𝐄𝐔𝐍𝐄𝐈𝐑𝐎𝐏𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐈𝐀

☾ Chapter 4

☾

Hermione let the others come to the conclusion.

After another long two hours of interrogation, curled in a bloodied ball on her mattress, Ginny returned with a look of shock on her face.

"It's Malfoy," were the only words she could speak as she lowered herself onto her own bed, "It's Draco fucking Malfoy."

"I knew he seemed familiar," Parvati said softly, cleansing Hermione's wounds with a tear of cloth and the little water they had from the previous night.

"Isn't he somewhat of a war weapon now?" Fred questioned, "I've read it in the papers."

"I heard they killed his Mother as punishment after he failed to kill Dumbledore," Neville exclaimed, "I feel a bit bad for him, really."

"He's a terrible person, Neville. He treated us like shit," Hermione scolded him for his empathy, "He deserves everything he's gotten. You know that."

"I guess you're right," he mumbled, giving up on his sliver of compassion for the death eater.

............

The red numbers changed from 1:59 to 2:00, Draco arriving precisely on time as the door swung open. Hermione stood tiredly from the mattress as he tied ropes around her wrists, behind her back. Shoving her lightly forward, they began to trudge along the path.

She studied him in the twilight.

It was difficult to make out specific details due to the darkness. She analyzed his messy silver hair, the metal embellishments on his mask, the rope in his hands that connected to the ones around her wrists, the leather book that sat in his satchel, a small moonstone attached to the binding by a silver chain.

"Eyes on the road, Mudblood," he growled, "Never know what creatures might pop out to chew you down to the bone."

Her fear of the dark only grew at his statement. It only left her wondering.

"Have you ever been attacked before?" she said quietly, voice sounding much smaller than she'd intended, "On this road, I mean."

"Why do you ask?" he cocked a brow at her, "Are you scared, Mudblood?"

She shivered, "No."

Heart pounding in her chest, they continued to walk.

"If you must know, I was attacked by a fully grown Chimaera around a year ago on this path," he said nonchalantly.

Hermione almost gasped aloud at his revelation. Chimaeras are bloodthirsty, violent beasts; extremely dangerous and lethal.

"How on earth did you manage to kill it?" she huffed, staring at him in confusion. She felt her blood run cold when his blue moonlit hues bore right back into hers.

"Kill it? For fuck's sake, Granger, I'm not an idiot," he scoffed, obviously unnoticing his own mistake, "I tamed it. Took a claw to the face, but I did it. I wouldn't kill the little thing."

"Did you just call a Chimaera little, Malfoy? It gave you that gigantic scar on your face and you call it little?" she nearly snorted at him, surprised at his sudden self exposure.

"They're not bad creatures if you know how to deal with them," he explained, "All you need is some raw Runespoor meat, and you're good to go."

"And you just happened to have the meat of a serpent native to Africa?"

"I have accessibility to a lot of things, Granger."

At the second use of her last name she was sure it wasn't a mistake. Even so, she didn't say anything. "How'd one even get here? Aren't they native to Greece?" she questioned him, a fragment of light reflecting the fear in her eyes.