I Will Always Find You

AN: Mucho thanks to Sunflower for Beta work!!!! Thank you sweetie!!!


REVIEWERS:

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Sunflower: You\'re the best honey!


TaintedAngel: You\'re right about that LOL Sera is very intuitive. *Blushes* You\'re too kind!!! I hope you like this chapter!


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Chapter15. Have You Seen Hermione?

The all to familiar rushing sensation Hermione felt terrified her. She had barely a few seconds to quell the panick before her feet hit the ground and she fell.


Immediately, hands roughly pulled her to her feet. She opened her eyes to see the face of Lucius Malfoy directly in front of her. He looked a lot more ragged than the last time she had seen him; but it was definitly him.


He sneered into her face and his eyes shifted to Draco. \"Very good my son. You must go back to school now to avoid suspicion.\" He pulled something from his robes and tossed it to Draco. The boy vanished quickly.


He had Hermione gripped tightly by the shoulders. He sneered into her face again and felt inside her robes for her wand. Hermione was quicker however, her forearms being unfettered and grabbed it out.


Before he could react, she did a spell on herself.


He snatched the wand away, surprised that she had not chosen to use it on him, and yelled, \"What did you do, you filthy little girl?\"


Hermione suddenly realized that she did in fact have an apparition liscense and tried to apparate away to Hogwarts. To her dismay, it didn\'t work and Malfoy smirked evilly.


\"No apparition here, you little bitch. Just like Hogwarts. I will not allow anyone to apparate onto my grounds.\"


Hermione knew she couldn\'t get away from him. He was stronger than she was and he had her wand now.


\"What do you want Malfoy?\" she spat angrily. Buying time was all she could think of now. She had wiped her important memories with that clever little spell, so he couldn\'t get any information out of her on the Order, or Severus for that matter.


Unfortunately by doing so, she had no idea why Malfoy wanted her. She was Harry\'s friend, maybe he wanted to use her as bait.


He sneered. \"You, as unimportant as you are, have information that The Dark Lord desires. I will give him this information. And I will be trusted beyond all others.\"

Hermione thought that prison had made him a little mad. His eyes were rolling in his head, and then shifting here and there, as if he expected a dementor to come out of nowhere and suck his soul from his body.


\"I have no information.\" she said bravely.


He backhanded her across the face and began to drag her into another set of rooms. She stumbled along behind him trying to will away the pain. One thing she did remember was being raped. She hoped that he would not use that as a punishment.


He pulled her through a room where his wife was sitting on a settee.


\"Lucius, what are you doing with that child?\" She asked almost indifferently, hardly looking up from \"Witch Weekly\".


\"None of your buisness.\" Malfoy snapped.


Hermione watched Narcissa Malfoy until she couldn\'t see her anymore. Once Lucius had looked away, the woman had looked at Hermione right in her eyes. There was apology in her expression.


Lucius dragged her down a set of stone steps that seemed never ending. Suddenly he stopped and flung open a door. He tossed her inside, knocking the breath out of her and locked the door quickly.


Hermione gasped for a few seconds before she was able to pull air into her lungs once again. She rolled to her side, coughed a little and rubbed the aching spot where her back had hit the ground.


After the pain subsided, she looked around the cell, for that was what it was, a cell. The walls were stone and securely cemented. At least the room was clean, (probably due to the house elves) and there was a small cot she could lie on.


She got up and sat down on it and began to study every inch of the cell, looking for a possible escape route.

~'


Ron and Harry had been looking for Hermione since after lunch. She had missed the meal again, saying she was expecting a visitor.


They had already been to the Library and every other spot they could think of. Ginny had checked out her room for them, being the only one who was allowed inside without a direct invitation from Hermione.


She was nowhere to be found and the boys were starting to worry about her.

\"We could go and see if Snape had seen her,\" Suggested Harry. \"She might even be down there making potions or something.\"


Ron nodded. \"I really don\'t want to talk to him; but I\'m worried about \'Mione.\"


He and Harry went down to the dungeons and knocked on Snapes door.


\"Enter,\" Came a drawl from inside.


They cautiously opened the door and saw Snape sitting behind his desk, he looked up and scowled. \"What do you two want?\"


\"Sorry to bother you sir; but we\'re looking for Hermione. We can\'t find her and we were wondering if she was down here.\" Harry said.

\"No Potter, she\'s not down here. I haven\'t seen Miss Granger all day.\"


\"Thanks Professor.\" he replied, and they turned to leave.


\"Wait Potter. When was the last time you saw Miss Granger?\"

\"Before lunch, Sir.\" Harry replied. \"She said she\'d meet us in the commoon room after lunch and she never showed up.\"


\"You\'ve checked the library, her room?\"


\"Yes Sir. No sign she\'d been in either place and we asked Madam Pince and she hasn\'t seen Hermione at all today.\"


Severus was liking this less and less every moment. He knew that Hermione was a very reliable person and if she said she was going to be somewhere she would be there.

\"Potter, that map of yours, go and get it and come back here immedately.\"


\"Okay Sir.\" Harry was mentally kicking himself for not thinking of the Maurauders map in the first place.


He and Ron ran to Gryffindor tower to get the map. Harry activated it before they got back to the dungeons, not wishing to allow Snape the knowledge of how to work it.


They went back to Snape\'s office and he spread the map out on his desk, carefully studying each room.

Harry and Ron looked too, from the other side of his desk.


\"She\'s not on the map.\" Snape finally said looking up.


The three looked at each other for a moment before Harry timidly asked, \"Should we go to Dumbledore, Sir?\"


\"Yes Potter, I think we should.\" He folded the map and handed it back to Harry. \"Follow me.\"


Harry left the map active and he and Ron followed Professor Snape out of his office.

~'

Hermione wished she had her wand. She sat on the cot in her cell rubbing delicately at the bruise forming on her cheek.


She was more angry than afraid. She should have known better than to take Malfoy at face value. He would have kept her quill rather than give it back; but she hadn\'t expected him to make such a bold move right under Dumbledore\'s nose.

\"Stupid!\" she griped at herself under her breath. \"How could I be so stupid?!?!\"

She gritted her teeth angrily, and then forced herself to stop. Her parents would be upset with her if thery found she had been gritting her teeth again.


It was the thought of her parents that set her off crying. She hoped she would see them again.

If she hadn\'t wiped her own memory she would have been very anxious about Severus as well; but she was content in ignorance about him and the Order. Of course the spell made sure she knew about the order, just not anyone in it or anything important pertaining to it.


She calmed herself quickly, realizing that crying was not helping her in the least and began to take in every detail about her cell. She probably would be missed quickly, as Harry and Ron had wanted her to meet them after lunch; but she didn\'t know how long it would take them to find her. If they ever did.


She needed a backup plan right away.

~'


Narcissa Malfoy made sure her husband was sleeping and made her way to the dank dungeons of the Malfoy manor.


Lucius had been increasingly strange after he had escaped from Azkaban prison. Their house had been searched, of course; but no one knew the house better than Lucius. He was able to hide for the time that the Ministry had been there and had put Narcissa under imperious just to be sure that she didn\'t let something slip.


The woman was completely sick of her husband and his wild whims. If she wasn\'t terrified of him, she would have left a long time before.


As it were, she was constantly afraid of being placed under cruciatus or some other equally painful curse, not to mention his appetite for physical violence.


Lucius had been on pins and needles for awhile, not sleeping or eating and now she knew why. He had made Draco kidnap the child she had seen him dragging through the house. She recognized the girl from the quidditch world cup and knew that she was a classmate of Draco\'s.


Now that he had her, he would sleep and eat. He would make sure he was strong for the torturing he was almost assureadly planning.


She crept around the dungeons until she found the cell that the girl was in. She carefully unlocked the door, noting that it was not warded or guarded by any spell as far as she could tell.


The girl looked up with fear in her eyes as Narcissa entered.


\"It\'s okay. I\'ve brought you some food and water.\" She showed the girl the basket she carried under her arm. \"I won\'t hurt you. I don\'t even have my wand.\"


The girl still looked suspicious, so Narcissa set the basket on the floor and sat down beside it. \"I can\'t leave this here for Lucious to find, so you have to eat it while I\'m here.\" She slid the basket to Hermione\'s feet.


The girl looked at it and then carefully opened it. Narcissa had placed some shepherds pie inside along with an apple and a jar of water.


\"What\'s your name?\" Narcissa asked.


\"Hermione.\" the girl replied, as she sniffed the food. \"You\'re Draco\'s mother.\"


\"You can call me Narcissa.\"


The girl decided that the food was safe and began to eat.


Narcissa watched her for a moment and then said, \"I know you probably won\'t trust me and I don\'t blame you one bit; but I hate my husband and I will do anything I can to help you get out of here.\"


Hermione stopped eating for a moment and reguarded the woman. \"What\'s he going to do to me?\"


\"Who knows?\" Narcissa replied. \"But I\'ve never seen any girl he brings down here come out again.\"


Hermione shuddered and put down the food. She instead took up the water and drank a bit of it.


\"Thank you for the food. I don\'t want you to get in trouble with him. You should probably go.\"


Narcissa nodded, knowing the girl was right. She got up from the cold stone floor and took the basket from Hermione. \"I\'ll try and find a way to get through to Dumbledore. Lucius has got every mode of communication watched in this house; but I may have a way to do it without him finding out.\"


\"Thank you.\" Hermione said. She hated to admit it; but the thought that Narcissa just might be her best bet to get out of this alive.

~'


Severus led two thirds of the golden trio to Dumbledore\'s office. He knew something wasn\'t right and he wanted to find Hermione as fast as he could.

He knocked on the Headmasters door and waited for a reply. After a second they were told to \"Come right in.\"

Dumbledore didn\'t look surprised to see them. \"Miss Granger\'s missing isn\'t she?\"

AN: Well here it is in all it\'s glory. Don\'t worry, I will get to the nefarious Mrs. Black soon! LOL