digging in her heels. "Where are you taking me?"
Hermione thought he might hit her then, but he shoved a fist in her hair and dragged her along by it. The pain made her eyes water. "Keep your mouth shut and move!"
Travers had pulled her halfway down the corridor by the time Hermione whipped out the quill she had been hiding and rammed its sharp, unused tip into Travers' right hand. The force of the stab successfully buried the nib an inch below his thumb, before she twisted the shaft and snapped it off.
He howled like an injured dog and this time, he really did swing his fist at her. She ducked and made an attempt to sprint for the stairs. Travers had been expecting this and stuck his foot out to trip her.
Hermione staggered backwards towards the door when he hit her with a Petrificus Partialus. Her legs froze under her and she barely had time to roll to her side before falling painfully to the floor.
When she opened her eyes, she was being roughly pulled up under her arms. "You're going to regret that," he breathed wetly against her ear. "Later."
The bottom half of her body from the waist down was frozen in place, but her arms were not. Hermione reached around to claw at his face. If he had any hair, she would have pulled it.
"STOP THAT!" He shook her violently until her teeth clicked together and then trapped both her wrists in one of his hands. He squeezed so hard she cried out and went to her knees. "Try that again and I' ll snap your neck," he threatened. "Zabini can go and find himself another plaything."
No denying he was in a bit of a panic. Whatever he thought was happening upstairs or outside was not good news for the Death Eaters. The thought filled Hermione with hope.
He carried her down several rickety looking flights of stairs and then continued dragging her along with him when they finally reached an underground level. The air turned stale and damp.
There was a single torch at the end of the curving, stone corridor. Next to it was a set of thick, iron bolted doors. There was a different feel to that floor. The air felt more complex. The light from the torch seemed to bend and warp in an unnatural way.
Wards were at work, Hermione realised. Unlike the upstairs which was dilapidated ruins, this was an important area.
Hermione had the sinking feeling that if Travers got her past those doors, it was likely she would never return.
Rescue mission or not. She would never see Harry or Ron again, or her parents.
And Draco would be alone.
She was set to fight him with everything she had left in her, when a familiar voice made her freeze.
"Let her go."
Draco was standing behind them, some twenty feet away. It looked like he'd been waiting there. There was a thick wooden balustrade to his left. This was the only cover he had and Hermione was insane with worry that Travers would try his luck with a spell before anything further was said.
Hermione soaked up the sight of him.
Blood was streaming down the right side of his face, his feet were braced apart and it was obvious that he was favouring his right leg where a horrid looking gash showed through a rip in his trousers.
He looked like he' d just been through hell and back. Bloodied or not. She was so ridiculously happy to see him that she started to cry.
Travers responded by shoving his forearm under her chin and propped her back up. The force of the grip cut off her air. Hermione coughed and choked as she pulled at his arm.
Both men kept their wands trained on each other. The only difference was that Draco's arm was visibly shaking from the effort. Travers was well and wholly contained.
Draco hadn't looked at her yet and Hermione couldn't look away.
**
He couldn' t look at Hermione, wouldn' t look at her. If he did, Draco was sure he' d march down to the son of a bitch that was nearly choking her and beat the man to death with his fists.
Cruciatus was a fucked up spell. The effects were taking a while to wear off completely. His entire body felt like it was made of little springs that were going off at odd intervals.
The Death Eater scum didn't need to know that, however. Draco took a limping step forward and tried to keep his knees