Author's Note: J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter, not me. I promise longer chapters to come too. I'm following the last book before the very end. Enjoy =).

A month. A month and I've been trapped. Damn curse...bloody karma come to screw me. I'm stuck here...trapped. Prisoner in my own home. There's only pain here. Death. The scent of memory and loss. If only she came. I can only call so many times....

It had been a month since Hermione Granger had left Hogwarts. Only a month, yet it seemed as if it had been years ago. Everything had changed in the span of a year. From watching as Harry destroyed Voldemort. Feeling Ron's eager lips pressed to hers. To watching everyone she ever cared about slip away. Decades ago...centuries. After the great battle everyone had tried their best in repairing Hogwarts, making it suitable for students to stay in again. And they did, the school reopened the next years, all the damage seeming to be physically gone. But not mentally. Never mentally.

Fred. Dobby. Mad Eye. Dumbledore. Sirius. Lupin. Tonks. So many lost. So much sadness for her and her friends, her family to endure. But they had. Her, Harry, and Ron all returned to properly finish their last year at Hogwarts like they were meant to. A lot had happened, but then again, a lot didn't. For once in their time at Hogwars they weren't faced with a seemingly impossible danger. They were able to live without fear because Harry, in the end, had triumphed. After so much fighting...they had won. Even her and Ron had tried being together, but it wasn't the long lost love she thought it would be. It lasted for awhile but inevitably fizzled ut before they left school. Maybe they were better off friends after all. And so Harry, Ron, and Hermione had left Hogwarts, their home and traveled back into the world to make their own lives.

Harry had gone off to the Burrow for the summer to be with the Weasley's and especially Ginny. Hermione, who was staying in the countryside with her family, had been invited as well and was planning on heading to the house herself once she was properly packed. "Are you sure you'll be alright on your own Hermione?" Her father firmly asked as he and her mother prepared to leave for London, letting Hermione stay the last few nights at their cottage before going to the Burrow. After she had told them everything about Voldemort and what had happened they were extra cautious, no matter that the danger had passed.

"I'll be fine dad. Now you and mum need to get going, you'll miss your train!" She said with a smile as she shooed them out of the quaint little house. She sighed happily as they left, glad to finally be able to stay up and read all night like she wanted and they wouldn't allow.

A few hours passed and Hermione lay asleep on a pile of books, exhausted from staying up so late. It was past midnight when a soft voice called to her through her sleep. Hermione.... It was soft, alluring as she heard it, and something about it was vaguely familiar, but she couldn't place it. She rose from where she sat and followed the call outside as she opened the door. Hermione! It seemed louder, more urgent as she heard it. She walked outside, although she couldn't understand why she followed it. Wand in hand she wandered into the dark forest, uttering "Lumos" in her daze. Hermione... It called as she walked deeper, her mind not knowing where she was but her feet still carried her as it they knew the way. The voice still called out to her as she walked, she felt like she was getting closer, like she was nearly to where it called. How long had she been walking? Hours? Light glistened on the horizon as she did, somewhat spellbound as she made her way through the forest, the trees beginning to thin. A road appeared before her, a huge hedge guarding whatever lay behind it. A large wrought iron gate towered over to her as she neared it. The sight of it made her stomach churn, and yet her feet wouldn't stop walking, she couldn't make them. The gates opened between the giant 'M' engraved into them and she stepped inside, seeing the full and terribly glory of the Malfoy Manor expanding before her.

Before she could register what had happened, the gates closed sharply behind her and she realized now she was once more in control of her own legs. She turned and gripped the metal, trying to wretch it open without success. She closed her eyes and tried to Apparate but when she did a dizziness overcame her and she didn't move. What was going on? She pointed her wand at the gates. "Alohomora." She called out. Still nothing. She uttered every spell she could think of and still nothing proved to work. Defeated, she knew she had to go inside, to confront this place that haunted her. Something had happened. Something dark.

She entered the Manor with her wand ready, the entryway was dark, cold, just as she remembered. Her eyes fell upon the fireplace where she could still see Bellatrix Lestrange standing there, getting ready to torture her. The thought brought shivers to her spine. The house was quiet, filled with an eerie silence as she moved further into the drawing room. Her brown eyes moved around the room, looking for some kind of clue as to why she had been brought here. Even the thought of this place being so close to where she and her parents were staying made her skin crawl. She was so encased by her own thoughts she didn't here footsteps descending the stairs.

"Granger..." A low, cold voice uttered from behind her and she turned around, eyes wide. There he was, Draco Malfoy, a boy she hoped she would never see again. His gray eyes stared at her, there was anger there, but also a slight surprise. He hid this well though. His pale blonde, nearly white hair was slicked back, a few stray pieces hanging in his eyes that glared at her. He too held his wand.

"Malfoy..." She retorted, unsure what else to say. Last time she saw him was when they graduated from Hogwarts. All year her, Harry, and Ron had avoided Malfoy and he them. After everything that had happened, it seemed only right. It didn't stop them from glaring at each other in the hallway. Hermione had felt sorry for him though, even after everything.

"You shouldn't be here, you should never have stepped on the grounds you stupid, worthless Muggleborn!" he said, voice filled with cold anger as he stepped onto the ground floor, his stormy eyes still locked on hers as she too watched him. She let out a cold laugh at what he said.

"And you think I wanted to come by and have a chat with you? Let me out and I'll leave. You'll never have to see me again Malfoy." She spat his name as she said it. Once she spoke his face seemed to soften a bit, the sneer vanishing.

"You can't get out, no one can. We're trapped here."