Sacrifice, or how Draco Malfoy fell for Hermione Granger

Chapter 1: Kidnapped

When Malfoy didn't move, Nott tightened his grip on his wand and extended his arm out, as if to prove he wasn't bluffing, arching his eyebrow in an open challenge. Hermione took advantage of his distraction to raise her own wand towards Malfoy.

Clearly outnumbered, Malfoy backed down, his eyes still gleaming with anger. 'You're going to regret not listening to me, Granger,' Malfoy warned, a strange edge to his voice.

Fixing a glare on Nott, he quickly retreated from the room. Hermione followed him with her eyes until the door close behind him, just in case he tried anything else. 'What's his problem?' Hermione demanded the moment he was out of sight.

'He thinks he's protecting you.' Nott replied distractedly, his voice floating over from behind her, too close for comfort. Before she could react, though, she felt the tip of a wand poke the small of her back, and heard a muttered 'Stupefy!' Her world tilted, rapidly fading to black.

The first thing Hermione noticed when she awoke was the hard, cold stone floor beneath her. Where was the soft mattress she always slept on in her dorm at Hogwarts? Where was she?

Trying to stop her rising panic, she opened her eyes. She was in a dungeon of some sort, she guessed. A dim light lit her cell, but there was no indication as to its source. The room itself was roughly hemispherical, with a ceiling six feet high. One wall was covered in bars, and she could see a corridor beyond. What scared her most, though, was the harmless looking chamber pot in the back of the cell.

She needed to get out of there, and soon.

She tried rattling the bars in hope of dislodging them, but they appeared to have been magically reinforced. She desperately reached into her robes for her wand, only to come up empty. Sweet Merlin, where was her wand?

Quelling her rising fear, she struggled to her feet, only to stumble back to the ground as her head spun and pounded in protest at the movement.

However, as time passed, she realized that the more worrisome fact was the lack of a door. She even went as far as to feel every reachable inch of the wall and floor for a trapdoor, only to be disappointed.

Desperately, she tried to disapparate, only to find that she couldn't. Wherever she was, there were heavy anti-magic wards and maybe other protective enchantments her as well.

She huddled desolately against the cold wall, contemplating her predicament. There was only one conclusion-she'd been kidnapped.

Voldemort was gone, and the Death Eaters had gone into hiding. The threat was supposed to be over. So why would Nott kidnap her?

She was distracted from her thoughts a few hours-or was it a few minutes?-later by the sound of approaching footsteps. The person came into view, and fear clutched her heart as she recognized Rabastan Lestrange leering at her through the bars.

The wizard was as repulsive as she remembered from the few glimpses she'd caught of him at the Final Battle. The manic gleam in his eyes and his twisted smirk as he surveyed her made her throat constrict in fear, and she felt the adrenaline buzzing through her veins.

'Good day, Mudblood,' he mocked, 'I see you're finally awake. Do the accommodations live up to the Malfoy name?' he asked, looking around her cell.

So I'm back in Malfoy Manor, she thought, her hair standing on edge. Then another thought invaded her mind, sending chills down her spine-he wouldn't be telling me this if they planned to let me leave here alive.

'What do you want?' Hermione finally found her voice, and was relieved when it didn't betray her fear. 'If it's revenge you want, then kill me and get it over with.'

Lestrange simply chuckled. 'Brave. I like it. It'll be all the more fun to break you.' He licked his lips, eying her in a way that made her extremely uncomfortable. 'I don't suppose you would've heard of the Renascentia Potion? No?' he asked surveying her confused expression. 'It's a Potion for rebirth.'

And then it clicked.

Rebirth?

She gasped as comprehension sunk in, her eyes widening.

Bloody hell. They're going to try to resurrect Voldemort.

A/N: Good? Bad? Passable? Terrible? Amazing? Horrifying? Awesome? OMG WTF is this shit?

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~craaazyaboutMalfoy