Everything was silent in the manor, except for Bellatrix's heels hitting the stone floor as she was pacing around her captive. Nobody else was there today, nor in the cellar with the two women, nor anywhere else in the Malfoy mansion. Her bushy hair already sticking together on some points because of the dried blood that had been dripping from her skull, Hermione once again refused the order to look up to the older witch. She wouldn't surrender that fast. What was physical pain opposed to betrayal ? Suddenly pulling her hair roughly to get her to the ground, Bellatrix bellowed again "I said look me in the eyes Mudblood !"
Hermione kept her eyes on her bare feet, forcing a mocking laugh through her blue and swollen lips. " 'Would help you for some legilimens, wouldn't it?" she guess with a painful rictus. The slap that hit the young woman's face came as a very clear answer. Before Hermione could only just consider recovering from the free long scratches that left her pale skin covered in new dark blood leaving her own body, the heavy-lidded woman was already standing above her, her wand raised at the end of her fingertips. She didn't need to hear the unspoken jinx to know what would follow.
Sure enough, the next instant her eyes and mouth bore open in agony, her captured in the moment. She lay there for a second, motionless as all her muscles contracted to protect her from the assault, uselessly for the pain always came from the inside. Then, it finally exploded along with her voice, a shrill, excruciated scream and burned insides, crushed bones, torn nerves. Tears rolling from her eyes to her hair as her body was convulsing in grotesque postures, the pain consuming every and each of her cells, she could yet only think about Harry and Luna. She was the one who told them to run without her as Lucius Malfoy had finally convinced his son to press his hand on his dark mark and call Voldemort. There was no point for Harry to risk his life facing Voldemort, Bellatrix and the Malfoys as long as they hadn't destroyed all the horcruxes yet.
Hermione only noticed that Bellatrix had lifted the curse as the woman grabbed her shirt to pull her back onto the chair. When had she started being able to isolate herself from the pain? As she raised her eyes again, the older witch had come nearer again, her hot breath falling onto Hermione's face. Still avoiding her gaze, Hermione could only keep focused on Bellatrix's plumb red lips as she pulled her hair back hard enough to rip it off her skull, holding her crooked wand to her neck like a knife. As a brief smirk crossed the evil woman's lips, Hermione couldn't keep herself from noticing how much whiter and cleaner they were. To be totally fair, it wasn't only hair teeth. Since she had last seen the death eater nearly two year ago in the ministry of magic, her features did change a lot from the madness-eaten features Azkaban had given her.
Her dirty and dusty entangled mass had changes into elegant and shimmering curls, while her skin had retrieved its natural aristocratically pearl white shine. Her whole body had also lost its bony and sick angles to fill her corset properly without reducing the grace of her hollow cheeks and her strong jaw-line. She didn't even feel her eyes dropping onto Bellatrix's strictly compressed breast. A shiver ran through her spine as she flushed. What was she doing?
Hermione's first reaction was to suddenly look up from those breasts, tragically meeting those black eyes longing to bore into her mind. A loud cackle told her quite evidently that the Death Eater had seen her. Prepared to sustain yet another attempt of legilimency, she closed her eyes, already building walls in her mind. Though the attack never came. She opened her eyes again as black curls brushed against her skin, Bellatrix's hot breath on her ear. "We are going to play a game. Make a sound and I'll cut off a part of you" she swiftly whispered against the young witch's ear. Hermione shuddered again, but out of fear this time.
Next thing she new, the elder woman's lips were capturing hers, her tongue forcing her way to hers. Her eyes bulging in shock, Hermione harshly bit her lower lip, conquering freedom again. "What … Why would you … I am filth to you !" she stuttered in disbelief. A new cackle, louder and plainer than before rang against each wall, surrounding them in sinister echoes. Bellatrix came closer again, pulling a knife from her robes with one hand while holding Hermione's face with the other. "You talked. And they said you were the smart one" she laughed, reaching behind her captives back. With a swift wrist movement, Hermione's bushy mass fell on the floor. "Take it as a warning, filth" she added before going a step away from her, as an artist appreciates his work.
Hermione could think of screaming or crying, she only felt any trace of colour leaving her face as her whole body turn cold. An agonizing realisation hit her as her limbs started shuddering frenetically. She would probably never leave this place alive. While seconds ago she had considered stealing the wand out of Bellatrix's hands, now she could only think of the other unconquerable obstacles she would have to overcome if only she succeeded in the impossible of overtaking the Death Eater. She didn't know where she was, how many other Death Eaters were guarding the manor or how to find Ron and Harry. Wouldn't it be easier to simply give up the fight and release her curiosity on what she had felt as the elder woman had captured her lips?
As her eyes fell on the Death Eaters slender body pacing through the room once again in her dace-like walk, she couldn't help wondering if she was under the Stockholm Syndrome. Hermione couldn't help blocking her breath as Bellatrix caught her eyes and gazed back at her, walking straight to her chair without breaking eye contact. A few centimetres from the young witch, she exploded in a new cackle, using her vis-à-vis' distraction to cut through her robes with one wand flick, leaving her in her mere underwear. Hermione was about to try hiding her body with her arms as she remembered her resolution. Fighting would only make it worse and she wouldn't give Bellatrix the pleasure of seaming ill-at-ease.
The Death Eater however, was way too fast in her legilimency for Hermione to stop her this time. She gave a new loud, crude laugh. "You have hope Muddy. You won't be able to stay that still much longer" she mocked.