Draco & Hermione - Typical Day At The Office

“Will you stop complaining, Malfoy?” Hermione hissed.  She was exhausted, hungry, dust and dirt covered and now she’d just gotten a rather sharp rock in her boot, and it hurt.  They’d been traveling downward for some time now within the hidden passageway of a nearly completely jungle swallowed Mayan temple.  The rough-hewn stone walls were crumbly and Hermione more than once thought they would collapse around them.  She still thought they easily could and was peeved Malfoy would not stop talking – and doing so loudly for that matter – since the moment they were enveloped in the cool, darkness of the enclosure.

Didn’t he know that sound could affect a collapse?  She sighed and stopped, leaning against a large protrusion in the wall to remove her boot and the offending rock within.  She turned the bright tip of her wand into the boot to make sure she’d gotten it all out and immediately Malfoy had brightened the tip of his wand and was glancing from side to side into the inky blackness beyond their light.  It was as if the light simply existed in the immediate surround of the two, completely erased beyond them into nothingness.  Malfoy was jumpy and grumbling under his breath and Hermione was relieved to have him quiet, relatively at least, for the moment.  Finally, she stood up and took a good look at Draco.  His usual pristine black attire was a fine shade of gray now.  She’d tried to tell him one does not wear black on an expedition…. But it wasn’t his state of dress, hers was no better, it was the look in his eyes. 

Hermione held her wand up to examine him and he instantly swatted the wand away.  “Didn’t anyone teach you it’s impolite to shove a wand in someone’s face, Granger?” 

The grin that had begun to grow blossomed wider.  “What’s the matter, Malfoy?  Not…” she paused, unable to keep the chuckle out of her voice, “afraid of the dark, are we?”

He blanched, even in the gloom of the space the immediate following flush of his cheeks made her cover her mouth to hold in the burst of laughter.  She didn’t want to be the one responsible for their demise by flattening.  If anyone, that’d be Malfoy’s dubious distinction.   He regained his composure immediately, but Hermione leaned back against the wall, her face full of mirth.  “Hit the nail on the head did, I? Don’t worry, you’re secret is saf-” She pushed off the wall and immediately shrieked from surprise as the wall gave way and she fell backward, downward and landed hard on her backside.  The breath was knocked out of her, but she was already scrambling up to reach him… Malfoy would not do well alone in a place like this.  The man had zero experience in dangerous caves, tombs, what have you.  “MALFOY!”

She heard a sound from behind and spun around; wand raised, at the ready, the hum of energy buzzing in the room seemed so loud it was as though it had enveloped her completely. She lit her wand brightly spinning in a circle, revealing a large round room with a single shaft of sunlight beaming down upon a golden pedestal.  There, haloed in a honeyed stream of light amplified all the more with dust particles dancing through it, each lit as though they were flecks of gold fluttering down upon it, was a stone object raised high upon the dais and as her eyes tracked movement, they followed the path down the narrow column to one Seamus Finnigan standing beside it.

Hermione got her bearings within seconds and shook her head bemusedly. “Holy hell…” she muttered.  “McGonnagal always said I had the best dumb luck of anyone she’d ever met…” Hermione turned to Seamus, wand still raised, ignoring her painful backside and took a step toward him.  “Fancy meeting you here, Seamus… because you’re just the man I’ve been looking for.  Though, don’t tell Malfoy. It will break his over-inflated ego and tiny, little heart.”  She flashed a rueful smile.  “Now, step away from the..”  Hermione paused and shot a quick glance up at the object, her extensive knowledge of just about anything  and everything ancient or legendary magical artifacts left her surprisingly blank, “…whatever that is and I’ll take it.”

 She chanced a quick glance over her shoulder and of course, the wall was solid again and no Malfoy to be seen.  Naturally.  It looked like it was just she and Finnigan.

He’d turned his head for one second, just one and the girl manages to find a hidden passage in the middle of meters of nothing but rock, dust and darkness and is gone.   Malfoy had smashed into the wall within a second of seeing her vanish trying to pull her back but had met head first with cold, very hard stone.  He’d heard her cry out his name and then nothing.  The cool darkness that had been encroaching around them was now nearly overpowering and he had no idea how far he was to the end of this passage, only that it was meters back toward the hot jungle above.  Frankly, neither seemed an appealing destination.  “Bloody f'ucking Merlin’s balls!” he growled, pounding upon the stone and wincing as his knuckles came away blood-stained and now throbbing.   He ran a shaky hand through his hair, running scenarios through his mind.  None of them were particularly good outcomes for Granger and quite a few were bleak for him too.   He could try to get that wall opened again, but he had a feeling blasting through it would do no good and no spell he could think of would transport him to where she was, even so, he’d tried a good many with no success.

Malfoy rolled his eyes and turned to stalk off into the darkness, wand held high, his solo light all he had to keep him sane and calm as he fought off the prickle of danger and dread nagging at the nape of his neck.  He needed to get help.  He needed to find Granger.   This was all Potter’s fault.   “Go along with Hermione, he said….She’s the expert here, he said!”  Draco trudged along the endless corridor as he fumed, one hand balled into a fist, the other swinging his wand around checking each dark pocket for unseen monsters waiting to pounce.  “She knows what she’s doing, this is her field of expertise! You’ll learn from her, he said!  F'ucking Potter! That's the very last time I listen to that wanker, ever!”  Down deep Malfoy hoped that wasn’t true.  And more so, he fought the worry that Granger wouldn’t be able to handle whatever she’d gone and bumbled her way into without him and that he’d be able to find her in time….Potter would make him disappear and no one would think twice to look for him, he was sure, if he returned without Precious Granger.  He couldn’t help the feeling that she was in far more trouble than he was and that he needed to rescue the klutzy girl as fast as he could.  What had been a recon and recover mission had now turned into a risky rescue mission. “When I find you, Granger…”