Come Into My Darkness

Chapter 1

The Beginning

Hermione sat at dinner, next to Harry, who was seated next to Ron. They were eating a fantastic Christmas dinner of ham, eggnog, black pudding, and occasionally pulling Wizard crackers.

With the growing threat of Voldemort, more people were staying at the school for the holidays. All around them, people chatted noisily, like bees in a hive. Hermione, Harry, and Ron however, were talking about their Care of Magical Creatures Class. Their last class included studying Giants, with a real specimen for the class to observe.

"Honestly," Ron was saying, "he's off his bird! Parents are definitely going to try to sack him now!"

"Yes," Hermione said. "But you have to admit, not all the Care of Magical Creatures classes in the past got to actually meet a giant."

"You mean without getting killed," muttered Ron. "I mean, sure, Grawp knows us, especially you, Herme, but what about these other innocent students? He doesn't know them, he could tear off their head at any second!"

"Well, then let's hope he just gets the ones that aren't innocent," Harry said loudly, shooting a venomous look at the Slytherin table, where Draco Malfoy and his cronies were sneering. Malfoy had pulled his wizard cracker, which popped out as a snake and slithered off the floor towards unwary prey.

Then Malfoy saw Harry's glare. And Draco smirked back. And then his eyes followed over to his friends. First Ron, which he gazed over disgustingly, probably feeling pride in his wealth. By now, both Ron and Hermione had looked also to the source of Harry's silence. But then something unusual happened.

His gaze flickered to Hermione. At first, his expression unwavering, but then, his face went blank, as if deep in thought, and remained so for a few moments. Then his drawling grin was back, growing wider than before, and Harry wondered why. Draco looked at Hermione for a moment longer, and then he turned back to Harry, still smirking.

"What's up with him?" Ron asked, clearly stating what was on everyone's mind.

"I don't know," Harry said, "but it looks like trouble." Quickly and somewhat silently they finished their dinner to head back up to the Griffindor common room. But halfway up the third floor staircase Hermione remembered something.

"Oh, no!" she cried. "I left my bag in the Great Hall! It's got my books and homework and everything in it!"

"You want us to come with you?" Harry asked.

"No, no, I'll get it. I just hope no one stole it!" she said, and then ran off back down the stairs.

"You know, sometimes I wonder about her," Ron said, shaking his head with Harry on their way up to the Common Room

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Draco had left Crabbe and Goyle to eat in the Great Hall, he did almost every year, they were such pigs. In the meantime, he was walking out of the Great Hall, when he spotted a book bag. Not caring about the owner's privacy, he walked over and picked it up. And he saw the name scrawled neatly on the handle.

Hermione Granger, 6^th year Gryffindor

Draco looked at the name and thought hard. This could work out. His plan would suceed. He picked up her tote and walked out of the room with a widening grin on his face.

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Hermione was running down corridors, rushing past moving portraits. The bag had all of her homework, which they had quite a lot of, and her books. Not to mention, a large amount of her quills and parchment. And then she also realized her S.P.E.W. forms were also in there. She hoped against hope that someone who picked it up was a teacher, or another Gryffindor. But if a Slytherin managed to get a hold of it, if Malfoy picked it up. . . .

With this new thought, she ran even faster, her lungs stretching to their capacity to allow her breath while sprinting. But when she reached the Great Hall and flung herself through it's doors, only a few people remained. She dashed to the spot where she was sitting earlier and looked frantically in the surrounding area. Finally, with an exasperated noise, she got up and made to leave the Great Hall, but Crabbe and Goyle stopped in front of the door, blocking her way.

"Are you looking for something?" Crabbe grinned.

"Did you take my bag? Or was it Malfoy?" Hermione asked furiously. "I'll hex whoever did it!"

"Well that would've been Malfoy then," he said in place of his friend, who was sniggering so hard that he could not talk. They then both went to grab more cake and desert. This puzzled Hermione. Why would they have stopped eating, told her Malfoy had taken her bag, and then went back eating? It was very strange.

Hermione walked out of the Great Hall knowing where to find Malfoy. He was in the Dungeons most likely, probably on his way to his common room. She, Harry, and Ron knew where it was, thanks to the Marauder's Map. Not to mention, Harry and Ron had told her about it after using the Polyjuice Potion. No, she had no intention of going into the Slytherin Common Room, but if Malfoy was on his way there, she would know which way to go.

"Little miss perfect, running around the dungeons at night? Now that is odd." She heard the familiar smirking voice coming from the shadows, but then, the entire corridor was dark.

"Were you looking for something?" he asked.

"Malfoy, give it back!" Hermione shouted, red hot with anger, and he noticed it. It pleasantly shocked him to see a neat-freak like Granger become suddenly invigorated, firey.

"I might," he said, drawing nearer to her. Hermione was very much confused, and out of her confusion, took a step back. He continued to walked towards her. "Or I might give you something better." And then he bent his face towards her. Draco grabbed her arms roughly and crushed her against the wall. She looked in horror at what he was doing, and fought against him. Though he came closer and their lips touched. He kissed her, all the while pinning her to the wall. Hermione tried thrashing about, but he was much stronger than her and would not loosen his hold on her. Then he pulled his face from hers, and smirked. The grin on his face would not tear away, and he stepped back. Hermione looked at him even more confused. Then she picked her bag up and ran through the dungeons, back into the light.

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Draco stood on the spot, thinking hard at what he had started. She was a perfect angel, a goody-goody two-shoes with top grades, a potential to be head girl, and a ton of friends with whom she tagged along with. He was an evil, dark, demonic son of a death eater banished from all that was good to lead an exiled life in the murky, shadowed dungeons.

She had led a sheltered life. But now he would change that. He would taint her with darkness, shower her with sin, corrupt her perfect mind to do whatever he saw fit. People would distance themselves from her, she would abandon her grades and homework. And Draco could just imagine the look on her best friends' faces when they saw the result of what he had done to her. And then he would leave her. Like a farmer dismisses a runt pig, as a bird abandons an egg that is not her own. She would be devastated, heartbroken. She would have no one else in the world.

But this was only the beginning.

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Hermione ran. She ran as fast as her feet would take her. What had happened? What was Malfoy doing? He had scared her. Malfoy was so much stronger than her, what if he tried it again, he would be sure to take her wand. By now she had arrived at The Fat Lady.

"Password?"

"Lion's Den."

The Fat Lady's portrait swung open and allowed her in, still thinking hard on what had happened. Ron and Harry were sitting at the table, working on homework when she stepped in. They looked up at her and noticed her panting.

"You OK?" Harry asked. "Find your stuff?"

"Yeah, Yeah," she said, holding up her bag. "You know, running around looking for it kind of wore me out, I'm going to bed." Hermione didn't feel like telling them what had happened to her, not yet. First she had believe it. Quickly and quietly she made her way up the stairs and plopped on her bed, dropping the bag near her trunk. Crookshanks jumped up on the bed and curled up beside her and began to purr.

"Good night, Crookshanks," Hermione said wearily, and fell asleep almost instantly, thinking about what had happened.