little miss perfect ; hermoine granger

chapter 30

As I walked into the forbidden forest with Draco, my mind was racing. What's going to happen? Is he going to try and make me become a death eater? Is he going to hurt me?

No. I don't need to cloud my mind with these thoughts right now. I need to pretend like I'm cool, and calm, and collected. "So...how was your day?" Oh my god. WHY DID I SAY THAT? I was trying to act all cool and now I just asked that. At least it wasn't in front of the dark lord.

Draco turned his head down to look at me and scrunched up his face in either confusion or disgust and said "Not the time." "Yep, yeah, totally." I agreed awkwardly as we walked deeper into the dark forest.

"So where is the portkey? Are we gonna be there soon?" I asked him. This was getting kind of boring, we've been walking for like 20 minutes. "Yes, it's just up here. By the black lake." He told me.

As we approached the lake, I looked around for anything that could possibly be a portkey, but I didn't see anything that looked like one. I know they could be anything, but the ground was practically all clear except for-oh.

Draco walked over to a glimmering object on the ground, and told me to come over. I walked over slowly, nervous to go back to the manor. "Have you used a portkey before?" He asked, and I responded with "Yeah, when we went to the Quidditch World Cup. We had to."

"Good. So let's go then." He said coldly, and as I was about to put my hand on the cup, he grabbed my wrist and held it for a second. "What are you doing? Let go!" I yelled, and he looked at me angeredly and said "Why are you doing this?"

"What?" I asked him back. "You know what. I thought you were better than this, Ana. I thought you would fight it. I thought you weren't like them. So why are you agreeing to come? You shouldn't have done that." He shouted, still with that angry look on his face.

I looked at him for a second, thinking of something to say. Could I tell him why I was actually going? I mean, I don't even really know why I agreed. Maybe I was just curious. "Draco, it isn't like that. I'm not joining anyone, I promise. I have a plan." I told him. I didn't have a plan, obviously, but I didn't really know what to tell him.

He looked me in the eyes for a second and nodded at me, and then said "Let's go." We both put out hands onto the portkey, and felt the world spinning around us. We were in the air, spinning rapidly and both let go of each other, as we were sucked into a vertex.

"UNH" I grunted as I landed hard on the cold ground of Malfoy Manor. Draco had landed on his feet, and came over to help me up. We weren't in the table room yet, but I recognized where we were. This was the first room I was in when I first came here. "Ready?" He asked, and put out his arm for me to take.

I straightened out my dress and ran my fingers through my hair before linking my arm through his, without saying a word. The dark hallways that we walked through emitted a cold, almost deathly energy. Fitting, I guess, for a death eaters home.

As we finally got to the familiar door, and stood in front of it, we paused. Draco turned his head and looked at me, with no distinct expression on his face. I looked at him back, and took a deep breath as he turned the knob and opened the door.

We stood in the doorway, and it seemed like all the eyes in the room were on us. Everyone was looking at us, but this time, I showed no fear. I wasn't going to give them that same satisfaction that I did last time. The same seat that I sat in last time was empty, so I assumed it was for me and sat in it.

"Hello, daughter. Have you had a good week?" Voldemort asked me, almost as if we were a normal father and daughter. So I decided to go along with it. "It was alright. We went to Hogsmeade. I got a dress for the ball this weekend." He gave me a sickening smile and responded with "Good. I already wanted to speak with you about the ball. Do you have a date yet? I can't imagine it would be very hard for you to get one." Creepy.

"No, not yet. I'm still trying to figure it out, I was thinking I might go with one of my friends, though." I answered. Why was he asking about the ball? Maybe Draco was right. But what could he be planning? Was he going to make me do something?

"Good, again. It seems everything is just lined up for success. But you won't be going with a friend. You, my dear, will be going with Draco." What? Why was he telling me who to go to the ball with? I looked over at Draco, and he looked just as surprised as I was, if not more. "Last time I checked, it was my decision on who I'm going with to the ball." I told him. It was probably a bad idea, opposing the dark lord, but it was just a ball. And who was he to tell me who to attend with?

His smile vanished off of his face, and his lips turned straight, as he said coldly "You are my daughter, and you will do as I say. Or you will be punished. Don't think that you have special benefits just because you are my child. You're going with Malfoy, and that's final." Honestly, he'd probably kill me if I said no again, so I just said "Okay."

That creepy small smile came back up onto his face, as he said "Oh, don't look so grim, Ana. You're going to have a lot of fun at the ball. I have big plans." "What plans?" I asked, almost immediately after he said it.

"You don't need to worry yourself with that, dear. Just go to the ball and have fun, and you'll see." He told me, but I wasn't going to back off. "Yeah, but if I'm apart of it, then shouldn't I know what's going on? So I can be prepared?" I asked, and he simply said "That's why Draco will be going with you. He knows, and you will be safe. I promise."

What if he was trying to kill Harry that night? Should I tell Dumbledore? Or would that put him into more danger? I nodded at him, not really knowing what to say in the moment. I looked around, and saw that Snape had a grim look on his face. Like he knew something very bad was going at that ball. I had to tell someone.

"It was amazing seeing you, daughter. And I'm glad that you dressed nicely for the occasion, but it's time for you to go." Already? I wondered. It felt like I'd just gotten there. "Unfortunately, the other professors will get suspicious if you two are gone too long, and Severus can only cover for you for a little while when you get back, so our visits will be short, but meaningful. Goodbye, see you soon." The way that he said it made it sound like a threat.

A man came over, the same one as the first time, and put his want to my head. I felt a searing pain, as my eyes closed and everything went dark once again.