Shiver

Captured

I fled that night.  I remember it being freezing cold; it was winter, after all, but just as I quickly fled the school grounds I fled with little more than the clothes I came in wearing.  I only had the quilt form the bed I had been sleeping in, and it did very little for the cold weather outside.

I don’t use magic; I don’t want to be found.  So with chattering teeth I move forward, and soon realize that I am not entirely sure where I’m going. 

And without thinking I suddenly like the biggest fool.  Always the fool.  Always stupid, never making the right choices.  But if I do die out here, then at least I won’t have to worry about ever being touched by Malfoy again.

But this makes me sad, because I don’t want to die. I am after all a coward, that much is true.  Malfoy was right though.

Desperation makes us all I fools, I concluded with not a little bitterness. 

I didn’t know at that time how far beyond my control this all I was.  I had no idea.

I spent the night huddled beneath a bridge, and  in the morning I found myself staring into a pair of ice blue eyes.  

No.

I blinked once.

I blinked twice.

This is a nightmare.  

He smiled at me, and gently ran his hands through my hair.  ‘Oh Hermione, you have no idea how worried I’ve been.  I hought my favorite student had become lost forever.

And then darkness.

//

When I finally open my eyes, I am confused.  I can see that I am sitting in darkness, and laying on something uncomfortable. It takes me a minute or two to realize that it is the ground, and that I am naked.

I’m extremely thirsty and sit up, running my hands over my body and find it uninjured.  Malfoy hasn’t touched me.

Yet.

Pulling my knees to my chest, I wonder where I am, or what he has done with me.  He wouldn’t be so confident to think that he could simply keep me locked up somewhere.  It isn’t easy to get away with something like that, and he’d be the first suspect.

I am certain of that.

But I need to figure out where I am—I have no wand—so I clumsily feel along the walls for a door handle.  Just as I touch it, it turns, flooding the room with light.

Immediately I stumble back against the wall, and stare in dumb surprise as Draco Malfoy’s lean frame fills the doorway.

He looks utterly at ease, and my heart begins to pound wildly before I slowly slide to the floor, arms wrapped around my body as I do what I can to hide my nudity.

He watches me with penetrating eyes, but said in a soft,, almost bored voice, ‘For someone said to be smart you are surprisingly foolish, Ms. Granger. For instance, why run away when you had no reason to run?'

My mouth opens and closes, and then I whisper, 'You can't be serious.'

He continues, as if I haven't spoken, 'You ran away, and it was so easy to find you once you decided to leave the home of that family.  Nice couple.  Unfortunately, when I asked them a few questions,' He smiled slightly, 'Well they can't seem to remember a thing about you. Haven't any clue why.'

'You...obliviated them?

He frowned, 'I would never do anything so deplorable.'  He shrugged, 'They weren't alive when I found them.'

I couldn't believe it. I wouldn't believe it.

And then he laughed softly, 'Only kidding. '