her desk around her room. With a mumbled curse she jumped to her feet and picked them up one by one before she closed the window, not without glancing up at the cloud-covered sky which barely concealed a full moon. Standing there, she gazed up at the stars and her mind wandered off to think about Lupin, hoping wherever he was that he was alright.

Be safe, Moony.

Shaking her head to clear her mind, she brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes and turned around, her senses just barely picking up on a subtle howl echoing through the Forbidden Forest.

"My mind must have been playing a trick on me," she whispered under her breath and sat back down at her desk, pulling her Arithmancy book back on her lap. Her fingers skimmed over the yellow pages, her eyebrows pulled together as she tried to concentrate on her essay but no matter how hard she tried, the big lump inside of her throat would not leave. She knew that she was behind on homework but despite herself, she didn't actually care. There was nothing she wanted more than to be back with Draco already but her guily conscience had gotten the better of her but ever since she had started to work, there had been no progress at all.

She flicked aside another page with a frustrated grunt.

It was only natural, she thought, that she wanted to spend every waking moment with him but nevertheless she could no longer neglect her duties like she had done the past few weeks.

Her shoulders hunched with defeat when she finally pushed the book away from her and rose to her feet.

I'll get to this tomorrow.

With quick motions she gathered a few items she planned on taking with her as an unfamiliar sound startled her and made her freeze in her movement.

A sound much like a key being turned slowly came to her attention while she tried to stay as still as possible, inhaling a sharp breath as she focused her eyes on her door.

The knob turned painfully slow and her pulse sped up feverishly.

Her common sense tried to rationalize with her, she knew that she had locked the door and put an enchantment on it so that no one but Draco would be able to enter without her approval.

Fear licked its way at her heart, burning through her pores and with uncooperative limbs she took a step back to snatch her wand from her desk, her fingers blindly groping around for it but without success. Her head spun around to scan her desk, her heartbeat racing faster the more desperate her hands smacked away the books and parchments.

It only took one moment, one second of distraction but it was enough.

The door burst open and the room lit up with a bright red light.

Her scream never left her lips.

Draco flicked his wand absentmindedly to send another pair of socks into the air, watching them dance and twirl around infront of him with dull interest.

For the twentieth time in ten minutes, he stared at his watch and closed his eyes as he vaguely counted the hours since Hermione had left.

Where the bloody hell is she?

As if to answer his thoughts, the door suddenly opened behind him and he turned around with a relieved smirk toying at his lips.

"I thought you wanted to meet me, Draco," Pansy chirped nonchalantly and his smirk died immediately.

"It's late, I figured you were already asleep," he lied and flicked his wand once more, sending his socks to the ground with a low thud.

Closing the door behind her, she shook her head and ran her fingers slowly through her silky hair as she strolled over to him with an innocent grin. Something about it was off though and sent a shiver down his spine, it didn't reach her eyes which stared bluntly at him.

"Draco, Draco, Draco..." she whispered and raised her hand to stroke a long finger casually against his jawline, a strong scent of musk hit his nostrils and clouded his senses for a moment.

"Why couldn't you tell me?" she continued and brushed her thumb seductively across his bottom lip, her eyes staring him down with an intensity that left him unsettled.

"What are you talking about?" he choked out and grabbed her wrist, firmly removing her hand from his face and lowering it to her side.

"Didn't you think? Did you honestly believe that no one would find out? That you could get away with this so easily?"

She grimaced and pulled away from him, rubbing her cheek with the heels of her hands. Draco had a vague idea what she was talking about but he doubted that admitting to it would help the matter so he remained quiet, the silence stretched out between them until Pansy put on a sneer again and gazed into his eyes.

"What do you think your father will say when he will hear about this? That you were sincerely believing it would be alright to mix your blood with that of a Mudblood?" she finally said and all color left Draco's face as he realized what she was talking about, that she really knew.

"That's hardly any of your business," he barked, looking completely stubborn as he jutted his jaw out. "You are not in the position to tell anyone about my relationship with - "

"You call it a relationship? You know, if it would only be a sexual thing, then maybe I would be able to understand, just maybe - "

"Who do you think you are to - "

"I'm your bloody girlfriend," she screeched and stepped forward to close the distance between them again. "I've always loved you and you play with me, made me look like a fucking joke...but I still loved you and...I would have been happy being with you and getting married to you even though you don't love me, just as long as I was with you. But here you are, collecting trophies or doing some other sick - "

"You know nothing," Draco blurted quickly. "I might have been in love with you once but this is long over, Pansy and you bloody well know it. If you truely loved me like you claim to do, you would be fucking happy for me right now instead of giving me the jealous ex-girlfriend-talk."

"Why her though?"

"Listen Pansy, just leave - "

"You betrayed all of us!"

"I did - "

"Have you completely forgotten who you are?"

"I've found out who I really am," he said sincerely. "I don't belong - "

"You belong with your family!"

"And you are no part of my family," he disputed firmly.

"I would have been one day. I did everything I could, I went out of my way to please you - "

"But it's too fucking late, Pansy. I don't want to be with you, don't you understand?"

She stepped away from him, shaking her head menacingly as if he had just slapped her. Maybe he had, maybe his words had been too much for her. The damage was already done.

"You are right," she said much to his surprise, "it is indeed too late. For both of you."

A frown stretched over his forehead as he broke their eye contact, running an impatient hand through his hair. "What do you mean?"

"I reckon you come follow me," she said almost soothingly and turned away from him, the door opening to a silent command. "You'll see exactly what I mean."

Draco followed her, but didn't believe he really wanted to know what she meant.

The blackness surrounded her, all sense and feeling for time was lost.

Time made no sense as she slowly pushed against the thick blackness. Maybe it was because it felt like time had frozen because no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't escape the darkness. She started to worry that she would never be able to flee, but she kept fighting, knowing she had to. He would want her to.

As she lay there, she had a feeling that more time was passing even though she could not remember how long it had been since she had last seen her room. Was it yesterday? Was it just yesterday that she had watched the moonlight fight through the clouds and illuminate her face as she had thought of Lupin?

Today. It had happened today. Now, the sky was utterly black. Perhaps there was no sky anymore.

She shivered though she could not feel cold, nor warmth.

The blackness stayed with her long before she heard them whispering.

Someone was mentioning her name. It was quiet, muffled by the blackness pressing against her but it was definately her name, though she could not identify the voice behind it. She knew she should probably answer, tell them that there was something wrong with her but her lips would not part, no sound would leave her throat.

She was too lost in a merciless stupor, holding on to the thought of seeing him again.

It was then that she heard the voices again. It was farther away this time, and sometimes it sounded like several voices were speaking at once, talking over one another, argueing even. She tried to take in a deep breath but her lungs would not cooperate, they no longer answered to her will.

Suddenly, there was another sound, startingly close. A kind of sniffing, a far too intimitate sound. She knew she ought to feel afraid but she didn't; the overwhelming numbness had its claws in her too deep to allow any other feelings.

"But she would make such a nice snack." The voice was deep and unfamiliar, yet it failed to scare her.

She was trying to gather the strength to wake up from this madness when she first saw the light.

It was just a dim glow at first, brightening with each ragged breath the person closest to her drew, and soon the brightness blinded her. She realized that she was able to open her eyes. Also she could feel that she was laying on the ground.

She forced her head up and stared at the dark face that she could see above her. She was vaguely aware that the stranger wasn't a stranger after all, but a face she had seen countless times already, printed on colorful posters.

The man smiled down at her and exposed long and deadly fangs.

"Sleeping Beauty," Fenrir Greyback whispered.

This time, her lungs did cooperate and she screamed.

"Bloody hell, Parkinson. Hurry up, already."

Draco found it quite bizarre that here he was, standing in front of the Room of Requirements like he so often did while Pansy marched up and down infront of the stone wall, mumbling her wish so quietly that he could not hear it.

The very old, ornated doubledoor appeared and she smiled vindictively at him as she pushed it open and beckoned him to follow her. "Always so impatient."

He shot her a furious glare but entered the room nontheless, his eyes slowly adjusting to the heavy darkness inside. "And what exactly did you wish for? A fucking black room?" He could hardly see anything, not even his own hand as he clumsily reached it out to prevent himself from walking into anything.

"You'll see," she whispered, her voice so close that he was fairly sure she stood right next to him. Her arm wrapped tentatively around his but as she began to walk, she dragged him with such force he was surprised that she was even capable of such thing.

"You are fucking nuts, do you know that? How can you even see where you are going?" He hated how desperate his voice sounded, the last thing he wanted was for her to feel more superior than she already was but he had never been fond of darkness. It scared him.

The fear of darkness was nothing compared to the fear he felt when he heard a familiar voice screaming in agony.

"HERMIONE!" he bellowed at the top of his lungs, wrestling against Pansy's grip to escape her and run toward the sound which painfully ripped through him; a scream that physically hurt him. "What the bloody hell is happening here, is that your - "

"You will listen to me right now," Pansy threatened and jerked him around a corner where a single lantern lit up the scenery infront of him.

Standing the closest to him were Crabbe and Goyle, the similiar sadistic expression painted to both of their faces. Across from him was the werewolf Greyback, hunched over a body he clearly recognized as Hermione. Only a few seconds had passed since Draco had heard her scream but already, her body was no longer moving and lay motionless on the ground.

Finally jerking his arm free, he darted toward her but Goyle raised his arm and bellowed, "Petrificus Totalus."

His arms snapped to his sides and he fell with a loud thud to the floor, all of his body was frozen in place. The only thing he could see was the stone ground beneath him. Strong hands grabbed his shoulders and pulled him up, Crabbe roughly leaned his petrified body against a walk-in cupboard so that he could watch what was happening.

His eyes darted to Hermione's lifeless body and it felt like all air got knocked out of him once more, all strings connecting him to this world had been cut through right there.

This can't be happening. Please don't be dead, Granger.

"I told you I would show you what I meant and here we are," said Pansy steadily. "Make sure he doesn't fall over," she ordered Crabbe who nodded slowly.

Draco's eyes trailed back toward Hermione and Pansy followed his gaze, a sneer ghosting at her lips. "Greyback thought she would make a nice snack but I told him to wait, don't worry." The taste of bile covered Draco's tongue and he tried to flex his muscles, desperately hoping that sheer will of force would make him move but without sucess.

"I'm sure you are wondering why we are all here," Pansy continued and began to walk in a small circle infront of him, occasionally blocking his view on Hermione and Greyback. "You see, I knew that there was something wrong when I visited you earlier. You acted strange, stranger than usual I mean, and my feeling did not fool me. Once I had left, I hid and can you imagine how surprised I was to see your precious little Mudblood come strolling out of your room just a few moments after I left? I put two and two together and voilà, I had an epiphany. Draco Malfoy himself was with Granger."

Behind him, Crabbe chortled and Draco felt like putting his fist through his skull.

"A masterplan quickly formed inside of my head and I asked a dear friend to help me," she added and waved a hand casually through the air. "Lucky for you, his loyalty was with you instead of me. But that's not so bad, considering that I got Crabbe and Goyle to help me instead. And now, here comes the interesting part for you." His attention slipped for a moment as he saw how Hermione's body moved ever so lightly but it was enough for him to feel the joy of relief rush through his unmoving veins.

"I'm surprised that you never realized it. And lucky for me, you were foolish enough to tell me about your plans with the Vanishing Cabinets all those months ago. Well, you know...you actually did it. You fixed it."

Her words hung in the air like a heavy stench and Draco's gaze flickered back to her.

'What?' he wanted to ask but no sound left his throat.

"Why yes, I kept track on you and your progress. I think you were too busy shagging the Mudblood to waste another hour in here. If you had spared just one moment of your precious time, just one, you would have known that you had been successful in doing it. Tut tut, that's just too bad for you. But all the more great for me." Pansy's face changed, all that girly demeanor had left as if she had aged a good ten years and she oddly reminded him of his aunt, of a woman who was capable of doing any cruel act she could think of.

"So yes, I realized that you had fixed it and it came quite in handy now, didn't it? So I could contact our dear friend Greyback and order him to come and here he is, doing what should have been done months or years ago already...confronting Hermione Granger with her rightful fate."

Pansy stopped infront of him and Draco tried to lay all of his emotions into his eyes, all the things he could not say out loud.

Please, don't do this. She has nothing to do with any of this. Please, spare her. Kill me instead.

"I know what you want to say," she mumbled and stared directly into his eyes. "You want me to leave her alone, you will hurt me if I hurt her and so on and so on. The thing is though...I don't really care anymore what you have to say. You disrespected your family and the Dark Lord. So you can consider this as your own fault, I'm sure it will work miracles on your guilty conscience."

She leaned forward and planted a soft kiss on his cheek before she turned around and snapped her fingers at Greyback. "You take her, we are leaving now. Goyle, you'll take care of our dear friend and then follow us immediately." The werewolf leaned down and almost carefully picked Hermione up before he turned around and faced the Vanishing Cabinet that Draco had not seen before. Both Crabbe and Pansy followed him but with one foot inside already, Pansy paused and turned around to Draco once more.

"I really wish it wouldn't have to be this way, Draco." And with that she stepped inside and Goyle appeared infront of Draco's eyes, his fist connecting with his nose.

Perhaps there was no sky anymore.

Draco cowered on the cold floor and tried to blend out his thoughts; as soon as his concentration would slip for a second he saw the bloody maelstrom again, the lifeless body of Hermoine and the sharp fangs of Fenrir Greyback which might be sinking into her body at this very moment.

He knew that he would see those pictures for another hundred times, if not a thousand times, in his sleep - every time the scene replayed itself infront of his inner eye, the few minutes stretched out to hours and every breath slowed down to an unbearing infinity. He could see everything painfully clear, from his first step into the darkness to Greyback hovering over Hermione to the point of them leaving through the Cabinet. He knew that Hermione had been alive still, he had seen her move and he remembered the way he had felt. But this realization was almost worse than thinking she was dead because he believed that whatever was happening now, it would be worse than a thousand deaths.

Draco had the suspicion that life and fate was enjoying it thoroughly to take away the few people he loved.

He knew that Pansy was right, he knew that this was entirely his fault. If only he would have reacted earlier, nothing would have happened to her. If only he would have never let her leave him in the first place.

He would have to carry this guilt with him for the rest of his life, whatever that would mean.

"Malfoy?" Someone asked with disbelief in his voice and Draco tried to jerk his head around but his muscles were still not answering to him.

Why, from all the people in this god forsaken place, does it have to be Potter who finds me?

He could feel how the curse was lifted off of him and he tried to get up almost immediately but his muscles were sore and ached from the beating his body had taken that he was only capable of whimpering in pain.

Harry snuck his arms under his shoulders and helped him sit up, his green eyes scanning his face with a curious expression. "What the bloody hell happened to you, Malfoy? Where's Hermione?"

"Granger," Malfoy groaned and stared up at him, forcing his hand up he grabbed the Gryffindor boy's shirt and pulled him down to face him. "They've...got Granger."

"What?" inquired Harry and stared at him, making no move to escape Draco's grip. "What's wrong with Hermione? Who got her?"

"Death-Eaters," Malfoy breathed out before the darkness lulled him back in.

He almost welcomed the pain with gratitude.

Gentle hands touched his broken nose and Draco groaned in pain, his eyelids fluttering open to see a wand directly pointed at him.

"Hold still," Harry ordered and mumbled a spell; Draco felt his bone jump back into place and his hands shot up to cover his nose as he doubled over in pain.

"Tell me, how did you even find me?" Draco whispered through his hands.

Harry peeked at him over the edge of his glasses and fished a piece of parchment out of his pockets. "Your friend Zabini sent me this. Told me that you and Hermione needed my help in here so I came. Not for your sake, of course," he added as an afterthought but Draco ignored the hit.

"Pansy must have wanted his help but he rejected her..." Draco mumbled to himself and, after seeing Harry's confused expression he began telling him what had happened since he and Hermione had come back from the Muggle World.

After a few moments of silence, Harry pushed his hair out of his forehead and sighed in defeat. "Where do you think did they bring her?"

"I have no fucking clue," Draco said numbly.

Harry sat back on the cold ground and twirled his wand between his hands, his eyes fixed on Draco's face. "We'll find her. She'll be fine, I know it."

"Aw yeah? Did you suddenly become a seer?" His voice sounded cold and sharp and even though he knew that his words had offended Harry, the dark-haired boy smiled lightly.

"It's important to believe that she will be alright. It will help her pull through if only we believe."

Potter was wrong - it hurt to believe. And because of that he rose to his feet, trying to fight the upcoming nausea. "I have to find her now."

"I'm going with you," Harry declared immediately and got up too, his hand casually reached out to catch Draco in case he would fall over.

"I don't need your help."

"Is that so? Two are better than one. You know it."

Draco's breath was hoarse, even though he tried his hardest to stay calm. He needed a clear head for this. "She might be dead already, I don't know. She probably is, she died the moment she fell in love with me. I settled her fate."

He had said it out loud and now his words echoed from the unyielding walls of the room. He turned away, covering his face with his hands but he could not hide behind the truth of his words.

"The only reason they went after her is because of me. Because I love her and she loves me. What has gotten into her? How could she just fall in love with me?" Draco asked and twirled around again as he felt the helpless anger crash over him like a deadly tidal wave.

"If it helps you any, I don't know how she could fall in love with you either. I hope she can tell me soon, that's why we have to get going now," Harry reasoned and left him to walk over to the Vanishing Cabinet. "They left through this, you say?"

Draco nodded absentmindedly and allowed himself a few seconds of selfishness; he turned around and drew in one sharp breath after another to try and cover up the enormous painful hole inside of his chest. When nothing helped to ease the pain he turned around and stood by Harry, examining the Cabinet with his hands.

"Do you think we can track them?"

Harry shrugged lightly. "I'm not sure, I'm not really familiar with the way they work. We might get lucky if you have to use a wand to activate them, I might have an idea - "

"You do need a wand," Draco threw in immediately and opened the Cabinet, peeking inside warily. "The spell you use is called 'Harmonia Nectere Passus.'

Harry's eyes widened and he looked at him with surprise. "How do you - you know, never mind. Well, I think we can find out where they were heading to by using Priori Incantatem, that should tell us the location." While he talked, he opened the Cabinet further and stepped inside, holding out his hand. "You ready?"

It was strange to see himself work with Potter, to establish the thought of the two of them fighting together. All those years they had been rivals, always trying to trump one another but here they were, as if none of that ever happened. They were connected by their wish to protect Hermione.

Hermione.

"I'm coming," Draco murmured and followed Harry inside the Cabinet, closing the door behind himself with one final thud.

I am incredibly sorry that I haven't updated this earlier. I wasn't so sure if anyone would still be interested in the story since I haven't been updating regularly but I just got a lovely message on my tumblr asking if I was going to update any time soon and this is where it hit me. I owe you guys the end of the story. So I hope you aren't all that mad at me and that you still enjoy the story (:

Please read and review, feedback is always appreciated.

Love,

Letmesignxx