No One Else (Sequel to Only You)

What Have You Done?

     warning- this chapter is a heartwrencher :/

Hermione's eyes burst open, and she immediately felt fire lace her throat, limiting if not preventing any words from coming out of her mouth. She attempted to reach up and clutch her throat in desperation, but she soon realised that her hands were tightly bound above her head, and she could barely feel her toes. She felt frozen into place, her eyes only seeing the black sky, sprinkled with glimmering stars, coated with the smoke of simmering fires and explosions. She coughed for more air, and her throat maliciously burned as she struggled the bondage more and more. She could feel her insides screaming, telling her to break free and run. Hermione writhed, squirmed, and twisted. But no matter how hard her body contorted, she was trapped. A wave of fear clouded over her as a dull sense of hearing began to greet her, heavy footsteps breaking several twigs in half and squishing into the disgusting mud. She was able to lower her face a bit, and painfully gasped as her face met the brutal one of a Death Eater, who began cackling once Hermione's horror stricken face was clearly visible.

"Oi!" The Death Eater yelled as though it was in Hermione's ear. "She's awake!"

Hermione heard a wave of rambunctious hooting and hollering, gradually growing louder as the voices circled in, devouring her slowly. As she began to regain full use of her voice, she first sought to gasp as if she had been a fish claiming its first breath on air. The feeling felt good, it didn't feel normal, it felt like a privilege. However she still could not move her hands or legs.

"Let her down." a cold, yet unfortunately familiar voice said.

Out of the corner of her eye, another Death Eater, whom reeked of blood, approached Hermione, and sent her a vicious scowl before waving his wand and having her thrown roughly to the ground.  Hermione did not know, was that the reason she could not feel her feet was because she was kept a few inches off of the ground - just so that her toes were barely skimming the bare earth. Hermione crumbled to the ground, grunting in pain as her bones smashed against the compacted dirt. Death Eaters howled with laughter as Hermione clutched her bruised arm close to her, amused at the amount of pain she had inflicted on herself. She was now free to move her arms and legs, but a Death Eater was quick to grasp one of her arms so that she was still immobilized.  Looking to her left, she noticed she was Hagrid was a few trees away, who had a very visible bloodied eye and was wrapped with several ropes, as he could easily break through a simple one around his hands. A sense of reassurance ran throughout her. At least she wasn't alone.

"Silence," that cool, sharp voice snapped once again, and silence struck across the group of Death Eaters like lightning. Hermione's insides twitched. She had hoped that the voice had not belonged to Voldemort's, that she had not been captured by Death Eaters on his behalf, she had hoped that Harry was okay, that he was not already dead. Still unable to move her head without pain, Hermione could not see for herself if she was moments away from being killed, but her curiosity was answered for her when she felt long fingers coil around the waves of her hair and pull up, sending a sharp pain up the back of Hermione's neck. Her eyes instantly met Voldemort's red snake like ones, and in an instant, she was still. Voldemort's lips curled into a closed, devious smile, urging for Hermione to want to close her eyes and melt into a pool of nothingness. "Why, hello there."

Hermione's spine tingled at the sound of his voice. It was calm, but it was painful to behold. Hermione twitched in Voldemort's grasp, urging for a bigger grin to appear on his face. "I think it's about time we formally met. If I remember correctly, you are Harry Potter's special friend."