Shadow and light

It was raining outside, and Hermione could feel the coolness to the bone. She had been captured along with Ginny, two days ago, by a pack of deatheaters. It was her fault, she should have paid more attention to the cloaked strangers following them through muggle London, they were in the middle of the war, after all, and no place was safe enough this days. They had thrown her in a dungeon and left her there. She didn't have a clue where Ginny might be, she didn't even know if she was still alive, although she hoped it with all her heart. She felt responsible for the life of her underage friend and had to protect her, but apparently she failed.... She was searching for a way out of the small and dark cell, but an escape seemed almost impossible without her wand. She hadn't seen anyone since they brought her and she was starting to wonder if they'll just starve her to death and leave her to rot in this dirty place.

She kicked the wall hard, feeling completely frustrated with her inability to do anything to escape, everything seemed to be useless. It made her even angrier than before. She swore she'll make them pay for this, if she'll ever get out of this mess.

She fell asleep on the cold stone floor, feeling exhausted by her lack of sleep in the last few days. It was impossible for her to tell how long she had slept, but the way she had woken up was shocking to say the last. She suddenly found herself face to face with a horrible death eater mask and screamed out of pure instinct. The death eater clamped his hand across her mouth quickly.

"Shh..." he whispered in her ear, making her shiver.

She continued struggling and bit his hand hard, making him draw it away.

"Granger, now that wasn't nice at all.” he said in an annoyed and mocking voice.

"You bastard", she screamed. "Let me go now! You have no right to keep me here!"

"I have every right; we are in the middle of a war. And I wasn't planning to keep you here anyway."

'Great, now he wants to kill me.' Hermione thought. 'Well, this complicates things a bit.'

She watched him defying and proud, with her chin lifted, but when she heard him speak, something about his voice seemed very familiar, like she heard it before and more than once, but who could he be? He knew her name, and the thought was disturbing. This meant they knew she was Harry Potter’s friend. She pushed the thought away quickly and tried to think of a way to escape.

"Look, Granger, you need to listen to me", the death eater said to her, "I have to take you away from here. You'd better not struggle, because it would be best for you. I will not hurt you. Do we have an agreement?"

Hermione was watching him calculating.

"I want to see your face," she told him in a calm and cold tone.

"Tsk, Tsk, Granger, you know you're not in the position to make demands. We have to go. Maybe later, if you behave."

He grabbed her arm and led her away from the cell.

"Don't try anything", he advised her in menacing tone.

It didn't work, because in the following second, Hermione managed to escape from his grip and she was running down the corridor. She avoided the first spell the death eater threw at her skillfully, but the second one hit her, and she fell to the ground, petrified.

"You shouldn't have done that", he calmly said, "I thought you knew better. Unless you wanted to die, if anyone found you."

She looked at him furious. If looks could kill, he would be long dead, he thought, chuckling. Then he took her, threw her over his shoulder and led her through dark passageways out of the dungeon. Hermione realized they were in a wealthy mansion, probably Voldemort's Headquarters. The mansion was tastefully decorated, in an opulent manner.
The death eater led her through some secret doors and several dark hallways.

"It's a shortcut" he explained. "We shouldn't be seen by anyone."

So no one else knew about this... Hermione was wondering with dread what exactly he had planned for her, and she supposed it wasn't something good. At least he was only one Death eater, it could have been much worse. Maybe she would find a way to overpower him and escape. Her friends needed her, and she had to find a way to rescue Ginny.

They finally reached what supposed to be their destination: a very large and elegant bedroom. It was decorated in silver and black, with old furniture and expensive carpets, tasteful silver sculptures, black marble lamps and thick curtains. 'At least it's better than the dungeon, even if it's a bit too dark for my taste’, she thought reluctantly, looking out of the window. It was starting to get darker. Why had he brought her here? Surely he wasn't planning to torture her, she thought, panicking, he could have done it in the dungeons. Was she going to stay here? The Deatheather placed her on the bed, still fully body-bonded. She looked at him expectantly

"I can't release you yet", he explained. "But when I'll do it, you'll need to behave and don't try anything foolish."

Then he took out his mask. The look in Hermione's eyes was one of utter shock. She now made the connection between the man in front of her and his voice. She should have known.

"You probably expected me to join them", said her biggest school enemy, Draco Malfoy, in his cool voice.