Left Behind (A Dramione Romance)

The Bedpost

Hermione woke to find breakfast waiting for her. This morning the plate was filled with poached eggs, toast,cottage cheese and fresh strawberries. She went over and sat eating the warm food first.

Despite how hungry she was she chose to leave the cottage cheese and strawberries. She wanted to save them for lunch to spread out the food and stave off the hunger that always began in the pit of her stomach in the afternoon.

When she was finished she went over to her pallet to retrieve the hanger she had unwound yesterday to have a hook to try and reach the books on Draco's shelf.

Her fingers came up empty.

That's odd, she thought.

Draco hadn't yelled at her for hiding it and yet it was gone.

You haven't seen him awake in days. He probably saw part of it sticking out from under your pallet and did away with it, she told herself. She frowned. Something didn't feel quite right and Hermione felt a queasiness in her stomach. She rubbed at her abdomen and glanced around the room for anything else that he might have changed while she slept.

The garbage was empty, but other than that she saw no difference in her surroundings.

Hermione went over to the wardrobe and a whiff of the ocean reached her. She closed her eyes and breathed it in. When she opened her eyes she frowned.

There was definitely something not quite right. She couldn't shake the eerie sense that something had changed even though she could not put her finger on what was different.

You're losing it Hermione calm yourself, it's only because you've been alone for...

How many days had it been? They had all been the same it felt as if time was blurring and turning in on itself.

Hermione felt the world tilt with vertigo and an odd panic rose in her chest.

"I can't stay here," she said out loud.

You can't run to your friends, her mind answered back.

I don't care, I can't stay here.

Hermione went to the bathroom and opened the window.

She looked down. It was higher than she remembered.

You can still make it, but first you have to figure out a way to get this chain off your ankle, she told herself.

Hermione tugged at the chain testing it with her full strength. The tiny links showed no sign of strain even under the greatest exertion she could muster.

She let the chain fall to the ground and paced back and forth for a moment.

Then...like a light bulb the solution came to her.

Hermione ran out to the bedroom and looked at the big wooden bedpost the chain was looped around. It was connected at the bottom and so could not be slipped of. The same could be said for the top, but she examined the fastening at the top of the bed she realized the wood was more narrow there. It was still a substantial piece of wood, and it was still going to take time.

Time, however, was one thing Hermione did have on her hands.

Mustering herself she climbed up to the top of the bed and sat on the wooden beam that connected two of the best posts together. It supported her weight without swaying. Little by little Hermione worked the chain up to the top of the pillar where it was most narrow. Then she wrapped a length of chain around the post and around each hand and began to use the chain to saw at the wood.