No Longer Helpless

Chapter Twenty
The Proposition

Hermione stood, being held tightly against Draco, while she stared wide eyed at the place she had just been standing seconds before.

A man wearing a top hat and old-fashioned tailcoat tuxedo stared straight back at her. He didn’t look at Draco, but directly at her, never blinking or speaking. It appeared as though he’d come directly from a ballroom party a century ago. His narrow jaw was cleanly shaven. His hands donned white gloves, one carrying a polished black cane. He had sleek sideburns, and from what she could see from under the hat he had black hair.

There was no possible logic to the man’s presence before them, so they both spent a moment at a total loss. He still hadn’t blinked, which was creeping Hermione out even more. Part of Hermione wanted to ask Draco what he thought they ought to do, but she doubt he’d know any more than she did.

Making to move away from Draco, she was unable to do so. Draco’s hold remained firm, and at the movement of her muscles he squeezed tighter. Because of this she glanced at him quickly, breaking her gaze with the tailcoat and top hat guy.

Ignoring the fact that she was in no position to begin an interrogation, she tried anyway. “Sir?” she began, her voice betraying her uncertainty.

The man gave her a large toothy grin, which made his face seem like that of a madman. It was unnatural for so many teeth to be displayed in one smile, not to mention they all seemed to be slightly pointed. If Hermione didn’t personally know that no one had entire sets of canine teeth, then she might be inclined to think that it were so.

It was quite possibly the most unsettling thing she had ever seen, and she had seen many disturbing events. Following the smile of the insane, the man blinked pointedly twice, took another moment, and then spoke.

“Welcome, welcome, my dear friends. You’re just in time, oh yes, you have great timing. Your timing is truly great. A spot of tea shall suit us three, but I fear the others shall be late.” His voice was uneven, going high-pitched and too loud at random moments, as though he had a speech impediment, but it seemed intentional.

Her spine tingled from his words. “Uh…” Hermione was still at a loss, so she started with the first thing that struck her as important. “What others?” ‘Don’t tell me I’ll have to deal with a whole ballroom full of dressed up loons,’ she hoped silently, wishing the situation didn’t become worse.

The smile still remained, along with that gleam in his eyes. Now cocking his head to the side, he put a hand to his ear. “Shh! Just listen!” He paused. “Can you hear? Yes indeed, they are quite near. Too close I say, too close for me. Follow along, and meet my three!”

Suddenly, he disappeared. But, before either could ask a question to the other, they heard labored breathing from behind. Hermione and Draco found the man standing behind them instead. They both whipped around and stood crouched, ready to fight.

The guy was jogging in place, frantically hiking each knee up higher and higher, and causing the fog to swirl about. “Come along, come along!” he urged, now ceasing his flamboyant jog. He began heading further along the way they had been going.

Hermione nearly cried out as she watched him move forward, gliding along. His feet didn’t move, or did they? The fog covered much of it, but no one walked that smoothly. How utterly disturbing he seemed.

Clutching Draco’s side, she ventured forth. Part of her knew that to disagree would be a mistake. This was not someone they wanted to upset.

Shortly after they trekked along, following at a distance, Hermione opened her mouth to ask a question, but found herself lacking the will to follow through. If she asked him anything then he’d turn around, and she didn’t want to see his face again, or his teeth.

Casting a glance at Hermione, Draco finished what she had started. “What’s your name?” he voiced loud enough to be heard even by the man several feet ahead.

Silence was their answer, until they saw his cane swing back and forth and his gliding came to a slow stop. Smoothly he turned around, beaming a toothy grin their way.

Again he vanished, but Draco half expected something like this to occur again, so he was more ready. It was something like flash step, at least that’s all he could guess, so he was able to sense where the man ended up, which was right beside Hermione. Pulling her away slightly, he waited for the next move.

Hermione was slightly less apt to sense the movements of someone using flash steps, or something like it in this case, so she was a bit surprised when she found the man towering over her.

“My name, my name, my name, my name, my name. MY NAME!” he shouted, leaning his face closer and closer to Hermione’s each and every time he uttered the words.

Now his nose was an inch from Hermione’s, and his eyes stared directly into hers. She gulped, as she saw that his eyes were totally dark, they were black. There was no color difference between the pupil and the iris. Even in this dark light, she could easily tell the color of Draco’s eyes, so it wasn’t the lighting. Who had black eyes? Dark brown perhaps, sometimes appearing black. But pitch black?

Never blinking, he just looked into Hermione’s eyes, smiling madly. His mouth started to move, but no sound came out.

“Okay Blain. That’s a little too close.” Draco said as he stepped back, taking Hermione with him. Blain was the name the man was mouthing, and while he uttered no sound, Draco could read lips.

The man supposedly called Blain began to mutter something. Still, he remained bent and leaning forward as before. After a few moments, the sound became progressively louder and they were both able to hear him whispering, “Blain, Blain, Blain, Blain, Blain.” He kept repeating it over and over again. Very soon his whispers became shouts, until he was shouting, “BLAIN, BLAIN, BLAIN!!”

Abruptly he stopped shouting and bowed down low from the waist. Even though his head was tilted at such an extreme angle, his top hat stayed in place. Next he knelt down on one knee, straightened his back, and then scuttled awkwardly forward to kneel closer in front of Draco. “Fair maidens!” he cried, reaching out to take hold of Draco’s hand. Before he could touch Draco, who was looking at him with such fury Hermione had never seen before, Blain yelped in pain and jumped back.

Hermione was biting her lip so hard, she again felt the pain of her tooth piercing the skin and blood being drawn. The pain was at the back of her mind however as she tried desperately to keep laughter in. While Blain nursed an apparently injured hand, she convulsed with silent laughter.

Draco looked down at Hermione, scowling. “Not a word Granger,” he growled fiercely. The guy was obviously out of his mind if he had mistaken Draco for a girl.

Hermione whimpered in response, unable to manage much more for fear of starting a fit of giggles. She could tell Draco would get seriously upset if she did laugh. Instead, she fought it off with promises of making fun of him later.

The mood returned to its serious and solemn nature once again, when Blain jumped to his feet clutching his hand to his chest. The white glove he had donned before was now scorched. ‘Odd,’ Hermione thought. He stalked forth, advancing yet again on Hermione. “BLOOD!” he shouted. “Sweet, sweet blood. I smell it. Indeed, I always smell it. Sense it, sense it. See it, I now see it!”

Blain’s eyes were fixed on Hermione’s face. It took her a moment to realize what he was getting at. The words he spoke were a little difficult to piece together correctly, plus she had forgotten about her lip. Indeed, there was a trickle of blood that ran from her pierced lip to her chin. Instinctively, she licked her lip free of the red substance. With her sleeve she wiped the rest off.

As Hermione did this, Blain stuttered a move forward, reaching his hands out as if to touch Hermione’s face. He stopped short though, seeming to realize he couldn’t and settled for licking his lips and staring hungrily at her. “Taste, taste, taste. I sense and see and see and see. But, taste I don’t, I want, I want. Let me taste a little. Touch I cannot, cannot I touch. Let me taste, I won’t take much.” He started to rock back and forth on his heels. “Taste and touch, I won’t take much,” he chanted this a few more times before settling down and staring at Hermione again.

Draco just looked at him incredulously, with one brow raised in question. After a moment he smirked. “Go for it,” he stated.

Hermione turned her head up to Draco to ask if he was insane, but just then Blain launched himself forward. Easily, she could have dodged the attack, but Draco held her in place, tightening his hold on her to make sure she remained.

Just when she thought Blain would tackle her, he disappeared again. This trick of his was becoming rather annoying, as Hermione was having difficulty sensing where he landed.

She was having a hard time deciding what to do first, yell at Draco and ask what page he was on that left her at a loss for his actions or figure out where Blain had gone. Before she could do either, however, Blain let her know where he was by speaking.

“Wretch! Foul!” he shouted, now standing next to Draco, but seeming far less intimidating since he couldn’t leer down at the blonde’s tall frame.

Hermione watched clueless as Draco continued to smirk. Tutting, Draco seemed to carry an all-together condescending air toward Blain. “Come now Blain. Name calling is not very nice,” he chastised in a mocking tone. “How was I to know you couldn’t touch her?”

While Blain still looked livid, he had backed down. His eye twitched a little and his head jerked, but then he smiled widely at them. “Yes, yes, of course, of course.” Raising his cane, he began to twirl it about his fingers as though it were a baton. “Peculiar, indeed!” he exclaimed. “The others should know, right away, yes, yes.”

“Blain,” Draco started, more serious now. “Perhaps we should meet the other three, err, while drinking tea.”

It was painfully obvious that Draco had to force the last few words out, but it did the trick, as Blain seemed to agree.

“Come fair maidens! Follow along!” he called, earning a growl from Draco. His jovial ranting was not deterred however. “Do keep up, or you will regret, for this adventure you cannot forget! I move quite fast, so do not lag. This begins, our game of tag!” With that he vanished yet again.

“Follow my lead!” Draco said, before vanishing himself.

Not wanting to be left behind, she tracked and followed Draco’s movements. Still new to the process, she was afraid to fall more than one step behind, lest she lose him and be forgotten.

Shortly into this little game of tag, Hermione found herself tiring quickly. Flash steps were not meant be taken in such large strides and for such a prolonged period. She was still learning and mastering the art to begin with, and the only thing that kept her going was the need to not be left behind and keep up with Draco. So she carried on, urging herself to keep it up, not to stop.

Not more than an hour, with a sufficiently tired Hermione, Draco started to wonder how much longer he could keep it up as well. Surely, he’d have to stop once he sense Hermione falter. Blain solved this problem for him however, as the madman had finally settled upon a nearby location for more than a fraction of a second. This was the end of the line. With one final step Draco met Blain and was joined by a gasping Hermione.

Breathing deeply also, Draco stilled to catch his breath fully and take in their new surroundings. They were in a clearing in the middle of the forest. For the first time since they had left the bright blue sky behind, Draco could see past the canopy of leaves and look at the darkening dusk sky.

The clearing was of a generally circular shape, roughly twenty feet in radius. The ground was covered in plush green grass free of fog, where as just as the tree line began there was a dirt ground, thick with the white watery gas. At the center of the tree free zone was a glamour. Hermione and Draco could both feel its presence, which meant there was something there they weren’t openly seeing.

Draco moved back a couple steps and joined a heaving Hermione, who would have thrown up from the knots her stomach was in, if she had anything to be thrown up. Rubbing gentle circles over her back, he stood beside her as she regained some composure.

Blain took a couple steps toward them, then a step back, and another couple forward before another back. In this repeated pattern he made his way to the two of them. “Dear ladies, dear ladies, how swiftly you move, it is for this that I truly approve. My friends will come soon, but I’d much rather drink.” He walked to the center of the small field and waved his hand at what could only be the glamour.

Hermione and Draco watched aptly as the enshrouding magic fell and Blain revealed what lay hidden behind it. Three dark mounds marked the grass.

It took Hermione a second to recognize the folds of material that were shirts and cloaks. Without even having a positive confirmation of identification, she knew the mounds were the three students.

Unable to control herself, she shouted out, “Are they alive?”

Blain turned to her, smiling even wider than before, eyes shut in apparent glee. “Alive? Oh yes, of course swift lady.”

“They need to go home now,” Draco stated, sounding rather angry.

The smile on Blain’s face fell and his eyes opened in question. “Home, home, go home?” he questioned, stepping a little closer to the three students.

“Yes,” came Draco again, in that ever-commanding tone.

“Mine, they are mine, mine, MINE! I keep, right here!” he argued becoming upset, which Hermione felt a prickle of fear at.

Before Draco could flat out challenge him to a duel, Hermione intervened hoping to solve things as diplomatically as possible. “Why do you want them?” she asked.

“They are peculiar creatures. Runes they said, they said runes. I don’t know, I don’t know. Peculiar, I’m intrigued,” he ranted.

“Bullocks!” Draco shouted.

Hermione slapped her forehead at this point. ‘Why doesn’t he just throw the first punch?’

Blain didn’t seem to notice Draco’s comment and stared on intently at the two of them. “I feed, I feed. I admit this, I need. But, need or feed, I’m far more intrigued.”

“Malfoy, I think you should cool it a little. Don’t go upsetting people until certain other people are safely out of the way,” Hermione said this through clenched teeth.

“What would you have me do? Discuss things more civilized over tea?” he asked, “Because I think, fair maiden, that having anymore tea might just kill the three of them.”

“Well, I don’t suggest blowing on embers and starting a fire. We’re in a forest Draco, no telling how out of hand the flames could get,” she chastised.

He grunted in concession. Then after a moment’s thought he smirked.

‘Oh no,” Hermione thought, seeing his smirk. That trademark smirk of his always meant trouble, at least this one did.

“Blain,” Draco began, causing Hermione to groan. “I have a proposition for you.”

“Proposition?” Blain questioned warily.

“If you hand over the three of them,” he gestured to the students behind Blaine, “then I
will let you see something far more interesting. You may have heard of them, being
a vampire.”

“Vampire!” Hermione exclaimed triumphantly. For some time, she’d suspected as much,
but she wasn’t sure. Now that Draco agreed she was a little proud that she was correct.

“I listen, I wait, do tell,” Blain called out in a singsong voice. Sauntering closer, he removed his top hat, revealing slick black hair beneath. Seeing his face without the shadow from the hat and in a slightly better lit area made his pale skin stand out drastically.

“Have you ever seen an Angelus?” Draco asked.

Blain stopped dead in his tracks, dropping his cane and hat to the ground. He stared wide-eyed at Draco. “An Angelus? I WANT IT! GIVE IT TO ME NOW! LET ME SEE, LET ME SEE!!”

“Of course Blain, but only after the students are back where they belong,” Draco reasoned.

Blain nodded frantically, stepping to the side and gesturing an open hand at the three unconscious bodies, granting them access.

“You take them back to the school,” Draco whispered in Hermione’s ear.

Giving him a questioning look, but receiving a firm and serious one in return, she walked to the students. She was most cautious as she passed Blain and she heard him sniffing in the air right when she neared. As she caught a sudden glint from those onyx eyes of his, she was reluctant to turn her back to him. Draco was right there though, so she kept walking.

The three students appeared to be alright, though worse for the wear. Smears of dirt, mussed and tangled hair, dirtied clothes. But, all she wanted was a steady pulse and normal breathing, which she got. Reaching out and taking their hands, she closed her eyes in concentration and then apparated out of the clearing.

She remained with them only long enough to heal a few scrapes and wake them up. Then, she obliviated their memory, first searching their minds for the right ones.

Once that was taken care of Hermione returned to the clearing, finding things much the same as before.

“Alright Granger, give him a show worth the trade off,” Draco stated.

Blain looked eagerly at her, waiting expectantly.


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