A/N So, new story, new Draco. Draco is very dark and really doesn't have many redeeming qualities, if you want your stories light and fluffy, this is not the one for you. You have been warned. I don't own anything.
Chapter 1
Hermione desperately tried to add wards to the door of the cottage she had been living in for the last fortnight. They had been found. She couldn't see them, but she knew they were there. George's body was lying outside, struck by a killing curse when they hadn't been expecting it. Somehow their perimeter wards had been breached without any alarm.
Now it was just her and Dean left in the cottage and they were doing their best to strengthen their defences, but she suspected that it was hopeless. The Deatheaters would have brought numbers, eager for the last of the resistance to be swept away. Just the two of them left now, everyone else was dead.
"They've put up some anti-apparition charm." Dean said. "We're going to have to fight."
"There's only two of us Dean, we'd last as many minutes if we're lucky." Hermione said.
"I think this might be it, Mione. The end of the line." He said and grabbed her hand. "We'll fight to the end, we always said we would. Guess its time to deliver."
Hermione nodded and drew him in for a hug, wrapping her arms around his waist and lowering her head into the crook of his neck. It was time, she'd known it'd been coming for a while. She wished she had a bit more time with him, he'd been her lover for four months now. A union of desperation and relentless cold nights. She did care for him, although she wasn't sure if they'd ever be a couple if it hadn't been for the fact that they were pretty much the only ones left in this awful war that they were losing.
Now George was dead, dead to join the rest of his family wherever it was they'd all gone.
"Promise me Mione, if you see a gap, take it and run, and don't look back. Promise me."
"I promise, you too."
"I am going to kill as many of these bastards as I possibly can." He said and smiled. Hexes were hitting the stone structure of the cottage and it was starting to crumble.
He kissed her and stood up. "It time. Lets do it."
They both rushed out of the cottage throwing hexes as they went. They weren't too badly outnumbered, but there must have been at least four of them. They weren't all revealed but from the different directions they were coming from, she counted at least four. Hermione managed to make it to a tree. A hex had graced her arm and it stung like anything, but she didn't have time for pain right now. She took a second to examine the wound. It wasn't fatal, her skin was singed and black. Pretty lightweight for a Death Eater.
Moment over, she started throwing hexes again, leaving the safety of the tree and freeing her arm. She heard Dean cry out as well as one of the Deatheaters.
"Now Mione!" Dean screamed.
Hermione took off away from the noise. She ran as fast as she possibly could, letting the panic take over her, away from thoughts of leaving Dean behind. Survival was the only thing for her to focus on, it had to be otherwise she'd fall apart. She couldn't think of leaving Dean to be killed if he wasn't dead already, there was no chance of saving him and trying would only doom herself.
Branches tore at her face and shirt. She hurtled through the forest as fast as her legs could carry her. Her legs were straining with exertion and her lungs were screaming for oxygen. She heard yells behind her and she could hear that someone was chasing her, which only made her run faster. She was surprised she could hear anything as her own breath was so loud.
She kept running, jumping fallen branches and dodging tree trucks. She could still hear the heavy footsteps behind her and he was gaining. She tried to push herself more, but there was nothing left to increase her speed with.
She felt a hex slam into her back, knocking her off her feet and knocking her wand out of her hand. She tumbled through some bushes and tried to get up again, but her leg wasn't taking her weight. Something slammed into her knocking her over again. She had to blink as the overcast winter sun shone into her eyes. It wasn't bright by any means, but lying on the ground looking up on it was harsh on her eyes used to a dark dingy cottage.
She heard a person walk around her, but the pain was also coming through from her back and her leg, and maybe her eye. She could still see but her eye hurt. The pain just seemed to take her over, coming from every direction.
"I've been looking for you," a vaguely familiar voice said. She didn't care who it was, she wasn't even curious, it didn't matter, he was one of them. She turned to crawl because she had to find her wand again if she were to have any chance, but the pain in her leg make her cry out.
"Looks like you've broken your leg, Granger," he said with false sympathy. "Guess you won't be running anymore, which is just as well because it's more fun this way." He grabbed her leg and pulled her by it, making her scream out in pain. He twisted her around until she was on her back and then he kneeled down with his knees on the sides of her waist, straddling her.
Hermione hadn't seen Draco in a long time, but his reputation preceded him. He was one of the inner circle now, powerful, cruel and brutal. Whatever humanity had been in him was gone now. He was Voldemort's enforcer and he had been looking for them. They had managed to excape by constantly moving, but he was always on their trail.
He placed the tip of his wand to her eye. "And here you are, I knew this day would come eventually. It was only a matter of time after all."
Hermione tried to focus on his face, but the sun was behind him making it hard to focus. He was certainly older, taller, bigger. The scrawniness of a teenager was gone and his face had broadened a little. His eyes still have the same gleam of malice, and he was clearly happy with his trophy.
"Now let's have fun, shall we," he shot a hex at Hermione snapping her mouth shut through magic. He sat back placing some of his weight on her stomach, studying her. "We won't be needed that mouth of yours because let's face it, there is no one for you to give up. No one left now." He watched her for a while, tracing the tip of his wand across her cheek. "I didn't think you would be the last one standing, but you were always too clever for your own good."
Hermione tried to mumble a 'fuck you' through her shut jaws. It didn't come out, but the meaning of it was still decipherable.
"So eloquent," he said. "It's all over now Granger, you've lost and there is nothing left but to die. And I have to say that I am kind of glad the honor has fallen to me."
She stared into his cold eyes for a moment then tried to buck him off.
"Don't be bothersome, Granger," he said. "It is such an annoying trait." He reached back and squeezed her broken leg, which made her scream in pain through her shut mouth. "See, you're not going anywhere and really, where is there to go?"
Hermione calmed for a moment, she had to think. Her brain power was her strength and she needed it now. She knew he wasn't stupid, he hadn't risen in the ranks because he was dumb unlike some. She had straight outsmarted some of the more dimwitted Deatheaters, because some of the were thick as pig shit frankly. Draco was regarding her as well but she couldn't judge what was in his eyes, but there was a level of excitement there.
"The years haven't been kind to you," he said. Hermione didn't react, she didn't care what he thought. So it had been a while since she'd been to the hairdresser and makeup was a foreign concept, luxuries that had been lost a while ago. "So scrawny," he said feeling along her arms. It was true, she was skin and bones, they'd eaten when they could.
"No Potter here to save you now," he said teasingly. She only stared at him wishing he would just get on with it. She had no doubt he was going to kill her. "Looking at you now, it's an act of kindness really."
She mumbled another 'fuck you' and he raised his eyebrows.
Hermione felt rain falling on her face and she could hear the surrounding chorus of rain falling on leaves and on the ground. Draco looked up and Hermione took the chance to actually look at him. He still looked very similar, but just older. She knew he was going to kill her and it would likely happen very soon as she doubted he wanted to hang around in the rain telling her how crap she looked for overly long.
He grabbed her by the neck and Hermione instinctively went to pull his hands off, which were surprisingly warm for such a cold blooded creature. His strong fingers were like a vice and she couldn't budge them. They had all heard stories of what he'd turned into. Voldemort had formed him into the perfect soldier, the perfect Deatheater, strong and vicious. Maybe he had only amplified traits that were always there, but now he killed with no regards and she was pretty sure very little conscience.
Draco flicked his wand and Hermione felt herself being tugged, he was taking her somewhere. She felt the nausea what went with unexpected apparition and it tugged on every painful part of her body as well, stretching her out, then returning them both to the same position with his hand firmly on her throat cutting off much of her air.
Thoughts ran through her head, something she heard about attackers taking people to the second location where the murder usually took place. This was the second location. She looked around and noted that she was in a cave somewhere. From the sounds coming from the entrance, she was still in the forest and this is where he was going to kill her. She had no wand and she couldn't even walk, there was no hope. She was kind of glad it was someone she knew rather than a nameless, faceless figure.