Their Room

by aleximoon
 
 

Chapter 3
Into The Woods
 

Hermione sat crankily at a table in the back of the Gryffindor common room; She was still trying to calm down after
her meeting with Malfoy. "That self-centered prat," she muttered, crumpling up a piece of parchment with a fit of anger
before realizing to late that it was her homework for Transfiguration. "Damn it," She grumbled as she tried to straighten
out the sheet. The parchment was decidedly against flattening out though; with a deep groan she pulled out a new piece
of parchment preparing to transcribe it all over again.

"Stupid Malfoy," she muttered under her breath, she had been unable to get his cruel smirk out of her mind since she
had left the library.

She spent a few minutes writing, her mind wandered from Malfoy and happily immersed itself in her work. A cool
breeze blew across the table from the near-by window, floating papers to the floor. As she pulled the window shut,
something caught her eyes. Three figures were skirting the lake, dodging behind trees and rocks, heading towards
the forbidden forest, towards Hagrid's hut. Hermione watched interestedly, wondering who they were. One figure,
the leader, stopped and waited for the two larger ones. Hermione strained her eyes trying to catch some feature in
the disappearing light. A shock of white blond hair got her attention, immediately she felt her blood start to boil.

"Malfoy," she hissed, her fists clenching.

If the leader was Malfoy there was no doubt about the other two, Crabbe and Goyle. Hermione jumped to her feet,
turning to get Harry and Ron, she suddenly remembered that they were at Quidditch practice. Ron had been so
delighted to land the keeper position on the Gryffindor team. He and Harry spent a great deal of time practicing now.
She glanced around the room looking for anyone that could help. The common room was empty save Neville
Longbottom and a few first years.

"Well, I'll have to stop them myself," Hermione muttered.

She slipped quietly up to the boy's dorm, finding it empty; she went to Harry's trunk and dug out the invisibility cloak.
"I'll go warn Hagrid. I'll be damned if I let Malfoy ruin another class for me!"

Hermione darted back down to the common room and pushed through the portrait hole. Leaning into a dark alcove,
she put the cloak on. Running as quietly as possible, she soon reached the main doors and was out on the grounds.
Since she was invisible, she could cut right across the lawn instead of circling through the forest in order to stay hidden.
She took a deep breath, pulling the cloak tighter, and began to run.

Hermione reached Hagrid's hut only a few minutes before Malfoy, there was no sign of Hagrid, however. There was
no answer when she knocked on the door. She realized that Hagrid must have gone down to Hogsmeade. Suddenly
she heard something. Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle could be seen peaking through the trees at the hut, Panicked, she
looked for somewhere to hide. She was pressed up against the hut wall; there weren't any bushes near her. Malfoy
carefully crept forward into the clearing. Hermione's eyes darted around her desperate for some place to escape to.
Malfoy glanced right at her, and then away, he didn't seem to notice her. Hermione stared at him in complete shock.
"Idiot!" she hissed softly, smacking her forehead with the palm of her head. Of course he didn't see her; she was
invisible. Malfoy, however, paused and looked in her direction again, he seemed to have heard something. He walked
towards her. She sank slowly to the ground as he leaned forward to look through the window into the hut. Hermione
thought her heart had stopped as she looked up at him, his hand rested against the wall only a foot above her head.
But Malfoy was unaware of her presence and he drew back from the wall. Turning to look at where Crabbe and
Goyle were hiding, he called out to them.

"That drunken oaf isn't home and he must have taken that brutish beast with him."

Hermione realized that Malloy was right, Fang was nowhere to be seen, Crabbe and Goyle stepped tentatively into
the open. Hermione breathed a sigh of relief as Malfoy headed towards the paddock. It was only then that Hermione
saw that it wasn't empty.

"Well would you look at that." Malfoy asked his voice seemed stunned, "The things that half-giant thinks he can get
away with. Well we'll just have to show him what happens when someone keeps monsters for pets." His voice was
completely emotionless. Crabbe and Goyle stood nervously behind him, not wanting to get any closer to the monster.

Stifling a gasp, Hermione gazed at a cage sitting alone in the paddock. Inside the cage was a manticore. She had
never seen one, but not surprisingly, she had read all about them. They were very rare, and by all accounts, this was
a good thing since they were very dangerous. While never having seen one, it fit the description perfectly, the head
of a man, the body of a lion, and the tail of a scorpion. "This one must be a girl," Hermione thought, the manticore
had a female face, a young female face not much older than them. It was almost beautiful, if you could ignore the
claws and the scorpion tail that hovered behind it's back. Almond shaped eyes gazed at them through the bars, it
didn't move at all. With a shock, Hermione realized that it was looking at her as well, it must be able to see through
invisibility cloaks, or maybe it had heard her when she first entered the clearing. Hermione was amazed that Hagrid
had acquired a manticore. Hippogriffs and dragons were one thing, but a manticore was known to be not only highly
intelligent possessing odd magical abilities, but they were also known to associate with dark forces. As Hermione
made eye contact with it, a deep chill ran through her and she felt an intense need to get closer to it. With a gasp she
pulled her eyes away and stared at the ground.

Crabbe and Goyle were looking at each other warily; Crabbe finally seemed to get up the nerve to talk to Malfoy,
"What does happen when you keep monsters as pets, Draco?"

Malfoy didn't turn to look at them; his eyes hadn't left the manticore's since he had reached the paddock. "Sometimes
they get loose," he whispered.

Crabbe and Goyle seemed almost panic stricken, Goyle found his voice first though, "it wouldn't be a very good idea
to let it out, right Draco? I'm sure that we can get rid of Hagrid some other way. It could hurt us, don't you think?"
He seemed to be pleading with Malfoy, but the blonde boy didn't turn his head.
 

"I don't think it will hurt us." Malfoy responded. Hermione stared at him in shack, was he crazy? Manticores were
some of the most vicious creatures found in the wild, as she watched Malfoy climb over the fence she tried to
remember everything that she had read about them. They were long thought to be the same thing as a sphinx, but
more modern research had proven that sphinxes were not aligned with the forces of evil like the manticores were.
A manticore had three rows of long vicious teeth, and the scorpion barb carried a lethal amount of poison, Luckily
enough far them, this one was only a juvenile. The young manticore stood only four feet high when it was on all
fours, a full-grown manticore could reach as high as ten feet.

"Draco..." Crabbe and Goyle cautioned in unison as their leader placed a hand between the bars and touched the
dark brown fur of the creature.

"See," he drawled in a low, soothing voice, as much to the manticore as to Crabbe and Goyle. "I told you that it
wouldn't hurt us."

Hermione stared in horrified shock as Malfoy withdrew his hand and turned to the lock, a strange glint in his eyes.
Pulling out his wand he whispered a single word

"Alohomora!"

Hermione watched with a horrible sinking feeling as the cage door swung open and Draco turned his back on the
manticore to face Crabbe and Goyle. Both of them had taken several steps back, in a far distant part of her mind;
Hermione was amazed at the astonishing level of intelligence that they were showing. What happened next went by
so quickly that it was almost impossible to follow. One moment Malfoy was standing triumphantly in front of the
cage door, the next moment the creature had come down upon him. Malfoy was knocked to the ground, his wand
rolled out of his hand. The manticore bit deeply into his shoulder and lifted him up off the ground only to slam him
back down again. Standing atop Malfoy it brought its long tail up above its head like a dagger and plunged it down
into his thigh. Malfoy gave one quick cry filled with shock and pain but then there was only silence. Crabbe and
Goyle looked at their prone hero and then turned and ran from the clearing leaving Malfoy to the beast.

Hermione had bitten her lip to keep back a scream when the manticore had attacked. She watched in horror as
Crabbe and Goyle ran away. She stood now, watching the monster with Malfoy. The seconds slowed as time
stopped. A part of her whispered in the back of her mind, "Turn around and leave, walk away, save yourself. He
would never save you if things were in reverse. He asked for this and now he's getting what he deserves." She
shuddered hard as the voice died away. Hermione turned away preparing to run and then stopped, "No one
deserves this," She said firmly as she raised her wand and her courage and cried out at it

"Expelliarmus!"

The manticore dropped Malfoy hard; it turned to bring its gaze to Hermione's. She trembled as the almond eyes
seemed to look deep into her. She shouted another spell at it before she could lose her nerve.

"Stupefy!"

The manticore didn't freeze however. The monster tensed its muscles preparing to leap. Hermione whimpered and
tried to remember all the hexes that she had helped Harry learn the year before in preparation for all the triwizard
tasks but nothing seemed useful. The manticore was lunging through the air, closer it came, the wind whipping its fur
as it neared her.

"Please...make...it...stop... Stupefy!' She screamed as hard as she could, the tip of her wand pointing straight at the
beast's chest. It knocked her to the ground and distantly she could hear the sound of a sickening crack. She lay
stunned underneath the hulking monster, waiting for the searing pain to come, but besides a distant throbbing in her
wrist and chest, there was nothing, the beast lay still. Hermione gave out a shaky sob and pushed the creature away
from her, it was terribly heavy, but she managed to get out from under it. Hermione figured later that she must have
been suffering from sort of shock because she was overly concerned with making sure that Harry's cloak didn't get
any blood on it. She carefully pulled it off and tucked it into her bag. She looked down at the manticore wondering
how long it would stay unconscious. Hermione suddenly remembered Malfoy. She rushed to his side and fell to her
knees besides him. Hermione shuddered as she looked at him, while not the squeamish type, the sight was almost
too much to handle. The normally pale boy was almost devoid of color; only red remained. A large gash ran across
his shoulder where he had been bitten and a deep hole was in his leg. Crimson blood was pooling around him, while
an odd colored substance seemed to be thickening on his leg, Hermione figured that it was the poison. She
desperately searched her bag for a handkerchief. She held it to his wound in hopes of staunching the flow.

"Malfoy," she whispered, trying to wake him up. There was no response from the prone boy. However, she could
tell that he was breathing.

"Malfoy wake up!" she hissed, glancing behind her at the creature. It suddenly gave a disturbing jerk. She stared at
it, terror beginning to build. She knew that the only reason why the spells had worked in the first place was because
it had been surprised. It wouldn't be surprised when it woke up, it would only be angry. She wanted to run but she
couldn't just leave Malfoy here to die.

"Draco please..."she pleaded, tears coming to her eyes. She didn't want to see him die, no matter how much she
hated him. This seemed to do the trick though as deep, gray eyes gazed up at her.

"You said my name Granger," he whispered in a low voice. His eyes filled with sudden panic as things began to sink
in. "The manticore," he cried sitting up.

Hermione felt very relieved, and very hysterical, but she knew that now was not the time to get any more upset. "It's
unconscious, but I don't know for how much longer," The manticore gave another jerk and emitted a strange guttural
sound. Standing up, she turned to Malfoy and grabbed his hand. He couldn't put much weight on his wounded leg so
Hermione let him put an arm around her shoulders and they hobbled quickly from the clearing.

They were half way to the castle, moving as quickly as possible across the open expanse of green. Their pace was
jolting; Malfoy was dripping blood and could barely walk. Hermione was becoming aware of the pain in her wrist,
glancing down at it she realized that it was at a rather odd angle. More disturbing than her wrist though was a strange
tightness in her chest. Her short breaths were becoming harder to draw. Despite all of these ailments, both of them
were starting to get back their bad tempers.

"You know Malfoy, I just saved your life, doesn't that mean that there is some sort at special bond between us?"
Hermione asked, knowing perfectly well that the idea at a bond with a mudblood would drive Malfoy insane.

"Shut up, if you dare mention this to anyone I will make to regret it." He hissed back at her through clenched teeth.
He was having a very hard time concentrating on what he was saying; flashing pain was starting to fan up from his
leg and into his chest.

"You know Malfoy, you aren't nearly that threatening when you're bleeding to death." Hermione snapped back,
feeling suddenly guilty when she remembered how she had almost let him die back there, She wondered briefly if he
still might die, his wounds were very bad. The pain in her wrist was becoming almost unbearable, and as the shock
wore off, she noticed that her chest was starting to have shooting pains as well. They reached the doors at Hogwarts
and with their last ounce of strength they pushed them open. Staggering forward into the entrance hall they stopped,
Malfoy was unable to go any farther, he let go of Hermione and sank to the ground, unable to move due to the
poison. Hermione stood uncertainly for a moment, knowing that she needed to continue, knowing that she had to
get Malfoy to the hospital wing. "It'll be my fault if he dies, I should have acted faster." She thought miserably as she
swayed. A sudden light appeared at the top of the stairs.

"What in the world, students out on the grounds at this time of nig..." The voice of Professor McGonagall tailed off
as she came down the stairs. "Ms. Granger?!" She ran down the rest of the steps and over to Hermione. Hermione
couldn't wait for her though, she sank down next to Malfoy, pain searing her body, it was becoming impossible to
draw in a breath. She could hear Professor McGonagall yelling, but it was fading as darkness overcame her.
 
 
 

**Please R/R... Oh yes.... On a side note, I'm sure that some of you have read Fantastic Beast & Where to Find
Them, so some of my manticore stuff seems different. That's because when I wrote that segment I didn't have that
book yet so I made it up. I hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive me. :)
 

Back to Chapter 2
Chapter 4