Born The Day You Kissed Me

Hermione inwardly groaned when she realized that she had fallen asleep with her neck in an awkward position. She made to stand up when her head hit a low ceiling which caused her further pain. She groaned in frustration and kicked open the closet door angrily. It must have been sometime since Malfoy had shut her in the 'hidden closet' considering she had fallen asleep. Stepping out of the closet and rubbing her eyes to fully wake up, she pushed up her shirtsleeve to check her wristwatch and saw that it had been nearly an hour since Malfoy had left.

'What could possible be taking him so long?' She thought as she sat on his black leather couch. Her heart skipped a few beats when she thought about what could have happened to him. He was going to talk with his father...what if his father had harmed him? That would mean that she'd be stuck in Malfoy Manor alone, and the thought made her blood run cold. She didn't care to find out more about the Malfoy's home life than she needed to.

Hermione's eyes scanned the room, a shiver crawling up her spine when the portraits of former Malfoys were staring at her in revulsion and abhorrence. She quickly averted her eyes, but continued to feel uneasy. A few moments passed by, but the feeling ceased to dissipate. She hadn't noticed the portraits when Malfoy had been with her, but now that she was alone in his room it became increasingly apparent that she did not belong there.

She stood up and made her way to the bathroom to try and escape them when she stubbed her toe on something. Hermione yelped in discomfort and looked down to find a black sphere on the ground...one very similar to the portkey her and Malfoy had used earlier....

"The portkey!" she said out loud. "How could I have forgotten about the portkey!"

A plan quickly began to form in her mind. She was going to go and find that portkey and get out of there, with or without Malfoy. If she could get the portkey, it would transport her back to her house and the whole mess would be solved, and she would be home again. Not to mention she would be spared the embarrassment of seeing Malfoy again after their little interlude. 'Great Plan,' she thought as she cautiously made her way out of Malfoy's room and down the dim hallway.

* * * *

Draco threw the silky fabric of his emerald invisibility cloak around his broad shoulders and proceeded to the East Wing Den. When he approached the door, he could hear loud male voices arguing amongst each other. Draco slipped in the door undetected and headed directly for the corner near the tree. Almost every man in the room was yelling at Crabbe and Goyle, who had walked in the door moments before Draco, for delaying their meeting.

"Just who do you two think you are?" one man said angrily.

"You idiots! It's your fault we were unable to begin this crucial meeting!" another yelled, standing up next to them.

"You both deserve the killing curse!" another said from behind.

"Gentlemen," Lucius' cool voice broke out, seemingly controlled.

That was Lucius though, always under control in front of his fellow death eaters.

Draco's heart upped it beats as the men formed a circle around Lucius, and his father continued to talk.

"Enough about Crabbe and Goyle's unfortunate stupidity. The Dark Lord will handle them later. Right now, we need to concentrate on how our plan failed," Lucius drawled on, circling the room.

"That's simple!" one man with a coarse voice spoke up, stepping forward. "It's your son's fault! If he had not been acting so foolish none of this would ever have happened! We would already have the mudblood in our possession and our lives would not be on the line. The Dark Lord could be here at any moment, and he is expecting his, how did he put it...oh yes. Live bait."

Draco's mind was reeling once again. That man's voice was familiar....

"Yes, thank you for reminding us of Draco's momentary lapse of intelligence. As I have already told all of you, my son is nowhere to be found. He is probably still wandering around that damned forest by the mudblood's house," Lucius scowled.

"Wandering? Or recovering?" the man with the crude voice said slyly.

"What do you mean? Recovering from what?" Lucius asked, turning on him violently.

The other man raised his chin in the air with an unsettling smirk on his face. "Lets just say the punishment was deserved."

So that was it. Draco had been with the death eaters in the woods behind Granger's house, and they were supposed to capture her as 'live bait' for Voldemort. He had obviously done something wrong, and it must have been this man that had cast the Cruciatus curse on him. He remembered how he had felt when he'd woken up. He had been hit with the Cruciatus curse enough to know its aftereffects.

"I have contacted the Dark Lord, and have told him that we need more time. He was extremely angry with the news, and he expects that we have the mudblood no later than tomorrow."

There was no movement at this news. Death usually occurred when the Dark Lord was angry. After a few moments of utter silence, Lucius spoke.

"Gentlemen, we have to do something about our current predicament. Initially our plan was to let Draco handle the situation. We wanted the girl to come with him willingly. If we had gone to kidnap her than her parents no doubt would have contacted not only the muggle police, but Dumbledore as well. We cannot afford to have the old fool catching us. Since Draco is unfortunately, nowhere to be found, we will just have to go to plan B," Lucius said solemnly while strolling around the circle.

"Which is?"

"After we kidnap her, we will kill her parents so that they cannot go to Dumbledore. No one will know she is missing, she has no other family."

The room was silent, but grins of approval were shown on all of their faces. "I am going to go look for Draco one last time. If he is still nowhere to be found, then we will leave shortly after my return," Lucius said, turning to leave the room, his robes billowing behind him.

Draco was now seething. So he was being used to coax Granger into returning with him to the Manor to make her some sort of bait for Voldemort. He felt nauseous. He could tell that his father was not kidding. What would they do when they arrived to find that she was missing? Would they still kill her parents? Granger had been gone for a while now; perhaps they had already contacted the muggle police or Dumbledore. All he knew was that he needed to warn her. They needed to get back to her house to warn her parents. He looked under the tree and found the portkey they had used to get there in the first place.

'Shit,' Draco said, suddenly remembering that his father had gone to look for him. 'She is still in my room,' he thought frantically. He moved quickly further under the tree. He opened the passage but gasped loudly when he found Granger's face staring back at him.

Hermione had gone to the East Wing Den to travel through the passage again. She was determined now to get that portkey because she couldn't stand to stay at the Manor any longer. She finally reached the end of the passage, but when she made to reach for the door it was already opening...

She looked though the small door to see who had opened it, but no one was there...'Strange,' she thought shaking her head. She began to crawl out of the passage but bumped into something.

Whatever it was, it began to push her backward into the passage again.

"No!" she screamed, but a hand covered her mouth to silence her.

Draco lunged for her to quiet her screams; the last thing they needed was to be caught by the death eater clan.

"Mmmph," Hermione struggled against whatever was pushing her back into the passage. The person had shoved her into a corner, then turned around to close the passage door.

After placing the portkey on the ground, Draco pulled his invisibility cloak off of his body and pulled out his wand to give them light. When she saw it was him, she began to yell at him for scaring the living daylights out of her.

Relieved that she was here and not in his room where his father was currently traveling to, he began to feel nervous that she would be heard by the group of men in the Den. He pulled her up to her feet and placed his hand over her mouth to silence her. "Granger, shut up!" Draco hissed as quietly as possible. "There are death eaters in that room. Do you really want to know what they would do to you if they found you?"

While she was shaking her head no, Draco couldn't help but think that he knew exactly what they would do to her. "Use you as live bait."

"Excuse me?" Hermione said sternly, shoving his hand away from her mouth.

He didn't realize that he said that out loud. "Nothing," he tried to cover up.

Hermione narrowed her eyes at him. "What happened?" she said stepping even closer to him.

"Nothing," Draco said too quickly for his liking, and taking a few steps back.

She looked at him suspiciously. "Something happened. If I heard correctly there were death eaters in that room. Were you spying on them?"

"Hang on, what are you doing down here anyway? I thought I told you to stay in my room?" he said angrily, stepping towards her.

"You cannot tell me what to do!" She said growing angry with him. There was something he was keeping from her, and she desperately wanted to know what had gotten him so disturbed. She walked towards him as well until they were mere centimeters away from each other. "Tell me what happened," she said a little more softly.

Draco looked into her concerned eyes. Should he tell her what he had just overheard? He couldn't even imagine her reaction if he told her he was part of a plan to kidnap her and use her as live bait for Voldemort. "Right now, we need to get back to your house. Your parents are in danger."

"What?" she gasped with horror in her eyes. "What do you mean they are in danger?"

Suddenly a familiar low hissing sound began to emit from the portkey. They each turned their attention to the glowing object.

"I will explain everything when the time is right," he said in a low voice. "Right now, we just need to get you home." They walked over to the portkey, and Draco reached down to take Hermione's hand in his own. Draco kneeled down, but before he touched the portkey, he turned and looked up into her eyes while giving her hand a tight squeeze.

"Ready?"

She gave a small nod, and before she could blink they were hurled into a familiar swirling darkness.