Alone Together

Confrontation: A Bad Idea

Hermione had been on edge all day. The new knowledge had kept her up nearly all night, and the more she thought about it, the more it made sense.

Draco Malfoy was a vampire.

His sickly appearance, possibly why he was at Hogwarts. She doubted his father was happy about the situation. Considering his failure to kill Dumbldore, it was possible this was the punishment.

It explained why he wasn't on the Marauder's Map. He was dead. The thought was so strange to her. Draco Malfoy had died, and been brought back as a vampire. He must've only been bitten by a partial vampire though, if he could still do magic.

She looked for him all day, and finally, she spotted him heading out to the grounds in the direction of Hagrid's hut. Hermione was fairly certain he hadn't gone there before during the year, and it was near the entrance to the Forbidden Forest.

This would be the perfect time to confront him.

Quietly she followed him, noting how weak he seemed. Malfoy stumbled every few feet but seemed determined, and unaware of the rest of the world.

When he reached the back of Hagrid's hut, near the chicken coop, Hermione mustered her wits and called out to him.

"What are you doing here Malfoy?" he spun around.

"Taken to following me around I see." he sneered when he saw who it was, and added, "And stealing people's belongings."

How did he know it was her already? Had someone seen her with his bag?

The gaunt Slytherin laughed when he saw her bewilderment.

"Did you enjoy the letter? Dearest Draco," he mimicked, meeting her glare with piercing grey  eyes. To Hermione's rage, she felt her cheeks grow warm.

"What are you doing here?" she repeated with gritted teeth. No matter how weak he looked, somehow the gleam that had appeared in his eyes intimidated her. 

"I would ask the same of you. Don't you have some Divination to be figuring out?" he taunted.

"You planted all of that." she realized with a sinking feeling. Hermione didn't know why she never thought he would do anything. He was certainly clever and devious enough. 

It was Crabbe and Goyle. He didn't have them anymore to set off on people, and had had to come up with a different way to torment her. 

And because of her extreme idiocy, it had worked. 

Draco laughed again, a rasping sound.

"Yes. I had quite a time gathering up random rocks and sticks and making up a story. You're quite obvious Granger. Clearly someone forced you to come to Hogwarts, and now you're pretending to be useful, wasting your time sneaking around the castle alone. I thought I'd give you a little something to 'discover."

Rage boiled in Hermione, the words cutting her deeply. Mostly because she knew they were partly true. But she had something Draco didn't know about.

"Oh I discovered something alright." Hermione replied coolly, suppressing the hate and anger inside her.

Calmly, she pulled out the scrap of paper with the list and doodle on it.

"Do you recognize this?" she inquired, noticing that Draco had somehow managed to become a bit more pale than he had before. Quite a feat considering he was already a shade off from parchment paper. 

"It's a really nice bat you've drawn. I wonder why."

Draco shrugged. "I was bored in class."

"You don't go to class." Hermione pointed out viciously. 

"I was bored."

"How long have you been a vampire, Malfoy?" she asked, and he flinched slightly.

"I'm not a vampire."

"Oh?" Hermione feigned surprise, "Let's test that shall we?"

She brought out her wand, and Draco whipped his out, moving to a dueling position, but Hermione simply pointed her wand at her finger and made the tiniest cut. A small bead of red blood welled up.

Instantly, Hermione knew she had made a mistake. Malfoy's eyes suddenly dilated until they were almost all black, and with an inhuman speed, he closed the distance between them in a mere two seconds.

The last thing she remembered was vainly struggling against his iron grip, and the pricking sensation, almost masked by the shock of Draco Malfoy's mouth on her neck