Clairvoyance and its Consequences

Chapter 8_______________________________________________________________

Harry and Hermione spent the night in the hospital wing with Madam Pomfrey fussing over their unconscious figures. Draco had retired to Hermione's bedside while Ron and Ginny were moving between the two, watching the unmoving process of their two friends.

Colour was slowly resurfacing on Hermione's cheeks, but Harry's stayed as colourless as ever, the translucent, sickly white contrasting terribly with his messy, jet black hair. By about three in the morning it was evident that Hermione was slowly moving out of her unconsciousness, as she occasionally moved from side to side, murmuring indistinguishable words of distress in the process. Harry however stayed as stiff as a board, staring at the ceiling through his heavy, unmoving eyelids.

"Draco..." Hermione said suddenly, louder than before, thrashing madly in the bed. Ron and Neville exchanged looks.

"She must be reliving her vision," Draco said. "The images are usually more vivid in her dreams..."

"Draco...!" Hermione cried again, moving in her bed violently as though ropes were binding her. "Please don't hurt Draco...!"

"Oh dear," Ginny said breathlessly, heading over from Harry's side. "She's in a great deal of distress. Maybe we should revive her -"

"What and have her miss some event from her dream that could be important in our future?" Draco snapped. "We'll leave her for the moment, Weasley."

"What so you like seeing Hermione in pain, do you?" Ron snapped as his little sister glared at Draco.

Draco glared right back, a sneer contorting his face. "No," he said, "I just think that it's important for her to see her entire dream so she doesn't go through even more pain when it really happens!"

Ginny sighed heavily in annoyance. "Really, Malfoy," she said, "she's already seen whatever she's seeing now. It's not as though she has to see it a thousand times before she can tell us about it. And besides, she's already told us about it!"

Ron took out his wand and pointed it at Hermione, only to have her voice fill the air.

"You can curse Draco all you want but he will never be like you! He will never become a coldhearted criminal like you! I know he would never! ... Please, have some mercy ... kill me - not Harry!"

And she screamed a terrified scream and sat up abruptly, her breathing heavy and sweat forming on her brow.

"Hermione," Ron said weakly, moving his wand away quickly. He was staring at her with an odd expression on his face. "What did you - what did you just see?"

Hermione looked at him weakly and around at the people surrounding her, having now been joined by a stricken-looking Madam Pomfrey holding a large piece of chocolate.

"Have this," she said, shoving it towards Hermione's mouth, but Hermione let out a tiny sob, a weak murmur of "Harry" and fell back on her pillows, once again unconscious.

*

The paddock was misty, having been covered in a thick layer of fog during the late hours of the night. The trees swayed ominously in the slightest breeze and only a faint whisper could be heard through the dark.

Hermione lay on an old, abandoned tree trunk lying rotting on the ground. She was bound to it tightly with a thick, vine-like rope that dug into her ribs and inflicted terrible pain upon her breasts. Beside the trunk sat the eerie figure of Lord Voldemort and a nervous Nott.

"Malfoy shall come very soon, Nott," Voldemort whispered. "He loves his precious Mudblood too much to leave her here with us. It is fortunate Potter is in such a state of unawareness at the moment. It will make this process so much easier."

Nott let out a rather nervous chuckle and Hermione struggled against the ropes that bound her.

Then, suddenly, a sharp cracking sound filled the silent air as Draco stepped out of the shadows at the edge of the forest, looking around with his wand raised bravely with a steady hand.

"It is time," Voldemort murmured softly to Nott and Nott stood and took out his own wand, staring at Draco as he took another couple of steps forward, examining the eerie environment which they stood in. Nott's slight movement caused Draco's gaze to shift to him.

Draco was all too familiar with the sight of Nott, so looked around at the two, and the slightly shadowed figures that stood behind him. His gaze lingered on Hermione strapped to the broken trunk before moving over to Voldemort, a smirk surfacing on Draco's lips. He looked back at Nott.

"I know you wanted me here," Draco said casually, his wand still held steady in his hand, "so I decided to come. I mean, you would've just come up with another plan to get me, wouldn't you?" Hermione thrashed against the ropes again and she seemed to be trying to scream something but was unable to due to the gag in her mouth. "So let Hermione go and you can have me for whatever reason it is you want me. I will not, however, do anything that could possibly ruin what I have gained."

Hermione's thrashing stopped and she tried to look at him with all her might. The pain it caused was too overwhelming, though and she stayed completely still, listening.

"You heard him, Nott," Voldemort hissed when Nott did nothing. "He is willing to be taken. He is willing to be part of our plan. Now do as we planned - NOW!"

"Stupefy!" Nott said, pointing his wand at Draco and sending a wave of red light his way. It caught Draco in the chest and he fell back, unconscious.

"Well done, Nott," Voldemort said, taking out his own wand. He flicked it once and the ropes binding Hermione let go and she stood, shaking and staring at the Dark Lord without any sign of fear whatsoever.

"Why Draco?" she asked, not knowing where she had gotten such courage to ask Voldemort such a heartfelt question . "Why do you want Draco? Why not me? I could get Harry just as easy as Draco - if not more! I'm Harry's best friend and he loves me! Why use Draco?"

"Because you are a worthless little Mudblood that I care nothing for!" Voldemort hissed, glaring at Hermione through his red eyes. "I would never use a disgusting piece of filth like you to get something I presently hold so precious! I would much rather use the son of one of my loyal Death Eaters to acquire what I want."

"You can curse Draco all you want but he will never be like you!" Hermione yelled drastically, tears forming in her eyes. She took no real note of what she was saying. All she wanted to do right now was yell and she honestly didn't care if the words she said made sense or not. "He will never become a coldhearted criminal like you! I know he would never! He's changed - he's not like his father! He killed his father for heaven's sake! A bit of hatred for Harry isn't going to make him hand Harry to you. He doesn't want Harry dead and neither do I, so please, have some mercy! If you have to kill someone, kill me - not Harry!"

"I'm not about to kill you, you silly girl!" Voldemort said back in a fierce tone. "You are nothing to me but a key part of my plan!"

"But why Draco?" Hermione screamed, with the tears in her eyes breaking through their barriers and streaming down her cheeks. "Why Draco when I can get you just as far as he can?"

Voldemort lost his patience and temper at that, obviously thinking he'd let her talk too much for her deserving and raised his wand. "Crucio!" he said, pointing it at Hermione and sending her into the most excruciating pain she had ever experienced. She struggled to keep balance as she screamed in agony she but only just managed.

After only a few moments, Voldemort moved his wand away and watching in cruel glee as Hermione shook violently where she stood, panting. "Now you will leave," Voldemort demanded as Hermione looked up at him with the bravest face she possibly could muster with tears streaming waterfalls down her face. "You shall leave and keep all your thoughts about my plan to yourself."

Voldemort flicked his wand again and a dazed look glazed the brown depths of Hermione's eyes. A second later, she was surrounded by a swirl of colour and she only distantly heard Voldemort's voice say, "Sweet dreams."

Hermione slowly opened her eyes and was welcomed by the sight of the ceiling of the hospital wing being cast by the early afternoon sunlight filtering in through the windows in the wall opposite. A soft murmur of voices could be heard to her right and she slowly turned her head to see three pairs of eyes staring at her conscious figure: Draco's, Ron's and Ginny's.

"Hermione," Ginny said, sitting up straight and looking closely at Hermione, "how are you feeling?"

"I've felt better," Hermione replied, her voice slightly croaky. "I definitely feel better than I did last night in the study..."

"Hermione," Ron said, "what is it you saw? I mean, we can guess by the what you told us last night and then what you said in your sleep, but - well - can you tell us?"

Hermione looked at the three people staring at her in hesitation. "Well," she said, "the dream I just woke from was different from my vision. Voldemort had obviously captured me and had me tied to this abandoned log on the ground. Nott was there and he and Voldemort were talking in an almost secretive manner about their plan... Draco Apparated to where we were -"

"Apparated?" Ron repeated. He looked at Malfoy. "You can Apparate?"

"Yes, Weasley, I can," Draco sneered. "You do remember that my father was a Death Eater and that he taught me everything I could possibly know even if it were illegal, right?"

Hermione ignored Draco and Ron, who glared at each other, and continued, "- and Nott Stunned Draco after Draco said he was there for whatever reason they wanted him -"

"What?" Draco said in a rather incredulous tone. "Why the hell would I -"

"You told them that you wouldn't let them do something that would ruin you, Draco," Hermione said, interjecting him before she lost her run of her explanation. "Anyway, they Stunned you and then I did a bit of a rant that I don't entirely understand. I was just telling Voldemort to use me and not Draco in order to get Harry and also to kill me instead of Harry," she continued, frowning because of the lack of sense it seemed to make. "Voldemort then got angry with me and used the Cruciatus Curse and then he - he let me go."

A small silence followed this as Draco, Ron and Ginny frowned. Then, when the silence was becoming almost unbearable, Draco spoke.

"How did he let you go?" he asked, curious. "I mean did he just say 'go' and let you wander away or did he ... use magic?"

Hermione bit her lip. "He gave his wand a bit of a flick and I looked kind of dazed before being surrounded by colour," she said, looking at Draco carefully. "He didn't say an incantation or anything..."

"You-Know-Who's a very powerful wizard, Hermione," Ginny said, "I doubt he'd have to say an incantation."

Draco ran a hand through his blonde locks, staring at the bed sheets of the bed Hermione lay in. "Hermione," he said suddenly, looking at her, "did he say anything to you just before or just after he ... flicked his wand and let you go?"

"Yes, actually," Hermione said, frowning once more when she remembered. "He said 'sweet dreams'." She looked at Draco even more carefully. "Draco, you don't think he knows do you? You don't think he knows about my dreams?"

Draco shook his head. "No," he said, "but I do think you were asleep when you were transported to the place you were." He leant forward and rested his elbows against his knees with his head in his hands. It was obvious, that behind his grey eyes, a lot of thought was being put into something. Eventually, he looked back up at Hermione, Ron and Ginny who were all watching him with curiosity and looks of confusion.

"I've told you that Father used to run Death Eater meetings at the manor that I used to have to attend, haven't I?" Draco asked slowly. Hermione nodded, frowning still. "Well, in the last one that I attended, there was a lot of discussion about a certain spell they had created for future plans. This spell was designed to be able to create Port Keys without having to have physical contact with the object you want to make one out of. It was designed for a person with strong will power and imagination - something Voldemort is known by everyone in the wizarding world to have a lot of."

"So are you suggesting that I was transported, at night while I was asleep, to that paddock with the log by a Portkey Voldemort had planted with his mind?" Hermione asked, seeing it was somewhat impossible. "And then transported back by it?"

"Think about it, Hermione," Draco said, sitting up straight again and looking at her with tense anticipation. "All he needed to do was set his mind upon a pillow or blanket or something, say the incantation, set a time for you to be transported and then he'd have you right where he wanted you."

"That's a wonderful theory, Draco," Hermione said, "but there wasn't a single pillow or blanket in sight for the whole of my dream and I certainly wasn't holding one when he transported me back..."

"But what if it wasn't something as big and obvious as a pillow or blanket, Hermione?" Draco said, looking at her with the same tense look. "What if it was something less obvious like the clothes you were wearing or a hairpin? What clothes were you wearing, anyway?"

"My red tank top and a pair of tracksuit pants ... which I sometimes wear to bed and only ever wear to bed..."

"See, Hermione?" Draco said, "it could be that tank top for all we know. All we can be sure of now is that this is the way he got you there and we can't even be one hundred percent sure of that, either. It's the only way I think he could do it, though..."

________________________________________________________________________