White Linen Lies | Dramione

Chapter 2: Path to Nowhere

Hermione's heart was pounding so hard she worried it might burst. Her gaze continued to flicker over to Malfoy as she levitated his body, moving as quickly as she could without losing control of him. As she ran, the sounds of war ravaged her ears as explosion after explosion shook the ground beneath her. She was trying desperately to keep her emotions intact, but the sounds of children screaming and towers crumbling to ash seemed to be pulling the tears from her eyes with little to no difficulty.

The castle, nor its previous inhabitants, would ever be the same after witnessing the tragedy that was unfolding before them.

As she continued towards the bottom of the Divination tower, she quickly averted her gaze as she stumbled upon body after body, both of students, and Death Eaters. Eyes forward, she told herself, keep going. One foot in front of the other.

Finally, after what felt like a lifetime of pain and destruction, she reached the destination that Harry had given her. She quickly scanned the relatively small foyer, but saw no obvious signs of a hidden passage. However, upon entering the room, she immediately felt another shift in atmosphere, similar to the one she felt as she had watched the unknown witch trap them beneath the Dark wards.

Gooseflesh once again rippled across her skin, and the hairs on the back of her neck raised defensively. It was a room that she had stood in a hundred times before, but it felt as though it was a new space entirely; a space that she was not meant to be standing in.

Suppressing her instinct to leave, she continued to look for signs of a tunnel or hidden door. She looked beneath the bottom of the seemingly never-ending staircase, behind the portraits that hung on the wall, all of which appeared to be free of their subjects, and lifted the tapestry that hung across from the stairs.

Nothing.

She let out a frustrated grown as she continued to keep Malfoy's levitating body in her peripheral; there was no way she'd be able to properly search the place while having to keep her focus on her magic. So, she walked over to one of the walls and incredibly gently placed him on the ground.

Using her hands, she kept his still wounded legs off of the ground, lowering him down with his back hitting the floor first. With another flick of her wand, she quickly used a quick scouring charm to clean the surface below him. Then, with one hand again, she rifled through her bag until she found an old scarf.

It was a tattered, orange knitted scarf, no doubt the work of Molly Weasley. She hoped that Ron, the obvious owner of the scarf, wouldn't miss it too much as she wordlessly transfigured it into something that more closely resembled a beach towel. With another quick Scourgify to the not-scarf, she placed it on the ground under Malfoy's exposed legs, and very carefully lowered his legs down so that she could get to work.

She climbed to her feet, and immediately began inspecting every brick on the wall, tapping her wand to any that looked even slightly out of place. Again, she found nothing.

"Miss Granger!" she heard from behind her. She gasped and quickly turned around, wand aimed and ready.

There was no one there.

Hermione began to breathe heavily as nerves and panic fled her system. The voice hadn't sounded aggressive, but it was still not one that she immediately recognized. Her eyes flashed around the room, but no one was there.

"Revelio!"

Her spell revealed nothing.

"No, Miss Granger, over here!" The voice sounded. Hermione quickly turned to her left towards the source of the noise. Her eyes quickly landed on a once empty portrait, except now, there sat a new subject that she had in fact known.