When We Were Beasts

Before: Part Five

***hi everyone! So sorry this update took so long, I had some personal stuff go on and wasn't able to edit or flush out this chapter as quickly as I'd like. Hopefully the other chapters will move faster! The song that inspired this scene is "Run boy run" by woodkid. Enjoy!***

Hermione screamed the entire way down until she landed in Malfoy's arms with a fierce impact, much like a falling star slamming into Earth.

"Fuck, Granger-" Malfoy landed hard on his back, Hermione still woven into his embrace. His face was smothered by her hair, and she had an elbow on his right shoulder and a knee on his-
"Sorry, so sorry," Hermione muttered as she stumbled to her feet. She offered out a hand to help him to his feet, grateful when he ignored it. "I wasn't sure how far the fall down would be."
"Who goes down a mysterious hole head first?" Malfoy muttered.
She ignored him and took in their new surroundings.

A warehouse. They were in a warehouse.

Water dripped from somewhere overhead. Cardboard boxes were scattered across the grated floor, and a conveyor belt weaved throughout the room to disappear behind a leather curtain. There was only one door, but both above and below them were multiple rusted ladders. Hermione wasn't sure how many levels there were. She couldn't see the sky, and even if she could it would bring her little comfort, since it would be an illusion anyways.

Hermione's stomach tightened and cramped. She winced at the pain, and hoped it didn't mean what she thought it meant. What day was it...
"Malfoy-"
"Merlin's fucking Beard, am I dreaming or is that a broom?"
Hermione whirled to find Malfoy half buried underneath a pile of boxes. He emerged, grinning like a Cornish Pixie, broom in hand. Indeed, a Firebolt quidditch broom now rested in his possession. It looked like new.
Malfoy carefully caressed the flying monstrosity before holding it more firmly, and then finally mounted it. He hovered in the air for just a few seconds before he let out a boyish hoot, the sound too warm and joyous for it to come out of someone like Malfoy's mouth. It made Hermione uncomfortable.

Hermione's mouth twisted. She despised flying in any and all forms, but there was something about brooms that made her hands sweat just thinking about having to mount one.
"I don't know how you can stand it." Hermione said. She crossed her arms over her chest.

"And I don't understand how you hate it," Malfoy fired back. "There's nothing like it. It's one of the many incredible things about being a wizard. The feeling of the wind and clouds going right through you, being higher than the birds-"

"Being high enough to plummet to your death, you mean." Hermione turned away from him. "If I want to fly with birds, I'll take a muggle plane ride with my..." With my parents. She was about to say with her parents. But she would never board another plane or train or car ride with them ever again. All because she was trying to protect them. All because of people like him.
Sometimes obliviating them felt like the biggest mistake she could have ever made. It was irreversible, concrete. Surely she could have done something else to keep them safe besides that.
And yet, there was a relief that bloomed like a rose at the knowledge that Voldemort and his Death Eaters would never hurt them. That they would never have to worry about her and her place in the Wizarding World ever again.

The sound of crashing metal snapped Hermione out of her thoughts. Her eyes met Malfoy's, both of them now alert and on edge.

"What was that?" She asked. Malfoy curled his lip.
"Why are you asking me? I know as much as you do, Granger. Whatever it is, I doubt it's a friend."

The sound of claws on metal echoed throughout the warehouse, much closer now than it was just moments ago. Hermione took a step towards Malfoy. A creature roared.

"On the broom, Granger." The order came with no room to argue. "Now."
"But I can't fly-"
Before she could move he had one of her arms in his grip. He swung a leg over the broom again until he was straddling it. "I don't particularly care about your opinions on flying right now. Something is coming to kill us, and if we don't fly out of here right this second, it will likely tear us apart. Now get on the bloody broom."
Another roar, this time so close it echoed all around them. Beneath her, Hermione could see their blurry outline, sprinting towards them. Fear threatened to paralyze her.

"Granger!"
Before she could really consider what the bloody hell she was doing, she swung onto the Firebolt behind Malfoy, her arms squeezing his ribcage with a serpent's grip. Hermione buried her face in the back of his robes, and without another moment wasted, Malfoy lifted them off the ground and flew them out of the main storage room and through whatever lay on the other side of the leather curtain.
Malfoy gained confidence as the broom held them both steady. Hermione's world narrowed down to the fabric of Malfoy's shirt against her cheek, and the dry wind whipping her hair behind her. She gripped his robes so tight her fingers ached, but it was easier to focus on that than the sound of scraping claws and gnashing teeth.
"Faster," Hermione breathed out. He obeyed, and they made a sharp left into a dark tunnel. They flew sideways for only a second until Malfoy righted them. Hermione had never been more grateful that Malfoy was excellent at quidditch than that moment.
She risked a glance behind her.
They looked like jungle cats that had crawled out of Hell. Shadows clung to their lean frames, their eyes burning yellow with hunger and bloodlust.

"Oh my god." It was all Hermione could say.
"You know how there are Hell Hounds?" Malfoy yelled out over the wind. They burst into another warehouse, flying to the nearest exist. The rooms were designed almost exactly the same, over and over again they entered from the emergency door and flew through the curtain into either another warehouse or a tunnel.
Hermione nodded against his back. She'd read about the invisible dogs named Hell Hounds; creatures that drug their victims down into Hell without ever being seen.
"They have a cousin, called Shadow Cats. Looks like we just met them."
"They look like something out of a nightmare."
"That's the point." Malfoy snapped.
"If they catch us, will they send us to Hell?"
"Not if we send them there first." There was a smirk in his voice. Hermione didn't understand how he was joking at a moment like this!

When they entered another tunnel, Malfoy's muscles seemed to tighten under Hermione's grip.
"Hold on tight, Granger."
"I'm holding you as tight as I can."
"Hold on tighter."

Hermione pressed her face into his back with as much intensity as she could muster.
Even through the wind she caught the way he smelled: Peppermint, parchment, green apple. There was a hint of something else, something expensive that alluded her. Perhaps a cologne so high-end her senses had no idea how to recognize it.
Hermione almost jumped off of the broom when she felt one of Malfoy's hands wrap around her own. His grip was permanent.
As if he could tell she were startled, he shouted, "I don't trust your grip, Granger. Can't have you falling to your death just yet."

Hermione looked up in just enough time to see that they were about to be splatter on the wall. Malfoy wasn't slowing down, and he wasn't turning-

At the very last second Malfoy pulled upwards with a roar, and they snaked the wall until they were riding the high beams along the ceiling.
Hermione was screaming.
Below them, the Shadow Cats didn't have enough room or time to stop, and the first crashed into the wall, while the others crashed into the backs of each other. After the last one slammed into the back of the Shadow Cat in front of him, they all dispersed into smoke and mist. As if they weren't ever there to begin with.

"And they're gone? Just like that?" Her voice was almost raspy with adrenaline and anxiety.

"Easy to kill, those little buggers," Malfoy said as he floated them downwards. "Just needed to get the speed and momentum to best them, is all. Took more laps around this bloody place than I expected, but we did it. We should be able to leave the room now when we pass through the curtain."

Hermione swung off of the broom and swayed as her feet hit the ground. She almost jumped when Malfoy offered her his arm as an anchor.
Hermione ignored it, pretending to dust something off of her robes.
Again, her stomach cramped and tightened. She needed to check the calendar to confirm if it was what she thought it was...

"You coming, Granger? Or would you rather wait to see if they respawn?"

Hermione found that Malfoy was now standing inside the doorway, but instead of it leading back inside a warehouse room, it swirled with mysterious darkness. He was still holding the broom.
She thought they'd be here longer, but perhaps it was better that they moved from room to room as quick as possible.
Maybe this next room would offer them something useful.