When We Were Beasts

Before: Part Four

"Let go of me," Hermione hissed, pulling sharply. His grip was iron.

"If I let go," Malfoy murmured. "You're just going to run away, or try to find a means to incapacitate me. Now why would I let you do either of those things?"

Fear, real fear, began to slither up her spine.
"You're kidnapping me?"

"Just use that bright, sparkling brain that you love to flash around for just one second, Granger. We don't have wands. And we might never find the wands the Dark Lord hid-"

Her panic was momentarily forgotten. "Our wands are here?"

Malfoy grimaced, as if he hadn't meant to tell her that. He chewed on the inside of his cheek.
"Yes," He finally answered. "Everyone in here has their wand hidden somewhere. I'd wager there's other treasures to help or harm as well. But the likely hood that we find our wands, or even a wand compatible with either of our magic, is thin. It burns me to admit this so openly, but you are one of the only witches or wizards in this place who can keep up with me."

"You mean surpass you." Hermione replied coldly. Perhaps now was not the right time to remind Malfoy who came out on top when it came to academia...

His nostrils flared. "You're staying where I can keep an eye on you, and where I can use you to get the fuck out of here." His grip tightened, ever so slightly. "Don't bother fighting me on this."

Hermione took in a deep breath and closed her eyes.

Logically, he was right. Trying to survive a place like this alone simply did not make any sense, especially wandless. And the thought of someone else finding her wand and using it against her was kin to having the wind knocked out of her.

They could be allies, for now.
Only one thing made her hesitate. She knew that the moment she was not beneficial to him, he'd likely kill her or leave her to be killed. He'd already admitted to killing someone else, and as far as she knew, he'd killed plenty as a Death Eater out in the real world, too. She'd have to stay on guard without fail. She'd have to be something he needed. Right now, that seemed easy.
The issue keeping her hesitant was that Malfoy made her nervous. Not just because of his association with Dark Wizards and moral-less witches, but because he was the only student at Hogwarts who came close to her intelligence. If anyone was gonna best her, it'd be him.

Hermione opened her eyes.
"What if I refused?" She asked. "What if I say no?"

Malfoy shrugged. "I'd snap your neck, eat an apple turnover, and go about my original plan."

Hermione swallowed.

Malfoy leaned in close, his lips brushing the shell of her ear. His hand tightened to remind her she couldn't pull away if she tried.

"You're lonely in here, Granger." It was the cadence a Lover would have. A perverted, twisted version of Sweet Nothings. "You don't have Potter or the Carrot Top here to complete you. You don't have a wand or books. You know old friends will betray you here. You've done an unspeakable thing, and you'll use more darkness to survive." Hermione swallowed a whimper that tried to claw out of her throat. "But I'm here to offer you a hand, and you'd be a fool not to take it. Let me be your ally until it's time to turn on each other. Let me be the hands that kill while you're the mastermind behind the puzzle that is the BackRooms. Don't die because you couldn't put down that lion heart of yours."

She looked at him. Up close, his eyes were the surface of a lake. Grey, with undertones of blue. They were hypnotic. She'd even call them beautiful, framed with blonde, feathered lashes.

It was a shame someone so handsome had such a worm-eaten soul.

"Let go of me." Hermione said again. Malfoy seemed to know from her tone what her decision was, and he let her go with only a seconds hesitation. He stepped back.

"I have ground rules." Hermione crossed her arms.

"Of course you do." Malfoy said, but his eyes seemed to sparkle with challenge.

Hermione held up four fingers.

"We cannot harm or kill each other unless it is absolutely a matter of survival, or we are the last two remaining people in this maze."
Malfoy nodded once.

"You cannot kill anyone else unless it is the only option before you."
He raised a brow at that but didn't speak an objection.

"We will work together to the best of our ability. I don't want you only using me for your benefit. I want to go home, too."
Another nod.

"My last condition is that whatever we do to make it to the end of this, we do not tell a soul. Nothing we say or do leaves the BackRooms."

They did not make an Unbreakable Vow, but when Draco Malfoy nodded his head in agreement to all her terms, Hermione could have sworn something twirled and tugged around her heart, binding her to him.

****

"Do we need that many Apple Turnovers?"

"We don't know the next time we'll have food. That means answer is yes."

In a cupboard, Malfoy had managed to find a container to stuff eighteen Apple Turnovers into. Hermione wondered if the cabin's magic would ever give up.

Draco stuffed four more into the nearly bursting container before he plucked one off the plate into his mouth and shoved the container into his old school bag.

"Do you know the reason behind the Hogwarts uniforms and school attire?" She asked him as he stood. He made a noise between a chuckle and a scoff.

"Some perverted method to remind us we are still nothing but children, I assume."

Or a method of keeping us aware of what is on the outside. Hermione thought.

If they had been in regular robes or casual wear, it might be easy for them to forget where they came from and who the real enemy was.
This was a way to keep them connected. To make every decision personal.

Malfoy hoisted his bag up and over his shoulder. She watched him scan the room one last time, likely to make sure he didn't forget anything they might need later. His left hand brushed against his robe pocket, and after a moment of patting his side, his pale fingers tightened into a fist, and he turned away.
It seemed she was not the only one antsy over not having a wand.

With his boot, Malfoy opened the cupboard under the sink. Hermione crept closer.

There was no bottom, just a swirling darkness that held Merlin knew what inside it. This was the door that led to the next horror.

"Ladies first." Malfoy purred.

She shook her head. "You're sure we can't go back through the way I came?" Hermione asked softly. Malfoy grinned.
"Scared of the dark, Granger?"

"I'm scared of what awaits us, yes. You don't know what horrors are out there."

It was, apparently, the wrong thing to say. His lopsided grin slid into a frozen glare. His eyes burned. "If anyone knows anything about horrors, it's me."

Hermione could have argued that he wasn't being fair. She had seen horrors, too. She had been tortured, a slur forever carved into her arm. She had been hunted down for months. She had lost her parents, her Harry. Who knows who else had died, either in here or during the final battle. And just minutes ago she had murdered a classmate. But something in the way he was looking at her, his eyes alive with silver flames, made her hesitant to tally whose experience in the war was darker.
Malfoy looked back at the swirling darkness and sat on the brick flooring, scooting until his legs vanished into the black void. He shook himself, the anger and pain that had carved itself into his features temporarily gone. Malfoy winked at her.

"No time like the present, eh?" And then he pushed himself forward, falling out of sight.

Hermione considered shutting the cupboard and boarding it up, and taking Malfoy's spot as the resident of this cabin.
But he was right, if she had stumbled in here, so would someone else. And it was possibly someone who would murder her first, consider alliances later.
She couldn't hide in a corner and eat Apple Turnovers indefinitely.

Hermione took a deep breath. She crawled on her hands and knees towards the void.
Feeling very much like Alice in Alice in Wonderland, Hermione tipped forward.

And then she was falling, falling, falling-